Business West August 2010

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BRIMBANK GETS SERIOUS THE NUMBERS MAN HOW TO THINK GREEN MUM’S BUSiNESS BEYOND THE HORIZON

A STAR NEWS GROUP PUBLICATION | $4.95 ISSN 1837-9869

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THE MEDIA ARE

PODS

COMING!

ISSUE 3 AUGUST 2010

CONTENTS 4

Mum’s business From funky nappies to mentoring mums

6

Man with a mission Brimbank gets serious about business

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8

Dining out is dining in Wyndham’s business stars

16-17 Team Micallef Making their own luck

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EDITOR Jim Lawrence jim.lawrence@starnewsgroup.com.au

4

EDITORIAL Charlene Gatt charlene.gatt@starnewsgroup.com.au

Best foot forward If the shoe fits…

28

ADVERTISING Catherine Taylor catherine.taylor@starnewsgroup.com.au Mobile: 0402 071 260

Beyond the horizon How to expand overseas

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DESIGN Mark Dinnie mark.dinnie@starnewsgroup.com.au

Think Green Save money… and help save the planet

BUSINESS WEST 17 Assembly Drive, Tullamarine 3043 Phone: 9933 4800 Fax: 9933 4844

Business West is a division of Star News Group Pty. Ltd. Celebrating our 101st year as a family-run business. Proudly Australian-owned and independent.

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General Manager/Editor-in-Chief Geelong-North West Division, Jim Lawrence. Produced and published

by Paul Thomas for Star News Group Pty. Ltd. ACN 005 848 108.

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Cover

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BUSINESS WEST

Michelle and Martin Micallef and their Media Pod DAMJAN JANEVSKI

Photo Digital Artwork JONATHAN FRASER

FROM THE EDITOR ONE of the things I enjoy about my job is that I get to meet an astonishing array of people, some of whom simply blow me away with their outlook on life and business.

I first met Michelle Micalleff last year when Star News Group agreed to sponsor the inaugural Women in Business Network awards, including the Star Business Woman of the Year.

Michelle was the foundation president of the Network. I met Martin at the awards night that year when he unveiled the prototype of his amazing Media Pod at the function.

Instead of the usual centrepiece of flowers on each table, there was a little gadget that looked as if it might be more at home on the set of Dr Who.

And John Haber, who when he bought his first Haines Hunter boat in 2000 never realised that one day he would own the company. Not only that, but he would spend $6.5 million moving Haines from its original Queensland headquarters to an 8000square metre state of the art plant at Derrimut.

We talk with the man helping Brimbank get serious about business. Stephen Sully is the council’s new General Manager of City Development and his mission is to transform economic development into a key focus.

Mr Sully tells Business West of his three-year plan to attract new business and increase employment opportunities across Brimbank.

Since then, the gadget has evolved into a sophisticated device that can promote sponsors, detail award winners, run electronic menus, or any information. And it has already been picked up by several AFL clubs, councils, state departments and commercial organisations.

There’s an exciting future ahead for the Micallefs and their Media Pod. But there’s an equally fascinating past, as you’ll discover when you read Charlene Gatt’s interview with Team Micallef.

As this edition of Business West goes to press, the Women in Business Network’s 2010 Star Business Woman of the Year will be named and we will bring you full details of the awards in our next edition.

In the meantime, we feature the new career path of Tania Avtarovski in the months after she became the network’s first Star Business Woman of the Year.

Among the other interesting characters in this issue of Business West, you will meet Gavin Scholes, a knockabout ex-pastrycook and footballer from Altona, who is the ultimate numbers man behind the 1300 Phonewords…

Businesses can be nominated once in the following categories: New/startup business; retail; hospitality; tourism; transport and logistics; manufacturing and industrial; professional services; not-for-profit/ community; franchise; and home-based.

In addition, the judges will award three winners from all entries for: Environment and sustainable business; good access/ good business; and Business of the Year.

The Mayor of Hobsons Bay, Cr Bill Tehan, will select a winner for the Mayoral Achievement Award.

Nominations close on Friday 3 September and the winners announced at a gala dinner at the Williamstown Town Hall on Friday, 22 October.

Contact Business and Tourism Officer Sally Curtis on 9932 1000 to submit a nomination or request an awards information kit and application form.

Stephen Sully And at Star News Group we’re delighted to announce that Star and Business West have been chosen as the media partners for the 2010 Hobsons Bay Business Excellence Awards.

You can see a list of last year’s winners by visiting www.hobsonsbay.vic.go.au/ tourismandbusiness Get your nomination in, and we look forward to writing about your achievement in a future edition of Business West.

Jim Lawrence jim.lawrence@starnewsgroup.com.au

The awards aim to foster excellence while promoting b u s i n e s s achievements and success in Hobsons Bay, home to more than 3500 businesses.

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BUSINESS WEST

3

PROFILE

MUM’S BUSiNESS FROM funky nappies to mentoring working mums…

Tania Avtarovski, the Women in Business Network’s 2009 Star Business Woman of the Year, talks with CHARLENE GATT.

Tania and daughter Amy. Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

A MATERNAL instinct to see her daughter’s first steps transformed Tania Avtarovski into the ultimate stay-at-home business mum.

So much so that the 37-yer-old Taylors Hill resident now mentors other mums keen to tap into their inner business woman.

It’s far cry from the high school “nerd” that graduated high school in 1990 to, on her dad’s advice, take on a degree in science, majoring in chemistry, at the University of Melbourne.

From there, she spent two years working in a lab before switching to the sales industry and going back to the University of Melbourne to get her masters in marketing.

It seemed a natural progression for the self-confessed people person, but all that changed in 2005 when, after years of trying, she fell pregnant with her daughter Amy. Almost immediately, Ms Avtarovski decided she didn’t want to go back to work full-time.

“She (Amy) took a long tine to conceive and for me, the thought of going back to work

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BUSINESS WEST

full-time was a little bit painful,” she said.

“I wanted to be home with her, I wanted to see all the things that kids do; the first time she walks, the first time she talks, all her milestones, I wanted to see that. I didn’t want to miss out.”

As it turned out, her new bundle of joy would lead her to her first business venture.

Ms Avtarovski started using cloth nappies when Amy was 10 months old and soon heard about reusable cloth nappies with funky designs.

She jumped online and found a small cloth nappy business, Darlings Downunder, for sale. Before long, it was hers.

“This was an opportunity for me to stay home and do something I was passionate about, because I was passionate about cloth nappies at the time,” she said.

“I’ve always been interested in business, and starting a business. Business can scare a lot of people; it doesn’t scare me.

“It’s an exciting time, and sometimes you need to take a risk, you need to make those decisions and move forward, otherwise you’ll never experience anything in your life and you will regret it moving forward.

“Was I scared? I wasn’t really scared at the time, I was more excited, because I knew I’d be home with my daughter, and I knew I could make it work.”

She started off with six boxes of nappies and tripled sales in three months.

Ms Avtarovski didn’t pay herself a wage for the first eight months of the business, instead investing all profits back into the company.

She also brought in new and different brands, marketed heavily online and worked baby exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne to spread the Darlings Downunder name.

“I wasn’t really earning a wage at the time anyway because I was on maternity leave and I said to my husband ‘I’m going to build the business up, and by the next financial year,

TOP FIVE TIPS FOR BUSINESS MUMS: I will be paying myself a wage’, so he was happy with that,” she said.

course in July last year and soon started up her own business coaching business.

“You just survive. It was a decision that I made, it was a decision that not everyone should make, and when you’re going into business, people really should really think about funding and allocating themselves a wage because you don’t want to work for nothing.

In February she met a mentor of her own and decided she wanted to work with mums in business, and the Business Mum Mentor was born.

“At the time, I was really desperate to build it quickly, and knew that that was a way I could do it.”

At the same time, she sold off Darlings Downunder, which was making around $300,000 a year, to two Keilor Downs siblings.

Ms Avtarovski said she cried for an hour when she signed Darlings Downunder over.

1. DELEGATE Delegate some tasks. Ask your mother or mother in-law or friend to look after the kids for a morning or a day.

Book them into occasional care for a morning. Ask your husband to put the kids to bed so you can work.

Get a cleaner. Get an ironing lady.

2. ALLOCATE TIMES FOR WORK AND PLAY

With the help of her husband Dragan, her parents, and a casual employee, Ms Avtarovski’s six boxes of stock grew exponentially.

Ms Avtarovski said many women didn’t have the confidence to set up their own business, or had something holding them back from setting up their business.

Do you check your emails frequently throughout the day, stop your chores frequently to go and check something on the internet, interrupt your kids so you can go and finish off some of your work?

Her formal lounge room and dining room was “chockers” with industrial shelving and nappies.

Knowing where to start, setting up ABNs and websites, generating clients and juggling the work/life balance are other common problems plaguing business mums.

Time for you to set allocated times to work – and make sure everyone in the house knows your schedule. Likewise, set some good quality time with your kids.

The Business Mum Mentor currently has clients from across Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

3. BOUNDARIES

“They were in our hallway, sometimes in the kitchen, and they took up the whole garage and my husband wanted the garage back,” she said.

Something had to give. In the end, the Avtarovskis bought a new house, complete with a four-car garage that became their makeshift warehouse.

Ms Avtarovski is working to build a steady stream of clients, and is tapping into new marketing tools like Facebook and Twitter to get the Business Mum Mentor out there.

At this point, a new business idea was already starting to take shape in Ms Avtarovski’s mind.

At the moment she is restricted by the number of clients she can take on as she juggles Amy and the business.

“I loved it (Darlings Downunder). I loved the marketing side, loved the exhibitions, loved all the communication with mothers, and I had a lot of emails and a lot of requests from mums asking about starting businesses, about building businesses and wanting little tips and advice.”

She does the bulk of her work during the two days Amy is at kindergarten and at night, but will be able to do more next year when Amy starts school.

Ms Avtarovski started a life coaching

She is also toying with the idea of writing a book to help business mums.

“Persistence is my passion. I never give up,” she said. [BW]

Yes, you work from home. It’s not letting visitors come over for coffee! Set some boundaries with your friends and family, and say no to an invitation if you have to.

4. PLAN YOUR DAY Sit down for five minutes at the start of the day and write down what really needs to get done.

5. REWARD YOURSELF It’s time to start rewarding yourself, even if it is a lovely hot bubblebath, or a chocolate cake treat. Start up a journal and write down your successes every day. When you go back and read them, you will be amazed at how awesome you really are!

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BUSINESS WEST

5

Stephen Sully… focus on economic development in Brimbank.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

MAN WITH A

MISSION

BY CHARLENE GATT

THIS man is helping Brimbank get serious about business.

Stephen Sully, the council’s new General Manager of City Development, is helping to restructure Brimbank’s statutory and strategic planning areas to transform Economic Development into a key focus.

Previously, only two employees ran Brimbank’s Economic Development Unit, while other councils in the West have employed bigger teams to attract and develop business within their municipality.

Now with Mr Sully on board and the council looking for a strategic sites officer who will look at long-term business opportunities in areas like Brooklyn and North Sunshine, business is set to boom.

“It’s an area full of opportunity,” Mr Sully said.

“It’s a major issue that I’ve seen at Brimbank, that we’ve been under-gunned in those sort of strategic areas, so by having a department that is focused totally on pursuing strategic planning, economic development and the development of our strategic sites and town centres, it will really enable us achieve all the objectives that we’re setting out to do.

“The ramping up of economic development and that strategic planning area will give us much better capacity to actually deliver and work and forge partnerships with business, communities and property owners and put Brimbank on the front foot as far as being a place which is very attractive to develop

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BUSINESS WEST

appropriate businesses and a place that can really provide local employment.

“There’s going to be about 600,000 people living on our outward boundary and I think Brimbank is very well placed to provide employment.”

Mr Sully has a background in urban planning and economic development across a lot of local and State Government departments.

“

Plan to attract new business and increase employment opportunities across the municipality, especially in town centres and other strategic sites.

Mr Sully said the council was keen to get a good cross section of industry, retail and corporate office activity, particular into Sunshine and St Albans.

Major international printing group Vistaprint,

It’s an area full of opportunity…

He spent the past 13 years running his own planning and development business, Planning

By Design, before starting at Brimbank six months ago.

“I’d always worked for local government or State Government and I thought I’d like to see what it was like on the other side of the fence,” he said.

“I didn’t realise it would be such a wonderful job, that it would become the longest job I ever had.

“But after 13 years, I started to miss the ability to make things happen and to really influence outcomes. As a consultant, you get asked to do a job, and you go off and you prepare and report, and then you have to walk away, you can’t actually follow something through and that’s what you can do at local government.”

Mr Sully’s challenge is laid out for him with the Brimbank’s three-year Council

juice company Preshafruit, Sleepyhead, Jakmax and Apprenticeships Victoria have all made Brimbank home recently.

“Brimbank is only 11 kilometres away from the CBD, it’s got fantastic access to the airport, to the ports, to road and rail networks, the Ring Road.

“All the infrastructure is there for it to continue to be a really good place for business activity.

“Our work is going be more about making the most effective use of existing land and maybe looking at how we can redevelop or allow buildings to be reused or redeveloped or renovated.”

Mr Sully said the next year would be about forging stronger partnerships with the existing business community and starting to make areas marketable to prospective business. [BW]

BY CHARLENE GATT

NEW

view FOR VU

THIS is the man who will head Victoria University for the next five years.

Peter Dawkins will take the reins from outgoing Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Harman in January on a five-year contract with the university.

He will oversee an annual budget of over $400 million, and a staff of over 3000 people.

Mr Dawkins has held a number of roles in teaching, research, management and leadership in universities across Australia and England.

In 1996 he became the Director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne.

The Institute soon earned a reputation as the leading institute of its kind in terms of academic achievement and its impact on public policy and debate, and in 2001 Mr Dawkins was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

He has most recently worked as the Deputy Secretary of Treasury and is currently Secretary to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Peter Dawkins… overseeing an annual budget of over $400 million.

Mr Dawkins said he applied for the position after discussions with the university’s search consultant.

“I think VU has an enormously important

role in Victorian education, particularly in the West of Melbourne,” he said.

“There are two really big ideas about the role of VU that attracted me: one is its mission to transform the lives of students… and secondly, through its applied research in targeted areas and its engagement with business and government and the community.

“I’m becoming increasingly across the issues and obviously will have conversations now and between the end of the year with key members of VU’s leadership.

“The day to day issues you confront when you’re actually in the role and I’m in a job at the moment that has a huge number of day to day issues as the head of a major government department and responsible for all the schools in Victoria, so I’m used to having to deal with a large number of issues on a day to day basis.”

Ms Harman, who will retire in December, said she was “delighted that my successor is such a distinguished academic and eductor with a proven track record in leading a large and complex organisation”.

Ms Harman will continue her role on a number of boards, including the Regional Development Authority, the Australian Business Higher Education roundtable and the World Association for Co-operative Education. [BW]

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BUSINESS WEST

7

Good health… Alaine and Bart Beek find the right essence.

Picture: SARAH MATRAY

DINING OUT IS DINING IN

BY CHARLENE GATT HE’S a chef and she’s a singer and actor.

Together, they’re a winning combination.

Werribee couple Bart and Alaine Beek have spent the past eight years combining their talents to deliver a banquet of good food, wine and music in an unusual business concept, Essence Food Studio.

Based in their Werribee home, groups of 24 are wined and dined in a cosy restaurant set up with a twist: Bart cooks all meals in front of the group masterclass-style and diners are later given the recipes to try at home.

In between courses, diners are serenaded

by Alaine and her band.

Bart describes the concept as “coming to the chef’s house for dinner”.

“We wanted it to be like a big dinner party, but where they’re (the diners) are learning as well. You have the component of interacting with other people, being inspired with Bart’s cooking presentation, and relaxing with live music in between courses,” Alaine said.

So far, over 15,000 have had dinner at the Beeks’ house, and when Business West spoke to the pair in June, they were fully booked into October.

The idea was bandied about over a leisurely bottle of wine almost a decade ago when Bart was running a restaurant in Parramatta and Alaine was producing and directing theatre.

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BUSINESS WEST

They immediately dismissed “time-poor” Sydney as a place to set up the business, and picked their spacious Werribee home with Essence in mind.

“My reckoning was, if it’s good enough it doesn’t matter, people will come from far and wide to experience something that’s quality and that’s quite unique,” Bart said.

“Another reason we chose Werribee is because we wanted to capture and be part of the growth of the area instead of trying to come in once it’s fully established,” Alaine added.

But not everyone agreed with the choice of suburb, or the business idea.

“We were told straight out people won’t come, they won’t pay $100 a head in Werribee,” Alaine said.

“Even people we knew well told us we were in the wrong suburb, but we just hung in there and it’s worked and now we’re booked out months ahead.”

The couple spent a year and their entire savings fixing up the house and building a commercial kitchen for Essence.

In their first year of operation, they gave away a lot of cheap tickets and freebies to get their name out there, and spent about a quarter of their income in advertising and letter box drops.

The couple, who employ 22 part-time and casual staff, persisted despite not turning a

profit for the first couple of years, and the hard work paid off when bookings started coming through with regularity.

After six years in business, all of their events were full.

When the Global Financial Crisis hit, the Beeks feared the worst, considering their business a luxury many could not afford.

But then fate and reality TV intervened and Channel 10 hit Masterchef rekindled people’s aspirations of learning to cook and dining out.

“Even before Masterchef started, we were pretty much full. The challenge right now is that we can’t quite keep up with demand,” Alaine said.

“We’re getting booked too far ahead because we were pretty much full before it (Masterchef) started, and now it’s just gone crazy.”

The pair said about 30 per cent of their clients were locals, with the rest beyond a half-hour drive. Many also come from interstate.

The piece de resistance happened last year when Essence won Wyndham’s Business of the Year.

This year’s Wyndham Business Awards will be held on 27 August at a gala event at the Wyndham Leisure and Events Centre. [BW]

We get right inside

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PROFILE

THE NUMB3RS

MAN

BY CHARLENE GATT LIKE many businesses, 1300 AUSTRALIA’S premise is as brilliant as it is simple.

Its execution, however, drove founder Gavin Scholes to the brink of being broke.

The Yarraville-based company is poised to take in $11 million this year and has grown into the largest provider of PhoneWords in Australia and one of the top three PhoneWord companies globally.

It’s a big leap for the born and bred Altona boy who was asked to leave Altona High when he was in year 10.

“The headmaster said ‘it’s probably best off if you don’t come to school anymore.

I know you’re interested in cooking, so if I find you a job, will you promise to leave?’

“I said yes, so the next day, he found me a job. The headmaster and I got on really well but I was just bored at school,” Mr Scholes, now 48, said.

Mr Scholes completed an apprenticeship as a pastry chef and early on decided he would not live out a life of “what ifs”.

“My father died when I was about 15 and I remember going to the RSL for a beer after work when I was 16 and the thing that straightened me up after losing my father was going over there and listening to all these old guys every day, monotonously talking about ‘if I’d bought that block of land’, or ‘if I’d have done that’,” he said.

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BUSINESS WEST

“I made a decision pretty early in life that if the worst thing that ever happens to me is I’m broke, I’ve led a pretty charmed life.”

Mr Scholes left his job as a pastry chef to play football around Australia for a couple of years, before coming back to Altona “dead broke”.

It was along Pier St that he bumped into an old friend who had a small office products company, Barry’s Office Supplies, and gave him a job as a storeman.

Mr Scholes went to night school to study marketing and worked his way up as a sales manager.

When the business was bought out by Corporate Express, he was promoted to overseeing marketing for Australia.

The job took him to the US quite frequently, and it was here that he first discovered PhoneWords.

PhoneWords allow businesses to brand their company or product with an exclusive alphanumeric phone number – for example, Fernwood Women’s Health Clubs use the number 1300 FERNWOOD. The concept has been used in America for over 35 years.

“Everytime I flew back into Australia I was amazed it had never taken off here,” he said.

In 1996, he walked away from the corporate world, set up his first company, 1300 MARKETING, and bought his first four

PhoneWords in the back of a pub in Port Melbourne.

He then spent seven years lobbying the government to standardise Australian keypads.

“The reason it never worked in Australia was because Australia was a dumping ground for keypads,” Mr Scholes said.

“At one stage in Australia we had seven different keypads, so on one phone, the ABC might have been on the zero instead of one, and the PhoneWords wouldn’t work.”

Persistence paid off and in 2003, the Federal Government standardised Australian keypads.

It was a huge turning point for Mr Scholes, but for one thing: the drawn-out process had taken him “to the brink of being broke”, despite doing some marketing consulting on the side.

He remembers a time in early 2004 when he turned his Hoppers Crossing house upside down and found $2.70.

He went to his wife Trish and said ‘you make a choice, do we buy bread or milk, because that’s all the money we have’.

It was then he put all his efforts into another long-standing project: recruiting Telstra.

Mr Scholes had spent the past 18 months trying to get Telstra to buy into the company, and on the day of the bread or milk episode, he knew it was his last shot.

PROFILE “I went to see Hayden Kelly, who’s now a chairman of our board, and basically said ‘look, I’ve lost everything. I know this will work, but I need somebody to support me’.

“He flew down a guy from Sydney who was a Telstra executive and the next night we had a dinner at Carlton. My wife went and borrowed some money and bought me a new suit and I told them how much money I needed and within an hour they got it.”

Telstra put up $9 million to take a 50 per cent share in the company. The money couldn’t have come at a better time.

Gavin Scholes… who will never die wondering ‘What if’.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

“We were pretty lucky in the sense that we had 35 years of pretty solid history and research out of the US and we went about running our own research with Roy Morgan to prove that people would remember words better than numbers.”

At present you can pay extra for a person to transcribe the recording for you, but Mr Scholes hopes within six months they will be able to get recordings 90 per cent automatically transcribed using voice analytics.

He now has 26 employees across his Yarraville, Sydney and Brisbane offices.

Over 1000 customers – including Suncorp, AAMI and even tradesmen – have taken up the technology in the company’s first six months.

His eldest child Bryce, 22, has worked for the company in internal sales the past three years.

Mr Scholes also has an 18-year-old son, Hayden, who is an apprentice builder, and nine-year-old daughter Georgia.

1300 AUSTRALIA has become a fairly lucrative business. In 2007, mortgage broker XM Inc paid $1.195 million for the PhoneWord 1300 HOME LOAN. Another popular PhoneWord is 1300 TAXI, which sold for $1.1 million.

“We invested everything we had and sold property and everything else to fund the business and keep it going until Telstra did the deal with us,” Mr Scholes said.

From there, Mr Scholes bought all the quality PhoneWords that were available and 1300 AUSTRALIA took off.

Today, Mr Scholes is keen to find bigger office space in the West to join 1300 AUSTRALIA with a new company he has started up – 1300 RECORD, which uses “call in the cloud” phone recording that is sent straight to your email inbox at the end of a conversation.

“Most businesses, especially small to medium businesses, can’t afford call recording technology, it’s very expensive. Plus the other thing is you’ve got hardware, you’ve got ongoing maintenance… (this) requires no hardware, no software, any phone, anywhere.

It’s an amazing product.

“It’s certainly going to change the way people think about call recording and will open up call recording to every business, no matter what size it is.

“It’s technology based in the West. I’m a western suburbs boy and I’ll always be a western suburbs boy. No matter how successful I am, I’ll always be in the western suburbs.

Mr Scholes said the new technology had already received expressions of interest from Singapore and the US. [BW]

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BUSINESS WEST

11

ANCHORS

AWAY

John Haber… a at the helm.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI Picture:

the fact that I love my boating and I love my fishing.

I love my job so that makes it a lot easier to turn up in the morning,” he said.

BY CHARLENE GATT IT’S the preferred boat model of many keen boaters and fishermen, and John Haber was no exception when he bought his first Haines Hunter.

“Everyone told me you couldn’t start a boat building business in Melbourne and make it work, so we had a lot of critics to fight off.

It never occurred to him at the time that he would one day own and run the business.

“Setting this facility up, what it’s done for us is that we’re the only trailable fibreglass manufacturer in Australia that has an EPA recognised manufacturing plant.

The purchase was also his introduction to the boating industry.

Having bought his first Haines Hunter through Gales Marine, Mr Haber had struck up a friendship with the dealer and from there on worked every Melbourne Boat Show helping to sell Haines Hunters.

They’re also the only company to fully own their own plant.

The investment has paid off in spades.

The company now boasts 40 employees and has 20 dealers across the country.

In 2000 Mr Haber bought his dream boat, a Haines Hunter 680. Shortly after, the company that owned Haines Hunter went bust.

“When I rang up and said ‘look, I’ve just bought this boat, what’s going to happen to all my warranties?’ the general manager at the time said ‘don’t worry John, someone will buy the company and they’ll take it over’ and I said ‘it’s for sale, is it?’”

Before he knew it, he was the new owner.

Haines Hunters also supplies product to New Caledonia and Fiji.

The company builds between 350 to 400 boats a year and takes in between $10.5 and $20 million. implement some basic training needs that I thought were necessary at the time.”

Luckily, Mr Haber and his wife Leanne knew how to run a business. The couple still operate cleaning company Master Cleaners.

Mr Haber continued to run the company from its Queensland headquarters and started up a small operation in Hoppers Crossing two years later.

Mr Haber also has experience in training staff and helping manufacturing companies improve their systems.

In 2007 Mr Haber spent $6.5 million to move Haines Hunter into an 8000 square metre state of the art new plant in Derrimut.

“When we took over the business it was in average condition,” Mr Haber said.

Mr Haber also owns half of the neighbouring street, so there is room to move if need be.

“Through the business experience that I had, I was able to bring a few changes to the organisation. We restructured the whole management team, we started to

“I was born and bred in the West, so I was quite passionate about creating things on the western side of Melbourne and opportunities for employment. I’m also passionate about

12

BUSINESS WEST

Haines Hunter is the only boat manufacturer to be inducted into the Manufacturing Hall of Fame. The company has also won the Boating Industry Association’s Boat Manufacturer of the Year seven times in the past decade as well as countless Boat of the Year awards.

“We’re very proactive in releasing new models every year, this year is no different, we released three new models at the Melbourne Boat Show and we’re already working on the next lot for next year.

“I believe that keeping people interested in our product is the lifeblood of our business, and giving them new innovation.

“We’re quite achieved.” [BW]

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LORD OF THE MOST businesses start off with a dream and well-thought out business plan. Peter Faux tells CHARLENE GATT he had neither…

D NCE IN FACT, his business, the Peter Faux Dance Emsemble, occurred by accident.

Despite the unusual foundations, the company has pirouetted its way up its 25th anniversary.

Four hundred and twenty past and present students are attending the gala 25th anniversary floorshow at Melton Tabcorp Park in August, which will include a medley of 25 dances from each year, a floorshow and a production number.

An extra 50 people are on a waiting list for the event.

To top it off, the Peter Faux Dance Ensemble recently won the Best Arts Business

Lady’, ‘Oklahoma’, ‘Oliver’, ‘Pajama Game’, ‘Hair’, ‘Music Man’, ‘Half a Sixpence’, ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Grease’, and many others.

He has also performed in TV and films, most notably spending 28 years as Humphrey B Bear for Channel Nine.

The Peter Faux Dance Ensemble came to life when Mr Faux returned to Melton to spend time with his family and found his dance reputation had followed him.

It started off as one or two families asking for some dance training.

He had 30 students within a couple of months, and 100 by the end of the year.

He now averages 150 kids and adults a year for jazz, classical, tap, character, contemporary dancing and pilates. About seven or eight of those students are boys.

The Ensemble spent its first 20 years training out of the local indoor cricket centre, which only had one studio.

The company then moved to bigger premises along Reserve Rd, and now has two studios, a dedicated pilates room, a sauna for rehabilitation.

Mr Faux is keen to develop an even bigger and better studio with a coffee shop and study for students, many of whom are there most nights of the week.

“It’s been a rollercoaster 25 years, and I think the thing that keeps you going is the kids.”

One of his students, Meaghan Hocking, started there as a six-year-old and now at 28, has turned teacher.

Peter Faux… celebrating 25 years.

Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT

Award at the Melton Business Awards for the third year running.

Mr Faux left school aged 17 to start touring the Australian ballet circuit as a principal dancer, and has featured in productions of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘No, No Nanette’, ‘Funny Girl’, ‘Promises, Promises’ and ‘George M’.

He choreographed dance sequences for ‘West Side Story’, ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘My Fair

14

BUSINESS WEST

Ms Hocking started learning to teach jazz at 14 and said she loved the constant challenge of the choreography.

Other students, like 34-year-old Megan Eaton, danced at the Ensemble for 11 years as a teen before having a 10-year break because of a bike accident.

When she returned to the studio, “nothing had changed, it was like coming home,” she said. [BW]

WHEN

90

YOU’RE it’s child’s play

BY CHARLENE GATT UNLIKE its charges, Tweddle Child and Family Health Service is getting old.

Vivienne Amery‌ Tweddle an icon of the West.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

The service celebrated 90 years of helping families in the West and North in June, and shows no signs of slowing down.

The service opened in Footscray on 1 June 1920 by Melbourne philanthropist Joseph Tweddle to look after foundling, or illegitimate babies that had been abandoned.

New Zealand’s famous Plunket nurses and the Karitane nursing system, which focused on maternal and child health, ruled the roost in the early Tweddle years.

Over the past 90 years, the focus has shifted from supporting the baby to supporting the whole family. “Having been in Footscray all that time, it’s extraordinary the number of people you meet day-to-day who say ‘I’m a Tweddle baby’, or there’s a family connection,� CEO Vivienne Amery said. “I would have to say, it’s almost an icon of Melbourne, not just an icon of the West, because it’s been here for so long.�

Tweddle is one of three publicly funded early parenting centres in Victoria.

The state-wide service caters largely for the West and North, with outreach services in Craigieburn, Werribee, Melton, Geelong and

Terang. An outreach service will open in St Albans sometime in August.

For parents who can’t or don’t want to travel for help, there is also Tweddle @ Home, a fee-based, in-home service that is so in demand, there is a waiting list of up to eight weeks.

Around 90 full-time, part-time and casual employees provide for over 1300 families a year with breastfeeding and sleep difficulties, post-natal depression and anxiety among parents, and any other difficulties that pop up.

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of staff are women. “They (the staff) are regarded by those that use the service as angels,â€? Ms Amery said. “They’re people who’re very caring, supportive, non-judgmental and know their craft very well. People come here thinking they’ll never find a solution‌but they do.â€?

Ms Amery said Tweddle was increasingly filling the gap for families, with mothers spending less time in hospital after birth

and living further away from other family members. “People don’t have the family networks and the social networks that they might have had in the 50s. “I think the demand is there because people move around a lot and without the networks, parenting is hard, and we’re not given a book, there’s no manual on how to do it properly. The only model we’ve got is how we were parented ourselves, and that might be good, but it might not be as well.�

Ms Amery said she and the board were now working on developing Tweddle in the future, taking into account baby booms and growth corridors.

Ms Amery is keen to refurbish the Footscray site while increasing their outreach into the North with a small hub, possibly in Epping.

In the meantime, the board is in talks with Victoria University to celebrate the work already done by getting the Tweddle history recorded. [BW]

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15

COVER STORY

TEAM

MiCALLEF THEY came up with their first business idea sitting at their kitchen table and grew it into a multi-million dollar leader in design, drilling and blasting.

Now Rockbank husband and wife team Michelle and Martin Micallef are poised to do it all again with their new company, Showcase Media, and the invention of a new audio visual product set to revolutionise functions and events.

To top it off, the couple celebrate their 15-year wedding anniversary this year and insist “it’s not hard at all” to run a business together. They tell CHARLENE GATT how.

THE Micallefs’ first venture started off only a year into their marriage.

Martin, who had been doing blast surveying at ICI Explosives for over 10 years, was bored with his job and told Michelle he wanted to quit.

With Michelle’s support, he left ICI in October 1996, withdrew his superannuation and invested in $100,000 worth of mining and quarry equipment.

Despite his expertise in the industry, companies were hesitant to invest in a small, home-based company, and it took the Micallefs six months to get their first job.

“I was always knocking doors continuously.

A lot of the doors wouldn’t open…but I believed that I was very good at what I did and I believed in myself, I believed that I had the ability to out-perform my competitors, which were multi-nationals,” Martin said.

“It took us six months because our clients were accustomed to large, multinational companies where they had the infrastructure to support growth in terms of new development and new products.

“Some of the questions we were asked continuously were if we had the resources, what would we do in terms of moving their company forward, in terms of technological advances, what’s our plan, what’s our back-up plan, and so on.

“I told them exactly what I wanted to do and I said I’m a small business owner and I make the choices there and then.

There was only one rule.

“We always said to ourselves that we would never put our house on the line,” Michelle said.

The persistence finally paid off and the Impact Drilling Group – incorporating Quarry Systems, Impact Drilling and Laser and Measurement Devices – was in business.

Before long the Micallefs had 45 employees and the company went national, but continued to run out of their 20-acre Rockbank farm.

Michelle handled all the administration,

16

BUSINESS WEST

quality control, accounts, booking clients and logistics, while Martin’s job was to go out and maintain customer relations, find new business, take out contracts, and employ and train staff.

In 1997, the Impact Drilling Group also became Australasian trainers for laser profiling units, bore tracking units and blast designs.

The Micallefs also developed their own blasting software and employed geologists and technical surveyors to assist in better and safer blasting practices.

“It was controlled, because sometimes you can grow too fast and you lose control of everything and do a bad job of everything,” Michelle said.

“We had to find our point of difference, and in that business the point was that was we were dynamic, we could make good, quick, snap decisions and we could tailor the services to what the client wanted, rather than tell the client what he was going to get.

“We had big and small clients, but we treated them all like they were the most important clients in the world, because some of the small ones were repeat business.”

In 2006 the Micallefs moved the company to Sunshine to accommodate the collection of 20-tonne drills they had bought, but within months, Martin noticed a disturbing trend: their newest imported technology was not receiving any interest.

“With new equipment, generally people want demonstrations…but that stopped for about six months in early 2006 and that was

Michelle and Martin Micallef… we made our own luck.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

WORKING IN HARMONY HOW did Martin and Michelle manage to work together without biting each other’s heads off?

“You know that the wife is always the boss,” Michelle laughed.

“I’m the boss, but Michelle was known as the boss’s boss,” Martin interjected.

“Communication’s a big one,” Michelle said.

“You’ve got to tell each other what’s going on. If there’s problems, there’s no point in keeping them to yourself.

And we both have the same work ethic. No point in one working really hard and the other just along for the ride.

“We have the same goals. You do deviate a little bit along the way, but if you stick to main focus, you’ll be ok.”

“We said to them, ‘you forgot some of the zeros’”, Martin laughed. an indicator to me that times were going to change somewhere along the line,” he said.

coming along, you have to do something corporate,’” Martin said.

At the same time, Michelle was concerned that the business was consuming too many hours in the day, leaving not much time for their kids Sarah and Luke.

“We needed to highlight the sponsors that put in $1500 or $2000. I grabbed a napkin, and I drew out this little model that wasn’t quite what we have now, but would allow us to display, on each table, the sponsors, the branding.”

It was time to get out.

The Micallefs put the Impact Drilling Group on the market and sold it to AMP on 1 May 2007.

They then spent the next two years coming to terms with a different challenge: taking it easy.

It was during this period of enforced relaxation that Michelle started up the Women in Business Network.

“Before that it was just a group of women and we’d meet for dinner every now and then, and talk about business, then it got officially incorporated in October 2008 and that was my way of giving something back to a lot home-based businesses that were where I was 10 years ago,” Michelle.

Little did she know that the Network would lead her and Martin to their next business.

It was the ultimate lightbulb moment.

Michelle was organizing the Women In Business Network’s first awards night, sponsored by Star News Group, publishers of BUSiNESS WEST. Showing Martin around Melton’s Tabcorp Park function room, he immediately dismissed her ideas of a candelabra or flowers as table centerpieces.

“I told her ‘you have 300 businesswomen

The Media Pod was born.

A small cable-free device with three seveninch screens in a triangular formation, the device is placed in the centre of a table and can be used to advertise sponsors, to list award nominees, as an electronic menu, and many other functions. It runs on recyclable batteries.

But first, the Micallefs had to make sure that there were no similar prototypes around.

After finding nothing, they lodged three types of worldwide patents and immediately started getting the first 25 units designed and built.

They had six weeks to get them up and running in time for the event, and used every second.

“On the day of the event, I was putting the last one together at around 6.30pm, and by five to seven we managed to put them all out, and at seven o’clock the doors opened,” Martin recalled.

“The wow factor was huge.”

The Micallefs officially launched the Media Pod and Showcase Media in February this year and were offered $400,000 for the business in their first week of operation.

“Being in business, we know the scope, especially when you have a product that no one else can produce or no one has, the scope for this should be quite good.”

“Tabletop technology is going to be the way of the future. The unit itself is very subtle, it’s not intrusive, and it’s very effective.”

Martin is confident Showcase will eventually go global, but at the moment the Micallefs are happy to start in Melbourne and slowly grow the business.

The media pods have already been picked up by several businesses, including the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn Football Club, Carlton FC, North Melbourne FC, Geelong FC, the State Trustees, Melton Shire Council, Melbourne Victory, Genesis and accounting firm Fordham.

The Micallefs, who have just released video Media Pods, are also working on larger versions that could be placed in foyers at the beginning of events or cocktail functions and a two-sided product that could sit on a counter or reception desk and give information about travel, taxis, etc.

Crown Casino has already expressed interest in both projects. “It’s very simple, but nobody had come up with it,” Martin said.

“Sometimes, the simple things in life are the greatest. I don’t believe I’m any different to anyone else, yes there’s great people out there, and Michelle and I are just your ordinary mum and dad with an idea, and if the idea is worth following, go for it. It’s all about opportunity; life’s all about opportunity.

“We made our own luck.” [BW]

BUSINESS WEST

17

BEST FOOT FORWARD

BY CHARLENE GATT AS THE old adage goes, if the shoe fits, wear it. But Mira Smoljko knows it’s not always that simple, especially if you stand at five foot eleven and have size 11 feet.

Since her teens, Ms Smoljko has done everything from buying shoes that “almost fit” and trying to stretch them, to paying exorbitant postage and handling fees to get shoes her size over the internet.

In May this year she took it upon herself to service the “big foot market” by opening up Glamazon, an Ascot Vale shoe store that specialises in sizes eight to 13.

Within weeks she was getting customers travelling from the other side of Melbourne to check out her range of heels, boots and flat shoes.

“I’ve had a few ladies come in and buy two, three pairs in one go, because they can finally get shoes that actually fit them,” she said.

Meanwhile, her fortnightly email newsletters to members boast a 70-year-old subscriber and a 14-year-old with size 13 feet.

“That database is proof that there are so many of us out there,” she said.

“There’s a huge opportunity out there because there’s a lot of tall women around, people are getting bigger in general. If you just go around the schools you see how tall some of these kids are, it’s amazing.”

“It’s all tied in. The taller you are, the bigger feet you have.”

Her 10-year-old daughter Ines is testament to that, already fitting in a ladies size seven-and-a-half.

“Once my kids came along, I just got jaded with the whole corporate set-up.

premises that was close to her Essendon home and her kids’ school.

“It’s not very family-friendly, and I love working, I love being challenged, I love business and I just thought that this was not the best utilisation of my time and I was also not willing to give up caring for my kids, particularly at a young age.

Her husband John and the kids helped set up the store.

“I feel like for the past 10 years it’s been all about the kids, which is fantastic, and I’ve always worked on the side, but they’re all in school now and I’m ready now to challenge myself more.

She said many bigger sized shoes were often unglamourous and “almost granny-ish”.

“It’s always been in the back of my mind as an opportunity. I just never had the courage or the confidence to do it.

“I thought it was a great business idea, and I did my research and put together a business plan and thought if I don’t do it now, someone else is going to do it, and then I’m going to be one of those really annoying people that goes around saying, ‘that’s my idea, I had that idea 10 years ago but never did anything about it’.

“It was a real now or never type of thing and I thought now’s the time to do it. The time felt right.”

The decision was followed by every shoe lover’s dream: a trip to Las Vegas for the biannual World Shoes and Accessories Fair, where she got a crash course in the footwear industry.

Ms Smoljko takes pride in the fact that her shoes, which range from $90 to around $250, are not only reasonably priced, but are also “pretty”.

“I don’t want to hold that market to ransom.

I just think if I could source them at a good price, then that’s what I’d like to pass on. I don’t particularly want to play in the $300, $400, $500 range. A lot of these women have enough trouble finding shoes, and to slug them $400 for a pair of shoes is a bit much.”

Half of her stock is imported from the US, the rest comes from local suppliers.

At the moment she is working the store on her own while trying to get Glamazon’s name out there.

She is also employing Search Engine Optimisation, which means her business is listed on page one of any online search.

Ms Smoljko is keen to take on employees for the Ascot Vale store and eventually wants to open a chain of Glamazon stores across Melbourne. [BW]

She then spent a few months trying to find the right

But it’s not only the “big foot market” that is standing up and taking notice.

As the only shoe store on Union Rd, Glamazon is attracting a lot of interest from the locals, causing Ms Smoljko to rethink her sizing options.

From spring, she will introduce sizes six and seven to cater for the local market.

It’s a promising start to a business idea that had sat dormant in Ms Smoljko’s mind for years.

She worked in the corporate sector for 13 years before taking up small business consultancy to look after her three kids Ines, Isabel, 9, and Antonia, 5.

Glamazon became her fourth baby when she decided to take on a new challenge.

18

BUSINESS WEST

Glamazon owner Mira Smoljko has turned the “big foot market” into a winning business.

Picture: SARAH MATRAY

WAITING FOR THE

TRADESMAN’S

ENTRANCE Natalie Gribble… spotted a gap in the market.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

IT’S the bane of every householder’s existence: waiting for a tradie to come and fix that leaking tap or check some suspect wiring.

Natalie Gribble is set to change all that…

BY CHARLENE GATT THE Sanctuary Lakes resident has established Waiting For Tradies, a unique service that allows a homeowner to go about their day to day business while someone else waits for their tradie to arrive.

Ms Gribble meets tradespeople at a client’s house and waits around until the work is completed.

She then locks up and secures the house once the job is done.

Ms Gribble, a trained occupational therapist, said she noticed a gap in the market when her and husband Gary were building their own home four years ago.

At the time she arranged for tradesmen to come to the house during her monthly rostered day off.

“I thought ‘what do other people do if they don’t have the luxury of having a set day a month where they can plan to have work or maintenance done around their house?’

“Often people have to take an entire day off if they’re waiting for a tradesman to come, and the tradesman might say they’ll come between 9am and 1pm and they’re stuck at home for the day.

“That might mean a day’s pay for someone, and it’s often cheaper to have someone there for a couple of hours than to miss out on an entire day’s pay.

“There’s so much building happening in the West, it’s such a growth corridor…and they need phone connection and all sorts of stuff.

It’s a big thing to take an entire day off when you’ve got meetings booked in and that kind of thing.”

She has also picked up a home stereo system from a store for a client and delivered it to their home.

Waiting For Tradies came to fruition shortly after Ms Gribble took maternity leave in 2008 for her first child, Cooper. She is currently eight months pregnant with her second child.

Despite admitting she wasn’t “one to not do anything”, she revels in the luxury of having more time to spend with her son while earning a living.

Ms Gribble said she has on average about three to four jobs a week, predominantly around Melbourne’s West.

She also does occupational therapy on weekends.

Ms Gribble letterbox dropped homes in the West and sponsored a primary school fete to get the company’s name out there.

She hopes to expand the business and take on employees as her client base grows.

“It’s something that’s fairly unique to this area, and when I was establishing the business I called the council to determine what sort of permits and things that I would need, and everyone I spoke to said ‘that’s a really good idea, I can’t believe someone hasn’t come up with it before’,” she said.

“I have a few regular customers. I suppose once you get known to people and they trust you that’s a big thing.

“I thought myself, having other people come to my house, how would I feel about that? I suppose it’s about how you present your business. I like to think it’s a professional and trustworthy business, we’re police-checked and insured and everything like that.” [BW]

BUSINESS WEST

19

Bob and Aneta have restored the old Masonic building in Sunshine, it is now called Ancheto Cafe.

Picture: SARAH MATRAY

Just their C PPA

FIVE years ago, Bob Jankulovski wasn’t a coffee drinker.

or restaurant where people come to celebrate things and we thought it would be perfect to re-create that.

Aneta quit her career as a molecular biologist to oversee the day to day running of Ancheto.

The Deer Park resident preferred a cup of Milo to a freshly brewed cup.

“It’s such a beautiful building and it could be the art centre of Sunshine.”

Today, Bob and his wife Aneta run Sunshine coffee bar Ancheto and Bob is pleased to not only have discovered a taste for coffee, but a talent for making a great cup.

The couple, who have been married for 12 years, knocked back a dozen offers from prospective lessees whose ideas for the building did not match their own, and in the end decided to do it themselves – even though neither had any experience in the hospitality industry.

She goes out into Sunshine and surrounding suburbs to pick up supplies for the café, and hand makes all the muffins and sandwiches.

BY CHARLENE GATT

It’s one of many hidden talents the pair has unearthed since buying an old Masonic Lodge on Hampshire Road and restoring it to its former glory.

The lodge was built in the 1920s by wellknown industrialist Hugh Victor McKay and served as a community hub for decades.

The site held sentimental value for Bob, who had his 21st birthday there, as well as other family functions, so when he drove past the building and saw the For Sale sign four years ago, it felt only natural to attend the auction.

Before they knew it, the Jankulovskis were bidding against a developer who wanted to turn the building into apartments.

“We wanted to have it open to the public and use it for what it is,” Aneta said.

“We wanted someone to open a coffee bar

22

BUSINESS WEST

“If someone says you can’t do something, we say why?” Aneta said.

The pair spent nine months stripping and waxing the floorboards, painting, cleaning and fixing the building up.

Today, the existing cloakroom has been transformed into a kitchenette, and the hall is fitted out with comfortable pre-loved furniture and couches to add to the historical feel. On weekends, the furniture is moved away so that the hall can be hired out for functions.

Upstairs, a large room has been left largely untouched and is adorned with solid plaster walls. Aneta hopes to turn the area into an entertainment venue, much like Yarraville’s Acqua e Vino wine bar.

Bob helps Aneta run the café but still holds his full-time job as a crane and forklift driver.

“Someone has to pay the bills,” Aneta laughs.

“We’re very fresh to business. We treat people like they’re family. It’s just us being ourselves. We’re always up for a chat,” Bob said.

“We want neighbours.”

people

to

know

their

“There are so many uses for this place, and I know it’s special to a lot of people. We just want the doors to be open so people can use it,” Aneta added.

The Jankulovksis hope to eventually get Ancheto to a point where they could hire employees to take over the day to day running of the business, but said they would need to find employees who were as passionate as them to make the business thrive. [BW]

GREEN BEANS BEING green pays off for customers at Flemington’s Pepper cafe.

“It’s a win-win, really.” Mr Peterson has recently started selling his own keep cups to keep momentum growing.

The café offers a 10 per cent discount on their takeaway coffees for customers who bring in their own reusable cups, in turn limiting the amount of disposable cups the company uses.

He has also started using Monte Fair Trade organic coffee and gets staff and customers to take coffee waste home and use it as mulch on their gardens since taking on the business about 20 months ago.

The deal has been running for the last six months and owner Simon Peterson, 34, said the offer had lifted business.

He plans to start growing herbs on-site and water them with left-over coffee water.

BY CHARLENE GATT

“Those keep cups have started the ball rolling. People have really started to use them, and we thought, it’s not costing us any money, and it’s better for the environment, so we might as well give people an incentive to bring their own cups in,” he said.

“It’s just little things. You waste a lot of stuff, like water, in a place like this, so it’s nice to do something.”

Pepper also supports OxFam, with manager Maggie Mildenhall raising $5200 in a 100 kilometre walk for the charity. [BW] Pepper cafe owner Simon Peterson has found going green can help boost business.

Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI

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Q&A ANTON MAYER LeadWest CEO Anton Mayer grew up in Melbourne’s West having attended school in Yarraville and Footscray. He completed studies in Economics and Politics at Monash University before working in the banking and finance sector in both Australia and Europe. He joined the Australian Trade Commissioner Service (the forerunner to Austrade) and spent over 25 years serving overseas in some of Australia’s key markets from both an export and investment perspective. He then returned to Australia to head up Austrade’s operations for Victoria and Tasmania. Before becoming the first CEO of LeadWest in January 2008 Anton was the head of the economic development team at the City of Greater Geelong at a time of unprecedented growth and development. Anton lives in the West, spreading his time between Footscray and Barwon Heads.

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL WORKING DAY.

HOW DID THAT HELP YOU GROW AS A BUSINESS MAN?

• Read newspapers online over breakfast

• Grab every opportunity like it is your last

• Scan Blackberry and prioritise day’s activities

• Have both a long term and short term horizon

• Attend local stakeholder meetings • Brief State government officials and attend State Government transport briefing

WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO DO FOR THE WEST THROUGH LEADWEST?

• Luncheon with client

• Improve timely delivery of much needed infrastructure for our citizens

• Answer emails

• Create more local job opportunities and attract investment

• Communicate with LeadWest Board members and members in general

• Make the West a learning and innovation region

HOW DO YOU RELAX AWAY FROM WORK? • I live on a golf course so golf looms large • Being at Barwon Heads walking along the local beach is great • My garden is lovely

• Improve quality of life for all citizens HOW WOULD YOU SELL THE WEST TO A PROSPECTIVE BUSINESS INVESTOR? It’s a region where strong growth is occurring and opportunities abound. A rapidly growing pool of skilled and talented young people on your doorstep.

THE WEST IS CURRENTLY LACKING IN EXCLUSIVE OFFICE SPACE. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ATTRACT MORE WHITE-COLLAR JOBS TO THE REGION? • Federal and State Government should decentralise its office arrangements to create local job opportunities • Affordable and high speed telecommunication would support jobs development prospects closer to where people live IF YOU HAD TO INVITE FIVE PEOPLE TO A BUSINESS LUNCHEON, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? • Lindsay Fox – Did it his way • Steve Jobs, CEO Apple – Futurist and visionary • Brian McNamee, CEO of CSL Ltd – Built a fantastic global business • Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany – Interesting lady • Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo – A really smart and focused CEO

LeadWest CEO Anton Mayer.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CAREER SUCCESS TO DATE? Re-establishing the Australia Government’s Trade representative office in Johannesburg South Africa after the lifting of Commonwealth economic sanctions in early 90s.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CAREER FAILURE TO DATE? Saying “maybe” to an offer of a diplomatic posting to China in the mid 80s.

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BUSINESS WEST

WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS MANTRA? Learn by your mistakes, treat everyone with respect and listening pays dividends.

There are great benefits available

A range of Traineeship Qualifications are available

> Training Qualifications can be achieved through a

> Diploma of Business

Traineeship Pathway. > Employees combine their course study with

> Diploma of Logistics > Diploma of Management

workplace assessment so that they gain practical

> Diploma of Building & Construction

skills on the job.

>

> Government funding is available to Employers through Financial Incentives*. > Traineeships are available for new and existing employees.

Diploma of Competitive Manufacturing

> Diploma of Community Services

Contact Jobs Plus Apprenticeships Services Karen Stolica

> Employees can access funded training places to

0417 386 278

reduce the cost of training > Employers can receive Financial Incentives and a well trained employee *Eligibility conditions apply.

03-9919 8533 www.jobsplusbiz.com.au 483393-JL31-10

SMALL TALK BUSiNESS AWARDS COULD you be the next Hobsons Bay Business of the Year?

Hobsons Bay Council is seeking entries for the 2010 Hobsons Bay Business Excellence Awards.

There are a range of categories covering most business classifications, including two new categories – home-based business and franchises.

Nominations close on 3 September and the winners will be announced at a gala dinner held at the Williamstown Town Hall on 22 October.

Spotswood railway operator El Zorro won last year’s top honour.

before joining Balgownie Estate Vineyard Resort & Spa in Victoria’s iconic Yarra Valley mid 2007.

Balgownie merged with Mercure in 2008.

The Mercure Caroline Springs will celebrate one year in operation in September.

COLES COLES has set up shop in Derrimut, creating 107 jobs for locals.

The new supermarket opened its doors at Derrimut Village Shopping Centre on 15 July and will open from 7am to midnight, seven days a week.

CITY WEST WATER

Store manager Brendan Cimarosti said the store features a market-style layout, designed to provide better quality, choice and convenience.

CITY West Water has been awarded a Silver Star in the 2009 Corporate Responsibility Index Awards.

“We’ve aimed to deliver exceptional value on quality products across the store so we think shoppers will love our new offering,” he said.

The Corporate Responsibility Index provides a benchmark designed to measure, manage, report and improve the impacts that companies have on society and the environment.

City West Water, which is based in Sunshine, was commended for its customer and supply chain management initiatives including training of staff, dealing with customers with special needs and the support programs available to them.

GREENAWAY ROSS Greenaway has been appointed the General Manager at Mecure Caroline Springs.

Ms Greenaway began his career in hotels with Hyatt in the mid 1980s and then moved to Sheraton Hotels.

He joined Accor in 1994 at Novotel Twin Waters Resort as Director of Sales and Marketing where he eventually moved into operational roles.

Over the 10 year period with Accor, Ross worked in all states of Australia before leaving the company in 2004, spending the next three years contracting on projects in Port Lincoln SA, Myall Shores in NSW and Broome in WA

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BUSINESS WEST

TOYWORLD TOYWORLD had opened one of its largest Australian stores in Taylors Lakes.

The new 700 square metres store opened at Watergardens in June, and is part of a push to expand the popular Toyworld brand in metro areas.

“Taylors Lakes is part of an area that has new homes and families,” store owner Morgan Hughes said.

“Not only are our local families looking for a great toy store experience but a number of local community members want to work close to home with flexible hours. We have a dedicated policy of finding and employing local people.

EQUINE A NEW equine surgery has been built at the Werribee International Horse Centre thanks to a $200,000 State Government grant.

The equine surgery at Werribee Racecourse will be ready in time for the international raiders coming to Melbourne for the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup. By the end of July, construction of the equine surgery was expected to be complete along with the two quarantine compounds, each fitted with security monitoring and with the capacity to house up to 12 horses each.

SITA A BROOKLYN composting company was charged in the Sunshine Magistrates Court recently after breaching its environmental licence.

SITA Australia Pty Ltd was fined $35,000 for producing an offensive odour, which could be smelt by residents in neighbouring suburbs as far as Yarraville.

The court heard residents complained about the nauseating rotting vegetation smell which lasted for a three day period.

EPA Victoria officers who investigated the reports and attended the area confirmed a rotting vegetation compost odour in the residential area. A similar odour was detected at SITA’s Bunting Rd site.

EPA chief executive officer John Merritt said that the outcome of the case should remind the community to address ongoing issues with dust and odour in the area.

SMALL TALK

“

More than $11 million is currently being spent…

GIDDINGS AVALON Airport has received a $2 million State Government grant to upgrade its taxi way and extend the apron to allow for greater aircraft movements.

The announcement comes in the lead up to the Australian International Air Show, which will be held in March next year, and the launch of new flights by Tiger Airways from 10 November.

Avalon Airport Chief Executive Justin Giddings welcomed the financial injection at a time when the airport was preparing for the biggest growth phase in its history.

More than $11 million is currently being spent in upgrading the airport’s tarmac, fuel facility, terminal and roads.

“The upgrades this enables us to do is a major boost for the airport and its growing infrastructure,” Mr Giddings said.

DOW LAST MONTH Dow Chemical Australia Ltd signed a significant environmental and health safety agreement to reduce it’s environmental footprint across Altona and make savings in Co2 emissions, water usage and waste water discharge.

In compliance with the government, industry and community, the ‘Environment, Health and Safety Improvement Plan’ will see Dow Chemical reduce Co2 emissions by 1000 tonnes each year and achieve water savings of 28 million over the next few years.

Dow Chemical presently hold a global commitment for a sustainable world through the development of innovative technologies, significant savings in greenhouse gas emissions, energy usage and health and safety initiatives.

On the day Dow Chemical general manager Ken Mirams, along with representatives from the Environmental Management Committee, City West Water and the Altona Environment Management Committee of local residents signed the plan in the presence of WorkSafe, the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association representatives.

464541-SH31-10

“We trust this will send a very clear message to industry in this estate that you cannot continue in the way you have – with total disregard for both the environment and the community you operate in,” he said.The company was also ordered to pay EPA costs of $10,000.

BUSINESS WEST

27

STRATEGIES

HORiZON

THE

BEYOND

SOHRAB MOTIWAL MOTIWALLA is the Export Development Manager for th the Victorian Government Business Centre based in Bundoora. With a 20 year career in international trade and market develo development Sohrab was recently engaged to assist Victoria’s major exporting companies t grow their international markets. to If you are a major exporter looki looking to expand your overseas activities contact Sohrab on 03 9935 0611

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BUSINESS WEST

STRATEGIES

WANTING TO

EXPORT?

READY

OR NOT?

Wanting to export is easy. There is the attractiveness of potential increased revenue, increased distribution networks, increased market share and increased manufacturing capability so as to maximise the efficiency of your business. Knowing whether your business is ready to export is another matter.

REVIEW OF INTERNAL ACTIVITIES The first thing any business needs to assess is whether exporting fits into its current business model. Will commencing exporting require you to change the profile of your business, including its products, services, capabilities and business functions?

Businesses should critically examine their structures, processes and objectives in order to identify their particular strengths and weaknesses. This should include an honest assessment of technical, managerial, financial strengths and unique technologies. Motives for exporting should also be analysed and any competitive weaknesses identified.

REVIEW OF EXTERNAL FACTORS This important stage should begin with a review of any regulations or prohibitions which may affect your business’s ability to export.

The next step is to focus on which markets are likely to offer the best prospects for the product/service you offer and whether these may need to be modified to meet local requirements and provide after-sales service.

REVIEW OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

to capitalise on strengths and minimise the effects of any perceived weaknesses.

ANALYSING OVERSEAS MARKETS A rigorous screening process needs to be undertaken to determine which overseas markets are likely to offer the best prospects for export success.

While many markets may appear attractive initially, first-time exporters should usually focus their efforts on a small number of key countries.

Businesses should identify the key factors and constraints in each potential market in order to develop sound export strategies.

RESEARCHING OVERSEAS MARKETS Market research is another critical element in determining an export strategy.

The principal aim of this research is to differentiate potential markets in terms of critical factors such as market size/growth, competitive environment and availability of key allies and partners such as agents/ distributors.

The first stage of this process is desk research, which is the compilation and analysis of general information on markets and business conditions, obtained from readily available, published sources. This is valuable for providing background data and in the formation of initial impressions of market viability.

The second stage is in-market research to collect first-hand information on doing business in particular markets and specific data from potential customers and users of products and services. While desk research is an important

Businesses will need to decide whether to market their current range of products or services, to modify them to suit local requirements or develop new increased products or services increased solely for export.

“

revenue, distribution networks, increased market share and increased manufacturing capability

Factors to be considered include standards, packaging, brand names, quality/ durability, physical appearance and methods of operation/usage. Service exporters must critically examine their offering to ensure that they are competitive in their target markets.

SWOT ANALYSIS This simple yet invaluable tool can be used to analyse the information gathered in the internal, external and product reviews.

Major strengths and weaknesses should be identified from the internal review and major opportunities and threats should become evident from the external review. The product or service review should reveal further strengths and weaknesses.

The overall objective of this exercise is Picture: SARAH MATRAY

tool in the identification of potential markets, in-market research is essential for a business’s international decision-making process. Both the Victorian Government and Austrade have offices in key markets and are able to provide information on the regions, cultural issues that may hinder exporting efforts and to facilitate networking opportunities with agents. Companies can also attend overseas trade missions or trade expos to get an inside view of the market. Programs are available to support eligible businesses undertaking these fact-finding opportunities.

For further information in exploring your exporting opportunities, please contact the Victorian Business Office on 9935 0600 or visit the website at www.export.business.vic.gov.au

BUSINESS WEST

29

STRATEGIES

THINK

green

STEVE PLARRE reveals the Plarre family’s interest in going green…

THE Plarre family’s motivations are entrenched in the family’s 110 year old ‘Family Baked’ philosophy.

In terms of getting started there are a multitude of government and energy company based organisations that offer free energy audits.

Being a family business and having a brand that is very much a ‘carer’ archetype, being sustainable has always been perfectly aligned with our business. We have served over four generations of families and we know that to do this for another 100 years, we’re going to have to do the right thing by the planet.

This was our first step in going green and started about 10-12 years ago with a free energy audit from the Federal Government under the ‘Greenhouse Challenge’ program (this program is no longer in existence but has been replaced by a multitude of alternatives).

Having experienced the benefits of selling to multi-generations of families, we recognise the importance of allowing our present customers to understand that we are working towards improving the future for their children and their children’s children.

Moving altruism and the advantages of ‘green’ marketing in a first-mover position aside, sustainability is little more than learning how to do more with less.

When you think about it, this is lean manufacturing philosophy at its best.

Reducing your carbon footprint necessitates a reduction in your use of energy.

Energy costs money. Reducing energy = reduced costs. Reduced costs = higher profits.

This is valid now but assessing this in light of the potentially exorbitant increases predicted for future energy costs it becomes exponentially powerful in reducing a company’s energy costs.

Our staff culture is also a key influence in the area of being sustainable. It’s hard to attract good quality labour into the baking market at the best of times.

Let’s face it, most of us are not engineers – so get expert advice. There are lots of initiatives that can be started immediately without any expense whatsoever. It’s as simple as making sure fridge doors are shut properly or have a secondary door to eliminate heat bleed into your fridge/freezers.

Steve Plarre, CEO Operations of Ferguson Plarre, has some sound advice on how to go green… save money and help save the planet.

Our success in any form of innovation is based on an entrenched motivation to learn more. This requires an acknowledgement that you never know everything and that there is always something to learn from someone else.

As a result we attend and take part in many business breakfasts, conferences, training sessions and just good old plain networking.

Most of these are free.

For us and many other bakers though, you don’t need an engineer to tell you where the heat is coming from. Find the heat and think about ways to get this away from areas that require cooling – it’s as simple as that.

A great place to start looking for general ideas that are almost all for free is the Carbon Down website: www.carbondown.com.au .

You will find a range of organisations that can conduct energy audits along with sustainability solutions from your industry, rated for effectiveness and listed for free for everyone to use right now. Many local power suppliers will offer free energy audits and a surprising range of energy reduction tools.

Origin Energy is a leader in this space Finding out when local green conferences or presentations are scheduled

Gen Y kids these days don’t view 2am starts with much excitement and they’re also famous for seeking employment where they can feel like they’re making a difference.

Some people have suggested that we are of a size that we can afford to do this more than some smaller businesses. In response to this I point to the fact that we too once were smaller and are still just a small business that has continued to try and do the right thing.

Being sustainable is an important part of the Ferguson Plarre recruitment process and our overall employer branding.

Anyone who has innovated will tell you that the hardest work is thinking and thinking is free.

Go to a business sustainability breakfast/ conference. Make notes, collect business cards, surround yourself with like-minded people.

In the aftermath of corporate excesses, blamed squarely for the GFC, we believe a lot more people are wanting to work for a company that is contributing to a brighter future. We believe this is what we have to offer.

Thinking is easy to do when you’re excited about the possible outcomes so I guess the first step in this process is to GET A BIT EXCITED about what this can do for your business.

Find out about ‘green’ conferences will just happen after this. Otherwise, just read your junk mail, look for these events in the local paper and continue to make friends with some people in the ‘sustainability’ industry.

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BUSINESS WEST

As soon as people find out you’re interested in going green… the invitations and advice will follow you… believe me!

This is very important. What is most important though is to have the CEO or business owner/leader fully invested in the process from the very beginning.

They say ‘The fish stinks from the head down’… well the opposite is true as well.

Change begins at the top. Not in a dictatorial style… but through engagement.

On a strategic level, the board or executive need to establish their aims with regards to sustainability.

Once this is done it’s important to appoint a ‘champion’ to the project. Choose this person carefully. Their ability to engage staff, generate enthusiasm and show people that it’s in their and the businesses best interests to make the changes is vital to the process.

This is usually the person who is the most excited about sustainability in the context of how it can improve the business. I should add at this point that going ‘green’ is about becoming a better business.

Sure you’ll feel better about yourself but if there isn’t a ‘business reason’ for it, don’t do it.

What’s the point going green if you go broke in two years?

Being sustainable is about creating a better business. It’s about managing risk. It’s about cost reduction. It’s about staff culture.

It’s about competitive advantage. It’s about PROFIT! And let’s face it… it has to be. We’re running businesses… not social clubs.

Get your staff together. Explain your new approach to sustainability and how it is important to the business… and their future… and their family’s futures.

Then ask them what they think you can do to reduce electricity usage, gas usage, water,

waste and fuel. It’s amazing what wonderful information resides in the heads of all of those staff. Give your projects reasonable timeframes and measure their success.

Where more significant investments need to be made, always consider the Return On Investment but look beyond 5 years to 10 years and don’t just consider the obvious raw dollar savings.

Consider the possible effect on your staff culture, staff retention, staff happiness, your ability to attract better quality labour, whether you can promote your initiatives to your customers as a competitive advantage and whether you think ‘sustainability’ will help you to get your staff thinking about other ways to improve your business.

Sustainability is a way of thinking that you can easily leverage into other areas of your business.

Once people get used to thinking about doing more with less in the ‘sustainability’ space, doing the same in other areas of the business will come easily. It certainly has at Ferguson Plarre. Our lean management tools are some of the best in the country and it was all introduced seamlessly on the back of a green culture.

Being careful not to over-promote the green aspect – there is a potential for backlash from price-conscious consumers Absolutely. Be sure of your accolades. Get legal advice if necessary. Example: the term ‘Carbon Neutral’ is now governed by strict laws and using it out of term could be very damaging.

Every business that ‘pretends’ to be green when they are not are diluting the trust that customers have in green brands. It’s vital that your claims are real and transparent and if they are... you will be rewarded.

5 WAYS TO REDUCE ENERGY 1. It has to start at the TOP. There’s not much point investing time and energy in sustainability unless you have support from the top. The only companies I know of who are doing well in this space are the ones that have leaders who are championing the cause.

2. Get your culture right. Make sure your management team understand why you’re doing what you’re doing so they have ownership in the cause. It should be pretty easy to sell: Are you saving the planet? Yep. Are you saving money?

Yep. Does it make you feel good? Yep. Are the processes perfectly aligned with lean manufacturing? Yep. Will you all sleep well knowing your kids will grow up in a better place? Yep. Will it make it easier to hire people who care? Yes. Will you be more likely to hang onto quality staff members? Yes. The list goes on and on…

3. Have an energy audit done. You can’t plot your journey without knowing where the starting point is. There are an increasingly large range of local, state and federal services that will provide this service for free…

4. Speak with people who have done it! You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of people willing to share their stories – that’s what sustainability is all about – we all breath the same air.

5. Identify your most energy intensive processes. Spend time trying to improve the processes that are doing the most damage to the environment. Tip: most of them will involve electricity.

A weekend full of fun activities and exhibits for all:

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Engage staff so they feel a part of the process.

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For more information please call 9742 0903 or visit www.wyndham.vic.gov.au

BUSINESS WEST

31

DOGS HONOUR SUSAN

Bulldogs director Susan Alberti.

PICTURE: SARAH MATRAY

BY CHARLEN CHARLENE GATT LIFE has not been easy for Susan Alberti. But fforr what it’s worth, she’s given it everything fo she’s she’ sh e s got.

Her fighting instinct was born as she grew He er fightin public and evolved when she had up p iinn p pu ubl blic hhousing blic o with to deal to dea eal wi w thh the premature death of her first hhusband hu ussb b ban and an d an and d Dansu building and construction group co-founder, Angelo. gr g ro ouup c co o-ffou o n Then daughter Danielle, who had battled T The Th hen en her her d for over 20 years, died in with with wi th Type Typ T yp pe 1 diabetes d her her he er arms arm ar rm mss on on a flight that was meant to lead her to to a life-saving llififfee sa savi viin kidney transplant.

2006, she received her own health In 2 In 20 0 sscare sc carre when she was diagnosed with cancer ca ancer ncerr and found out she too had Type diabetes.

1 di d ab But Bu B u for all the downs, there have been be een some dizzying ups.

Herr dedication and work with juvenile H He diabetes diab di a et ab e es over the past 30 years has seen the the Australian th Aussttra ralia Government give more money to diabetes than any other government diab di bet etes ess research re e in in the the e world. worr And Ann her h work as sponsor and director Western Bulldogs has helped bring of tthe of he W the thhe club club ub back to life.

She She attributes her resolve to a mantra

BY CHARLENE GATT THE Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) has enjoyed its strongest January to June period on record with an average 15.8 per cent monthly growth rate on last year’s volumes.

A strong trade surge in the second half of the 2009-10 financial year has seen total container trade through the

the last financial year, and total noncontainerised trade increased 6.7 per cent to 21.1 million revenue tonnes.

At the other end of the spectrum, empty container movements declined 6.3 per cent to 435,000 TEU. A strong growth in container imports and exports over 2009-2010 saw the PoMC draw level with pre-Global

Trading SURGE Port of Melbourne increase by 3.7 per cent to 2.237 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in the full year to 30 June.

Total trade increased 5.5 per cent to 75.4 million revenue tonnes thanks to a 27.4 per cent increase in the new motor vehicle trade, with the port handling over 1000 cars a day on average.

A 6.4 per cent increase in loaded containers shipped to and from the port also contributed to the rise.

Loaded export containers (8.6 per cent) and loaded import containers (7.2 per cent) experienced increases from

32

BUSINESS WEST

Financial Crisis volumes in February this year, with trade at the time down 0.1 per cent for the financial year.

“As the largest container port and motor vehicle facility in Australia, we believe our trade performance is a good barometer for the overall strength of the domestic economy which appears in good shape,” PoMC Chief Executive Stephen Bradford said.

“Trade has now returned to the level it was at before the impact of the global financial crisis and on the strength of these figures we believe the recent downturn may have passed.” [BW]

that has worked for her over the years: I can beat this.

“My daughter went through so much as a young woman, and she never gave up and she never complained, and I don’t know how she coped with it,” she said.

“I think of how she struggled, and I know I can beat it, because I’ve had to struggle all my life, to work hard and be successful.

Ms Alberti, who has supported the Bulldogs since she was six, feels a kinship to the club that she has given so much to.

“We’re not rich, we’re not affluent, and that’s what I love about us, we keep trying hard all the time to make a difference, to be better, to succeed, and we’re doing it. And that’s what I’ve done my whole life, and I think that’s why I was meant to be involved in this club.”

The Bulldogs recently honoured Ms Alberti by naming their new childcare centre after her.

It was an honour she felt deeply.

“I want to leave a legacy. It’s not for the here and now only, it’s for the future – the future of the West, the future of the club, the future of the supporters, and the future of those children that are going there everyday.

“And what’s good about it too, I was alive to see it. Who would’ve thought that?” [BW]

AFTER HOURS

COMMITTEE FOR WYNDHAM ECONOMIC

LUNCHEON Commonwealth Bank economist Michael Workman was the guest speaker

COMMONWEALTH Bank Chief economist Michael Workman analysed and forecasted trends in the Australian economy and financial markets at the recent Committee for Wyndham Economic Update luncheon.

City West Water Managing Director Anne Barker and new Wyndham CEO Kerry Thompson were some of the attendees.

2

1. (L-R) Steve Roberston from City West Water and John Moore from Wyndham City Council

1

2. (L-R) (L- Michael Hollywood and Ryk E Eksteen from Collins & Co and Nick Scott Sc Nick from Commonwealth Bank

4

5 3. Committee for Wyndham cha chairman Peter Hudson promotes the second editio edition of Business West magazine 4. (L-R) Glen Smith ffrom PowerCor and Sam Torre and Steve Ro Robertson from City West Water

3

Hu 5. (L-R) Michael Royal from BIR Human Capital Solutions, Liberal candidate for Lalor Sheridan Ingram, Dora Pyke from Bendigo Bank and Chet Lobianco from D.JA. Homes Homes. Pictures: NICOLE SULTANA

AFTER HOURS FIFTY business leaders from the West mingled at The Yarraville Club recently for the Inner West networking night.

Tracey Tomai was guest speaker on the night and gave tips on networking your business.

INNER WEST NETWORKiNG

NiGHT Guest Speaker Tracey Tomai

1. Jodie Rollinson (Both Directions/Employment Solutions) and Kirstem Bull (Bosquet Design & Development) 2. Therese Williams a and John Westbury from the Bendigo Bank 3. Alysia West and Frank Legadi from Collins and C Co. 4. MC Travis Bell Pictures: KRISTIAN SCOTT 2

3

4

1

Don’t keep BUSiNESS WEST a secret… from your friends I

DOGS NEW GOAL HALL OF FAME HONOUR DESERT WONDER I MUMS THE WORD I

I

A STAR NEWS GROUP PUBLICATION

| $4.95

ISSN 1837-9869

9 123456 789013

Share the success of the West’s own business magazine with your business colleagues.

After all, isn’t that what friends are for?

34

BUSINESS WEST

MELTON

MAGiC

ISSUE 2 JULY 2010

AFTER HOURS

WYNDHAM

BiZNET

Guest speaker Kevin Hillier Pictures: KRISTIAN SCOTT

meeting MEDIA personality Kevin Hillier was the guest speaker at the July Wyndham BizNet meeting.

The August BizNet dinner will be at the Werribee Football Club on 10 August.

Please see events calendar for more details.

1

2

1. (L-R) Susan Moro from Matchworks, Regina Roeder (Complete Comfort) and Gillian Kinder ((Compliance (C ompliance Essenti Essentials)

2. (L-R) Desi Magro (DM Body Corporate) and Blaga Habersatt (Westpac)

SANCTUARY LAKES

BUSiNESS

1

NETWORK

THE Sanctuary Lakes Business Network hosted its Mid-Year Dinner recently at The Waterstone Cafe.

Le Petit Gateau pastry chef Pierrick Boyer started up the group two years ago to promote inter-business opportunities among resort stakeholders.

2 2. (L-R) Organiser Pierrick Boyer, a pastry chef and photographer, with Vince Patti of the Waterstone Cafe

1. (L-R) Snezana Tanasic of Quest Sanctuary Lakes Apartments, and Sophie Constantinou, manager of the Commonwealth Bank in Point Cook Pictures: EMILY LANE

BUSINESS WEST

35

BW NETWORK Business West Network – a growing directory of local businesses ready to do business with you.

You can join the Business West Network by registering online at www.businesswest.com.au to make sure you receive your personal copy of Business West AND receive a free onetime 30-word listing for your business in a future edition.

CIVIL MARRIAGE CELEBRANT 17 Saltbush Street, Sanctuary Lakes 0429 777 179 Accredited in 1995 and have solemnised nearly 600 wedding and an equal number of naming ceremonies. Member of the Australian Civil Celebrants’ Association of Victoria.

WEBHOUSE GROUP 44 Translink Drive, Keilor Park 0434 378 602 We develop public facing websites and online marketing strategies for our clients on our unique and proven content management engine. Our solutions include search engine optimisation, site statistic monitoring, process management and CRM software applications.

LINKING MELBOURNE AUTHORITY PO Box 2472, Footscray 8562 6800 Linking Melbourne Authority is a government body which oversees the planning and delivery of major infrastructure projects.

BuyAustralianMade.com.au 33 Lakeside Drive, Sanctuary Lakes 9395 3036 BuyAustralianMade.com.au promotes Australian-made products and services, making it easy for shoppers and businesses to find the Australian-made alternative. Keeping jobs, skills and infrastructure in Australia.

SANCTUARY LAKES CHIROPRACTIC 102 Point Cook Road, Seabrook 9369 7987 Chiropractic/remedial massage, X-rays bulkbilled on site for immediate care on first visit.

Open 6 days a week with extended hours.

HICAPS available. Preferred provider for Medibank and HBA. ML&C NINETY-ONE PTY LTD 1 Ellis Close, Point Cook 0417 576 313 Refrigerated transport business doing courier work, picking up and delivering products, fresh or frozen between clients.

WILLY DESIGN 1/7 Beachcomber Pl, Sanctuary Lakes 9395 9646 Residential design, energy efficient, sustainable living. New residences, alterations and additions to your existing home. We collaborate your thoughts and our experience to provide a great solution.

JTOPIC HOME IMPROVEMENTS 264 Sanctuary Lakes Nth Blvd, Pt Cook 0421 030 695 Specialising in decking and landscape structures included, but not limited to pergolas and verandahs, decking, privacy screens, feature walls, retaining walls, landscaping, install rocks, mulch and pathways, carpentry, etc.

REWARDS FINANCE PTY LTD 33 Signature Blvd, Sanctuary Lakes 0411 801 307 Receive $200 gift voucher when you settle loan with us. Includes new loan, refinancing, LoDoc loans, commerical loans etc. Receive Residex FREE property Report. Visit www. rewardsfinance.com.au for details.

STRATEGIC EDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES Level 1, 2 Main Street, Point Cook 9394 6364 At SEFS we provide accounting, business and wealth advisory services, to our clients.

Through our relationship with Count Ltd Australia’s No.1 independent financial advice group we are able to offer superannuation, investment, financing and insurance solutions.

COMITTTEE FOR WYNDHAM INC P.O. Box 2296, Werribee 9731 4541 CFW operates as a facilitator and catalyst to help shape our community in a strategic and consultative manner, and robustly represent relevant interests to ensure potential for Wyndham as a preferred place to live, work and recreate, is realised.

ALINK NETWORK SERVICES 7A Kent Street, Yarraville 9688 8200 IT managed services and support.

FULL ON FASHION 94 Sanctuary Lakes Sth Blvd, Pt Cook 9395 4381 “FULL ON FASHION” - Special occasion dresses and gowns. Dress to impress for a fraction of retail prices. Great quality and variety.

MERITUM FINANCIAL GROUP Level 15, 60 Albert Rd, Sth Melbourne 9824 3709 I provide sound financial advice in the areas of retirement planning, superannuation, investment planning and personal risk Insurance. Call today to make an appointment and plan for your future.

WAITING FOR TRADIES PO Box 6478, Point Cook 0418 569 318 Do you need a tradesperson to come to your home, but don’t have all day to wait? Waiting for Tradies recognises that your time is precious let us do it for you!

COMPLETE HIRE EQUIPMENT PTY LTD 185 Fairbairn Road, Sunshine 9312 5444 We hire all types of equipment from the home handy man to the construction worker COSTA LOGISTICS PO Box 626 , Sunshine 0466 150 087 Costa Logistics, part of the Costa Group, is a high quality, high tech provider of leading edge supply chain solutions to FMCG and retail customers across Australia.

WESTERN BULLDOGS PO BOX 4112 DC, West Footscray 0437 370 172 The Western Bulldogs Football Club was formed in 1883 and is one of Australia’s most innovative sporting clubs. With over 30,000 members, the club is completing a $30 million redevelopment of their home ground, Whitten Oval in Footscray, which includes state-of-theart elite training facilities for the players, sports science areas for Victoria University, a Hall of Fame and a 105-place childcare centre.

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BUSINESS WEST

BW NETWORK SCIENCEWORKS 2 Booker Street, Spotswood 9392 4865 Scienceworks is a museum with a difference featuring many fun and interactive exhibitions that make learning about science exciting for all. With a whole array of exhibitions, programs and shows, Scienceworks will satisfy curious minds and active bodies. Adults $8 entry, children and concession free. Additional fees apply for certain programs or shows.

CVA 18-20 Russell Street, Melbourne 9654 2587 We concentrate on local and state wide commercial/retail/Industrial properties.

AUSTRALIAN JOBNET 9 Hugh Street, Footscray 9687 5586 Australian JobNet is recruitment and labour hire service agency. We specialise in many different industries such as transport/logistics, warehouse distribution etc.

MANAGED CONTENT WEBS Unit 1, 22-30 Wallace Avenue, Pt Cook 1300 853 557 Managed Content Webs (mcWebs). Our specialty is potent websites which are proven to work. A formal reporting process shows exactly how, why and where your website makes you money.

BOOKKEEPING & SMALL BUSINESS ESSENTIALS 9 Tenterfield Place, Tarneit 0407 327 619 BSBE is a full service bookkeeping and virtual assistant service. We can look after all of your administrative needs. Please give us a call.

TINT SHIELD PO Box 1583 Werribee Plaza, Werribee 97492380 Tint Shield specialise in window tinting for residential and commercial premises. We have window films that reduce heat, glare and fading with additional benefits which include, lowering energy costs, reducing the reliance on air conditioners and providing a more comfortable environment.

OPTUS BUSINESS - MELBOURNE WEST 1/290 Boundary Road, Derrimut 8360 9762 At Optus Business, we provide genuine, all of business communications solutions. With mobile workforces on the rise, we also have a range of solutions that meet the needs of businesses looking to improve communication between staff, customers and suppliers.

AUSFORK PTY LTD 5A Concorde Crescent, Werribee 1300 30 80 10 A national forklift driver training company.

Head Office in Werribee and the best forklift driver training centre in the West, located at 193 Maidstone Street, Altona. We also do on-site Training for forklifts and other plant and equipment including construction induction training.

HIRE A HUBBY POINT COOK 96 McIntyre Drive, Altona 0424 090 546 Professional home maintenance, both inside and out, around the home, factory or workplace. Obligation free quotes.

Small jobs my specialty.

DESIGN REALITY PTY LTD Unit 22, 22-30 Wallace Avenue, Pt Cook 9369 8812 We provide professional services to launch products quickly and efficiently. Our experience and expertise helps get your products to market on time, looking their best and complying with regulatory requirements.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT & WORKPLACE RELATIONS Level 11, 414 La Trobe Street, Melbourne 0427 709 766 Broker business, community, civic and government partnerships in NW Melbourne to generate new job opportunities, stimulate the local economy, and ensure there is a rapid response to helping workers who are made redundant.

ADVANCED DOORWARE & BATHWARE 212 McIntyre Road, Sunshine North 0418 377 737 Supplier of door and bathroom fitting taps sanitary products (toilet,basin,bath).

RED AGENCY Level 1, 132B Gwynne Street, Richmond 9670 8350 An award-winning public relations company with offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Works with a broad cross section of companies from four sectors - government (local, state and federal), consumer, corporate and technology.

CATHERINE WHELAN & ASSOCIATES PO Box 261, Brunswick East 0404 577 535 Small business consultants with bigger business ideas for small business growth.

Marketing - business skills - planning - strategy.

BRENDAN GRIMES ERGONOMICS & SAFETY PTY LTD 13A Ballarat Street, Yarraville 9687 5266 Brendan Grimes Ergonomics & Safety Pty Ltd is a privately-owned, independent company, providing best practice ergonomics, safety and injury management services for industry. Based in Yarraville, we are perfectly placed to assist businesses in the West. We are a registered provider of occupational rehabilitation within Victoria.

THE OFFICE 16 Parker Street , Williamstown 8340 0444 office@the-office.com.au We offer both virtual and fully serviced office solutions that include support staff, furniture, business infrastructure and outgoings for less than the price of a receptionist.

LITHOCRAFT 3 Permas Way, Truganina 8366 0211 Lithocraft is a service orientated company with a unique end to end print and design solution.(incorporating design, creative, print, warehousing and distribution services).

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37

BW NETWORK MELTON TILE & SLATE CENTRE 1/31 Norton Drive, Melton 9748302 Melton Tile & Slate Centre provides retail and trade supplies, technical advice and design ideas to make tiling projects unique. The local tiler referral service includes our in-house licensed tilers.

CARE CONNECT INC 94 Empress Avenue, Kingsville 9314 6252 Aged care/disability case management agency providing also home care services, a national organisation with offices in all states along the Eastern Seaboard PAPAMAMA AUSTRALIA 22 Bellevue Blvd, Hillside 0414 580 581 PapaMama Australia is a parenting advocacy and parenting training programme for every community. We offer support and advice for all parents, parenting workshops and seminars to upskill or one-on-one sessions.

Happy parenting!

PRIME HEALTH GROUP 1/38-40 Little Boundary Rd, Laverton Nth 8352 4900 Prime Health Group offers a full range of occupational medical services such as injury management, pre-employment medicals, drug screening, vaccinations, physiotherapy and wellness programs. Contact Karyn on 8352 4990 for further information.

IMAGE IDENTITY PO Box 4003, Deer Park East 9325 8300 Image Identity is a branding and marketing consultancy offering strategic and creative solutions for traditional and online marketing and website design - concept to print solutions within your budget.

HAMMER AND NAILS HOME IMPROVEMENT 844 Old Calder Highway, Keilor 9390 6773 Hammer and Nails specialises in outdoor project. We build alfresco areas, outdoor rooms, pergolas, gazebos, carports etc.

TECHNE PTY LTD Level 4, 65 Brougham Street, Geelong 0417 592 055 Techne operates within the construction, project management, development, interior design and fit-out industries. For over 30 years Techne has successfully developed quality projects with an adaptability and flexibility to tailor services to the specific needs and requirements of its varied base of customers.

PALLET CONTROL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD PO Box 5080, Hallam BC, 9703 5318 We offer extensive pallet control services and ancillary products to the manufacturing, warehousing and transport industries.

HIPCHICKONLINE PO Box 18298 Collins St, East Melbourne 0449 599 665 The hipchickonline jewellery range is handmade, highlighting the beauty of silver, hemp fibre, gemstones and crystals.

Inspired by the strength of the stones.

WATERS EDGE BUSINESS CENTRE 1 Greville Street, Caroline Springs 9217 6400 Waters Edge Business Centre provides customised, virtual office support services for businesses that are time poor. We professionally manage any incoming or outgoing calls and other business correspondence on your behalf.

Virtual Office enables you as a business to have access to a receptionist, secretary, and office space without all the overheads.

RHINO SUPPLEMENTS PO Box 2116 Footscray 9017 7994 Marketing all natural sports drinks and supplements for the Australian and international market. With a focus on diabetic beverages and health products for international market.

MEERKIN & APEL LAWYERS Level 1, 215 Barkly Street, Footscray 9689 8933 Areas of practice include litigation of complex commercial, building and general disputes, family law, commercial and business structures, probate and estae planning, property development, banking and finance and associated services.

REDMOND REPETITION ENGINEERS P/L 29/31 Industrial Ave, Hoppers Crossing 9360 9666 29 years manufacturing parts for Ford, Holden.

The business runs 24 x 5 days per week and employs 45 local staff quality control to standard ts 16949.

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BUSINESS WEST

FFOR OR YOUR DIARY

AUGUST Monday

Tuesday

30 31

What Makes a Successful Family Business.

12.00-12.30pm.

Call Natasha at Collins & Co. 9680 1000 or nr@collinsco.com.au

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

1

Got a business breakfast, workshop, seminar or event coming up in August or September?

Make sure it is listed in Business West’s For Your Diary feature by emailing www. businesswest.com.au

Western Bulldogs vs North Melbourne.

Round 18. 2.10pm.

Etihad Stadium.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Marketing Fundamentals Emotional Intelligence for Continuous and Leadership Improvement seminar. seminar. Pollard Institute, Pollard Institute, Suite Suite 4a, 60 Keilor 4a, 60 Keilor Park Drive, Park Drive, Keilor East, Keilor East, 9.30am9.30am-midday. $66. Call midday. $66. Call 9336 4079 to book.

9336 4079 to book.

Hobson’s Bay Business Connections Marketing Panel. Altona Sports Club, 11 Altona Rd, Altona, 6pm-9pm. $25.

Contact Vicki Lauder on 9397 7750 to book.

Social responsibility for small business seminar.

Whitten Oval, 417 Barkly St, West Footscray, 5.30pm-7.30pm. Early bird $33, otherwise $38.50. Call Essendon vs Carlton.

0404 577 535 to book. Round 19. 7.40pm. MCG.

Star Women in Business Awards.

Moonee Valley Racing Club, 7pm-midnight. $75 members, $85 non- Western Bulldogs members. Email estella@ vs Adelaide. Round 19. womeninbusiness.org.au 4.10pm. AAMI Stadium.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Wyndham BizNet Monthly meeting.

Werribee Football Club, 6.30pm-9.30pm. $35 members, $45 nonmembers. Guest speaker Kim McAliney. Go to info@wyndhambiznet. com.au to book.

Personality Styles and Leadership seminar.

Pollard Institute, Suite 4a, 60 Keilor Park Drive, Keilor East, 9.30ammidday. $66. Call 9336 4079 to book.

Manage your time for success seminar. Pollard Institute, Suite 4a, 60 Keilor Park Drive, Keilor East, 9.30am-midday.

Essendon vs $66. Call 9336 4079 Collingwood. to book.

Round 20. 7.40pm. MCG.

Western Bulldogs vs Geelong. Round 20.

7.10pm. Etihad Stadium.

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Ready, Fire, Aim: transform business results seminar.

Yarraville Club, 135 Stephen St, Yarraville, Record keeping workshop. Hobsons Bay 7pm-9pm. WIB member $15, non-member Civic Centre, 115 Civic $20. Email estella@ Parade, Altona, 1pmwomeninbusiness.org.

4.30pm. Free. Call 1300 661 104 to book. au to book.

Customer Focus Essentials seminar.

Pollard Institute, Suite 4a, 60 Keilor Park Drive, Keilor East, 9.30ammidday. $66. Call 9336 4079 to book.

Tax basics seminar.

Wyndham Civic Centre, 45 Princes Highway, Werribee, 10am-1pm.

Western Bulldogs Free. Call vs Sydney. Round 21.

1300 661 104 to book. 7.10pm. SCG.

Essendon vs Brisbane Lions. Round 21. 2.10pm.

Etihad Stadium.

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Supercharge you business success seminar. Collins & Co, 127 Paisley St, Footscray, 5.30pm-9.30pm. $50.

Call 0408 902 909 to book.

Kick-start marketing for start-up businesses seminar. Gannawarra Centre, 132 Keilor Road, North Essendon, 7pm9pm. $15 WIB members, $20 non-members.

To book, email estella@ womeninbusiness. org.au

Wyndham Business Awards. Wyndham Leisure and Events Centre, Derrimut Rd, Hoppers Crossing. For more Essendon vs Western information go to www. Bulldogs. Round 22. wyndham.vic.gov.au 7.10pm. Etihad Stadium

BUSINESS WEST

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