Who is TEO?

Founder's Story

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Karen Howes

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It all started when I reached the end of my rope.

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I had been working in financial planning for five and a half years, in admin to start and the last 3 as a financial planner. For a variety of reasons, that season of my life was coming to a close. I was worn out from trying very hard to master a particular career, all while parenting 2 boys, who were 3 and 1 at the time.

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My husband, Rod, has his own business, and we agreed I would work with him while I looked for my next step. He had me entering bills into the system, reconciling payments in the bank, and driving all over town picking up parts - all tasks I'd done before.

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I’ve had my own business before and had employees to help carry the load. I knew that any work I could do for Rod would give him more billable hours, which would increase his revenue, and we had spoken about how I would replace myself when I had decided on my next career move.

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I realised before the end of my first day that I had underestimated just how helpful I would be. Rod was at the critical point of needing an employee. He’d been considering an apprentice, but having his time freed up proved to be much more valuable, and his extra billable time soon covered more than my wage, and he was able to give himself a payrise as well as establish much-needed provision in the business bank account for things like annual leave and income tax.

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I knew that many small businesses, particularly sole-operators, would love to have access to this service. Many small businesses who really need help don't have access to it. Taking on an employee is a big deal when you consider the cost, responsibility and training, not to mention guaranteeing a minimum 3-hour shift or promising a certain number of hours each week.

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The Experienced Offsider was created to reduce as much burden as possible, so small business owners can get on with growing their business the way they want to, using their strengths. I wanted them to have an avenue to outsource tasks, including those that can't necessarily be completed by a Virtual Assistant.

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From there, the idea developed further, in several directions.

• Business Efficiency. Anyone who's worked for a business can tell you that there are processes that should be added or removed, improved or updated, but this job often isn't prioritised. In small business, being efficient is critical to success, so having an experienced member on the team who can identify the gaps and implement manageable changes is a huge value-add. Plus, having these Standard Operating Procedures written down makes it incredibly easy to grow the team and train additional staff.

• Strategic Planning. Part of the problem with business coaches is some of them want to reinvent who you are and your whole process for doing what you do. That's not practical, it's not respectful, and I wonder whether it works at all. I prefer to respect business owners for who they are and the way they prefer to work. From that foundation, and having a thorough understanding of how the business currently operates, it's a case of realigning with the business' true values, and making sure the ship is being steered in the right direction, to end up at the right destination.

• New Business Mentoring. When you're starting out in business, you need advice and support. There's a lot of information available, but knowing which of it applies to you and having it distilled into a checklist - that's what's going to give your business the head start I wish I had, way back when.

I could keep going - I really do love business and am passionate about helping small business owners succeed.