S2 E5. Breaking the Franchise: The Entrepreneur's Journey with Laurie Alonzo

What does it take to build a business in a highly regulated sector like aged care and disability support? In this episode of Origin to Ambition, host Sean Dunne sits down with Laurie Alonzo, the founder and owner of Smarter Connections.

Laurie shares her journey from a background in health insurance compliance and strata management to stepping into the self-employed world. She discusses her decision to start with a franchise model, the realities of starting from her living room with just two clients, and the determination required to take on a part-time job simply to meet her business's early payroll. Laurie also opens up about her pivotal decision to break away from the franchise to build an independent business aligned with her core values of honesty, trust, and relationship-based service.

With 11 years of experience running Smarter Connections, Laurie provides practical insights on overcoming the temptation to control every task, the transferable skills gained from coaching team sports, and how to diversify a business through complementary service lines without losing focus on your core mission.

Connect with our guest, Laurie Alonzo:

Website: smarterconnections.com.au

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• [00:02] – Introduction and Laurie’s background in health insurance compliance and strata management.
• [01:25] – What Smarter Connections does in the aged care, NDIS, TAC, and WorkCover sectors.
• [02:19] – The catalyst for starting: Experiencing a lack of services for her grandmother and exploring a franchise model.
• [07:04] – The reality of the early days: Launching from a living room and taking a part-time job to support early payroll.
• [12:21] – Reframing networking and sales as "customer service" to match a process-oriented personality.
• [16:00] – The decision to leave the franchise model and go independent during COVID-19.
• [21:36] – "Knowing the rules of the game": Accepting that the initial years of business require patience and grit.
• [23:56] – What drives Laurie: People connection, honesty, and resolving complaints by addressing root causes.
• [30:09] – The importance of building an external team of advisors, tax agents, and legal professionals.
• [32:59] – Transferable skills: How playing and coaching team sports (soccer, hockey) translates to managing team dynamics in business.
• [36:44] – Looking ahead: Expanding into direct aged care and partnering with training organizations for qualifications.
• [39:31] – Reclaiming work-life balance, trusting the team, and avoiding founder burnout.
• [46:44] – Is entrepreneurship for everyone? The realities of risk tolerance
• [49:23] – Longevity in business: Being proud of reaching the 11-year milestone and building a stable team in a transient industry.

Key Takeaways from this episode:

1. Accept the Early Hardship: Laurie’s experience highlights the importance of accepting that the early stages of a business require compromise. Taking a part-time job to fund operations allowed her to keep the business viable until it gained traction.
2. Align Diversification with Your Core: When looking at future growth, Laurie focuses on complementary lines of business—such as care training qualifications—rather than being distracted by unrelated opportunities that diluting her focus.
3. Learn to Delegate and Trust: Moving from a "control freak" mindset to empowering staff to make decisions (and mistakes) is essential for preventing founder burnout and allowing the business to scale.
4. The Value of a Team: You cannot run a business in a bubble. Relying on professional advisors—such as tax agents, lawyers, and industry peers—helps you navigate changing compliance landscapes.

Connect with the Host, Sean Dunne:

Website: https://dominiumcapital.com.au/dominium/

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/sean-dunne-76067429

Thank you for tuning in to Origin to Ambition!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It helps us reach more aspiring entrepreneurs just like you. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Sean Dunn, and welcome to Origin to Ambition, The Entrepreneur's Journey. In this podcast, I speak with Lori Alonso, the owner of Smarter Connections, a business which provides in-home care services to patients and clients. Laurie started the business over 11 years ago. It's a very successful business. And as you'll see, she's very modest, and I actually really appreciate her making the time to come on the podcast for me. She's got some great stories and there's some really great lessons in the way she approaches business. And I think that anyone who's in small business or is an entrepreneur can really take some really good nuggets away from this episode. So I invite you to sit back and enjoy this episode of Origin to Ambition. Welcome to Origin to Ambition, the show where we explore the small business entrepreneurs' journey in business. I'm your host, Sean Dunn. Let's get into it. Laurie Alonso, thank you for being on Origin to Ambition.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I appreciate the time and appreciate you agreeing to do this with me today. And I'm really looking forward to our chat. So I'm going to dive straight into it. Can you take us through a little bit of your background before starting the business and sort of your origins?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yep, absolutely. I came from a health insurance background. So starting in customer service roles, worked my way up into a management role, which also entailed a little bit of sales, and so a bit of background in sales there. And then from there I moved into a risk and compliance role, still in health insurance, highly regulated industry. So, and then from there I went to a strata management company doing a mixture of all of that. So staff management and facility management, and then into again business development and also covering off compliance. So yeah. Big role.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Now I didn't know that about you. You'd done a fair bit of compliance work.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yes. Yes. So I really enjoy that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. That's starting to make a bit of sense. So can you tell us about your business now and what your business does?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yes. So we work in the aged care and disability sector. We work in the home. So basically, my staff and my team go out and service community access, personal care, so you're showering and all that for clients that are under aged care funding, TAC, work cover, and the NDIS.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And of course, the business is called Smarter Connections.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

The business is called Smarter, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

We should get that in there. No worries. So what inspired you to go into business and, you know, therefore become an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I don't see myself as an entrepreneur. I didn't even see myself being in business for myself. There was a little bit going on in my life at the time. So I'm originally from New Zealand. We'd gone back. I'd seen the sort of decline of my grandmother. There weren't many services available. I was at a crossroads in my own sort of career path, what I wanted to do. I took some time off from work. And then when I was looking to come back in, I was like, what's next? When I was looking for jobs, I really didn't feel that there were things there for me. And again, I was more interested in the compliance and risk roles. And something came across the screen around a franchise model for aged care and disability. So I explored that. And from those sort of, you know, the initial uh conversations, I ended up buying into a franchise.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

So that's an interesting point because often when I talk to my guests on this podcast, not everyone, but many of them, and it sounds you're a little bit the same, sort of almost fall into be so I know it's interesting you say you don't see yourself as an entrepreneur, but the reality is you've taken, and I'll let you speak about this because you know more about it than me, but you've taken quite a risk to start and run a business.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, so so that's almost the definition of entrepreneurship, right? So it's interesting, back to my original thought, is that a lot of people I speak to sort of fell into becoming a business owner or fell into entrepreneurship. And would you say that sounds like it's fair for to say the same about you?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I absolutely fell into it. I did not ever think that I would become a business owner. The thought of it even back then was like this is scary, and it's the franchise model because I thought, well, I've got support. And even to this day, I do not see myself. I see someone as an entrepreneur, they come up with these brilliant ideas and off they go off running. You know, you hear about startup businesses and things, and you're like, oh, people are so smart. Um I don't see myself as that. Again, I'll go back to my roots. I'm task and process oriented. I, you know, I'm pretty much a customer service person. You know, I'm there to fill a gap. So I see that as my role in this business. I yeah, I just don't see myself as being the risk taker. But yeah, I get it. I understand what you're saying, but I just don't I like I said, yeah, I did fall into it.

unknown 5:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, well, that's an interesting point because uh this is not about me, it's about uh my guests. But having worked with a number of small business operators and owners, when a new client comes to me, probably one of the weaknesses is that they love what they do, but they don't actually have some of those things down, Pat, that you're talking about. So, you know, systems, processes, customer service. I I think most people who love what they do try to have good customer service, but you know, just naturally, I guess. But yeah, a lot of those things are missing. So it's an interesting thing that you say that, you know, these people come up with this new idea. And that's that kind of entrepreneur founder type model, I suppose, you know. But those are your strengths, though, clearly, that you use to make sure the business is successful.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yes. So I do fall back onto that. That's that's what I know. So even when things are going wrong, which inevitably they do, I'll go back to, well, how do I make this right? What do I need to fix? So I go into solutions mode.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Yeah, very good. That's such a vital business skill for people to think about when they're trying to man, and look, people listening who might be running a small business and thinking about, oh yeah, maybe I do need to get my systems and processes going. So it's a good thought provoker. So when you first started the business and you did say that you went into a franchise model, I want to ask you about how the early days of starting a business were for you. Like what was that experience like when you first started?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Challenging. Challenging because as much as you think that you can prepare, there's going to be something that's thrown at you, and you just need to be flexible and adaptable and really sometimes it gets overwhelming, but being able to pair that back and I guess work through it logically. I started, it was on my own, and yes, I had the franchise model, but literally I was given a USB of information, but I had to build everything for myself, the team, you know, even having the right systems in place. And luckily enough, I do have some skills on the computer, so yeah, so I wasn't quite prepared for the lack of information, I guess, or the lack of structure I was expecting within that model.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

So just to give you some context, I started in the lounge room of my family home. I was answering phones, I was trying to hire people, I was trying to get clients. I literally had two clients that I was servicing and still answering the phone whilst I was there. Not great. And then I was able to second my sister to help me. And then, you know, I'm looking sort of six to six months in, I ended up taking a part-time role because there was no money coming in, but I needed to sort of make payroll. So I took a part-time role to be able to sort of support that, and that's okay. It you know, you do what you need to do.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I think that's really interesting. When you took that part-time role, what was your mindset, you know, around I know you're saying, well, I had to make payroll, so I, you know, I had to find some more money, right? But how were you feeling at that time about being self-employed?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I was still hopeful. I'll be honest. I was still hopeful that this was the right move. I did believe in myself that it would work. I wasn't expecting that it was going to be successful from the start. I knew it was gonna take some hard work. So I was just gonna persevere and and I all I thought was just get to that two-year mark. You know, you hear this magical two-year mark, just get to there and reevaluate. But I'm going to work as hard as I can.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

So, what you were just talking about there, that you had a belief that this was going to work. I do want to circle back to your comment around the two-year mark, but um, it sounds to me like you had that belief. Like, well, this is going to work. I've just got to get to two years.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Correct. Correct. I could see that what I was doing, even the franchise model, even though it didn't quite suit me, I did feel that there was value in what we were giving to the clients. And I did feel that I could contribute in that way.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

That's why I find it interesting because I think the temptation for some people would be to say, you know, this is too hard. It's just easy to go back and get a job. And that's okay. I'm not saying that from a judgmental perspective whatsoever. But yeah, that's why I asked that question around how did you feel? And and you had a belief, like you were like, Well, I'm just going to get this job just basically so I can keep things ticking over and keep all the plates spinning effectively, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:41

And nothing like a little bit of stress in the mix. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Well, that's that's running a small business, isn't it? It's especially early days. Especially early days.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

And so, of course, you were doing everything.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I was. So I was, you know, hiring, I was payroll, I was yeah, pretty much everything. I was going out and still doing jobs, building clients and networking. Not my favourite thing, I'll be honest. That's probably the worst part of my job is networking. Um, but I've always approached it from little way that it's not networking, it is customer service. That's how I reconcile it in my brain. You're just providing a service and just go for it.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

I find that interesting because I anyone who knows me knows that I don't like it networking, basically. No, it's not my thing. And I think that stems from, again, not trying to talk about me. I think as a child I was incredibly shy. So I think still deep down I've had to learn to be, you know, more open or have more of a personality, maybe. So networking's not my natural environment to go-to-a networking thing, if that makes sense. Whereas I find I do network, but probably more from social settings, if that makes sense. Like I don't actively go out seeking business from people, but I find I like to be around people, but I just don't like forcing that networking. And I want to talk about that with you a bit more because you've just said to yourself, you don't like it. It's not your thing. But I'm interested in that, how you've tried to flip that.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Well, like I said, I just reconcile it as with customer service. So what gaps am I trying to fill? Why am I needing to talk to you? And then it becomes about service and what I can provide versus here's a product, buy it from me. So, like I said, that's how I reconcile it. I'm not someone who wants to go out and spruke myself. I try and allow people to get to know me. So I'll be open and honest in a one-on-one setting. Our business, we've got a website, very, very basic. We don't have socials. Our business is basically referral, and that comes through building relationships. And I'm happy to build relationships and I build that on trust and honesty. I just feel that, you know, even when things have gone wrong, acknowledge and, you know, obviously resolve. However, you know, I'm not just going to shy away from it. So again, it all comes back down to how do I service what's happened. Yeah, but if you were to put me in front and say, sell this product, that's not me. I can't even tell myself. I'm yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah. Yeah. But no, because I sort of had to wrangle you to can't even come on this podcast. So I know that. I absolutely know. That's really interesting. I was gonna ask you about what was the breakthrough moment in starting your business where you were like, yeah, this is happening, this is really working. Yeah, what was your breakthrough moment? And I wanted to sort of tie that into your comment around that two-year mark. Were they sort of closely related?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Not really. I just know that, you know, when people are talking about whether businesses succeed or fail, it's that two-year magical number. I'm not sure how true that is. But when I was new to this and I'm just like, just get to the two years and re-evaluate. Now, and saying that I was in a five-year contract with the franchise, but I pretty much knew within the first six months this franchise was not going to support me. And I don't want to be too negative because it absolutely caused, you know, it was the foundation of where I am today. So I just knew it wasn't going to work for me in terms of the way I work and the way I operate. So identifying that early, and don't get me wrong, I contributed. I was like, we need to do this, we need to do this. Those ideas weren't always met with positivity, but I knew that to be successful things had to change. So again.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Sorry to cut in there, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

So that was a breakthrough.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Like this is where I sort of knew if I want to make a change, if I want this to be successful, I'm gonna have to go to saloon. I'm going to absolutely have to research and lean on my contacts to ensure that I could move myself forward, the business forward.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, and so m having made that decision, I don't imagine I I don't know this story, I'm on a uh genuine question. That would have been difficult, I would presume, to break from the franchise.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

It definitely was, because it it was also the time of COVID. So yeah, there were obviously ramifications with my business's decision to leave the franchise. I won't go into that, but uh typically, you know, you could uh sort of see where that went.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

We'll say they we'll say that they weren't happy.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, so we'll leave it at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you knew in yourself I've got to do this. Correct. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

And I could do this.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, that's interesting as well. Did you get to that two-year mark? Like, was that a thing for you or not? It was just a thing that you'd heard and thought if I just get past it, I'll probably be okay. Or did you get sort of around that two-year mark and think, oh, geez, that's been hard, but I'm I can see the results, or was it a different time or I honestly didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

I can't tell you whether it was at the two-year mark or before the two-year mark. I do know that pretty early on the actual model wasn't going to work for me, but the business idea could. And I could start to see where the success was going to come from. You know, obviously I'm in a room of colleagues who are all in the same model, and I could already see that my business at that point was growing. And the trajectory from there was going to, yeah, only improve. So I think that was pretty early on that I knew if I just continue on, it was going to be successful.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

That two-year mark, I think, is a real it happened to me about two and a half years in, where I was I had two very small children with my wife, and I was sort of thinking at one point, uh, you know, this is really hard. I'm off, I think I can I think I can make this work, but I've got two little kids and we need an income. And yeah, so it happened to me about was about two and a half years in, and I've spoken to a lot of other business owners. That two-year mark give or take, there is a moment sometimes where people say, Really? Like, is this why am I doing this? So I think that's a real thing. I think that's a true thing that um, you know, small businesses, if they pass three years there, probably they can go on to be okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

I'm not even sure whether two years comes into it. I think that is more just a round of you know, I was I was in the, you know, looking at ATO stuff, or I was looking at, you know, business Victoria stuff. And yeah. So I think there's, you know, in all those becoming a business owner, there's always those sort of, you know, it is going to be hard. So setting some expectations. So it's probably come from there, but I don't know if it was exactly the two years. I know I did sort of go, okay, this can be done. I can see that it's going to improve. But it was just more that don't give up before that time. That was where my sort of mentality sat. Don't give up, just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Sean Dunn here, and thank you for watching this episode of Origin to Ambition, The Entrepreneur's Journey. I'm a financial advisor who specialises in working with small business entrepreneurs and high-income earning executives. We analyse cash flow, build assets, and protect those assets to help our clients do what they want, when they want, with the people that they want to do it with. So if that's of interest to you, head over to our website and book an initial discovery call, and I'd look forward to speaking with you. I really like that. There's interestingly, I having spoken to a number of people on this podcast, I have this idea around, and I've written about this, where high performance people, and I know your thought to that will be is you don't see yourself as high performance or an entrepreneur or whatever. I know that's how you think, but what all of the entrepreneurs I've spoken to have an understanding of what I call the rules of the game. So when they get into it, they they understand what the rules are and what's going to happen. And one of those rules of the game is that it's going to be very tough very early. And you actually just said that without, I mean, I didn't prompt that from you at all, that you just said, you know, you did your research. In my mind, that's understanding the rules of the game before you start. And you said, okay, I've accepted that the first two years is going to be really tough, and I'm going to play by the rules of this game. So is that fair to say that that's that's what you've done? You've Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, you wrapped that up nicely there.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

I've absolutely, again, it's not about me. I've written about it, and I've only written about it because talking to people like you who often say things like that, you know, that I understand what I'm getting into. It's not going to be easy. And that's going to lead me to another question later on. But about it is tough, you know, being self-employed and starting the business. And that and I think people can fail in business for a variety of reasons. I certainly don't say that from a judging perspective. But I think it's hard. Yeah, it is hard. It is hard. And and a whole range of things that potentially are outside of your control can occur as well. I mean, you just touched on COVID and we all know about that. So things can happen that you can't control. But I think if you've gone in knowing the rules and accepting the rules, you have a higher chance of getting through to the other side.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah, good. Good, good. All right. Well, one of the things I was going to ask you about is, and you did touch on this earlier, but what drives you at smarter connections to do what you do every day? What's your motivator?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I can definitely say I'm not money driven. Uh it's always been about the people connection. And I have found that the longer I've been in this business, I now feel I have a responsibility to not only my clients, but also myself. I have a pretty great team. So just knowing there's that human element for me is probably one of my main drivers. I don't want to let people down. So that's what it makes me get up in the morning. You know, why am I here doing this? Because I know there are people out there in the world struggling. So what can I do to help make a more positive impact on their lives? So that's sort of where I, you know, get up and go in the morning. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

I love that because that kind of mindset is like, you know, financial success comes almost as a consequence, you know, sort of thing, like as in you don't sort of get out of bed and say, Okay, how much money can I make today? But it's like, okay, who can I help today? And then financially just follows. Like it's just a you know Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

There are times where it doesn't make financial sense to do uh some of the decisions that we have to make. It doesn't, but we make them anyway, to make sure that people have service.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

So Yeah, good. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. And I'm just remembering back to something you said, so the values. So I think this is really important for small business owners and entrepreneurs. What values do you think are the most important in, you know, running a business and looking after customers and looking after staff, your own staff?

SPEAKER_01 21:20

I would say top of the pile there would be honesty. If you are honest in your transactions, if you are honest with your dealings with people, it'll come back. It'll come back to you. Now I'm a big believer in, you know, complaints are an opportunity. So if something's gone wrong, I want to hear about it. I can't fix it, you know, and I'm not talking about just the one off fixes with just that client. If it's something I need to, you know, in the system or the process or the team member. I need to be able to go back and look at the root cause and be able to, you know, honestly give it a good once over and make sure that we're doing the right thing. So yeah, I would hope that, you know, people deal with me in an honest way and I will deal with them an honest way. So I'll put honesty right up there, transparency. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah, that's fantastic. I couldn't agree more with you. I think it might be sort of self-evident talking to you, but just take me through, you know, what impact do you see on the community, you know, from your business? And maybe it's a little bit self-evident through the things you've just already said on this podcast. But you know, maybe we approach that question from, you know, what would it be like without your business, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Oh look, I think, you know, we're definitely not unique in our business offering. There's plenty of people out there. But unfortunately, in the media, you get a lot of beat up about the cowboys out there that are doing the wrong thing. But there are a lot of people, a lot of businesses, all doing the right thing. You know, you don't always hear about that. But for myself, I would hope that we're providing a service to our community. And if we're not, then we need to know about it. You know, and I would hope it, yeah, the positive impact. And if we're not, that's where I want to know about it so we can fix it. But that's yeah, I do think it's really crucial that we have the service, or not my only my service, but a lot of these services out there. You know, I don't get into politics, but you know, you hear all about the you know, the NDIS costing a lot of money and whatnot. But I think it is a crucial service. I think our aged care is failing us. I see a lot of gaps in the aged care. And, you know, these are people who have throughout their lives and now they're not being supported by us. So yeah, look, I would hope to say that we were impacting in a positive way.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Absolutely. Absolutely. I guess I was sort of approaching that question a little bit like, I'd hate to think what would happen if your business wasn't providing the service, if you know what I mean. And I know you're saying it's not just your business, it's others in your industry or your service. But, you know, that's where I was approaching it, I suppose, was to say, I'd hate to think what would happen if it wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, there's already some gaps as it is. So I would hate to see what it would look like if we weren't here. Because families are unable to cope now, you know, and you take away services like ours, families would be in more dire straits.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah, yeah. It's an important service. It's absolutely critical. I mean, you know, we've personally seen family members have to lean into these services. So, you know, I yeah, I absolutely believe that. What's the biggest lesson you've learned? Just as an entrepreneur, I know you I know you still want to get your head around being an entrepreneur, but what's the biggest lesson you've learned in running a business, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 24:44

I would have to say you can't do it alone. You really can't do it alone. You must lean on the advice of consultants, you know, whether that's tax agents or financial planners, lawyers, but also within the industry, just colleagues. So I'll flick back to I don't like networking, but I absolutely will reach out to colleagues in the industry. Are you experiencing this? What's happening here? What are you doing? And I've had the same people have approached me in that same manner. You know, uh sharing knowledge is really, really important and not being afraid to ask questions. And yeah, like I said, seeking help where you need it.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

In a way, I often talk about building a team. So when you're running a business, you need a team, and you've sort of touched on it financial advisor, tax agent, lawyer, peers, you know, your peer group. Do you feel that you did that from the start of the business, or is there something you wish you had have done at the start of the business that maybe you didn't do and you might have implemented sooner or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

I I did that pretty early on because how else do I do my research? How else do I know? No, I didn't walk into this knowing everything. I can't say that I know everything now. You're always learning, the rules are always changing. I just make sure that I'm across it, I understand it. And if I don't understand it, I get help. So yeah, you do absolutely need a team around you to support and work your way through things.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yeah. So would your advice be to other people? Maybe there's people listening to this that are thinking about starting, they're not even there yet. They're sort of thinking about starting a business. You sound like you did build your team pretty quickly, pretty early. And I wonder whether that's because you've come from a team-based environment. That'd be fair to say you worked in teams.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

I've always worked in teams, yes, but also from a sporting background as well. I'm not into individual sports. It's all about being team. I've coached, I'm on committees. So it's always been about, I guess what I said before, sharing the knowledge, leaning on the people with knowledge. Yeah. So yeah, definitely team-based, team line, Jay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

What's your just let our listeners know, what's your uh sport of choice?

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Oh, look, I prefer football, so soccer. Uh but I play hockey and I used to play squash, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah, this is interesting because a lot of the people that have also been on this podcast have come from sporting backgrounds or coaching backgrounds and have also been in business. And so I'm glad I just uncovered this little nugget because I want to explore that a little bit further with you. Do you feel yourself that there is a significant crossover? And I don't mean that you have to have done this, but I wonder whether it's helpful that if you have been in a sporting team environment and played at some sort of level, like it don't I don't mean you've got to have to have played for your country necessarily or anything like that, but you know, you've played at a competitive level, uh maybe coached at a competitive sort of level, the crossover between that and business.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I can only speak from my own experience. I do think that it's helped me. You know, obviously the the skills that you learn and and being able to talk to different audiences, it really, really helps. But also the style of how you or even just the emotional intelligence, I guess, you know, I've coached kids and I've coached adults. I've coached boys and I've coached girls, and they're all different on how you approach them. And then obviously, when you're coaching kids, you've got to manage parents. So you also have that dynamic. But I do feel that it probably is a way to be that sort of adaptable and flexible in in how you approach things. And then obviously being a player in that environment and being coached, what you like and don't like, do you need to manage up, manage down? So it gives you access to all these connections, I guess. That would definitely be beneficial in business. I'm not saying that you need it in business. It's just work.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah. It's worked for me because that's my experience.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Yeah. So but they're transferable skills.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yes, they are.

unknown 28:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Yeah, yeah. So personally, do you feel that when you're running your business, do you recognise in yourself that sometimes you you are in coaching mode, you know, like to a large extent, or do you recognise that you do that or it's just natural?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Oh no, I recognise that I do it because what works for one doesn't always work for the other. So I recognise that I do have to change my approach sometimes. Yeah, you know, you can show them everything, but some of them need different guidance, different coaching methods. So yeah, no, I understand that. I recognise it.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah, excellent. I'm glad I found that little piece there to go into. Coaching in sport translates into being able to coach in a business. But I do see it uh quite a bit with people I speak with, a sporting connection that is transferable, I guess, to leadership type traits.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Yes, is the answer.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah, absolutely. Where do you see where do you see smarter connections in say five or ten years? Maureen?

SPEAKER_01 29:52

I don't know if it'll be the same offering we have now. I am looking at expanding into aged care. I I have seen that there's quite a huge gap, as I mentioned before, in the services. So I never really focused on aged care because we were an aged care provider or service provider working with other aged care providers. So that seems to have changed in the last few years. The rules, as I said, are changing all the time. So we're looking to expand into that. And then I'm always looking for ways to diversify but complement my current business. So one of the other things I was sort of looking at was potentially partnering with a training organization to then offer certificates and qualifications in aged care and disability. So yeah, just being able to sort of look at my business, diversify it a little bit without compromising the integrity of what we're already doing.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

That's gold. Anyone to think I've uh asked you to give almost perfect answers here, Laurie. So no, uh why I say this is again, I think one of the errors, and I'm not trying to nitpick people or anything, one of the errors that can occur in small business is that uh small business owners can sometimes actually become distracted by the next new idea or the next new potential opportunity, but it doesn't complement their skill set or complement their current core offer. So the threat then becomes that it becomes a distraction and that your actual business that actually generates the revenue for you, you and your family, starts to become neglected or starts to fall away a bit while we're chasing sort of the bright new shiny thing over their type mindset. And you've just articulated it perfectly around because I think being a financial advisor, I'm pro-diversification. And I think you should diversify if you can, absolutely. But you've just hit it on the head about sort of complementary business lines to diversify your core offer. And that's gold. Yeah. No, I think that's a real lesson for anyone thinking about running their business or starting a business. And I think that's a genuine lesson in that. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

How do you balance your business with your personal life?

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Well, in the early years I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

No. Fair enough. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

And that was because I obviously the mindset there was, you know, just keep going, just keep going. The lesson I've learned from that is you're going to burn out and you really need to take a step back and you really need to trust. I was always, and and look, I've been given this advice in my previous roles where I I can't put people in my shoes. So that I can't expect them to be me. And I need to take that expectation off people when I'm empowering them to be leaders. So I've always carried that through. And so now I needed to put that on myself as well. And so you just need to stop and relax a little bit and allow people to grow into those roles. It might not be the way I do it, but I guess allow them to grow. And in that, I've then learned that I need to set up boundaries. Does that work a hundred percent of the time? No, because it's my business and the buck stops with me. So yes, there are going to be times where I will step in. But in terms of boundaries, one of the things I thought was, no, you need to work Monday to Friday. Stop working all the extra hours. Stop working the 12-hour days. Yes. And if I'm not available, I'm not available.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

So yeah, I've tried to live by that mantra for the last uh probably two, three years. Again, trusting the team that I've put in.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Allowing them to make decisions on my behalf and I will back them. But those boundaries, yeah, I needed to set those. I'll be honest, it wasn't from the start.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

So No, absolutely. And I think that's normal too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

That was the one thing I probably would have liked to have done that a little bit earlier. But my own personality got in the way there because I'm a bit of a control freak. Uh, and I like things done as such.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Is that the trust piece you're talking about? Like, you know, it's trust in a different way, I suppose. Or it's not that you don't trust your staff. I'm not suggesting that. But it's hard to let go and absolutely have the faith to let them do a type thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

It yeah, it's a hard one. You're right. It's not that I don't trust them. It's more I don't trust myself to allow them to grow, to allow them to make mistakes. And it's taken a while to get there. So and and now one of the first things I say is, I look, one of my ladies who's worked in my office has left after eight and a half years. And so I'm in the middle of training someone now, and one of the first things I said to her was, if I am too much, tell me I'm too much because I don't know that I'm being too much. So I would rather you just say, Stop, and uh allow me to make these mistakes. Um I said, because I want you to make mistakes because you'll learn faster. So I've had recognize that in myself that I need that somebody to tell me.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

So I've said this a number of times on this podcast because one of our favourite sayings in our household is you're winning or you're learning. And it sounds like, you know, that kind of feeds into making mistakes means you're learning. And you you probably learn faster, as you just said. So it's having that faith to allow people to make the mistake, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah. But I've had to get myself there that nothing can happen.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

But that's probably where I was coming from. So that I have to trust my own instincts. Yeah. If that makes sense. That if I put in the right people, things are gonna go wrong, and that's okay, but they can fix it, or I can fix it, or if it's not fixable, that's okay. We'll learn from it.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

That's goal. If you were to give one piece of advice, so someone listening now who's thinking, Oh, I want to start this business, and they've got an idea or they've got a a plan on if you could crystallise it into one piece of advice, what would you give? What advice would you give to that person thinking about starting a small business?

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Do your research. Be prepared to work hard. Be prepared to adapt.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

So research, work hard, be adaptable. Excellent. That's right. I hope people listening have got their pens and papers out and wrote that down. Because I think they are very key skills that you need when you start a new business. I love it. I love it. Uh this probably half answers that question, but is there a mindset that you start with? Not you, but if you're talking to that person. Now you maybe we've sort of half answered that question by talking about, you know, work hard, you know, do your research and be adaptable. But what sort of mindset do you think is critical?

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Experience. I'm just gonna say that being open and being, I guess, listening. You need to listen because there are people that have been here before. So don't think that you know it all. You don't. Because something's gonna come at you, right? And you just and the rules, like I said, we said earlier, the rules are always changing. It doesn't matter what industry, you know, there's always rules around hiring and firing of staff, there's work health and safety rules, there's industry rules, there's codes of conduct, you know, making sure that you your intent to fulfill your obligations is is there. Yeah, it won't be perfect to start with, but the intent needs to be there that you're going to comply. So learning listening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Don't reinvent the wheel all the time.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Correct.

unknown 37:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Correct. Yeah. All right, I always ask every guest this question. Laurie, we're coming to the end. So I always I always ask this question towards the end, which is do you think entrepreneurship is for everybody?

SPEAKER_01 38:07

No. No, it's not. No. As much as I say work hard, you can work hard and still not be successful. I look, I think there's certain types of people that can be really, really successful in business. I don't know what all those traits are, but there are people there that just have no right to be in business. They're there for the wrong reasons. And typically they're in it to oh, I don't really want to say it, but you know, they're there to make money and gas. Um that's not running a business, you know. To me, it's it's about longevity and building something, yeah, long term. Not sure if that's a hundred percent the what you're looking for, but no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

I'm not looking, I'm looking for your thoughts. I've not had one business owner on this podcast say yes to that question, that it's for everyone. Everyone says no. Sometimes I've had one or two of my guests say, you know, but if you really want it, you can maybe learn it. Maybe they've sort of spoken about that. You can learn the mindset and learn the skill set to become an entrepreneur, but you have to want it. So the answer is no, it's not for everyone. And I always say, and that's okay. I always say that that's okay. If entrepreneurship's not for you, that's not a criticism, it's just not for you, and that that's cool. But it's it doesn't change the answer that I get all the time, which is is it for everybody?

SPEAKER_01 39:24

And well, come back to the nuts and bolts of it, it's a risk.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

And not everyone is prepared to take the risk yet.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What are you most proud of if you look back on the journey of smarter connections? What do what do you it might be hard to come down to one thing too, I appreciate that, but if you could sort of say I'm most proud of, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Look, I'd probably say I'm most proud of the journey that I've taken and the team that I've been surrounded by. So not too many people in this industry could say that they've got people that can take long service leave. It's very much a transient industry. It's not built, as I said before, you know, even some of the awards and stuff, they're not built for giving permanent roles out there. It's a lot of it's casual.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

But I'm pretty lucky that I've got staff that have been with me, obviously greater than seven years. I feel quite proud that I've been able to say that I've been in business for 11 years. I didn't really realize that until we had our going away dinner for the staff member who's been with me for eight and a half.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

And reflecting back, I can say that yeah, I'm quite proud of myself for being here and being able to offer even though it's a small family, a small business, we've got something that we can stand up and say, Yeah, we're proud of it.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Laurie, I think that is a fantastic note to end on. I think you absolutely should be congratulated for uh, you know, the building smarter connections the way you have and for being in business for 11 years and many more years to come and the service that you provide to uh the broader community. So I think you should absolutely be congratulated and I thank you genuinely for taking the leap of faith and coming on this podcast for me. So I really appreciate it. And I think anyone in business, uh, not even in business, just anyone listening to this story would have picked up a heap of uh lessons and a heap of nuggets to take away. So I really appreciate your time. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

No, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it too.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

And that's all for this episode of Origin to Ambition. Thanks for tuning in. To make sure you don't miss our next conversation, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen in. For more information, you can visit us at dominiumcapital.com.au, and we'll see you next time.