Who Is Adèle McLay?

Wife, Mother, Friend and Family Member; Business Mentor/Coach; Motivational Speaker; Entrepreneur; Author; Property Investor; Ballroom/Latin Dancer; Arts Lover; Foodie/Baker; Worldwide Traveller; Exercise Lover; Bridge Player; Giver… ‘Inspirator, Agitator, Motivator’™ and more…

Born in New Zealand, I graduated with an accounting/finance qualification and I am a Fellow Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Early roles were in banking as an accountant, and later investment banking.

In 1992, my entrepreneurial world began when I established my own consulting business, working with many of New Zealand’s leading corporates including Fonterra Co-operative Group, Telecom New Zealand, Carter Holt Harvey, Bank of New Zealand, Westpac New Zealand, and public sector entities and charities by supporting them to create business efficiency and enhanced profitability through people.

At its peak, I employed 20 staff across two offices in New Zealand’s two biggest cities – Auckland and Wellington.

Was the entrepreneurial journey easy? No. Was it challenging and rewarding? Yes. There were many hurdles, including:

• Not having enough clients at times. Winning and losing clients was an ongoing business challenge.
• Having too many clients at other times, and ensuring the quality of work delivered by my team was consistently exceptional.
• Feeling like the universe was against me, as at many month-ends there was not enough cash to pay all the staff, overheads and ME!
• Learning how to brand the business and me as the leader, so that we stood out in our market. This is something we did really effectively as the business won many exclusive client contracts, and personally I was very well known in business as the person behind the brand.
• Developing marketing strategies within the business that stood us apart from competitors, and that got noticed by potential and existing clients.
• Teaching consultants how to ‘sell’ the business and themselves to potential clients. This was an ongoing challenge given that many people don’t like the idea of selling. Instead we focused on building relationships with our audience who later become clients.
• Developing systems and processes to streamline the business so it operated effectively without me.
  Learning leadership and management skills as I was young when I become an entrepreneur, and hadn’t previously led and managed staff.
• Recruiting great staff who engaged with the business’s vision and delivered on it in their roles….

…. and on it went.

The challenges were endless. but the rewards were good. I paid myself well; I travelled the world during my holidays; I had a sports car; I owned property; I had a great life. My business was successful despite the roller coaster ride. I learnt a lot as a young entrepreneur, and personally I achieved something else by being an entrepreneur…. Something I didn’t expect to get from entrepreneurship.

You see, on Tuesday, 12 February 2002, I was the woman entrepreneur who was still at her desk working at 8pm the night before she was due to give birth by ‘C’ section the following morning at 6am. I was the woman who told her staff not to let clients know that the baby was being born, as we were too busy at work with fantastic client work. I didn’t want to personally let any clients down by taking time off with the baby, so I was back at work the following Monday after our baby was born. I was the woman who worked 12 hour days starting one week after our baby was born. My husband became the ‘house husband’ and brought our brand new daughter to work for me to breast feed until that option didn’t work for us anymore and she preferred the bottle.

The ultimate ‘career’ woman!?!?

Then something snapped.

Five months after giving birth to our daughter, I walked into a planning meeting where my team were waiting to strategise the upcoming year for the company. Instead, I told them that in one month, I was making them all redundant! I had made the decision to close the company in order to spend time at home with our baby. The silence was deafening and terrifying!

After they got over the shock, my team was incredibly supportive and they helped me wind down 10 years of being an entrepreneur. While doing that, they all got great new jobs elsewhere. It was a win/win for all.

Becoming a mother was one of those moments in time where life changed. I went from being the ultimate career woman who was balancing her entrepreneurial life, directorships, charity work, lifestyle and more….to wanting to be at home for a while as a mother.

So what else did I get by being a successful entrepreneur? I got CHOICE! I got the opportunity to make decisions about my business that suited the change in my lifestyle.

Often I am asked why I didn’t sell the business. This was because a buyer would have expected me to stay with the company for a further two years in an ‘earn out’ situation, so I would not have achieved my goal of being at home for a while.

Why didn’t I put managers in to run the business? I did have managers, but again I had a choice. I was tired of being in the industry and wanted a career change, and expected that I would continue being tied to the business and industry if I left it to managers to run.

I am really happy with the decision I made. I got THE most amazing time at home with my six month old daughter. Plus, I continued doing part-time consulting when it suited. I remained a director of various companies….and I had a great lifestyle.

During that time, I also became a property entrepreneur, which I continue to be to this day, as I own a property portfolio in New Zealand and Great Britain that we manage from our London base.

In the intervening period from having a brand new baby to her now being a teenager, I have continued to work. I have consulted to large and small businesses in New Zealand and Great Britain, supporting them to achieve the success that they are seeking. If you are interested, my LinkedIn profile details that experience.

I have taken all my career experiences and I now support entrepreneurs across the world to become Mega Entrepreneurs….according to how they define their success. For me, being a Mega Entrepreneur means being: highly performing; world class; financially successful; trusted; generous.

My entrepreneurial journey will continue in another form shortly. As of December 2014, I am exploring new business ventures that will unfold during 2015 and beyond.

Adèle x

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