Adèle McLay Adele McLay Interviews Archives - Page 5 of 5

Bice Awan
Social Entrepreneur, CEO – Skylight Trust (up to Dec-14)

Skylight Trust, a non-governmental social enterprise, was established in 1997 in Wellington, New Zealand after key community leaders identified a lack of local and national resources to support children and adults who were experiencing stress, grief and trauma. Bice, who has a significant international health consulting background, took up the role of chief executive, and spearheaded the development of Skylight, which today is a leader in providing support and resources in New Zealand and across the world to people in desperate circumstances.

Bice started the Trust as a ‘one-woman-band’ and has grown it significantly on the back of a strong vision. Not without its own business challenges, even today, Bice notes, “that the Skylight Trust is still moving along the social enterprise continuum from dependency to total financial independence.” “Social enterprise is a philosophy of balancing social missions with revenue generation, but we haven’t got to the stage yet of being fully in that position.” Bice commented that, “it is important never to lose sight of either in managing and growing the enterprise day-to-day.”

To address the issue of financial independence, Bice and her team established a publishing arm to the enterprise, and to date have published over 50 resources, which are available for purchase. The resources are of such a high quality and relevancy, that Skylight Trust has won major organisational customers and contracts in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and Saudi Arabia, to name a few countries.

Branding and marketing has played a key role in Skylight’s development. Skylight sees itself as a ‘hope broker’; it can’t fix somebody’s trauma, loss or grief, but Skylight can give hope for the future. This message is used strongly as part of its branding and marketing strategies.

On the back of the strong branding and marketing work, which has created significant visibility for Skylight, it enjoys significant repeat business with its customers, many of which are very large organisations seeking a holistic approach to working with grief, stress and trauma in their organisations.

To be successful in developing a social enterprise, Bice believes in:

1) Establishing a board of directors who truly understand the importance of balancing a social mission and financial imperatives.

2) Having working capital available from the beginning, as most enterprises don’t and that is a real commercial challenge.

3) Developing profitable partnerships with other agencies as those associations can be very powerful and provide a way of growing a social enterprise in the early years.

Adèle’s Note:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Bice Awan for my book: BIG Profits – 12 Strategies To Substantially Grow YOUR Business Profits, in which Bice features.

Bice’s vision and drive to make a difference has been the cornerstone of Skylight’s success as a social enterprise in New Zealand and internationally, in the lives of those affected by stress, grief and trauma, and whose voices are often not heard. As a leading Government official said to Bice, “If Skylight didn’t exist, New Zealand would be a very sad place!” As well as being successful in achieving its social mission, Skylight as a business is a success. Recognising the need for financial independence, it has developed significant and profitable revenue streams which, as those continue to grow, will hopefully allow the enterprise to enjoy absolute financial security. Bice and this enterprise are a true inspiration for business owners and other social enterprise leaders.

You can listen to the original Interview with Bice Awan here:

To connect with Skylight:
W: www.skylight.org.nz

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly into your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

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Andy Harrington
World Leading Public Speaking Expert and Trainer

Some would say that Andy Harrington lives a dream life. With his family he travels the world, speaking on stage with some of the world’s leading business and motivational speakers who have included: Sir Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Tony Robins, and Brendon Burchard, to name a few. Andy is a public speaking entrepreneur, teaching public speaking from the stage, and selling entry to his Public Speakers University courses. He has developed a system that, when applied by his students, means they become expert public speakers.

But it hasn’t always been that easy. Prior to establishing this, his third business, Andy suffered the financial failure of his second business due to a flawed business model. But as Andy says, you have to “lick your wounds and get back into the game”. He returned with a more robust business model for this business, and as a result it has thrived. In establishing his current business, Andy was concerned not to ‘overtrade’ as he has the ability to grow businesses extraordinarily quickly. He has ensured this business growth is measured and has implemented an appropriate infrastructure to support the growth. Key to that infrastructure is a team of skilled staff.

One of the keys to the success of Andy’s public speaking business is personal branding. Careful management of his personal brand has resulted in large promoters who organise international conferences now seeking Andy out and promoting him around the world. As he teaches communications to his audience, Andy has invested heavily in video technology to support the growth of his brand by enabling his audience to watch him via YouTube and to receive free tutoring if they opt-in to his free information. If they are interested, they can then pay to attend his training programmes. To achieve a worldwide audience, Andy has focused on dominating the YouTube categories of ‘public speaking’ and ‘presentation skills’, which gives him a competitive advantage.

Andy has also created modules and systems with his products, so that others on his team can teach the public speaking tools he has developed. Through doing that, he now has a scalable business that can grow without being totally reliant on him. Andy also has a business mentor who helps to flesh out ideas, acts as a sounding board, and challenges him in areas where his skills are weaker in business.

Andy’s three key points for a budding entrepreneur are:

1) To be successful, an entrepreneur needs to specialise and stand out in some way.

2) Build a systematic business right from the very beginning, so that the business is not reliant on the entrepreneur.

3) Build winning teams around the business, advice Andy himself took from Sir Richard Branson.

Over the next six years Andy plans to exit from his business as a regular speaker, only appearing in selected elite events. To achieve that goal he will be focusing on finding and training the best speakers in the world to run the business and to teach the people who enrol on his public speaking training courses.

Adèle’s Note:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy Harrington for my book: BIG Profits – 12 Strategies To Substantially Grow YOUR Business Profits, in which Andy features.

Notwithstanding some early business setbacks, Andy has always wanted to be an entrepreneur, so in establishing his public speaking business he learnt from his earlier mistakes, developed a clear vision and system for teaching public speaking, created a business infrastructure, and used his personal brand to grow his business. Today he is hugely successful, and ‘brand’ Andy Harrington is recognised and followed by vast numbers of people around the world. Andy is a truly inspiring professional speaker and teacher, and successful business man, who has found his niche and is reaping the rewards of his hard work.

You can listen to the original Interview with Andy Harrington here:

To connect with Andy Harrington:
www.andyharrington.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Posts Tagged: Adele McLay Interviews

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Bice Awan

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Andy Harrington