Archive for the ‘Women in Focus’ Category
Wine or Whine? was first published on Women in Focus.
Women in Focus is a website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, radio broadcaster of Eagle Waves Radio and public speaker, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
Everybody’s business or work environment is complicated, and so it should be. We are complex beings who strive for some kind of perfection and balance that often eludes us yet we concentrate a lot of energy on it. You may assume that everybody else has the answers and you don’t, but the truth is answers are overrated.
I find enormous irony in the fact that a part of my business, a very small part of my business causes me a lot of “whine”. The irony is it’s the wine part of my business.
To Sell Or Not To Sell
While I am licensed to sell alcohol in my café, it’s not a big part of what we do. In fact it probably accounts for only 3% of my beverage sales but it’s the most regulated time consuming red taped part of my business. It needs training, monitoring, knowledge and it needs a care factor far bigger than its sales can justify. I’m sure all of you have some part of your business or work responsibility that has similarities like this, parallel pains I call them.
What’s a Jockey got to do with it? was first published on Women in Focus.
Women in Focus is a website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, radio broadcaster of Eagle Waves Radio and public speaker, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
When I sit down to write this blog each week, it can be a mini time machine experience, a trip down memory lane that uncovers pieces that bring back Ah Ha moments.
I’m learning how much my childhood really did impact the business owner I’ve become today, although since I did grow up in business, it does ask the question where the adult Vs childhood line is drawn. But that may be a bit deeper than where this memory is going.
Early Birds
One of my first babysitters when I was little was a family of jockeys! If I wasn’t with my family I was with them. I remember the very early mornings at the track watching them ride, could be where I developed my “love” of early starts. Looking back now, it must be where I began to think that it was normal for all families to work together, just like mine. This family shared a love for their way of life, for a work they believed in and for conditions that really could break you physically.
Awards vs Rewards was first published on Women in Focus.
Women in Focus is a website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, radio broadcaster of Eagle Waves Radio and public speaker, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
It’s a glow, an inner fire that you can’t hide. It’s like being in love - the world looks different and you float around on air. The moment is sweet and you walk around proud as punch. There’s a strut in your step, there a twinkle in your eye. People know, they just know, that things have changed for you. Ah, I remember it well. And the winner is……
I call myself lucky - and life coaches get all in my face about it, that I have won several awards. People think that because I use the words “lucky” I don’t feel I deserve it. That’s wrong, very very wrong. I just know, perhaps better than most, that there often isn’t much in the point spread of the final winner and the outstanding group of finalists. There can only ever be one winner, last person standing, and that’s that. I’m happy to say I deserve my awards, but I don’t like people to think that the others deserved it less. My drive and circumstance, my journey, got me to the finals. The rest were decisions made by others.
Women and the Land was first published on Women in Focus.
Women in Focus is a website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, radio broadcaster of Eagle Waves Radio and public speaker, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
I’m not a country girl by any stretch of the imagination; although I can sort of milk a goat. You can see that right? Café owner, app developer, radio broadcaster and goat milker apprentice. Both my grandmothers made their living and supported their families from the land, and my mother only has to look at dirt and stuff happens. That gene skipped me but my story starts with them. Life was very different for each of them, yet their goals were the same; food, shelter, clothing. Nothing too fancy, just survival.
Sporting Small Business was first published on Women in Focus.
Women in Focus is a website and initiative by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a place for women to be inspired, informed and connected with other women in business in Australia and around the world. Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO Cafe Group, will be the Guru on the Business Beat section and will be providing weekly articles on all things small business.
I’m not very sporty; I’m unfit, un-coordinated and rather lazy lol. But I love live sports. In fact I can watch anything live – racing, tennis, rugby even golf. There is just something else completely amazing when you are there, absorbing, feeling, cheering, crying. It always gets my adrenaline going, makes me forget about my worries at work. It’s a world where every performance matters every single time and every single minute’s contribution is vital.
Last year I made a decision to allow sport to mix with business- my business. I decided to sponsor a player in the Sydney Kings Basketball Team, No 2 Luke Martin. A must have accessory for any business woman is a lovely young sportsman I have become very pleasantly surprised as to how much I would enjoy becoming a part of an organisation that essentially runs as a small business.