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.

The GFC has had more casualties than the obvious. It has hit the not for profit / charity world hard as well. The economic crisis that we have been through and are still going through has meant that one of the first places corporations cut back from is donations and sponsorships. This means that NFP have a short fall that in turn will affect a community that has already run out of options and suddenly allies. Small Business has long been active in the community at a grass roots level. No bells & whistles, just real differences that matter more than money.

The very spirit of small business is to find solutions and options that run with a small or non existent budget. It’s never easy, for many of us in small business we are barely keeping our heads above water, let alone having an excess of funds and finding somewhere to park it. We know that it’s a very fine line between the haves and the have nots and that’s why we fight so hard to help in anyway we can. Sometimes it’s the option that’s open to all of us – a cheque, but mostly it’s the one thing that big business can’t even come close to doing; our time.

Strength In Numbers

As a group of people, we are resourceful and often think outside the square, to find solutions to problems that would easily be fixed with a big fat donation, but that’s not always our option.

Small business usually gets involved in communities because of family circumstances or their actual business makes their ability to contribute possible.

I’m sure if we could peak behind the curtain of most not for profits, charities and other such organisations, we wouldn’t find one of ASX top performers. Rather we would find a determined individual who just wants to make a difference and upon seeing the massive need that exists picks up the ball and runs with it.

Of course it’s easy to say we should do something for those who are less fortunate or assist foundations who are fighting diseases that tear people apart. Yet the truth is we are all dealing with our lives that are already challenging enough. But we are exactly the ones who seem to be called upon to fight. And it is a fight, a battle to convince others to lend a hand, businesses to offer of themselves, owners to give a percentage of profits that they need as well. It really is a question of going out on a limb and above our everyday realm.

Ask & You Shall Receive!

As a café owner I get asked to give vouchers and money all the time. Yet I find that incredibly unsatisfying, often almost an insult. One afternoon, a group of people came to me and asked if I would sell them some sausages for a sausage sizzle to raise money for charity. I looked skeptical as to why they wanted them from me and not a butcher, and how they would make money? I’m a business owner, its normal for me to think like that. They were having the BBQ in the CBD and there are no butchers here, none that they knew who would deliver. Ah, that only made me asks more questions.

They had to buy all their ingredients, they couldn’t charge a lot for the sizzle and they had no where to store anything. I couldn’t see a profit, but I could see a loss. I wanted to help but I was worried they would think I wanted to take over, which I didn’t want at all. But I rarely let “feelings” stop me. I organised my butcher to donate the sausages, my baker to donate the rolls, my small goods supplier to hand over the spreads etc and the markets to provide onions. It didn’t cost them a thing except their time to promote and cook. It actually didn’t cost me either. I didn’t spend a cent with the exception that I insisted we all went there for lunch!

It’s About You…

This is just a small example of how we can help in ways that we take for granted. We consider networking a legitimate form of growing our businesses, but do we realise that our networks could also offer connections that would mean a lot to others? None of my suppliers were really out of pocket much at all, yet all of them together made an enormous difference.

I challenge you all to consider ways that we can join together to make a difference, no matter how small. For some it’s just a couple of bottles of tomato sauce, for others about their very life.

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 carry my guilt as an imperfect daughter like a handbag – sometimes I empty it out, mostly I add to it and give myself  permanent neck pain. Some of it I attribute to my Greek culture, some of it to just being a daughter who followed in her mothers footsteps somewhat but never quite gets it right. These are my words not hers.

My mother was a small business owner since before I was born, while I was growing up and eventually we became partners for 15 years until she retired 12 years ago. We share a very unique experience and history, and I think my mother would completely understand if I had this conversation with her, but I won’t. How can I tell her that I may be happy in my business choices, that my career has brought me much satisfaction and fed my soul in ways I never dreamed, but as a daughter I think I leave much to be desired.

Super Heroine

I have this memory of a superwoman / mother / business owner about her. She sacrificed a lot to make a better life for my brother and I. Nothing short of everything. She has supported me, cried with me and wouldn’t even dream of telling me I was wrong. I know it sounds strange, but she wanted me to have what she never had – a mother. As a child – a tiny petite child who was always up for a fight, I punched a girl in the mouth and knocked out her 2 front teeth. Before you all get upset with me, I was 5 and they were baby teeth and loose already. But she called me a *** and in a school where I was literally the only one I knew I had to make a stand.

Anger Management

My mother came to the school and the principal really made a big deal about it. There I was sitting on a chair, my feet not even touching the floor and I was defiant, ready for the mother rage. My mum told the principal to be quiet, asked me why I did it. I told her and she turned to the principal and said “my daughter was defending herself, I’m sorry about the little girls pain but if you cant protect her then she has to look after herself.” She took my hand and we left. Of course I got the hiding of my life later, but she also said to me “don’t let anyone make you believe you are less just because you are not the same, no two people are the same, that’s a beautiful thing. But we don’t hit people for it either. You are just as bad as her, I’m sorry if I showed you to be like that.” And she cried. I was so ashamed. There were going to be many times ahead in my life of similar moments and her words always come back to me.

Especially in business and managing my staff over the years, I always think of her words and really celebrate the uniqueness of my people.

Guilt – Personal Or Business?

So let’s get back to imperfect, the reason for this blog. My mother managed to raise a family, stay married for almost 50 years, run businesses, work 7 days for many years, never resorted to fast food for a meal, never turned me into her house keeper, always had her hair done and somehow still manages to be tougher than all of us – BTW, she is only 5ft. Can you see where I’m going?

I am driven in business; it’s my way of doing things. I focus intensely and my guilt comes from feelings of annoyance when others interrupt that – namely my mother, from what I see as trivial needs. I hate it when she calls me about her oven or washing machine, or complains about dad. I hate me more when I feel this way, especially when I know that if the tables were turned she wouldn’t be like that.

I’m not a good daughter, at least not consistently, and I find that disappointing since my mother is really someone who would understand everything I face. I’m fascinated and heartbroken at the same time, this push pull of mothers & daughters. As a woman she would understand the challenges of gender and as a business owner she gets the stress and risk. I should call her right now and tell her how much I adore her, and thank her for putting up with me for all these years! I’m not perfect, but who is?

Do you have a push pull relationship with your mother or daughter?

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.

Should it really matter how you look or dress at work if your work isn’t fashion related? Why do we make assumptions and characterisations based on what we see others wearing? Can you honestly say you have never done this?

Too many questions?

I have spent most of my life growing up and working in hospitality, not an industry known for its fashion forward dress code. Yet I know I have been and am judged by what I wear, and I do the very same thing to my customers – the more expensive the suit, the smaller the tip.

I like wearing a uniform at work, it saves time and money, and I don’t worry about how I look - only the work that needs to get done. I find it non negotiable to be comfortable in an outfit that is going to be on me for 16 hours, that includes my steel toe cap boots and very thick socks. I can’t do my job in heels or flats; I can’t do my job without my hair up and at least 2 pens in it. I certainly can’t do my job in a fancy suit that restricts my breathing and I would worry about it getting dirty.

It Ain’t Pretty But It Works

For me the experience of fashion and work has been limited around practical and comfortable, until my work began to change. Then I crossed over to the dark side, a place where heels and fitted suits live but don’t breathe, a place where it matters how you look so you can get the job done. And I observe the new behaviour of both myself and those around me.

In the very early years of building my food empire – please note the self directed sarcasm here, one of the businesses I owned was a sandwich shop. I ran a team of 8 but I looked very young, I mean I was very young (22) but I really looked young. I wore the single most unflattering uniform I could have imagined. It was long, white and I had a “cute” apron. Always wore pantyhose and ugly orthotic black shoes. It’s not a look I care to remember, but the uniform was wash and wear – no ironing and very comfortable.

Fashion Police

One day I went to the bank – in uniform, and to cut a long story short the bank got robbed. The teller passed out, the robber ran out and of course I chased him-  I did warn you I was young! I saw him get into a car, saw his friend and then I went back in. The security guard still hadn’t realised what was going on. I tried to tell the manager what I had seen – it was before much security was around in banks, but he looked me up and down and dismissed me. I turned to the security guard and started to tell him but he just opened the door and told me to leave them to it. I wrote down my name and shop number and the number plate of the getaway car, gave the manager the note and left.

Several hours later the police turned up at the shop, asked to see me and hauled me off to the station. The detectives kept asking me what I did for a living every time I kept telling them I was the owner; the uniform seemed to confuse them. At the station was another witness who had been in the bank, she was dressed in a suit and smelled nice. She got a drink and a comfortable chair; I got to sit on a hard bench and was told where the vending machine lived.

Look Both Ways

I got fed up, grabbed pen and paper, wrote down the whole incident including descriptions of the 2 robbers, make, model and rego of car, slammed it on the detective’s desk and walked out. 2 minutes later the detectives came out after me and I was stuck there with mug books all night.

I knew why they didn’t listen or even take me seriously, but I didn’t change my uniform, not in that business anyway. Although I must say that not much has changed except I don’t look so young anymore! When I wear my café uniform and serve customers I get treated very differently than when I wear heels and fitted suits and serve customers. It’s just how it is. Sometimes I have fun with it and sometimes I get cranky, but if a uniform is good enough for my staff then it’s a privilege for me to wear it with them. And so much easier to find at 4.00am!

Do clothes maketh the women? How do you look at what others are wearing?

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.

Don’t you love those ideas that come to you as an epiphany and seem so amazing? They seem clear and strong, quite simple and straight forward. They settle around you like fairy dust and make you have secret smiles, the kind only you can see and feel because you are not ready to share it yet. Then piece by piece it builds in your mind, it makes it to paper, you tell someone and then you have the start of a plan. Uh oh, you now need to put up or shut up. That’s what happened to me 6 months ago.

I have been doing a weekly small business community radio show for the last year. I am pleased to say it has been going well. It certainly isn’t something I planned on doing, but the opportunity came up and I love a challenge….its a flaw I have. Late last year I had an idea - why couldn’t I build my own radio station dedicated to small business? The short answer is I could. The reality of that answer was a whole other universe of challenges.

Business Battle Cry

So I mulled it over, still at the idealistic stage. The voice inside my head was loud and excited - “it’s a great idea, you can have shows that matter to small business, that will help them. You can get amazing guests and really make a difference.” I was all fired up. I don’t know the army mantra but I wanted to push my arm up in the air and yell some kind of battle cry. I started to tell people, and they got excited as well. I was carried away by the wave of support. So I started to plan, for real. On paper real. Business person real. The kind of plan that includes MONEY, otherwise known as reality check!

The big fat elephant in the room of my plan got ignored for as long as I could. Have you heard of “excitement over new project” syndrome? It comes complete with denial and ignorance. I wanted to hang on to that feeling of new idea that just might work for as long as I could. I knew I had some tough questions coming up, I knew that those questions and there answers or lack of answers were going to grow or crush this plan. So why would I rush into that? Alas, that happiness bubble couldn’t last forever.

Online - Real or Not?

So I asked the question - how was I going to make this business model work? How could I take a concept, an idea with no other like it from the mind of a person who had no real experience AT ALL in this area and make it work? I have never built an online business; I’m a café owner, bricks & mortar retailer. The online business world isn’t even real in my mind, I couldn’t see any answers and I was scared. The hard question wasn’t getting resolved and I couldn’t afford expensive hobbies nor justify them to my business partner. I guess I felt I had no right shooting for something I had no business experience in.

So, I was faced with a plan that hit a wall, and an idea that was begging to be delivered. I walked away. I put it on a mental shelf and had to trust that I would find a way to do it if I could find the answer and eliminate the elephant. I did that too. Yep, went on safari and took the sucker down. Sort of anyway.

I came up with the idea of building my studio in my café, of doing live broadcasts from a working café and giving people an experience that might make the “online unreal world” into a tangible experience that would both intrigue and entertain.

Online Beginnings

I don’t have a lot more for you right now, it’s still very new. I am building an online business - it’s very much a business and it has to perform and deliver just like my café. Funnily enough, once I got passed the online issue in my head, I realised how much in common the business of radio and the café business have in common; I have to get income/sales, build my database/customers, deliver a unique product consistently and I have a perishable / live product. No do over.So glad I came up with an idea that is simple and easy - not!

I’m learning a lot, mostly about how much I don’t know and everyday brings its own new challenges. I have always said I wasn’t afraid of hard work, but this online stuff isn’t a walk in the park. At least in my café world I can see my competitors… www.fraserstcreative.com.au made this video capturing 3 days of construction.

Have you had an epiphany, that you haven’t been able to lay to rest - is the idea still sitting dormant, become a reality or in the planning phase - why do you believe the idea is feasible?

www.eaglewavesradio.com.au

A Studio Is Born from Fraser St. Creative on Vimeo.

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.

Let’s start with some big words; cutting edge, innovative, extremely big WOW factor, world first, powerfully creative, world class leader. Did you sit up straighter as you read these words or did you start to feel inferior ever so slightly? What if you are a regular business owner who didn’t re invent the wheel or discover a new strand of DNA? What if your ambitions don’t include world domination, just a good life for you and your family? Where do you sit in this business dominion that seems to rejoice and celebrate you only if they can label you “innovative” and “creative”? Well, you would be sitting with me. Hi. Welcome to my world.

Yes, I wear many business hats, but let’s focus on the big part of my pie – my café. I don’t make or sell anything that you can’t buy anywhere else. We may make an excellent coffee, and a delicious raisin toast but honestly so do many other cafes. Ok, my business ego is screaming right now, but the fact remains my business is not unique, I am not innovative and I don’t care how much marketing or PR you use to dress it up. The fact remains a café is a café and it isn’t rocket science.

Titanic & Small Businesses

It is a huge amount of very very hard work, of long ridiculously stressful days and often unpaid weeks. It’s full of moments that fill you with questions that don’t end with positive answers. Anyone putting their hand up yet? I’m quite sure that there are many of you in the same boat, even if it isn’t a café.

This boat – while not called the Titanic, just happens to be loaded with hard workers dedicated to their business who actually like what they do even if the world doesn’t find them exciting or unique. In my dreams, success never included innovative or creative commentary. It included lots of other things but not that. And I guess I’m annoyed that we “regular folk” seem to be the wall flowers in the business dance.

Remember Us!

I am not diminishing the talent that is obviously part of innovation, and I am very aware that without these talented people technology would still be black & white and none of my devices would exist. I want to ensure that those of us who don’t meet these new world criteria are not thought less of or worse, forgotten. I know it may be a bit of wounded pride, forgive me if it sounds like sour grapes, but it’s not like there are award categories for “been around the longest” or “I’m still standing even after the GFC” and “I’m not the next big thing”.

I am a hard working business owner; I come from a family of them. I am not afraid of working 24 hours straight – been there too many times, and I face a battle everyday. It takes a special spirit to keep going and it takes courage to maintain the spirit. Those qualities don’t come under innovation or creativity. They come under dedicated, driven, focused. They may also come under “medication required” lol. Nevertheless, we are a people who are underrated and under acknowledged. I salute you, every single one of you who keeps our nation going, in spite of what gets thrown at us.

Supply & Demand

To the few who are the innovators – keep it up, you will most likely make my job easier I hope! To the creative’s – I’m impressed with creativity; you make the world look better. But you are the minority, and you need us the majority too. Otherwise where would you get your inspiration from?

For every small business owner, each warrior that you are, every adventure that is your daily routine, rest assured that our extinction is not forthcoming. Innovators & creators need coffee; they need their paper, dry cleaning, bookkeeping, groceries, fruit & vegetables, their grass cut and their car washed. Lucky for them, they have us.

Although you’re business type may not be unique – like me, what makes you stand out from the crowd?

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.

Wine is a category of product we class as a maybe - maybe it’s an influencer in the customer decision process, or maybe the seasonal factor will up sell other items ormaybe we can grow another part of the business. It’s a lot of trouble and responsibility for very small returns and yet I can’t eliminate it because “maybe” it makes the difference. So I choose to whine about it instead.

Since it’s such a small part of my business, I truthfully resent it. A lot. I know I shouldn’t, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have this emotion about a product, but I do. Everything from the sales reps, the courses we have to do, the surveys and not to mention to the legal strangleholds completely and utterly annoy me.

Picking Your Battles

The reps in the wine industry are cut throat. They will do anything to get their foot in the door, including setting you up. I know one rep that brought a group in for lunch, ordered several bottles of wine and then preceded at the register to tell me how ordinary my list was. I know I will never win any awards for our wine list; it’s not what we do. My customers don’t expect it and frankly I don’t want to source that kind of stock. It’s expensive and time consuming. But do I deserve a lecture for it? Is it wrong to know where I could waste my resources and then not do so? Apparently it is based on the time the rep spent telling me so.

And the courses - the Responsible Service Of Alcohol Certification or the Licensee Course are more mind numbing than you can imagine. I took a flask of espresso coffee, two bags of lollies, a chocolate bar, two cans of soft drink and I still fell asleep during it. Oh and when I was awake trying to listen to the lecturer, I wanted to pull my hair out and run screaming from the room. Yep, can’t wait to go back for my re-certification. I would rather have my acrylic nails torn off. Just wanted you to know just how boring it was, as a matter of comparison.

If It’s Not Broken…

Whining about a part of your business that you know you are stuck with but can’t abolish is a very natural process. It gives you an outlet, a place to channel the negativity we sometimes find we carry and occasionally it gives us something to fix…..when we can’t get our hands on something else the fall back position is the culprit you whine about the most.

I don’t want to mislead anyone here, I love my wines. I adore a red as much as a coffee, and when an award winning sommelier decanted a bottle of champagne in front of me to match a pork belly course I almost fainted - at first from the horror and then from the joy of the taste. Wine is a very big part of my social life on occasion, but it also brings the whine factor into my business. It’s funny how I have this love hate relationship with one product.

Do you have a “whine” / “wine” factor in your business?  Take a load off and share it.

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.

When I stayed over on the weekends, we would get up really really early and be at the track around 4am. We would drink hot chocolate and I got to hold the stop watch – only when it wasn’t important lol. I remember asking questions all the time – what makes one horse go faster than the other, who is the best and why? It seems I wanted the answer to the ultimate business proposal – what makes one business better than the other, a long long time before I could even spell the word business.

What If?

I know I would stare really hard at the horses trying to recognise the best one. I would keep looking until my eyes filled with tears, then I would stare at the other jockeys and immediately tell everyone my sitter was the best….Apparently I would insist that I dress like them as well, while other little girls played with dolls… I just wanted a career. We may just have been having another conversation had things gone a little bit different in my life…..

Let’s fast forward to the present. I’m all grown up and you know that I obviously didn’t become a jockey. But I do believe that I breathed in the competitive focus – that and horse presents lol, that’s what I used to call the droppings. I didn’t understand it then but I get it now, those mornings at the track were so intense. People were there to do a job, to perform, to be evaluated and to deliver what was asked. It was a community and at that time of the day, very exclusive. Not a bad business orientation training ground.

My Foot - My Mouth

So I have always had a bit of a soft spot for the races, even though going to them in the day time is a lot more fancy than the morning, I still stare at the horses trying to pick the fastest one! I have been fortunate to score some lovely invites to Spring Carnival and the Golden Slipper, and I have of course carried the small business flag even then. I was sharing a drink with a couple of lovely ladies last year while I was a guest of Myers, and I was really taking a bite out of the CEO of Myers, Bernie Brooks, for some of his retail trading decisions. He walked over to our little group and one of the ladies said “darling, this is Angela; I think she has something she wants to tell you…” It was his wife!

Bernie and I did have a conversation, he was fabulous actually. We chatted while we watched a couple of races, I critiqued his race picks, he lost I won. What can I say; I had an unfair advantage from childhood. He was one of my first radio interviews – his minders told me it wouldn’t happen, but I don’t give up easily.

Small Businesses Rule

All industries have the small business element, regardless how big the $$ are, and the common ingredient is the focus on the work, not the reward. Imagine if big business could tap into the kind of dedication it takes to get up at ridiculous hours, risk your life and know the odds are almost always against you.

The racing industry may not have the physical giants of other sports, but they certainly have the lead in the spirit department. I love that. It’s not for everyone, and I know that many of the thousands that go to the races don’t see what I see, but that’s a great shame. The people who live and breathe this world are of the few, the rest of us observe from the outside and occasionally a privileged glimpse. I wish I could go back in the time machine and visit for just a bit. Maybe capture a few little pieces and bring them back with me to share with you.

If you dare to share, tell me about a time when you put your foot in your mouth, resulting in a positive outcome. I won’t tell anyone..

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.

Pay It Forward

One common question I get asked around any award time is “did it change my life”. I always answer the same, have done for years. YES. YES. YES.

But not just mine. That’s the difference I try to tell everyone. It’s what you do with it that matters. It’s what happens when you walk off the stage with it, after the photos and the hugs, after the celebrations when it’s all quiet and it’s just you and your no work life balance, what does it mean? For me, any and all of my awards meant a lot to my family, my team and my customers. I wouldn’t have won without them - I got the awards, but they were rewarded. And I never let them forget how much they had to do with it.

It’s important to share the love, its necessary to see beyond the frame and focus on the impact to your world. The world that made it all possible. That glow that you have, they have. That strut has now become a line dance. Yet so many leaders forget to reward those around them. I’m not talking about saying thank you in your acceptance speech, or buying a round of drinks or a cake, and I’m certainly not talking about a financial bonus. I’m talking about really sitting down and looking at what really kicked it over the line and seeing if you can amplify it. No one does it on their own, but many leave the podium as if they did. It’s what they do with it after that defines their legacy in the alumni.

No “I” In Team

Do I sound I bit strong here, maybe a bit OTT? Apologies. But I know what awards can mean for the individual and I also know first hand what effect it can have on your business and your team. My first award was all brought about by customer votes, I didn’t even know about it until we made the finals. I couldn’t afford it, but I took all twenty of my team to the dinner because I thought this was as close as we would ever get to any award and they deserved at least a visit. I didn’t think about me. I didn’t even contemplate me. I couldn’t get over the fact that MY customers had gone out of their way to actually vote. And this is a long time before Social Media. We still did voting by paper back then.

It’s their glow I remember, their proud walk through the ballroom and even more so the next day. Its their voices that rang out the loudest at work, they carried the victory message over and over, week after week, month after month. I realised quite clearly my responsibility around this win was how they would get rewarded, but I needn’t have worried too much. The ability to shout it out, to talk about it, to share it, was all they wanted. Oh and the T-shirts I had made saying “We Won!” I had fought for months over a new uniform, seems I only had to sort out an award to make it happen without a peep.

It’s OK To Be Lucky

I’m humbled by my wins and I do feel lucky. Lucky that I had the chance to build my dreams, lucky that I get to dream more. And I feel rewarded for my sacrifices and hard hard work in a way I could never do for myself. I try to reward others for their efforts around me, and I try very hard to make them feel as special as I have felt. I appreciate the path we walk together.

If you were lucky enough to win an award, who would you thank in your acceptance speech for helping you achieve such an honour?

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.

Georgia, My Maternal Hero

Nana Georgia lived to be 101 years old, my mother’s mother. She lived near Sparta, mainland Greece, a very dry area where growing crops wasn’t easy and consisted of intense hard labour. She lost her husband very early on in their marriage, and was left to raise 4 children – 3 girls and a boy. Having only 1 son, and he was a baby, meant she would never really have any muscle, so she relied on being smart, bartering for labour to plant anything that could be grown and sold. Usually people in the village helped each other with their work, picking each others olives as teams or clearing land.

Communities Step Up

Knowing that she would need money as well to survive – growing food for consumption was a priority but it didn’t pay the bills, Nana Georgia had a wood fired oven built that was big enough to be communal. Most people didn’t even have running water in their homes let alone a kitchen with an oven. She hired it out or swopped oven time for labour. It meant she could watch her children yet still work. I met her as a child; she came to Australia when I was 5. She was distant and not very maternal to my mother or me. Mum said it was because she’d had to survive alone and be tough. She couldn’t afford to be or look weak. She was also the first person in the village to build an internal bathroom, have a kitchen, running water and a bank account.

I really understand where my mother got her determination from although she would disagree. I’m saddened that I never got to know her as an adult, I’m sure we would have had a lot to talk about and I could have told her how amazing she was – a true entrepreneur.

Tasia, My Paternal Hero

Nana Tasia died at the age of 90, I always count myself fortunate that I got to know her even though it wasn’t until I was 26. She never came to Australia and I never went to Greece as a child. She was cheeky but she would’ve been horrified to be called that. My grandfather was a bit of a male chauvinist, nothing unusual about that era, and considered it wrong for women to work or produce anything for money. It was ok to work for your family- milk your own goats or pick your own olives etc, but to do it as a “business” just wasn’t on. Unfortunately he never, as my grandmother put it, “reached his potential” so it fell to her to make up the shortfall.

Cheese Rules

It makes me smile to remember her stories of how she got around it- those who judged women who worked for money and even her husband who she fooled for decades. She would milk all the goats and make the cheese for the family to eat. My grandfather used to complain about how inefficient she was since she only ever made 5 wheels of cheese from the 10 buckets of milk. The other women in the village made 8. He never knew she used to sell the other 3. My father used to take her on the donkey to the next village over once a month and he never told either.

My grandfather loved his wine, he was very proud of his grapes that he then tuned into his special drop. But his eyesight deteriorated in his thirties and Nana took over. She used to water down his wine to make it go further and sell the extra to the local tavernas. He never ever knew that one either. Nana was focused, determined and smart. She picked her battles and taught me my first feminist lessons in life – men aren’t better than women, and women aren’t better than men. We are different but so very much the same. Live your life and not someone else’s.

Women have for hundreds of years fed their families from the land and never been acknowledged for their role or their sacrifice. There have been many who have made a business out of it without realizing it, and many more who have built empires. In memory of my grandmothers who strived only to survive, I appreciate their contribution and their stories. I am where I am because of them, and I am who I am because of me. What about you?

Can you attribute part of whom you are today to your grandparents?

What resources have you used, and what sacrifices have you made to help make your business the success it is today?

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.

Who Needs What?

Yes, sport needs business. It needs customers, members, product, viewers and support. Business could really use the spirit and devotion that sport gets from its fans. Through thick and thin, through those moments of utter devastation from a loss to the jubilation of a win. The way a fan turns up week after week hoping against the odds that their team will win a game, and even those moments where a team can be wooden spooners and a fan will dust themselves off and say next year will be better. I’m jealous of that. If only I could bottle it.

Big business shouldn’t have exclusive rights to sport, even big sport. Small business should have the opportunities to be involved and contribute more than just $$. The corporate big end of town uses sport sponsorships as tools to impress and entertain, to network and even show off to some extent. Small business becomes attached…I want to know the stories of everyone, why they do what they do, what it means and how they feel. I want to know who is out their fighting each week to win for the team, for the fans and for me. The Sydney Kings allow for that, they encourage everybody from the smallest fan to the biggest sponsors to get to know the team, and not just the players. We all know as business owners that any team is more than just its stars.

Well Matched

Sports and business may seem like strange bedfellows – money factors aside, and I know we have all attended an event where they feature sports people as presenters, but let’s look closer at this relationship. I never would have believed that a team of basketballers or their support staff OR their fans could teach an old dog like me new tricks lol, but they have. I observed the reactions and the behaviours of fans, players and staff. They all have a level of devotion that money can’t buy. In business we buy everything.

Yes, we like to think we have the loyalty or strive for the loyalty of our customers and staff, but at the end of the day…. And I know some of you will say that players go where the money is – we have all seen that movie, but something tells me that they are the exceptions to the rule. Of course a case can be made that employees don’t make work decisions only around money, but many do and justifiably so. I’m saying that to turn up each week, put you body on the line, leave yourself open to ridicule and harassment AND still come back takes more than a paycheck.

To be a CEO of a sports organisation takes a special breed of leadership. I watch David Wolf CEO of Sydney Kings stride around the Entertainment Centre at a home game, talking to the fans, looking after the sponsors, caring about the volunteers and support staff and all of that whether the Kings are winning or loosing. Others might traditionally choose to stay in the corporate box or office, but David is out their with us, feeling the stress and angst of each point.

Team Spirit

Then I look at the other team – equally deserving of a win, same dedication just different names and colours. Their coach paces around, their captain is barking orders and their team players want to win as well. No one wants to loose. Yet in business there can be more than one winner – thank goodness! Sport is not so kind. I like to think I am a fairly competent business operator, but no way am I turning up each week if there is a possibility that I could actually loose and have to go home with nothing but a bad feeling and sore body. Oh, and did I mention that the whole world would know and some cheap media person would list every reason why I lost as well.

Small Business can learn a lot from sport, from the players and of course from what makes a devoted fan tick. We tend to only see our own world – owners, management etc. But we really need every member to be equally empowered, get the message and support it no matter what. You know, it took my footy team decades to win a premiership and I never gave up on them!