Episode 66 is with Lisa Hellwege founder of Earworx, a professional earwax removal service.
Lisa’s career has spanned over 20 years and has taken her on a varied path from hospital nursing through to pharmaceutical roles, infection control, education consulting and working within the specialty of otorhinolaryngology.
In 2016 Lisa founded her own Tasmanian based nurse led clinic, Earworx. She established this to provide clients with a safe and effective professional micro suction earwax removal service.
Following the success of her Hobart clinic, Lisa and her business and life partner Scott Marston commenced work towards expansion into other Australian markets. Lisa’s ‘why’ is to see nurses ‘be as great as they can be’ and that is what gets her out of bed every morning.
Lisa’s story is a great example of establishing a very well researched niche business. Her story is interesting and her ‘take homes’ really are about the importance of doing a load of research and planning to get things right from the very start.
Lisa’s Social Media:
https://www.earworx.com.au/
Facebook is @Earworx
twitter is @Earworx
Instagram is @earworxau
Listen in, or read the full transcript below.
To listen to the full interview on iTunes click here.
You can listen to the full interview on Stitcher click here.
To listen right here on my website click here.
My guess is that you are here because you are curious about what it might be like to start your own business?
Perhaps you’ve been wondering if you have what it takes? If your idea will work or even how much it actually costs to build a successful business?
I’ve written a book that can answer pretty much all your questions “So You Want to Start a Business” and you can download the first 20 pages at www.thestartupsteps.com
15 years of experience working with start up businesses are condensed into the 7 steps in this book.
It’s your step by step guide to launch your business smarter and faster and I’m so excited to be sharing it with you and can’t wait to hear about your progress.
Are you ready to grab your copy? Click here for Amazon or in Australia Booktopia
Happy reading
Here is the transcript of the podcast with Lisa:
Ingrid: Hello, and here we are today with Lisa Hellwege. Hello, Lisa!
Lisa: Hi, how you going?
Ingrid: Great. Thanks so much for giving out your time today and I am super excited about this conversation, I just know it’s going to be amazing. So, firstly, Lisa, tell us what is your business? What is the business that you are in?
Lisa: Yeah, yeah. So, Earworx is a dedicated professional ear wax removal service. It’s a nurse-led clinic. Our little catchphrase is, “using dry and effective micro suction technology under direct observation, wax is gently and safely removed by a qualified nurse”. So, if you’ve ever heard in the past about people having an issue with wax they might try some softening drops from the chemist or they might go to their GP and have their ears water syringed. This is sort of the new way and it’s the way that they ENT specialists have been removing wax for a long time and so that’s how we do it. That’s our core business. That’s all we do. We stick to that and we do it really well.
Ingrid: That’s fantastic. So when did you start this business?
Lisa: It was October 2016 so it was a long time in planning and I had the idea for it probably five years earlier.
Ingrid: Wow.
Lisa: But it takes a long time I think to develop that confidence and think can I actually do this and do the research. But really I mean I seriously researched it probably six months before and then I had to get qualifications and a whole process so yeah, yeah.
Ingrid: So you’ve been in operation, not quite two years.
Lisa: Not quite two years.
Ingrid: Not quite but in the planning for maybe four or five years prior to that with the thought.
Lisa: The thought – definitely, I had the thought of it for a long time.
Ingrid: Yeah, isn’t that lovely? So, why did you start this business?
Lisa: Well, I had dreamed to say goodbye to shift work. I found …
Ingrid: Given our conversation just before we got started, yeah, shift work’s difficult.
Lisa: It is difficult and also just being a little bit limited, I think, in my scope, in my role in the hospital and I was always tired and I didn’t always get to do things the way that I wanted to do and provide the quality of care that I wanted to. Essentially because of time constraints and everything I was sort of working within. I always had a dream of working for myself somehow but I didn’t really … I wasn’t sure if nurses could do that.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: Yes but I certainly looked hard. I always found little niche roles where I was … like I worked for a drug company for four years. Did some education consulting at the university down here. I did a little bit of project work. A lot of time was spent in an ear nose and throat clinic which is where I had the idea for the service.
Ingrid: OK. Good.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah, and I knew that there were other clinics very nearly established and so I had a bit of a template to go by.
Ingrid: That certainly helps doesn’t it? That you can see what it could look like. Once you get to see what it could look like it helps to speed that process up a bit, doesn’t it?
Lisa: Yeah, that’s right. And seeing that other people, and not just those clinics but other people who could work more autonomously, I always wanted to be able to do that. I work really well in a team but I’m like, “gosh, I’ve got these skills and I really want to share them and I’d love to be able to just work by myself doing that”.
Ingrid: Fantastic. What did you want, and you’ve kind of answered this question but it’s a little bit different, but what did you want from the business from day one?
Lisa: Yeah, well, I wanted to be able to use my nursing skills and work independently. I guess that would be the main thing.
Ingrid: That sums that up.
Lisa: Yeah and to be able to generate an income and be able to create wealth for myself and my family. That’s really the goal.
Ingrid: And that’s really important to generate an income and to generate wealth because they’re actually two different things, aren’t they?
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: We’ll come back to that when we talk about money.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: Okay, so now, this is my favourite question. Well, one of my favourite questions. When did you realise this was a business? That you were actually in business and it was real? Do you remember?
Lisa: Yeah, well, when I started … because I didn’t jump straight in. I didn’t quit my job and then open the clinic so I was doing two jobs. So I was working at the hospital and I was working in my Earworx clinic.
Ingrid: Wow.
Lisa: And I have been one day awake and then I’ve been two days awake and at the same time at work I’m cutting back my days there, working more part-time and then I was opening Saturday mornings at Earworx as well. And then Earworx was picking up and I was sort of ended up, every now and then, in my lunch hour, I’d run from the hospital up to my clinic and see someone and then I’d run back down. And so when I realised, “okay, I think I need to resign” that’s when I really realised, “okay, this is real now”.
Ingrid: That’s exciting.
Lisa: Yeah because you’ve got to think how can I keep putting food on the table in the meantime. I had some financial support from my partner at the time so that was helpful but it was really like a case of well, I’m not really ready to go full time into the clinic but I also can’t manage doing this. It’s not sustainable to be working six days a week and really, really long hours.
Ingrid: And at your tea break you drink your tea down too quickly …
Lisa: Yeah. And then all my savings when into Earworx as well, that made it really real. Like the savings that I had, that all went into the business so then it was like, “this is real now”.
Ingrid: Okay. This is it. This is what it is. Okay.
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: So it’s really an interesting proposition that you’re offering because it’s a very niche, very, very niche, form of a health service. So how did you know, obviously as it grew you knew it was working but prior to that, how did you know … you had the evidence that there was other clinics starting to open. But what made you think that people would want a specialised … because you said at the beginning this is all you do. You don’t go outside this. How did you know that’s what people wanted and it would be viable?
Lisa: I’m seeing the procedure being performed at the hospital for the patients there and I could see that it was nice and gentle and it seemed really easy and quick and otherwise it’s really great to have that procedure. I also just had to look at … I did my research. I thought, how many people actually have a problem with wax buildup and it’s actually quite a small percentage of the population but looking at that it’s between four and six percent of the population and so then it’s a case of logically, the way I’m going to know this service is needed is that between four and six percent of the population of Hobart is going to need this service – and how many of them are prepared to pay to come and see us? How many people are actually going to do anything about it? Some people just suffer from it for their whole lives and just don’t ever … sometimes don’t even realise.
Ingrid: Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah. So I guess that was it. I also spoke with the surgeon I used to work with and asked her thoughts around it and she was really positive about it. That was how i thought this could work.
Ingrid: And the numbers started to stack up when you did those percentages.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah. And we did our numbers really conservatively so we worked out the population of Hobart’s about 200,000 so 10% of that is 20,000 so 5%’s 10,000, let’s say that I need 10% of that. Come and see us. And we worked it out that way.
Ingrid: That’s still a lot of people isn’t it.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. Well we can only see a certain number each year because it seems to be something that people have a repeated issue with. They become our clients for life if we do a good job. That’s the way of our goal.
Ingrid: That’s fantastic. So you’ve mentioned about funding.
Lisa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ingrid: That once you put all your savings into it, it all became a bit real. Is that the way that you funded it? Completely bootstrapped from savings?
Lisa: Yes. Yes. So yeah we just put all our savings into it. Yeah because the banks won’t loan you money for a start-up business. Unless you’ve maybe got lots of equity behind you or other things but even then they’re still reluctant. We just thought we’ll do it ourselves.
Ingrid: Good.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: That’s very … it’s a brave move but it holds skin in the game. Once you’re committed, it’s all part of the same package isn’t it?
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah that’s right. We have our expansion plans. We do have an investment partner now, as well, so that’s …
Ingrid: So, once you get some runs on the board you …
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. So you’re not selling a dream anymore. They can see how it’ll work so then they’re like, “yeah, we’ll back you for that”, so that’s been great.
Ingrid: Congratulations on that. That’s great.
Lisa: Yeah, thank you.
Ingrid: Because I imagine the equipment costs a reasonable amount of money.
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: And those machines are pretty technical.
Lisa: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. And we’ve got the microscope and the pump and all the German made instruments and the training takes a long time too. It’s not a procedure where, like with normal syringing, where someone can show up to you once and you just have a go and see how you go. This is something that takes a long time to develop the skills in and you’ve got to develop your depth perception around the drum and it’s all about being safe and it does take a while. So that’s a big, big investment in training.
Ingrid: In training as well?
Lisa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ingrid: Because ears are very delicate, aren’t they?
Lisa: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Ingrid: Surprisingly. I mean, people poke around and it’s probably the worst thing you can do, isn’t it?
Lisa: I know, yes. It is. I have to say that I see lots of people that use cotton buds and they shouldn’t end up coming through our doors so I can’t complain but yes, I always tell people, stop using the cotton buds! Don’t do it. I did have one nurse tell me a story recently actually, where someone bumped her elbow as she was cleaning her ear with a cotton bud, and it perforated her drum and then it wouldn’t heal. She had to have surgery to try to get it to heal. Still, wouldn’t heal and then she ended up with some serious problems. Now she wears a hearing aid.
Ingrid: Gosh.
Lisa: So I tell people that story because even if you’re not pushing wax down the canal or whatever, you could still do some serious damage.
Ingrid: Wow.
Lisa: It’s really delicate in there.
Ingrid: And that was a nurse.
Lisa: Yes. Exactly. Yeah. She just wishes she’d never done it but …
Ingrid: You can’t.
Lisa: No, yeah.
Ingrid: So, Lisa, how do you find new customers and how do you know where they are? So you’ve got this 200,000 people in Hobart and now you’ve got the greater region of Tasmania as well.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: Because people do come to Hobart from other parts of Tasmania for weekends and holidays.
Lisa: Yeah, although they might not need to from September onwards because we’ve got a nurse opening an Earworx franchise in the North and the Northwest so that’s exciting.
Ingrid: Congratulations.
Lisa: So exciting at the moment.
Ingrid: So how’d do people find you?
Lisa: We just marketed very heavily.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: So we did a TV ad and that was great. I got myself out there as much as I could with the GP’s and audiologists. Marketed our services and explained how they’re complementary to theirs and we also put a lot of effort into understanding and targeting our client avatar so we know exactly who the people are that we want to come through our door. We’ve been really explicit about that and that helps us with everything from social media, how we word things, where we invest our time and money. Word of mouths’ really big down here and we’re considered a regional area in Tasmania. We’re a fairly tight knit community down here and word spreads very quickly if you do a good job or if you do a bad job.
Ingrid: Yes.
Lisa: So yeah that’s probably been a really big one. And so we always got to ask everyone as they come through the door how they heard of us.
Ingrid: Yeah, and is word of mouth the greatest way people …
Lisa: TV and newspaper down here, which interestingly I wouldn’t have thought but … and word of mouth, yeah.
Ingrid: It’s so tempting to think that you service everyone, isn’t it?
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: But that client avatar is critical. I mean, other people will come. I’m sure that you have some clients who are not in the ideal avatar.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: But what you said there is so important about having your message and it just helps with clarity, doesn’t it?
Lisa: Yeah, yeah. It’s really important, yeah.
Ingrid: So pricing and you don’t have to tell us how much this costs but how did you decide a strategy for pricing?
Lisa: Well fortunately there were the couple of clinics on the mainland already that were running and so we looked at their pricing strategy. We also had to just look at all our costs and everything that we put into the business and our insurances and things like that, because we do everything possible. We sterilise all our instruments, we invest heavily in the training of the nurses and that’s how we basically worked it out.
Ingrid: And paying yourselves and making sure that everybody gets paid.
Lisa: Exactly.
Ingrid: I mean, the money for expansion, all of those costs …
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: … are part of the pricing consideration.
Lisa: Yeah, that’s right. Yes.
Ingrid: Terrific.
Lisa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ingrid: Now, I know that you’re only just expanding now but do you have an exit strategy? Have you thought about an exit? And you don’t have to tell us what it is …
Lisa: Yeah, yeah, well, at the moment we’re trying to get the business to a size and profitability level so that we don’t have to be here working in it every day.
Ingrid: Nice.
Lisa: So my partner, Scott, who’s the Earworx CEO, he’s the business person.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: And I’m the clinical person basically and that works really well because we have our own defined roles and we hardly ever cross over into each others’ territory although we have lots of robust discussions. But we know this is my role, this is your role, and so at least if we can get out of working on a full time basis, that’s kind of our exit for now, I guess. And a lot of that’s come through systemizing our processes and putting all the policies and protocols in place and making sure that there’s a process for everything that’s documented and sorted online – basically.
Ingrid: Music to my ears. I’m a process queen and anyone who listens regularly knows that almost make my guests say that twice just because it’s that important. But it gives you freedom, doesn’t it?
Lisa: Yeah, it does and if you’ve got everything systemized, you’ve got checklists, well, there’s not much room there for error as long as those things are being followed and I think also, if you’re wanting to expand, it’s just essential. You just have to do it because we want people who attend an Earworx clinic anywhere in Australia, for it to be the same as here in Hobart.
Ingrid: Fantastic.
Lisa: It has to be the same experience.
Ingrid: That consistency, absolutely. So a little bit of reflection, what is something, one thing, that you wish you had done differently at the beginning?
Lisa: Well, one thing was when we started our expansion plans we got some advice from a branding person who said, you’ve got one ad over here that’s got this colour and this one other thing over here and that’s another colour and really, I can’t even tell if it’s the same business. So we hadn’t put the thought around. We’d roughly thought about it, what our … thought of roughly what our colours were and how we kind of looked but then we had to spend a bit of money to rework all that. And so we have done that now and that was about six months ago. And I think it’s been fine.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: But at the time I was like, if we change it too much are people going to know that we’re still ours? I think investing in that in the beginning, what are your colours? What’s the font that you’re going to use? Capital or not? Are you going to have an image portfolio that you just stick to those photos and don’t do any others? That kind of thing. Probably wish I would have put a bit more thought. But you don’t know what you don’t know and we did not know that in the beginning.
Ingrid: No.
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: And you know in that first couple of years it’s probably still safe to …
Lisa: Because we’re still new.
Ingrid: Because you’re still new and there’s a lot of businesses that start off with one and then they morph into a different one anyway so …
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: Look at the big brands, they’re changing themselves often.
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: Down to the writing.
Lisa: Yes. And you can see when people do change their brand a little bit. You do notice don’t you?
Ingrid: You do.
Lisa: And you don’t want to upset your clients.
Ingrid: No.
Lisa: For it to be disconcerting but you’re right. I think doing it early rather than leaving it too long was better.
Ingrid: It’s still in that time. It’s good that you’ve got something now and you feel good about that.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah.
Ingrid: And is there something you wish you had known from the start? And that’s a slightly different question.
Lisa: Yeah, well, I’ll just how busy it is. It’s probably the classic. Probably everyone says that.
Ingrid: Yeah, pretty much everybody.
Lisa: And then I would have been okay to know that it’s okay to just be busy all the time and get use to that new level of busy. And try to create a little bit of calm here and there amongst the busy so even if it’s just 10 minutes to have a cup of tea and just ‘tap out’ for a minute. Also, that not everyone that you’ll work with will have the same sense of urgency as you do with respect to when you want or need things done. So being really organised, that’s just so important. And giving people, when we consult with them, the people that you work with plenty of time to get things done.
Ingrid: And being clear about that.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah, but oh gosh, all the paperwork. They just end up being wonderful and so supportive and I feel like we’re so lucky to have got such a good team.
Ingrid: Isn’t that fantastic? Oh, well done. Now, you’ve mentioned Scott and you’ve got a great team and obviously you’ve had some good consultants and you sort of leads me nicely into this next question.
Lisa: Yeah, I did.
Ingrid: Who has been your greatest assistant? Sounds like everybody actually.
Lisa: Well, what they all have … like our website people, marketing, everything. Brian came from Franchise Simply. He has just been brilliant. He’s helped us a lot in terms of getting order right in the way to do things because you can feel overwhelmed and we choose to go down a franchising model so in terms of what you’ve got ahead of you and the things you’ve got to put together, your head could just explode. There’s just so much with respect to compliance and we’re really big on making sure we get things right and doing things properly, sticking by our values and that kind of thing. And putting us in contact with other people at the right time that it needed to happen so we would say, “Brian, we’re struggling with this a bit” and he’s go, “I know exactly who to put you on to”.
Ingrid: Right.
Lisa: That is great. So Scott, like I said, he’s Scott, my CEO and he’s also my partner so yeah, he’s just been great. So encouraging right from the beginning and we’ve got busy lives and we’ve got six kids between us that all still live at home and …
Ingrid: Super mom. Oh my gosh.
Lisa: Yeah, but, he’s just a constant source of assistance and support and inspiration. And of course, all of our clients, I just love them bits. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to start and grow and develop and I’ll always say they clients have any faith back otherwise try to act on it and they’ve just shined such a support for the service and for us. I’m just really grateful for that.
Ingrid: So is that where you get your feedback because that’s my next question, about where does feedback come from? Is it from your clients?
Lisa: Yeah, yeah, Brian King has given us a lot of feedback as well which has been good. Clients definitely. I mean, I had, when we started up earlier in the piece, I had a client who was probably in his 70s or something, and he said, “look, listen to me young lady. You’re not in the phone book. I couldn’t find you here. Your phone numbers not on your TV ad and it was really hard to find you”. So I was like, right, I better get onto that because I didn’t even think about the phone book because I thought who looks at the phone book.
Ingrid: Who looks at the phone book anymore?
Lisa: So that was really short-sighted of me and somehow we are in the yellow pages now. I don’t know how that’s happened but we are there so that’s good.
Ingrid: And it’s interesting because if that is part of your ideal client avatar, there is a generation of people who are not on the internet.
Lisa: That’s right and this is true for anyone whose got a business at the moment that they have to cater for everything across all the generations so the younger people are so happy to just book online. They’ve just got a whole different way of looking at it where some of the older clients will say, I like to ring to make an appointment and they just like to do things a little bit differently. And they might like a reminder letter rather than a text message. Yeah.
Ingrid: Is that built into your system that you take care that?
Lisa: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.
Ingrid: So smart.
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: So smart. I’ve done a lot of work over the last few years with dentists. That’s something that a lot of them haven’t come to terms with. They just think everything should be text messages and …
Lisa: Yeah.
Ingrid: … so I think that wisdom to be able to cater, customise client experience.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: In such a different way. Very smart.
Lisa: Yeah, well, thank you.
Ingrid: Say someone comes along to you and says, “I’m thinking of starting a business”, what would you say to them?
Lisa: I would say, do your research and make sure there’s a market for that but whatever service is or product, do as much research as you can. Not to the point where you choose not to do anything but just so you’ve got the numbers right and you think people will pay for your service, which is what we had to think about. Not quitting your day job straight away unless you can afford to. If you’ve got that luxury, wonderful but if not just don’t do that because why would you?
You just need to be sensible and just build it slowly and try to walk before you run. I’d say document all your budgets and your plans. Having some sort of business plan written down even if it’s just on one page is something. Find yourself some good business consultants as well. And that, like I said, has been just so … it’s about knowing what you don’t know so I don’t know anything about marketing for example. I do now.
When we started this business I didn’t know anything about websites. About how to get people to find you. So many things that I’ve learned that I couldn’t have done unless we’d invested in marketing and getting people who know how to do these things to help us. Work out how much time you think you’ll need to put into your business and then times that by at least one and a half – or two probably. And that’s the level of commitment you’ll need. Try to get your downtime when you can. We prioritise our down time and we try to not let anything get int the way of that. And that’s really important because you have to have time to quieten your mind down and not think about work in order to have more ideas for work. I don’t know if you know that’s a thing but this is my experience. When I’m having quite time, when I’m even in the shower, that’s where I’ll get ideas which I wouldn’t have had when I’m right in the thick of my own clinic during the day.
Ingrid: Because you’re in action mode and that’s not when the ideas come, necessarily.
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: A quicker way of doing something or some kind of nuance to what you’re actually doing but the big ideas don’t come there. In fact, there’s an example and I can’t think what his business is but he takes a year off every couple of years and just …
Lisa: Wow.
Ingrid: Yeah, they build that into their pricing so that they can take a chunk of time, six or eight or 12 months off, so that they can actually just travel and think and read and research and see what’s out there and then they come back into their business and grow it again. I think it’s some kind of creative design person. They’ve got a team to keep the business running while they’re away…..
Lisa: Yeah, it’s okay.
Ingrid: Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah, that’s great.
Ingrid: There you go.
Lisa: Nothing more than a little bit of tea and contemplation.
Ingrid: Name three characteristics, and I think you know this question is coming about the characteristics – and the audience may have been listening for some of them as you’ve been talking. Name one of the characteristics that you have that you think makes you successful in your business?
Lisa: Yeah commitment to the idea I suppose and really believing in your idea. It helps. All these things, I feel like, when I’m saying them they sound cliched but it’s just so true. You have to believe in your product or your service and be prepared to be a little bit flexible within that as you develop your business so then realising you might need to tweak this or that or maybe change what you originally thought but that’s okay too.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: Just so long as you have that commitment. Working hard and being organised of course. And just loving your work. I love coming to work every day. I just get such a sense of satisfaction and just a warm fuzzy feeling every day. It’s just so nice to be out to see clients and help them get rid of their wax related symptoms and we’re proud to hear saying, thank you so much. That’s just wonderful. That’s a nice way to spend your day. So I’m really lucky.
Ingrid: Yeah, and I said I wasn’t going to ask you any medical questions but what is a wax related symptom? Like you said earlier, there’s probably a lot of people don’t know they have a problem.
Lisa: Well, hearing loss is an obvious … I mean, a feeling of blockage or fullness.
Ingrid: Okay, so it is that …
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. Itching and that kind of thing. People can be blissfully unaware and it’s not until their GP needs to look at their eardrum and can’t and so they need the wax removed so that the GP can make a proper assessment or the audiologist needs to do a hearing test and the wax is 80- 90% blocking the ear canal or if it’s completely impacted that will impact on the result of the test.
Ingrid: And you alluded to the fact that younger people use the online booking so this is not just something that older people have. It’s younger people have ear …
Lisa: No it spans right across the generations. Yeah, yeah. Children are a little bit more prone to it. Their skins a bit more oily and they do tend to outgrow it as they age. 1 in 10 children, 1 in 20 adults and 30% of the geriatric and developmentally delayed populations. So as we age, the self-cleaning mechanism of the ear doesn’t work quite as well.
Ingrid: Everything doesn’t work …
Lisa: I know. Just add it to the list.
Ingrid: All right. So back to start-ups, thank you for that diversion. What are the characteristics, you talked about what makes you successful around treatment and working hard and really loving what you do, that’s some of the characteristics. Is there anything else you would add to that?
Lisa: Yes, well, I’ve sort of thought about this and thought ‘family support’. That’s not really a characteristic but that has really helped me. Making sure that my family and Scott understands what you’re doing so when you have days that you work really long hours, they get it. Probably resilience would be a big one. Particularly in the beginning you might think is this even something people will want or need or … and you do get a few knocks from people here or there. Developing that resilience and fortitude I suppose.
Ingrid: I think that’s a lovely way to finish our interview. Building resilience and fortitude. Is there anything else I haven’t covered that the listeners who are people either thinking about starting a business or getting in that first year or two. And you know we hear so much about fake it until you make it and winging it and this whole notion of get on with it, by the seat of your pants. It sounds like you’re not one of those sort of people. There’s all that planning and research and …
Lisa: Yeah it is and exactly. It all comes down to the numbers at the end of the day so you can have a dream and you can have an idea but you have to make sure that it’s going to actually pay the bills and you need …
Ingrid: And pay you.
Lisa: Yeah, exactly! And knowing how much everything costs and what are the best parts of the business? What are the bits that aren’t so good and if in and amongst that you can also have this wonderful thing where you get to have great days like we do. That’s just really nice. Also, I’m happy to chat to anyone if you want to pass on my details. I’m happy to have a quick chat to anyone who might be thinking of opening a franchise.
Ingrid: Yeah, there might be somebody who wants to join your team. That sounds like a fantastic team to be part of.
Lisa: Yeah, thank you.
Ingrid: Were you looking for opportunities in mainland Australia yet or are you …
Lisa: Yes.
Ingrid: … or are you bedding down what’s happening in Tasmania?
Lisa: Yeah, well, like I said, we’re opening in the North and the Northwest in September. We’re opening in Bondi Junction in October.
Ingrid: Are you coming up in October?
Lisa: Yes so I’ll come up. The nurse that we employ will come down here for three weeks of practical training. So they’ll do this study first then they’ll come to us for their prac and work closely with us for the three weeks and then I’ll go back up with them.
Ingrid: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lisa: To work with them for at least the first week and then that gets a practitioner. Anyone who works in the medical area sort of knows you get to a point where you’re competent and then you develop your skills and enhance them over time and grow as a clinician. That’s where they’ll be on the phone to us regularly which is all good.
Ingrid: Well we might time the release of this interview for around that time.
Lisa: Oh, okay.
Ingrid: Because I know I think we’re looking at scheduling it sort of in the middle of September so if that would lead into October. So, that’s fantastic.
Lisa: That’s great. Yeah.
Ingrid: Lisa, thank you so much for your time today and I’ll just … thank you so much.
Lisa: Okay, no worries. Thank you.