TABMA talk Business tips, news and events TABMA is a member-based industry organisation representing timber and building material merchants, suppliers, frame & truss fabricators, manufacturers, wholesalers and timber importers and related service providers. TABMA provides companies with practical solutions to improve business management, growth and profitability. Visit us online Find us on Facebook Inside this issue 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 May 2017 www. .com.au tabma 1 What were you doing prior to applying for the traineeship with TABMA? John Carbone: I had just finished High School and was working part-time for an events company – labouring, setting up fencing and removable flooring for concerts. I was also studying Accounting at TAFE but wasn’t keen on doing that as a full-time job. How did you first hear about TABMA? I found the job advertisement online and applied for the position. I then received a call from the TABMA Field Officer and we arranged an interview at my local McDonalds. After the interview with TABMA I then met with John Cook & Sons and was offered the job the next day. What position did you apply for? I applied for a Timber Merchandising Traineeship. What did you know about the role or traineeship? That the traineeship was with a growing company and that in the future there would be room for growth and professional development. I also knew that a traineeship was a good place to start. What qualification did you receive at the end of your traineeship with TABMA? I earned the Certificate III in Timber Merchandising. Once I completed my traineeship with TABMA, John Cook & Sons employed me directly and continued with my professional development. I completed my Certificate IV in Frontline Management with TABMA. John Cook & Sons are now assisting me with completing my Diploma of Leadership and Management. How did you progress through your traineeship with TABMA? When I first started my traineeship, I would spend half the day in the yard and the rest of the day in the office learning John Cook & Sons processes and getting to know the customers. It was an internal sales role. How did TABMA support you through your traineeship? TABMA were very supportive during my traineeship. The TABMA Field Officers were very helpful, so were the trainers, who were supportive throughout my training. Also, having a host employer like John Cook & Sons meant that I had support from not only TABMA but from John Cook & Sons as well. How long have you know been with John Cook & Sons? In August, it will be 7 years in total – including the 2 years of my traineeship with TABMA. You are now a Sales Representative with John Cook & Sons – you are on the road with your own client base – did you think that at the start of your traineeship that you would be in the position you are now? field Edits A success story John Carbone ...continued on page 2 TABMA trainee to sales rep. A success story TABMA trainee to sales rep. Field Edits continued From the CEO’s desk 5 Smart things Credit Managers do regularly How to boost your profits by partnering with other businesses Why some people are always late according to psychologists Anniversaries over the last 3 months
Transcript
TABMA talkBusiness tips, news and events
TABMA isa member-based industry organisation representing
timber and building material
merchants, suppliers, frame & truss fabricators,
manufacturers, wholesalers
and timber importers and related service providers.
TABMA provides companies
with practical solutions to improve business
management, growth and
profitability.
Visit us online
Find us onFacebook
Inside this issue
1
2
3
3
4
5
6
May 2017
www. .com.autabma
1
What were you doing prior to applying for the
traineeship with TABMA?
John Carbone: I had just finished High School
and was working part-time for an events
company – labouring, setting up fencing and
removable flooring for concerts. I was also
studying Accounting at TAFE but wasn’t keen
on doing that as a full-time job.
How did you first hear about TABMA?
I found the job advertisement online and
applied for the position. I then received a call
from the TABMA Field Officer and we
arranged an interview at my local
McDonalds. After the interview with TABMA I
then met with John Cook & Sons and was
offered the job the next day.
What position did you apply for?
I applied for a Timber Merchandising
Traineeship.
What did you know about the role or traineeship?
That the traineeship was with a growing
company and that in the future there would
be room for growth and professional
development. I also knew that a traineeship
was a good place to start.
What qualification did you receive at the end of
your traineeship with TABMA?
I earned the Certificate III in Timber
Merchandising. Once I completed my
traineeship with TABMA, John Cook & Sons
employed me directly and continued with my
professional development. I completed my
Certificate IV in Frontline Management with
TABMA. John Cook & Sons are now assisting
me with completing my Diploma of
Leadership and Management.
How did you progress through your traineeship
with TABMA?
When I first started my traineeship, I would
spend half the day in the yard and the rest of
the day in the office learning John Cook &
Sons processes and getting to know the
customers. It was an internal sales role.
How did TABMA support you through your
traineeship?
TABMA were very supportive during my
traineeship. The TABMA Field Officers were
very helpful, so were the trainers, who were
supportive throughout my training. Also,
having a host employer like John Cook &
Sons meant that I had support from not only
TABMA but from John Cook & Sons as well.
How long have you know been with John Cook &
Sons?
In August, it will be 7 years in total –
including the 2 years of my traineeship with
TABMA.
You are now a Sales Representative with John
Cook & Sons – you are on the road with your own
client base – did you think that at the start of your
traineeship that you would be in the position you
are now?
fieldEdits
A success story
John Carbone
...continued on page 2
TABMA trainee to sales rep.
A success storyTABMA trainee to sales rep.
Field Edits continued
From the CEO’s desk
5 Smart things Credit
Managers do regularly
How to boost your profits by
partnering with other businesses
Why some people are always late
according to psychologists
Anniversaries over the last 3 months
TABMA talkFor expert help and advice
2
fieldEdits ...continued
What have you found most interesting about
this apprenticeship/traineeship so far?
There is always something new to learn.
By doing a Business Administration
traineeship you are learning general
business skills; however it also shows the
different pathways and directions you can
take. This way I am now completing the
Accounting Certificate IV as I found I
enjoyed and was quite good at this side of
the business whilst undertaking the
Certificate III.
What do you have planned for your career once
you complete your qualification?
I would like to become an Accountant. It is
a career that I can see myself enjoying
and excelling in.
What advice would you have for any candidates
looking to get started in the same
traineeship/apprenticeship?
Ignore the wages – it is only short term –
by completing a traineeship you are going
to have a career where you can make the
big dollars. Whilst completing a
traineeship you are growing as a person,
learning on the job and being paid! You
have the security of ongoing work and you
are also gaining qualifications.
Why did you decide to start this qualification?
Tahlia Bellotti: Before starting this
qualification, I was undertaking a Diploma
of Business Administration, however I
wanted a more ‘hands on’ experience and
thought that a traineeship was my best
option.
Did you complete any pre-vocational courses or
study any particular subjects at school to help
you?
In grade 12 I completed a certificate two
in Business which helped me a lot in my
traineeship.
What have you found most interesting about
this apprenticeship/traineeship so far?
I have learnt so much more actually
working in the industry than I would have
completing a regular course, you are also
earning money while you learn which is
great.
What do you have planned for your career once
you complete your qualification?
I’m enjoying where I am at the moment,
but I am open to taking on more
responsibility and maybe even going on to
complete a higher qualification.
What advice would you have for any candidates
looking to get started in the same
traineeship/apprenticeship?
I would encourage taking on a traineeship
or an apprenticeship, it is a great way to
earn a qualification and also gain
experience within an industry.
Tahlia Bellotti
Age: 18
Host: TABMA
Location of
employer: Rocklea
Qualification:
Certificate III
Business
Administration
Why did you decide to start this qualification?
Kaitlyn Harbouirne: Whilst completing my
Business Administration Certificate III with
TABMA, I drifted towards payroll and
excelled in this. When an opening became
available in accounts my manager
decided to have me work on this and I
have enjoyed the work and can do it well.
It is a career I am enjoying.
Did you complete any pre-vocational courses or
study any particular subjects at school to help
you?
I didn’t undertake any additional studies
whilst in high school as I was
concentrating on my school work. I did
however complete my Business
Administration Certificate III with TABMA.
Kaitlyn Harbouirne
Age: 20
Host: TABMA
Location of
employer: St
Leonards
Qualification:
Accounting
Certificate IV
I knew that if I worked hard throughout my
traineeship and did the work that I would
be able to progress in the company but it
wasn’t something that I counted on in the
beginning. It took a lot of hard work and
dedication.
What advice would you give someone looking
to start a traineeship/apprenticeship with
TABMA?
If they have a passion for the timber
industry and are willing to put in the
hard work they will achieve results.
They must be committed to their
traineeship and learn throughout the
process. TABMA will support them
throughout the process. I was also
lucky to have such a supportive host
employer in John Cook & Sons, part of
the ITI group.
...continued from page 1
Field Edits by Malynda Price,
NSW State Manager GTO
From the CEO’s desk
3
NSW State Manager GTO
We are very pleased to announce the
appointment of Malynda Price to the
position of NSW State Manager for
our apprentices and trainees division
(GTO). Malynda has a wealth of
experience in the GTO and RTO fields
and we are positive she will be a huge
asset to the TABMA Group.
TABMA Training
TABMA Training (previously FITEC)
offers a full range of nationally
recognised forest and timber industry
qualifications ranging from forest
operations, sawmilling, frame & truss
design, and manufacture to timber
merchandising and business sales.
Plus their dynamic short courses are
designed to achieve bottom line
results for all timber related
businesses.
These short courses can be
conducted at your premises or in a
group at TABMA premises.
Short courses include forklift training,
chainsaw training, dealing with
customers face to face or on the
telephone, performance management,
timber knowledge, timber take off and
visual stress grading.
For further information contact
TABMA Training on 1300 693 483.
react to potential non-payment. There are
many tools in the marketplace such as
bureaux, mercantile agents and unique
databases which can support third party
alerts.
5 They seek security – I realise that in
many industries, seeking security from
your customer may reduce your
competitive edge. However seeking
personal guarantees or registering your
security interests on goods supplied, may
allow your business to provide more ‘free
credit’ to your customers, plus may assist
your business in getting paid before
others and gain recoveries in the event of
an insolvency.
Credit management, credit managers and
the credit team are a critical part of a
business. There is no point working so
hard on developing products, marketing
those products, selling those products,
never to be paid.
For more information, please contact NCI.
Kirk Cheesman, Managing Director NCI
Trade Credit Solutions www.nci.com.au
After spending
over a quarter of a
century dealing with credit
managers, you see all the good (and
not so good) things credit managers do.
There are the standard set tasks of a
credit manager such as credit
assessment, processing, collecting
monies and supporting their business
overall.
However, there are 5 smart consistent
observations which some credit
managers do regularly. They are:
1 Training the sales team – the credit team
definitely functions much better when the
sales team are on board with good credit
management practices. Simple elements
such as identifying the correct legal entity
of who they are selling to, raising the
subject of credit as part of the
negotiations and acknowledging that a
sale isn’t a sale until paid for, goes a long
way to improving the credit process and
building a strong relationship between
sales and credit.
2 They meet with clients – business is a
‘people game’ and this does not exclude
the relationship that clients should have
with their suppliers’ credit teams. Building
a good rapport (face to face) allows credit
managers to have an ‘awkward
discussion’ (if needed) regarding late
payments or understand their business
better to help them through seasonal
trading conditions. The clients are likely to
tell you more if they have a personal
attachment.
3 Conduct annual credit reviews – I don’t
know how many times an insolvency
occurs and I hear “but we’ve been trading
with them for years and they’ve never
skipped a beat”. Constant review of a
customer’s capability to pay should be
done on an annual basis as a minimum
requirement. Owners, shareholders,
funding levels, losses, profits, products
and markets change on a constant basis
and a small change in one of these
elements may have a great effect upon
your clients’ ability to pay.
4 They monitor their customers against
adverse information – as an extension from
annual reviews, having a ‘third eye’ on your
debtors through a monitoring tool can
help with early alerts in your ability to
Colin Fitzpatrick
5 Smart ThingsCredit Managers Do Regularly
4
How to your profits by boostpartnering with other businesses
include newsletter articles, joint seminars,
blog entries, etc, or simply verbal
communication with clients. This type of
alliance typically requires quite a bit of
relationship building upfront. For it to be
successful it will require you to keep
proactively managing the relationship, as
the partnership may wither after a while
when the initial enthusiasm has ebbed.
The second form of partnership is a more
short term, possibly one-off promotion
called a host beneficiary. This is where you
come up with a compelling offer or
giveaway to pass on to the other
company’s customer database. A good
host beneficiary is a win-win: one
company gets new leads, the other gets
more customer loyalty as customers
appreciate the value of the ‘gift’. As an
example, a beauty salon could approach a
hairdresser serving a similar type of
clientele with a special offer for a beauty
treatment. The hairdresser sends this
offer to its database, presenting it as a gift
to thank their clients for their loyalty. Later
on, the companies could swap and the
beauty salon could forward a special deal
from the hairdresser to its client database.
Host beneficiaries are powerful because
prospects receive the offer from a trusted
source, who therefore lends their implied
(or explicit) endorsement to the product or
service.
Which of these two powerful strategies
should you adopt?
A host beneficiary can provide a faster
boost in leads, although a true strategic
alliance may be worth more in the long
run…why not do both!
Source: Andrew Laurie, Managing Director,
Realize Coaching; an ActionCOACH
Franchise
One of the best ways to generate business
is to have other businesses generate it for
you. We all know word of mouth can be a
very powerful marketing tool; getting
organisations to promote or recommend
you to their clients is akin to word-of-mouth
on steroids!
What to doSo how do you go about finding the right
partners and inducing them to endorse
your product or service? Before explaining
this it is important first to understand the
underlying dynamic in all word-of-mouth
activity. Successful word-of-mouth,
whether from individuals or businesses,
essentially comes about in three stages:
Prompt
The first step, often overlooked, is
simply to ask (and keep asking) people
or other businesses to recommend
your service or product to anyone they
know who would benefit from what
you have to offer. Be proactive!
Educate
Secondly it is important to teach
potential referrers what your target
market looks like and why they should
be interested in talking to you. As an
example, instead of saying: “if you
know anyone who may be interested…”,
say “if you know any young mums
living in Sydney who are struggling
with work-life balance” or “if you know
any local small business owners in the
IT industry who are currently hiring”.
Similarly make sure potential referees
understand what you have to offer and
what makes you stand out from your
competitors.
Reward (optional)
Depending on the situation, it may be
appropriate to offer a reward to either
or both the referrer and the referee.
Keeping this process in mind, let's now
have a look at how you can solicit word-of-
mouth promotion from another business
rather than an individual.
Step 1
Identify a list of potentially suitable partners.
To do this it is crucial that you know your
target market. Be as specific as possible:
“females who are between the age of 20
and 30 living in the Sydney Eastern
Suburbs, have no children and are
interested in healthy lifestyle” or
“businesses which have a turnover
between $500k and $1m, between 1–5
employees, are located in Sydney and
have been in business for at least 2 years”.
Once you have a clear idea of who your
target market is, you can start putting
together a list of organisations that tick
some, if not all of the following boxes:
l They serve the same target market as
you
l They are not competitive to you
l They have an excellent reputation
l They have an extensive and up-to-date
customer database.
Step 2
Approach the companies on the list and pitch
the idea to them. The key point here is to
think through what it is you can offer –
what’s in it for them. It is important to
highlight from the start that you are not
just wanting them to send you leads but
are looking for a mutually beneficially
relationship, a win-win partnership.
The partnership could take different
forms.
The first one is a full-fledged strategic
alliance. This is where the two companies
agree to recommend each other to their
respective customers and/or prospects on
an ongoing, long term basis. The
promotion to each other databases can
Why is this important?
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TABMA talkFor expert help and advice
they’re enjoying or a task they feel they
have to complete.
Psychologist and writer Adoree
Durayappah-Harrison explains in a blog
post on Psychology Today that for some
people, being late just beats the
alternative. Some people just don’t like to
be early. Sometimes it is just inefficient to
be hanging around for someone before
they arrive, or they might feel awkward or
uncomfortable waiting.
There’s also social faux pas to be aware
of, such as the understanding that nobody
shows up for a dinner party that starts at
7pm bang on 7pm.
There’s also another way to look at it. A
New York Times article suggests
consistent lateness is driven by optimism
— for example, the ability to believe a 25
minute commute will only take 10
minutes, if everything goes in your favour.
In a blog post on Wait But Why analysing
this theory, popular writer Tim Urban calls
this behaviour “insanity”, which is a fair
point.
Either way, there are many reasons that
could explain why people are late all the
time. If you can narrow down your own
personal culprit, you might be able to snap
out of the habit — unless you don’t want
to.
This story first appeared in Business
Insider. Follow BusinessInsider Australia
on Facebook.
Source: Lindsay Dodgson, Financial Review:
April 5 2017.
No matter how important the date,
some of us are always lateSome people are always late. You
probably know someone who just never
shows up when you want them to, armed
with an excuse when they finally appear
20 minutes later.
Maybe it’s you who has the problem, and
no matter how many alarms and
reminders you set, you just can’t help but
leave the house after the time you were
supposed to be at an agreed location.
Plenty of research has gone into trying to
figure out why some of us are like this.
According to human behaviour writer and
lecturer Alfie Kohn in a blog post on
Psychology Today, saying these people are
“inconsiderate” is accurate, but it doesn’t
provide a reason behind the tardiness.
Kohn suggests a couple of reasons why
people could be chronically late — perhaps
they enjoy the attention of making an
entrance, or maybe they are too self-
involved and wrapped up in their own lives
and needs to care that they make people
wait.
However, he notes this can’t apply to
those who are so late for everything they
dramatically inconvenience themselves.
For example, they miss flights or get shut
out of events they really wanted to attend.
While some people check the clock every
so often when a deadline is coming up,
Kohn suggests some people aren’t so
great at doing this.
“Perhaps they have a tendency to lose
themselves in whatever they’re currently
doing and don’t discover what time it is
until it’s too late,” he wrote.
The way we are wired to manage
time could be to blameA study from 2016 by Washington
