As I accepted the NSW Telstra Business Womens award for innovation presented by Nokia- I took to the podium to share where I thought innovation comes from.

I shared that GoDo.com.au - the technology that we built to aggregate activity suppliers, which then we deliver via major tourism websites such as Virgin Blue, Webjet, and Lonely Planet to customers. This was the innovation that we entered as part of the awards.

Briefly I spoke of ‘Love Loath Lists’ and how at RedBalloon because we have always been so scarce of resources we look at how we can innovate to solve issues using technology whereever possible.

It came way before this though - my desperate need to innovate. To make something from nothing.

In 1988 I took out a mortgage to buy my first apartment (I was working for KPMG at the time in Melbourne). I wanted to own, rather than rent and figured if I got into the market at a very young age I would always have a place to live no matter what I did. I didn’t have enough saved for a deposit - so my sister jointly invested. Also the repayments were considerable given my tiny salary. Then the government decided to use fiscal policy to slow the economy - interest rates climbed above 16% (My sister lost all her savings in the Pyramid Building Society crash - and had not a cent to assist). We were both very scared - thinking that we would have to sell.

I got through this by never going out, every cent I earned was accounted for, I ate boiled eggs many nights of the week, and got a flatmate (we became best of friends and she is now the Godmother to my son - so you never know what benefits will come).

I learned a tough lesson at a very early age - ‘Don’t over extend’. So whilst I am an entrepreneur and take risks... I have been relatively conservative - and would never 'put my home on the line.' I have never forgotten what it was like to live in fear that I might loose my home.

In 1991 I met and married Peter, by then Australia was in recession (The recession we had to have - said the government). I moved to Sydney to live with my new husband - and I started work at Apple. My very first day at my new job - Pete called to say that “they were closing him down.” He was running a subsidiary of a major bank and they were pulling back to core business.

For the sake of a day - I would never have ended up in Sydney. If this news had have come on the Friday before I would not have left Melbourne and I probably would still be living there.

It was a very painful road. As a newly wed, living in an un-renovated house in Balmain - with a massive mortgage. All on my small salary. We were such corporate people. I had always thought I would work for a large multinational. Pete had had a big career in accounting. But in the early 90s there were just no jobs to be had. It was so very hard. The months went by. To make ends meet we had held garage sales regularly - selling as much as we could including second hand computers, wedding presents and all Pete’s pre marriage boys toys - like wind surfers and skis.

It was Robert Gottleibsen, a long time family friend, a leading business commentator, and editor in chief of BRW at the time, who was at our very humble home for dinner who said to Pete, ‘If ever their was a person who could hang up his shingle it’s you.’ So Pete did just that - started ForeSight Australia, a business advisory service in the garage, in only a few months he had moved to a small office and employed some people. It was only two years before he sold the business - and worked in it for 3 years after that.

I watched my husband create something great. There was a recession on, jobs were scarce. Watching him battle it out, build something from nothing.... and be successful was inspiring - but also a relief.

We had pulled together - (I did the marketing for his business after hours - from name to logo, promotion to spreadsheeting.) What a result. And our entrepreneurial bug was born... from there we have created many business. Some more successful than others.

Out of tough times comes opportunity. I don’t know if without seeing what a success Pete had made of his first business - whether when I wanted to do something different and no longer work in corporate life (because I became a Mum) would I have known it was possible to run my own show.

We all need role models... We need leaders who are positive and disciplined. We need people who see possibility and work really really hard to get things done. Out of this current tough time new great stories will be created.

These are exciting times in which we live.... even if you can’t see it at this moment.

It is not often that I am short for words. I love to talk and I rarely (if ever) get nervous or flustered when speaking to large groups. Today lunch time was a whole new experience.

I was a finalist in the NSW Telstra Business Womens Awards in two categories, Business Owner and also Innovation.

At the briefing for finalists the night before - I heard from past winners how important it was to prepare a couple of speeches in case you won not one but two awards. I thought naively ... “it’s okay if I win I’m pretty good on my feet.”

So as I stood in the spot light...the experience washed over me, the sheer delight at being acknowledged for what we are up to at RedBalloon. Knowing that 4000 entries had been received for these awards, and as the winner I am now representing NSW in the National finals in Melbourne on 9 December in two categories.

I thanked the sponsor - ‘Yellow for seeing Red’ thought I was pretty clever with that one. I thanked our supply community, the people that make RedBalloon what it is. I included Telstra in that - given that the broadband Next G thingimee that hangs out of my Mac keeps me very productive even when I am traveling all over the show. And of course Nokia for believing in innovation.

My team were loud and proud, and I am so honored to work with such a great bunch (past too) of committed RedBallooners who are changing gifting in Australia forever so people feel great when they receive a gift and they get to experiences something they have always wanted to do, to share with family or friends.

Jemma who is the GM for RedBalloon (we’ve been together for over five years) knows me pretty well. When I returned to our table she said - that was the shortest speech I have ever heard you make. At that point it dawned on me... I was heading for the dog house, I forgot to mention my business partner and husband who has supported me unbelievably since the day we met. He has always seen me as ‘bigger’ than I see myself.

Thank goodness I got another chance at the microphone when I won the innovation award.

Feeling out of my depth, nervous, excited, mixed with adrenalin was a fantastic experience. Being honored by your community absolutely exhilarating.

Thank you so much to all those who have and continue to support me, my mentor’s, EO buddies, customers and suppliers. To the amazing RedBalloon team who take my big scary crazy ideas and turn them into process and systems - with flair and fun.

To Jemma and Pete - thank you.

I was rushing to a meeting yesterday in the Sydney CBD - and I was waiting at the pedestrian lights to cross the road. Three people in suits and in their mid thirties were having an animated conversation - they had just left the building on our right.

Person One said “We should be paid overtime for the amount of work we are asked to do.”

Person Two responded “That’s what our Christmas bonus is for - to cover all the extra time we put in.”

Person Three bemoaned “Problem is no one is going to get Christmas bonuses this year.”

The lights changed and they hurried off. I wanted to walk into their employer and tell them what I had just heard. To ask ‘Do you know how you are being talked about?’ 'Do you know how demotivated your people are?' They are thinking it is just long hard hours from here on in. I wondered what frame of mind they are in today when talking with customers.

Even in tough times people still have a choice. Organizations want to keep their A graders, and have them as productive as possible. To get them to give their discretionary effort. I have blogged about it before.

I got to my meeting and in the general chit chat before the agenda commenced, one of the participants commented that his business was still performing well, in fact they had had an uplift in some of their service lines. He then announced that they had canceled the Christmas party. “Why?” I asked. He responded “It simply would not look good - us having fun when there are other people who are not tracking that well.” I asked "Why not just down scale - but still do something.” He responded “Because once we paid the cancellation fee of what we had booked - we wouldn’t have saved any money anyway.”

Go figure...

At the end of the meeting another person commented that in the past five years he had almost never seen his MD. In the last 5 weeks his MD has been ‘rushing around like a headless chook’. He continued ‘All he’s doing is making everyone else panic, my people are all now so concerned they are almost too paralyzed to operate and get on with their work.’

I thought to myself ‘as the leadership team goes - so goes the rest of the organization’ (said that before a few times too). Panic and drama result in more panic and drama. People are looking for steady and balanced leadership. Stick to the plan, deliver on the plan - no knee jerk reactions.

Christmas is fast approaching - it is the time to make people feel special, to honor their contribution, to notice what they do. And to celebrate what was achieved. People won’t mind if what you do is smaller, less expensive. But doing nothing is not an option. It is a long time until next Christmas... and your people have long memories, and now is the time you want more from them than ever before.... so please Don’t Crunch Christmas.

What is happening in your business this festive season?

The whole concept of Entrepreneurship is interesting. Why does one person risk it all to do something differently - whilst another dreams but never acts, and yet another person could think of nothing worse than running their own show.

I have just come back from an Entrepreneur Organization (EO) conference in Singapore. The buzz in the room was electric and exciting. Each talking on top of each other about the opportunities that could arise as a result of a slow down. All looking at what opportunities would come their way, what businesses they could create or buy as a result of a new playing field.

On my return I was reading the latest “Grow your Business”  from Switzermedia.com.au and I thought it interesting to read Peter Switzer’s 29 characteristics that are ‘typical’ of those people who call themselves entrepreneurs - and Peter has talked to enough of them to know:

1. Can’t work for anyone else - like to be the boss
2. Egalitarian - like to be the boss, but they’re not elitist
3. Takes action - They are not day dreamers
4. Their business doesn’t make them a champion - from an early age, they are champions in the making
5. Often launch with very little money
6. Speak their mind
7. Handle rejection
8. Like to prove doubters wrong
9. Know how to get around obstacles
10. Believe in being hands-on
11. Don’t mind being alone
12. Can cope with failure
13. Like control
14. Future focused - don’t get caught in today
15. They tick faster than the clock - they never watch the clock
16. Adrenalin charged
17. Manage time well
18. Goal oriented
19. Into self improvement
20. Often want to move faster than time
21. Strong work ethic
22. Having nothing is no barrier
23. Often have a naive confidence in their own ability to do things
24. Respect staff
25. Understand the importance of systems in the business growth process
26. Not afraid of making mistakes
27. Make decisions even if they are wrong ones
28. Don’t like to be penned in  - look for challenges
29. Retirement is not an option

Just because someone starts a business - does not mean that they are an entrepreneur. It is something innate, the 'dare devil' within. The question remains can it be taught. We need as many people as possible who see opportunity rather than negativity - people who say ‘let’s go for it.’

I was asked to respond to this question following the Australian HR awards a few weeks ago. I thought I would share my ideas further.

"We have a limited budget around rewards and incentives, and want to maximise this as much as we can in order to improve employee engagement. How much do we really need to spend per employee to get maximum engagement?"

It’s not the size of the prize it’s what you do with it that makes the difference.

With so much gloom and doom in the media, employees will not be surprised if some things change. However, there are a few basic things to consider to make sure that you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. If you have been working hard on employee engagement now is the time to consolidate, not abandon the plan. If you haven’t been formally rewarding or even recognizing people now is the time to standout and be different.

Here’s five things to consider:

1. Do a few small things often. It is the authenticity of the message that they will remember. If you really notice people, know about who they are and what is important to them. Then a personilsed message or hand written note can mean way more to them than expensive trinkets. People just want to be noticed.
2. Make sure you communicate the program – if you are spending all your budget on the prizes and none on letting them know about the program you wont have the opportunity to influence behavior.
3. Don’t let Christmas get crunched. For Australians the end of the year culminates in Christmas celebrations. Since we were children we all look forward to summer holidays. To finish off the year – an acknowledgement is needed. It may well be that instead of a lunch it is drinks, or instead of a big hamper it is a $30 Lolly Shop in a box. Many people are very challenged by increasing work loads, working harder, faster and longer just to keep their jobs. A token of thanks is essential.
4. Maximise what you do by following up the winners and getting them to share their stories. Manage the prize giving process with the same dedication as you do working out who is going to be a winner. Put their photo and story in your newsletters, intranet or evenon your web site. Make your winners hero’s in the media you have available to you.
5. Ask them for ideas and input on what is important to them – if you need to cut costs, your people will know better than you where savings can be made. Also if they are involved with the process there will be far more acceptance for the next regime.

People have long memories, they will become cynical to any initiative you try to implement if the first thing you cut is the rewards or incentive program.

You know I love speaking about the different ways that businesses can stand out and get people experiencing the brand. And it's not rocket science. It is just a matter of noticing the detail.

My friend Emma Isaacs has in her email footer her preferred coffee - it used to be skim latte - I notice she has changed to peppermint tea. You know her a bit, even if you’ve never met. As she calls it the Seth Godin Purple Cow effect.

I know the team at RedBalloon all have their favorite experience on their business card - it gives people who meet them an idea about who they are beyond business. We are all people after all.

Businesses are not faceless organizations... it is just a whole bunch of people pulling in the one direction. Any communication gives people an insight into who you are.

The daily message that you leave on your voice mail. I know mine sounds like a bit of a party going on in the background - people comment “you seem to be having a good time over there at RedBalloon.”

Today I sent a message to a group of people and I got two out of office replies. Which of these two businesses would you prefer to do business with.... interesting to note they are in a similar industry. The copy below are exact ‘cut and pastes’ (including typo’s) I have only removed their real names and numbers

"Hello, I will be on away from my desk today, in meetingss, Wednesday 29th Octobe,r until 4pm. For urgent matters, please call my assistant, XXX on xxx or call my mobile on xxx.
Regards, XX"

OR

"You gotta love getting back to basics :) In an unprecedented, bold and revolutionary move, I am choosing to disable my email completely and embrace the joy of hearing actual voices instead.
So if you're a fellow human being who's more heart & soul than internet cyborg, rest assured you can contact me for anything urgent on the good old fashioned telephone via: xxx or my mobile for urgent matters and texts - xxx.
Don't forget to brush your teeth before you call and grin broadly, because unlike email, I can tell whether or not you're smiling over the phone! :) xxxx
P.S. If you need to send me info or docs to look at please send them to XX"

There are so many ways for us to build the brand personality of the business. Let’s start with the basics.

I'm not one to way into political debate... however what a fascinating social experiment. If the world could vote on global leaders - what a different planet we might live on. We do after all share one planet.

This link is worth a look - even if it is just to realise the huge number of people who give a damn - yet can do nothing to influence the outcome.

http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/

I heard a great story this morning that really illustrates the importance of focus if you want to achieve an result.

Apparently in the 70s when Kerry Packer was going through his legal battles in London with world series cricket - he was clearly very focused on winning.

He asked an emanate British lawyer ‘How many QCs (Queens Councils) do I need to win this thing?’ The response was ‘one maybe two’. Packer responded ‘Engage the top six QCs in the country.’ ‘Why?’ he said. ‘Because there is a long way between one and seven on the list and all six against number seven....’ Packer responded.

He brought all six of the best QCs together for a briefing and said ‘You must clear your desks of everything else that you have on... this is the only thing that you have to work on now, it is all about focus.’ It took many months to do this but finally the QCs, cleared their desks.

You can imagine that the QCs were the elite of British society, the cleverest, been to the best schools, absolutely British.

Packer brought them together every two weeks or so for a briefing to assess where they were up to with the case. In the first of these meetings he brought a map, two pins and a piece of string.

Packer hung the map on the wall and announced, as he put one pin in London, one in Sydney and joined the two with a piece of string, “this is where we currently are (London). I promise each of you and your families a one month no expense spared amazing holiday in Australia when we win.”

Each meeting he would put a small flag on the string as to where they were up to. If they had had a good few weeks they might be somewhere over Africa, a bad week and they were back in France. The map (scoreboard) became central to each of these briefing sessions. There was much anticipation about where the six QCs were upto.

Needless to say the rest is history. It doesn’t matter who we are, we all love a game, to be focused on the prize, and a score card to keep us focused.

As the scientist said as he focused his magnifying glass on a piece of paper and smoke began to appear - “If you focus you can set the world on fire.”

Thanks to Dr Geoff Garrett - CSIRO for sharing the story. So very relevant.

I was having dinner with a friend of mine last night... she runs her own show. She said business has never been busier. In fact most of our conversation was about planning her business growth. Odd you might think with the current financial climate.

She is in a business that will feel an upswing in the downturn - she is a clinical physiologist. Another person I know runs a business which gets people back to work after workers compensation claims... he has never been busier.

There are always winners.... but are we ready to advantage of what could be coming our way? Or are we rather too spooked by the media to take business risks?

One of my colleagues at RedBalloon her partner works in Mergers and Acquisitions for a large law firm. She wonders if she will ever see him again he is that busy.

Of course there are the obvious businesses that boom - the lip stick economy, people eating in instead of going out - so take away food is on the rise (as are the obesity rates). BRW last week listed out a number of businesses that will boom.

RedBalloon for corporate has found all sorts of opportunities that we did not know were there. Whilst we have been running reward programs and incentive schemes for years, we are finding area’s that previously we did not get to play in. For instance if a business was running an offshore incentive program - which just got 40% more expensive based on currency fluctuations... I don’t like to think of us as a conciliation prize, but the reality is that at the participants will still get an amazing experience ‘domestically’, rather than their being no prize after all their work...

As bonuses dry up - but people have worked really hard, management are spending smaller amounts but still make sure that they acknowledge their people. They know that if they do nothing - no acknowledgment will cause them much greater harm long term, than the small investment now in a RedBalloon experience.

The other place that we are seeing strong growth is our www.godo.com.au business. This is a real time booking engine listing thousands of activities around Australia and NZ. With people choosing to holiday domestically (or overseas tourists now finding Australia so cheap) they are choosing some special activities locally to  do. Over the next few months we will see Australians re discover Australia. Because our dollar goes along way locally.

This supports the 900 local activity suppliers in the RedBalloon community.

So what I see, is it is back to basics, support local which will keep people employed and the economy stimulated. This is a time when our service economy can shine.

It will take a brave person to start a business now.... but there are definitely great opportunities for growth... though it might take a strong stomach.

Tell me your story...