Sue Barrett has made her young consulting firm an award-winner. She believes in picking the right clients - and working passionately.
| Entrepreneur |
Sue Barrett, Managing Director |
| Company |
Barrett Pty Ltd |
| Business type |
Management consultancy |
| Founded |
1995 |
| Head office |
South Caulfield, Victoria |
| Contact details |
+61 3 9532 7677 |
Key Learning Points |
|
Business development
Building a business is a constant process. Prospecting for work is an essential, unavoidable part of the process. Force yourself to pick up the phone.
Public relations
“Visibility management” must be a daily discipline. Never miss a chance to get your name before current or potential clients. Involve clients in good news stories - let everyone know when good things happen. Word of mouth referrals provide unbeatable credibility and their value that can’t be overestimated.
Business passion
Without passion you just won’t have enough energy or desire to make business success happen. Staying positive is crucial. Set goals and “see” yourself achieving them. Money is not THE priority, although must always be A priority.
Mentors
Find a mentor and advisers - and use them. Learn how to ask for help.
Working with clients
It is important to have the right mix of clients. Barrett says: “Market challengers who will experiment and push a few boundaries are the right ones to go for.” It is important to remember that helping others helps you.
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The Barrett Pty Ltd Story
You have to be a special sort of person to take a business from a kitchen-table start-up operation in January 1995 to a Telstra/Victorian Government small business award winner in 1997, to be a finalist in the Telstra Businesswomen’s Award in 1998, and to be made a member of the Australian Businesswomen’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Meet Sue Barrett: the pragmatic, friendly achiever who has done all this and more.
Barrett Pty Ltd is committed to “demystifying the secret psychological business”. It provides human resource development services such as sales psychometric testing, training, recruitment strategies and job development. Barrett says: “[We are] delivering on the promise of real, practical and proven tools that you can apply immediately. And we are our own laboratory.”
Barrett has an extensive list of clients, including big corporations and small and medium-size businesses in many industry sectors. Barrett has doubled in size every year since it was founded and has funded its own expansion.
It has been a remarkable journey for Barrett, a Monash University medical science graduate who started her career as a drug company representative. Seven years in recruitment, including time spent in charge of a division specialising in sales psychometric testing, taught Barrett how to run a business.
From an early age, Barrett was always an achiever at school and in sports such as competitive swimming. She remembers being a much-loved and supported child who was encouraged to be a full person regardless of her gender. She thinks that teaching children to have self esteem gives them an important foundation in their lives.