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Article From October Edition Of FuneralCare MagazineFollowing the half yearly meeting in Christchurch I arrived back in time to put on my glad rags and attend the black tie gala dinner for the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business Awards of which we were entrants. This was to be the climax of a process that started in July when the entry was sent. As a team we at Eagars Funeral Services Ltd knew we had a good business but how did we measure up against other businesses completely unrelated to funeral service. As we were to learn on the night – very well; we won 2008 Small Business Award! I was blown away; it was a huge success that makes it all worth while. As I stood and accepted our award I could see the pride on the faces of my team, they were all there and they knew that they were an important part of good solid business.
The judges said:
“We were privileged to experience a warm and inviting business that deals with the most delicate of situations. Casey exhibited a great passion and commitment towards the industry, her staff and clients. Together with her husband Richard and their family friendly business with great growth potential we hope to see their entry into the medium or large categories in the future.”
In 2006 we entered to see where we were as a business. However, we didn’t really know what to expect, but overall it was a great learning experience. We enjoyed the entire process last time and learnt so much about the business we decided that we needed to see how far we had come in two years. We wanted to see if our improvements were clear and that we have been implementing the right systems and measures and obviously we are.
What was the process and what would they be looking for? Remembering that we were being compared to other businesses we needed to ensure that we had all our best business practices in place, for example: our business plan, strategic plan, financial reports showing our businesses viability, our marketing plan and any other information that we thought was relevant and that was going to make us standout. Not only did we have to know our business but we had to be able to prove it.
Our first interview was 2.5 hours long, Richard and I sat in front of a local businessman and the business manager from Westpac bank. They turned us and our company inside out. We had to describe our business and what we did, where had we been, how did we get here and where were we going. Everything fell into place with them going over our financials, staff contracts, health and safety policies, marketing, strategic planning and the company vision profiles. It was an invigorating process; to be able to answer all questions with the assurance that we had the systems in place to back them up.
In early September (out of the blue) I received a call from one of the finalist judges to arrange a time. I hadn’t thought about getting a second interview as I knew the calibre of entrants was very high. Richard and I then sat down with a further three judges: a senior businessman, senior accountant from PWC and the area manager of business banking for Westpac for a further interview. This interview was very different to the first; our previous interview was very much crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, this one focussed more on management and ownership. How did we communicate with our staff did they know what the company values were, did they share in our vision, was this a business that would continue to operate and be successful if I wasn’t here every day. As we were to learn later they wanted to make sure the business wasn’t about just one person.
Following the awards we received feed back from our judges, this again has been invaluable, there were some extremely positive comments and some area’s that we can improve on. In accepting the award I was able to publicly acknowledge my incredible team for their efforts, thank the families that had entrusted us to care, and stand proud that in comparing ourselves to other businesses we had won the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce 2008 Small Business Award.
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