Threesides gets down with the Australian Institute of Sport following their win at the 2010 Canberra and Capital Region Tourism Awards. But where’s Clint?

Threesides loves a good awards ceremony.  Recently we let our hair down for the Canberra and Capital Region Tourism Awards for 2010, where three of our clients (Australian Institute of Sport, National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Australian Democracy) were winners in their categories.  One of our other clients, Hot Chippies, was recently crowned HIA Professional Renovator of the Year in the HIA Awards ACT and Southern NSW.  So what do we tell our clients who are considering entering awards?  There are a number of ways to get the most out of your award entry, regardless of whether you go home with a trophy.

1. Promote yourself

Regardless of the outcome, promote the fact that you entered the awards and what impact it has had on your business. The marketing and networking benefits of awards won’t be lost if you continue your promotional efforts.

• For winners and finalists – use the winners logo and text on your website, email signature, electronic letterhead, newsletter and letters where possible.
• Write a media release and distribute it to local media promoting your win and your business.  Journalists love local success stories.
• Write a story about the reason why you entered the awards and post it on your blog or your website.

2. Thank your staff, suppliers and supporters

These are the people that make running your business and entering awards even a possibility. Even for sole traders, there’s family, friends and neighbours who all had a hand in your success. It doesn’t take much money or time to say thank you for their support.

• Hold a thank you event for staff – a morning tea or a drink after work is all it takes.
• Buy a small gift as a thank you – everyone loves a movie ticket or a CD vouchers – it’s something for them and shows that you value them.
• Send a letter to suppliers thanking them for their support.
• Include a thank you in your next newsletter mentioning your supporters.

3. Tell your customers

Customers value awards so why not be the one to tell them that you were part of the process.

• Send a letter to customers telling them that you have won or been a finalist in the awards and you value their ongoing support.
• For winners – take a photo of your staff with the trophy showing how proud you are of the win and post it on your website and use in your promotional material.

4. Contact the sponsors

Sponsors make awards possible and without them we wouldn’t have awards to enter. Show them that your value their support and encourage them to continue theirs.

• Grab a copy of the program and write a quick thank you email to each sponsor thanking them for their support.
• Consider ways that you might be able to use their services in your business. After all, that’s why they sponsored the program.

5. Contact other entrants

Who else was in your category? The finalists and winners were listed in the program and through follow up communications you might be able to develop partnerships and opportunities to find out more about their business and why they won (or not).  Have a look at their websites or give them a call to say hi. Now the awards are over, you’re not really in competition any more are you!?

So that’s five key ways to turn your Awards into Rewards.

Stay tuned for the next five, and let us know if you have any other tricks up your sleeve!

A big Threesides congratulations go to Laurie McDonald, managing director of Canberra Furnished Accommodation, who won Canberra’s top business accolade for women last night (10/08/2009).

Laurie was named the ACT Chamber of women in business, Business woman of the year for 2009.  A well deserved win for a well run business and a passionate small business owner.

We proudly count Canberra Furnished Accommodation and Laurie as one of  our ‘award winning’ clients.  We knew she was good and now this is just even more proof!.  The other way is of course to check out the quality of their accommodation in Canberra on their website and having seen them, my choice would be one of their executive apartments.

Congratulations again Laurie and to the team behind you at CFA including Matt (and the boys), Clare and Sonja and all of the support crew.

MEDIA RELEASE: Family friendly businesswoman wins top award

Laurie McDonald was crowned Business Woman of the Year last night by the ACT Chamber of Women in Business. The Award is presented to the businesswoman who demonstrates leadership, a pursuit of excellence and is a role model for other business women, proven by implementing new initiatives in the workplace, providing employment opportunities and being visionary.

“I am succeeding in business by incorporating my values and not compromising my integrity. I encourage other businesswomen to be confident in treading their own path, their own way,” she said.

“Winning the award is something I am very proud of as it’s one of the highest accolades for Canberra women in business. I have stayed true to my beliefs in my business practice – that nothing is impossible and excellence is achievable,” said Mrs McDonald of Canberra Furnished Accommodation.

When accepting the award, at the 3^rd Annual Dinner and Awards held at the Federal Golf Club, Mrs McDonald said “I encourage other people in business to apply for Awards. It gives you an opportunity to assess the way you do business, to make sure you are ‘walking your talk’ ”.

Mrs McDonald established Canberra Furnished Accommodation in August 2003 with just one residential property and a credit card. The 34 year old now owns or manages 37 properties in Canberra’s inner-north and inner-south that are available for short or long term stays to corporate customers and holidaymakers.

“I have developed Canberra Furnished Accommodation into a company that provides quality and value for money while staying true to its motto of ‘your home away from home’. I can summarise my business philosophy into four words – quality, excellence, balance and passion,” she said.

Having two young children of her own, Mrs McDonald strived to create a flexible, family friendly workplace for her employees.  She has established an employee care program and has created positions especially for women with school-aged children. Children are welcomed into the workplace and there are activities provided to help keep them occupied.

“I established the business to enable me to balance work and family, so a natural extension of this was to develop workplace initiatives that would also do this for my team,” said Mrs McDonald.

More information on Canberra Furnished Accommodation can be found at www.canberrafurnished.com.au

For more information, interviews or images contact:

Laurie McDonald, Managing Director of Canberra Furnished Accommodation,

0421 010 405 or laurie@canberrafurnished.com.au

Download the release here: Family friendly businesswoman wins top award 110809 (PDF)

Harold sent me some information on his win and his product.  From Threesides to mHits - “Well done Harold!”

mHITs (pronounced Em-HITS) has won the Canberra BusinessPoint Award for Innovation and Commercialisation. The award was announced at the Canberra BusinessPoint Gala Awards Ceremony in Canberra on Friday 12 June 2009.

“We are very proud to have been a winner in this years Canberra BusinessPoint Awards” said mHITs founder and CEO Harold Dimpel. “It is recognition that innovation and successful commercialisation are possible even in challenging economic times” he continues.

what is mHITs?
mHITs is the next step in the evolution of payments. The service allows users to make and receive payments by SMS text message.

The mHITs service allows consumers to pay for coffee or other food and beverage items using their mobile phone simply by sending an SMS text message. Consumers can also use the mHITs service to pre-order their items before arrival at a venue, meaning less queuing and waiting and faster service.

Users can also send and receive money instantly via SMS text message between any Australian mobile phone. This makes mHITs ideal for applications such as splitting bills, IOUs and taking collections for payments. The service works on all mobile phones, all Australian mobile networks and with any account plan.

mHITs recently launched it’s “pay for coffee by SMS” service in the Sydney CBD and has plans for rollouts in Canberra and Melbourne later this year. Details of venues currently using the service are available via the mHITs website at www.mhits.com.au.

how it works?

mHITs works by users sending SMS text messages to interact with the mHITs server. Payments can be made to other mHITs users, and can also be made to unregistered users. More money can be added from any bank account, or money can be moved out of the system back into a bank account. See below for a summary of commands:
mHITs users can pay each other and purchase goods and services from mHITs merchants. VAll new users currently receive an immediate $5 cash sign-on bonus.

what does mHITs stand for?

mHITs stands for mobile Handset Initiated Transactions and was first launched in 2004 as a platform for delivering pre-paid mobile re-charge vouchers via SMS. The service was re-launched in May 2006 as a person-to-person payment system. A merchant facility allows business to accept payments from mHITs users.

contact details
For more details, visit www.mhits.com.au or contact Harold Dimpel on 0410 622 272 or via email at harold@mhits.com.au.

about Canberra BusinessPoint

Canberra BusinessPoint is an exciting new ACT Government initiative. It is a sophisticated business information mentoring and advisory service for business in the ACT region.
Canberra BusinessPoint is an innovative and free service designed to deliver end-to-end advisory services for startup businesses, young businesses, entrepreneurs, exporters and established enterprises.
Specifically the program aims to assist businesses from a diverse cross-section of industries within the ACT, with particular respect to: growth plans, commercialisation of ideas and concepts and mentoring owners and operators in the effective running of their business.

Visit www.canberrabusinesspoint.com.au for more information.

Okay – before you go any further – we didn’t write the article from scratch – we adapted it from Admin Bandit’s Survivial guide for volunteer treasurers which is available on the admin bandit website.  It’s a great read and a very useful educational tool aswell.  Grab a copy because there’s a lot more handy tips like the ones below.

Volunteer Treasurers – From Villain to Superhero in a few short steps

At Our Community, we run a Board Matching Service, which helps to put community groups in need of new board members in touch with people with skills to offer.

One of the most frequent requests we get is for treasurers, and yet these are often the hardest vacancies to fill. Nerida Gill from Admin Bandit takes a look at why people are so reluctant to take on the role of treasurer, and how you can overcome your own fear of doing the books.

Most people run in the opposite direction when asked to take on the role of treasurer. In fact, it’s probably the least understood role in an organisation but, with a bit of know?how, it’s not difficult.

And it is actually very rewarding — managing your organisation’s finances effectively is one of the best ways you can add real value to your local community.

You don’t need to be an accountant, a book keeper or a financial magician to be a treasurer, you just need to start with the right attitude and some insight into what’s required.

By using the right tool for the job and taking some time to understand what’s required to be a treasurer, it can be a simple and straight forward task.

The following checklist has been designed by Admin Bandit to help new volunteer treasurers settle into the role and build confidence.

Arrange a Handover

1. Schedule a coffee or catch up with the outgoing treasurer to swap important documents. This includes handing over the accounts, cheque books, receipt books, invoices/receipts for purchases, bank statements, budgets, reports and any other relevant documents.

2. If your organisation uses accounting software such as Admin Bandit, get a tutorial on how to use it, including passwords.

3. Hand over the treasurer’s or financial procedures manual, if your organisation has one. If not, you can create one when you’re more familiar with your role — this will add value to your organisation and future treasurers will breathe a sigh of relief!

4. Discuss any unfinished business, such as due bills or income, and any spending commitments or expected income that isn’t in the latest budget.

5. Ask questions! This is your chance to discuss any worries, have accounting concepts explained or get troubleshooting advice. Grab the outgoing treasurer’s contact details for future reference.

Change Bank Signatories

6. Your organisation probably has a rule that two or three committee members, including yourself as treasurer, must sign, and thus authorise, cheques and bank withdrawal slips. You need to update your bank’s records of who these people are, which is as simple as picking up a form from any branch and then filling it in. All new signatories will probably need to go to the bank and show 100 points of identification, unless they are existing customers.

Get Organised

7. Start as you plan to continue — getting organised now will give you a clear picture of what you’re doing and set the tone for your tenure as treasurer. It will also save many hours of late night hair?tearing and rummaging through a mess of paperwork.

8. Hopefully your predecessor was just as diligent as you’re going to be, which means you can leisurely go through the accounts, checking everything is filed correctly and familiarising yourself with what’s required. If not … well, you may have a bit of work to do! But rest assured your organisation will thank you for it.

With a bit of planning, some organisation and insight, you can take the role of volunteer treasurer from Villain to Superhero.

Find the right tool for the job, set up good processes for your committee and turn up to every committee meeting with your head held high knowing your organisation is in good shape.

Nerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit – accounting software for volunteer treasurers, which she designed from her own experience of being a volunteer treasurer in an effort to turn the task of managing books from a dreaded job into a simple weekly task.

Find out more about Admin Bandit at www.adminbandit.com.au.

Winter Thrills Canberra’s fireside Festival

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24070961-5006180,00.html

Jeanti St. Clair…..cool name.