“I have been driven by having a business that takes care of our investment properties and gives me the opportunity to not compromise on the care of my children while still earning an income.” – Laurie McDonald, Director.

Laurie McDonald established Canberra Furnished Accommodation in 2003 while on maternity leave by furnishing and renting her investment property. Demand for the short-term stay property was so great that she soon added a rental property and applied the same formula. The business grew to offer 40 properties in central Canberra and Laurie now has a business manager and up to five employees. Laurie says she learnt to run a business with no formal qualifications. After diversifying by introducing an executive property range in 2005, the business experienced significant growth. Each property is designed as a cost-effective place to come home to with well-equipped kitchens and modern, comfortable living spaces. Recognised as ACT Business Woman of the Year by the ACT Chamber of Women in Business in 2009, Laurie has expansion plans to increase property numbers by 50 per cent and consolidate the executive properties into one building.

“FitSistas continues to be successful by focusing on professional business practices and having the safety of our clients and staff as our number one priority.” – Amanda Pulford, Director.

As pole dancing studios were becoming popular, Amanda Pulford took the opportunity to create a new business and bring pole dancing into the mainstream. A fitness instructor and personal trainer since 1990, she left a marketing position to open FitSistas Pole and Fitness Studio in Braddon. Amanda developed and trademarked PowaPole Fitness Classes, a hybrid of aerobics and pole dancing that is FitSistas’ signature product, its main source of revenue and the focus of the women-only business. FitSistas has grown from eight weekly classes with 160 attending members in 2007 to 21 classes and more than 300 members. Amanda’s decision to be a member of Fitness Australia – the only pole studio to do so - and uphold its standards was recognised in 2010 by winning the Fitness Australia Personal Training Business of the Year Award for the ACT. It was a huge achievement and one that Amanda said gave her confidence and recognition as a legitimate fitness provider.

“As a small business we compete against national training organisations and through strong industry networks and partnerships, provide quality outcomes for our students.” – Karen Nicholas, Director.

With Australia’s emphasis on skills development, Canberra-based Learning Options is a registered training organisation experiencing rapid growth. It offers more than 40 nationally accredited qualifications to local industry, employers and individuals in government, management, business administration, leadership and project management. Established by Karen Nicholas in 2002, Learning Options awards qualifications to up to 200 students a year. Many students have not been in classrooms for years, according to Karen who was honoured in 2010 by receiving an ACT training excellence award. Learning Options’ growth in the past two years has been underpinned by its participation in the joint Commonwealth-ACT Productivity Places Program – it was awarded 14 per cent share in a recent funding round for the industry skills development program. Starting as a home-based business, Learning Options is now located in Manuka where it has concentrated on embedding online learning technologies into its training strategies.

“Timing is important – you must take calculated risks to seize opportunities and release products early to get user input to help shape product development.” – Alexander Mair, Managing Director.

Lucy Media is a media and entertainment company based in Fyshwick that owns and operates a website portfolio including whosdatedwho.com and fanpix.net. Managing Director Alexander Mair said the websites are places where people create and share content and connect with others of like passions. Established in 2006 to apply the principle of degrees of separation to celebrities and their dating life, Alexander said whosdatedwho.com reaches a global audience of seven million unique visitors a month. He said the business’ success has been driven by innovations in feature development, its response to customer needs, a low cost business model and superior search engine marketing. Lucy Media has eight websites integrated on a common publishing platform enabling editors to provide content with one login. The business was challenged by a reduction in advertising revenue during the global financial crisis and responded by broadening its offerings to maintain stable revenues.

“Our success has come from our commitment to excellent customer service and staying true to our product, tea.” – Marc Nieuwenhuys, Director.

A passion for tea and a belief that they could run a café serving only tea and cakes makes Marc and Nat Nieuwenhuys stand out from the crowd. From a tiny operation selling tea online in 2007, they opened a small teahouse that they quickly outgrew. They took over a nearby tavern at Gold Creek, Nicholls, which they refitted indoors and out to provide more than 50 tables seating 200 people. Next followed a warehouse and head offices, and two retail stores are planned to open in 2011. Marc said the business’ biggest achievements are an exceptional staff retention rate and being voted one of Canberra’s top five cafes in 2010 while the biggest difficulty has been getting bank finance to grow the business. Adore Tea started with 30 blends of tea in a 40 square metre office. Now it has more than 300 blends in premises nearly 700 square metres and is a significant local employer.

“We believe we were the first business in the world to successfully market a user-controlled authenticated electronic identity.” – Kevin Cox, Director.

Edentiti provides electronic identification services, and was formed in 2004 to meet the needs of organisations required to comply with anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing legislation. Director Kevin Cox described Edentiti’s unique solution as “a better mousetrap” that allows individuals to verify their identification. The tool has application for diverse industries – Edentiti’s early customers were national betting agencies, a bank and a renewable energy regulator. With sales increasing annually by 50 per cent for the past three years, Kevin said the Edentiti solution is inexpensive, private, reliable, scalable and easy to deploy. It allows an individual to collate information about themselves from diverse data sources and provide that information to other organisations. Edentiti also provides a secure repository for identity data such as voice prints, finger prints, smart cards, tokens, location devices and photographs.

“We introduced post-course testing that allows the client to see the knowledge gained by the participants and therefore their return on investment.” – Lesley Richards, Managing Director.

Interaction Consulting Group is a management consulting firm specialising in training, facilitation and coaching services. Growing from a home office in 1994 to a company with 12 permanent staff, Interaction helps organisations to build the capacity of their people and their business. It offers team building, development programs, individual coaching, business planning and strategic advice to 36 client organisations. Managing Director Lesley Richards said Interaction’s success is due to the tailored approach it offers clients and the significant senior public sector experience and knowledge of its consultants. When a change of government in Canberra affected spending on learning and development activities, Interaction branched out to seek clients in state and local governments. Interaction’s milestone achievements include winning contracts with whole-of-government panels in the Australian Public Service and the ACT, SA and Queensland governments. Interaction is managing its growth incrementally and recruiting more consultants in mid 2011.

“We have a reputation as a quality provider and an extensive candidate database with more than 30,000 personnel .” – Allison Guy-Ritchie, Director.

Established in 1983 by Jim Ritchie as a resume writing service, PCA People is now a boutique recruitment company specialising in temporary and permanent recruitment in Canberra and the ACT region. Current owner Allison Guy-Ritchie, who joined the family business in 1999, said it is the longest serving recruitment agency in Canberra. It expanded from accounting into government and private sector recruitment for a diverse range of occupations including financial and project management, IT and legal services. Enjoying preferred supplier status with some ACT and Federal Government agencies, PCA People is in a market with more than 25 competitors. From its origins as Professional Careers Australia, the business now has 16 staff based in Civic. Allison said PCA People invests time and effort in the wellbeing of its staff and this was recognised in 2008 by winning an award from the ACT Government for the best workplace health and wellbeing program.

“We try to reduce the amount of study participants need to undertake through the formal recognition of existing skills and on-the-job knowledge.” – Michael Young, Managing Director.

Transformed Pty Ltd is a specialist training company and consultancy that says its success lies in its ability to recognise market opportunities and respond with innovative and practical solutions. The registered training organisation was set up in 2006 to address a national shortage in project manager skills and Managing Director Michael Young said the company’s heartland is project management. Market changes forced Transformed to expand to other states where it identified other skills shortages and developed strategies to address them. It provided building and construction qualifications with a fast-track option to meet building licence changes and skill shortages in Queensland and developed a funded program to increase the number of qualified building surveyors in the Northern Territory. Michael said Transformed’s team has experts who help clients by removing barriers to training and building their capabilities to gain nationally-recognised qualifications in procurement, contract management, project management and construction.

“We have learnt that we need to grow steadily and to make sure that we don’t lose sight of our original company values and vision, maintaining integrity and ensuring proactive regular contact with our clients.” – Richard Luton, Director.

The story of real estate agency Luton Properties has been one of continued growth since it began in Manuka in 1999. From one office with five staff, it now has 80 staff offering residential sales and property management services in seven offices across each of Canberra’s established town centres. Director Richard Luton said he plans to expand into an eighth centre and then to open a regional office in NSW. Operating in a market of intense competition dominated by national chains and up against almost 200 licensed ACT real estate agents, Luton Properties deliberately adopted a market penetration strategy of opening local offices. Richard said Luton Properties’ success is based on an ethical approach, innovation and outstanding customer service. It also emphasises a client-for-life philosophy and invests heavily in staff development, placing high importance on internal company communications and being early adopters of the latest technologies.

“Our values of excellence, outcome focus, innovation, entrepreneurialism and enjoyment are not bumper stickers – they guide our behaviour and underpin our approach to business development.” – Andrew Balmaks, Principal.

Noetic Group was established in 2001 by two former Army officers in a spare bedroom with one good idea and no revenue. Principal Andrew Balmaks said the one good idea was to write military doctrine – approved principles and methods that are the basis of training – for the Australian Army. He said Noetic became the world’s largest producer of outsourced doctrine, writing more than 120 publications for the Australian Defence Force, the United Nations, Australia’s Emergency Services, Federal Police and Customs services. Andrew and co-founder Peter Murphy expanded Noetic providing tailored professional services for governments and the infrastructure and resources sectors. Noetic’s strategic review into juvenile justice in NSW in 2009 was a milestone in delivering nationally-recognised work on human services issues – and becoming known for more than national security, defence and emergency management expertise. The professional services group now employs more than 40 people in Canberra, Washington DC, Port Moresby, Brisbane, Darwin and Sydney.

“We have a passion for educating consumers in the real art of tea drinking.” – Marc Nieuwehhuys, Director.

When they opened their teahouse in 2007, Marc and Nat Nieuwenhuys faced sceptics who predicted their business would not work without serving coffee. The reaction fuelled their desire to stay coffee free and prove that tea could stand alone. Marc said the Adore Tea Australia business has an extremely high customer retention rate and high customer referrals to its café in Gold Creek, Nicholls. While increasing turnover, it has also allowed them to cut their advertising spend. From a tiny operation selling tea online in 2007, Adore Tea has a teahouse that can seat 200 people, a warehouse-office and plans to open two new stores in 2011. It is finalising a franchise model and has a goal of having Adore Tea locations in every state, serviced from Canberra. Starting by offering 30 blends of tea, Adore Tea customers can now taste 300 blends – no wonder the business was voted one of Canberra’s top cafes in 2010.

“We researched other proprietary and open source content management systems such as Wikimedia and Wordpress before commencing with the development of our own solution.” – Alexander Mair, Managing Director.

Lucy Media has succeeded in harnessing the skills and knowledge of its user base to contribute content to its entertainment-based websites. The business, founded by Managing Director Alexander Mair in 2006, developed a web based content management system that integrates social editorial and social networking platforms with a statistical database. This low-cost system for syndicating and sharing media-rich content supports open access and allows interaction and collaboration between editors, contributors and readers. Alexander said this paved the way for another key innovation - creating a motivating, merit-based system that grants points for user contributions and awards extra publishing privileges and status. The Fyshwick based business, a 2010 ACT Export Award winner, was among the first to introduce galleries of user uploaded photographs, resulting in a threefold increase in hits to its websites. Lucy Media continues to benefit from its custom built content management system, which it developed to achieve the flexibility and sophistication required for its business.

“Innovation is not just about creativity. It is also about how we translate these abstract concepts and ideas into implementable solutions.” – Andrew Balmaks, Principal.

Since its launch in 2001 professional services company Noetic Group has grown a client list across all tiers of government and some of Australia’s major resources and infrastructure companies. Established to write military doctrine for the Australian Army - an Australian first according to Noetic Group Principal Andrew Balmaks- the business has become the world’s largest producer of outsourced doctrine. Noetic experienced growth in employee numbers, now more than 40, and has attracted clients in the US and Papua New Guinea. Andrew said the growth brought a challenge in driving continued company performance and was met by establishing an advisory board in 2003. This innovation provided the company with invaluable independent advice and encouragement and kept management’s feet to the fire. Noetic’s latest innovation is a new infrastructure services subsidiary that provides performance indicators to the ports sector – linked to the national strategy for improving Australia’s ports performance.

“We provide services free of charge to the not-for-profit sector in Canberra. It gives us a great sense of satisfaction to know we can help others.” – Lesley Richards, Managing Director.

Starting in 1994 from a home office in Canberra, management consulting firm Interaction Consulting Group has grown into a business with 12 staff. Specialising in training, facilitation and coaching services, Interaction helps organisations to build the capacity of their people and their business. As a way of giving back to the community, Interaction provides services free of charge to not-for-profit organisations such as the Australian Business Arts Foundation. Services include 360 degree feedback and debriefs for each member of a not-for-profit’s leadership team and coaching for indigenous staff members. The business organises fundraising events for charities with volunteering opportunities for staff including the RSPCA Cupcake Day and Lifeline’s Stress Down Day. In these instances, Interaction matches donations made by staff. Red Cross Blood donation days are also arranged every three months with staff given time off to be involved.

“We understand that we are in the business of people and relationships and that our success comes from a focus on people both outside our business and within it.”– Allison Guy-Ritchie, Director.

When Allison Guy-Ritchie became director of her father’s company in 2007, she wanted to continue his goal of encouraging a sense of community spirit. She also wanted to demonstrate a commitment to her workforce and invest in their health and wellbeing. . PCA People, a boutique recruitment company, is now environmentally accredited through the GreenBizCheck environmental program – one of the first companies in Australia to gain this accreditation. Emissions are offset through GreenFleet which plants a variety of native trees in forests in an effort to reduce salinity and soil erosion and provide essential habitat for native wildlife. PCA People has implemented a staff wellness program which includes a monthly health and wellbeing activity that is determined in consultation with employees and management. The business also provides annual sponsorship and support to not-for-profit organisations and events such as Circus Quirkis, Mix 106.3 Special Children's Christmas Party, CareFlight Magic Mania and the Fred Hollows Foundation.