When her ex-husband got too sick to run the business Kate took the helm in 2009, now Tasmania’s largest conveyancing firm. Grew from $350k to $2m in sales, and 2 FTE to 12. Key is using experts hiring well and great culture (Kate Goodman)

Aug 9, 2020

In this episode, I interview Kate Goodman, the owner of Goodman Conveyancing and a licensed conveyancer. Her ex-husband and best friend started a legal firm in Hobart in 2001. After he became too unwell due to MS, Kate stepped in to run the conveyancing business, now the largest in Tasmania. Taking the helm in 2009, sales grew from $350,000 to now $2 Million a year, and a team made up of herself and one other person, to now 12 full time employees. She nurtured a very flexible and family friendly work environment as she found out early on in her career that it’s hard to find a workplace that is family-first, fun, and flexible. 

Her daughters and their two families of 3 are in the team. They are big believers in outsourcing to experts, from marketing, bookkeeping, business consulting, to HR. Staff are key to conveyancing and Kate advises small business owners to employ staff personally and find team members who can relate to people. Kate felt she had succeeded when a few years ago sipping champagne on the ferry to Mona, her team Christmas event, had her thinking she had really done something. She believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is managing growth and getting those numbers right. The advice she would give herself on day one of starting in business is, “Learn how to say no more”. Stay tuned for that and more.

This Cast Covers:

• Doing residential conveyancing and working with both purchasers and vendors.
• Starting as a legal practice, how they shifted, and Kate’s entire backstory.
• From $350,000 in annual revenues in 2009 to $2 Million in 2019.
• Growing the employee numbers from 2 to 19
• Working in a workplace that allows you to put your family first.
• How numerous referrals demonstrated the kind of success she had achieved.
• Getting respect within the conveyancing industry.
• One of the major reasons why you should outsource marketing.
• Bootstrapping the business to grow solely from cash flow.
• The fear and stress that she went through within the first 12 months of taking over the business.
• Staff and culture: The area every small business owner should work on the most to add the greatest value.
• Learning as much as you can about the business so you can offer the best service to your clientele.
• Developing the virtue of bravery as a business leader. 
• Employing people based more on their personality and not just their CV.
• Creating a culture of understanding, unity and harmony among your staff.
• Investing in personal and professional development to expand your knowledge base.
• Enhancing and growing your emotional and social intelligence skills to help you in running the business.

Additional Resources:

• The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma

 

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/