Louise Woodbury is the author of How to Grow Your Business by Taking 3 Months Off. Louise has used her own growth and development in over 16 years of business to design tools to allow owners of small businesses to fully experience freedom within their business.
Briefly tell us about your business and how you got started.
During the last 16 years there have been many evolutions in my business and my belief is that when you are open to seeing opportunities, they present themselves. Today, our key business focus and passion is providing a vehicle that enables owners of small business to experience ‘quality of life’. We do this by assisting the owner to set up their business to operate independently of them on a day-to-day basis. By using the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of taking three months off as a catalyst for change, owners are then able to fully experience freedom within their business. In allowing the owner to see that there is another way to run a business, this also provides opportunities for the team to step up and to develop their own skills in the areas of leadership and management.
My key focus is to work with our top 20 clients and to train our consultants.
The business was founded by my husband, William de Ora, whilst I was busy establishing my own business running serviced offices. Our paths were destined to cross and I joined him one year prior to us getting married. During that first year, I continued to run my serviced office business whilst running his business simultaneously – as you do! Once married, my focus then became full-time and I helped to increase the turnover ten fold within one year. Since then, I’ve never looked back.
What have been your major achievements?
The key achievements that I’m most proud of are:
- Structuring our business so we could take three months off without having to run the business by remote. And then being able to help other business owners to duplicate the same process.
- Reading The E-Myth during my first 6 months of business and then being in a position to bring Michael E. Gerber, the author of The E-Myth Revisited to Australia and promoting him throughout Australia. Then launching The E-Myth Academy, on behalf of Gerber Corporation, in Australia.
- Launching my first business at age 28, with no previous experience in running a serviced office environment or a small business ? just having the will to succeed and the persistence to never give up.
- Becoming a published author.
What have been your major challenges?
- Becoming burnt out after 10 years of continual go go go and having the courage to break out of this mindset and take three months off from our business ? knowing there were risks involved and to also keep our commitment of not running the business by remote while we were away.
- Committing to promoting the first tour with Michel E. Gerber, with a total price tag in excess of $300K while we only had less than $12K in the bank.
- Starting my first business and learning to make that a success on the run.
Who has been your greatest mentor?
- My mother. She taught me the value of being real and honest – not just with others, but also with myself.
- A clinical psychologist who mentored me on a weekly basis for six years. This allowed me to fully appreciate and understand how to differentiate between the emotional and the logical drivers when running a business. My passion has always been about exploring what it is to be human and I truly felt that if I was to be of value to my clients, then I needed to continue to explore and value how the human mind works.
- Landmark Forum leaders. Based on my commitment to my own personal education, I have completed an extensive amount of learning with Landmark Education (as well as countless other workshops available) and their education system has been a great influence in how I operate my business and also for my clients.
- My clients and business colleagues. Each and every person has contributed to my journey in becoming the businessperson, author and business architect that I am today.
How do you stand out from your competitors?
We structure businesses to run independently of the owner.
Where would you like to see your business in five years from now?
We will continue to work with clients in a consulting role, however, have the freedom to work and write books from locations such as the South of France or Tuscany six months a year. We have launched the Take 3 Months Off consulting franchise and this will become a global operation within the next 5 years.
What are your Top Five Strategies for Success?
- Be passionate about the business you are in – continue to be inspired and inspire others
- Be very very good at what you do – continue to educate yourself – no matter how long you’ve been in business
- Have a team of engaged people around you who are willing to continue their own learning and development
- Have a clear picture of short term and longterm goals – those that continue to stretch and challenge you
- Always knowing that there is a far greater game plan in place and we are only ever playing one small part at any point in time
