1. How did your start-up/business journey begin?
The H Factor business was born from a belief that every human being deserves to feel the joy of inspired contribution.
The business started in January 2011. Prior to this, I was working as the HR Manager for Gull Petroleum (Aust. & NZ) during my time with Gull (some 10 years), I focussed much of my attention on what strategies (and natural human drivers) actually improved performance, engagement, and willing contribution, and what leadership aspects had the biggest impact. Sometimes the results were surprising.
About that time (Jan 2011), Queensland experienced one of its worst flooding events on record and I vividly remember being horrified watching the live feed from Brisbane, then I witnessed something truly wonderful; it was the 15th of January 2011, three days after the waters had moved through Brisbane CBD, the Govt. of the time asked for 6,000 volunteers to help with the clean-up, and 80,000 men, women, and children came out of their homes to assist! The “Mud Army” was born.
These people worked hard manual labour in absolute filth. The interesting thing was, no one told them to do it, no one paid them to do it, no one told them what to do once they got there, but I would guarantee that when those 80,000 people fell exhausted into their beds that night, they would have had the best feeling of elation that they’ve ever experienced.
I asked myself what was it about that example that inspired people to do what they did. I came up with four things.
1. A purpose – a why, or in this case a cause;
2. Community – feeling part of something bigger than oneself;
3. Autonomy – being in charge of oneself; and
4. Contribution – being able to look back and feeling good about their impact.
The next obvious question was … Could we provide these four things in business? The answer of course, was a resounding yes!
The H Factor was born. During a chance meeting at a social event, I was introduced to Andrew Seinor (my business partner), we created a structured process that delivered these four aspects into businesses and then in mid-2017, we created The H Factor cloud based people management system.
In January 2019, we applied for the Plus Eight Start-up Accelerator Program run by Spacecubed, got through the first round and in February took part in the Boot Camp weekend. Wow, this was a great experience; we realised that we needed to talk differently about our business and move from a consultancy firm to a product firm. We didn’t go any further in the Plus Eight program but what we learnt while there revolutionised our business.
2. What are you working on at the moment?
Since February this year, we’ve been developing a License System to grow our business. Through this system, we train consultants on implementing our cloud-based system and have a revenue sharing model. We currently have four licensees in Perth, three in Sydney, one in New Zealand, and are currently speaking to a possible in Adelaide.
3. What do you love about being a part of the Spacecubed community?
The energy of working with a wonderful group of entrepreneurs has accelerated our business, kept us focused, and “coming to the office” has become a joy.
The staff are wonderful; they’re always friendly and helpful, and assist in introducing like-minded businesses where collaborations can occur.
The collaborative approach; instigated by the staff and facilitated by the floor-plan, enable members to easily introduce themselves to others and answer questions and/or make recommendations to and for each other.
4. Can you share with us one of your favourite success stories?
We met a client some years ago, around their kitchen table. They were a man and wife team with a vision to create a niche engineering company. We applied our process; helped them define their why, articulate their business in its perfect future, developed the org structure that would take them into that future, built clarity into the positions within that structure, and then assisted them to implement the H Factor process. Within a three year period they had launched their business and built it into a multi-million dollar success story with a team of six people.
5. What do you hope to achieve in 2019?
We plan to continue enjoying the Spacecubed community, continue to build and improve our product, and engage more licensees to share and deliver our belief.
If you're curious about coworking and how being a part of an innovative community can help your business grow, join us next Thursday for our Coworking Open Day at Riff. Grab your tickets here.
