In today’s episode, Jeff interviews Eric Tjoeng in Sydney Australia. Eric was recruited from Sydney University’s campus after completing his economics degree and postgraduate studies in IT. After college he landed a job at one of the big Accounting firms in Sydney and after a few years went on to set up an accounting system and launch a franchise system for other companies. He also worked his way up to General manager of a billion dollar company in Singapore. Eric has seen first hand from his friends that small to medium businesses spend a lot of time putting out fires and he wants to help them grow their business like big businesses do.
Eric and Jeff discuss:
- Once he finished his Economics degree from Sydney University, he did his postgraduate qualifications in IT.
- That landed him a job with the big (4) Accounting advisory firm in Sydney.
- Later he worked at Jaguar Land Rover where he was responsible for setting up the accounting system for a landrover division.
- Worked at Avis Australia owned by Avis America Inc. at the time and helped them to launch a franchise system in Sydney.
- Then Eric was a General Manager for a 1.4 Billion company in Singapore.
- Eric had a light bulb moment: when he realized that his friends with small/medium business spent a lot of time putting out fires.
- He joined a CFO & business advisory company with 60 partners in Australia and New Zealand.
- Left in 2015 to start his own management consultancy company with 7 partners.
- 4 out of 5 companies go out of business in the first 5 years.
- Most small/medium size businesses fail because they don't have a clear strategy or direction of their objective and how to get there.
- For new clients with small businesses Eric’s team focuses on (2) areas at a time. Then move to different areas.
- What’s New: on the BGES.co website is (2) survey’s. You answer a series of questions and you get a personalized report.
Fast Five Questions
- If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? “Contact businesses already in my network and let them know I’m available to help them grow, sustain and exit in their business.”
- What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? “In the early days of my consultancy, I believed that when you agree with them on what needs to be done they would be accountable to make things happen but they spent most of the time running their business and trying to survive. Unless you prioritize and work with them to get things done, next time you see them again they won't have it done.”
- What is a book that you would recommend? “Jim Collin's book “Good to Great”.”
- What is a tool that you use everyday that you would recommend? “Calendar (electronic).”
- What is the best way to contact you? “Email is the best - erict@bges.co, You can also google his name, LinkedIn - Eric Tjoeng and website - BGES.co.”
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