Westside Business Women Inc.

Guest speaker, Mike O’Hagan, founder and chairman of short-haul removal firm MiniMovers raised eyebrows at WBWI’s May breakfast networking event by predicting that 80% of Australian businesses will be outsourcing administration, research, web and graphic design overseas within the next decade. Mike emphasized not to focus on the loss of jobs because of moving technology but to focus on the idea that jobs will just change. Members & guests left inspired and energized ready to explore new ways to respond to the challenges driving business today.

Mike commenced with a history lesson of Henry Ford’s strategy of “mass production” of the Ford car in the days when raw goods were made into a final product by the hands of one craftsman. In those days, the concept of a car factory was new and many jobs were changed from the blacksmith and the buggy-whip maker to their employment at the conveyor belt of the Ford’s car factory. What has happened over the past century would have been totally beyond the comprehension of people in those days and, yet the concept of a fully automated factory is something we now take for granted. Mike stated that the same way Henry Ford’s car changed the way we work, so too will the concept of outsourcing labour overseas in the future.” For some, this concept may not be an easy one to comprehend yet, Mike foresees it will undoubtedly become one of the most important concepts in our future. Although Mike employees Kate as his PA from the Phillippines, via the American owned freelance job board ODesk.com, he also employees 400 staff here in Australia.

Mike’s Business Tips:

• You need to find a competitive advantage in your market
• Never act on assumption
• Business plans work on assumptions therefore Mike doesn’t work to budgets and plans.
• You need to have a driver. Know where you want to be and when you define a strong goal, you’ll do anything to get yourself there.
• Stay away from negativity and negative people
• Find your passion. Its important to have a passion for what you do and why you do it.
• Fight for what you’ve learned as a “worker” and think like a “business owner/entrepreneur”
• Workers see problems whereas an entrepreneur sees solutions
• Conceive the idea, test it, measure it and duplicate it – Mike’s recipe for creating a successful business

Mike describes himself as "a product of the many really bad, and the few good, employers I worked for". This background helped to influence Mike to "do it differently" in business. One of his initiatives is to offer “free breakfasts” to all of his 400 staff before they start work. This gives his band of men the energy needed to put in a hard days work. His company, MiniMovers has evolved into an innovative market leader, growing from an initial investment of $200 and a Ute, to an annual turnover exceeding $30 million with over 400 Australian employees. His business is now operating interstate with plans to go global.