In terms of setting targets and strategising, Bates says the partners meet every six months for a strategy alignment meeting.
“We discuss what we want to set as client numbers for the coming year and just check pointing that. I always had a vision of how large this business can be in terms of the market and we still have some growth to do.
“There are a number of organisations who are the big players in the services business and we now have bigger capabilities than they do,” he says.
The products and innovation side of C3 Business Solutions is also growing, as Bates says it has started to attract overseas interest.
“Our innovation has been around the sourcing of information which hasn’t previously been available. We recognise there is a lot of information held in spreadsheets across organisations key to their performance, so we’ve developed a system which brings all this data together.”
In 2011, C3 Business Solutions won a Gartner award for this software and was one of only four companies globally to be recognised as leading the way in data management technology when it was named as a “Cool Vendor” for the year.
Bates applies the same principles of measuring metrics to his own company.
“We’re working at TV stations, energy companies, banks, insurance businesses, government agencies and not-for-profits. We help them develop metrics, but we eat our own breakfast too so to speak.
“We have pretty comprehensive internal solutions from monitoring our finance, to staff, marketing and sales metrics – there are a whole range of things which we monitor. You can never be short of metrics,” he says.
When starting out, Bates says the business’s main challenges were the same as any “fledgling small business”, but the company’s success has been determined by “good fiscal management and good core values”, which allowed the firm to achieve $1 million in turnover in its first year.
“The challenges now are very different. We’re thinking about how to keep the innovation going and how to constantly invest in the staff and the processes to make sure they’re efficient.
He says the biggest challenge the company faces is continuing to grow in a stable manner.
For Bates, balancing time between work, family and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is paramount.
In addition to cycling, Bates says it’s important to make sure you set time aside to spend with family.
“It’s extremely important…I make an effort to make sure I’m home at a reasonable time to read stories to the kids and put them to bed.”
While many would say riding a bike through the Alps is hardly a holiday, it is ideal for Bates: “You need to find the time to afford yourself to get out on the highways.”
This year, C3 Business Solutions is expanding into another state and growing its services, but he says getting the most out of each day is his number one goal.
“There is only so much planning you can do and I think planning would have been a limiting factor. As long as you’re going in the right direction and enjoy what you do, everything else will take care of itself.”
Bates is also spending time mentoring small business owners and, ultimately, building a business he says is like riding a bicycle up a mountain.
“You need to push through those hard times, know you’ll reach the summit and when you’re at the top, you’re on an amazing high speed adventure. But you’ve then got to manage the right descent of the mountain and manage going round the corners and the speed.
“With so much momentum the decision-making process can dramatically reduce, so you need to think about how you’re going to enter and exit the corners, and make sure you don’t get caught by a speed bump and come crashing down.”
