Narelle and Brendon O’Connor are the owners of O’Connor Agri, Financial Skills Workshop attendees and Business Coaching client.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 31 August 2023, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
The duo discuss the rigours involved in working in the agricultural sector, working together in a family business, plus future growth opportunities and exciting plans for expansion.
What is the most fulfilling part of the day-to-day business?
Brendon: Interacting with staff is always good fun, and probably just the growing side of it. [I’m] really enjoying the planting, right through to the end product, seeing the product go out the gate and knowing that it's in a good order.
Narelle: I guess watching the business grow. I enjoy the learning side of the accounts and gaining more knowledge. It's probably only been the last two, three years that I've really got into it. Prior to that, with the four children and being a nurse, there wasn't a lot of time to put in an energy into all of it.
Who does what in the business?
Brendon: I'm probably more the hands-on person on the farm. Narelle’s taken on the financial side, the accounts, and office work, and keeping up with all the regulations and rules and policies. Narelle’s also a mum and a nurse at the same time.
Any advice for those starting their own business or maybe joining the family business?
Narelle: Do it earlier! Right at the start, really learn about how to run and manage a business. Set a business plan and goals early. That’s been a real challenge, especially when you're just trying to get through week-to-week and month-to-month with the money and the income and so on.
Knowing your numbers, learning the numbers early, understanding how your accounts and your books work, and definitely not being afraid to talk to your accountant and your bank manager. And include them over the year, not just at the end of the year when you sit down to discuss the end of your financials, for example.
Brendon: I would love to have done the Financial Skills Workshop when I was 25 or 26. I would have got massive benefit out of it and it probably would have helped grow the business quite a lot quicker so we might be in a different place right now.
How was the Financial Skills Workshop for you both?
Brendon: I really enjoyed it. A lot of the stuff we probably knew, but hadn't quite fine-tuned and tweaked it – just putting different figures and different numbers in different places to actually read where we’re going and where we wanted to be.
It was good to see where we sat with other people and other businesses and pretty much all the businesses were having the same issues – trying to better ourselves and wanting to tweak our businesses. It was also good to meet a diverse group of people – like-minded people, and [find out] where they were going and what they were doing.
Following from there, how is the coaching with Sandra Matthews going?
Brendon: I love it. It’s just accountability really, and putting things down on paper, which I wasn’t very good at. We have a plan of where we want to be and we’re working on a five-year plan. It’s just little things we had to tick off that we were probably procrastinating on.
Narelle: As I said before, just projecting down to the future, when you’re struggling along on a monthly basis, it is hard to look that far ahead. But we’re getting there! Sandra’s made it really enjoyable, [we’ve] learnt lots, learnt lots about ourselves, and just being open and talking about things and questioning ‘why you want it’ and ‘what you need it for’ and really looking into that side of it. Also looking at things more positively, and life in general more positively, and taking time for yourself as well, away from the business.
What does the future look like and what excites you about the business?
Brendon: Probably more expansion (including moving into different markets and overseas markets) and integrating our staff a bit more, so we can maybe do a little bit less.
Narelle: Staying doing what we enjoy and keeping it going through these times of difficulty – climate change and all those sorts of things – to see how we can work the land and the business better.