The Icehouse has partnered with Frank Accounting to provide a $5,000 scholarship for female owner managers to attend The Icehouse's Owner Manager Programme (OMP) in 2024.
Felicity Hill, Director of Frank Accounting and an Icehouse OMP alumni, is encouraging women who have equity in a business they lead to apply for the Frank Accounting Women In Business OMP Scholarship. “In my experience, women tend to come up with all the reasons why not. My hope with this scholarship is we can reduce one of those reasons.”
For many female business owner Icehouse alumni, OMP has been the game-changer they and their business deserved. This is what it’s done for just a few…
Did you have any hesitations about doing OMP?
“It was probably just lack of confidence really, of going into this room with all these successful businesspeople, and just nervousness around content and what's going to be delivered, what are they going to ask me about my business, and all those feelings around impostor syndrome. But when you get there, you actually find out you all have very similar stories, which is great to hear.
“[And] getting the tools to make those hard decisions, whether it's with your team or staffing or finances, exit strategy or what your vision is... just a reset really, a look at what you're doing, and have it peer reviewed, and have it challenged, because it can be quite lonely [running a business], particularly when you’re the sole director of the company.”
Clare Davies, Founder and Managing Director of Capstone Hotel Management
How was your OMP experience and how has it changed the business?
“I really enjoyed it. We had a great cohort on OMP 58. I had a little bit of impostor syndrome; ‘Is my business big enough?’, ‘Am I smart enough?’ There were also a number of us who just needed to be more passionate about our business; ‘How do I be passionate about the business again?’, ‘How do I find a succession?’
“The sky's the limit, isn't it? Once you look at things slightly differently, there are so many ways you can go, and that was one part of OMP – how do Trish [Sherson, Co-Founder] and I, as business owners, start stepping back. How do we grow our team and the leadership in our team, so our team members can step up. I think that at some stage in the future we can start stepping back, but that’s a work in progress!”
Rewa Willis, Co-Founder and Director of Sherson Willis
What were your key takeaways?
“There's a whole host of things that I took away. For me, a couple of the key things were, know your numbers… you can rely on an accountant, but you need to be across your numbers. You need to make sure you understand what the levers are. Having insight and understanding is really important.
“[Another] key piece was, if you don't look after yourself, you can't look after others. I think I'm a pretty resilient person. But again, to become resilient or to withstand things when they don't go your way, you need to make sure that you look after number one, to make sure you’re best positioned to look after others.”
Trina Jones, Co-founder of Cultivate
What impact has The Icehouse community had on you?
“It’s had way more impact than I thought it would. I'm just so grateful to all The Icehouse team, who have been so brilliant. OMP was awesome, but the people were just insanely good. I couldn't have asked for a better OMP group. They are rock stars in their fields.
“I’m also so grateful to call them friends now. We catch up with a portion of the group… every couple of months. We go to a cafe or bar and there’s no one else in the world that's ever been able to say, ‘Katrina, you said you were going to do something? Is it done?’
“You're just straight there and into that business talk. Someone will go, ‘I'm having a tough time with x’ and, between us [we can help] – we've all been through something and have got experience to share. You just can't put a value on that network.”
Katrina Jenner, CEO of Jenners Worldwide Freight
It’s easy to apply. Opportunities close 30 November 2023. Get more information on the Frank Accounting Women in Business OMP Scholarship and take the opportunity to invest in yourself.