Ever been distracted by shiny stuff?
2007 seemed to be the year where we did a lot of shiny stuff. Have you ever been distracted by shiny stuff? Looking back I realise how much ‘extra’ we did. This was also the year that I realised that I get bored quite easily and need additional ‘personal’ projects to keep things interesting. We welcomed a new team member, expanded the directory, published a book and won a bunch of awards. One of these lead to my next major learning curve which I will share with you in a few emails to come.
We published a children’s book!
 | My son was a very fussy eater! I had tried everything to get him to eat a healthy meal. One day I put a little book together where his Uncle Andrew came to dinner. He got to eat parts of his face before he could smell a stinky fart or talk too much. Before I knew it, the book was doing the rounds at our mother’s group and it was suggested we publish it. So I teamed up with local illustrator Leonie Baker and I published Andrew Potato Face a book for fussy little eaters aged 1-6years. Read article >>> |
Welcome Lillian
| The time had finally arrived for me to give up the job I hated most and pass it onto someone who was much better at it than me. We welcomed Lillian Philp to our little team. Lillian was our Admin Assistant but soon turned into our Admin and Bookkeeper and soon got us designers into processes and systems that kept invoices going out and money coming in. PS: Who remembers when computers looked like this? |  |
Another big opportunity
 | The White River Design team was very excited when we where presented with the opportunity to design the large format billboards for Acer Computers. The concept is based on the commercial that were being shown in movie theatres across the country over the next few months. The posters ranged from 8m in length to nearly 22m! They appeared in certain areas in Sydney, in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. |
The directory expands
| We had been producing the Glenmore Park Business Directory for about 5 years and the opportunity to expand presented itself. So in 2008 we launched The Kellyville Business Directory which opened up White River Design to a whole new audience and a heap more work. |  |
Unsolicited advice #5If you have a true entrepreneurial spirit, you will constantly have ideas come to you. It’s not always possible to bring every idea to fruition, but you should never leave an idea unexplored. Share them with your team. You’ll be surprised how fresh ideas can invigorate a team and get them excited about implementing or trying something new. If you don’t try an idea you will die never knowing. If it works – amazing! If it doesn’t, don’t dwell on it – move on quickly to the next idea. I have had many ideas fail – but I have also had many that have been fabulous successes. |
We jump on the awards train
 | Michelle and I were excited to win The Outstanding Professional Services Award at the Penrith Business Awards. This was our third time in a row. That meant our marketing could include the most awarded design studio in Penrith. It was all about the marketing – and a fun night out! |
| While I headed to South Africa for a quick family visit, Michelle and Lillian attended the Penrith TrueLocal Awards… and we won! Their biggest argument was deciding who was going to speak on behalf of the business – neither of them wanted the honour! |  |
We may not have won at the Altitude Awards but spending time with people you know and trust, is gold!
Doing our bit to help
Christmas is a time for giving and White River Design managed to do just that!
With the help of our friends, clients and associates we managed to donate almost $10,000 worth of toys to the not for profit organisation, Aussie Helpers. Read article>>>
