Congratulations to an extraordinary partnership, 10 years!
In 2010, Aide de MD was 5 years old and I was a business mentor working with Reika Roberts on her successful distribution business. With Reika and her team’s hard work and commitment, we had seen growth in both distribution and revenue over the previous years.
At our regular monthly accountability meeting, Reika was excited to tell me about Simone Vescio, a woman she admired immensely and had similar values and thoughts about business. Their relationship grew and they agreed to partner and distribute a new line of products, importing them from Germany. Derma Aesthetics customised skin care is bespoke, free from preservatives, emulsifiers, fragrance, colours, mineral oil, silicones and amines.
With a history of sensitive skin issues, it was a pleasure for me to learn more and participate in their plans to grow the distribution. As a business mentor, it was an exciting time to be involved in the planning and execution of a trusted product with two strong, independent and complementary women.
Reika suggested to Simone that they needed a business mentor. Someone who could act as a mentor, confidant, sounding board, to keep them accountable and help them grow the business. Simone was initially dismissive as she had plenty of her own entrepreneurial spirit and didn’t see the need to be guided. We started our meetings working out the most constructive way for me to support them and recognised that motivation wasn’t required as they are two of the hardest working, driven women I know. But as a trusted third party with plenty of commercial experience, the three of us could debate, discuss, and reconsider plans monthly. I provided the agenda and accountability to ensure that the less exciting parts of running a business were completed while ensuring the overall strategy was aligned with their long-term goals. Inevitably I would arrive at our meetings, and they would smile and say such things as “we’re not sure how to tell you this but we’ve bought a new business” or “we’ve hired x” and we need to ensure we can make it work!
After 10 years, 100’s of hours and many whiteboard sessions together, I am so proud to see them achieving their goals. They have created an extraordinarily strong culture, an effective accountability framework and celebrate up to 10 years of employment with their team. Their revenue has grown year on year, and they continue to expand through a genuine interest in education for their clients and themselves. We have worked through challenging moments and celebrated extraordinary achievements.
So, this year, we’re missing our annual partnership event due to COVID, and I’m terribly disappointed. We will continue to re-schedule until we can meet and revisit their goals and set fresh plans. In the meantime, here’s a call out to two impressive, clever and inspirational women. I look forward to continuing our work together, and to celebrating over a long lunch in the future.