As we had new Directors appointed to our Board during the Covid disruptions, it was a timely workshop to bring new and old Directors together.
Charlotte had thoughtfully canvassed the matters Directors wanted to discuss prior to our meeting. This meant that we got to the heart of them quickly allowing for focussed discussions and the exploration of a variety of strategies in Board dynamics and decision making.
Charlotte created an atmosphere that encouraged engagement by all and enabled real and challenging issues to be discussed. This led to the following up of actions and further discussions by Directors to guide continuing improvement in decision making practices and policy development.
We agreed that in a suitable time we would have another Workshop with Aide de MD.

I was looking around for a, well I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, all I knew was that we needed someone to come into the business as part consultant, part coach, part mentor, part objective opinion person and assist myself, my business partner and our recently promoted GMs to set the business on the right course for the next 5 years. After asking around I kept getting introduced to coaching companies that could come in and assess the business, then decide which coach would suit us best and then come back and work with us as a group and individually to grow and develop, blah blah blah…yes these companies have an important role to play and we previously had a coach for the company a few years ago and quickly learnt that it was benefiting the staff individually but had zero effect on the overall business as we required.
Well then I was introduced to Charlotte Rimmer and over an eight minute phone call whilst driving in traffic we instantly hit it off….everything I said about wanting someone to come in and work with us to set the strategy, focus the business, mentor our GMs and pass feedback through a three way communication channel while being a part of the S2M family for the next 5 years was exactly the service she could offer. It’s been 6 months now and what can I say, working with Charlotte is a dream – she’s the only person that’s made our business accountable in 9 years and the impact has been remarkable. I don’t think I need to say much more, we love working with Charlotte and will continue to for years to come.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Charlotte Rimmer at Aide de MD for several years, and I can confidently say her influence has been instrumental not only to my personal growth but also to the strategic success of our business. Charlotte possesses a high level of commercial acumen and remarkable emotional intelligence, which allows her to navigate complex business challenges with clarity and precision while fostering genuine connections.

Her ability to assist in identifying opportunities, anticipate risks, and implement thoughtful strategies has consistently helped us to deliver tangible results for our business. Beyond her technical expertise, it’s Charlotte’s unwavering support, insightful guidance, and ability to empower others that truly set her apart. She has an incredible talent for asking the right questions and offering perspectives that inspire confidence and drive action.

Charlotte’s influence has left an indelible mark on our business trajectory and on my own professional journey. She has been a true partner in success, and I cannot recommend her highly enough to anyone looking to work with a dynamic, forward-thinking, and highly capable professional.’

We engaged Charlotte Rimmer back in 2018 to help us understand where the business was currently at, and what steps we needed to take to get it to the next level. After working with Charlotte over the past twelve months, as the owner of the business, I now have a clear understanding of the business financials, an up to date business plan and detailed forecast to ensure we hit the targets and goals we have set out. Charlotte has also guided us through a restructure which resulted in a number of role and staff changes and due to this, we are now working more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Her ability to fit in with our team and work with all levels of the business is amazing and has really made her an ear to all staff, especially me. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough!
Lisa Solomons
Director, 360PR

Highly recommended. Charlotte is an empathetic, committed and passionate professional. In working with Charlotte I found her to be genuinely caring and sharp minded in terms of advocating for all stakeholders. This is a sacred space when working with a executives and Charlotte draws on her own skill sets that from what I’ve observed she maintains rigorously and harmonises with the individuals involved.
Anna Shepherd
CEO, Regal Home Health

I have had the pleasure of working closely with Charlotte for almost 3 years. We approached Charlotte to assist us with strategic planning for our business during a period of significant change. Charlotte was an invaluable external commercial sounding board for us, who was able to work with us to identify and work towards our desired business goals.
Charlotte listened to us and provided us with clear management advice, challenging us to work towards our goals and supporting us to achieve them. She also assisted us with staff matters, providing coaching and mentoring for our staff. Charlotte’s clear, no nonsense, but gentle approach was exactly what we needed and her expertise and assistance have been invaluable. I would highly recommend Charlotte to any small business seeking an external business expert with a personal approach to guide them in the right direction. Charlotte has been an incredible mentor and I will be forever grateful for her guidance and support.
Julie Grasso
General Manager, Legal Personnel

Charlotte has coached me during the transition from one role to another within the same organisation. She has been instrumental in helping me creating order and structure, providing me with many genuine insights and expertise. Very approachable and easy to work with, Charlotte is also generous in sharing ideas and in creating connections with other professionals in her network. I am very grateful for the coaching provided by Charlotte: the results of our work together made a great difference for me and gave me more confidence to reach my goals.
Rosa Mazzapica
Development & People Lead, The Moriarty Foundation

Charlotte works closely with our business and has helped us to set a plan moving forward. She has provided management advice, aided us with setting clear direction for our business and also helped us with making some crucial but extremely difficult decisions. Her advice has been invaluable to us. I would recommend Charlotte highly to any small business owner who is looking for a commercial sounding board. Anyone who can sit in between a husband and wife management team is a brave and strong person! Prepare to be challenged but in a really nice and supportive way!
Clare Barton
Director, Barton Mills

Over a 6 month period the weekly Skype meetings with Charlotte, to help with the development of my business has proved invaluable. I live and work in Singapore and it can sometimes be a bit isolated in terms of getting help but the ability to do these meetings remotely allowed me to use an incredible resource. Many thanks Charlotte.
Simon Raftery
Orthomed Physio

Charlotte has asked the right questions to lead me to very solid business decisions. She has helped me focus and prioritise what is important in my business. Her coaching has helped me to evolve my business & direct it on a path that I am proud of. Charlotte is able to strike a unique balance of careful listening with her wealth of knowledge & experience.
Marc Lynch
Creative Director/Owner, Digart Agency

Charlotte has been an invaluable sound-board, advisor and mentor to me over the past two years. Her dedication to ensuring that you have the very best advice and follow-up on how things are tracking and what results are being seen is commendable. Charlotte has challenged my thinking on a number of topics and has helped me approach challenges and obstacles from an alternative point of view. She builds trust quickly, always delivers on what she says she will and does it with enthusiasm, candor and an engaging and warm style. If you need a mentor, coach and guide and don’t mind doing homework (you will be expected to do homework!) and need someone that you can rely on regardless of the day of the week or time of the day then Charlotte is someone you should get to know.
Jason Ajai
Principal Partner, Talent Web

Aide de MD is the perfect solution for me as a small business owner. I had been used to working in larger companies throughout my career where everyone had specialist roles so setting up Belle Porschelle required pulling together a variety of skills and working 24/7. I soon realised that it was not physically possible to do absolutely everything and that I was not allowing the business to grow as best I could. Charlotte knows a lot of excellent professionals and has put me in touch with some valuable contacts to improve efficiency and enable me to focus on sales and over viewing the business which has in turn improved performance. We meet monthly and I find this an excellent time to discuss with a like-minded peer various business initiatives and ensure that I have a dedicated timeframe to complete objectives from the last meeting before the next one! I highly recommend Aide de MD and Charlotte to any SME looking to ensure they run a truly effective business across all facets. The confidence she can provide with decision making is invaluable.
Reika Roberts
Managing Director, Belle Porschelle and Derma Aesthetics Pty Ltd

I hired Charlotte to lead my high achieving sales team while on maternity leave. Charlotte has demonstrated a dedicated and versatile skill set managing different scenarios with the same amount of professionalism and focus. It is easy to work with Charlotte because she has a delightful personality and maintains an honest and upfront communication style. I have no hesitation recommending Charlotte to a fellow Managing Director in or outside the industry as I believe she could turn her hand to most things.
Thank you for all your help Charlotte, I have been delighted with how you have run my business.
Victoria Butt
Director, Parity Consulting

Charlotte has a very broad skill set and wide ranging experience which makes her an excellent internal resource. She is an active listener and, although very wise, does not try and solve the problem for the staff member. She will listen, ask pertinent questions, and work through the issue with you until you come up with your own solution. Charlotte worked in the business in an Operations/HR/Business mentoring role and ensured an extremely supportive environment for all staff. She is highly approachable and her natural warmth encourages staff to ‘get comfortable’ discussing topics that may otherwise go undiscovered. I highly recommend Charlotte for any business. I worked with her in the recruitment sector but her skills are transferable to any organisation.
Jennifer Bartlett
Executive Manager, Commonwealth Bank & Trust

Having opened the Talent Web Recruitment business five years ago I recently started a process of reviewing the roles and responsibilities of the senior leaders in the business and I was referred to Charlotte Rimmer at Aide de MD to assist in that process. I quickly realised that there was a lot of work in pulling apart our individual roles and repositioning our responsibilities and Charlotte was extremely effective in simplifying the process and working towards a solution. Charlotte was also great at holding us accountable to ‘homework’ and research to support what we were looking to do, this was followed up in each session with a Q&A around what had been done and Charlotte was happy to challenge anything she felt needed further clarification or more ‘homework’. The end result will be seen in the coming 12 months but for now we have a much clearer description and delineation of responsibilities, we have a better process in place for managing our time and that of our people and we have a very clear tactical and strategic plan to implement for the coming period. Charlotte’s Aide de MD program was exactly what we needed and without doubt deserves our recommendation.
Dave McKillop
Director, Talent Web

I felt like I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Charlotte came with no other agenda but to help me stand back and get an overview and start planning with clarity.
Sarah Blair
Founder, Velvet and Map of the Heart

In the beginning, there were 3 sole traders with complementary skills and an ethic of hard work. Their new studio, intriguing new name, edgy logo and new printer had cemented their joining. Those 3 sole traders were a ‘real business’. Or were they? Enter Aide de MD, smiling and shrewd, understanding and sharp, explaining why there was work to be done ON the business. It has seemed easy being guided through the maze of business setup, planning, people management, and internal systems. There’s been never ending tactics to manage the intricate elements of running the business, a business that we’ve wanted to mould to our own style. It’s obvious that Charlotte has a wide working knowledge of business, but what has fit us so well is her encouragement of our need to break moulds in our field. She’s guided us with true personality, innovation and human touch. Her sound advice and honest care has helped us to grow our real business well beyond our expectations, in both reputation and financial terms.
Charlotte Malycon, Tim Quinn and Dan Day
Kindleman

In 2010, after 20 years in business, I approached Charlotte to help us deal with some changes in our business and to gain objective advice on how to improve our staff management and develop our own skills. I wasn’t sure of the outcome as I was confident that we had systems in place. However, once the conversation started we realised where we could change to get better results. We worked on improving our internal systems; getting more out of our staff by listening and observing their skills and noticing the quiet achievers who were able to take more responsibility. This enabled us to delegate and gain more from our staff meetings and planning. I personally highly recommend Charlotte as a business consultant to help grow and develop a successful business and would love to have her permanently on my team. I realised that I was too comfortable and also how important it is to change with new staff, to continue to gain respect, and to improve communication with staff and partners. When you’re comfortable in your business is when you need a business consultant because you stop trying so hard. I’ve learnt a lot and gained better life balance so thank you Charlotte for reminding me what I wanted in the first place and showing me how to achieve it.
Nicky Cassidy
Owner, Cassidy’s of Harbord and Founder, Pamper The Parents

Charlotte came into my life via a close friend and mentor and I am so glad I took up her recommendation. As CEO of a small NFP with limited resources it is imperative that I keep my focus and Charlotte assists me in doing just that. Through her experience and expertise she steers me through my challenges, making sure I keep my focus both day to day and longer term. Charlotte challenges my thinking, makes me consider options I may not have otherwise, and reinforces my goals. She is a wonderful resource in my business for bouncing off ideas, no matter how obtuse. Thank you Charlotte, for being in my life.
Suzanna Barnes-Gillard

Charlotte helped me to bring discipline and structure in my planning to enable me to better achieve my goals at Mission Australia and more importantly ensure that my work has high impact. She helped me build on what I had already achieved and to claim my authority. I particularly appreciated her willingness to journey with me to incorporate family, personal and other goals which has enhanced my effectiveness as a director of the not-for-profit boards on which I serve.
David Pigott
General Manager, Corporate and Community Partnerships Mission Australia

Lunge Yoga studio had been opened for about a year or so when I engaged Charlotte and at the time I thought things were running smoothly, but I knew there was space for improvement but not sure how to go about it or what needed improving. I always thought there was something I might not already know, that could make the business work better, earn more, etc, but beyond that also find more life balance as well – being in the Yoga and Natural Therapies business. In a relatively short time of working with Charlotte I saw a positive difference in how the business was run and also with my interactions with clients and staff. Running the business side of things felt a lot smoother and less challenging and best of all I found more time to bring back balance as a whole into my own life. This was very important to me to achieve both balances in business and personal affairs as this is the message I give to the clients at Lunge Studio; and so wanted this reflected in my own life. With Charlotte’s assistance the running of Lunge Studio business became a lot simpler and I feel that life-balance was restored as a result. Lunge Studio is about restoring a natural balance back into people lives. Once the business running became more efficient with Charlotte’s guidance I was able to restore life-balance as well.
Louisa Kolega
Lunge Yoga

When Charlotte first told me about her new business venture I was delighted that someone was finally offering this much needed and rare service in Australia. I have now worked on and off with Charlotte for two years plus and at all times found her able to grasp concepts quickly, offer intelligent solutions and above all, listen.
Fraser Brown
Director Global Solutions

At the time Charlotte joined GOW, our business required someone to put in place some order and organisation around HR initiatives (employee reviews, training and development, etc), business services (legal, insurance, standard contract renewal, etc) and managing our business support team. Charlotte did a great job establishing systems and process/procedure across these business service related areas.
Andrew Gemmell
Director, Gemmell Ovenden Walsh Recruitment

OneBuild Pty Ltd commissioned Aide de MD to assist a number of middle managers with their new roles in senior management. Charlotte was able to assist these managers in better understanding their new position descriptions and what was expected of them in a more senior position. Charlotte’s HR skills became apparent as she was able to get these managers to open up so that she was able to get to the core of any misgivings or stress about their new positions. The benefit for One Build and our new senior managers was that they became confident in their roles and had a sounding board if there were any uncertainties whilst knowing that there would be complete confidentiality. It is my belief that at least one of these managers may have found the transition to senior management a bridge too far without the assistance of Charlotte. All of these managers are still in their senior roles and performing extremely well. I would not hesitate in recommending Aide de MD for similar HR consulting.
Tom Silk
OneBuild Pty Ltd

Handling Matters employed Charlotte Rimmer to assist in the preparation, implementation and follow-up of our 2 day conference at Cypress Lakes Hunter Valley. Charlotte had come highly recommended to us by a fellow work colleague. We were thoroughly impressed with Charlotte’s keen directive, professional and tremendously organised approach to our conference. Charlotte has an extremely friendly and approachable persona which we all enjoyed. We would certainly recommend Aide de MD to any potential business looking at hosting a conference. We will certainly be employing Charlotte’s services for our next Handling Matters conference.
Michelle Chapman and Kirsty MacPherson
Directors, Handling Matters Pty Ltd

Charlotte Rimmer brought unique and impartial insight into the way we managed all aspects of our business. Her innovative approach in facilitating strategy formulation was both enjoyable and inspirational.
Carolyn Starkey and Colin Skyba

Charlotte is my ‘go to person’! As a small business owner it can be difficult to maintain perspective when you are working in the business every day. Charlotte provides me with the wisdom and perspective I need to set future direction and to be my sounding board when things get tricky. Charlotte knows my business well enough to give me much needed guidance and has sufficient distance to provide me with sage objectivity. I highly recommend Charlotte to any business owner who needs someone they can trust to stand by their side when things are tough and take their hand on the journey to increased growth and profitability.
Gwen McIlroy
Managing Director, McIlroy IR Group