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The Eighth Mile Consulting – A One Year Snapshot

The Eighth Mile Consulting officially launched in January this year (2019) and our team has been on an exciting roller coaster ever since. Modeled on a belief of ‘Good People, Helping Good People’, we have stepped out into the world seeking to find positive people and support community serving projects.

The purpose of this report is to provide a mechanism to communicate all of the lessons we learnt along the journey so far. In doing so, we hope that it serves other teams and removes the need to learn the same mistakes the hard way. We also hope that it helps them to capitalise on opportunities which we have identified.

This follows a six-month report which we published in August this year, called “Our no BS review of The Eighth Mile Consulting – 6 Months in”. It also includes many lessons that might be of merit to others.

Snapshot

  • Our team has grown from 2 to 11 people.   
  • We have achieved our first-year brand recognition targets. 
  • We achieved our financial targets. 
  • We exceeded our organisational growth targets by 30%. 
  • We have set all the conditions for our next phase in 2020.

Now that we have that out of the way these are the lessons we learnt or have had reinforced throughout our short journey…

Lesson 1: Only supporting positive projects is financially viable

We have conclusively proven that supporting positive projects is a viable business methodology, but it requires consideration of a number of factors to remain sustainable.

Project funding models need to be discussed early in scoping stages and need to be leveraged off of a Return on Investment (ROI) for the customer. The customer needs to feel that they are supporting something which will provide a positive legacy for them, the community and their brand. But, it needs to be clear that the project is ‘for profit’ as we have staff to pay and administration costs to attend to.

Many positive industries are still in the early stages of development. This means that they have not yet fully embraced the idea of consulting being used in support of their existing organisational structures. This can make conversations difficult when trying to find middle ground that will ensure value for both organisations, whilst also delivering positive projects.

The best approach is to be clear, transparent and upfront about everyone’s expectations.

Lesson 2: Plan to scale and grow quickly

All the strategies in the world will not determine how it plays out on the ground. Always have a reserve or something in the back pocket in order to deal with unforeseen contingencies.

We spent significant time preparing a methodology for scaling our services, based on a number of growth assumptions. As it turns out, what we thought were ambitious growth targets were only half of what was required in reality (a good problem to have). A rapid increase in demand required that our strategy be accelerated in areas in order to accommodate the number of projects which were required in a short time.

We are now in a great place with good projects and initiatives in the pipeline, supported by a proportionately growing staff pool. For the meantime we have found the right balance, but admittedly there were some late nights trying to figure out how we can ensure services were provided to the standard we hold ourselves to.

Lesson 3: Leave your ego & pride at the door. Don’t go down with a sinking ship.

It is not always clear what initiatives will land and which ones will not. Linking back to our military careers there was a popular saying among leaders, “time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted”. The same rings true in business.

The time spent conceptualising new ideas, creating a plan for market, and then probing out to determine its value is essential in ensuring your relevance with other client organisations.

This being said, do not put all your eggs in one basket, and do not keep whipping a dead horse. Probing, by its very nature, is used to confirm, validate or deny facts and assumptions. If the data comes back that it isn’t worth the continued effort in a certain area. Stop, learn/adapt, reorientate, and then move again.

Lesson 4: The Sunshine Coast is very difficult to establish in.

One of our aims has been to base The Eighth Mile Consulting out of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. The reasons for this were based around a growing economy, an acceptance of small businesses, lifestyle, community, technology advancements and great infrastructure.

As it turns out the vast majority of our clients are based in Brisbane. It has been very difficult to break into the cliques associated with the Sunshine Coast despite many efforts to find relevance in the community. In many ways we have found it easier to provide services to other countries such as the USA.

Our company is very keen to support The Sunshine Coast in a more formal capacity but something is going to have to give. It might be a matter of time and pressure making diamonds, but it also might be a venture which is not viable long term. Time will tell.

Not known for stalling, we have a number of initiatives we will test. Depending on the viability of the outcomes we will make decisions whether to officially base our efforts out of Brisbane or Sunshine Coast.

Lesson 5: Build a high performing team, and clients will magnetise towards it.

We are fortunate in that we have access to a unique pool of extremely high performing leaders in which to create our staff base. We have made a deliberate choice to grow the team, prior to knowing all the problems. In doing so, we have actively sourced people which we trust, and we know can deliver incredible services to organisations that need it the most.

The beauty of having access to such people is that they are able to remain flexible and adapt their style, approach and methodology to suit the client and the target audience. The second advantage is that the more high performers we draw into the pool, the more appetising it is for other candidates who may have been fence sitting prior. In essence, it generates its own momentum and energy.

Lesson 6: We remain methodology agnostic

From our inception we have been, and remain, project methodology agnostic.

Due to our tertiary qualifications and history of project management we have developed a strong understanding of different project methodologies. We can use them if requested/required, but you will not see us heavily pushing a specific approach.

Instead, we are strong advocates on developing customised solutions for clients after listening intensively to their stories and determining their needs. We do not subscribe to a one solution fits all approach and we will continue to work under this design. It works for our clients, and it works for us.

Lesson 7: Keep having fun

Throughout this journey we have grown our team, fought through the challenges and have done so with a big smile on our faces. We revel in the complexity and the uncertainty and it has only served to cement many of our friendships in even stronger foundations.

We enjoy going to work and being around our team. We learn and professionally develop from each other and we are good at what we do. I can’t wait to bring in some more equally positive people to the company.

Lesson 8: Continue removing single points of failure

Until now there has been a misconception that The Eighth Mile Consulting team is the ‘Dave and Jono’ experience. This is a perception we need to rectify, as we feel it directly undermines the amazing work being provided by our ever-growing team.

Significant effort will be placed in the next cycle to demonstrate the amazing and unique skillsets which our team provide on a daily basis.

The plan moving forward

Keep trying to find good people by teaming up and partnering with more like-minded and motivated individuals, teams and organisations. 

Continue to scale our services into new industries (watch this space). 

Continue to find our relevance in the Sunshine Coast until it becomes overtly obvious that it is no longer viable. 

Continue supporting veterans, emergency services and first responders as part of an enduring effort across multiple projects. 

Continue to organically grow our follower base on Linkedin without the use of sending requests from the Company page. We believe in creating a community of people who want to be involved, not those who felt pressured to join us. 

Continue growing our team at a rate commensurate with our service demand. 

Continue providing value for free online platforms like LinkedIn, websites and Business magazines in order to help other people, whilst concurrently demonstrating our team’s knowledge base. 

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Our No BS Review of The Eighth Mile Consulting – 6 Months in

We have decided to honestly document some of our lessons collected over the first six months of operation. We hope it helps people.  

We have tried to gear our efforts towards expectation managing others who may be considering the challenge. In doing so, we will be brutally honest with ourselves and you. It’s the ‘Eighth Mile’ way. 

The Background 

The Eighth Mile Consulting officially launched on 01 January this year (2019). At its launch, the team consisted of just the two of us. We had known each other for 14 years in the Australian Army as Infantry Officers and we were confident that whatever happened, we could trust each other. We knew that we had very different ways of thinking. We knew our strengths and weaknesses very well. 

This was a good foundation bedrock from which to launch a business. People who knows us well, know that we are also brutally honest, and we wear our reputation on our sleeve. Above all else, we also like helping good people. So here goes… 

What Did We ‘Know?’ 

  1. Right platform. We needed a platform that allowed us to explore all of our crazy ideas that we had been suggesting over the years.  
  2.  Only work with good people. We would only support good people, projects and initiatives. We would outright refuse to support anything that doesn’t align with ‘Good People, Helping Good People’.  
  3.  Aim to Grow. We wanted to grow our influence in order to help more people. Secondly, we are good at making friends and we are good at what we do. We made an educated guess that there were many others that would fit into this ridiculously simple criterion, and therefore we could grow our team. We also knew that we needed people who were not like us in order to cover our gaps. 
  4.  Abort Criteria. If it jeopardised our reputations, our values or our friendship, we would turn it off.  
  5.  Strength in numbers. Consulting was a highly competitive industry, and we would grow our influence by doing what we do best; forming teams of like-minded people that support positive causes. We would leverage off their well earned reputations and networks, and they would leverage off of ours. 
  6.  Protect the brand. We would protect the reputation of the brand at all costs, even if it cost us our growth. We are fiercely protective of our brand. 
  7.  No investor funding. We would back ourselves and launch without investor funding. The risk of this was somewhat mitigated by relatively low overheads when compared to other business types. But it also meant we would have to work fast and be very targeted in our approach in order to source revenue for the company.  
  8.  Bite the bullet and operate by the book. Jonathan and I have skills and qualifications developed over many years, but we were reasonably weak at financial processing and legal administration. We knew outright that we would need to seek external help on an ongoing basis to make sure we got everything right and by the book.  

What We Didn’t Know At The Time Of Launch (Top three) 

  1. How many good people there are out there, and how many needed our help. It is difficult to measure, so we went with a gut feeling. We were right, there are heaps of them out there and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.  
  2. How we would be received by the market and by others. Would we be just another one of those small ‘wannabe’ firms that gets lost in the white noise. This is too early to tell. But we hope that even if this did occur, we would have left the market with a positive impact by having supported some incredibly positive initiatives. 
  3. How powerful our existing network was. Our background was largely Defence, with a comparatively smaller commercial & corporate network from our time in the corporate environment. Turns out we had an incredibly influential and impacting community network that sometimes lay dormant until prompted.  

We are eternally thankful to everyone who has helped our team. We could not have launched this without your unwavering support and loyalty.  

What We Still Don’t Know 

  1. The scope and scale of emerging industries and opportunities. We have our eye on a number of emerging industries, which I believe will have a profoundly positive impact on the world.  
  2. How we are perceived from the outside. We imagine that there are still a number of fence sitters watching us from afar wondering if we will fall off the perch or not. Sorry to say team, we are embedded like an Alabama tick now. More LinkedIn posts coming your way about positive projects. No apologies.  

Top Lessons Learnt 

  1. Ask for help and be humble. We gained momentum by biting our pride early and seeking help from others including friends, family, and all available networks. In doing so we rekindled relationships with lost friends, and I am so grateful I did. The Eighth Mile has been one of the most positive decisions we have made as a result. 
  2. There are bad people. Some people lose their way in life and turn to the dark side. In the short time we have been operating, we have already encountered: 
  • Some people steal your ideas and don’t acknowledge your input.  
  • Some people don’t take you seriously because you are a small firm, and therefore make assumptions about your competence. 
  • Not all the people you expect to support you, will. However, people you didn’t consider, will come out of the woodwork to help. 
  • You learn quickly who your friends are…and were. 
  • Understanding the context behind an interaction could mean the difference between an enduring relationship or a burnt bridge. 
  • Not everyone is operating by the same positive values as you. 

Sometimes these events hurt at a personal level, particularly after having been so careful to screen prospects through the ‘good people’ filters.  

  1. It can be difficult to monetise only supporting good projects. We knew early that this would be difficult, but people are now approaching us about having our positive brand associated with their projects. The difficulty lies with those organisations that are on the fence. They might have good people, but they are doing a questionable project, or vice versa. In those instances, we as a team make a judgement call and see whether we can help them in the areas they need improvement. By in large, most people and organisations are trying to do the right thing. 
  2. You must explain when you are offering advice or it’s a paid service. In doing so, know your value.  
  3. Find a gap. You need to become relevant… quickly. Our backgrounds have taught us to support whatever team you’re in. At times this requires learning new skills, lifting heavy things, and doing things you don’t want to do.  
  4. Small business can be fragile. Cash flow and time are the lifeblood of small business. Making simple mistakes can be very costly. In our case, we invested too much time into the wrong people, which unfortunately drew our attention away from those who were doing good things for others.  

Summary – Moving Forward 

Positives. We have grown from two to six staff (in varying capacities) in the six months. We have good people approaching us for projects and for jobs. We are finding gaps in new industries that no one else has yet seen. Our brand appears to be well received and is now being associated with positive initiatives.  

Focus Areas over the next 6 months. 

  1. Changing people’s perception of The Eighth Mile from being just ‘Dave & Jono’ to a growing business that currently includes six amazingly capable individuals we are very proud of. 
  2.  Cementing our presence in a number of new industries. If you think we can contribute to a positive industry, we might not have considered yet. Please contact us for a chat! 
  3.  Cement our physical presence within the Sunshine Coast area in Queensland, Australia. 
  4.  Communicating our capabilities more effectively. 
  5.  Continue supporting our current clients in making a positive legacy. 
  6.  Continue supporting veterans, emergency services and first responders as part of an enduring effort 
  7.  Grow our staff pool and influence 
  8.  Build our support to the local community  Jon
Jono and Dave at the Better Business Breakfast in the Sunshine Coast

Every six months from now, we will release an article which captures our lessons learnt in an effort to help more people considering the challenge. 

If you would like to see some of our other articles they can be accessed via our website:  The Eighth Mile Consulting

Cheers  

Dave and Jono

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