Jessica gets some media

This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph this week:

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JESSICA Kiely runs the FRANK team, which does career and entrepreneurship training for young people at schools, universities, colleges and councils.

Describe your business?

It involves holding workshops and programs for young people on how to start their careers and how to start their own businesses.

It began about six years ago in 2001. There was nothing like this when we were at school, which is why we're doing it.

How long ago was that?

Well I'm 30 now. This was the second business I've started up. My first business was tutoring.

We've found that not many people who should be in a position to help are very friendly and helpful when you're young. They tend to be patronising and not take you seriously.

But there is a real need to inspire young people, to help them if they want to run their own businesses. We've moved into the career areas as well now, because the schools are demanding it.

There are some key skills that young people need these days. They no longer get a job for life, they need to be in control of their work and they need to build the skills to give them that control. The new rule is that they have to be skilled up and ready for that reality.

We've also ended up in front of parents and teachers. They need to understand what their children are doing too.

How do you make money?

We get paid for our presentations by the schools, universities or corporations.

How long did it take before you made a profit?

We started in 2001 and we were probably making a profit after six months. There weren't a lot of set-up costs as we were running the business from home where we had no overheads. We've now leased an office for the first time.

For the first four years I did all the paperwork, but we've now got a book-keeper and an accountant to take care of that. And we have project managers who managing the bookings.

How many people are involved in the business?

There are five people in the Sydney headquarters, including me and my business partner. Then we have 27 facilitators around Australia.

They are independent contractors and we pay them per booking, so they can run their own businesses as well. The FRANK team has now worked with thousands of people in every state of Australia, as well as some overseas countries.

Did you ever think you would get this big?

The idea in the first place was that it would have an impact on young people. It was always about doing it well and then getting other people to do it.

What sort of qualifications do you need?

I did economics and social science at Sydney University and majored in eduction and psychology. I've trained up on other things too. I love those courses that you can do in one day.

How is your business different from your competitors?

When we first started there wasn't much difference. Now there is, mostly because schools and the Government see that education needs to change and the information kids get access to also needs to change to deal with the reality.

All our facilitators are amazing young people - they are role models, they are all young, under the age of 32.

Also we go to the schools, they don't have to come to us. We offer the complete program, with the facilitator, activities and a comprehensive customer service program.

What has been your biggest challenge along the way?

The biggest challenge is our growth. Previously it's been organic, but now we're expanding quickly so managing that growth and cashflow and staff is the toughest thing at the moment.

We need to put systems in place so we can cope better. At the moment our strategy is writing our systems manual. It's very boring. It's like putting together a franchise manual.

Where will your business be in five years' time?

We've got global aspirations. Singapore, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, potentially Japan. We can get over the cultural differences by recruiting local people.

What has been your biggest stroke of luck or piece of good planning?

The biggest thing we did really well is our website. We put a lot of work into it. We did a program last year in Bahrain because they found us on the internet.

How did you get your name?

Originally we were called Youth 2 Youth, and we worked with mainly young people aged 15 to 35.

But then a lot of older people wanted to be part of our workshops so we decided we'd get a new name.

In 2003 we'd started a magazine for girls that we called Frank, because the content of the magazine was up front, and also it was different to call a girls' magazine a boy's name. So we decided to re-use that name.

Any advice for budding entrepreneurs?

Give it a go. Don't take too much time planning as that can stop you. The best way to learn is to do it.

What's your web address?

www.frankteam.com.au