Jade McKenzie runs a wonderful business. She can help you with your next professional event, inspire you and your team to greatness through to helping you understand how you can be remarkable. As a valued client of McPhail & Partners, we sat down with Jade to learn a bit more about the amazing work she does. Thank you, Jade, for sharing some of your wisdom!

1. What are the seven common mistakes that businesses make when organising a corporate/community event?

1. Not planning in advance – don’t leave everything to the last minute and spread everything out over a minimum of 8 weeks.

2. Not understanding what outcomes you want for your organisation – this will dictate your whole event and give you the best possible chance of achieving them.

3. Not understanding what your attendees want – get this right, and they will be loyal for life

4. Not promoting the event enough – even though you think you have talked about it non-stop, there are still people who haven’t seen it who would love to come

5. Over delivering when it’s not necessary – don’t do gift bags or pack in 15 speakers just because you think that’s how to give value. If it’s not purposeful, don’t include it.

6. Not getting assistance on the day – this is a must, even if you have to bring your partner, mother or best friend to help out! Don’t do it alone.

7. Not seeking professional advice when you need to – if you have blind spots, find the resources you need to ensure that you are not wasting time, energy or money on something that could be solved quickly and easily

2. What are your favourite motivational words that inspire you?

I didn’t come this far to only come this far.

3. How do you remain at the top of your game?

By asking for help when I need it. I never did that before I had a business, but once I had my baby and things got overwhelming, I knew that I had to start asking for help. Once I did, I’ve never looked back, and now I have a team of 6 contractors who help with various tasks.

4. What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

You can be successful being yourself. I never thought I fit in anywhere while I was working as an employee because I was so headstrong and always on the move, but it turns out that was a strength. You can follow your passions while being authentically you in business.

5. Biggest regret in business?

That’s easy – I don’t have any! Good or bad, everything in business is something that you can take, learn from and grow stronger with.

6. What changes do you envisage will occur in business due to our ever changing digital world?

With the way business is going, more and more of our interaction is done online.

This is truly an amazing thing as it means we can reach out and work with more than just a finite number of people in our local area, we can help thousands of people all over the world without leaving the office. Incredible!

In the future, more and more services, educational courses, masterminds, coaching and virtual learning will be done over a screen. And this is something that makes in-person events even more tangible and exciting.

Online business gives us the unlimited potential to find those who need us and foster a relationship with them, and in turn, in person events allow us to bring that relationship offline in all different parts of the world.

This means borderless learning, connection and interactivity and even more opportunities to build a global business with ease.

7. How would you describe McPhail & Partners to others?

McPhail’s is my all-time favourite accounting and financial services firm. They help solo business owners like me take care of all of our tax and accounting needs with ease.

You can check out more of Jade’s work here.