Who is behind the business name Boorama (pronounced BOO - rah - ma)?  I would love to tell you there is a story to the name that relates, but I would have to engage in fiction to make one interesting. Boorama was founded in Queensland in the mid 1990s to provide boutique corporate advisory services for micro, small and medium sized businesses (MS&MSBs).  From the late 1990s until 2011, it operated with two executive Directors. Today, I am the sole Director.  

I was raised in the New England and moved to Sydney at the end of my teens where, for 15 years, I ‘stumbled’ into unusual line management roles, mostly in the media and entertainment industries; the 'still-trying-to-figure-out-what-to-do-when-I-grew-up' era.  Even though the roles weren’t perfect, they proved to be valuable experiences that still inform the services I offer today. If a role wasn’t interesting, I moved hell and earth to make it so. It took some years before I realised how much my motivations were driven by what and how I could make a contribution to my employers and their clients. Perhaps it was a portent of my future career.

After contracting to the airlines for two-years on promotions projects, my analytical and strategic aptitudes were ‘spotted’ in a chance meeting that led to an invitation to enter the world of boutique Corporate Advisory services. While putting my Business Degree (USQ) to good use and cutting my teeth with experienced corporate advisors and board-member mentors, I discovered – one client’s business and industry after another – that the ‘little guys’ need whole-of-business independent advice as much - if not more - than the big guys.  

I'm sometimes asked why I have that view. I can’t answer it in one sentence. It’s tens, or thousands maybe, of situations. It’s about consequences of business’s small decisions that too frequently turn out not to be small at all.  The 'little guys' can rarely absorb the setbacks.

Small business owners are not incompetent, but they do carry the burden of juggling way too many balls on their own. The natural inclination is to drop or ignore the elements they don't understand or enjoy. For some, in fact more than we might think, they ultimately drop the lot when the consequences do become life-changing.

I’ve been humbled to work alongside tens of business owners and employees who’ve been to the brink and back because of the little past decisions or indecisions that came back to bite. Being a sole practitioner or owning a small, even medium-sized business is a tough gig; and for anyone who believes it ‘just takes common sense’, the evidence is clear, that one person’s common sense is another’s fog and confusion. 

Big corporate company leaders have teams of advisors and mentors despite having years of relevant formal education and training; so surely the ‘little guys’, who so rarely have relevant training or education, deserve at least one - occasionally! Sometimes it takes very little adjustment to inject new life into a business, but seeing life-changing rewards on both business and personal levels - of everyone involved - is the reason why I offer the services I do. 

While third party referrals, endorsements and testimonials on social media are valuable and have their place, I prefer a direct approach. If you want to discover whether I can offer you and your business what you need, I invite you to contact me. You will find I am open and direct and welcome the same.