Chantal Edouard-Betsy – Cooked Media
- What is the name of your business and what is your role? Cooked Media – I am everything from graphic designer to website code developer and everything in between.
- Describe your business in two sentences. Cooked Media gets to do incredible creative work for amazing brands across various industries and size companies. Every day is different and exciting – it’s so amazing being able to contribute positively to so many company’s brands.
- How long have you been in business? I started Cooked Media 18 months ago but have actually been in the web design and development industry for over 20 years – self taught and fortunately enough to work in many roles over my early years from layout to developing with code to project management. Not many people know this because they know me more for my achievements in the retail industry so it often comes as a surprise.
- How did you get into this business? After selling my retail business 2 years ago, I looked long and hard at the list of things I wanted out of my next business venture. I wanted freedom to be able to work anywhere, I wanted flexibility of my hours, I wanted to be able to support myself without growing a business and being responsible for many staff and I wanted life balance. After looking at all these things and my skill base, it was an easy decision to move back to my IT roots and work from home with flexibility. And so Cooked Media began.
- What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced, and how did you overcome it? A big challenge I am currently facing is the decision of whether to grow the business, or keep it small. Demand for our services has grown and I have employed a part-time employee to help out with some of the roles in the company. We’re at a stage where we do need more staff but the idea of being responsible for too many people is one of the things I really don’t want to go back to so I am delaying this decision as long as possible. I have recently started another part-time employee at a higher skill level to pick up the slack and hope this will overcome workload pressure in the medium term.
- What single trait/skill could you not have succeeded without? Sheer determination and unbelievable work ethic. This is the thing anyone who has worked with me knows most about me..
- What is the best business advice you’ve received? Cash flow is the blood in the veins of your business – run it lean and mean!
- Your secret to business success is? Providing top notch solutions customised to my client’s needs time after time! Also really listening and fully understanding what their needs are.
- What is your business goal for 2016? Get more organised and manage the project workload.
- Tell us one thing that not many people know about you? I am a qualified Health Inspector – it’s the only formal qualification I have (A National Diploma in Environmental Health). Everything I know about IT and business is self taught and tenacity.