Scaling a Business: Lessons from Di Crawford-Errington

When Di Crawford-Errington started bookkeeping, she was a sole trader with no plans to scale her business.

But today, you’ll find her leading teams at The Ontrack Group as well as being part of the Executive Committee of the Institute of Certified NZ Bookkeepers (ICNZB).

She talked to our Partnerships Manager, Vicki Campbell, about what it’s like scaling a business and how to grow your team without losing sight of your values.

From Bookkeeper to Business Leader: Di’s Journey

If you’d asked Di Crawford-Errington whether her 10-year business plan involved scaling a business and growing a team of employees, she’d tell you she didn’t have any plans to scale. In fact, she doesn’t even have a business plan—at least not a typical one, written down and neatly formatted in a presentation document for all to see.

“I’m not your typical business owner who follows the process of business plans”, she says. “To me, they were manuals and you do them and then you never look at them again, or you create it and five minutes later that’s changed because something’s happened. I think my brain operates differently. I have this very structured plan, but it’s very fluid and adaptable and adjustable. It’s all in my head”.

Although she never planned to scale, Di came to a point when she needed extra pairs of hands, so she engaged contractors to help her with tasks like data entry. But when she decided to grow her business further, she realised that employees were a better option.

“I wanted an engaged team who were part of the business, who were involved in its growth and where it ended up”, she says. “Contractors are a little bit removed, whereas employees have security in the job and they’ve got ideas to bring and are coming on the journey”.

Hiring employees also gave Di the chance to create a real team culture in her businesses, something she places great importance on.

So, how do you scale a business without losing your ethos and while building a connected team? Here are Di’s top tips.

Know Your Vision and Management Style

For Di, the decision to bring on staff meant as much learning for her as it did for her new hires.

“I’d never been a manager”, she says. “I was a doer. I only employed a few people over those first couple of years to find myself as a people manager and to figure out what makes people tick. And I got to learn to be a people manager in my way, not how I’d seen it modelled, because that didn’t work for me. If it didn’t work for me, it’s not going to work for my business”.

Hire for Values, Not Just Skills

Values alignment beats core skills for Di. You can teach core skills, and in fact, she believes, sometimes employing someone with lots of experience can be a hindrance if they have previously been doing something the wrong way or are set in a way that doesn’t gel with your business.

“A CV is just a piece of paper – I can teach skills”, she says. “What I look for in people is those whose values align with mine. It’s about team fit and having compassionate people within the team who can support each other. My team is made up of very empathetic people who work really, really hard because they want to do a great job”.

Prioritise a People-First Culture

After experiencing less-than-stellar cultures in some of her previous roles, Di was determined that in her company, it would be different.

“I said to myself, I will never treat people like that who work for me or with me”, she says. “One of the core values we’ve had right from the word go was family first. You’ve got stuff going on at home that you need to deal with, go and deal with it. If you’ve got sick kids, if you’ve got to go and do something, go and do that, it’s really important. You can’t do a good job at work when your mind is still dealing with whatever’s there at home”.

The team also organises regular get-togethers to ensure that they connect outside of work too.

Scale Slowly and Thoughtfully

Never employ more than two new hires to start at the same time.

“It just doesn’t work”, Di says. “You’ve got to put the time and energy into each person if you want them to be a fully engaged member of the team. If you are spreading yourself between too many people, it doesn’t work”.

Trust Your People and Let Go of Perfectionism

While new hires need love and attention, more experienced staff don’t need a manager looking over their shoulder all day – trust Di, she’s learned from experience.

Di says sometimes that can mean letting go of perfectionism and realising that someone might do something differently to you, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It also means realising that sometimes mistakes aren’t the result of someone mucking up, but because of a hole in a process, or a step not being quite right. It’s important, she says, to address that in the right way and offer support rather than blame – another example of building a team with the right culture.

Despite not consciously setting out to grow a business and team, Di now takes a lot of satisfaction from watching her team develop and also supporting others through her Small Business Training Hub and through the ICNZB, which she says has also been a great support to her. You can find out more about the Small Business Training Hub payroll courses here and more about the ICNZB here.