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Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC), the premier Chamber dedicated to support the women entrepreneurs and professionals, recently organised a session on ‘Taking your business to the next level’ as part of the monthly networking coffee date for members with Tammy Barton, personal budgeting expert from Adelaide Australia. WCIC Board Member Gayani de Alwis moderated the session.
Tammy Barton is one of Australia’s leading businesswomen and Founder and Director of personal budgeting company Mybudget, which has grown into a national success story. She is a renowned entrepreneur who started her business 20 years ago as a home based business. During the interview Barton explained how she started MyBudget as a home-based business in Adelaide in 1999 at the age of 22 after working at a debt collection agency where she witnessed the damaging effects of financial stress on people. She said her personal budgeting service aims to help people take control of their finances through budgeting and money management. Barton is recognised as one of Australia’s most influential businesswomen and regularly appears in the media as an expert on personal money management and household budgeting. Her business has now grown to a national business with 11 offices, 270 staff members and 100,000 clients. In 2017 she won the Telstar South Australian Business Woman of the year.
When asked about the challenges she faced during early stages of her business, she said her determination and strong process orientation coupled with the robust selection process criteria to recruit the right people with a good track record throughout their career with references helped to overcome the obstacles and sustain the business to what it is today. Responding to a question on expanding her business beyond Australia, she mentioned that her first priority is to upgrade the technology and then to expand her footprint to other countries. Barton announced that MyBudget would be opening its first international branch, in the United Kingdom to further what she described as her ‘commitment to helping lead the global financial fitness movement’. She also spoke highly of the Sri Lankan IT talent and has already set up an office in Sri Lanka.
Barton has won numerous awards throughout her career including being a two-time winner of the Telstra South Australian Business Woman of the Year Award in 2007 and 2017. She has appeared in SmartCompany’s list of Australia’s Top 30 Female Entrepreneurs in 2015 through to 2017 and was awarded Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the League of Extraordinary Women in 2015.