Ashley Beeby

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Becoming a Minority, a memoir.

It was never my intention to make myself a minority. I always had a chip on my shoulder about my upbringing – as does any teenager who gives up their weekends for their parent’s business – but it never drove me to intentionally seek uncommon pathways. Yet, growing up in business is the very reason I plunged head-first into a pathway without considering the cultural and social peculiarity of my decision. I believed I was capable, that was all the consideration I needed to push off from the start line. This left me running a race without knowing where the finish line was or what I wanted it to look like.

Did I have the endurance to reach the unknown depths of the future?

I didn’t ask myself this question until I was running, and by then it had already begun, and I wasn’t the type to give up.

This strange race and my movement into a minority group began with a work experience opportunity. Transitioning into a new school to begin year ten alongside my peers, I was ripe with excitement about the new environment and the ‘adult’ expectations of the faculty.

“This was it,” I thought. “These were the years I read about in books. I am finally mature enough for real adventures.” But I made a misstep out of my eagerness to explore. I raised my hand after attending a presentation from a local employer about trade careers. I was one of a dozen girls in the classroom. Out of the dozen girls, most of them attended the presentation to get out of class for half an hour. Trades were a “man’s job”, there was no reason for more girls to attend. Yet, I watched the presentation (without fully comprehending the opportunity offered) and raised my hand to sign up.

I could have left it there. A week later when I’d heard nothing back about the work experience opportunity I could have let it die. They’d forgotten I put my name down. But, it was never in my nature to forget. It wasn’t in my nature to let anything slip through the cracks, so I hunted down my career advisor and formalized my work experience with Cummins. At the time I had some idealized image of working on cars for a week like a sexy Megan Fox in the first Transformers movie. I was convinced working on cars would make me more desirable… Right?

It was a moot point. I hadn’t signed up to work on cars. Cummins was an engine business… A truck engine business. When I learned the true nature of my work experience, I immediately thought: “No way in hell can I do that.”

I imagined a dirty, greasy, male-dominated environment. Not even considering my gender, I had a small build and was short. How was I going to achieve anything on equipment with tires that were taller than my hips? I wasn’t even interested in mechanical work and knew nobody in the industry.

Yet, neither of my parents went to university and they ran a very successful small business, Pizza Party Hire, catering wood-fired pizzas. They insisted that there was no harm in trying. It was one week, and the work experience program was mandatory – I had to do something, so why not fix truck engines?

When I arrived at the workshop that dreaded Monday morning, I was extremely nervous. I sat in the tiled reception area watching a video play on a loop about the application of the Cummins engine. The video showed mining trucks as tall as houses, small boats, and ferries gliding across choppy water, and trucks towing shipping containers down the freeway.

My only thought was: “What am I doing here?” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

Upfit into blue and orange overalls that were twice my size, with the legs rolled up three times each and wearing safety boots which were heavier than any shoe I had ever worn, I made it into the workshop. The service manager, an impressive woman with a distinct Scottish accent, led me to stand in front of the supervisors, fidgeting with my over-sized sleeves. They were as surprised as I was by my attendance, yet that said nothing. They assigned me to a technician and sent me off into that strange new world.

It wasn’t as dirty and greasy as I imagined. The truck tires were big but there were steps to climb onto them safely. Yes, I stuck out like a sore thumb as the only female in the workshop, but no one treated me any differently.

For that entire week, I learned the names of tools as I passed them to the technician. We were carrying out a major repair with one of the first-year apprentices, a boy nicknamed ‘Hingy’ from his last name ‘Hinge’. The entire engine needed to be disassembled and rebuild due to internal damage. I learned about pistons and con-rods, about movies like ‘Happy Gilmore’ with Ben Stiller, and heard a few scary stories that taught me there was the potential for injury in the trade, but if I was vigilant, I would be safe.

It was like being introduced to colours for the first time. It was like there was an underwater world hidden inside the engine. Complexity existed inside the big red box in a way I could never have imagined.

I don’t remember any time I felt as exhausted as I had that week. I was hooked. That one week shaped my entire high school experience. I sacrificed one of my VCE subjects to sign up for an automotive class in my school and attended more workshops as I tried to find my place.

I learned a few things as I branched out into the mechanical industry:

Car mechanics complain more than truck mechanics.
Car mechanics earn less money than truck mechanics (their favourite complaint).
Majority of car work (in a workshop) involved servicing, and that can get boring very quickly.

Before I had even made my decision, I was decided. It was a common conversation for me to tell my parents what the break times at Cummins were even as I completed my year twelve VCE. Despite being ‘undecided’, I never signed up for university courses – I didn’t even google courses – and by midyear, I applied for an apprenticeship.

That one week of work experience led to me becoming the second female apprentice in the branch despite completing VCE with results in the top 5% of the state. Even now, it is the most life-changing decision I have made, and I would never go back.

I joined a minority group. Not only was I a female in a male-dominated industry, but I was also a female and academic in trade.

At the start line, I had no idea how an apprenticeship or full-time job would shape me into the woman I am today. I never signed up expecting the opportunities I have received throughout my apprenticeship. I’ve spoken at business events, school conferences, and on-camera to advocate for women in trade careers. I earned the nickname ‘Super Apprentice’ within the first few months of employment because, despite my small stature, I had a great attitude towards learning.

No one held my hand at the start of my journey and told me how valuable I was as a woman in trade. Instead, I share that message for others in the community who need to hear it regardless of gender, skill-set, academic success, or physical build:

“Just because you carry out the work differently, doesn’t mean you are less valuable or capable.”

I performed my job to accommodate my weight and size, and that didn’t hinder me from completing my apprenticeship seven months early.

I joined a minority group, but that status is changing. Gender diversity in trade is increasing. Women in trades is a growing reality here in Australia, and the minority is not afraid to share their message:

“You are capable.”

Advice as a Woman in Trucking

As a woman in the heavy vehicle industry, the number of role models to draw inspiration from is still a slowly growing pool. Entering the trucking world is something many people (male and female alike) tend to be born into – they have uncles who drive trucks interstate or a parent who is a mechanic.

This is not enough to shift the balance.

Women belong in trades, but too often these women do not receive the permission or push they need until later in life. As a woman in trade and a woman in trucking, I believe it is my responsibility to share my experiences so that women of all ages know: they are capable.

Fresh out of high school and full of naïve confidence, I entered the trucking industry as a seventeen-year-old female. Not only was I a female in a male-dominated trade, but I was under average height for my age and had no mechanics or truck drivers in my family. It was not until I had started work that I wondered: how was I going to keep up – let alone succeed – in this new world?

I attended work in the heaviest shoes I had ever owned, lost in overalls that were twice my size and rolled up thrice at my feet, and received ‘Mr. Ashley Beeby’ on my first payslip. Yet, I was entranced by the shiny new world of trucks and engines.

Reflecting on my apprenticeship, now qualified, it is easy to determine the simple characteristics that contributed to my success as a woman in trucking.

As with all success, it started with attitude. Whether it was sweeping truck bays for half the day or carrying out an engine overhaul, I learned early on in my apprenticeship that how you conducted yourself when completing the small jobs reflected your work ethic for the major jobs. Having a positive attitude and an enthusiasm for learning went a long way as a first-year apprentice (because regardless of age, a first-year doesn’t really know anything yet, and shouldn’t pretend otherwise!) Being the least-experienced person in a workshop can be daunting, but it is also a huge opportunity. Without any industry experience for others to create expectations regarding your workmanship, apprentices have an opportunity to create a reputation based on their attitude – not their gender. A resilient attitude is a foundation that will get you through every frustrating repair or job gone awry.

Being a female is a part of my identity, and will always be a factor in my experiences, however it is important to distinguish that, for me, it was not the reason I had certain experiences. My experiences were a product of who I was as an apprentice and as an employee. More than my gender, my size created challenges in the workshop. This did not undermine my capability, rather, it demanded a willingness to work differently.

Through the challenges of my physical capabilities, I came to understand the old-school mentality that discriminated against women in trades and how it no longer applied. Women are built biologically differently than men. While it was traditionally perceived that men were ‘stronger’ than women, this was not a rule. With a new focus on safety and good manual handling practices in the workplace, the industry had become more accessible for not only women but also men. It was no longer a requirement to be able to lift a cylinder head by hand or to hit a seized pin out in minutes. This change allowed smaller-stature people – like myself – into the industry. This increase in diversity created a cultural shift that recognised there are numerous approaches to achieving the same outcome. As a woman in trade, I learned that just because I carried out the work differently, it did not make me less valuable or capable.

While I have learned to roll my eyes at chrome details on trucks (which require extra caution during repairs) and to keep my mouth closed when underneath an engine, the industry is still the same captivating world that I was first drawn to as an apprentice. If you are reading this as a woman – or man – currently working in a trade, or someone who is thinking of entering the industry, my advice to you is this:

Just because you may not work in the same way, does not make you less valuable or capable. Be unafraid of your unique approach to the industry because the diversity we bring creates betterment for everyone. If your workplace does not recognise this, find another one. Every person deserves to be treated for who they are as an individual and valued for the unique perspective they bring to a workplace.

Remember: ‘different’ doesn’t mean incapable.

Thanks for reading!

It’s Just A Job

It was the end of the day at the coal mine in Queensland I had been working at for 18 months and I was talking to a fellow qualified female mechanic. We weren’t exclusively talking about being women in trade, rather, we were talking about how we got into the industry when she shrugged and said: “It’s just a job.”

Fireworks went off in my mind.

You’re probably wondering why such a bland, ordinary comment felt so magnificent to me. As a woman in trade who spends time advocating for more women and girls to consider skilled pathways, I have been surrounded by exceptional stories of how women found their passions in unusual places. To an extent, I believe that this will be most cases until women are no longer considered a minority in such roles or industries. But the unspoken goal at the end of all this work is that it’s no longer ‘special’ to be a woman in male-dominated industries and that industries will employ a larger portion of women. It is also the goal that more women will genuinely consider and enjoy those types of job roles – whether it’s plumbing, construction, mechanical repairs, or roof tiling (the list goes on).

That is what balance in the workforce will look like. So, in my mind, those four words “it’s just a job” captured everything that industries and their cultures are shifting towards. When women are choosing jobs in mines – or as tradies – and it isn’t their ‘passion’, but merely a successful or practical job role for the individual, it shows normality in the situation. It shows a regularity for women to be in those job roles. It may not be a perfect balance, but a balancing all the same.

Choosing a trade career doesn’t have to be a life sentence. Just because you pick a trade instead of academic studies doesn’t mean you are bound to be a trady forever. It can be a stepping-stone into a career within large businesses. It can be a skill to tuck under your belt until you know what you want to pursue next. It can be a chance to learn about yourself and the workforce while making money.

I have an unusual story myself, finding the trade of being a diesel mechanic by accident through work experience in high school – and loving it! But, while I share an exciting story frequently to advocate for women in trade careers, I know that being a diesel mechanic isn’t my passion. It is just a job – albeit a job I love. It is a decision I don’t regret because it was the best decision for me out of high school. Even now, it is still the best decision for me and what I want out of my lifestyle, finances, and work satisfaction. But I know it won’t be forever – and that’s okay!

When it comes to the daily grind of being a trady, whether you found the industry in an unusual way, are extremely passionate about the trade, or merely enjoy the work, it is still just a job once it becomes your normal routine. I think there is nothing greater than becoming a trady just because you like the work.

Is your work just a job? I’d love to know in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Why You NEED to Know Your Numbers

Just this week, I had to complete my first ever Business Activity Statement (BAS). Depending on whether your business is registered to pay or receive GST (goods and services tax) will determine whether you know of or are required to complete, the BAS. What it reminded me of was two very important things:

Know your numbers
Accountants are an essential investment for your business

Registering for GST is only mandatory in an Australian business when your turnover (not including any GST turnover) is equal to, or greater than $75,000. In my business, as most of my income is directly proportional to hours worked, I registered for GST in preparation for when I achieve my first major business milestone of having three full-time employees (a.k.a. full-time work for myself and my two business partners). Because of this, I am required to complete a Business Activity Statement for each financial quarter. In part of completing this form, I utilized many of the ‘report’ functions within QuickBooks Online (QBO – the online bookkeeping software I utilize in my business). It wasn’t until I created these reports, in the hopes of completing my BAS via the online business services portal, that I realized the mess my books were in.

I had purchases labeled ‘GST free’ because I didn’t understand there was a difference between ‘GST free’ and ‘GST out-of-scope’. I had managed to duplicate every single employee’s wage within my books so that my PAYG (Pay-as-you-go tax withholding) amount owed was twice what I actually owed. And, on top of all that, I’d labeled all my employee wages as ‘GST free’.

If that all sounds confusing – that’s because it can be, very easily. But, let me break it down for you.

GST Free: Products or services which are allocated as GST Free, so there is no GST to be paid on them.

Out-of-scope: Monetary payments that aren’t related to products or services (e.g., employee wages, superannuation, or tax).

My saving grace in this entire situation, as the self-appointed business bookkeeper, was that I reviewed every transaction and I carried out the task of completing wage payments myself, and I have a pretty good memory… So, as soon as I saw the values that the reports gave me, I knew that something wasn’t quite right.

Fortunately, my mum has been the bookkeeper in my parents’ business for over a decade and knows a thing-or-two more than me. So, having someone knowledgeable in my corner helped me to recognize my mistakes and correct my GST records. Still, it took me utilizing QBO’s live chat function for them to point out the mistakes I’d made in duplicating my employee wages by listing them as the wrong transaction type.

Despite the reports being significantly inaccurate until I’d identified and rectified my mistakes in my financial records, I was still able to reconcile my books within the software to verify that I had recorded all my expenses and income and that it aligned with the dollar value in my bank account. It wasn’t until I had to go beyond those surface numbers and into the business reports that the simple mistakes I had made in my books became apparent. All it would have taken was a lack of questioning from me, and I would have depleted all my business revenue by overpaying on my BAS.

The reminder is that in our own businesses, we can’t be expected to know everything. The craft of accounting is beyond just recording the money that goes in and out, there’s an entire system of subcategories that can completely change the financial situation of a business. I’m fortunate to know someone who is prepared to help me understand the fundamentals, to get through the BAS reporting process with the right GST labels. But, when it comes to the end of the financial year, I won’t be finalizing my own books because it’s often the things we don’t know that sting us. So, acting on the things I do know, a trusted accountant can mitigate all the risk of overpaying, underpaying or misunderstanding my business’s financial situation. The expenses of their services are less of an expense, and much more of an investment, and is something I would highly recommend you consider for your own business.

I’m sharing this rather specific and dense experience because I know that I’m not the first person to start a business and misunderstand or feel challenged by the financial reporting requirements. I promised to be transparent in my journey, and this could have been a thousand-of-dollars mistake within my own business. Now, in your business, hopefully, you’ve been saved from making the same mistakes I did.

Make sure to let me know what you think in the comments – whether you found this article helpful and want more specific articles like it, or whether you’re in the need for some inspiration after this dense read!

Happy business-ing!

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

Disclaimer: I am not a business advisor and have not provided specific business advice as business is a diverse field full of unique contexts and situations. I will show you where I sourced information and how I made my decision, but it is up to you to determine whether you need professional advice for your business situation.

Minimum Viable Set-Up

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: getting started is more important than being ready.

In truth, if you think that concept sounds scary, that’s because it can be. A lot of us experience perfectionism to some degree, and so the concept of starting before we’re ‘ready’ can create a lot of apprehension. But, starting before we’re ready doesn’t mean we’re starting without preparation.

Let me elaborate…

When we considered whether we are ‘ready’ for something, we can unconsciously ask ourselves whether we ‘feel ready’ to start. As with any new venture, it is normal to feel stress, anxiety, or tension about taking on the new risk. So, when we ask whether we feel ready, the conservative voice in our mind will tell us: no, we’re not, this is scary! But this voice isn’t always honest, isn’t just trying to protect us from the perception of increased risk created by trying something new.

In comparison, by acknowledging the voice yet still choosing to start forces us to act – and that action drives a need for a minimum amount of preparation. So, if the minimum preparation to start is met, even if we don’t feel ready or have everything figured out, we can start before we are ‘ready’. For example, I couldn’t carry out a truck service without oil and filters, so by choosing to act on a truck service, I require the preparation of purchasing parts and oils.

So, how do we figure out what our minimum preparation is?

I came across this concept when listening to Grey McKeown’s book Essentialism, on Audible. It wasn’t an exclusively business-orientated book, but it covered the concept of ‘minimum viable effort’ to achieving any objective. So, when my business partner approached me saying he wanted to launch the business earlier than we planned for some additional ‘pocket money’ I was forced to ask: what do I really need to do launch this business?

P.S. The Business Model Canvas was used in conjunction to this question, so if you’re not sure what that is check out my previous article where I explain this document’s importance (click here to read about Business Models and Business Plans.)

I agreed to have the business ready within one fortnight – 14 days – after my business partner approached me, and my first thoughts orientated around:

What was mandatory (either via taxation or government laws)?
What was essential for our business?
What could wait (so that I could keep our business start-up expenses low)?

This is a basic example of what I came up with:

I was able to come up with these minimum requirement by starting at the aspect I knew best: doing the work. From there, I just visualised what steps I would need to carry out after I had completed the work, and what I needed to do before doing the work. This mind map is far from complete, and your business needs and available resources will be different. But, by considering what the bare minimum requirements are (for example: using a personal vehicle instead of the ideal company vehicle with awesome signwriting) allows you to be prepared to start before you’re ready. There is no shame in being in-the-process! I borrowed my dad’s car to get started, even though it has his business’s signwriting and only one accessible side of the ute bed (far from ideal!). But it was good enough to start!

If you struggle with visualising what minimum tasks you will need to carry out in your business, I recommend returning to your Business Model Canvas, getting on google and finding out what legal requirements or permits your business requires, and considering what software you need to invest in to ensure sufficient record keeping. It is likely you will overlook something throughout this process (for me, it was setting up a default super fund so that I can pay my employee’s super!), but the beauty of starting means that you can become aware of the gaps in your preparation and fill them, quickly, without waiting to start!

Feeling nervous prior to starting something new is extremely normal. Even after setting up the business and getting my business partner ready to work, when it came to working my first day in the business – I was terrified! It is healthy to feel nervous about something that is important to you. I documented my feelings before and after I carried out my first day of work, so that you can know you’re not alone in how you’re feeling – but not feeling ready should never hold you back from starting.

Before Day 1 in my business:

After Day 1 in my business:

Business Plans & Business Models: do you really need them?

The answer is yes.

Simply put, a Business Model is a document or plan that details the day-to-day operations of a business that are involved in making money. In comparison, a Business Plan has a lot more to do with the structure and context of a business. It will include information such as mission and vision statements, the market analysis, the business goals and objectives and the strategies the business will adopt to achieve those objectives.

I’m not going to discuss the specific details included in Business Plans and Business Models as there is a lot of information available for free on the internet from well-known information sources such as business.gov.au or entrepreneur.com. The information that goes into your documents will also widely vary based on the time of business you launch, so I recommend heading to google and clicking through the available links and finding some free templates to prompt your thinking to help you get started on your Business Plan and Business Model. What I want to convey is the importance of these documents.

These documents, while they don’t make you money in your business – because they are just pieces of paper – are valuable for numerous reasons.

The first reason is, in creating these documents, they force you to consider your day-to-day business operating needs and future growth. The Business Model helps you need to understand and make important decisions regarding your intended operating system so that you can ensure you have the correct resources, software, and information to carry out your business’s work. The Business Plan, in comparison forces you to consider what lies in your business’s future. It can help you identify any blind spots, bottle necks or challenges so that you can begin preparing for them before they start banging down your door. It will also allow you to anticipate business growth or set growth goals that you can intentionally work towards within your business. (For this reason, even if you don’t formally create these documents prior to launching your business, I highly recommend you still consider the information they demand so that you can launch from a strong foundation.)

The second reason is because you want your business value to grow. If you don’t work towards growing your business value, then all you’ve done is buy yourself an expensive and stressful job. That’s where the importance of an ‘exit strategy’ come in, and both the Business Model and Business Structure help you create value and work towards an ‘exit strategy’.

Let’s detour here for a second: what’s an exit strategy?

I first learnt about the concept at a business seminar when I was trying to help my parents launch a new business at the start of 2019 – right before COVID hit. An exit strategy is exactly that – the way you plan to exit your business. Even if you never act on it, it is important to work towards an exit strategy, whether it is selling your business when it reaches a certain value or when it achieves a certain revenue, having a strategy in mind allows you to work intentionally towards a specific goal so that your business is more than a stressful job. Because, if we’re going to invest our time and money launching and running a business with all the extra work and risk, we must aim for a better financial outcome than working a normal job – otherwise, what’s the point?

So, with ‘exit strategies’ in mind, if the result of the business is to eventually leave, having documents such as Business Plans and Business Models add to the sell-ability of a business, as they are formal documents that make it easier for someone to take over the day-to-day operations. It also allows potential buyers to see that there are formal plans and measurable targets set out to maintain business growth.

Detour over.

The third reason is simply for the fact: specific goals aid growth (this is true in business as much as it is in personal growth). Having a Business Plan and thorough understanding of your Business Model allow you to forecast future work demands, resources and finance needs, and create goals that keep you accountable and focused. Whether you meet those goals or not, having a plan that specifies Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allows you to measure and analyse business progress and identify weakness or opportunities within your business to help you realign and achieve your business goals.

Despite all this, my advice is: if you’re ready to start, do not let these documents hold you back – you can always come back to them. They are important, but they will not exclusively make your business successful – good decisions, doing the work and ensuring profitability are the only things that will create a successful business. You can come back to these documents down the track and still get the same benefits. But I do recommend, at a minimum, you at least fill out a blank Business Model Canvas prior to starting.

I came across this form while researching for my own business and this document allows you to check for any blind spots in your business preparation so that your day-to-day activities can run smoothly while you begin the work and start driving business growth. It also allows you to look at how the money is going to flow in and out of your business so that you can ensure you are working towards profitability.

So, while I know will be plenty of businesses that have sold successfully without a Business Plan or Business Model, I highly recommend investing the time and energy into creating these documents and keeping them up to date as your business grows.

Google is my best friend and should be your best friend too! I can’t wait to see what you achieve.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

How I Accidentally Became a Diesel Mechanic

I wanted to change the content up this week – since we’re still at the beginning stages of this journey together – and share my story of how I became a diesel mechanic, which, by the way, was an accident!

I had the opportunity to speak to seven different groups of year 9 students at my old school via zoom this past week, where I shared my career journey, what my job looks like, and share some of the lessons I have learned along the way. While sharing, I thought of you all and took advantage of my time at home to record my story to share it here for you today!

While this was filmed as part of a conversation with students via zoom, I have only included the best bits for you to enjoy! Make sure you let me know what you think in the comments and feel free to share your story with me, I’d love to hear yours too!

Watch the video below!

Disclaimer: I am not acting as a representative of any company or workplace and the views and experiences mentioned in this video are solely my own.

Thanks for visiting! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

Business Structure

If you’re interested in watching instead of reading, check out my video at the bottom of the page!

Before you can begin any of the admin set-up for your business, you need to decide on a business structure. As I was getting into business with two other people, I went the extra step and sought advice from a business accountant to ensure I picked the best structure for the business, and everyone involved. It isn’t always necessary to seek out professional advice as there is a lot of information online to help you make an educated decision for your business. Here in Australia, the government has a lot of free information available to help you get started.

I’m not sure what the international equivalents are, but here is Australia the government has set up a website specifically for business set up: business.gov.au I used this website to help me gather information prior to verifying my decision with my accountant – it is a nugget of gold, so definitely take advantage of all the free information there.

The four main business structures in Australia are:

https://business.gov.au/planning/business-structures-and-types/business-structures

In Australia you can also create a business structure as a Co-Operative, Joint Venture or Indigenous Corporation.

There are pros and cons to every structure, and not all of there are suitable to all business types. The reason there are different structures are to create different ways to manage finance, tax, and accountability within business. Each structure allocates the tax and accountability differently, has slightly different legal and reporting requirements and can create different protection measures for the individuals or the business. Take the time to read through each one and determine what structure best suits your business context.

In my business, we decided to form a company. The reasons for this are it allows us each to keep our personal assets as separate to the business. What this means in application is our personal assets, (such as cars, houses, or other investments) are seen as separate to the business. Regarding the taxation structure, a company means that our personal and company taxation is completed separately. This structure also allowed us to allocate business ownership as we determined amongst ourselves through the distribution of shares.

Some of the other aspect of running a company means that we have more formal legal and reporting requirements, one of those being a requirement to have WorkSafe Insurance (based on Victoria’s legal requirements). With each of us being a ‘director’, we are accountable for the business and any debt and legal requirements incurred by the business. We also had to register ourselves as employees of the business to receive wages.

There are many other aspects to setting up the business as a company. I have just listed the ones that were most significant to my decision making. In your business the other business structures may prove more financially or legally beneficial to your circumstances.

The reason for deciding on a business structure is so that you can formally register your business. To apply for an Australian Business Number (ABN) you need to decide on a business structure so that the government has a record of the relevant taxation and legal responsibilities of your business. For my business with a ‘company’ business structure, I applied for an Australian Company Number (ACN) alongside my ABN. Regardless of whether you start with the ABN or ACN, registering for either of these numbers registers your business name so that it cannot be used by another (note: this is not the same as a trademark). From there, you can also apply for a separate Tax File Number (TFN) if it is needed in your chosen business structure.

I hope this information has provided you with insight regarding the purpose of a business structure and where you can source information to make the best decision for your business.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

Starting a Mechanical Business.

Despite growing up in a family business and developing a deep passion for the creativity and complexity of business and entrepreneurship, I never saw myself starting a business as a Heavy Vehicle Diesel Mechanic. It may sound counter intuitive – especially as I qualified in the trade after falling in love with the work straight out of high school – but I didn’t think I loved the trade enough to justify starting a business in this field of work. My thinking behind this came from the knowledge that business is hard work, you’ve got to be extremely committed to grind through every tough day, you must overcome every obstacle, and make tough decisions. And the work, ultimately, never ends – if you’ve done it right.

This all changed when one of my good friends, another heavy vehicle diesel mechanic with who I went through my trade school, disclosed that he had plans to get into business for himself. He also said he would be interested in getting into business with me.

As I mentioned, it was an option that I had thought of and decided against in the past. Yet, this offer had me thinking. It had me thinking about it to the point I began discussing the possibilities with my fiancé – also a heavy vehicle diesel mechanic – and within a week I was calling my mate back and saying: let’s do this.

We sat down and started talking about the details. We brainstormed business names, agreed on percentages of ownership, and started constructing a plan of how we would build a business without giving up on our steady paychecks until there was enough work to justify the plunge.

Our business is starting lean. Very, very lean.

I’m writing this article now, because I want to share the journey I am commencing, I want to document how I am starting a trade business with my good mate and my fiancé. It is common for tradespeople to start businesses, even if it is just a business acting as a contractor. Yet, I knew that I needed to share the process so that other people, like you, can benefit from the freedom a business can create.

I know, by default, I am a very idealistic person (I’m including this here as a disclaimer!). Business can create freedom, but first comes a lot of hard commitment. I’ve had my fingers dipped in business throughout my life but have yet to have an idea reach fruition. Still, I know how transformative learning finance and business from my parents was as a teenager. It’s shaped my passion and given me the self-awareness that I have no long-term ambition for earning promotions in a corporate business. So, as I am establishing a service business not just for myself, but for my two business partners, I hope that I can share some of the knowledge and lessons I have already learned, and the lessons I still need to learn, along the way.

This was just an introduction, the title page for this new chapter. I look forward to sharing my tradie business journey with you. Make sure to follow this blog to stay up to date with the process or check out the link to my video on this topic below.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

Reflecting on growth.

“The days are long, but the years are short” – Gretchen Rubin.

There are different points throughout the year that cause me to pause and wonder and evaluate where I am and where I want to be. The start of a new year is one such point, and my birthday is another. I also feel this questioning arise around the middle of the year when we all start to feel how quickly the year has moved from day-one to month-seven. The biggest question that arises for me (and is also the source of the self-doubt that causes me to pause and evaluate so routinely) is whether I am growing.

Growth is subjective because whether you are moving closer to your true self, or further away, is dependent on your values and direction. Happily eating a burger may be a milestone for someone who is learning food-freedom, alternatively it might be counter-productive to another who is trying to enter a body-building competition. Everyone is at a different stage of their life, trying to learn a different lesson, all the time. So, being able to evaluate your growth relies on your awareness of what priorities you have in your life.

The reason I feel the itch to evaluate my growth so routinely is a result of the question: “Am I good (doing, being, or achieving) enough?” While this question can be harmful when not recognized or harmful when it’s answered with self-doubt instead of self-love, it is a question that we all feel. The amount of information that we can absorb (intentionally, or unintentionally) through media helps suggest that the answer may be “no” unconsciously. But being aware of this question can provide a reminder and opportunity to us to pause and realign with our values and purpose – and this can only ever be a good thing.

There is no rule book for how or when to pause and evaluate your growth. Whether you are inclined to write out your values, current goals, routine activities, and habits, or you prefer to sip tea and watch the sky as you pause to think, each person’s way will be unique (I do it differently every time!). The key is to use the time intentionally. Life gets busy, the year moves quickly, whether it’s five minutes or an hour, taking a moment to pause and check whether you are moving in the direction truest to yourself helps you make intentional decisions so to avoid getting swept out into the currents of life. The nagging question of “am I enough?” can be the perfect cue that we need time to realign with what matters to us and tune out the noise of everyone else’s direction and growth.

It can be overwhelming trying to evaluate growth. We may find that we only have a small list of career achievements or didn’t succeed in that project we were so passionate about. Reflecting will include acknowledging the setbacks and hurts we’ve experienced throughout the year, but these cannot be avoided as they are a way that we can measure our growth. Another way – and the way I prefer to simplify the idea of ‘growth’ – is to spend my attention on the decisions I have made (or didn’t make) and the decisions I make routinely. How these change (or don’t change) can be a huge indicator of how we may be growing or stagnating.

First, you need to know what your values are. If you don’t, google a list of values on the internet and see what stands out to you. Pick 3-5 that you feel are your top values above all-others, and if you’re struggling to decide, think back over past decisions you have made as they will always reveal what is truly important to you. (For example, if you had an important networking event and a family dinner on the same night, which one did you pick and how did you feel about your decision? If you picked family and felt no regret, that would suggest family is a higher priority to you than work).

Second, brainstorm (in whatever method you prefer) habits and actions (a.k.a. decisions) that you have engaged in over the last year – do they align with your values, or take you away from them? Continue to ask yourself this question regarding any decisions that occur to you – did you lose any habits, have you decided to stop using a certain word, have you changed your schedule to fit in a new activity? Our actions are direct results of decisions we made and kept. If you look back over how you spent your time over the last month, do the actions and decisions that made up that time align with your values?

If the answer is yes, and you can see the changes and growth in your decisions that are moving you in the direction that is important to you, then you have provided yourself with a positive example of your own growth. If the answer is no, then that doesn’t mean you have failed, it may not even mean you have to change anything. It is up to you to evaluate what is important to you, but by taking the time to pause you can make the decision intentionally and course-correct if you need to.

The reality is there will be a combination of “yes”s and “no”s in our growth. We can’t grow in all directions at once, so taking the time to pause can help us decide what actions are most important to us and work on one at a time.

It’s important to reflect on our own growth with only ourselves in mind. Our growth isn’t about comparing ourselves to others or about degrading ourselves for the ways we may have missed the mark. It’s a way to celebrate ourselves and to course-correct if we need. Everyone’s values and journeys are different, so trying to compare to others is only going to set us up for failure and turn us away from our own direction.

The beauty of growth is it often happens without us even realizing it. Positive decisions can become routine so that we forget a year ago we made different ones. We also make a lot of decisions unconsciously that can be positive and move us towards our values. When questions come up through-out the year regarding your own growth and achievements, instead of letting the self-doubt creep in, take the time to be intentional and see all the incredible ways you (and your decisions) have grown.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what point stood out to you the most.

I look forward to seeing you here again!

Ashley Beeby, Heavy Vehicle Diesel Mechanic & Writer

How to write REAL characters.

In writing, you are either a natural world-builder and plot-driven writer or you’re a natural character mastermind and character-driven writer. For me, I’m a plot-driven writer. Coming up with new worlds with complex issues and community conflicts for my characters to solve is naturally where my ideas originate. Even though I always have a notion of the personality of my characters, they start of as mere pieces that need to follow the conflict of my world. Their level of dimension is: one.

After spending years writing my first manuscript (which consisted of 90,000 words, one major re-write and three total drafts) I realised that while I have an interesting world for my characters to play in, my characters aren’t putting in enough work to drive the story forward. This realisation hurts, especially after all the time I committed to complete and improve the manuscript, only to realise that I didn’t put in the right work to make sure my natural weaknesses were lifted. But the benefit is that, now, as I write a brand new first-draft for a different story world, I can level-up my character writing game. And, if you’re a world-builder like me, I want to help you improve your characters too.

Even in the first 2000 words of my current WIP, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my story writing from following some basic steps (after some very intense thinking and research). If you want to know how I did it, keep reading!

STEP ONE: Understand People

Writers are often encouraged to be ‘people-watchers’. That’s because a deep understanding of how people think, react, make decisions, and move through life is essential to be able to recreate a character with artist realism like great books do. For myself, understanding people is not a strength. People-watching will often leave me creating a story for the person in my mind as I wonder who they are and how they think instead of observing and learning about them from their outward expression of self. (If we’re honest, it’s hard to know if you’re an efficient people-watcher without engaging in a conversation with the person to fact-check your assumptions. And, making assumptions of others isn’t considered socially polite!)

So, what do we do to understand people better?

There’s always one person that you can rely on to teach you about decisions and reactions: yourself. Being observant of yourself and how people make you feel and react can be a good place to start, but we often don’t want to write ourselves as the main character of our stories (where’s the fun in that, right?) The next best thing is to understand body language.

We all innately understand human cues of emotion and body language – if we didn’t, we’d struggle to make it through routine daily conversations without landing in hot water. If (like me) you struggle to understand people, instead of starting with people-watching, start by researching body language. While we understand body language cues innately – especially people we are familiar with – consciously recognising and observing body language on others to try and understand them is a different skillset. Having knowledge to apply onto the people you watch can help you understand more from afar and may allow you to notice tics and quirks that people may have that make them unique.

For my research, I explored every nook and cranny of the following website: scienceofpeople.com. I created a chart in a word document and listed the different facial and body language cues against emotions so that I have a quick-reference chart to help me remember body language.

The reason understanding body language and people watching is important is that you need to make sure as you write your characters you are including body language cues that make sense with the character’s mood and setting. Our readers, like ourselves, aren’t necessarily body-language experts, but they have the same innate understanding of body language cues that gives them impressions of character’s emotions from the body language you use to describe them. If you’re trying to write an angry character but describe them as ‘slouching’ you’re unintentionally disconnecting your reader from your story because the description and the emotion don’t align and become un-real.

Note: with your new understanding of body language, you may be tempted to describe your character’s body language with unnecessary detail that leaves the reader more confused (for example, very few people remember whether “liars” look left of right) – this is not the purpose of understanding body language. The purpose of understanding body language is to ensure that your description matches the tone of your characters and/or scene to create believable characters. It’s more of a fact-check or list of ways you can ‘show-not-tell’ character emotions.

STEP TWO: Understand Your Characters

Now that you know how to convey the emotions your characters are experiencing through accurate body language cues, it’s time to understand what causes your character to feel certain emotions and why.

Understanding our characters overlaps with understanding people, but here is where we need to make intentional decisions about our character’s past experiences, fears, traumas, loves and attributes. The better you understand your character, the easier it will be to write them with distinct personalities and responses to situations.

I created my own Character Profile form to help understand my characters. It wasn’t the usual Character Profile of hair colour, eye colour, height, age, and occupation. This one went much deeper. A character’s back story and history are important, but you need to take it another step and understand the impact the character’s back story has made on their decisions. (I’ll write more on decisions shortly).

To do this and force myself to make decisions about my characters in a meaningful way that made them each unique (instead of generic characters that all blend into one voice) I extended on these character prompts to create unique prompts in my Character Profile. I have shared them here so you can add them to your character development process too:

Answering these questions for each of your characters will help you create distinct voices before you even add any unique tics or quirks, horrific back stories or the normal ‘strengths and weaknesses’.

STEP THREE: Define Your Character’s Decisions

An incredible science-fiction trilogy I finished recently changed my understanding about characters description and characterisation because of the writer’s writing style. ‘The Arc of a Scythe’ by Neal Shusterman is described as a ‘romantic, sci-fi adventure’ novel, but by the end of the first book I was left wondering: where is the romance?

The Arc of a Scythe Trilogy by Neal Shusterman

As I flew through the next two books and was left contemplating life and writing (as you do after you get enveloped in an incredible story), it clicked. The romance written my Neal Shusterman in his trilogy doesn’t exist in sexual tension, physical contact between the characters or flirting in their interaction as you would expect – in fact, there’s very little of any of that, practically none! Neal Shusterman conveyed the romance through his character’s decisions.

Having a thorough understanding of your characters is essential to create complex characters that readers can connect with, but for us plot-driven, world-building writers, it’s easy for our characters to get swept into the currents of the story without them taking any action. What I mean by this is: you need to force your characters to make decisions and highlight the decision for the reader (in a show-not-tell kind of way).

Decisions were painfully lacking in my first manuscript. In my mind, I thought I was conveying my character’s personality because of the way they got swept into the story – they were engaging in certain scenarios, surely that counted as a decision? The problem with our characters just easily falling into certain situations is that it takes away from the complexity and background history that a well-highlighted decision can add.

So, as your naturally plotting mind comes up with a complex world and story, pay extra attention to the decisions your character must make to move the story. The easiest way to showcase decisions is to show what the character is giving-up to do something. For example, if your character must steal money from their employer, showcase how they are making the decision to forsake their integrity for their survival.

By highlighting character decisions, it allows the characters to act as story drivers that can compliment the strength of a complex plot. It also gives them more solidarity in the story while contributing to characterisation.

STEP FOUR: Plan Your Scenes.

As plotters we often have fragments of the story – the beginning, the end, the conflict, and its climax – but none of the in-between. I know I’m often stuck with what ‘stuff’ to fill my book with. If a scene isn’t driving the plot, then it’s unnecessary, right? The result of this mentality is a manuscript with lots of action, but no reader-character relationship because every scene is about moving the plot.

Taking a moment to plan and understand the purpose of your scene has the potential to dramatically improve your writing and allow you to incorporate all the work you’ve undergone leading up to the writing. So, whether you’re a Planner or a Pantser, take a moment to think about these two, simple steps.

Decide on the purpose of the scene.

Every scene has a purpose. To keep it simple, something either needs to be done (an action) or something needs to be learned (a lesson). This is true for writing a plot-driven scene or a character-driven scene. So, the first thing you need to decide before you begin writing is decide on the purpose of your scene. There are only four combinations:

*It can also be something you need your reader to learn through the character.

Once you have determined the purpose you can move onto the next step.

Note: the 3^rd and 4^th combination are the one that is typically lacking in a plotter’s natural skillset. These combinations are the scenes that don’t necessarily contribute to any plot movement, but allow readers to understand the characters more, show character’s relationships or show a character’s development.

2. Dot-point the actions and/or lessons that needs to be included in the scene.

Even a plot-driven scene still needs to include characterisation. So, regardless of the scene purpose, there are a few questions you can ask yourself that allow you to make a list of 5-10 important details that need to be included in a scene. By dot-pointing the actions and/or lessons (even if it’s just mentally in your head, Pantsers) allows you to really highlight the important details that add complexity to your characters as you write. Ask yourself these questions if you need help creating your list of important details:

By asking these questions, it allows you to apply your understanding of body language to the scene, include subtle details of the Character Profiles you developed for your characters in ‘Step Two’ to the scene with clarity and highlight character decisions. Within a few quick prompts, all the work you’ve put into writing real characters gets to melt together into a beautiful masterpiece and instantly level-up your writing!

Examples:

Details I need the reader to learn about my main character:

These quotes are from my current manuscript – I hope you enjoyed the sneak-peak!

Conclusion:

Improving your writing by levelling-up your ‘weak arm’ doesn’t have to be complicated. All-in-all, if you invest some time in your writing by adding the first two steps into your manuscript planning – Understand People and Understand Your Characters – that leave only the final two steps to be applied on a regular basis. Defining your character’s decisions and planning the important details of a scene allows you to intentionally include all the sticky, complex, gooey parts of your character development into your story and increase you character dimension level from one to ten.

I hope you’ve gained a lot from this article. The lessons in this article are the results of five weeks stuck at home asking myself “how do I write better characters?” Being able to lay it all out here for you to benefit from makes me really excited because I know how pivotal it has been in my own writing. If you gained something from this article please share it with your fellow creative writing friends, give it a like or leave me a comment to tell me what your biggest take-away was!

Good luck with your new tool-belt of character development strategies and happy writing!

P.S. If you’re interested in owning my full Character Profile, make sure to comment so I know and then I can make it available for everyone!