My Story
My Story
Debra Cooper is the principal of Zephyr Management Solutions and this is her story.
In hindsight, its seems inevitable that I am more comfortable in the role of entrepreneur or business owner than employee. However, it has been a life long journey, that has brought me to a place where I am in a position to truly support other entrepreneurs and business owners with their own journey.
Here are some of the highlights.
My Entrepreneurial Spirit ...
Around the Board (Dining) Room Table
I was raised in the shadow of a family business. As many of you may also have experienced, the dining room table was the board room table, where over the evening meal my parents discussed the activity of the day.
While I believe we are either born with a business acumen or not, it appears inevitable that the dining room table was the beginning of my education about business management.
At a young age I understood terms like “interest”, something not common knowledge in children growing up in the 1970s.
My parents believed it was important to lean how to manage money at a young age and so we received pocket money when we started school. Only two dollars a week, I soon learned the value of savings and on the occasion we went to the bank I would exchange my small notes for larger ones. Putting my clothes away one day, Mum came across my horde.
Sitting me at the dining table where important discussion were held she asked me where I got all the money from. In my innocence I explained it was the pocket money she had given me. Accepting my explanation, she suggested I keep it in a bank account. Mum then asked which bank I would like to use.
My response, “Which one has the most interest?”
Why make lemonade when you can sell lemons?
In the backyard where I grew up, we had a lemon tree that due to Mum’s green thumb was prolific in its production of fruit. So much so, that there was often a mass of lemons at the foot of the tree.
One day, when I was about ten, Mum complained about the wasted excess lemons (the problem). With her permission I suggested I sell them and my first business was born.
I established a pop-up stall on the street corner (the solution). Recruiting the neighborhood kids (the employees) we filled up a washing basket (the equipment) with fruit (the inventory), only plucking them from the tree when we had exhausted rescuing the saleable fruit from the ground (selling old stock first).
I even remember drafting the makeshift sign advertising lemons for 5 cents a piece (pricing strategy – well below market price). Needless to say with a 10 cents discount per lemon we did a booming trade! I was never strong with marketing, I am an accountant after all.
When we ran out of lemons, the neighborhood kids would replenish our stocks (logistics) and we would sell several washing basket loads, pleasing Mum no end that her problem was solved.
At the end of trading, I would count up our profits (100% margin thanks to Mum donating the produce) and divided it equally among all the neighborhood kids that had contributed their labor (profit sharing). With our pockets bulging we’d trek up to the local Milk Bar and spend up big on sweets and ice-cream.
It was always an afternoon well spent and enjoyed!
db business services
My son was born in 2003, and with only pockets of time I started taking on some freelance bookkeeping clients. In my first advertisement I picked up four clients. I soon partnered up with a couple of public accountants and it wasn’t long until I had stable work.
I ran this business for five years and relished being my own boss.
When my son began school I came to a crossroad. Do I begin investing and transforming my business into the vision that was beginning to form in my minds eye? Or do I go back to paycheck employment and pursue further qualifications?
Zephyr Management Solutions
In 2011, I had been back in paycheck employment for three years, and yet could not relinquish my vision. However I still wasn’t ready to bring my plan to fruition.
I continued to maintain five clients as my side-hustle and enrolled in a Masters of Business Administration degree. I also moved on to an employer that not only furthered my work experience but provide me with an extensive group of mentors I needed to understand my true worth.
In March 2018, I returned to working entirely for myself and haven’t looked back. In 2020, I embarked on implementing what I envisioned more than 10 years ago, and finally ventured into the online space, fully equipped to provide my clients with value.
My Writing...
In my early twenties, I followed an army guy to Adelaide in South Australia. He would spend many months, a couple of times a year, on operations that took him away from home, leaving me to fend for myself in a city where I knew very few people.
Solitary by nature, I found solace is writing. Like marketing, English was not a strength however I was an avid book worm and found I could very easily get lost in the flow of words that I typed onto a page.
Whilst my first attempts were very rare and unpolished, I have found writing to be unwittingly empowering and therapeutic. Over thirty years I have almost completed many manuscripts of fictional stories and even tried my hand at a few works of non-fiction. However until 2020, I never completed any of my manuscripts to a stage where they were ready to be published.
Discover Your Finance Engine, is my first published work. The concept is a combination of copy write for websites, articles and reports I’ve been dabbling with and when in April 2020 I committed to the task, the words just fell onto the page. As the size of the manuscript grew, it soon became obvious that there was more than one book on this topic alone and my writing projects for the next few years were set.
I continue to write fiction for my own benefit and self therapy. Who knows, maybe one day, I’ll publish one of these manuscripts too.
My Work Experience ...
For over twenty-five years I have either worked with small business owners, or within small business. I understand the challenges the smaller entity faces and how the restrictive access and availability of resources often means the small business owner looses time reinventing the wheel.
I have been fortunate to have worked in many industries, including professional services, insurance, outdoor power equipment, hardware, plumbing, landscaping, electrical, distribution, utilities, property development and automotive. As a result I have gained varied and extensive exposure to a variety of business operations and models where I have provided business management and business finance support, services and solutions. The following summarizes the disciplines:
Strategic Business Planning: I have worked with head company executives identifying and building upon a company’s business core values, assisted with the development of a strategic plan and provided advice in respect to implementation and subsequent learnings, particularly in respect of implementing extreme structural change.
Financial Budgeting and Forecasting: I have developed and customized financial models encompassing three to five year financial plans across varying scenarios facilitating analysis of the most cost effective and efficient strategy. I have compiled Forecasted Financial Statements for all identified scenarios and tracked actual activity against projections.
Business System Implementation and Management: I have Identified the needs of a business in respect of their data and information management, chosen appropriate business management systems, implemented a preferred system improving task productivity and effectiveness and managed the day to day requirements of business systems.
Financial Reporting and Analysis: I have compiled the monthly and yearly financial statements of multiple entities concurrently, maximized the value of the reported information through the design of customized reporting structures and provided financial analysis that is instrumental in the day to day management of a company’s objectives.
Cash Flow Management: I have extensive experience working in cash strapped companies and assisted in the development of cash projections to highlight cash needs whilst developing methods to maximize the utilization of cash for the best advantage of the business.
