Meet Miranda Clark from ACC Made Easy.
With 10 years’ experience working at ACC under her belt and an extensive background in sports event management, Miranda is now the director of two companies – one of which is ACC Made Easy.
Starting in 2013, Miranda developed her business and began working part time to fit around her young family. Moving full time in the past three years, Miranda reflects on why she started her business and what she hopes to achieve.
Why did you start your own business?
There was a very large gap in the market when it comes to self-employed individuals and small, medium, and large business and their understanding of ACC levies. That gap needed filling fast and I decided that I was the person to do it.
Tell us about your business: What services do you offer? How can you help our business community?
Having ‘lived and breathed’ ACC for close to two decades, I have a wealth of experience to offer. With an extensive knowledge and understanding of ACC claims, levies, legislation, systems and processes, and a passion to help people understand ACC, I assist clients navigate the ACC labyrinth and make it easier to understand what levies they are liable for, for themselves and their employees.
Most importantly: I educate clients on what will happen should they or their employees ever have an accident and ensure they know what compensation and entitlements they would be entitled to.
What makes your business unique?
I am a bit of a ‘one of a kind’ in the country with regards to the fact that I have an extensive knowledge of both ACC claims AND levies, which means I can provide advice of any type to my clients. While we do not provide claims assistance and advocacy services, a lot of the information and education I am providing centres around ‘what if you or your staff have an accident’ so it is very important to know and provide information when needed.
When you first got into business, what is the one thing you wish people told you?
I am the kind of girl that seeks assistance with everything I do and try and ‘do my homework’ before I jump into anything of great risk. As such, I have had some incredible mentors and advisors throughout my ‘owning a business journey’ and I cannot actually think of anything poignant that I wished I had been told nine years ago. It’s not to say I didn’t know it all though! I just had the luxury of starting slow and small – with not a lot of risk or exposure to worry about.
In your first year of business, what challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Income was low and expenses were high (and I started with a $0.00 bank balance), which is really the nature of a lot of new businesses, I guess. I was OK with this though as I didn’t want to grow my business too much while my daughter was still so young.
Knowing that I could and would grow was what kept me grounded, but also helped me to ensure that I was growing my business the right way (and not over promising and under delivering).
And now, looking back, what have been your biggest learnings?
- Be courageous and say no when you need to.
- Being a bit of a ‘jack of all trades’ and an extrovert
- While I wish I could help everyone who asks, it is simply not a reality and my family, health (mental and physical) and business must all come first.
What’s the one misconception people might have about your industry?
I often find business owners are frustrated with years of misunderstanding ACC or having bad experiences (from a claim point of view).
This can definitely be a barrier, but after a quick chat I can generally assist them to be a bit calmer with their approach, and they tend to trust and respect what I have to say moving forward.
What’s the one thing you want people to know about your business?
That I am here to help, I am not the bad guy and to put your head in the sand with all things ACC (even if you have had a bad claim or business experience with them) is not the right thing to do by any means.
Anyone can have an accident (whether it be at work or not) and you do not want to be learning about what your levies are paying for after you are injured and in pain and often struggling to make ends meet financially. ACC is an insurance, it is NOT a tax and levy payers do have some control – they just don’t know what that can be.
What are your goals (personal and professional) for the next six to 12 months?
To continue to build ACC’s client base. I have recently starting using a CRM, which has made life so much easier. Building on that I am going to also start creating some process documents to futureproof my processes and get everything ‘in my head’ down on paper.
When you’re not at work, how do you like to spend your time?
I love spending time with friends and family. I also enjoy running a lot these days, and generally try and get out for a run at least three times a week.
Being able to be a Mum is also important to me and being able to do school drop-offs and pickups, attend school and sports activities and spend time together in the weekends is the reason I started my business in the first place and left the ‘corporate grind’.
If you could impart one piece of advice to fellow business owners, what would it be?
Find something you love doing and make sure that is your ‘work’. You spend too much time each week, year at work to not enjoy it.
After many different roles and jobs and opportunities in life (and I am only 42) I am a firm believer in that you MUST spend your time each week doing something that excites and motivates you. I know it is easy to say and hard to put in practice for some, but it is achievable and can be done.
New members can find it hard meeting people at events, so we want to take some of the pressure off that awkward small talk by shining a light on your business through our member profiles.
Our member profiles are a great way to give the business community a taste of who you are and what you do, so when they see your face at one of our events they won’t hesitate to make that all-important introduction.
If you’re a new member and would like a profile, get in touch with our marketing team today.
