#awinewith Deanne Luke
MEET Deanne
Deanne is the Founder of Lexington Logistics.
Find Deanne here:
Lexington Logistics website or Instagram @lexingtonlogistics
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:08):
Thank you Deanne, for being here today. We're so excited to have a conversation with you about your business journey and I think maybe the best way to kick things off today is to kind of give us a bit of a tour of your career and how you actually got to being a business owner. What was the thing that made you take the leap, but paint us a picture about the
Deanne Luke (00:30):
Story. Sure can. I think, look, my parents are business owners and my dad particularly is a business owner. So you do see what it takes early on with what that looks like and it can be super, you see the hard work and what have you and it doesn't put you off then or I actually hope that you don't ever notice because my son sees how much we work and he hates us, but then I hope that he forgets that and then becomes much more than what we ever have been. So I think people go about when they finish school with a real plan, and I don't think I ever had, I would say a 100% foolproof plan that this is my career path. I think I'm an opportunist, so I take opportunities as they come and see the value in what that opportunity might give me.
(01:21):
And what I've noticed is that the opportunity that I take now doesn't really play out till 10 years down the track where it all links back together. And I'll explain more around my path. So you leave school, you go to uni, that's the thing to do. And then I loved working, so you take on different roles and I worked in telecommunications and then construction and earth moving machinery and you sort of take these roles because they excite you when there's something to learn from it. It's not so much saying that this is the career path that I sort of envisaged. I did a PR communications degree and I never worked in pr.
Danielle Lewis (01:58):
I didn't know that. There you go.
Deanne Luke (02:02):
Yeah, it's really, I never sort of thought I'm going to own my own PR agency at all. I think you just take on roles and any of it. At uni, I did a business admin part to the course. So I think you just saw things that were exciting and things that motivated you, and that's sort of how the career path had taken. And then you sort of progress as you go and worked in HR for a number of years and saw different and recruitment. And I always say if someone doesn't know what they want to do, go and work in recruitment for 12 months because you will learn everything so much and you learn so much about hard work, determination, knock backs, getting back up again. It is a tough industry, but I think you can learn how to deal with clients, how to respond to clients, how to respond to candidates, how to conduct yourself. This, it's still
Danielle Lewis (03:00):
A bit of a window into a lot of job roles as well. Really good recruiters always have that really good knowledge of the actual role and the business. So I think that it helps you see into organizations at all different levels.
Deanne Luke (03:12):
And I think that you have to be on your game and if you're not on your game, you can get swallowed up so quickly. I spent only 12 months in recruitment and then more hr, but I did recruitment. Then I had this other opportunity that came up in the wholesale fashion business that I worked in for a number of years. And again, it's managing teams and an omnichannel business and how that operated. So from working in telecommunications through to construction and earth moving and then you develop this path that you don't think has any relevance until you get to another opportunity. So in today's role, I own a logistics company and I have never worked a day in a logistics company at all until I started the business. And I started the business in, well some people might say it's record time, but I have a consulting client. So I do a number of business consulting in inventory management systems and process and structure around small business. And one of my clients rang me and said, my current three pls closing, I need to go somewhere. Where do I go? Said give me 24 hours. So literally I went home and I said, I'm going to start this business. Did you
Danielle Lewis (04:37):
Do it in 24 hours?
Deanne Luke (04:39):
So I rang her back in 24 hours and said, we
Danielle Lewis (04:41):
Do it.
Deanne Luke (04:43):
I signed a lease in a week and we started operating three weeks from what I said, yes. So it happened super quickly. I think I invested, I had $15,000 worth of shares. I sold them to fund the business. So pretty much that's how this business started because I saw an opportunity and I think if it was two, three years earlier I done it, maybe not. But because I had so many different roles that I had worked in, you just had that confidence that you know what, this can work.
Danielle Lewis (05:22):
So the business now,
Deanne Luke (05:24):
Sorry, my earphones dying flat.
Danielle Lewis (05:27):
Oh, that's okay. I'll just
Deanne Luke (05:29):
Change it. Sorry.
Danielle Lewis (05:30):
No, that's fine.
Deanne Luke (05:32):
Can I change it back to my
Danielle Lewis (05:34):
Yeah, you should be able to.
Deanne Luke (05:36):
Yeah. And it doesn't have
Danielle Lewis (05:37):
Too much
Deanne Luke (05:38):
Background
Danielle Lewis (05:38):
Noise. No, actually the sound isn't better. The sound is clearer, so that's good. I do have
Deanne Luke (05:43):
A mic, but
Danielle Lewis (05:46):
Sorry. No, that's fine. So the business now, Lexington Logistics. So you are three PL company. So tell what does that mean for people that are dialing in and what kind of customers do you serve and what do you specifically do on a day-to-day basis as the business owner?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
So three PL is third party logistics. So we pick, pack and distribute for brands on their behalf. So I'm a little bit more specialized than some really big three pl. So three PL was probably designed to assist the bigger players in the market. So Big W and Target that have three pls set up around the country to help with distribution. And I guess it's come a long way. There's so many different ones out there, but when I created this one, I wanted to be a little bit of a point of difference. We wanted to work with brands as their brand partner to be an extension of their business and not take over and keep them separate. So any of my clients can come and visit us at any point. They can see their stock, anything that they need, they've got my number, but we wanted to really work with them to provide a really good outsource solution.
(07:02):
So that's sort of been the driver. So we've worked with brands that may have a team, but they actually just don't want the warehouse and logistics, logistics aspect of what they do on a day-to-day basis. So we have a team now of 12 and we service about 30 clients and they range in, so it'll be health and beauty, lifestyle, fashion, kids, kids, swimwear, sportswear. So mainly in that space predominantly we've got a few other brands that'll sit a little bit outside that but still have that idea of being wanting to have a bit of a boutique offering. We'll do things that other three pls won't do. So one of our boxes gets everyone's name labeled on it. So you're a little bit more be spoke in how you deliver the package. And one of our key aspects that we wanted to focus on was to never to come from three pl.
(08:02):
So when someone receives their parcel, that's exactly, it might have our address on it, but they don't know that it's not the brand's warehouse, which can be real challenge definitely with our staff is every brand will be different. There'll be something different about that brand, we may have to wrap it, you box it, sometimes it's just sustainable packaging. It goes straight in, fairly easy to pack up. Some will have boxes and it fits beauty, it's all grouped together. So there's so many moving parts and whilst that can be a challenge, it can be really exciting because no two days are the same, no two brands are the same. And we try and really give them the best service we possibly can
Danielle Lewis (08:49):
And that's amazing. So I reflect on my brief foray into a product-based business and it's insane. So the amount of time and detail that it takes in that liaising with the customer once the order is actually placed, making sure that that boxing is the same for every customer that you send out. Making sure that it gets to the right place, making sure all that tracking set up, managing returns, that is crazy. That's a full-time job
Speaker 3 (09:24):
And fashion's different again. So we do a lot of fashion brands and we have a full quality control returns department. So we have a team of people in there that oversee a couple of things. One, the return, making sure it's coming back if it needs to be sent out to be repaired or dry cleaned. But also we offer that quality control. So we've got clients that do, they don't see their product. It may be manufactured in Bali or India or they'll see the sample but then they don't see the finished production. We'll have that received into our warehouse and sometimes there might be an issue in production and we'll measure and make sure that look, this is exactly as per their style guide and requirements. So there's so many other things that we can offer that is part of that extra service
Danielle Lewis (10:22):
And it really is being an extension to somebody's team rather than just we're outsourcing the three pl, it is actually making sure that you're upholding the brand as well.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So there's certainly so many different things that occur on any given day. So not one dimensional what Well,
Danielle Lewis (10:42):
That sounds like being a business owner, and that's probably a good segue. So you as the business owner, what do you do now for the business? So the business has been around for, is it a few years
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And a half years?
Danielle Lewis (10:57):
Three and a half years. So how is it different from day one to now as the owner of the business?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Probably not much different. I can tell you that right now and I can talk a bit of about challenges, but I've always believed that you have to work from the ground up
(11:18):
A hundred percent. Anyone that comes into the business has to understand our picking and packing process. I have picked and packed every single brand. It's nice when I don't know how to pick and pack a brand because we are moving upwards and onwards as well. I can focus on other things, but it is really important to know all your different brands, how to pick and pack. You've been there, you've been part of that onboarding process with any brand. So I still pick and pack because we do have Covid is the gift that keeps on giving.
Danielle Lewis (11:53):
Absolutely, yep.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
One thing you've then got staff off and things like that. So it just happens this year I still pick and pack because number one priority is that we have service level agreements with our clients to get the orders out.
Danielle Lewis (12:11):
And that's the thing, isn't it though? I think as the business owner you need to recognize that your customers are it not that it all begins and ends with customers and if you've promised them something delivering on that, it doesn't matter if you have to do it or someone else has done it, it just has to get done.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And I think, I don't like to use excuses, so it's so hard when you do have full staff away, it adds the extra pressure to the deliverables because I'm not my own brand so I don't have that choice to make. I'll send out orders today. We've committed to our clients that this is what we're going to do so we just have to get it done. It's as simple as that. So I still pick and pack, but I think I do do a lot of the onboarding part of what we do. So when we have a new client, we go through a full onboarding process with them to embed them into our systems and our internal structure to make sure that the handover is as smooth that we can get all of our systems integrate with each other. We've set up all shipping and everything that we could possibly think of that we'll need to do.
(13:24):
That's what I oversee a lot of on a day-to-day basis, still do all of the account side of things as well. So it's still in that infancy period where we are still a small business. I hope to start to move that onwards. It's just time to work on the business as well. So I do struggle with that between working on the business and in the business because at three and a half years I've the business. So there's been no borrowings, no equity partners, no nothing. So far it's been completely bootstrapped. So any money that we've made, we've reinvested back into the business. So sometimes you feel that your journey's a little bit slower because the money that you make, you hire more staff, you invest in getting new clients on board, invest in better systems devices. We've just moved warehouse last year, so we outgrew our two warehouses and then went to a bigger facility.
(14:28):
But what comes with a bigger facility is more overheads. And so there's a lot on the line and because you put your money on the line, you 100% committed and wanting to see it work. It doesn't matter if you've got $10 or $10,000 in the bank, you've got to make payments and pay staff and all of that. So you were definitely still on the ground driving the business every day. So it is what it is at the moment and whether we like it or not, I'm still very embedded into the operations, but trying to start to feed my way out of that a little bit so that we can continue to grow because our growth per year is nearly 300% year on year. Oh my
Danielle Lewis (15:17):
God, that's unreal.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Massive growth comes lots of pain. And
Danielle Lewis (15:22):
It's funny that you say that though because you kind of said as a bootstrapped business potentially you're going slower. But I dunno about a lot of funded VC back businesses that are drawing it 300% a year, that is incredible growth.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
So it's huge. It's really good. But you do have to catch yourself because you haven't had the time whilst it's it's slow, but then it's quick. So one minute you are sort of moving quite quickly and you've got four clients that want to come on board, but then you don't have the staff to back that up to be able to really deliver the way that you would want to. And I think that's been the challenge is staffing as well, just to get the right staff. I just don't hire anyone good
Danielle Lewis (16:07):
As you shouldn't. Yes.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Because again, it comes down to you don't just work for me, you work for my clients.
Danielle Lewis (16:16):
And that's interesting as from your HR and operations background, that's and recruitment background that puts you in a really, I think great spot above other potential founders. I know personally as a founder, that's the biggest thing that I struggled with was how to interview staff, how to onboard staff, how to retain staff, how to keep staff happy. Staff, staff, staff was always a problem. So I'm interested whether you've got any tips and tricks for female founders who are listening right now who are kind of going, I've either got to hire my first employee and I have no idea the things to think about or I keep making mistakes. Are there any secrets that we need to know about?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Look, I think doing it yourself is actually harder. Back in the day working in consultancy, I now sort of value why we use consultants to help us. If you can afford it, you outsource it because you are too attached to it. I'm too emotionally attached to it. Even when I've run businesses before and I've hired staff is so different to when I've hired staff for other businesses because when you find staff for other businesses, you are not emotionally involved in the process. You see things that you don't normally would see, you don't or you don't feel things that you would normally feel if you were, oh she seems really sweet, I just want to go. And I've made that mistake before because I think you see the good in someone and you think, I just think she could be great if she just worked, just applied
Danielle Lewis (17:53):
Herself
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Complaining. But you do see the good in people and you do want to make it work. And then it's your gut too. I knew right from the work I questioned myself three or four times over it and then it wasn't the right choice in the end anyway. So you go with your gut, I know everyone's heard it before, you hire slow and fire fast. So you do try and just find the right fit. And it's not just culturally because there's so many elements to culture and personality, but also we can teach anyone what we do within our business, the attitude. And it's the really willing to turn up and give it a go and work hard because sky's the limit. You're coming into a business that you don't actually have to have degrees and qualifications, you just have to have a little bit of a brain switched on wanting to work. But there's so many opportunities that can be trained and you can be at the end of that if that's what you want. So there's no hard or fast rules with hiring, but I think some of it is don't do it yourself.
Danielle Lewis (19:09):
And that is good advice. And there are a lot of platforms now that you can tap into that might not attract a big recruiter fee, but that give you a pool of people and some, I know that there's a few even in Australia now that kind of give you almost a recruitment on demand service. So there are definitely options that I think can help, like you say, take the emotion out of it.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
If you've got business associates, so friends in business points that you've worked together with, whether you're in the same business group or networking group, maybe that they can come and assist you in that interview process because they're going to be coming in at a completely different viewpoint to what you are. So again, yeah, just trying to utilize people around you as well, not just yourself having that someone to bounce off. Oh look, what did you think of them? Do you think is so much better than you sitting up at night going? I'm not sure. And generally that's a no, but you do try and find the best fit for the business. But as I said, it's not just us, it's also our clients. So I've got to be comfortable with whoever we hire that they're going to be great with our clients as well. Get back to them, treat them with respect, be responsive. So all those little things, not just for me, it's also for our client because they may not want to work with you if they don't like the person that's directly involved with you. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (20:46):
Absolutely. And that was even something that I never considered for the scrunch business where we had people coming through asking us if we could run particular campaigns and the team actually going, no, that's actually against my values. I wouldn't actually be comfortable working on a alcohol campaign or whatever campaign. So it's like, oh, little things that you either think about and the dynamics of people is really interesting
Speaker 3 (21:14):
And how they align with the client too and then with each other. So I do think of that that they would be best suited to coming on board and working with our clients, what their background is and what have you. So it's tricky.
Danielle Lewis (21:29):
Totally. And not the only tricky thing in business. So obviously team and people is a huge part of it, but some people here aren't quite ready to scale yet. They are in the even earlier stages where it's maybe year one or year two and they're maybe only just in the stage of one or two employees. Is there anything that you've experienced going from an employee in corporate world or even in small business world to running it yourself that you didn't expect to encounter that? If you could share wisdom with somebody who's just starting out,
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I think
Danielle Lewis (22:08):
Is there something else I can help with?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Oh sorry.
Danielle Lewis (22:11):
Thanks Siri. That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
She likes to pop in every now and then. Oh
Danielle Lewis (22:17):
My god, Siri on the podcast. I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Look, I think people do get overwhelmed with the fact that they have these grand plans of I'm going to be a business owner, I wanting to transition out of a small business or a corporate. And there's a difference between your expertise and being a business owner. 100%
(22:38):
You could be the best consultant or whatever. And I see it in creatives because we've worked with a lot of creatives. Some people are brilliant creatives, they can design massive collections and it also come to business and completely just it's not of interest process and systems is not their thing. I mean that's what we try and do to take that away from them. And even myself, I think early in the day there's people that I should have been engaging in and people talk about it all the time, but a bookkeeper for instance, unless you have a passion for doing that,
Danielle Lewis (23:16):
Get
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Someone early. And I know that you think that investing in that isn't great or it's not ideal. Hey, I want to invest back into the business, but you need some real fundamental parts to when you set your business up. I saw a blog or someone on one of the group Facebook things saying, I can't afford Xero anymore or is there any other suggestions? Too expensive. And I felt like saying if you can't afford zero, then you shouldn't be in business. Totally so simple. But having really good systems in place give you information. You may not be completely up to date with it, but by having a bookkeeper, my bookkeeper in my consultancy business was one or $200 a month if that. Every time she got a quarter it was only probably three, not even $300, $250 say a couple of hours of her time was really worth the money because she's able to then tell me what I haven't submitted or what I need to do, what I need to probably look at. You're constantly then looking at your business a little bit closer.
(24:32):
That's one area that most people I see don't love and it's not something that they really enjoy either. But having someone else to help you with that aspect, investing in really good systems, you don't have to spend a lot of money, but if you have a consultancy business, then definitely you need to have zero and potentially zero do have the very early stages of a timekeeping system now and things like that to invoice. But looking at how to make my life easier and having it all in one place so as you grow it doesn't feel so overwhelming with having to add systems going now I've got five staff, I need to put some process in place. If you do it earlier, you can actually start to document that and embed that within your business. So identify a couple of cheap systems that you can start operating in that are of interest.
(25:29):
But the biggest mistake I think I made in my consultancy business is not having a bookkeeper earlier because just to have someone else that's part of your business that you can pass things over to. I now know the value in outsourcing the things that I think I know how to do or would like to do but will never get time to do. And you start to identify what's your time worth? If I want to focus on something, am I going to sit there and design the front cover to my eagle in hours because it's going to drive me nuts because it's never going to be right. You won't got it quite right or do I get someone to do that for me whilst I actually develop the content and start to talk to people about who I'm going to distribute it to or do some business development on it. But just identifying what you're good at and what you're not good at. And I know people have heard that million times over, but it really is working out okay, what's your hourly rate worth and what's someone else's hourly rate worth? Because your time is better spent doing the things that really bring you return
Danielle Lewis (26:44):
As opposed to and actually bringing, so either creativity or revenue into the business. I think people get a lot lost in, I didn't have time to make sales because I was stuck doing the bookkeeping. It's like, well then you're not going to be in business for very long.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
And whilst it's good to understand that side and be across it, there is certainly areas that I think you need to give that to someone that can do it much quicker and you can ask them questions and vice versa and then you can focus on the other areas of the business that actually need you. And look, it's a hard lesson for anyone in business to come to terms with that because especially early on, we don't have money. You are scrambling for the next sale, you need to make it work. But there's a few areas where I go, okay, this is where we need to outsource so much quicker than what I could have done it internally myself.
Danielle Lewis (27:45):
Well, and I think spending that time initially even planning, so before you even start a business, what are the things that I'm going to need? What is that going to cost? So therefore how much do I need to sell? And yes, maybe I'll sacrifice that and that in the beginning and I'll hold onto that and do that, but as soon as I hit that revenue target that's going, that'll actually help me hit the next revenue target. But if you don't sit down and do that planning and understand what things cost and what areas of the business that you're going to need to outsource at some point, then I think it's where people kind of get a little bit stuck.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
And I think there is certain little things that you can do yourself to start with, but just to get you by. But like you said, it's the planning stage of then when I get to this area, then I'm going to outsource that or I'm going to get someone to help me with that aspect of it, which is really important. And just having people around you. So even if you have a networking group or organization, someone that you can then, because if you're a sole entrepreneur, so different to if you have a business partner, you do get lost in your day and you don't know unless you're really well self-driven, really hard to motivate yourself. So investing in going to things and you can go to chick networking nights and you get so much inspiration by just chatting to other people and motivation that you can walk away and go, great, I got all these ideas and now I can develop the next part of what I was going to do in my business. So I think that's really crucial to have that influence around you, especially that when you're on your own or if you've only got one other staff member because it's that creative outlet by talking to people and you get inspiration from so many different places
Danielle Lewis (29:32):
And I think it's so important to fill your cup. It is so easy to just sit behind the computer and bash away and try to get the emails cleared and this job done and this job done, but actually remembering to get out there and look after yourself is really important as well. So three and a half years into Lexington Logistics, have you taken a holiday yet? How do you look after you as a business owner?
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I think we're really bad at that at the moment. As I said, we are driven by our clients. So at the moment that's been especially so early on, we're still growing the business and when I see an opportunity and I still see that now, okay, I'll bring on and I'll onboard a new client because the really right fit for us. So we'll do that. We take little weekends definitely, but I haven't been able to completely separate myself for a massive period of time and that's
Danielle Lewis (30:28):
Probably okay. Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
It's the training development, getting people up to scratch and I think we're in a better place. Even just six months ago we've been able to hire some really great people so we can start to let go a lot more, but we're not quite there yet. Maybe do
Danielle Lewis (30:47):
You have any micro tips? So if somebody's going, look, I've just want to double down, I want this business to grow, so I'm probably not going to switch off for a bit. Do you have any small tips for people the way that you keep your energy up to keep it going?
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Look, I think mean personally I go to the gym most days. Well I try to and having another outlet and I'm really bad for that too. So it is tricky.
Danielle Lewis (31:17):
We're not all perfect yet. We're all good.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You try and have another completely other outlet, whether it be catching up with friends, going for lunch, doing things for yourself if you can. And I know that we do get so consumed by our businesses, go home and I'll pull out the laptop at night. But I'm also doing at the moment a number of other courses as well. Just people that have released courses. I'll go in and do some of my own professional development. I'll read books and things like that. So that's my at the moment because I'm so consumed by the business, I actually work not on the business, but the creative aspect of the business separately. So it's still business, but it's actually doing, you're thinking differently. You are able to go out and do other things. I actually do
Danielle Lewis (32:03):
CO mode or the creator mode versus
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, and I do, I've got this idea that I'm going to go and do a pottery class at some point because I just want to switch off completely. So I've got that on my to-do list in the next month or two. But that's really just the whole day. Just do something that is got nothing to do with work, nothing to do with business, but it's your creative outlet so you are able to then think completely differently when you're doing a creative activity. And that's something that's important,
Danielle Lewis (32:41):
But it's so powerful. I know even myself, the way I engage my brain is when I read, so I'd be really overwhelmed about something, but I'll start reading a book and it's like all of the thoughts just start falling into place. And so I am actually a slow reader. I keep having ideas and having to stop and write them down. Like when I finally switch my brain off, then my brain actually figures things out. So if you can help your brain switch out of work mode and into creative mode, whether it's a pottery class or going the gym or reading or whatever, you actually are surprised at how much value it brings to your business.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, look, I've done that with my son and I have done painting through an online tutorial and it's really interesting how a four hours can just go by. There's no device, you're not checking your emails or anything like that. And then you do start to think completely differently to if you were sitting down trying to write something for the business or trying to develop something that's a little bit different because you get stuck and then the minute you start to switch off in that respect and then put on a completely different hat, it all starts to filter through.
Danielle Lewis (33:58):
So good. I love it. Well, you have been amazing. Thank you so much for You're welcome. Spending your time with us. I know that the sparks would've gotten a lot of value out of it, so I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You're welcome. Anytime. I hope I've been able to give you some sort of little crazy insight into growing a business from scratch. Really. Absolutely. With no experience. You just do it
Danielle Lewis (34:23):
And you know what you draw from. I love that point you literally made at the start, which was you actually draw from all of that experience. You dunno what's happening in the moment, but 10 years later when you're starting this business, all of those things fall into place.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
And there was a reason why you took that job 10 years ago because it's certainly well suited itself into what you're doing now. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (34:45):
Incredible. I love it. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Perfect. Thank you.
