Date posted: May 23, 2018

Dear FBA members,

With the new financial year fast approaching, it is head down as we work hard to deliver on our value proposition to you – helping family businesses succeed!

Next month we will launch our new website which will dramatically improve the way our members can interact and engage with FBA. With easier navigation and a clean layout, the new site will be a lot more user friendly , making it easier to access your information and book into an array of events on offer. 

The month of May has seen us deliver our State Family Business Insights events (formerly known as State Conferences) and by all accounts these has been well received and well attended. These events provided attendees an opportunity to hear stories, insights and contribute to real life business solutions from prominent family businesses.

Our next major event is our National Conference to be held in Alice Spring from the 9th to the 12th of September. Early bird rates are still available until the 9th of July, so don’t miss your opportunity to attend this exciting three day program. Full of inspiration and motivation, you will leave with the tools you need to build stronger families and healthier businesses.

In my previous CEO message, I talked about aligning our membership to the financial year, which in turn will allow us to spend the majority of the year focused on new member acquisition. Recently we sent renewal notices out and I am pleased to say that over 55% of members have already renewed their membership. This is a great indication that we are on the right track in adding value to you as a family business, but, as always, we will keep pushing ahead to hit our target of 87.5% member retention. I would like to encourage those who have not renewed as yet to jump on board the FBA train and renew your membership today!

We recently launched our emblem campaign via Google display advertising, Facebook and LinkedIn advertising and we have seen an exceptional response with thousands of people viewing the different adverts that feature our members. The adverts have a call to action that directs consumers to the new dedicated emblem website  www.wearefamilyowned.org.au encouraging customers to seek out and engage with the product and services offered by our members. Feedback to date has been very positive, however we are taking the opportunity to further enhance the new website with increased search capabilities and functionally to make the consumer journey even more appealing.

One of the biggest issues most associations face is the accuracy of their member’s data, and as such during the month of June we will be doing a system upgrade and I’m calling on your support.  We will be asking all our members to update their data, in particular please take the time to review your Emblem membership This is free as part of your family business membership and is the information that consumers will see when they go to www.wearefamilyowned.org.au – this is recorded as a different data set to your membership – building your business profile and allowing us to publicise our family business information.

The Emerging Leaders Program, designed for both family and non-family who are working their way up through a family business but do not yet hold CEO/MD roles. This program focuses on developing leadership and strategic business planning skills – with participants defining their own personal leadership challenge and work-based strategic planning project which they focus on over the duration of the program – providing real return on investment to both the individual and the business. Over 20 people are currently undertaking the program. Feedback so far has been extremely positive; that the program is well facilitated, participants have been challenged within a supportive environment, and that participants are already building the confidence to better lead their teams back in the family business. I hope this to be the first of many new programs that we will introduce in the years to come.

Well that’s it for me, please continue to provide your feedback on how we can improve our service offering to you, your advice is always greatly appreciated.

Warm regards,
Greg Griffith
CEO | Family Business Australia