Knowledge Plus
Ly Lim started Knowledge Plus in 2003, motivated by a desire to help others develop their skills and build their careers. Today Knowledge Plus is a successful Mawson Lakes training, IT services and design business, which has won numerous business awards along the way.
The same passion for helping people reach their potential inspired her to write a practical guide to small business success Small Pebble, Big Ripple.
The book contains tips that Ly learnt during the establishment and growth of her own business. It contains over 50 essential skills covering personal excellence, business development and work-life balance. The book has garnered many great reviews, including David Koch who said, “Big Ripple provides that instant tonic of inspiration to tackle the issues of the day.”
Ly believes a lack of executive training is a major limitation to small business growth. Time pressures often leave owners concentrating on day-to-day issues rather than the bigger picture. As a result, skill development is often neglected.
“Training is one area that businesses often lose sight of and this ultimately impacts their potential”, says Ly. “One of the mistakes that businesses can make is to settle into a pattern and stop trying to innovate and improve their business as the market changes.”
That insight led Ly to create an advisory board for Knowledge Plus, made up of a range of specialists from different fields. The aim is to keep abreast of industry trends and the business environment, and to keep Knowledge Plus evolving. This has allowed her to expand her business and implement new processes.
According to Ly, the secret to success is not trying to be an expert at everything. “Use your network to gather specialist advice and skills to help your business run successfully and expand when the time is right.”
Ly’s ongoing commitment to the small business community helped her win the 2007 Australian Small Business Champion Entrepreneur Award. Garry O’Shea, Executive Manager of Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banking in South Australia, congratulated Lim on her success, “Ly displays such passion, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, and it is great to acknowledge her achievements through the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.”
Garry is also involved in Knowledge Plus’ Small Business Leverage Program as a mentor. Under the program, funded by a $286,000 grant from the Australian Government, small business owners work with experienced mentors over 10 months to make their business more efficient and sustainable, and to prepare them for expansion. “Sharing knowledge and experience is crucial in any business”, Garry says, “especially in small businesses where the workload is split across a smaller team, making it harder to see the bigger picture.”
2007 was a great year for the Adelaide businesswoman. As co-founder of Knowledge Plus, Ly was named President of the Asia-Pacific Business Council for Women. She also published her first book and picked up two prestigious accolades at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards, sponsored by Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banking and the Australian Government.
Ly and her partner Les plan to expand Knowledge Plus interstate to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin, and also branch into new market segments such as recruitment. Online learning will be available in 2009 and new productivity improvement software to streamline business processes that are labour and or document intensive will be available this year.
