Born and raised in Australia I have a diverse background from Comuter Programming & Systems
Analysis, to Sales & Marketing, Accounting & Bookkeeping, Business Management and
Administration. I am a single mother with a gorgeous 17 year old son which is why I have been living in Montreal on and off since 1989 and permanently since April 2001.
I have been involved with small businesses for over 20 years. I started my career as a computer programmer/systems analyst with Australia’s then largest company, BHP. When I realized that sitting in a window-less room with a computer did not suit my sociable personality I left the industry and worked in a number of different small businesses. While being an at-home mother I studied a diploma in Accounting, took care of my husband’s bookkeping and designed a simple registration system for my son’s pre-school which is still in use today.
When I returned to full-time employment I trained as a Real Estate agent for Century 21 in Sydney and completed a Business Management Diploma for managing a Real Estate business. In my first year, the office I managed increased its staff from 4 to 12, doubled its revenue and moved from 60th to 7th place in the Century 21 network in Australia. The same office today has expanded to 4 offices and has been the top ranking business in the Century 21 Australia franchise for the last 4 years. I then fulfilled my dream of being a successful Real Estate sales associate selling $3.5 million in residential property in Sydney in my last month prior to moving back to Montreal.
Since 2001, I have worked with a number of other small businesses in different industries including (amongst others): toy distribution, advertising, pharmaceutical, printing, speech pathology, IT service, catering, ecommerce, professional coaches, etc.. One company, in the first year I worked with them, grew from 2 to 7 full-time employees, moved from 600 square feet to 3500 sq ft and increased its revenue by 15 times. In it's second year it moved into 10,000 sq ft and is still there today.
I draw on all my business experience to identify problems in small businesses and install or find simple affordable solutions that will save time and money, improve customer service and build a solid administrative infrastructure that will allow the company to grow easily and free up the owner to do more of those things that he/she loves doing and went into business for in the first place.
My mission is to provide all my customers with extraordinary service by defining their business problems and finding and implementing the best possible solution that they can afford.
Barra-Gi is an Australian Aboriginal word that means “to fly”.
I look forward to helping your business to fly.
JOANNE TONKIN
