Meet the
Queen Calculator
Hi there! I’m Jewlz Ellem, your Queen Calculator and bona fide motorcycle enthusiast.
Myself and the rest of my calculator angels here at CatalystPlus are ready to support your business from the perspective of the business owner.
We are passionate about giving you the lifestyle you sought out when you first got into business. Nobody goes into business wanting to work 80 hours per week, but maybe – just maybe – that’s the hole you’ve found yourself in.
That’s why I lead by example.
My business is 100% cloud – so when I’m traveling in Paris, London, US, Philippines, my clients aren’t affected. In fact, I’ve had clients ask me – “hang on a second – is that The Eiffel Tower in the background?” and the answer is yes. Yes it is.
My clients see me as a straight-shooter. I’ve been referred to as trustworthy, tech-savvy, easy going, and – most of all – passionate about all things business.
I structure my mindset around three ideas:
- Just because you’re a small business, doesn’t mean you can’t think big
- Thinking big doesn’t mean you compromise on quality
- Everything is fixerupable and figureoutable
I truly believe that business owners can scale their income AND have an exciting, fulfilling life in the process.
Take your business to the next level with our ACCELERATE Program
Who do I work with?
I help entrepreneurs & accountants who want to make MORE possible with their business.
My clients are resourceful, and understand that honing in on their unique expertise (while automating the rest) is where they’ll find the ‘sweet spot’ in their business.
Most of the people I work with struggle with three major things:
- Cashflow. They feel like they can’t get ahead. Have made poor financing decisions (short term gain, long term pain)
- Time management. My clients feel like all they do is work.
- Establishing clear systems. In fact their business systems are usually archaic, paper based and not well thought out.
My clients struggle with three major things:
Steady cashflow
They feel like they can’t get ahead. Have made poor financing decisions (short term gain, long term pain).
Time management
My clients feel like all they do is work. They are constantly burnt out and overwhelmed from having to wear all the hats in their business.
Establishing clear systems
In fact their business systems are usually archaic, paper based and not well thought out.
That’s where we come in.
We at CatalystPlus provide an automated and systemised business structure so entrepreneurs can get more done in the available time they have.
We improve the consistency and quality of their services by outsourcing, automating, and becoming location-free (by, for example, moving to “the cloud”.)
Yes, it’s “strictly business”. But for me, it’s also deeply personal. My clients are like family.
Which means I am strict about who I take on as a client.
My clients pride themselves on being:
- Thoughtful and compassionate. They treat me, and my team with respect. They get the same from me back.
- Patient. They understand that I work on many projects at once, so they must schedule in with me. They understand that sometimes, their problems are complex.
- Ambitious. They are eager to learn and ask questions.
- Down to earth and easy to get along with (I’ll pass on working with needy psychos, plzkthx.)
- Action takers. I give them homework, and they just do it. I tell them hard truths about their spending, they fix it with the strategies I give them.
What does my process look like?
First, we address the lifestyle they imagined for themselves when they first went into business.
We then structure the business systems around those lifestyle goals, because who says your personal happiness has to come second? This plan looks different for everyone, and will dictate how we work through the rest of the program.
Having the roadmap laid out like this helps my clients realise that everything is under control. Growing and scaling their business isn’t as overwhelming as they thought, and – hey look at that! – it’s actually achievable. They realise the poor decisions they made in the past will not affect their future after all.
Once we have their systems in place, we then ‘hone in’ on their area of expertise in order to specialise and increase the value to their customers – increasing the $$ in their bank.
Take your business to the next level with our ACCELERATE Program
What makes me the go-to expert for accountants & entrepreneurs?
My exposure to the accounting industry has been very unique.
While I began as a trainee in a family run, rural, general practice accounting firm, I quickly went on to work for Ernst & Young, one of the largest accounting firms in the world.
At Ernst & Young, I gained my Chartered Accountant Certificate and learned all about the excellence of standards, systems and software automation. That experience also gave me a wide range of exposure to large scale commercial and government projects.
Interesting enough, I also spent time as a forensic accountant with the Serious Fraud Office in London. There, I worked on large scale frauds where I not only learned how to identify unusual trends quickly, but also how to prevent fraud from happening within business.
Coming back to Australia, I became senior finance personnel within internationally renowned advertising agencies such as M&C Saatchi, Lowe, Hothouse Digital and BWM.
These positions combined my skills as an accountant with the creative end of advertising. I learned the in’s and out’s of developing a brand strategy, and saw how their campaigns engaged customers to buy products and services.
It was during this time working for advertising agencies that I started helping small business owners directly.
While I was busy helping the ‘big guys’ make heaps of money, I noticed that our small business suppliers were continually providing me with incorrect data, making it difficult for me to process their payments.
To remedy the problem, I decided to invite our little suppliers in to receive coaching on their business.
They absolutely loved it.
They’d immediately put my coaching into practice, and I could see what a difference it made in their business processes.
Those coaching sessions became the happiest part of my day. It was there in that little training room, during my fourth small business workshop, that the light bulb moment occurred.
I realised that my expertise was EXACTLY what these people needed to thrive in their businesses, and I could be doing it full time if I wanted to.
They needed me, and if I was perfectly honest with myself – I needed them too. I felt fulfilled in those workshops in a way I NEVER felt sitting behind the computer crunching numbers.
And thus, Catalyst Plus was born.
The 4 most important lessons I’ve learned (so far…)
Though the road I travelled down wasn’t exactly a straight & narrow one, it did teach me a LOT about business…
1. You can help everybody and do a crappy job, OR you can use your unique skillset to help people who need that specific skill set, and be the exact right person for the job.
For example, in 2018 we drove a massive part of our business towards growing individual tax returns. It was ‘quick’ money (high volume, low value – and very price competitive). We ended up with almost 200 new customers.
In 2019, after restructuring my business to qualified staff in the Philippines, I realised the majority of those individuals could be perfectly serviced by H&R block or the other local accountants or, in a DIY format. So, we ran a campaign to demonstrate this to them so we could focus on our business / investor only clients who needed my specific skill set.
2. When you’re sh!t scared with a decision you’re making, it’s probably the right decision.
The decisions I’ve made that have been calm and not stressful have always taken me to my end goal slower and sometimes, resulted in my doubling back.
Those decisions where I’ve lost sleep wondering – what happens if I don’t pull this off – have not only leap frogged me to where I wanted to go, but it has stretched me to learn, to grow and be a much better person in the long run.
3. You can only scale your business and create freedom for yourself if you systemise and automate.
Never hire a person when a computer can do the job for you! Small business have limited funds available to them. Technology that saves you time and money, and automates functions (eg chase outstanding debt) for you is valuable.
$50 a month for software that saves you a minimum of 2-3 hours per week of manual process is worth its weight in gold. You can’t just look at the dollar figure, you have to look at what the payoff is as well.
4. When your customers tell you their pain points and what they need from you, LISTEN!
You must meet them where they’re at, even if it’s not what you want to be doing.
When I lived in Sydney, my clients didn’t worry that I didn’t have my tax licence back, because they knew and understood that my ‘zone of genius’ was commercial day to day and keeping their tax accountants honest.
When I moved to a regional town, nobody would hire me because I was a ‘bookkeeper’. I couldn’t do their tax.
I resisted for 2 years because to me, the difference between what I do and what a ‘boring’ tax agent does is complete a form and deal with the ATO. Finally, I got my tax licence back. My business hasn’t looked back since. And I have hired somebody to complete the forms! 🙂
Take your business to the next level with our ACCELERATE Program
— Follow us on social media —
— Latest from the blog —
Cyber Security for small business: How passwords are like undies
I get that it is a bit unusual for an accountant to talk about Cyber Security for small business - but if you own a mobile phone connected to the internet, what I learned this week at XeroCon is a must read. After careful consideration of everything I learned over the...