How to create a strong team environment

As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, I have been reflecting on the team of women that I have assembled at Credit Fix Solutions.

Having started the company with a computer from Centrelink in my son’s bedroom of our housing commission unit in 2014, I know what it is like to be a single mother with no child support, I know how hard it is to come out of a bad marriage and struggle and get back on your feet.

When it was time to expand my business I decided to help support other women and challenge the bias that exists in the finance industry.

I’ve hired women from outside the finance industry, including hairdressers, students and other single mums. Women with a willingness to learn and grow. Many had expressed their frustration at not being given a chance but I could see their passion to make a difference and knew with guidance and support they would grow into the committed team that they are.

My team of women are able to relate to the situation of our clients and some have even been clients themselves. This genuine understanding of what it’s like to need credit repair is a testament to our success.

I’m also continually adding to my team to ensure that we offer the best service possible. Our team of eight women nationally have seen great success and business growth particularly during COVID due to their ability to show great empathy.

I believe that my team is my family. I have a strong personal growth philosophy to not only work on my own personal growth but on the growth of others as well. My main goal is to grow my staff into exceptional business women.

I believe that we are only as strong as our weakest link so I place importance on making sure that the entire team is super strong and this is done with regular support, training and meetings to ensure that everyone can share their experiences. We watch training videos every week and discuss the ongoing cases that we are attempting to solve.

We recently had a team meeting to discuss the company values, which we amended from accountability, integrity and equality to “Help, Learn, Grow”.

I think this change was important as our values now truly reflect what we are all about at Credit Fix Solutions.

We are here to help, we are here to learn and we are here to grow. The team were very excited about the value change.

I’ll back this up with constant encouragement and support. Importantly, I listen. When my team doubt’s their capabilities I reassure them that they are on the right track and that with time comes knowledge. It’s about giving people a chance.

I’ll be adding to my team this year due to exceptional growth of over 80 per cent in the 2020 calendar year and due to the forecasts that we will see the same growth for 2021.

Being in a predominantly male industry, I have broken barriers for myself and all the women who work with me and we will continue to grow and learn together, while helping people remove the blemishes on their credit reports which are creating barriers to buying their own homes and moving forward with their lives.

Victoria Coster, CEO, Credit Fix Solutions and author of “From Zero to CEO”