Catherine "Cat" Matson knows what it takes to build a successful business. Cat and her husband own and operate Alito, a boutique consultancy firm that provides guidance for small and medium size business owners. Alito offers consulting, education, mentoring, accounting, and event planning.
"The idea for Alito came from our desire to bring all of our knowledge and experience - from our 'personal development world' and our 'professional' world - together in one offering, providing business owners with the information, knowledge, know-how and coaching they need to build successful businesses," explains Cat.
The problem, Cat soon realised, was that quality information pertaining to business was difficult to find: "Access to quality information - both from an education perspective as well as a mental stimulation perspective - was a huge gap. I have high expectations about the information I receive. I have an MBA and have had access to some of the pioneers in the personal development industry. So I was (and still am) constantly disappointed by the mediocre, one-size-fits-all, rah-rah style books, seminars and workshops that are touted as 'the solution' to business owners."
Then Cat attended a business conference in Sydney hosted by the Australian Businesswomen's Network (ABN), a community of 20,000 like-minded businesswomen that offers web-based training and education, mentoring, and networking opportunities.
"I was blown away by the calibre of the speakers, the showcased entrepreneurs, the workshops and the professional organisation of the event," Cat remembers. "ABN certainly filled the gap in regard to quality information!"
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