Be Your Own Boss

By Bill McGowan

Be Your Own Boss is an information source for people thinking of starting or buying a business based on Bill McGowan’s 50 years of business experiences.

The book has been designed as a guide to help people organise their thoughts and to decide whether being their own boss is really for them.

Bill has tried to use everyday language and tried to make the book easy to understand.
Starting a new business is complex at the best of times and his aim has been to make this process as manageable as possible.

Bill’s personable writing style and extensive knowledge in starting businesses from scratch, makes this book a most intriguing, absorbing, informative and a must-read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398420342

Bill McGowan

Bill McGowan is the founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group. A two-time Emmy Award–winning correspondent, McGowan has conducted hundreds of interviews with newsmakers, CEOs, celebrities, authors, editors, attorneys, and athletes. McGowan now uses that experience to coach and train everyone from corporate CEOs to celebrities such as New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, the actress Katherine Heigl, and the jazz great Wynton Marsalis. He also speaks regularly to large corporate audiences at such companies as Credit Suisse, Condé Nast, and Campbell's.

Book preview

About the Author

Bill McGowan was born and grew up in New Zealand and currently resides in Sydney with his family. Bill has been self-employed in various businesses since the early 70s and is now retired. He started and sold many businesses over the past 50 years. In early 1983, he established the franchised business known as Fastway Couriers. Fastway became a household name in Australia and New Zealand in the transport and franchising sectors. The business was also developed internationally. When he started Fastway, he was shocked at how many potential franchises had no idea about running their own business, so he developed many franchises, training programmes and manuals to assist them in understanding how to operate their own business. When he retired, he decided to put the knowledge he had learnt over the years into this book.

Copyright Information ©

Bill McGowan 2023

The right of Bill McGowan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398420335 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398420342 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgements

I started writing this book way back in 2001 while working and residing in Europe, dictating my Fastway story and sending the files to Joanne Adams back in Napier, New Zealand, to type up and format for me. I spent a few hours every holiday adding to the story, and Joanne in her own time continued to type and format the manuscript on my behalf. By 2010, my base Fastway story was complete and the overview for the rest of the book in place when I stopped working on it. Over the years, Joanne kept asking how the book was coming along, and my answer was always: I’ll get round to it soon.

Once we had sold the business and I had semi-retired, my wife, Robyn, started pushing me to complete the book, and this motivated me once again. Many more hours of files going back and forth to Joanne for typing and formatting, eventually resulting in the finished document in late 2021.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Joanne Adams for the special part she has played in bringing Be Your Own Boss together.

This book would also not have been possible without the knowledge learnt from starting and operating the Fastway business model for all those years and the fantastic senior management team who came on the journey with me. We all learnt so many business skills in successfully transitioning from a small business to a global company. A special thank you to all those people who were part of the Fastway success story, staff and franchises alike.

Steve Panozzo, the Australian cartoonist who is a personal friend, has brought the book to life with his fantastic illustrations. Thank you so much, Steve, for understanding what I was trying to achieve and supporting me with this project. I know it has taken 20 years, but we got there in the end.

Last but not least, a very big ‘thank you’ to Austin Macauley Publishers for recognising the potential in this manuscript and agreeing to publish the book.

Be Your Own Boss would not have been possible without the typing and formatting completed by Joanne Adams from Napier, New Zealand.

Steve Panozzo from the Cartoon Factory did a fantastic job of the illustrations that really brought the book to life.

I must also thank my wife, Robyn, who pushed be to complete the manuscript.

A special ‘thank you’ must also go to the entire team at Fastway for the 40-plus years they worked with me. The knowledge we gained over those years is able to be portrayed in this book.

Bill McGowan Biography

Author

Bill was born and grew up in New Zealand, and he has been self-employed in various businesses since the early 70s. Bill is now retired and currently resides in Sydney, Australia.

In early 1983, he established the business known as Fastway Couriers. He was the founder and chairman of the Fastway group of companies, which included Fastway Ltd, Fastway Holdings Ltd, Fastway Global Ltd, Fastway Couriers Aust. Pty Ltd, Fastway Couriers NZ Ltd, Fastway Post New Zealand Ltd and Fastway Technologies Ltd.

Fastway became a household name in Australia and New Zealand in the courier industry. The business was also developed internationally.

Fastway Couriers: (March 1983 to January 2017)

Founder and Chairman of the Fastway group of companies (1983) which include Fastway Ltd, Fastway Global Ltd, Australian Couriers (Aust) Pty Ltd, Fastway Couriers (NZ) Ltd, Fastway Technologies Ltd, Fastway Properties Ltd, Fastway Franchising Ltd, Tushery Holdings Ltd and Fastway Post New Zealand Ltd.

Fastway Couriers NZ and Fastway Couriers Australia have been recognised as the ‘Franchise System of the Year’ on three occasions.

Fastway Couriers Australia was recognised by BRW magazine in March 1998 as the fastest growing private company in Australia, with growth of 14,557% (fourteen thousand, five hundred and fifty-seven per cent) for the previous five years.

Group turnover exceeded half a billion dollars per annum.

Fastway Couriers had over 2,000 franchisees.

Fastway began franchising in 1983 (30 plus years franchising experience).

Bill was Director of numerous Fastway associated companies.

Fastway is one of Australia’s largest domestic courier operators.

Fastway’s global expansion exceeded that of any other New Zealand franchise system.

Over 3,000 people earnt a living from the Fastway network.

Fastway Couriers had operations in: New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Northern Island, South Africa when it was sold to Aramex.

Awards

1986 - NZ Entrepreneur of the Year (Air NZ Enterprise Award)

1994 - Export Marketing Award (Television New Zealand & Marketing Magazine)

1994 - BRW magazine fastest growing private company list

1995 - BRW magazine fastest growing private company list

1996 - BRW magazine fastest growing private company list

1997 - BRW magazine fastest growing private company list

1998 - BRW magazine Number-one fastest growing private company in Australia, with growth of 14,557%.

2000 - Award for ‘Exemplary role model in the international franchise industry’ (SIFA and Singapore Trade Development Board)

2000 - Business Review Weekly—Top 100 Fastest growing private companies

2001 & 2002 - Australian Franchise System of the year

2002 - ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ from the Franchise Association of New Zealand

2003 - Inducted into the Franchising Hall of Fame in Australia in 2003 (FCA)

2005 - Awarded life membership of the Franchise Association of New Zealand

2007 - Westpac Franchise System of the year (business Services)

2009 - Yum Awards for outstanding contributions to the community

2009 - Westpac Supreme Franchise of the year

2009 - FCA field manager of the year award

2010 - Irish Franchise Association of the year award

2010 - Irish Chamber of Commerce—Best business growth

2010 - NZ Master Franchise of the year & Business Franchise of the year

2011 - Irish Franchise Association—Franchisee of the Year Midlands Region

2011 - South African Franchise Association—Runner up—Newcomer Franchisor of the year and Franchisor of the year

2012 - Irish Franchise Association—Franchisor of the year service industry

2012 - Irish Chamber of Commerce—Best business growth

Over 35 franchise and industry awards received by Fastway

Involvement in the Franchise Community

Past Chairman of the World Franchise Council for three years and Australia’s representative.

Past Chairman of the Franchise Council of Australia National Board and NSW Chapter. Longest serving President of the NSW FCA Chapter.

Developed the First Step Dispute Resolution Process for the Fastway Franchise Network which is now widely used and accepted within the franchising community.

Global guest speaker and motivator within franchising and transport circles as well as within the business community in general throughout the world (guest speaker at Franchise conferences in 35 countries).

Through the World Franchise Council, Bill has also been involved in making Franchising submissions to numerous countries, the European Union and Unidriot.

Inducted to the Franchise Hall of Fame of Australia.

Awarded Exemplary Role Model of the International Franchise Community.

Life member of the NZ Franchise association.

Past chairman of the Australian Franchising Hall of Fame Committee.

Wider Business and Community Involvement

Has been a past key spokesperson for the Transport Industry and Franchise sector—involved in making submissions to numerous international governments.

Past Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.

Past Fellow Member of the Institute of Directors.

Past Member of numerous Chambers of Commerce.

Founder of the HB Child Cancer Support Foundation and Children in Need, charity trusts.

Steve Panozzo Brief Biography

Cartoonist

Steve Panozzo is a professional cartoonist and caricaturist, working primarily for newspapers and magazines since 1984. His newspaper career began at The Manly Daily in 1985. After a spell working for Weekly Neighbourhood Newspapers in Perth, Steve returned to Sydney in 1987, working for 10 years at The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. Since 2006, he has been the resident cartoonist for The Australian Journal of Pharmacy.

The bulk of Steve’s freelance work these days consists of producing a range of artwork for corporate clients,