INTHEBLACK April 2022 - Magazine - Page 43
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE
“My advice for other CPAs thinking of
starting a business: make sure that there
is a need for your business.”
The impetus for sixty:forty came about
through Cusack’s other business, Gold Coastbased accounting practice, the Bee Group, of
which her current business partner Toogood was
a client. After Toogood brought the business
idea to Cusack, the pair worked on it together.
This involved much discussion, a few personnel
changes and several business model iterations.
TESTING THE APPETITE
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Building the tech platform to underpin the
business proved a particular challenge, due
to so many external software development
teams being fragmented during the pandemic.
Despite this, the platform managed a “soft
launch” in April 2021.
Since then, Cusack and her partners
have been concentrating on getting more
professional services onto the platform, as well
as encouraging small business owners to sign
up to assess the appetite for coaching.
“We’re getting good traction,” Cusack says.
However, COVID-19 lockdowns have meant no
live demonstrations or trade shows, and this
has slowed progress.
“We found that trying to compete in a digital
space was more challenging because of the
nature of what we were trying to offer – because
it’s obviously not a single point product, and it’s
a three-way platform,” Cusack says.
“We want to be able to show people how
they can use it, because there’s no comparative
product.”
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au April 2022 43