Q&A with Tara Whitney from Whitney Consulting: Building a Thriving Business with a 100% Remote Team

Meet Tara Whitney, a former government grants assessor, now the powerhouse behind Whitney Consulting, WA’s leading grant writing firm. With a knack for securing millions in government funding, Tara’s passion for empowering businesses and communities is infectious.

What truly sets Whitney Consulting apart is its commitment to work-life balance, particularly for working mothers.

The team motto is “A grant deadline is not negotiable, but neither is a child’s school assembly”.

Tara is redefining the way business is done. With a commitment to empowering her team, Tara has built a successful business while prioritising work-life balance by being 100% remotely run.

What was your background before you started your company and how did it lead you to entrepreneurship?

I worked in State Government assessing grants. When I moved to a regional area I was advised I could not do my job remotely so I started a 100% remote company writing grants.

It was out of need. I did also do some market research but it was very much due to life circumstances.

What drives you to keep building your company?

My personality! I love a challenge and I want to share remote/flexible working with as many people as possible.

There is a lack of grant writing expertise in Australia, more grants than ever before and getting funding is more competitive than ever before – so you need a quality, stand out application.

Our vision is to be WA and SA’s largest, specialist grant writing company.

What are some challenges you’ve faced as a female founder and how have you overcome them?

The challenges relate to the juggle between running a business and being a mum and wife. I reject the standard business rhetoric around the need to hustle and work hard. I want to spend time with my family.

And I have proven that you can start and run a successful business by working smarter, not harder. BUT sometimes it has still been hard to pull myself away from my business when I should.

The work can get done tomorrow but the kids are home from school now so I need to stop – but the temptation to keep going when you are someone who is motivated and driven can be hard to fight. I have learned to quantify my work load so I can see that this task will only take me an hour to complete and I have a spare hour tomorrow – it helps me to feel comfortable about stopping work.

I have also created priority lists – what work MUST be done today versus what can wait if it has to.

What have you enjoyed most about the journey of your own company?

The ability to be there for my children – to do school pick up/drop off and attend school events without having to ask permission. To work from home and wear what I want to wear because I am the boss! And the ability to be paid my worth – not for how many hours my bum is on a seat in an office.

What are your key accomplishments and the company’s key achievements?

Whitney Consulting has grown every year since establishment – and grown significantly in both revenue and staff, with an average revenue growth rate of around 65%. We have secured over $15 million for our clients in 7 years and we have a team of 10 staff who all work flexibly from home – across WA, NSW and SA.

I was also a Finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year 2024 for Advancing Women due to our flexible working model.

Our focus for every employee is for them to be able to do work and life together. For parents to be able/willing to work, flexibility needs to become the norm, not something special. Jobs need to be part of life – not the thing you do so you can have a life. Work and life together – hanging the washing up while you clear your brain, watching your kids after school sports, then finishing that hour or so of work when they do their homework.

Whitney Consulting is pushing for a world where this is not innovative – it is standard practice. Where bosses see all staff as people whose lives impact their work output and vice versa – work and life together.

We place huge importance on allowing skilled persons with young children and/or other conflicting life factors to continue to utilize their skills and knowledge. This is especially ideal for regional employees who have under-utilized skills due to living in a remote area (e.g. they married a farmer and there is no work nearby for their skillset) or due to there being a lack of childcare options in regional areas.

This model has proven itself in recent years with severe staff shortages impacting many businesses – but not ours. We are an employer of choice due to our flexible, supportive model and culture.

This model also supports our clients who benefit from someone in Whitney Consulting being available most times – weekends, evenings and especially at that last minute before a grant deadline. Because we work flexibly, our staff are willing to ‘do a bit extra’ for the client the night before a grant is due – they know they get this flexibility returned the next day when they attend their child’s school assembly or sports carnival. Given the deadline-based nature of our business, clients find this to be exceptionally valuable and unique to our business.

What does success for the company look like for you?

Being able to hire a CEO so I can step back. Becoming SA’s largest, specialist grant writing company as well as WA’s whilst maintaining our flexible, remote working model.

Do you have any tips or advice you’d like to share for growing a company?

I never considered myself a businesswoman or someone with entrepreneurial drive. I started my business due to circumstances – my husband’s job was moving him to a small regional town and I could not continue my government grants assessor job from the regions. I had no special business training or business knowledge when I started; I just knew about grants and government.

And yet, business is booming. It often makes me pause and wonder why, what is it that I have done to be successful? Here is what I think that might help others:

Ask, Listen, Implement

When I started the business, I spoke with a lot of people who knew more about business than me. I asked them questions about how to do things, what I should and shouldn’t do and for any general advice they had. I didn’t do everything I was told, and some of the advice was conflicting, but I did listen and then think about it. I considered what I thought would work and what made sense to me. Then, and this is the part where a lot of people get stuck – I actually implemented everything that I thought would help to grow my business.

Even if I didn’t want to do it. Even if I didn’t know how to do it and needed to get someone to teach me. I had no idea how to use technology like Mailchimp to send an e-newsletter and I really disliked learning it – but I knew that people wanted to be informed about what grants were available and having my email newsletter telling them that information each month made a lot of business sense. So I did it, every single month. I did not enjoy it, but I did it until I could afford to outsource it to someone who is way better at email newsletter technology than me!

Don’t be a Jerk!

Contrary to the popular opinion that you need to be hard and competitive in business, I believe that my softer values have helped Whitney Consulting to succeed.

I have a ‘biz bestie’ who has given me some amazing advice, kicks in the pants and supportive shoulders over the years and she is a direct competitor. We do some of the exact same things. And yet, we share a lot. We don’t hide information from each other in the hope we will get that job or grow quicker than the other. Because that is not in line with our morals – we want each other to succeed and we will do everything we can to help. We have referred clients to each other, worked together on jobs and we have definitely shared business wisdom. I would not have had any of these benefits if my approach had been to compete and not to trust her.

Likewise, I refuse to do the hard sell or charge a client for something they don’t need. I see my job as getting people money for their amazing projects and I want to do that in the most effective, efficient way possible. If my services are not going to be value-for-money for someone, or are not likely to lead to success, then I will tell them. Again it may seem contrary to business success to not try to sell my services to clients but you would be amazed the amount of times having this ethical approach has come back to me in referrals and repeat clients.

Niche

My business does grants, tenders, business cases. That is it. Having a background in Federal, State and Local Government, there are plenty of other services I could offer, but I don’t. I want Whitney Consulting to be known as the grants people. We want people to have a very clear idea of what we do because it makes it a lot easier for them to refer people to us.

Don’t Be Complacent

The staff at Whitney Consulting have a running joke – whenever I say that ‘it’s not too busy at the moment’, ‘it’s a bit quiet’ or ‘we don’t have too much coming up’, then an avalanche of work will come in.

They groan each time I say it because they know we will soon be flat out. But the reason behind that is I am constantly and consistently looking for ways to increase awareness of Whitney Consulting and what we do. I don’t sit back and wait for the work to come or assume that, just because last year was a great year then this year will be too. I am always looking at how people find us and how we can let more potential clients know about us. Whenever I have a spare 5 minutes, I am writing social media content, looking at analytics, updating the website or doing something that may not see immediate results but will ensure steady growth. I am certainly not taking success for granted!

Produce Quality

This one is pretty much a given. People don’t want to pay for something that isn’t any good. Whitney Consulting is known for producing high-quality work and for being experts in our field and that is why we are successful. I don’t believe any business can succeed for long if their clients do not see the value in the work they produce. A lot of our clients are repeat clients or referred from past clients so word-of-mouth is absolutely key. If you produce good work and help clients with their problems, instead of just trying to sell to them, you will always be in with a chance of business success.