Podcast appearances and mentions of christina bellis

As a socially minded, environmental advocate and change maker, Christina encourages us all to adopt practices of the past to enable us to go forward. From leading the EnviroClub at school to leading organisations to change the way we do business, Christina is passionate about supporting companies and customers in behavioural change, enable informed decisions, creating carbon neutral operations and bridging the digital divide for the centuries ahead. In her role as CEO of Thank you Payroll, their focus is about putting profit and purpose side by side as they build the depth of this social enterprise to create time for small businesses.

In this episode, I interview Christina Bellis, the CEO of Thankyou Payroll. The company was founded in 2010 and to date they’ve processed over two billion pays or 3.5 million payslips to charities and small businesses in New Zealand. From NZD7,000 in year one to now NZD2.7 Million in annual sales, they are profitable and just paid their first dividend. They are one of the first social enterprises/businesses that raised funds through equity crowdfunding in New Zealand to do so. By their separate charitable trust they have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to communities in Dunedin, Wellington, and Christchurch, and have a genius way to pick the next grant recipients. They provide these services to registered charities for free, saving them over one million dollars over the decade. And if that wasn’t socially and purpose driven enough, they are carbon positive. The business took off in 2013 when the first CEO started, adding 192 customers that year, 3,000 the following year, then since financial year 2015, more than doubling every year. Christina started as CEO in 2015 and grew the business from 5 full-time employees to now 18.5.  They have a board of five directors and they’re all female. Funding has been through cash flow, a small overdraft, and in 2017, an equity crowdfundraising of NZD500,000, and picking up 165 shareholders who are brand ambassadors. She believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is managing work-life balance. The advice she would give herself on day one is, “Stay true to your vision. There's a lot of noise out there, so keep focus on your own track” Stay tuned for more on her small business growth journey.  Enjoy! This Cast Covers: Thankyou Payroll: A company that offers crowd based payroll intermediary services. Running a charitable trust, an exciting innovative way to give out grants and minimizing the hoops people need to jump through. Building community resilience and strengthening connections through charitable trusts. Growing from a 7000 turnover in year one to 2.7 million turnover over a period of ten years. Adopting a purpose driven approach to business by using a product or service to do good and make a positive impact on the world. Being the first crowdfunded entity to return a dividend in New Zealand. Equity crowdfunding and giving the community an opportunity to take part in a purpose driven business. Using crowdfunding as a good marketing opportunity and how they raised NZD 500,000 from 165 shareholders through it. What you need to know when thinking about using crowdfunding as a way to fundraise and grow. Advantages of having employees with trained skills and working capacity in more than one aspect of the business.  Adapting to change and having an “I Can Do It” attitude in business. Managing people, making them feel valued and keeping their spirits up when running a small business. Mentoring management teams, building capabilities and inspiring change. Creating a to do list, breaking it into bigger tasks and smaller tasks to help you in managing your time and priorities. Creating a team of people that fits perfectly into your business as they are both your biggest asset and your biggest cost. Being transparent on the big picture, adapting an open door policy for your team, and showing them that their contributions are valuable. The value of being open to feedback and learning how to process it. Managing a team that’s spread out across different locations. Constantly learning by investing in different forms of professional development. Having a female only board of five directors with expertise across a number of areas. The difficulties in managing work-life balance when one is a small business owner. Additional Resources: Are You Ready to Succeed By Srikumar Rao Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I met up with Christina Bellis from Thankyou Payroll. Thankyou Payroll has set up a trust that helps local communities achieve positive impacts. We talked about how all businesses, small or large have an opportunity to take a stand and create a better future for us all.

This breakout session at the Philanthropy Summit 2019 deals with a very topical issue: The future of business in the "human economy" - but what is meant by that term and how does it all fit with social enterprise?  In this session we got to hear from three leading experts each offering a unique perspective and insight on the state of play in Aotearoa, New Zealand.  First is Louise Aitken the CEO of the Ākina Foundation, Christna Bellis from Thankyoupayroll and Shay Wright from Te Whare Hukahuka. Check out their bios and info below. Video of this session https://youtu.be/Nuv684xeTJg Index: 1:43 - Louise Aitken 13:14 - Christina Bellis 24:50 - Shay Wright 40:47 - Ends Louise Aitken: http://akina.org.nz/team-member/louise-aitken/ Earlier interview with Louise: https://seeds.libsyn.com/louise-aitken-on-akina-social-enterprise-and-being-a-twin Impact Report as audiobook and report is a link in this too: http://seeds.libsyn.com/structuring-for-impact-audiobook For more on Ākina Foundation: www.akina.org.nz Christina Bellis and Thankyou Payroll: https://thankyoupayroll.co.nz/about/ Shay Wright: https://www.shaywright.co.nz Te Whare Hukahuka: https://www.twh.co.nz   For more interviews - this is the 104th episode - check out www.theseeds.nz     

The definition of a “social enterprise” is one that, here in New Zealand, is very woolly at the edges however Thankyou Payroll are old hands at being one, with their very definite approach.Christina Bellis (CEO) and Catarina Gutierrez (Marketing Manager) enjoyed a beer with the lads and talked them through how they see "social enterprises in New Zealand, how Thankyou Payroll is growing, why it matters to them personally, and how they ended up in such an organisation.- https://nz.linkedin.com/in/christina-bellis-0a84221a- https://twitter.com/meCatarina- https://mecatarina.com/- https://thankyoupayroll.co.nz/------------------------------------------------------New Zealand tech, media, & startup podcast hosted by Mike Riversdale, Raj Khushal, and others. Hosts of #TechweekTV and #WellyTechAll our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nz Follow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZ https://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZ https://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcast Subscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/Buy the AG merch:https://www.accessgranted.nz/shop/

Here’s a cool idea. How about taking a service every company needs, then doing it for free for them while also managing, as part of the deal, to get funds to charity. It sounds like you’ve just managed to clock life. Well, today’s company has done just this with Thank You Payroll.It's a clever service, where they’ve turned an IRD subsidy into a force for good. Christina Bellis and Lani Evans of Thank You payroll Simon to discuss the business, a crowdfunding venture they have on, and how they make it happen. Note: Apologies for the sound quality. This episode was conducted over the phone. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Christina Bellis of the Sustainability Trust talks about how they won a Green Ribbon award.