Amy Bourke is the Founder of Blank Canvas Catering, Co-Director of Fraemohs Homes Bay of Plenty, and a Financial Skills Workshop alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 13 July 2023, and all figures and facts quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
How did Blank Canvas Catering come to life?
I had saved up so I could start something, and I knew I wanted it to be a combination of business and food, and that it was going to be catering. I came up with the name Blank Canvas Catering in the middle of the night, but I remember feeling so overwhelmed and saying to Dad, ‘I just don't know where to start. He said, ‘just start!’
[I did] that first event – I was also doing a bit of private cheffing on the side and some nannying. I have always been a worker, so nothing was ever below me. You either have to go into something with a lot of capital behind you to be able to fund your life, or you have your side hustle, and then one day that side hustle is actually your full time job. But in the meantime, you might need to supplement that.
How did The Icehouse Financial Skills Workshop come about?
Amanda van der Kley, one of our directors of the parent company Fraemohs, had done the Owner Manager Programme and just absolutely raved about it. She's still very connected with The Icehouse. At the time, Simon and I (Amy also works alongside husband Simon at Fraemohs) couldn't afford that programme, but we were: ‘Let's go and do something!’
Both of us agreed that we needed some upskilling in the numbers side of things. We both had the basics… but when we looked at the Financial Skills Workshop and talked [to The Icehouse] we just knew that that was the next step for us to upskill and actually learn some tools and some levers that you can pull to make a bit of a difference in your business.
How was it?
We both absolutely loved it. We thought the facilitator Matt Bellingham was just amazing. He made it so interesting and fun – all his little stories and anecdotes were fantastic, because it wasn't a boring numbers course.
The biggest things for me was understanding cash flow. You can be profitable, but you can fail if you have a lack of cash. One little thing that I was reading through my notes is: ‘profit is food’ – and you can go without food for a while – ‘but cash is air’. We have certainly learned that in the building industry – the more you grow, the more important it is to be on top of that cash flow. And you just wonder, how can there be hundreds of thousands of dollars in the account one day and then the next day it's all gone on bills?
What was it like doing the Workshop with your partner?
It was really good and Simon is one of those people that is a real sceptic with courses – especially when you're investing what seems like a lot of money. And so he made us sit down after and actually look at our finances.
It was a real trigger for us to get on top of our finances in lots of different areas of our lives, and I just think back to that cash flow thing, just understanding those different levers. You can put your prices up – that's the easy one – but carrying less inventory, changing your payment terms, even getting paid a few days earlier can make such a difference. It’s just stuff that the accountant doesn't tell you!
What does the future look like for you, and what excites you the most about growing Blank Canvas Catering?
The thing that I'm most excited about is that we are about to do a sustainability programme called The Green Room, put on by Tourism Bay of Plenty as part of a waste management trial.
Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty are funding it, because we really want to be leaders in both of those spaces. We’re natural “greenies”, if you will. We've always recycled, always had food waste systems, really tried to not use suppliers and get food in from overseas and that kind of thing. [It’s about] having a more structured way and actually being able to share our story and inspire others.