Vermillion Consulting: Business Concept

I co-founded Vermillion Consulting and championed a revolutionary, humanist approach to business practice. Vermillion was the first of its kind of business in Australia. We believed in passion, dreams, thinking outside the box, and the potential within every business owner. Vermillion was going to change how the world practices business.

In a short time, we proved that business success was possible not by focusing on short-term money, or growth for the sake of growth; but by living passionate dreams and building and nurturing genuine relationships. Clients were hearing about us. We were getting work.

Our generous community work was celebrated by magazines like MyBusiness and GoodCompany.

By 2006 Vermillion was debt-free, had a growing public profile, and was recognised by leading business thinkers like Tom Peters.

As we started on the next phase of steady growth, my then business partner suddenly changed his commitment to the founding principles. He became convinced that emulating conventional big business practice was the way to go. And we needed to become “big” overnight. He aggressively demanded we cut back on the very philosophy and practices that got us where we were.

When I disagreed, he became abusive. I was told to leave my values at home, stop questioning everything, and realign myself totally to his new vision. His ideas became more extreme, such as appointing a board of directors to think for us, and offering personal kfinancial ickbacks to secure new clients… No compromise was possible.

After months of humiliating and degrading abuse, I resigned out of despair in 2006. A mere few months later, he shut down the company. He spent a year justifying why he deserved to keep more and more of the profits. After tricking me into paying for the taxes and letting him have most of the profits, he kept every cent for himself anyway. Even the account fired him for trying to bully them into unethical activities.

This was the single worst experience of my life!

Nonetheless, I totally believe in the success that was Vermillion. The great philosophy and practices we started continue in my business - Eicolab - today.