Go with your gut instincts: Tammy to Lankan women entrepreneurs

Australia’s MyBudget founder Tammy Barton to set up offshore software development operation in Sri Lanka

Tammy Barton is the founder and Director of MyBudget, an Australian company that helps its clients in managing their budget. After witnessing the financial difficulties people had to endure, Barton founded the company in 1999 in Adelaide, at the mere age of 22, with the intention of helping people save money and spend intelligently.

In her own words, MyBudget has today grown up to become Australia’s largest and most trusted personal budgeting company. Currently, she is in the process of setting up a software development operation, an extended wing of MyBudget, in Sri Lanka. The project has been facilitated by the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) to identify a suitable software services company. 

In an interview with Daily Mirror, Barton spoke about MyBudget, the upcoming project in Sri Lanka, her experience as a women entrepreneur in the field of finance sector and achieving success as a woman. 

What aspired and motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

I was working at a solicitor’s firm and part of my role there was to look after a small debt collection company. When I was talking to clients, I saw that a lot of people did not know what they could afford to pay back on their debts. So, I realised that they were earning quite good money but just did not know what they could afford to pay.

Then I thought to myself whom I could refer them to get some help. There wasn’t anybody out there offering a budgeting service. So, I decided to help them myself, not only help them by setting up a budget but also managing on their behalf. The reason I decided to become an entrepreneur was to try and help people, help people improve their financial position so that they can live a better life. 

To help people manage their budget and save money efficiently, you founded MyBudget. Tell us a little bit about this initiative?

Today, MyBudget is Australia’s largest and most trusted personal budgeting company. We help people to free them from their money worries. We do that by providing them a structured budget and we provide them with support to achieve their financial goals. We help them pay their bills on time, help money in the bank so that they can live the debt-free and stress-free life that they desire. 

The client’s salary comes into our account that we manage on their behalf. We portion all their income into different buckets – for rent, for mortgage or for school fees and for living, for food, petrol and those kinds of things. We put money away for savings. We keep track of money so that they can achieve their financial goals.

 
Do you have plans to go global with MyBudget?

Currently it is only in Australia. We have plans to expand globally. We need to rebuild the current technology that we have to be able to do that. Once we have done that, which we should be able to do by the end of the year, we plan to open offices in the UK.

You are planning to put down roots in Sri Lanka by establishing your offshore software development operation. What made you come to Sri Lanka and invest here and set up the software development operation?

I am part of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Programme 2017 and I met Lakmini Wijesundera in India. Just talking to her, I learned more about the technology environment here in Sri Lanka and it made me very interested in pursuing Sri Lanka as a country to set up a development centre. 

My CTO (Chief Technology Officer) ran a process to find a company to help us start, our technicians to set up our development centre here and grow potentially up to 100 engineers in the next three to five years. We have not yet decided on a name but it will be more like ‘MyBudget Software Development Centre’ or its Research and Development Wing. 

How do you think this software development operation would help Sri Lanka and its people?

Firstly, we want to create employment opportunities. Secondly, if MyBudget can make this work, I plan to tell all of my colleagues in Australia that what a fantastic opportunity there is in Sri Lanka in terms of software development. 

It’s a big challenge in Australia to get software engineers and attract the right talent. I think having someone like myself and MyBudget working over here in Sri Lanka, we can be spokespersons for Sri Lanka to encourage more countries to invest resource into Sri Lanka.

As a woman in the field of finance, did you have to face difficulties along your journey to become an entrepreneur?

The financial industry in general is male dominated. Since I created an errand category of personal budgeting, I sort of bypassed the traditional financial institutions. I actually found being a female is more of an advantage than a disadvantage because there are not many females in the finance industry. Therefore, it allowed me to position myself as a bit of a spokesperson for the industry in Australia. 

Also, I think women are naturally more caring and we provide a very caring and nurturing service to our clients. So, it’s just not about managing your money, it’s about keeping you on track and understanding what you need to do to stay on track. Women intuitively know how to communicate those messages really well. I have 70 percent women working at MyBudget. 

What are your thoughts and opinions about women’s representation in the fields of finance, business or politics in Sri Lanka? 

I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of women in business and in power in Sri Lanka. At a lot of meetings that I have been going to, there have been more women in the room than men. It has been very encouraging. 

Even my male counterparts feel like they are the minority. I think they feel like they need a male support group (laughter). Women I have met here have been very helpful in connecting me with the right people. 

As a working mother, what do you have to say to the Sri Lankan working mothers, who find it impossible to effectively maintain both work and family lives simultaneously?

I think you need a really supportive family and a partner. If you don’t have that, that will make it more challenging and more difficult because being a working mom definitely has its challenges. But if you have a partner who is supportive and shares that burden with you, then that makes it much easier to do what you need to do. 

And also, the other thing is a lot of women feel pressure. Sometimes they feel pressure to be at work, sometimes they feel pressure to be at home more. I think you need to work out what is the right balance for you. What works for me might not work for someone else. You just need to work out what works for you, your family and what you are comfortable with. What’s important is finding the right balance for you because it is different for everybody.       

As a successful woman entrepreneur, what message do you have to give to Sri Lankan women out there aspiring to become entrepreneurs?

Believe in yourself and take that next step because sometimes, as women, we feel like we need someone to ask us to take the next step. I just think you need to believe in yourself and if you are really passionate about what it is that you are doing, take that next step, back yourself up and go with your gut instincts and it will work out. It will be hard but it will work out.