I recently joined the marketing team at Service King. When I spoke to the managing director Vick Sharma, I asked him, what are your hobbies? What are you passionate about? What do you like to do most? He said that business is his sport. He loves to do business. It’s a main driver of what gets him out of bed, six days a week. Starting his day at 4.45am, he doesn’t retire until 8pm in the evening.

His passion for business is driven by helping other small businesses and seeing them grow. He has supported maybe hundreds of businesses and has seen them succeed. An active member of Avondale’s Rosebank Business Association, the company sponsors Central Park Business Association, and Businesses after 5.

Vick also took it upon himself to fund and create Rosebank Toastmasters. I asked him, why Toastmasters? What is the connection to your business?

Smiling, he said, “Toastmasters is a great place to improve public speaking skills and gain confidence. I wanted to support employees so that they can really develop their leadership skills”. A confident employee, or business owner, achieves better results. As the founding member of this club, he made it clear that he is more than happy to provide assistance to anyone who may be interested.

Seeing business or your professional life as a sport, you will succeed if you put in work and hone in on those skills. Vick wants to see Rosebank business precinct flourish, and Rosebank Toastmasters is an inexpensive training facility.

I then asked him about the participation of his staff in Rosebank Toastmasters. He proudly said that the majority of his staff take part. He has added this as part of a training course for every employee joining the company. Upskilling employees is a very important component of his business moving forward.

Leadership, communication and public speaking skills improve just like your tennis swerve does with practice. Rosebank Toastmasters is the place you can really excel and put such important skills to the test.