Pharm IT plugs into the right network

After 15 years in the pharmacy industry, Sabrina Censi turned her professional dream into reality by starting her own business, Pharm IT, in February.

Her experience and knowledge of the industry, in addition to her contact base, provided Ms Censi with a solid foundation, starting her business with 60 clients and growing to almost 90 pharmacies nationwide in less than 12 months.

Pharm IT provides complete IT packages, incorporating installation, support and consultancy for the pharmacy and professional health industries.

Ms Censi was working for Pharmacy Alliance, a member-based organisation made up of pharmacy owners, in an IT manager role when she discovered a niche opportunity in the market.

With a belief that she could offer a better level of customer service than what was on offer, Ms Censi set out developing her own IT consultancy.

She immediately signed on her (then) employer, as her first client, effectively taking on 60 pharmacies nationwide on her first day as managing director of her own business.

“They [Pharmacy Alliance] knew my work; I knew all about their business so it seemed ideal that they’d be my main customer," Ms Censi told WA Business News.

Now with five full-time staff,  including two support staff based in Perth and three based in Melbourne, Ms Censi said the transition from employee to business owner presented some difficult, but rewarding, challenges.

“Having my own business I can have greater control over business processes, but the change from being an IT manager to a company owner has been very challenging,” she said.

 “I’m very lucky because I have worked in the industry. I’ve got a lot of contacts on the east coast, as well as the west coast. And having those contacts and knowing the industry well has been quite an advantage.”

Although she had received eight years’ on-the-job training as a pharmacy IT manager, Ms Censi had no experience running a business. She identified accounts and human resources as her biggest management challenges.

To tackle her relative inexperience at this level, Ms Censi spent, and still spends, a great deal of time networking.

“I spend a fair bit of time going to Professional Business Women meetings; I network and I get a lot of ideas,” she said.

Ms Censi also completed an operational planning course at the Coastal Business Centre, and adopted a business coach, who she sees every month.

“I do find it challenging, but it is getting easier. And that’s why I go and see a business coach, and try and get as much advice as possible, and go to a lot of networking events,” she said.

Developing a streamlined recruitment and staff induction program, mostly through trial and error, has assisted Ms Censi with her HR requirements.

This allows her to be selective in choosing the candidate with the right ‘culture fit’, in order to fulfil her mission of providing superior customer service to her clients.

Accounts were put in the hands of an experienced bookkeeper, who could devote the time necessary to manage that part of the business, while Ms Censi retains control over payroll and banking.

This small company has big plans for the next 12 months. With a forecast 200 per cent increase in clients, Ms Censi is preparing to move the company’s head office from Perth to Melbourne, to allow the company greater opportunity for growth.