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The Entrepreneurs
How to be a force for good
Tatum Brown founder of the The Social Dog Company was living on her own and suffering from anxiety and depression.
“I would come home and just feel really alone, so someone recommended that I get a dog,” says Tatum.
“I had always loved dogs, but I wasn’t really aware of how to go about purchasing one. I looked online and bought a dachshund for $1,000.
However, when I got it, it had obviously come from a puppy mill (which I later reported). It was starved to make it look like a miniature, had worms, fleas, a urinary tract infection and all of this horrible, horrible stuff including anxiety.
The high cost of caring
‘Compassion fatigue’ is a term often used when describing the stress and combination of physical and emotional symptoms felt by people in the caring professions – nurses, social workers, counsellors, police etc. Another group who experience similar high levels of burnout and stress are teachers. Amy Green, a full time teacher and founder of The Teacher’s Coach, knows only too well the pressure, challenges and heavy workload experienced by teachers. With a career spanning over 12 years teaching in both Australia and overseas, Amy aims to empower teachers (and others) to help them manage their stress and get the most out of their day.
The perks of being hyper-local in a global world
Claire Corby the founder of Capital Buyers Agency has created a unique business relying on her hyper-local knowledge to inform the property buying decisions of both locals and inter-state and international buyers.
While Capital Buyers Agency works with anyone wanting help to purchase a property in Canberra, Claire says Defense families and DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) families are her core customers.
Business Unusual
Dee Brennan from Thinkoutloud is every marketers dream, tapping into the human drive to pay attention to things that are new, different and surprising. Her RoofTop Meditation; Zen AF; Rise Meditate Coffee; Wineful and Meditate Like a Mother meditation and mindfulness classes have that slightly quirky element that make us sit up and take notice, differentiating her from the many other mindfulness and meditation classes out there.
Acting EL1 shirt just the beginning for local designer
Mat Colley from creative agency, Foundry, shot to fame when his Acting EL1 t-shirt made it into the Canberra Times in October last year and then a remarkably similar shirt went live on Amazon’s international site the following day.
We caught up with Mat to find out a bit more about the inspiration behind the idea.
Creating Change One Flower at a Time
Photo by: Tracy Lee PhotographyNipuni (Nip) Wijewickrema describes herself as a social entrepreneur, who was inspired to build a
floristry business - “GG’s Flowers”, to provide safe, stable and ongoing employment for her teenage
sister, Gayana, who has Down’s Syndrome.
GG’s Flowers is a family affair, with Gayana's mother Geetha, who is a fully trained and accredited florist creating the arrangements. Nip takes care of sales (including corporate clients), social media, admin, marketing, and promotion. Nip and Gayana’s other sisters, Veena and Rangana help out on big days
like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s day. On these high volume days even their Dad has been called in to help out! Of course the beautiful floral arrangements that GG’s have become famous for are hand delivered by the sweet Gayana, with her signature hug.
From Addiction to HOPE – The Mother of Inspiration
Photo by: Tracy Lee PhotographyKate Seselja is a married mother of six who, for twelve dark years, struggled with a gambling addiction
to poker machines. Her recovery has sparked an unstoppable desire to make a difference in the lives of others struggling with addiction and disconnection.
The bulk of her energies have been thrown behind the project she gave birth to in October 2015,
called the HOPE Project.
Second career success - starting a business in retirement
There has been much discussion about the age pension’s increase to 67 years and the effect it will have on the lives of older Australians. However, any discussion about the economic activity of older Australians should also include a discussion about how we support the growing number of ‘seniorpreneurs’ or entrepreneurs over the age of 50.
Research, funded by National Seniors Australia[i], studied more than 400 seniors and found that seniorpreneurs invest, on average, $1.2 million more in their business than younger entrepreneurs and their firms earn more than twice the profits.
Breaking free of the ‘Golden Handcuffs’
We had a chat with Lynette Murray from Acton Advice who left a high flying corporate career to start her own financial practice.
In this 3 part series as we explore her journey we look at intrapreneurship and how both organisations and innovative individuals can benefit from growing the kind of business that attracts investors; and how technology innovation can make a difference in a business.
Bridging the Geographical Gap
It started in Nyngan, a small, rural town in New South Wales with a population of just 2,000. Located in the centre of the state, Nyngan is home to farmers and miners, not exactly Silicon Valley and not where you'd expect a tech startup to be born.
Among its residents are entrepreneurs Ian Perkins and Richard Bootle, who own farms and a property law firm, lawlab. Lawlab was founded in 1899, and was acquired by the pair in 2000, working with both local and city based clients on their conveyancing needs.
But not content with just operating a successful rural practice, Ian and Richard had plans to create a national branded property law firm with offices all around the country.
Head Winds
About 80% of Australians support or strongly support renewables in Australia and we regularly read about campaigns like Yes 2 Renewables, Australian Wind Alliance and Solar Citizens.
However, even with all the petitions with their tens of thousands of signatures, is the Government listening to the calls for change and what is the impact on local companies like Windlab?
We recently spoke to Roger Price, Windlab chairman and CEO.
Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone - One Brushstroke at a Time
Catherine Jaktman knows a lot about IT Management, enterprise modelling and service delivery models.
In fact, she even has a PhD in all of that.
However, most people who have had the pleasure of meeting American-born Catherine don't know that she has a real passion for Aboriginal art.
This passion has seen Catherine step outside her comfort zone and launch Jaktman Gallery which has just opened its first exhibition to a packed out audience at the M16 ArtSpace in Griffith.
Seachange the Route to Growth
Office View at Accounting 4 BusinessYou might think a seachange is just for retirees or those wanting to open a coffee shop, but for one ambitious entrepreneur a seachange has been the route to exponential growth.
In less than ten years, Susie Robinson from Accounting 4 Business went from a small accounting practice in Gungahlin to opening an additional four shopfronts along the South Coast.
Initially, a decision to make a seachange saw Susie and her partner Glenn open an additional shopfront in Narooma where they were going to live.
XTEK outperforms on expectations
The Hon Stuart Robert MP, Assistant Minister for Defence with Uwe Boettcher, ChairmanAn 18 per cent increase in income to $5.71m in 2014 from $4.83m in 2013 and a bottom line improvement of over half a million dollars through increased sales of $0.992m in 2014 continued the upward trend for homeland security specialist XTEK (ASX:XTE).