IDEAS MAKE LIFESTYLES
A HOME-BASED BUSINESS TURNS LIVES AND FINANCES AROUND FOR THESE ENTERPRISING WOMEN WHO PUSHED THROUGH BARRIERS
You’ve got a great business idea, a side hustle or a hobby that could be so much more. How do you turn your idea into a money-making success?
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals home-grown entrepreneurship is booming in Australia, with a 3.1 per cent increase in actively trading businesses between June 2016 and June 2017. “Non-employing businesses” were driving the growth, with sole proprietors showing a 4.5 per cent increase.
Interestingly, middle-aged women are the changing face behind start-ups with a government report, A Profile of Australian
Women in Business, revealing women made up just over a third of all Australian business operators (34 per cent or 668,670 women) in 2015, with a 46 per cent increase in the number of women business operators over the past two decades. More than 40 per cent of female business operators are aged 40–54.
“Being a successful digital entrepreneur,” says best-selling author and digital marketing specialist Bernadette Schwerdt, “starts and ends with asking one simple question: What do you want?”
Schwerdt’s new book, How to Build an
Online Business, shares the insider tips and tricks Australia’s top online “disruptors” use to create thriving businesses.
“Now is one of the best times in history to start your own business,” she says. “Why? Because it’s never been cheaper, easier or quicker to launch your online presence.
“For example, you can now build a website for free (or very low cost) using web-builders like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. You can get a logo, a corporate video or a brochure for just five dollars using fixed-price website Fiverr.com, where everything is just, yep, you guessed it, five dollars (US).
“And to cap it off, you can advertise your product on Facebook and reach tens of thousands of potential customers for as little as $10. Getting started has never been easier.”
Here’s how four Australian women found start-up success:
THE BEACH PEOPLE
Five years ago, a round beach towel was unheard of. Now the ‘roundie’ by sisters Emma Henderson and Victoria Beattie is draped over the sand and slung over beachgoers’ necks everywhere.
“Victoria and I were sitting on the beach one day watching our husbands surf and I turned to Vic and said ‘I think I am going to make round beach towels, in beautiful designs, with thick and soft material and lovely tassels. Want to do that with me’?” says Emma, co-founder of The Beach People brand.
“I said ‘Yes’ and the rest is history,” Victoria adds.
Their business now pulls seven figures. “I don’t think anyone in our world fully understood what we were trying to do. Even we didn’t know the response that we were about to get. We definitely had our reservations,” Victoria says.
Despite this they didn’t hold off, turning their garden shed and spare bedroom in Kingscliff on the northern New South Wales coast into their offices.
“We jumped in straight away but my goodness it was hard going,” Emma recalls.
“We were the only business in the world that was trying to manufacture round beach towels and our first sample was going to be
over $100 cost price. It was tough times. We worked so hard to produce the best quality product designed in our signature coastal style.”
Within weeks of launching the Roundie, Byron Bay clothing label Spell Designs instagrammed a photo of the towel to their 872,000 followers.
Almost instantly, The Beach People received more than 6000 new followers on their own Instagram. By summer in 2015, they had sold their 100,000th roundie, just two years after they launched. The same year they hit their first million-dollar month, and were still yet to spend any money on a marketing campaign.
“We were very innocently just having a lovely time on social media ... it was all word of mouth. I would post something I liked and people would like it and start following us,” Emma says.
“A lot of the business in the early days just came to us, we were the only providers of a round beach towel for the first two years, if anyone wanted one they had to come to us,” Victoria adds.
“I think that beyond the Roundie, what we were creating was resonating with people.”
The Beach People had secured their IP globally, but with their success came the copycats. It helped, said Emma, to “hire a killer IP attorney”.
While their business has flourished, so have their families. Emma has three children, Lucia Belle, 6, Daisy Darling, 5, and Fern Honey, 1, and Victoria has two-year-old Theodore.
But the sisters say balancing work and home life doesn’t always come easy.
“We just do our best and try not to be too hard on ourselves,” Emma says. “There are days when we feel like we are doing a great job and other days where we feel like we have been thrown inside a washing machine.
“No one has this nailed,” Victoria says. “(The) weeks I feel I’ve done a great job in the business and (have) been a kind and present mother/wife – those are the best weeks. “
Key to this is “switching off and taking regular holidays”, Emma explains.
“We didn’t always, but things weren’t slowing down, so we just made the call to start living the life we wanted to live now and not wait for some far away time to do so,” she says.
What about working together as sisters? “I can see how it wouldn’t be for everyone,” Emma says, “as you are literally in each other’s worlds all day, every day.
“We play to our strengths and have clear boundaries when we are outside of work.
“I’m so thankful for Victoria, the woman is a go-getter. There would be no Beach People without her. I would still be sitting on the beach saying ‘Round towels is a good idea’ if it wasn’t for her drive.”