Perseverance pays off
Boost Juice founder offers vital insights
ENTREPRENEUR Janine Allis says she did not take a salary for three years and it was five years before her Boost juice empire turned a profit.
The family home she shared with husband Jeff, then an Austereo radio executive, was sold to fund the business.
But the Boost founder and Shark Tank mentor warns not everyone is cut out to run their own businesses and some peo- ple may be better suited working for a boss.
“If you are risk averse and you haven’t got the appetite or have the patience to know that it takes time, you are better off working for someone and having a career,” she says.
Ms Allis launched Boost in Adelaide in 2000 after she noticed the growth of juice bars on a trip to the US.
Her first bar, in Prahran, didn’t work so she regrouped and started afresh in Adelaide.
She was on maternity leave with her third child and wanted an interest. After tossing around ideas, Boost was the answer.
With a curriculum vitae running from part-time strawberry picker, Target checkout operator, nightclub door girl and nanny to publicist and cinema manager, Ms Allis is now Retail Zoo executive director.
Retail Zoo owns Boost, Salsa’s Fresh Mex and CIBO, an Adelaide coffee chain, along with Queensland-based Betty’s Burgers.
Private equity firm Bain Capital acquired Retail Zoo in 2014.
Ms Allis, who as a 21-yearold Entrepreneur Janine Allis warns not everyone is cut out to run their own businesses had a stint on a boat hosting David Bowie, has spoken of the juggle that often saw her propped up in bed on the laptop at all hours of the night, working on Boost.
She joked that her husband dubbed her a “laptop dancer”.
In 2004, Ms Allis was named Telstra Business Woman of the Year for Victoria and Australia.
She says the Telstra awards exposed her to other business people who were now friends.
Ms Allis is a judge for this year’s national Telstra awards, to be announced in September.
She says business is tough and most businesses fail in their first four years.
While some sectors of franchising have taken a hit, Ms Allis says people running a business under a franchise operation are more likely to be successful.