Amazon supports Aussie women-owned businesses throughout the year as we work to close the gender gap in opportunities for women in entrepreneurship and to #InspireInclusion.
This International Women’s Day, we put the spotlight on three inspiring businesses and speak to their founders on how they achieved success, how they stay driven, and their advice for other entrepreneurs.
These are their stories.
Amazon supports Aussie women-owned businesses throughout the year as we work to close the gender gap in opportunities for women in entrepreneurship and to #InspireInclusion.
This International Women’s Day, we put the spotlight on three inspiring businesses and speak to their founders on how they achieved success, how they stay driven, and their advice for other entrepreneurs.
These are their stories.
What happens when you’re faced with a hairy problem? For Natalie Sanderson and Priscilla Barletta, the answer was: untangle it.
The pair—who have experience in marketing and developing haircare products, as well as working with pet groomers—share a passion for curly-coated dogs, which they say have become much more popular over the past decade.
To help the owners of these pooches who are struggling to manage their pets’ coats, they set up g’oodles and have dedicated themselves to formulating and testing products that will wash and detangle the fur of curly-coated canine breeds.
“Dogs have become people’s fur babies, and being mums, we can relate to the feeling of wanting the very best for your pet,” says Sanderson. “With fewer knots, there will be more dogs who are comfortable in their fur and overall a happier, healthier version of themselves.”
Both mothers believe that the corporate world can be limiting to women, especially after having children, and they encourage other women to chart their own path. “Having your own business can be so liberating. It definitely takes dedication and perseverance, but it’s never been easier to find a manufacturer in Australia or abroad,” they say. “With the internet and the right tools, you’re able to achieve anything.”
Kim Tyrer was enjoying success as visual artist when her father, who founded the family wine business, passed away. To keep her dad’s legacy going, she stepped into his shoes and found that making wine struck a chord with her passion for creativity.
“I find the wine industry very creative,” says Tyrer. “I think I would struggle doing anything where you don’t create something. Here we create amazing wines essentially from grape juice. It’s a challenging and rewarding process.”
Together with her mother, Tyrer has maintained Galafrey as one of Australia’s top wineries, known for its award-winning Riesling and dry-grown vineyard, a method of managing vineyards where water is the most precious resource. Galafrey is also one of the winemaking pioneers in the Great Southern area of Western Australia.
Tyrer's success hasn’t come without challenges in the male-dominated wine industry. “It’s difficult being a woman in my industry because the job is so physically demanding. I am often the only woman in the room at industry events." She manages, she says, by standing her ground and being forthright with her opinions. “I am not easily intimidated.”
To others who are thinking of tackling the odds, she offers this advice: “Chip and charge. Chip away at it, and you will charge forward. I follow this all the time to break down problems and work towards a goal. It makes anything achievable.”
When educational and developmental psychologist Julie Dini couldn’t find flash cards to work with that featured realistic images of children’s emotions, she decided to create some herself.
“I absolutely believe that if you invest in helping children understand and express feelings in a healthy way when they are younger, you can set them up for sound lifelong mental health,” she says.
In setting up Dealing In Feelings, Dini received a bit of an education as well. “I had worked as a therapist all my life, so when I started my business in my late 50s I had absolutely no knowledge of online selling, retail, manufacturing, marketing—nothing! I had pretty minimal IT skills too.”
But nothing is impossible to a determined woman, as author Louisa May Alcott once said. Dini hired a coach, picked up the skills, and has since expanded the brand’s product range to include other learning tools. “It’s been an amazing, busy and very rewarding journey discovering an entire new online world where, if you can imagine it, you can probably create it and even sell it.”
She’s all for other women who have an idea for their own business to “stop dreaming and start doing”. “Even if you just do one thing on your business every day, it is all these little steps that propel you up the mountain.”
