Eliza and Self Employment Assistance Transcript

Eliza: I grew up in a small coastal town called Yallingup. It’s in the south west of Western Australia, it’s a very close knit town. We’re always down the beach.

My name is Eliza, I’m 25 years old and I’m part of the Self-Employment Assistance Program with APM.

My business is GRNSTR. It stands for Greene Sister. During my time being a competitive surfer, I saw that there was a huge issue with the industry and how they would showcase what a surfer girl would look like.

And I realised there was a market for women who couldn’t find wetsuits in their size.

I wanted to create a brand that made women feel special, made women feel included, and ultimately made women feel confident when they were out in the water and that they could find a wetsuit in a women’s range, and they didn’t have to squeeze into men’s range wetsuits.

With APM’s program, I really learned about the fundamentals of running a business with their accredited training.

I learned about the market research I needed to do, the financial planning and the business planning, which is all of the core foundations to running a business.

I had this great idea, but I really needed support and mentoring into creating that idea and having it be a successful business.

Matt: The program helps people that have either an existing business or a new business get the, one is the training support.

So that we got a training program that goes for a number of weeks and people can join the program with a consultant or a trainer online. And we cover things like marketing, legal and management, financial support or financial planning, operations.

We cover risk management, and all of this knowledge and information goes into a business plan.

So the main aim of the training is to complete a business plan and financial plan. And after that they commence business, and they get one year of mentoring support.

Eliza: My experience with Matt, my mentor, has been great. He’s been very, very supportive and he’s very responsive.

If I send him an email or call him, he’s always there to answer my questions and guide me.

I was able to test my social media marketing and run ads and have the flexibility to trial different ads and trial different campaigns and to see what works, and with that data I was able to secure national stockists and international stockists so quickly within 12 months of launching, which is huge for a self-startup.

Matt: With Eliza, I’m especially proud, proud of what she’s achieved.

I’m glad she came to us for support because in that position when you’re running a business by yourself, you really need it.

Eliza: My next goal for my brand GRNSTR is to really expand my products.

So women around the world can really find a wetsuit in their size and they can enjoy the water, whether that’s swimming, snorkelling, diving, surfing, any water activity.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a start up or you have an existing business, there is never not enough support and advice that you can get when you’re starting your own business.

My business wouldn’t be where it is today without APM.