YOUNG ENTREPENEURS IN BUSSNIES

Sarah Benjamin

Growing cut flowers was a pretty competitive business in the country with high freight prices and cheap imports to contend with. We needed to value-add to stay competitive so we started selling premium dried rose petals for weddings at Simply Roses in May 2005.
The business, based in Swan Hill, has grown rapidly so that over 95 per cent of our sales are now from rose petals. After receiving strong interest from the Asia-Pacific region, we are looking to export. Critical to our success has been a willingness to network and participate in business training.
I have taken every opportunity to learn more. In little over a year I have attended Women in e-Business Training in Korea, the Young Rural Leaders Course run by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), the Export Market Development Programme and the Company Directors’ Course also through DAFF, and I am heavily involved locally with the Loddon Murray Community Leadership Programme.
This year I am a finalist in the Innovation and Young Business Woman categories of the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards in Victoria. In addition I have received the 2006 Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship for Horticulture enabling me to study the rose petal industry in six countries next year.
Simply Roses, which I run with my mum, Jan Slater, is an online business. Owning and operating an online business drives home the importance of building networks and getting educated. I don’t bump into anyone if I don’t make the effort.
That is why YARN is such an important tool, especially in rural areas. It is easy to feel isolated – and for me with an online business, this is even more the case. YARN lets us talk to one another; get information about programmes for personal development; and build those important networks that help grow a business.
To get involved in your industry and your business takes courage. I remember sitting in my office on the first morning having left my paid job thinking, what have I done? But by lunch time I knew it was the right thing and I haven’t looked back.