Six Qld women talk about starting their own successful businesses
More Queensland women are turning their backs on conventional employment, opting instead to turn their passions into multimillion-dollar companies.
Katie Macinante, Niamh Sullivan, Bek Strachan, Jazmyn Smith Hailey Brown and Ashley Hanger, have all paved their own way as uber-successful young business women and despite their age they all continue to go from strength to strength.
They are part of a Sunshine State business boom.
Queensland’s registration of new companies since June 2018 has increased on average by 2.6 per cent per month based on data provided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, bettering NSW (1.9 per cent) and Victoria (2.1 per cent) over the same period.
Queensland also has a larger portion of female business owners than the national total, at just under 40 per cent as of May, according to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
“There has been a recent increase in female involvement as business owner managers. As of May 2013, 33.6 per cent of all business owner managers in Australia were female. A decade forward, and 35.7 per cent were female,” an Industry, Science and Resources spokesperson said.
Not only that, women are now outranking men in new business ownership.
“The number of female owner managers rose by 21.1 per cent over the decade to May 2023, while the corresponding male increase was 10.1 per cent.”
Both the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology have experienced a dramatic increase in entrepreneur programs uptake according to leading academics.
“At QUT we recognise an entrepreneurial mindset is scalable across professions and this is why we have doubled down on supporting its entrepreneurial culture with programs across the student body,” director of QUT Entrepreneurship Professor Glen Murphy said.
Head of Entrepreneurship at UQ Nimrod Klayman cited a recognisable difference between businessmen and woman, saying the university’s support for women in the industry had increased tenfold.
“What I notice, women have more qualities to be a better leader, once they perfect their product and go to market. Female entrepreneurs will want it perfect before they go to market, men tend to launch a lot quicker,” he said.
One businesswomen who embodies those values and has built a company that rakes in $120,000 per month is Katie Macinante, the founder of subscription underwear brand Hello Peachiee.
“I have always loved lingerie and had a lot of fun with it, but I didn't like the kind of brands that placed the focus on really serious sexiness and content made for the male gaze,” Ms Macinante said.
“I wanted to make a brand that was about having fun in your body, celebrating your body and I feel like there are a lot of brands that monetise off making women feel inadequate.”
Along with the other women in her category, Ms Macinante’s drive behind starting her business spanned from wanting to empower women.
“I just wanted to make women feel really good and make them feel like this was something that should be fun. You do not need a perfect body to wear lingerie.”
Ms Macinante also admittedly found it difficult to fit in within companies that discouraged “business-minded employees”.
“I obviously have worked for people throughout the years and I found it difficult when things were done a certain way that may not have benefited the business. It is hard to fit into the cookie cutter employee that people are looking for.”
JAZMYN SMITH
Jazmyn Produces
Business: Media productions company working exclusively with music artists
Age: 28
Monthly turnover: $12,000
Employees: 6
A “spanner in the works” made this young businesswoman change career paths, moving away from the science degree she was studying and instead opting to follow her creative flair for film production.
At 18, Jazmyn Smith found out she was pregnant while at university on a scholarship.
Fast-forward nine years, the Gympie woman now proudly runs a successful media production company that exclusively works with music artists.
“It all started when I put up a post one day on social media,” she said.
“I always loved photo and film for myself, but it asked if anyone would like me to shoot their wedding …
“I only decided to pivot during Covid because obviously the whole wedding industry just shut down, and … took a big risk and a leap of faith and decided to work in music.”
Ms Smith said her young age had proved a point of contention in her industry. “I often feel more so than gender that I have found that age has been a barrier,” she said. “It happens so much more subtly.”
NIAMH SULLIVAN
INFIX Studios
Business: Multi-disciplinary storytelling agency working with companies locally and globally
Age: 26
Monthly turnover: $100,000
Employees: 9
Former TV presenter turned exceptional young businesswoman Niamh Sullivan said her love for storytelling drove her to create her company INFIX Studios, earning her a Forbes 30 Under 30 nomination in the process.
“I was working as a TV reporter and was loving telling stories and having that platform for people to tell their stories, but didn’t feel like I had the creative capability to connect with as many people as I wanted to,” Ms Sullivan said.
“INFIX was born out of a desire to help people tell their stories and ensure their story had a lasting impact.”
Starting her uber-successful agency at just 24, Ms Sullivan admits “learning on the job” and trusting her team has been some of the most important lessons she has learnt from the past 18 months as CEO.
“We are a very young business and have a young team as well,” she said.
“For us that is almost a professional advantage because we have such a fresh perspective and don’t really have any set in stone ideas of the way things work.
“I know that our team regardless of their age or their gender I know they are good at what they do and I have to let that speak for itself.”
KATE MACINANTE
Hello Peachiee
Business: Underwear subscription service for women based on body positivity
Age: 28
Monthly turnover: $120,000
Employees: 4
REBEKAH STRACHAN
RBB Fitness Studio
Business: Fitness studio featuring HIIT sessions for women
Age: 30
Monthly turnover: $35,000-$40,000
Employees: 10
A love of group fitness and empowerment of women had Brisbane woman Bek Strachan pivot her passion into entrepreneurship.
As a result, she has created a one-of-a-kind fitness studio that has blossomed into a global enterprise.
Beginning at large gym chains, Ms Strachan said she noticed an industry that was fake and cosmetic and decided to strive to make a difference by creating RBB Fitness Studio.
“I saw a gap in the market,” she said. “I was a group fitness instructor and I really saw a need for a different type of group fitness workout.
“My passion was specifically women, but just people in general, and I saw how cosmetic and fake the fitness industry was from working in it, and it really got me angry and I wanted people to fall in love with exercise the way that I did.”
The now 30-year-old said her business was a long labour of love, and a dream that she dedicated a large portion of her 20s to developing into the booming business it is today.
“If you have a dream then go for it, but understand that you have to love it with everything inside of you otherwise when the going gets tough, you have to have that passion to fall back on,” she said.
“We are in the greatest time, in the world, in my opinion, to be a woman in business.
“Even the difference between six years ago and now, we are starting to get seats at the table.”
ASHLEY HANGER
Stripped Supply
Business: Australia’s first monthly subscription box for Type 1 Diabetes sufferers
Age: 29
Monthly turnover: Undisclosed
Employees: 5
About 12 in every 100,000 people in Australia have Type 1 Diabetes; a figure that Stripped Supply CEO Ashley Hanger found alarming.
The University of Queensland graduate said she first noticed the lack of support from the medical industry for people who live with T1 diabetes after watching friends and family members struggle with the illness.
“I did see a gap in the market, I saw a whole group of people that could be better supported and it felt like no one else was stepping in,” Ms Hanger said.
“I was working full-time for the first two years and working on this at nights, on weekends, barely sleeping.
“It is so important if you want to start a business … you’re passionate about (it) because you need something to drive you through those late nights.”
As a huge supporter of other young women starting their own businesses, Ms Hanger said she had been passionate about remaining herself while in an industry dominated by men.
“What I have learnt is that men and women do business very differently and what I told myself in the beginning, I was not going to change myself to fit in within the industry and I have really stuck to my guns on that one,” she said.
“There definitely have been times where people weren't expecting me to be a woman because of my name, or weren't expecting me to be as young as I am because they just spoke to me on the phone.
“But I’ve never let myself labour on that too much because if I did that I would be doing myself a disservice.”
HAILEY BROWN
Vacayit
Business: Accessible audio guide app for travellers with a disability
Age: 25
Monthly turnover: Undisclosed
Employees: 8
A conversation with an old friend ignited a passion for this Queensland businesswoman to launch a company founded on enabling independence among a group of people often overlooked by the travel industry.
“In March 2020 I had an opportunity to present an idea to the World Tourism Board, and I was talking to my friend Henry who has been blind since birth, and we were talking about travel experiences and we realised that there are a lot of barriers that have been created by the industry,” Vacayit founder Hailey Brown said.
“The reason we do what we do is because tourism marketing is predominantly visual and for someone who is blind or low vision this can make it really hard for an individual to make informed and independent decisions about travel.”
Admittedly an “iron fist with a velvet glove” leader, Ms Brown said the travel industry had welcomed her business and idea with open arms.
“It is a very ingenuity-minded industry and for that I’m really thankful for,” she said.
“Our next step is going global. We see the UK as a really good market, they take accessibility really seriously. It isn’t about saying, it’s about doing.”
