This Father’s Day we look at some of the best bits of advice small business owners have been given by their Dad’s when it comes to running a business and putting their best foot forward in life.
Sarah Willmott, Owner of Feel Better Box
For Sarah the best advice her Dad ever shared with her was “Go for it- you can only but try”.
And while it may seem like just a few simple words, Sarah thanks her Dad for instilling such an optimistic attitude that has helped her run her business so successfully.
She says, “Everything is doable and reachable if you believe in it, yourself and try”. Through determination and self-belief, Sarah started out with no idea about running an online store to now sending over 4,000 care packages to every corner of Australia.
Anu Sawhney, the Human behind Bidiliia
Running a bespoke jewellery business, Anu’s business goal is to create elegant pieces that spark joy and ignite happiness in her customer‘s lives.
She reflects on her Dad as “being my biggest cheerleader with plenty of little gold nuggets of advice that he has dropped along the year’s” but the advice that impacted her most was “you can’t succeed or fail if you don’t try”.
Anu has inherited this sense of adventure and is a big believer of jumping in, trying new things, tasting different cuisines and travelling on that road less known. She believes that seeing things from a different perspective helps you learn and grow to be a better person.
Luke Humble, Owner of Luke Humble Digital Marketing + Business Strategy
Working his second job delivering papers on his bicycle, Luke like most 12-year old’s valued a good sleep in on Sunday mornings. The now digital Marketer and Business strategist can remember the first bit of business advice his Dad told him, something which stuck with him forever when he felt like quitting his paper run all those years ago.
Dad said, “it is determination and absolute passion that will lead to ultimate success”.
“I stuck the job out for another 4 years and even helped the newsagent owner when other kids decided not to turn up on a Sunday morning to deliver papers in their designated area”
It’s an approach to life that has helped Luke follow his passion and create, run and lead his own small business to great success.
Jocelyne, Nik and Harry, Creators of Good Citizens
The business journey for Good Citizens all started one day when owners Jocelyne and Nik’s eight-year-old son Harry came home from school one day in a very worried state. After learning about global warming, Harry became very troubled about the issue of plastic waste. He couldn’t understand why people buy drinks in plastic bottles when the bottles were going straight to landfill or into the ocean.
“Nik sat down with Harry and they brainstormed and devised a plan on what they could do to help raise awareness to tackle the problem” says Jocelyne.
One year on and their brainstorming led to the creation of Good Citizens, a small business that is turning single-use plastic bottles into sunglasses.
A great example of how Dad’s advice can lead to big projects in action.
Felicity Dales, Managing Director, Body Torque
“To succeed you need to have the drive, that fire in your belly that gets you through the tough times when it‘s not all a bed of roses or things don’t go to plan.”
It’s this piece of advice that Felicity holds dear to her heart after losing her Dad at age five, and words that have been passed down throughout the family even to the grandkids.
“This is something that has stayed with me throughout my life, and is something I call upon to give me strength when the business isn’t running as smoothly as I might want it to, or even just on days when I’m missing him, which I still do, all these years later” says Felicity.
Joe Edgley, Director at Amplified Marketing
Like many pearls of wisdom, sometimes it is the simplest things that have the biggest impacts. That’s exactly the story for Joe and how his Dad’s advice not only helped him grow his own business, something he thinks is a good rule of thumb for life.
The advice? Simple: “Persistence is the key to achieving your goals. Everyone fails a number of times before they succeed, so if you want to succeed you must persist through the failures and keep going”- (we all know the Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times story!).
Joe shares “I’ve lost count of the number of times early on that I wanted to give up on my business, and throw it all in. But I persisted, and now I’m really seeing some great results due to that one trait.” Determination, creating change and persistence are some of the most important words of advice when it comes to managing your small business, just like making sure you have the right business insurance in place to protect it. At BizCover, experience insurance made easy with access to Instant and competitive quotes in a few clicks of a mouse or a phone call to our friendly team.
