If recent events have shown us anything, it’s that Australian small businesses are resilient and have a fighting spirit in challenging times. Having the right online setup for your business shouldn't be daunting, it should be simple and accessible so that anyone can feel confident to set it up themselves.

My guest Suzanne Mitchell is the Marketing Director for GoDaddy Australia and knows a lot about building online success for everyday entrepreneurs. I ask Suzanne about the essential tools and services all businesses need to build an online presence, attract customers and manage their work, and how small businesses have had to adapt and pivot during Covid19 to not only remain operational but transform and thrive.

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After 25 years working in retail, Julie Mathers decided to take her experience, combine it with her passion for the environment and animal welfare, and create a business committed to making a meaningful impact on the world. So in 2014 Julie launched her online store Flora and Fauna, specialising in ethical, eco-friendly and vegan products.

When the business launched there were 30 brands and 500 products; now their range has over 300 brands and 8000 products, sourcing the best ethical and low-waste skincare, food, fashion, and lifestyle products. I talk to Julie about the ethic of hard work, the concept of thinking like a proprietor and how Flora & Fauna has managed to grow so quickly while maintaining its eco ethos.

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Husband and wife duo Tara and Danny Solberg worked as designers collecting inspiration on their travels around the world, and always dreamed of bringing the unique things they saw home to Australia. So they turned their passion into a business and created Few and Far, a furniture and homewares business on the South Coast of NSW.

Few and Far source and import one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and décor and Tara and Danny have created a compelling shopping experience that captivates all the senses. I ask them how their design backgrounds and passion for travel helped shape their entrepreneurial mindset, and why moving online was the natural choice for the growth and success of the business.

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My guests this week are Shaun Greenblo and Elliot Midalia from Boody, a sustainable clothing brand that creates everyday essentials from eco-friendly organic bamboo. Shaun and Elliot have been best friends since they were kids and their dads started the business together in 2012, when they saw an opportunity to sell an unconventional product for the health-conscious and environmentally minded customer. Shaun and Elliot came into the business with their growth mindset and love of technology and Boody is now a family business run by two fathers and two sons, sold in 1000 retailers in Australia, online and in 17 countries globally. I ask Shaun and Elliot about how their hunger to change the world for the better inspired them to create a sustainable product, and how Boody uses fabrics and craft to bypass trends and fast-fashion.

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Like many who work in the fitness industry Kirsten King didn't start there; she initially worked in marketing for a decade before founding Fluidform Pilates in 2012, which gave her the perfect understanding to develop the brand and business. In early 2019 Kirsten launched Fluidform at Home, an online subscription-based Pilates program which boasts subscribers from all over the world. I talk to Kirsten about how Fluidform was perfectly positioned to deal with the increase in online subscriptions when the business experienced huge growth during a time when most people were at home, and how combining highly personalised programming with in-depth technical knowledge has played such a huge role in the success of the Fluidform brand.

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Mike Pritchett grew up obsessed with video, always carrying a camcorder around to film his friends doing skateboard tricks. He founded his first production company in 2006, working on big budget video projects, when he was challenged by one of his clients to create a scalable and affordable video offering. So he created Shootsta, a customised video kit and training platform; teaching clients to capture their own video and then use Shootsta’s editing team to turn this content around within 24 hours. I ask Mike about how Shootsta is disrupting the video industry by simplifying the production process, the benefits of having clients film their own content and how his service has helped users improve their business' communication both internally and externally.

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Julio Ribeiro is the co-founder and CEO of Inventia Life Science, the med-tech company behind the 3D bioprinter technology that creates realistic replicas of tumours to test cancer treatments. Julio grew up in Brazil where he studied biology and genetics, and in the 90’s he migrated to Australia to do his PhD in medicine. After working for a scientific tech supply company, he saw a gap in the market and knew that the science field had the potential to make life a lot better, so he started his company, Inventia Life Science.

They developed the bioprinting platform ‘Rastrum’ to print 3D cell models in high quantity with a gel that mimics human tissue, enabling medical researchers to do higher quality experiments into cancer treatment, and potentially also the coronavirus. I ask Julio how he sees biology, computer science and engineering coming together in the next few years and where the highly disruptive sector of 3D printing has the potential to go.

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Masood Naqshbandi is an entrepreneurial scientist and Co-founder of Abyss Solutions, a robotics company that provides automated underwater inspections for dams, reservoirs, bridges, ship hulls and oil and gas platforms. They combine remotely operated underwater vehicles and drones with data analytics to allow their clients to reduce inspection costs of places that are typically very difficult to inspect.

Now the vision for Abyss solutions is to become a conglomerate of multiple service sectors including tech, intelligence and automation. I ask Masood about his transition from the academic world to the business world and how the future of innovative science technology and automation can hugely benefit us.

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This week in the final instalment of Women in Tech month I speak to Carolyn Mee, the founder of Sound Scouts, a health tech company focused on the delivery of accessible, fun and affordable hearing screening. Developed in collaboration with the National Acoustic Laboratories, Sound Scouts flagship product is an easy to use mobile game app that uses scientific principles to detect a range of hearing problems in kids. I ask Carolyn how using intuition and creativity can leapfrog your product and create opportunities outside of the usual remit, and how remote access is providing hugely beneficial to Sound Scouts.

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This week as part of 'Women in Tech' month I sit down with the co-founders of Beam Australia, Stephanie Reuss and Victoria Stuart. Beam is a HR tech company and online marketplace for part-time professionals including high profile businesswomen, athletes and carers looking for the flexibility of part-time employment.

Since 2016, Beam has contributed over $17 million in new salaries to the Australian economy through new jobs that couldn’t have been created without part-time work. I ask Stephanie and Victoria about how they see businesses embracing new workplace flexibility to work more efficiently and economically - it's a revolution against archaic work-place structures to reimagine the way work is done.

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