Mentorship is having someone walk with you on your entrepreneurial journey

Mentorship pair Conor O’Malley and Nyree Hibberd.

Much has been said about the entrepreneurial journey being a lonesome path, but not when you’re surrounded by like-minded individuals, such as being part of a group like EO and having someone to walk with you, such as a mentor, for instance.

This is how EO Melbourne Member and mentee Nyree Hibberd, CEO at Koh Living, and mentor Conor O’Malley, a known Executive Coach who calls himself “The CEO’s caddy”, described their mentorship experience.

Conor still remembers the first time he and Nyree met, which was at the induction day of mentors and mentees at last year’s intake. He recalled, “I met with Nyree, and we had a great conversation, however, I had to leave early. Nyree very kindly offered to continue our discussion and offered to leave that space by walking with me to the train station. From there, I thought, this sounds like something I'd really like to do, which is to work through the EO channel and support Nyree.”

Nyree, on the other hand, is thankful to have someone who can be with her during this part of her entrepreneurial journey. “I'm a big believer in the motto or saying that ‘you don't know what you don't know.’ As a business owner, it seems like I don't know a lot. So, it was all about connecting with the right person to help me progress in my path, personally and in the business,” she stated.

One of the things that Nyree learned throughout their sessions was finding answers to things she wanted to know. She described how she was learning new things along the way, “Conor's approach was really to question – asking, probing – almost, ‘you know the answer but you've got to find it in there and then let me know.’ This really worked for me, so using questions more is what I actually do now with the staff as well, which is quite good because before, I’d also tell people the answer, ‘just go and do this and this,’ and they wouldn't learn the same way as I would. I wasn't learning by just being told, so that was quite good in comparison for me.”

She further expounded on the learnings she picked from her conversations and interactions with Conor. “I think I went into it with a ‘what next, what now’ and ‘how do I get it from here to where I know it can go.’ So, the key learnings were really about pushing back on me and seeing myself as the leader rather than the doer because there's no scaling if I was going to be still 5% in everybody's role. That was the big thing.”

“The second thing was about holding the space,” Nyree continued. “I've got a couple of challenging relationships at times within the business, and it’s just this kind of concept of allowing them to hold their space, that I didn't need to jump in and do anything. I just respected that they had that opinion and felt the way they did, and it allowed me not to jump into their story and not enflame situations as well. It kind of worked quite well. 

Then the third one is with my son, personally holding the personal state not just with my son but with my partner as well. I would often get home, I'd have dinner, put my son to bed, and I'd sit on the couch with my computer and keep going when my partner was around, but there was no real quality time. I don't know if it naturally just stopped or I made a decision to, I can't remember. But when I’m with them, it is to literally be present and not try to do two things at the same time. So, yeah, these are the three really big things for me.”

But it was not just Nyree who was learning from their mentorship. Conor also has picked new ideas and lessons from Nyree’s experiences. “From a commercial perspective, Nyree and her business partner are in a really interesting stage of growth in their business and, in my words here, ‘taking it to the next level and then looking at what the next horizon is.’ There's no doubt for me that there was a really good learning opportunity of working with an entrepreneur who's taking a business, with a business partner, from scratch to an amazingly successful business to where it is now, and going, ‘Okay, what next? Where next?’” he remarked. 

Conor added, “It’s the opportunity to co-learn, co-create and, in some cases, introduce people in my network to Nyree, some of whom resonated and some didn't. That was real learning for me in terms of who in my network resonated and who didn't. And there's no right or wrong there. For me, that was commercial learning, walking – and we literally did – as we had many walking sessions and conversations around an entrepreneur taking a business to another level and looking at what the next three-year vision really is and how to get there.”

He also stated that the whole experience did not only contribute to his professional growth but also to his personal development. “On a personal level, COVID was part of our journey, and I was learning from Nyree in terms of her perspective and how she and her family and I were managing through COVID. It was a challenging time, and there's no doubt that I certainly learned through that time as well,” Conor enthusiastically shared.

For Nyree, their sessions also had her thinking about how she deals with her business and personal areas of her life. “I read this book called, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, and I realised that one of my bad habits or difficult challenges is trying to over-add value rather than allowing other people to take initiative and responsibility. That's one of the main things that seemed to keep coming up as a theme that had a big effect on me and how I run the business because I was constantly in people's roles, feeling like I had to help them do their roles rather than give them the tools they needed to do the role themselves. I enjoyed actually being able to be challenged on that and step back and watch what happened.”

“The other area was in my personal life where I've got a four-year-old son, and just that balance of spending time with him, I really found it quite challenging because the business is so busy that even when I was with him I wasn't present. So, Conor had this saying, ‘for the sake of what,’ but we changed it to ‘for the sake of who.’ When I started doing activities with my son, even if I was walking down the street with his pram, I would ask myself, ‘for the sake of who am I doing this?’ And it'll be for him and it's to spend time and to talk about cars or whatever he wants to talk about rather than me thinking what am I supposed to be doing right now. So, it was a nice tool that I used personally to just bring myself back to where I was, at the time,” Nyree explained.  

Both Nyree and Conor were glad to have walked together along the business path, sharing their stories and exchanging insights with each other. Although they have already finished their Mentorship Program, they were grateful to have formed a connection as a mentor and as a mentee, which has blossomed into a friendship.

In Conor’s words, “The metaphor I have in my coaching practice is to be a caddy. I'm a golfer, and I see myself as the person's caddy who walks alongside that person, and Nyree knows that she's got a caddy walking alongside her and she can reach out. Let's say, in this case now that the programme is over, the caddy's walking outside of the ropes, but anytime she wants to, she can pull this caddy in. I'll be on the bag and I'll walk inside the ropes with her.”

Building your team through a strong corporate culture

Having a strong and desirable corporate culture helps attract and retain exceptional talent. Every company has its own values, and an inclusive and healthy culture can assist you to attract high-performing and engaged team members.

It’s time to look into your internal environment and assess what particular aspect of your culture keeps your team going and even brings in impressive recruits. To help you get started, some EO Melbourne members share their experiences and best practices when it comes to maintaining a culture that supports the growth of their business.

Nurturing relationships with key stakeholders

Having good relations with people you work with is a major factor for wanting to stay longer in an organisation. The same goes for third-party service providers, which prefer to conduct business with those they have amicable dealings with and those they can trust. This is why Austin Vaughan, Managing Director at Pacific Solar, emphasises strong relationships as part of their corporate culture. “Our core values are towards nurturing relationships with key stakeholders, such as contractors, suppliers, developers, and builders, so that they continue to think of Pacific Solar first when any new or forthcoming opportunities are presented. When something unexpected occurs (and it always does in construction), they have our back to pull us through and vice versa. A good cooperative approach is essential to our success.”

Open communication and encouragement of team members

Open communication helps build rapport with team members. It also enables business owners and HR managers to lessen misunderstanding and address concerns at the onset before things can blow up into serious issues.

Ben Stickland, Founder and CEO of Alliance Software, shared how they do it in his business. “The best corporate culture technique we have is a one-on-one interview with every staff member. We ask the staff member to reflect on challenges and coach them to consider and act on solutions. It's 30 minutes, that's all about them. We always ask the question ‘from a 1 to 10, how happy are you,’ and follow this up with ‘and what would it take to get to a 10’. People become unhappy for many different reasons and the key is to get to people early in their ‘unhappiness’ cycle and coach them to a good outcome rather than pretend there are no issues. Look for issues, don't avoid them.”

And for Dion Castle, CEO of Struber, it’s all about having “High-performance behaviours + high-performance habits”. A culture that fosters behaviours and habits that help increase productivity and create positive energy will encourage team members to always do their best and aim for the utmost results in all they do.

Building mutual respect and a sense of belongingness

Trust and respect are strong foundations of a good relationship and a positive corporate culture. But how do you achieve this? According to Steve Jackson, Director at PurpleMonky and Founder of Moon & Back Co., “People on the team respect each other, have fun with each other inside & outside of work, but most importantly, they support each other daily. No one is in it for themselves, and the ability to produce a shared vision where ‘when one person wins, the entire team wins’ is invaluable.”

Similarly, for Nyree Hibberd, CEO of Koh Living, it’s all about promoting a safe and healthy environment where those in the organisation feel they belong to the team. She explained, “We had a guest speaker in a recent EO forum, Fiona Robertson, who wrote ‘The Rules of Belonging’ and we applied it immediately in our business by asking each of the staff what they felt the rules of belonging and being accepted within Koh were. It was an amazing exercise to get clarity on the culture or rules of belonging, and we now use that not only in the interview process by selecting more carefully but also in the induction process by outlining those rules of belonging to help new staff slide in and feel more comfortable a lot faster.”

Culture is important in the longevity of a business and an organisation. Share with us below what particular culture you uphold within your company that strengthens your team and helps it go forward.

Paying it forward in the entrepreneurial journey

In the challenging entrepreneurial path, where sometimes the roads are unpaved, being on the receiving end of an act of kindness is a huge help. It can often go a long way, especially for those who are just starting on their journey. Even seasoned entrepreneurs have been recipients of a good deed at some point in their lives, and so they are paying this forward to others as well.

Also, to be part of a community of entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, such as EO, is like having a haven where one can grow in a safe environment and have a strong support system when the going gets tough. EO Members reminisce the time when they received an act of kindness and how they’re doing the same to others.

The sense of gratitude is evident to Joanne Camilleri, General Manager of Telco Business Solutions Group, due to the help she has received from others. She stated, “I have so many to be grateful for but the support and kindness I receive from my business partner, fellow EO’er John Rovas, who has been the standout. He has constantly supported me, mentored me and continues to do so – thus far, we have clocked up 11 years in business and built 3 businesses together. I like to pay it forward through mentoring and coaching people by sharing my journey.”

Ben Stickland, Founder and CEO of Alliance Software, recalled, “I took a job fresh out of uni and 3 months in, I decided to leave and start my own business. My old boss had every right to be bad and kick me out. Instead, he gave me three months of free rent, phone and use of the laptop (which mattered back then) while I got started. I've always appreciated it, and now, I pay it forward by encouraging and helping my staff with their side hustle ideas.”

And for any other business, having great people within your team, and those you interact with play a great role in helping grow your enterprise. It’s a give-and-take relationship where both can be the giver and receiver of kindness. Dion Castle, CEO of Struber, echoed this when he said, “Our team and clients have supported or invested in our mission along the way. I am thankful to them every day.”

Entrepreneurs are particularly thankful to those who are ahead of them in the journey and never hesitated to mentor them and point them in the right direction. This is why Rahul Kale, Director at Sunpower Renewables, values the people who have helped him along the way. “I have had some great mentorship (and still do) and have made an effort to mentor some new up and converse as well. Something I want to do more of.”

It was also the same for Austin Vaughan, Managing Director at Pacific Solar and he is now extending the kindness not just within his team but also to businesses they work with. He shared, “I had some early-stage mentors that offered key directions for efficient systems that established a methodology that we still embrace today. In our day-to-day business, we engage many small to medium contractors. I like to think we have assisted many of them to grow their businesses on the back of operational assistance and advice presented to them. We feel a real sense of appreciation from our contractors as we try to treat them as part of our team. It's great to be a part of their success, too.”

In tough situations, such as the one we currently have, Nyree Hibberd, CEO of Koh Living, appreciates people who have been kind to them despite the challenges and hardships everyone is facing. “As we are in retail and tourism, we were particularly affected by the impact of COVID.  I immediately started cancelling services, and my CFO and Bookkeeper both said that it wasn’t necessary. My bookkeeper would continue as normal no matter when she was paid, and the CFO said that all billing was suspended, not to be billed at a later date, but stopped until we got to a point of recovery that we could afford the services again. I almost cried because the help I needed the most was how to navigate financially through the mess that unfolded,” she shared.

Nyree continued, “We paid that forward by contacting all retailers that owed us money to make sure they understood payment was appreciated but not expected for the initial 2 months, and we set about providing value to our retail customer base by setting up webinars on various topics to help them with positive ways to enhance their business while compiling our book “Keeping Retail Alive” that was released in 2020 with all the key tips and tricks to help any retailer get through the crisis that COVID was and continues to be. When Victoria had its recent lockdown, all retailers that wanted it got a free copy of that book, anything we could do to have a positive impact on our retailers business drives us forward.”

Surely, a little help can go a long way, especially in the tumultuous path of entrepreneurship. Having people around you reach out and extend a hand can mean a lot. If you have an experience of kindness or if you have extended one, we’d love to hear them from you through your comments below.

How do you communicate bad news to your clients?

In every business, there are times when things take a different turn and projects can often head south, may it be due to human error, unforeseen circumstances, or uncontrollable situations. When things go awry, how do you break the bad news to your clients?

“Bad news is never good to deliver, but developing a process over time has made it easier to handle.”

- Steve Jackson

There are different approaches to it, depending on your client’s characteristics and your relationship with them. A few entrepreneurs share with us their experience and how they tackle the problem when the situation calls for it.

However, all of them have one common word – HONESTY.

Truly, there’s no better way than to be upfront about things, especially in business. It saves all parties time, resources, and effort when things are talked out promptly and issues are tackled head on.

Austin Vaughan, Managing Director at Pacific Solar, confirms this. “I would commonly take a direct approach as we feel honesty applies in all our communications,” he said.

Nyree Hibberd, CEO of Koh Living, expounds on this further. “Honestly, as it’s one of our 5 brand values: “We are honest, authentic, and down-to-earth; ‘keep it real’ is our number one mantra. We tell the truth and strive to always do what we say we’re going to do.”  For us, bad news may be around stocks selling out or delays in arrivals of replenishment. So at every stage, we aim to keep the customer informed with accurate information to limit the interruption to their business.  In most cases, we find it’s about the communication of the news rather than the news itself, so we aim to always be upfront and honest with any bad news,” she remarked.

While unfavourable news cannot be avoided, it often depends on how the information is delivered. But having a method or careful approach can help mitigate the negative impact it may bring to the client or business. However, it doesn’t stop with just telling the client about the problem. Coming up with alternatives at the onset can also help ease the worries of the client.

Steve Jackson, Director at PurpleMonky and Founder of Moon & Back Co., shared, “Bad news is never good to deliver, but developing a process over time has made it easier to handle. Firstly, an urgent team meeting internally to discuss what happened, and what solutions are available. Then, we make an immediate phone call with complete honesty to the client about what happened and how we want to work together to find the best solution. No matter the outcome, the client always respects the honesty & willingness to find the solution.”

In short, crisp words, Dion Castle, CEO of Struber, stated it simply but powerfully, “Communicate quickly, clearly, honestly with a solution ready.”

This is echoed by Joanne Camilleri, General Manager of Telco Business Solutions Group, “With complete honesty, authenticity and ensuring, if necessary, that we are taking ownership.  Ideally, we communicate face to face.  If appropriate, we would finish it off with the challenge or opportunity that is arising from the bad news.”

A more detailed explanation is provided by Ben Stickland, Founder and CEO of Alliance Software, “We do it with brutal honestly and as quickly as possible. The formula is simple: we tell clients this is what happened, this is how it'll affect you and this is what we're doing to fix it. We also always tell clients that right now, we're focused on the fix and when the dust settles, we'll do a review and work out how we avoid these problems in the future and make it right. In our space, clients are very understanding if you're upfront and drop everything to make things right.”

Have you experienced a similar situation where you have to break some bad news to your clients or customers? How do you do it? Share with us your approach and its effect on your business.

We asked the question: As an entrepreneur, how do you practice diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

Having a diverse workforce and ensuring the inclusion of everyone within an organisation – regardless of race, gender or beliefs – help grow a company’s corporate culture, enhance one’s competitive edge and contribute to its bottom line. Entrepreneurs share their experience and tips on how they uphold diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

“Throughout my journey as an entrepreneur and even as an individual, I have been very fortunate to meet people from diverse backgrounds who helped me get to where I am now. I believe diversity and inclusion occur when different people from different experiences come together with their shared stories and talents to work collaboratively.”

- Anou Khanijou, Director of IFOTA Group and Managing Director of anouconcept

Anou believes that practising diversity and inclusion in the workplace is essential for a thriving business. “It encourages innovation, creativity and a sense of belonging and purpose. In my companies – IFOTA, a uniform wholesaler, and anouconcept, a PR and marketing firm – we have team members from diverse backgrounds. We have a work culture that embraces diversity and promotes equality. Culture may seem amorphous and vague, but to us, it means concrete actions in the workplace. These include, for example, having both men and women in leadership or management roles, hiring people from a variety of backgrounds, asking team members to contribute ideas, and respecting those ideas by turning them into action. Even simple activities like shared lunches from different cultural backgrounds and joint birthday celebrations are ways in which we promote unity in diversity,” Anou cited.

“I work with a lot of creative minds and being inclusive means acknowledging their skills, giving them the freedom to be innovative and to make suggestions, and allowing them to be themselves at work. Promoting diversity and inclusion also involves having the right attitude towards challenges and mistakes. We need to recognise that not everybody has the same experience and lessons in life. I got to where I am today because I learned from my failures and I was given second and third chances. My team deserves the same, and I see mistakes as learning opportunities,” she continued.

Recognising the value in people’s diverse experiences and backgrounds, Anou mentioned three tips to effectively promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace:

• Know your staff and know them well. Know what they have to offer and encourage them to participate based on their unique skills and needs.

• Be open to learning. Listen and learn from and together with others.

• Practice what you preach and set an example. By doing so, you create an empowering work environment where your team members trust you and want to collaborate with you.

“Diversity and inclusion have become - and rightfully so - one of the hottest topics across corporations in recent times. At Sharp & Carter, our guiding pillars are Trust, Generosity, Care and Humility.”

- Anthony Holdstock, Partner at Sharp & Carter

Sharp & Carter is more than just another recruitment agency. It is a team of individuals who aspire to change the way the recruitment industry is perceived and who believe that success can be achieved by putting people’s interests first.

“As such, we work with several blue-chip listed companies and many corporate responsible organisations to try and achieve better diversity and inclusion, not only in our workplace but also in theirs,” Anthony avowed.

“Guided by our pillars and values, our leadership group developed a set of non-negotiable behaviours that we, as leaders, must always uphold and remain constantly accountable to. This, in turn, has resulted in a culture of inclusion where employees feel safe to be themselves, and safe in the knowledge that if they come to us with any issue or concern, we will always respond from a place of these four values. Ensuring that we at ‘the top’ always act in this manner assists in growing a culture whereby every staff member follows the lead and checks themselves against these values in their interactions,” he professed.

Anthony also pointed out interesting aspects of promoting diversity in an organisation. “For example, language and communication in writing advertisements are important to attract a diverse range of candidates. Using phrases like ‘up and coming’ can promote ageism, while unconscious bias terms such as ‘strong foundation’ are found to attract more male candidates, whereas phrases like ‘multi-faceted’ will attract more interest from females.” 

He has a few pointers for those who want to develop diversity and inclusion in their respective businesses:

• Awareness is the first step. For those looking to become more aware, there is an excellent book called “The Art of Thinking Clearly”. This book explains about biases and talks about eliminating bias to make better decisions.

• Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Having the right people on the bus, people who genuinely care about making the workplace the best it can be is key. It starts from the top and cascades to the rest of the team. If this is pushed through the organisation and all the people and all the leaders believe in it then it will be driven through. If this breaks down and only happens in pockets you have the wrong people on the bus.

• Assess, review and challenge. The best leaders self-assess and are constantly striving for improvement. Better habits more consistently lead to better outcomes. 

“For us, the key to inclusion is to ensure that we appreciate the differences in each other while bringing everyone back to our core values in the business so that we’re all on the same page, looking to achieve the same core goals within the business.” 

- Nyree Hibberd, CEO of Koh Living

“In terms of diversity, at Koh Living, both myself and my business partner, Tui Cordemans, are out and proud gay! I remember 15 years ago when we were first hiring staff, we would routinely ask if they had an issue working with people that we're gay.  Today, it’s absurd to think that we even asked those questions, and we’re grateful for our growth and changes in society to not see ourselves as different at all,” Nyree shared.

Having a joint purpose, no matter what their role in the business, has always kept Nyree and Tui on track. “We focus on the things we have in common, not the things we have that are different,” she stated.

Because human connections and relationships are at the heart of their business, ‘Making people feel important’ is one of their corporate values where they promote and practise respect and responsibility. Whether it’s a customer, supplier or service provider, everyone is important at Koh Living.

With that, Nyree shares a few tips to those who want to advance diversity and inclusion in their teams:

• Be aware of the diversity within your teams, especially if there are any staff that are sensitive to particular things.

• Ensure that there is no room for sarcasm and putting down. In my experience, Australians can be rather cruel with jokes without being directly nasty – so in our warehousing environment where there was a lot of casual staff, we make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable.

• Ensure each team member understands the important role they play in the overall goal of the business. We do this quarterly, having a quarter goal, and weekly. We check with each person their high priority activities for the week to help the business achieve its quarter goal. We find that it makes everyone feel they are on the same team, and there is little room for not feeling included when you’re part of the big picture.

“I firmly believe that a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace starts with the leadership team. We have assembled a leadership team from unique and diverse backgrounds who have different experiences and views on the world.”

- Costa Vasili, CEO and Founder of EthnoLink

Highlighting leadership as a significant part in diversity and inclusion in an organisation, Costa elucidated that “By starting from the top down, this culture developed in the leadership permeates through the rest of the company, helping to foster the diverse and inclusive culture that we want for the entire company.”

As one of Australia’s leading providers of professional translation services to corporate and government organisations, EthnoLink Language Services caters to clients with diverse composition or those that reach out to multi-lingual stakeholders with different backgrounds. Thus, diversity and inclusion are prevailing in Ethnolink’s internal and surrounding environments.

Costa then shares his tips for those who want to be better in this area of their business:

• Be real and honest with yourself about how your company is performing on diversity and inclusion. It's a typical response to be defensive and thinks that everything is fine in your company, but if you want to make meaningful change, you need to be completely real with where you're currently at.

• Take on the mindset of "the standard you walk past is the standard you accept". If you see or hear something that doesn't align with your company's endeavours to foster a diverse and inclusive culture, call it out and seek to educate.

• When advertising for positions with your company, let potential applicants know that you are a diverse and inclusive workplace and that you encourage people from unique and diverse backgrounds to apply. Each of our job ads has a statement to that effect which can help improve the talent pool that you source new talent from.

Now, you can take these pieces of advice to your business and see how you can apply them to ensure you have a diverse workforce and inclusive organisation. Share with us your experience by leaving a comment below or sending us your story at communications@eomelbourne.org.

Nyree Hibberd: bringing meaning and beauty through her business

Gift-giving is part of our way of life from days old. People give gifts for every occasion, especially this time of the year when the holiday season is fast approaching. But selecting an item as a present is not as easy as grabbing anything available on the shelf or adding the first product you see online to your virtual shopping cart. It helps when you can find something that has meaning to people and society and give it to those who mean most to you. That is the core of Koh Living, the business that Nyree Hibberd and her business partner put up several years ago.

The conception of Koh Living was unexpected. Before she began with this venture, Nyree had an IT business for about eight years, while her business partner was in recruitment. “My best friend and I were travelling through Asia, and we were in Bangkok at an Israeli cafe having lunch. A lady on the next table asked to join us. She travelled the world buying products for her store in Queensland. My best friend and I just looked at each other and thought, ‘Well, that sounds fantastic. Why don’t we do that? Let's do it. Let's just stop doing what we're doing and start something that will just be fun and get going.’ So, that was probably the turning point for deciding to get off the path that I was on, which was business, but it was IT and completely different compared to gifts,” Nyree narrated.

Different topics, same themes

While there are differences in the types of business Nyree had previously and the one at present, which is Koh Living, she found that there are also parallelisms. Managing people, administering operations and staying on top of the financials, especially the cash flow, are some of the similarities she found between the two businesses.

The challenge she encountered was in retail. Nyree had never sold anything all her life. She had to get her hands dirty and do things by herself. She found herself selling candles in the markets, something she never did before. Creating products, overseeing stocks and dealing with artists, suppliers, and contractors were the areas where she needed to adjust. There were things that she needed to learn and some lessons came the hard way.

Learnings and tools

Through her experience in her IT business and now Koh Living, Nyree has come to learn a few important things in running a venture: define your roles with your business partner; foster an environment of challenge; watch the numbers because they tell you exactly how healthy your business is or when you're going to have trouble; and lastly, get the legal side of things in order.

During the first five years of Koh Living, Nyree and her business partner were just having fun. It was at the next five years of the company when they started to take it more seriously and looked at educating themselves and trying some tools that can help. “As we got to that 10-year mark, the first two books that we came across that were really useful were Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up. So, we started dabbling with the flywheel and the quarter sheets,” Nyree stated.

Having an end product that they need to constantly track, they use a software tool, Unleashed, to manage inventory. Then, they export the numbers to Excel to analyse their data. “I would say that in every industry, there will be a tool that feeds you back that data or about the health of your business and the core thing that you sell,” she added.

Her desire to upskill and bring more to her business led her to join EO Melbourne. She was through Verne Harnish’s website and found that he had coaches. That made her contemplate of doing focused one-on-one training instead of attending conferences. She and her business partner got a coach and it was during one of the sessions that EO was mentioned. Seeing that EO is composed of people with businesses, experiencing similar issues as they were, Nyree decided to join the group.

Products with meaning and beauty

To set Koh Living apart from other brands selling similar product lines, Nyree and her business partner decided to produce gifts with meaning. “People are becoming more and more conscious of connecting with other people. We live in a more connected but disconnected world. A lot of it is becoming about the experience. So, if you're going to give a gift, people want it to mean something. We want it to not just mean something to them personally but also to think about how it's being produced, where it's being produced, and if some of the money is going to a bigger cause than ourselves. What we do with our stories is we link them back to have some meaning not just to the gift recipient but to society, as a whole,” she explained.

To give meaning to their merchandise, they link the consumers with their artists, providing a platform where the customers can know the story behind the artworks. They have indigenous designs, Australiana themes, Wildflowers range and other motifs by their Aboriginal artists. Apart from meaning, they also make sure that their products exude beauty. They put a lot of thought into the design and the material of their items so that they come up with quality goods that are priced fairly.

Putting purpose on the business and the entrepreneurial journey

Despite 15 years of Koh Living, Nyree is unsure how the future will unfold 10 to 15 years down the road. Given the constantly changing consumer behaviours and trends, especially with technology transforming things so fast, she admits that it’s hard to even look at the next five years of the business. However, she is sure that Koh Living will still be going strong internationally at that point. She stressed, “We need to scale it in a smart way so that we don’t fall apart at the seams and become a victim of not watching how society is actually changing their purchasing behaviour.”

But on a personal note, she hopes to also contribute to society in a bigger way. “I've just applied to get on a board in the indigenous environment for artists. So, I'd like to see myself assisting businesses and individuals outside of Koh Living in a way that I can bring what I've learned about growing a business to others that aren't necessarily as big as Koh Living at the moment or are just starting out or in that stage where they're growing,” Nyree shared.

Since the time Nyree and her best friend thought of the idea of Koh Living, they now wake up with one thing on their mind:  to make people feel special.  Koh Living has come a long way and they look forward to continuing to create moments of connection, love and joy with friends and family among the chaos of modern life well into the future around the globe.

Know more about Nyree Hibberd through her LinkedIn profile. Read on Koh Living and its products at https://www.kohliving.com.au/.

Nyree and her business partner in Koh Living.