By Dongyun Kwon
The 2023 Yarra Ranges Entrepreneur and Innovation Program marked the wrapping up of a six-month journey with final pitch presentations and award celebration on Saturday 2 December.
The Yarra Ranges Council partnered with iGen Foundation to empower young entrepreneurs aged between 17 and 30 to thrive, with the program.
The program matched local young people who either had a great business idea or were in the early stages of their business, with business mentors over a six-month period.
The participants also attended classes once a month over a six-month period with industry experts to learn about topics such as innovation, marketing, pitching and sales, financial systems, governance and legal for start-ups.
The first place of the award was given to Stephanie Young and the runner-up was given to the ‘Missing Piece Productions’ team.
Award winner Stephanie Young said she was grateful for the award.
“There were so many great business ideas and I didn’t think I deserved it, in comparison to a lot of the other incredible people,” she said.
Ms Young referred to the Yarra Ranges Entrepreneur and Innovation Program by a friend.
“My friend received an email about the program and she suggested that I should give it a go,” she said.
“After reading a bit about it, I thought it’d be a really good opportunity to learn.
“It turned out that I have learnt a lot through the program from the very basics of starting a business to marketing and they also set me up with a mentor.”
Ms Young launched her business ‘Mylk Maid The Label’ in February aiming to empower and support women on their pregnancy and breastfeeding journey.
‘Mylk Maid The Label’ provides not only maternity and breastfeeding-friendly clothes but also information and advice on the pregnancy and breastfeeding journey through the ‘Your Village’ Vlog series where other mums and pregnancy and breastfeeding experts share their experiences and knowledge.
Mums also can share their birth stories in ‘The Birth Series’ blog sessions.
Ms Young said she came up with the business idea after she had her first child.
“There was not enough breastfeeding-friendly attire at an affordable price, so I set out to make my own at my shed in Coldstream since I couldn’t find it,” she said.
Ms Young was paired up with a mentor Tina Manolitas, who is the president of ‘Future Focused Marketing Group’, through the Yarra Ranges Entrepreneur and Innovation Program.
“She’s really helped me to push my business forward. We’ve just got one t-shirt but we’ll be bringing out lots of new things soon,” Ms Young said.
Ms Young said she highly recommends this program to young entrepreneurs.
“If you’re thinking about doing this, you should definitely do it, it’s fully funded by the iGen Foundation,” she said.
“It’s incredible and beneficial for any young entrepreneurs who have a business idea and need help getting it off the ground.”
Runner-up Alana Monaghan said her team ‘Missing Piece Productions’ joined the program to get their business idea into practice and it ended up being a positive experience.
“We had our business idea but we didn’t know how to take the next steps to become a successful business. Especially, we didn’t have any financial knowledge around the business,” she said.
“We found the program really informative but also really empowering, it gave us lots of tools and we’ve learnt so much about everything from marketing to finance and legal.
“We also had a chance to network within the local community not just with other participants of the program but from other people who were brought in including local entrepreneurs.”
Her business ‘Missing Piece Productions’ is a Lilydale-based business that creates murals and custom artworks to help clients tell the story through art within Yarra Valley.
The business was launched by three teammates, Alana Monaghan, Richard Collins and Jordan Glennie at the start of 2023.
Ms Monaghan said the business has received a few opportunities that have come out of the program.
“We now have a business model moving forward so that we know what we need to do to get further within the next six months,” she said.
Ms Monaghan said she and her teammates were excited to get the runner-up.
“We’ve worked so hard on developing the business throughout the program and we also worked hard on our final pitch,” she said.
Local entrepreneur Ricci McAuliffe took part in the program to share her business journey as an example of what an entrepreneur can do and achieve in Yarra Valley.
Her business Ricci’s Bikkies based in Healesville has grown up successfully for the last 20 years.
Ms McAuliffe said she started the business to make a little extra income to buy hot chocolates at the park with her three daughters who were all under five years old then.
“It wasn’t meant to be much but it was just meant to be a bit of extra spending money, so I started making biscuits and selling them at local markets, some of the local cafes and wineries in the Yarra Valley,” she said.
“I kept getting more and more businesses and my husband started helping me with deliveries and we thought it could be our main source of income, so he decided to leave a job.
“Business is booming. We supply Coles, Woolworths and Costco. We export overseas.”
Ms McAuliffe was invited to the award as a judge along with O’Shannassy Ward Councillor Jim Child as well.
Ms McAuliffe said it was very hard to choose the winner and runner-up.
“Both Jim Child and I hadn’t seen anything like Stephanie’s idea. The idea was incredibly original,” she said.
“She spoke about it confidently and passionately rather than reading it from the PowerPoint or laptop, that’s what jumped out at Jim and I as the strongest point.
“Missing Piece Productions team’s idea was very original as well. Their work is striking and stand-out and I really love that they want to be able to place their work in areas that are obviously visible.
“Because their work is bright and wonderful, they think that will eliminate graffiti artists from painting over.”
