Q & A with Zuraida Ariffin of ZA Wealth Creation

One of the reasons women are doing so well in business is their ability to connect with clients. When Zuraida Ariffin built her business – Zuraida Ariffin Wealth Creation – around strong client relationships and personalised financial advice that focuses on the individual, she knew she was onto a winning formula. Indeed, her professional efforts were recognised when she was selected as the 2007 NSW/ACT state winner in the Financial Planning Association’s Value of Advice Award in the Wealth Accumulation category. Here, Zuraida lets us in on the fascinating elements that comprise financial success.

Why did you start your business? My training and work in the scientific arena taught me to be very thorough and look at a situation holistically. Given this, and my natural ability with numbers, it was a natural progression to enter financial planning when I decided I wanted a career change. I can use these talents to help other people and can see the results of my efforts. This gives me a great deal of satisfaction. 
 
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Q & A with Lynette Mattke of PicPocket

Lynette Mattke may have conceptualized PicPocket Books only a year ago, but her pocket business is already growing into something grown-up size. Wanting to bring quality picture book literature to digital media, Lynette’s fabulous vision now allows children aged 2-8 to take their favorite picture books on the go—especially practical for travel, where it’s impractical to bring cumbersome and heavy books along. PicPocket now has 20 titles available on the Apple iTunes App Store, with four more coming soon. Lynette chatted with AWO about how she got this fab app off the ground.

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Q & A with Jenny Tiffen of Canberra FitMums

Like many mothers keen to get back into shape after baby, Canberra-based Jenny Tiffen was driven to find ways to incorporate a weight loss and toning regime into her life as a young mum. Unable to find anything that suited, Jenny opened her own company and now trains dozens of other women wanting to gain control of their post-baby bodies. Here, Jenny shares with AWO how she created a company out of her fitness regime.

Tell us about the origins behind Canberra FitMums. I wanted to get back into shape after having my daughter. I had a sad start to motherhood – the previous year my husband and I had a baby boy, who was stillborn at 32 weeks. This was devastating, however, we were lucky to conceive a girl (Bridie meaning strong) within 3 months of Cooper’s birth. This also meant I backed up 2 years worth of baby weight and a massive desire to hang out with other mothers! Read more

Q & A with Amanda Griscti and Jennifer Madz of Ms & Mrs

Amanda Griscti and Jennifer Madz (pictured) are new to the online scene. Launching their site – Ms & Mrs - only last month, this dynamic duo were inspired to create a site that stockpiled the myriad advice and solutions women pass on to each other via friendship, business and everyday contacts. A sort of collective site for all things Ms (single women) and Mrs (married women), the focus of Ms & Mrs is on living a happy and healthy life. Amanda and Jennifer sat down with AWO to give us the lowdown on how this exciting project came to be.

Why did you start Ms & Mrs? [Jennifer:] As women do, Amanda and I often sat around the table discussing our life stories and trying to find solutions from experiences and advice given to us by others. What made us start Ms & Mrs was frustration from the lack of sensible, available information online for women from all walks of life – all in one place – like a resource portal. Often we would search online for hours on a topic and end up with not even one simple credible article that explained or lead us in the right direction.

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Q & A with Vanessa Stubbs of TreasureBags

When brand new entrepreneur Vanessa Stubbs scoured the stores for attractive gift bags last Christmas, she took her search online – a search that yielded a questionable range of “…tie-dyed or organza drawstring bags, library-book style bags or good ol’ paper-based bags…” Disillusioned, she dragged out the sewing machine and made her own re-usable gift bags from a Christmas-themed table cloth from the supermarket. AWO chatted with Vanessa about how her treasure of an idea could cut your Christmas wrapping costs – and cost to the environment – in half.

What’s the idea behind reusable, fabric TreasureBags? I wanted to use material bags because of three reasons. The first, and most selfish reason, was because it took me three hours the year before to wrap my presents.  I didn’t enjoy hunching over rolls of paper trying to get neat lines and pretty bows; I wanted a gift bag that I could just throw gifts into, tie a bow in it, and have it look great.

Secondly, I didn’t want to continue using rolls of paper each Christmas when I knew it was mostly made from native forest and would only end up in landfill or consuming further resources being recycled. I’m constantly after my husband for not using the recycling bin and something about deliberately wasting paper didn’t sit right with me.

Finally, I was travelling that Christmas on a plane and knew that if I’d wrapped my presents in paper they would have arrived creased and torn.  And, there’ s no way I’d have had the time to rewrap all the gifts I’d packed given I was landing on Christmas Eve!

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Q & A with Julie Nichols of Canberra Handmade Market

In just one year, mother and self-employed businesswoman, Julie Nichols, has managed to build a small business into one of Canberra’s most successful retail enterprises – the Canberra Handmade Upmarket. Handmade market runs four times a year and attracts over 100 retailers and an astounding 10,000 shoppers. Julie sat down with AWO to tell us how she does it.

How did Handmade Upmarket originate?  I started Handmade as I was not satisfied with the quality of markets here in Canberra and knew that Canberra had the talent to support something else.

What are your educational qualifications? I have completed an event management course, albeit a short one. That is all, although a course in psychology couldn’t hurt! Read more