By CASEY NEILL
“BE in the moment. You’ll see more, you’ll enjoy more.”
This was just one piece of advice from GAIA Skin Naturals founder Michelle Vogrinec at a Women in Business breakfast on 14 June.
She spoke alongside Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods owner Jacqui Harvey at the South East Business Networks (SEBN) event at Highways in Springvale about how women could create the business and life they wanted.
“These are two very smart and savvy ladies,” SEBN manager Sandra George said.
“They’ve worked very hard to get where they are today.”
Ms Vogrinec’s Hallam-based business began with GAIA Natural Baby when her first child developed eczema at just a few weeks old and she was recommended cortisone to treat it.
Instead she learnt about skin care and used the resources at hand on her organic farm to develop her own treatment.
“My husband used to come home to the smell of lavender instead of the smell of a roast,” she said.
“He thought I’d gone mad.”
After soothing her own son’s itch she encountered other parents with similar problems, and found there was a gap in the market for sensitive-skin friendly natural and organic products.
“The orders started to come in and my part time business went full time and then no time,” she said.
GAIA products are now in more than 5000 stores in Australia and sold in 30 countries.
Breaking into China is her next aim, but all cosmetic products sold in the country must be tested on animals and Ms Vogrinec isn’t willing to compromise the products’ vegan tick.
She’s also fighting to keep her products on the shelves in Australia, with a competitor buying the GAIA for Men range off the shelves in Coles supermarkets and Woolworths recently deleting two lines because she refused to drop her price.
“We came into the market at lower price so we had nowhere to go,” she said.
The business is one of her seven “children” – three sons, a husband and two “fur babies”.
“I wear lots of hats and life is hectic,” she said.
“I multitask quite a bit and that’s what allows me to do it all.”
“All” includes karate, pilates, jogging, meditation and time in the vegie patch on top of mum, wife and business-owner duties.
Ms Vogrinec, 40, said enjoying each moment was the key.
“Find time in your day to just sit. Look around you and take in what’s around you,” she said.
“Your life does not need to be different. Your view of life needs to be different.
“One positive thought in the morning can change your day.
“Change your expectations of others. You’ll tend to find you’re less disappointed.”
Confidence has taken Jacqui Harvey a long way.
She started out as a computer programmer, but after three years of hating her job moved to a sales position in the steel industry.
“But someone had to die for me to get a promotion,” she said.
She made the move to Peters Ice Cream, which Nestle took over.
She completed a sales and marketing degree part time and enjoyed her time with the multinational, but being treated like a number saw her leave for family-run Fyna Foods.
“They had no idea about manufacturing so I ran the business as if it was my own,” she said.
But when the owner announced plans to sell the business within 10 years, the then 40-year-old Ms Harvey asked where that would leave her.
“Make a change, don’t be afraid to do it,” she said.
She wanted her own brand and product after years of working for others, but didn’t want to start from the ground up. How does someone buy a business?
“I Googled it,” she laughed.
And she found Yarra Valley Preserves, which she’s grown to Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods through new product ranges.
“I came from a collaborative industry. The Yarra Valley wasn’t like that at all,” she said.
It’s filled with boutique and home-based businesses.
“I really miss the bigger business support,” she said.
But she found her niche – her worst-selling product was raspberry jam, and the best rhubarb, raspberry and vanilla bean.
“I decided to own interesting,” she said.
She coined the tag line ’Simple food, extraordinary flavours’ and focused on beautiful packaging.
Three of her jams are now on shelves in 76 suburban Victorian Woolworths stores as part of the supermarket chain’s regional jams program.
“So if ever you’re there can you straighten the shelf? I can’t afford merchandisers!” she laughed.
Ms Harvey found demand for food experiences, so she’s bought a Seville property with a vision.
There’ll be a produce store with a viewing area so visitors can watch the production process.
They’ll be able to pick tomatoes and make their own relish to take home, and there’ll be a café in what’s now a rundown 1940s home.
“I’ve always been motivated to succeed,” she said.
“I don’t like to fail.”
