Growth Tips from Kings Domain: “Do It For You”

What began as a creative outlet during Melbourne’s 2020 COVID lockdowns has now evolved into a thriving – and award-winning – distillery for Gavin and Amy Shaw. From their picturesque five-acre property in Plenty, Victoria, the father-daughter duo have grown Hillmartin Gin to now be stocked in over 120 bars, restaurants and pubs around Melbourne. A seven spiced chai gin? A single vineyard pinot noir gin? Why not! Gavin and Amy are on a mission to make everyone a gin lover. A serendipitous start. When Gavin Shaw was chatting with one of his friends on the phone during COVID, he didn’t realise he was about to take the first step towards a dramatic career change. Despite a background in science and a passion for good food and good drinks, the idea of creating a gin brand wasn’t really on Gavin’s radar to begin with. “The business started off really as a hobby,” he recalls. “Prior to Hillmartin Gin, I had another business, and it meant I traveled a lot. When COVID hit and we couldn’t travel, I was spending a lot more time at home and looking for a way to keep busy.” Gavin’s passion for crafting unique gins started to take shape during a conversation with a friend. “I was lamenting the fact that if I were to plant grapes with the intention of making wine, I’d be dead before I made anything decent,” he laughs. “And my mate said, ‘Why don’t you buy a gin still? You can run it in the morning and drink the gin in the afternoon if you want.’ What a great idea, I thought. Because who doesn’t love a good gin?” Once he’d acquired his shiny new still, Gavin started out experimenting with different botanicals in the family shed, but admits his first few batches weren’t to everyone’s taste. “I was thinking I was making fabulous gin and Amy told me I was going to kill somebody. Thankfully, it’s come a long way since then.” A family affair. With a background in finance and digital customer acquisition, Amy was busy working in the corporate world until a less-than-polished Instagram post made her realise her father needed her marketing assistance. “Before Amy joined, I did a post on Instagram one day, and I reckon about three seconds later the phone rang,” Gavin chuckles. “Amy said, ‘Dad, I have a plan. Step away from the computer. I’ll handle the Instagram from now on.’ So I’ve left it to her since then. She pretty much runs the business these days. I just make gin and do what I’m told.” Crafting excellence. Hillmartin Gin has made its mark on Australia’s spirits scene with a lineup of gins that range from timeless classics to contemporary twists and unique innovations. For example, The Seven Spice Chai Gin combines traditional botanicals with warming spices to create a one-of-a-kind blend that’s smooth and aromatic. “Instead of milk like you’d have in a chai latte, we finish it off with a wildflower honey. It really does taste like chai,” explains Gavin. Gavin and Amy’s dedication to quality and innovation has now earned them national and international recognition. “Last year, our Seven Spice Chai Gin was judged Australia’s Best Contemporary Gin at the World Gin Awards in London,” Gavin says. “We also picked up gold for our London Dry Gin at the same event the previous year. That was a bit of a shock to us – it’s a big award to win.” Work hard, play hard. Building a brand in the craft spirits industry is no small feat, and Gavin and Amy have embraced the challenges head on. “You work really hard,” Gavin says. “Starting out, it’s almost hard not to work seven days a week in this industry because a lot of the promotional stuff is on weekends. So throughout the week, we’re making gin and running the business, and on weekends, we’re often at food and wine shows, gin shows, markets, promotional events, you name it. Good thing it’s a really fun industry. We’re fortunate to call our passion our profession.” To help manage the workload, Gavin and Amy have recently expanded the team. “We’ve hired a full-time sales rep and someone to do the markets for us,” Gavin shares. “You can’t work seven days forever. It’s important to get a break.” Smiling and saving with Zeller. From humble experiments in the backyard shed to now winning international awards and being stocked all over Victoria, Hillmartin Gin’s growth has been exceptional. Alongside this expansion came the need for efficient systems to keep the payments side of things running smoothly. “We were using a competitor for payment processing, but Amy came back from an event one day and said, ‘Hey Dad, one of the other vendors said he’s paying much lower fees than we are. We should look into it.’ That’s when we switched to Zeller,” Gavin explains. “The fees are significantly lower, and the terminals are very easy to use, so it’s a win-win.”

Meet the duo determined to beat the salon stereotype and reclaim balance. Bendigo-based hair stylists Paris and Matilda are first-time entrepreneurs with big growth goals. Hairdressing is a tough gig; long hours and weekend work is the norm, as Matilda points out. It’s a stereotype the duo are keen to kick with the opening of their first salon. With years of experience under their belts, Paris and Matilda know what it takes to keep a team of stylists engaged. The business partners have climbed the ranks — from sweeping cutting room floors, to now calling the shots — and know exactly how they’ll grow the business with strategies they’ve learned along the way. We spoke to Paris and Matilda about what sparked their leap of faith, and how they're managing to achieve work/life balance while growing a new business. Why did you decide to open your own salon? Paris The pandemic hit everyone differently. We were both bored at home and unable to work during lockdown, so we thought — why not take the leap? Neither of us had ever owned a business before. Some people thought it was a bit risky doing it while going through a pandemic, but it was something we were both so determined to do. We wanted to have the ability to grow a business for ourselves, that was ours, and to create a better work/life balance. The hairdressing industry certainly isn’t easy and it can be quite tough to find a salon that really cares about allowing their employees to have that balance. It’s been really rewarding being able to do everything exactly how we want to do it, and being in control of our workload. Matilda For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to push myself and try to give myself the best opportunities to be as successful as I can be — and doing so knowing that I have provided my clients the best possible service. I was starting to lose the love of hairdressing due to working in environments that did not value their staff, and how to keep them happy. So I wanted to create a space that was fun and creative to work in whilst also giving me financial independence and better work/life balance. What makes Hair & Halo different? Matilda One of our main motivations is to break down the stereotype of hairdressing being a hardworking environment with not much reward. The technical expertise required in this creative industry should be acknowledged as it is in other sectors, and we want to create an environment that does this. The pandemic made a lot of people realise they want more balance in their life, and that is something we want at Hair & Halo. We are passionate about our salon being a place where other hairdressers can pursue their talents and careers, whilst enjoying balance in both their work and life. Owning our own salon also means we can provide and deliver the best training, products and work space for our staff — which ultimately leads to the best experience and results for our clients. Having both worked at other salons, we appreciate what works and what makes staff happy. We’ve seen firsthand how this strategy helps produce the best results. How has COVID changed the hair industry? Paris People were forced to stop and slow down, and now they are used to this which means they are more flexible. I've found that a lot of clients would prefer to have their hair appointment throughout the day, or in the evening. A lot of people can work from home now, which means our clients can bring their laptop in and work from the salon — as opposed to having to get their hair appointments done on a Saturday or their day off, outside of working hours. Because of our clients’ flexibility, we have been able to reduce our weekend work. To compensate for this, our trading hours consist of more late night hours throughout the week, which we prefer, and we think our clients do too. Matilda People definitely have more flexibility now, which means we have adapted our service delivery to accommodate these changes. There also seems to be a bit more focus on self care and people taking time out to indulge in things for themselves and we love being part of that experience. Tell us about choosing a payment services provider. Matilda When it came to finding a payment provider we wanted to research it as much as we could, so we knew we were making the right choice for our business. There are so many terminals out there but lots of them have hidden costs to them. We knew we didn't want to rent and that we wanted to purchase one, and that's what we loved about Zeller. We also thought the fees were incredibly reasonable compared to other companies out there. Not only is it super efficient, it also provides us with real time accurate information. It's also super sleek and modern-looking, which is exactly the style of our salon. Where do you see the business in 5 years’ time? Matilda I have great aspirations to expand the business both in Bendigo and in other parts of Victoria. I’m passionate about creating an experience for clients through using the best techniques and latest trends, and continuing to develop my skills through industry training. I understand the hard work required to make the salon the success I know it will be and to this, I see myself having a team of highly skilled and hard working staff who share the same passion and love for hair that I do. Paris We have very high hopes for our business. Our goals are quite big! We want to become one of the leading salons here in Bendigo, and keep growing to the point where we are able to open up another salon in a different location. Although we have only been open for a short amount of time, we are already planning on expanding our team here at Hair & Halo. We would love to have an array of employees including freelancers, apprentices and qualified hairdressers. We believe that the only way we can grow as a business is to have an amazing team behind us who love doing hair as much as we do. In 5 years’ time, we hope to have a successful business here in Bendigo that is one of the leading salons. We do have room in our current space to grow, but not as big as we would like. Our plan would be to find a bigger space that allows us to have a bigger team of amazing hairdressers. We would hope that within this timeline we would be considering, if not already have, a second location where we can grow even further. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. We promise we won’t bug you — and you can unsubscribe from communications at any time.

Mother Mary is a one-woman baking powerhouse based an hour south of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula, cooking up cakes, crackers, biscuits, granola and more for her loyal fans and stockists. Wherever possible, Mother Mary Bakes opts for locally-grown produce and organic ingredients in all her products, delivering them across the peninsula several times a week. In addition to her mouth watering baked goods, Mother Mary also runs semi-regular baking workshops, often with a focus on the fine art of sourdough. We sat down with the founder of Mother Mary to learn about her business and why she switched her business banking from Westpac to Zeller. What’s the story behind Mother Mary? “Well, I should probably start by saying that my name is actually Hannah, not Mary. It was my grandmother Mary who got me into baking, and the business is named after her. When I was a teenager, nan and I would bake up all her old family recipes that had been handed down from her mother, and that’s when I fell in love with baking. I started the business as a bit of a hobby-slash-side-hustle with my cousin who also loves baking, and the thing that connects us both – as well as being great friends – is our grandmother, so when the name was first suggested, it just felt right. After several successful stalls at local markets, I decided to make Mother Mary my full time business. My cousin lives too far away for it to be a full time thing for her, but she’s always more than happy to do some taste-testing whenever she visits.” How did you set up the business? “Once we had our brand name in place, we got an ABN and headed off to our first market stall with a car packed full of goodies we’d baked in mum’s kitchen, a fold out trestle table and a metal cash box, thinking everyone would be paying in cash – but that didn’t last long at all. We quickly realised that less than half of our customers were carrying cash, but luckily most were happy to pay into my personal Westpac account using PayId on their phone. It wasn’t ideal, but it was workable temporarily. We noticed many other stallholders were using mobile EFTPOS readers, so we bought one of those pretty much straight away, although it wasn’t a Zeller one. It only took a few stalls for me to realise mum’s kitchen wasn’t going to be big enough if I wanted to make Mother Mary a full-time gig, and mum very kindly offered me the use of a shed at her place, suggesting I could turn it into a dedicated bakery. My partner is an electrician and lots of his mates are tradies too, so it wasn’t long until we’d connected power to the shed, added plumbing, plastered and painted the place, and fitted it out with ovens, benches, fridges and other equipment from Facebook Marketplace. So in a few months, the business grew from mum’s kitchen and a cash tin to a purpose-built bakery with a website and a way to take card payments. It stopped feeling like a hobby and instead felt like a proper business – it was very exciting. A few months later, tax time rolled around, so I connected with a friend-of-a-friend who’s an accountant. They were very encouraging about the business in general, but not overly delighted about the fact the business finances were mixed in with my personal finances.” You mentioned Westpac. What made you switch to Zeller? “Well, despite my accountant not being thrilled with it, I continued running the money side of the business via my personal Westpac account for a couple more years because…I guess I just didn’t have the time or energy to go into the bank and set up a business bank account . I know that sounds silly, but when you’re running a small business, standing in line at the bank with a million pieces of paperwork just isn’t appealing…so I put it off. Then a couple of years ago, a friend showed me her Zeller Account on her phone. I noticed there was money in the account, and I asked her which bank she was with. I thought the app was somehow showing her balance from her bank account. She explained that Zeller has its own transaction account built in, so you literally don’t need a traditional business bank account. Then she showed me her Zeller Terminal, which was much better looking than my old EFTPOS machine , and I thought, ok, this seems like a better solution, and it will make my accountant happy having things separate, so I downloaded the Zeller App then and there.” What’s your favourite part of the Zeller product suite? “I love that it’s an all-in-one solution, so I don’t need to be switching between multiple apps or tabs – it’s all in one place. As far as what’s my favourite part, well, I guess I switched to Zeller for the transaction account originally, then when I got the Zeller Terminal, I realised the transaction fees are a fair bit lower than what I’d had, and that was nice too. Another good part is the Zeller Debit Card . It means whenever I buy ingredients or petrol for the delivery van or anything else for the business, I just use that card and it’s immediately visible in my Zeller account, so it makes tracking my spending very easy. Virtual Terminal is also brilliant for taking orders over the phone, and I can send out payment links and invoices from the dashboard. Plus the business earns interest on its savings with the Zeller Savings Account. When you add it all together, it’s an all-in-one solution that does absolutely everything I could want it to and more. It’s so much better than what I had before.” What advice would you give to other small business owners considering switching? “Well, one thing I can say is that I absolutely detest paperwork, so the fact I could sign up for a  Zeller account without having to visit a bank branch or fill out any painful forms was a big plus. It was very easy to switch, it made my accountant happy, the tech is excellent…so my advice would be to just do it. When you run a small business, time is money, so I understand people thinking it’s easier to just stick with what you’ve got. But with the cheaper fees, the debit card, savings account, virtual terminal, invoices and everything else built into an all-in-one solution, it’s a no-brainer.”