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Easy entrepreneurship

“It’s growing, it could just be whatever I want to make it really, I definitely couldn’t do this in the city as a startup, the rent is very affordable, startup costs are minimal, and the community gets behind people who are doing things, they have been so supportive.”

Liz Baillie couldn’t just walk into a shop and buy curtains for her son’s bedroom like you could if you lived in the city, so she bought fabric online and made them.  With the leftover scraps, she made a pair of matching shorts.  

She didn’t know it at the time but when those shorts survived the washing machine it sparked her entrepreneurial spirit so she made more and more and more.

The 38-year-old has now launched her own label, something made more attainable because she lives in the small central-western Queensland town of Blackall, has a supportive community, cheap commercial rent and incredible word of mouth marketing.

In her shop, Sew Barcoo, she stitches up a storm with months of orders ahead of her while she raises her children.

“It’s growing, it could just be whatever I want to make it really, I definitely couldn’t do this in the city as a startup, the rent is very affordable, the startup is just minimal, and the community gets behind people who are doing things, they have been so supportive.”

Before becoming central-western Queensland’s newest designer and seamstress she was a teacher aide at the local school and worked with her husband on their shearing contracting business.

“I have a lot of denial, that it actually happened, it feels strange to go to a job where you don’t actually feel like you’re working,” she muses.

She is devoted to making beautiful unique pieces designed by Australian artists.

“There are so many immensely talented surface pattern designers in Australia that have been undiscovered until recently, their work is gorgeous and one of a kind.   It’s a real pleasure to create garments from it and even better seeing them walking around the region,” she said.

The mother of three knows she has a life balance other small business owners would envy because it’s unattainable in larger centres up and down the coast.

“Once we get up and do all our jobs for the day, we head into the shop and I usually do the sort of morning routine there vacuuming, setting up the till, and then take the kids to school, and then I’ll shoot back to the shop, ready to open. 

“It’s a relaxing slow pace –  so you might be super busy in your business  – but your family life is calm, there’s no big rush to get to the places because it’s not far to get there,” she explains.

While she feels very lucky to have started her own business she doesn’t consider herself a unicorn.

“Communities like these have lots of opportunities for businesses, but small communities like these, they’re also changing and evolving like, you know they’re open to new ideas and new technologies, and people are keen to see what they can do and what other people are doing. 

“There’s definitely room for people to expand and grow businesses, there are lots of opportunities even Sharon opened a coffee shop up next door and now I can get a morning Chai,” she chuckles, puts down her scissors and takes a sip from a takeaway coffee cup.

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