Build it and they will come, right?

(5 minute read)

Build it and they will come, right?
This is certainly not a business model that many experts would encourage or recommend, but it seems to have worked for us!  Like many small businesses, ours have started out by providing a solution to problems that we have noticed in our amazing rural community of Cohuna, Northern Victoria (population 2000).

I’m Amy Treacy, and along with my husband Shannon, we have so far created three successful start-ups in the past 6 years.  We are honestly just very average people with a growing family and two regular jobs, but we love our town, we have lots of ideas and we are passionate about the success of rural and regional areas.  We have never let our lack of business knowledge, relevant qualifications or anything else stop us!

It all started when our teenage son needed a job but wanted flexibility around his sporting and social commitments. All three of us put our entrepreneurial brains together and, after a bit of ‘market research’, we realised that there was a gap in the odd-jobs and home help services in our area. 

Voila! My Handy Helper was created and business was soon booming so much that we couldn’t keep up with the demand and ended up selling to a lovely local couple (who have also sold the business too). We still feel proud when we see the logo on the blue ute driving around town, and we’re happy that something we created together is still serving people who need this support.

The timing of the sale was a blessing in disguise as the next year was tumultuous as our young daughter unfortunately developed severe issues with her mental health. We spent much of 2018 driving all over Victoria to medical appointments, accessing health services and really just having a terribly tough time. 

One thing we observed during this period was the huge toll on us, not just mentally but also financially.  All of the driving to other towns to access services meant that we were taking a lot of time off work, she was missing a lot of school and we were spending a lot of money in the larger centres while we were there for all of the appointments. 

As people who have always advocated for our community and have supported the ‘shop local’ initiatives, this left us feeling very torn. It also made us realise that when small towns don’t have these services available it takes people (and their dollars) out of our local economies, which is what all rural and regional towns have been working hard to avoid!

Once our lives settled a bit we were inspired to take some big action based on our experiences.  There had been an unused building in town for a few years and we decided to enquire about purchasing it.  Fortunately the owner was ready to hand over the reigns of the building previously known as ‘Crystal Paradise’ (that’s a story for another time!!) and we were ready to unleash our crazy idea on our conservative little town.

Now, please understand that this was early 2019 (pre-pandemic!) and sometimes new and unusual concepts take a while to catch on in the bush…but this was a real doozy – we announced that we were creating a co-working centre called CohunaCo, which would be set up for hot-desking and flexible hire spaces.

“A what???” was the echo in the many ensuing conversations, and it took a lot of convincing that this business idea might be worthwhile persisting with.  At times we did wonder if we had actually made a really big mistake, but we knew that our intentions were good and that the need was there, even if no one else realised it yet.  We built it – we then just needed to fill it!

Our two-year goal was to attract a psychologist to our town as the nearest ones were based 45 minutes away and their waiting lists were already lengthy. We knew that the possibility of finding a full-time clinician would be very unlikely, so we focused on those nearby who might be interested in doing an outreach service once a month.  Much to our delight, Dr Naomi Malone from A Life Simply Lived Psychology jumped straight on board and became our very first regular tenant.  At one point her business was seeing clients twice a week at our centre, and we were absolutely stoked.

Then Covid hit and, like the rest of the state, we were shut down and unable to trade. The hit was hard at the time, but on the flip side we were able to accommodate both of us ‘working from home’ at the centre as well as having plenty of room for our three teenagers to complete their remote learning.  Thank goodness for great wifi, an amazing coffee machine and plenty of space.

The other blessing in disguise is that now everyone knows what co-working is and the fact that many more people are working remotely and flexibly! It seems that we were ahead of our time and we were therefore able to jump straight back into catering for remote workers, Zoom meetings, online studies, socially-distanced events and so much more.

In the past twelve months we’ve hosted all sorts of different events, workshops, popups, city-based workers and other visitors. One of our permanent tenants needed to return from a maternity break but didn’t want to be based at home anymore so she has set up a massage studio in one of our spaces. Another new business has decided to base themselves at CohunaCo and we’ve welcomed several other important outreach services which either did not previously exist in our community, or who had trouble finding suitable places to meet with their clients.

One of the biggest wins was that people looked to us for business advice and assistance, as community-minded local people with little prior experience but with a big success story.  We were able to start up a business network and support many local entrepreneurs who previously felt disconnected and overwhelmed. This led to yet another creation that hadn’t previously existed locally, a business support service!

Bush Biz Boost is now my full-time job as the demand for holistic business support with a rural focus is quite large, especially after the past couple of years and the associated burnout that many small business owners are experiencing.  I get to my range of life experiences and knowledge to help stressed-out entrepreneurs to find solutions and to feel more connected to their community.

This new business has been driven by demand for assistance with navigating the online world, increasing digital capabilities, educating people about how to start a new business and by providing social media management and marketing services for those who don’t have the capacity to learn it all themselves.  Although I’ve just moved to full-time work in this space it’s obvious that there is a huge need for this type of service in rural and regional areas, and that Bush Biz Boost is going to allow me to combine my love of entrepreneurship, rural business, technology and connecting people!

Hopefully these little stories of unexpected business success arising from identifying simple problems that our small town was experiencing are a source of inspiration for any budding entrepreneurs out there! Just because you are in the bush doesn’t mean that you or your community must miss out on anything – there are endless opportunities right under your nose regardless of where you are based. Keep it simple, connect with your community and then build it, as they will come.