– The Little Gem – Café Spa Massage
My name is Christine and my Chinese name is Yang Xiaoyang. As a small business start-up entrepreneur, I want to share my entrepreneurial experience with you.
I came to Australia to study at the university. After graduation with a graphic design degree, I was full of confidence and fantasy. After the first brainstorming, I started a design printing company in partnership with my friends and wanted to apply my graphic design knowledge from my university studies. After the company lasted for about three years, I was once again impacted by the vision of innovation. I decided to give up my major and start a cross-border business. I first experienced a long government approval period of more than seven months. At long last on the 5th February 2018, Perth’s first One-stop leisure café – The Little Gem Cafe Spa Massage, was born with a healthy light snack and remedial massage!
Anyone who has had an entrepreneurial experience knows the hardships of starting a business, and the new store faces many risks. We are no exceptions. We encountered various difficulties in the early days. Although we did enough preparations in the early stage, unexpected problems came one after another, from business plans to storefront funds. That time was really tough.
Fortunately, my friend recommended the Alpha Innovation Contest 2018, after reading the promotional materials, I thought this should be a very good chance for our start-up small business. It may be a good opportunity for us to learn how to run a new business. With that idea in my mind, I had decided to participate in the contest!
At the beginning of the competition, Alpha Incubation Group held several pre-competition promotional seminars and training courses. During this period, I was exposed to something I had never experienced before, such as writing a business plan and how to consider business management more comprehensively and how to present yourselves in the competitive markets. At this point, I had already learned a lot and widened my horizons.
During the competition, the participants need to prepare a short speech to show the judges and the audience their creative content including the future business model. After the presentation, the judges will ask a few questions for the presenter to answer. Some questions are not heard before or well prepared, but during the rest of the contest, the judges and mentors patiently guided us with encouragement and support.
Although my project did not enter the finals, the things I learned were really useful for life!
After the contest, I went back to my shop and made a big rectification of my business with the knowledge learned from the contest and some suggestions from the mentors. After ten months of hard work, it is obvious that customers are accepting us more and more. Our services are becoming more well – known among the same industry.
Entrepreneurship requires courage and needs to be adhered to. Especially for the new business model, you will be the leader, but it will also be the pioneer. What we need is to make the most comprehensive crisis budget in the unknown prospects, first to survive and then seek development, to operate with heart, to believe in the heart, and to cultivate corporate spiritual beliefs. I believe that the effort will always get a proportional gain.
