Welcome to Business One Stop Shop, aka BOSS!
I have been working with small businesses and entrepreneurs since 2005, after ‘doing the corporate thing’ (mainly in investment banking) for about 10 years. That was back in the days when my colleagues would take clients to strip clubs and come back with expense receipts for $1000 bottles of wine (note the plural), and their divorce settlement to negotiate.
I’ve always been obsessed with business strategy and the entrepreneurial world - a huge contrast to growing up in a little English village, youngest kid to a primary school teacher and travelling salesman. I finished my GCSE exams at 16 and went straight to studying a National Diploma in European Business Economics before then doing a BA(Hons) in Business & Languages in Cambridge.
I take the huge knowledge and experience that I’ve gained over the years and use that to help small businesses to get off the ground and increase their success. Since moving to Perth, WA in 2014, I have worked with thousands of businesses, and built up a strong network of collaborators, trusted partners, programs and organisations who can further help my clients.
My speciality is finding the right marketing strategy to help each business to grow and be successful, and love helping you to build your own website.
I look forward to seeing you soon!
More about BOSS
Like many successful small businesses, BOSS has evolved and pivoted many times over the past decade or so that we’ve been going. BOSS started off with just Liz in her living room in a duplex in Scarborough, then Liz tendered to be the Entrepreneurship Facilitator for Perth North-East, a new federal government-funded program to give free advice to all aspiring, new and small businesses.
For 4.5 years, BOSS ran this program, first in our gorgeous heritage-listed building in Midland, and then in the funky WOTSO building in Mandurah. Our wonderful team of Liz, Amanda, Lucy, Ann-Maree, Anne, Sam, Karina and Jackie plus a handful of trainees, office dogs Rosie, Finn and Janey. and our honorary staff member, Nancy, created something really quite special and we fast became the go-to for anyone starting a business, needing to improve their business, or simply wanting to hang out with other small business owners.
The rug gets pulled
Then the entire program was slashed nationwide in the May 2023 budget. We lost our income overnight, and with no warning. Through the grief of not being able to help our lovely clients, and saying goodbye to our amazing and talented team, Liz dug deep and used her contacts, skills and sheer grit to pivot the business and find new sources of income, whilst still being about to give an accessible and affordable, high-value service to the entrepreneurs and business owners of WA.
We tried a couple of times to recreate the vibrant offices that we had in Midland, but without the government funding or other serious cash in the coffers, it simply wasn’t sustainable, if we were to continue to stay affordable to our clients.
Ever onwards!
So, now it’s back to just being me, Liz. With help from my incredible network of people, businesses and organisations who are also dedicated to helping the small business economy flourish and continue to be the important sector of the economy that it is.
I know the rollercoaster that it is to be a small business owner, because I live it, every single day.
We may not be a ‘Centre’ at the moment like in the halycon days in Midland, but our dedication to clients, their businesses and the entrepreneurial community will always be at the ‘centre’ of everything we do…
Liz has been a Finalist for the Social Media Educator of the Year for the past three years, as well as being an Authorised Trainer for Squarespace, one of only a few in Australia.
Liz is the Founder and CEO of Perth Business Association, and on the Board of the Australian Entrepreneurship Alliance.