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Six Steps sets G.E.T. on Path to Success
Latrobe City Council is again running the Six Steps to Business Success Program in 2020.
When Traralgon local Mark Ure realised that power stations and coffee machines run on largely the same principles, the idea for his career post-Hazelwood was born. Mr Ure spent almost six years working at the Hazelwood Power Station but like a number of others, lost his job when it closed in March 2017.
After visiting a Traralgon café with a broken coffee machine that he knew he could fix, Mr Ure and his wife Nicole decided to start Gippsland Espresso Technician, or G.E.T. While some of the skills he had gained in his previous role working at Hazelwood helped when it came to servicing coffee machines, the idea of running his own business was completely new to Mr Ure.
"I started looking at what’s in a coffee machine and I figured that they were essentially a small power station," he said. "The stuff that I had no idea about was the business side of things".
To help with that, Mr Ure registered in Latrobe City Council’s Six Steps to Business Success Program.
The program includes six workshops that provide the fundamental tools to build a thriving small business including marketing, finance and business planning. The Six Steps to Business Success is a unique program designed by Latrobe City Council and supported by Small Business Victoria.
Mr Ure said the workshops had a "big impact" and confirmed that his business was on the right path. In particular, he said the business planning workshops helped him develop his own business plan, which he had previously struggled to put together.
"This really helped put the framework of where we wanted to take the business and how to get there in place." Mr Ure is now Gippsland’s only locally owned and operated espresso machine technician, providing a service that many cafés and restaurants would have previously had to source from Melbourne.
Ultimately, Mr Ure hopes to grow the business and employ a small team to cover a wider geographic area.
"I am extremely proud of what I’ve achieved. To be able to know that I can go into someone’s café, fix their equipment and confidently say ‘this is going to work now’…I love that".
Latrobe City Council Mayor, Cr Dan Clancey, said Mark’s story demonstrated the importance of programs such as Six Steps to Business Success.
"Stories such as Mark’s are a fantastic example of someone having a good business idea and, with the right skills and support, being able to turn that idea into a successful business," Cr Clancey said.
Latrobe City Council is again running the Six Steps to Business Success Program in 2020. Details about the upcoming program are provided below.
When: Each Wednesday for six weeks from Wednesday 22 April 2020
Where: Latrobe City Council Corporate Headquarters, 34-38 Kay Street, Traralgon
Cost: $60 per participant for the workshop series
Source: www.gippsland.com
Published by: support@gippsland.com
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