Geelong side-hustle and small business success stories revealed

They’re borne out of wanting to flex creative muscles or a breakaway from everyday life, but now side-hustles as an industry are experiencing massive growth. Here’s some of Geelong’s biggest side-hustle successes.

While the pandemic has continued to impact local businesses, research from ASIC has revealed there has been a 33 per cent increase in new business registrations as we now see a rise in ‘side hustles’.

For intensive care nurse Sue Hands her side hustle, which involves making one of a kind polymer clay earrings, started incidentally as way to combat the stress of her career and motherhood during the pandemic.

Franklin and Bear, named after her two sons’ middle names, was the culmination of turning to a new hobby about 18 months ago.

“I have always been crafty, name a craft and I have probably done it,” she said.

Side hustles

Despite being an ICU nurse for around ten years, she said working through the pandemic has been particularly challenging.

“My husband is also an ICU nurse at the Alfred so he goes there three nights a week and I’m home alone with the kids then we swap,” she said.

“Going into the craft room and making earrings has been a great stress reliever, I literally get lost in it for hours and then suddenly realise it is midnight.”

Like many side hustles, Ms Hands said she started by making earrings to give to her friends and family, who then encouraged her to try and sell them.

Side hustles

“After a couple of months I started selling them and pretty soon I was making a good weekly income,” she said.

At the moment Franklin and Bear can only be found on Etsy or at local markets, but Ms Hands said she is now in the process of developing her own website.

“Every milestone I make I am surprised I got here,” she said.

“It started as a hobby and if I made a few sales I would be happy, now I'm getting fairly consistent sales.”

With plans to grow the business in 2022, Ms Hands said finding her point of difference has been crucial to her success.

“It is quite difficult to stand out in saturated market, there are a lot of people doing similar things but what is unique about my business is that I try to keep it as one off pieces so customers know they are the only ones who have them.”

Along with Ms Hands, a number of other local residents have used the pandemic as a way to further develop their passions and make extra money at the same time.

Cindy Kelly – Pot Dealer Geelong

Newcomb woman and local primary school teacher Cindy Kelly launched Pot Dealer Geelong during the pandemic as a way to cut back on screen time.

Despite its tongue in cheek name, the business involves Ms Kelly transforming pot plants with ultra bright colours and designs.

“I looked around for some bright and colourful pots just as eye catching as the plants themselves, but found they weren’t easy to come by,” she said.

“While there were many beautiful pots out there, they were often in neutral colours or were quite minimalist.”

Cindy Kelly is the woman behind the business Pot Dealer Geelong. She is an artist who creates amazing painted pots that are super popular among buyers. Picture: Peter Ristevski

In less than a year, Ms Kelly is now leading workshops at Geelong art space Brush & Bubbles, wholesaling to stores and selling out online within 24 hours.

“I think at the start I didn’t value my own skill set enough and worried I wouldn’t sell even one,” she said.

“I’ve now got a waiting list of people wanting to get their hands on them.”

Lisa and Nicole Mitrov – Duo Management

Lisa and Nicole Mitrov decided to combine their years of industry experience to launch a modern and inclusive modelling agency during the pandemic.

With Lisa working in hair and makeup and Nicole modelling, the pair said they became aware of a gap in the marker for a local agency.

“Last year because of Covid-19 Lisa moved back home so it was a chance for us to be creative again,” Nicole said.

“Lisa’s makeup had paused, my gym work had paused, and I was modelling every now and then locally but I wasn’t going to Melbourne and we finally had time to put our heads together.

Lisa and Nicole Mitrov found a gap in the market during the pandemic.

“Once we had the idea we were pretty fast moving on it and spent 12-14 hours a day at the dining table bringing it to life.”

Duo Management’s goal is to expose Geelong’s budding models and has since caught the interest of locals of all ages and with diversity of all kinds.

The pair now have 21 models signed to their agency.

Nina Verdier and Rhys Clark- Butch and Bulldog

When Nina Verdier and Rhys Clark were both stood down from their jobs at the start of the pandemic they were looking for a way to fill their time, before quickly finding a passion for upcycling furniture.

The lockdown hobby soon turned into an official side hustle called Butch and Bulldog.

“We had no idea what to do. I literally did not know how to use a screwdriver,” Ms Verdier said.

“But we were bored so we watched YouTube videos on how to do things.

“I literally started grabbing anything people didn’t need and started working on them on our balcony.”

Nina and Rhys have created Butch & Bulldog a business that upcycles furniture. Picture: Alan Barber

Living in Melbourne at the time, the pair would use their one hour of permitted exercise to find pieces of furniture on nearby nature strips.

Now living in Ocean Grove, the pair has continued to create stylish and sustainable pieces and has since furnished entire houses, launched their own website and an Instagram page with over 16,000 followers.

Lili Gard- Lil Jewellery

Lili Gard was still a student studying to become an enrolled nurse in the midst of the pandemic when she found a passion for making jewellery.

“When I ordered the materials to make mine, I made a few pairs for friends to give to them, and they started getting a lot of compliments on their earrings,” she said.

“Lockdown had just started so I had the time to sit and do it and I just really enjoyed doing it for fun.”

She soon launched her small business named, Lil Jewellery over Instagram and received 200 orders in a matter of days.

Lil Gard from Lil Jewellery

“That’s when I realised that I needed to pull back from one of my other jobs if I was serious about giving this a real go,” she said.

“I felt like after those first few days that maybe this could actually be something.”

Now a theatre nurse on top of a small-business owner, Ms Gard said her customer base extends nationwide and is stocked by other local businesses.

Since launching Lil Jewellery, she is most proud to have ran two pop-up shops and collaborated with other local businesses.

Ellie Clarkson

Primary schoolteacher Ellie Clarkson used her skills in graphic design and lived experience of anxiety to write and illustrate children’s books.

The first book, the Grey Ballerina touches on childhood anxiety, which seemed fitting as her teaching career coincided with the start of the global pandemic.

Ms Clarkson said every student in her class now has a copy and they often ask to read it when they are anxious or have something big coming up.

Ellie Clarkson is a schoolteacher and graphic designer (@pippamintdrawings) and has written and illustrated a kids book on dealing with anxiety.

“Some were nervous about orientation for the following year so they wanted to read The Grey Ballerina. It makes me really proud,” she said.

Ms Clarkson has also written ‘Every Flower Booms In Its Own Time’ and ‘I Am An Artist’ celebrating everyone’s different strengths and being proud of their differences.

Children’s faces in the books have been left intentionally blank as Ms Clarkson cleverly uses it as way to allow the readers to see themselves within the story instead of a character.

“Each book has a really strong message. These are the books I wish I had as a child,” she said.

Originally published as Geelong side-hustle and small business success stories revealed