Golden Age: Why the Gold Coast needs to draw talent away from bigger cities and retain them

A GROWING Gold Coast business’ owner says the key to recreating the city as a trade hub will be drawing talent away from the bright lights of bigger cities with the appeal of Glitter Strip living.

OPERATING an international business from paradise has always been the dream for Bloomtools director Tracey Voyce.

From humble beginnings in 2004, Bloomtools, the Gold Coast website and internet marketing tool developer has expanded internationally to Canada and New Zealand and established franchisees in capital cities across the country.

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Tracey Voyce from Bloom Tools in Varsity Lakes. Picture: Jerad Williams

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“We started off small web development company 13 years ago,” the company director said.

“We decided everyone else was using other people’s software so we wanted to build our own.

“From there we started receiving interest from advertising agencies, marketing firms and other website development companies that wanted to provide our tools to their client.”

By 2006 the company focused their attention on research and development, and their first franchise opened a year later.

Today 1600 websites globally are using the Bloomtools platform.

The company has a staff of 15 employees on the Coast and is in the process of expanding further into the Canadian market.

Ms Voyce says the versatility of an internet-based company meant the business could establish itself on the Gold Coast.

Tracey says the Coast’s workforce must grow. Picture: Jerad Williams

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“Because of technology business, other businesses are changing, there are a lot more micro businesses that can be run from anywhere,” she said.

“We still have the opportunity to grow internationally while living where we love to be.

“I think what we have is a business driven from our passion, we want to help businesses get results from their online presence and we are lucky enough to be able to do that from here,” she said.

Ms Voyce says employee retention is still one of the main hurdles employers on the Gold Coast needed to overcome.

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Tracey says the city must retain its workforce too. Picture: Jerad Williams

“Talent is always drawn to the bright lights of Sydney or Melbourne, web development people can get a lot more money, but they need to weigh that up with lifestyle,” she said.

“There are only a handful of companies in Australia doing what we are doing, so yes I’d like to see more support for training in the industry happen here,” she said.