From refugee to owning a chain of Vietnamese restaurants, Nahji Chu has an amazing story. Now her restaurant chain, Miss Chu, is going global, opening its first international store in London.
Chu is also continuing to expand her business in Australia.
“This year we’ll be building three more stores in Australia – currently building Balmain, Sydney and Armadale, Melbourne, with a new bar concept in Darlinghurst opening within the year,” Chu told SmartCompany.
Running her franchise business has taught Sylvia Wilson that being an all-rounder is important, as well as being able to juggle all the other things in an entrepreneur’s life. “You also have family to look after; for married entrepreneurs, a husband to think about as well,” she says.
“I feel women work a lot harder because we are focusing on so many things, but women can do a lot of things at once and be quite good at all of them. You have to be a mother, a wife, an accountant and a secretary, you have to be everything.”
Paradiso began Suntrix with David Hille in a booming market for solar energy but since then tough times have hit. Suntrix has survived the tough times by focusing on customer service and a commercial market as well as residential.
“We worked hard and never gave up,” Paradiso says.
“We had a commitment to our staff and customers and this saw us through some really difficult times. We hired staff when we could and we outsourced as much as possible.”
Bike Roar is a comprehensive product information website that connects cyclists to bicycle retailers. Users can browse over 45,000 products and 4000 retailers in the United States and Australia, compare specs, read advice and reviews, and connect to their nearest stores.
Sakane says she hasn’t encountered any difficulties being a female entrepreneur.
“I just consider myself as an entrepreneur not as a female, I just do what I have to do to get things done,” she says. “The cycle business is very male dominated, so I guess I’m just used to it.”
“Both myself and my team work bloody hard, we’re all on the same page and we’re working towards a big vision together. It’s hard but fun at the same time.”
At the age of 22 May took a leap of faith by leaving the law firm she worked at to start her own business.
“Sometimes you’re braver when you’re young and I figured if it didn’t work out I’d have plenty of time in the future to recover,” she told SmartCompany.
“I wanted to take the risk because it was making such a big difference in people’s lives.”
Since starting, the business has grown at 50% year-on-year and May manages to juggle a young family with running a business.
“When I had my first daughter it forced me to replace myself in the business, get the right procedures in place and have people able to make decisions without me – it was fantastic for the business,” she says.
Cara Waters is a former SmartCompany editor. Previously, Cara was a senior reporter for the Financial Times’ website and worked for The Sunday Times in London.
