Brand new research* has revealed 67 per cent of workers aged 18-24 in Australia want the opportunity to work overtime or extra shifts in efforts to increase their take-home pay to help with current costs of living. Whether it’s a photography gig on the weekend or tutoring on a weekday, it’s clear that Aussies are willing to work hard to earn extra cash in the current climate.  

As a young female business owner, at just 19 years of age Shavonne Stengle from The Flower Crowd in Brisbane knows what it is like to forge her path as a small business owner in a tough economic environment.

Beginning to bloom

Shavonne dove deep into the unknown, starting her floristry business at just 15 years old, selling bouquets of flowers at her local weekend market. Every Saturday along with her mother and sister, Shavonne would wake at 3am in order to get the best possible spot for her stall.

Shavonne took up a floristry course alongside high school and each week she created amazing arrangements as part of her studies. Not long after, she began supplying flowers to her local IGA store, and began to rapidly expand her business. 

Shavonne recognised very early on that customer relationships would be key to growing her business, and took care to develop a rapport with regular customers at the store. The manager of one of the IGA stores she supplies has since become an important mentor to Shavonne, sharing his small business expertise and encouraging her growth as a business owner.

Now at 19, her blooming business has just onboarded its second employee to fulfil her delivery commitments to a network of local grocers across Brisbane. Just three years into running The Flower Crowd, Shavonne makes over $100,000 per year and is looking for new ways to expand her business.

Empowering her business side

Shavonne used her fears to her advantage to become a successful business owner and wants to see more entrepreneurs empowered to start their own businesses – particularly young women. It wasn’t always roses however, in the beginning the business and administration side of things was a challenge for Shavonne. 

When she started out, she says her accounts were “all over the place” and she was using a system that wasn’t fit to support the speed at which her business was growing. “I was still learning all the business skills and with that I made quite a few mistakes.”

After a while, a family friend recommended Intuit QuickBooks. “She raved about it, so I started using QuickBooks and what I love about it is it actually grows with your business. In the beginning I was mainly just doing simple quotes, invoicing and receiving money and QuickBooks made that so much easier. Since then I’ve learned to tag and track my calendar and understand what parts of my business is making money and what could work better. I wouldn’t actually use anything else. It’s simple and really straightforward.”

Her business was growing so fast that she rebranded to The Flower Crowd earlier this year and made the decision to bring on two full time employees. When she took on her new employees she added QuickBooks Payroll powered by KeyPay, to streamline her Single Touch Payroll compliance with the ATO.

The software calculates her employee’s super and leave payments and ensures they are seamlessly paid. It’s one less thing for Shavonne to worry about as she navigates being a boss and gives her time to grow the business she loves.

Methodology 

This Qualtrics study was fielded in August-October 2022. Respondents were selected from a randomized panel and considered eligible if they live in Australia, are at least 18 years of age and working full-time. The total number of respondents was 1,020 respondents.