Wannabe start-ups get insight

COMMUTING to Melbourne is long and often tiresome, so when Shelby Abraham heard about the Starting a Business Later in Life – Mature Entrepreneurs Event, he thought it was worth a look.

Mr Abraham, who works in the banking sector in Melbourne, said because commuting is so time consuming, he is “looking for a side hustle.

“I am just exploring avenues and opportunities at the moment, it is early days for me,” he said.

As part of his keynote address at the event, Professor Alex Maritz, internationally recognised senior entrepreneurship educator and researcher from La Trobe Business School, mentioned hybrid entrepreneur.

The latest buzz word, added to the lexicon of business speak, is another name for a side hustle.

Other members of the audience were also exploring this type of entrepreneurial option.

A woman in her late 40s said in the back of her mind she was worried about homelessness in women over 55.  In her opinion other than having a job, women need something more.

She is still on the learning curve as far as entrepreneurship is concerned.

“This workshop is my entry into finding my side hustle,” she said.

For Mr Abraham the benefit of the workshop was finding out what local resources are available. His online searches on entrepreneurial endeavours gave him scattered results.

“But this workshop has a lot of information on local resources that are so much more relevant to me,” he said. “I found out about Runway Ballarat and government funded resources aimed at helping start up business ideas.”

Dr Paul Miller, Entrepreneurship Facilitator at Sarina Russo Entrepreneurs was the organiser of the government funded event.

He noticed is wasn’t was just Professor Maritz’s presentation that was well received.

“The four panellists, who built local businesses and shared their stories of what led them down the entrepreneur path later in life, also had an impact on the audience,” Dr Miller said.

“One of the aims of the event was that attendees should’ve walked away at the end of the workshop with a good network of contacts and a clear understanding of the resources and organisations in Ballarat that are here to help.”