Revenue: $710,000
Founder(s): Narelle Marshall
Industry: Wholesale trade
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 1
Website: www.foodforhealth.com.au
Having graduated from the Southern School of Natural Therapies in 1999 and as a health food retailer, Narelle Marshall found she couldn't find suppliers for wheat free mueslis that combined diet-specific needs and still tasted great.
"As a naturopath I saw a gap in the allergy-friendly functional food market. I owned and operated a health food store and could not purchase good quality wheat free/gluten free muesli, that also supported people's health," says Marshall.
"My business now manufactures four mueslis and two gluten free bars and all have a big focus on the allergy-friendly market."
All of Food for Health's products are wheat, sulfur, dairy, yeast and cane sugar free.
Despite the great product, getting Food for Health off the ground was all about finding the capital to start.
"The most challenging problem was having great ideas and no capital to fund them. Food for Health grew as a day-to-day venture outside of my health food store hours. What I learnt was that passion and self-belief are everything, and even on the hardest days, it's this that keeps you soldering on," says Marshall.
"It has been a day to day growth venture. Funding came from what little money I had, and I took a gamble on myself. My initial packing run and other start up costs were about $10,000 and I sold door to door myself for the first year."
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BEST PART OF STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
"The best part is definitely the positive feedback and appreciation I receive from happy customers. This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile, the fact that I have created something that makes someone's day-to-day life that little bit easier is very humbling and rewarding."
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