Eleni Mitakos, Galmatic
“My business was created out of a necessity to survive after the death of my first husband five years ago,” says Meredith Marshall, owner of makeUwell. “As a widow at age 33 with three boys to bring up on my own, I had to focus on supporting the family and offering them nutritional and natural products of the highest quality and purity.”
Meredith’s desire to provide the healthiest products for her family eventually led to her own retail store for innovative health and enviro-care products. The journey has not been easy, but it has been rewarding.
“On this journey I met a wonderful man and we married,” Meredith says. “We now have total of six boys with baby Evan, who’s now one. He was only five months old when I started the MentorNet program.”
Marshall credits MentorNet, a mentoring program that pairs new Australian businesswomen with veteran business leaders, for providing her with the resources she needed to open her store.
“Finance was my biggest hurdle,” admits Meredith, “and we realised this during the interviewing stage of MentorNet. I was teamed up with a mentor who has a financial background. This was exactly the kind of support I needed, and it enabled me to realise that, although my vision for my business was possible, I would not able to achieve it without the right numbers. Thanks to MentorNet, I am now the proud owner of a 50sqm retail store with a staff of four, and this transformation took place in six short months.”
