At a time where the cost of living is only getting higher and higher, volumes of food waste also keep increasing. It seems crazy, doesn’t it? That is exactly what Elsa and her husband Bob thought two years ago as they continued throwing out food from the back of their fridge.
“We are producing an after-market accessory that easily fits into modern day sized fridges. It helps households to sort their food, maybe by person or by when the food was purchased. We can see that our product will also help older Australians and people with any physical challenges because it allows people to access the food at the back of the fridge conveniently.
“It is definitely a time-saver, especially in today’s busy world.
“This is a simple device that we hope many people will see the benefits of.
“But Bob and I are not businesspeople, and we didn’t know where to start with this idea. So, I literally tried to speak to as many people as I could, including research centres, food charities, government organisations.
“All of these conversations led me a little bit in a circle, but they did lead me to Amanda from the bushfire recovery centre. She told me about the South Australian Business Chamber Cultivate Hills program. I was not even sure if I would get into the program because we were so early on with our business venture.
“As a schoolteacher, this was all new to me. What I have been blown away is the readiness of everyone in the program to share their knowledge, experience, and to support us with various introductions.
“I’m a fairly introverted person, but the program has really got me working on that. Even applying for the program was a step for me and I was so excited to have been accepted.
“Now we are starting a trial production run, we’ll present that to different organisations. We were going to try to sell it ourselves through a website but now we’re looking to partner with another organisation.
“We have received so much advice and information, connections and introductions. And it wasn’t just our mentor, all of the mentors were sharing with us. We had so much advice to start up on social media to build our tribe, even one of the other participants helped us with our website.”
If you are interested in turning your business concept into a reality or helping create a sustainable business model for a newly established business then have a look at our SAYES or Encore programs as applications are open until 5 December 2022.
