FOLLOWING the opening of a successful CBD business Steph Bradshaw was ready to take on a new challenge.
The young business owner has recently been appointed the newest director of the Mildura City Heart board.
Ms Bradshaw hopes her enthusiasm and knowledge will help existing businesses and encourage potential new businesses to the area.
“I want to help our community of business traders grow and be part of their journey, it’s actually quite exciting,” she said.
“I would like to continue to see our broader community really support Mildura City Heart traders, there are a lot of us, this year has been a very stressful one for small business owners and it’s been so lovely to see people buying and shopping locally.
“I would really love to see the community continuing to get around support local businesses and looking forward to advocating for each of those traders in the city heart.”
Three years ago Ms Bradshaw and her partner Damo Arney left behind their life in Adelaide and moved to Mildura, where they have since opened sip. cocktail bar & eatery.
“I felt very much that getting through the first year or so is quite is a big undertaking and it’s an achievement to get a business established and once we did that I started looking at what was next for us,” she said.
“I started looking at where I wanted our business to go and what was next for the area our business was in and that really highlighted for me that I wanted to work towards more community involvement.
“Having in the past lived and worked in the hospitality industry in Adelaide, there is such a culture of working together and helping each other, that is important to me and I wanted to find a way to work and be involved within our community.
“There is a wider community of business people who I wanted to support and wanted to be a part of strengthen that community.”
Ms Bradshaw said while her main goal was to ensure the Sunraysia community continued to support local traders in the CBD, she hoped to see more businesses open up in the area.
“The Mildura City Heart is such a wide reaching area that it would be lovely to see a range of different kinds of businesses come into the city heart,” she said.
“I would love to see the community really give their support to existing traders around the city heart, that is really important to helping other people in the community see opportunity in the space and perhaps become part of the city heart.”
With Ms Bradshaw not quite 30, she believes that has an added benefit to being on the board.
“Another reason I wanted to be part of the board was because I am a younger business owner, I think it’s important that the younger business owners are represented and it’s important we have a voice,” she said.
