October is Small Business Month! And to celebrate, we’re highlighting some of the great small businesses we have throughout the New England and North Coast. See all the stories here.
Today for Small Business Month we’re celebrating three local businesses that keep us well-dressed, profitable and dancing.
Stewart’s Menswear
Dressing Mullumbimby for nearly a century
52–54 Burringbar Street, Mullumbimby NSW 2482
There aren’t many local businesses that can say they’ve been part of their town’s story for almost a century. Stewart’s Menswear has been dressing Mullumbimby since 1929 — and today, husband and wife team Gerard and Sue Walker continue a family-owned tradition that has spanned generations.
Gerard and Sue are both Mullumbimby locals, and they are just the fourth owners of the long-established business. Norman Stewart opened the doors in 1929, followed by his son Tom and his wife Jean, and then their son Bill. Gerard first started working for Tom and Jean in 1979, giving him more than 45 years of connection to the store before he and Sue bought the business when Bill retired in 2004.
Today, Gerard looks after customer service, buying and visual merchandising, while Sue manages the online store, digital marketing and bookkeeping. Together, they have kept the focus on something they believe is increasingly important: buying well and wearing things for longer, rather than chasing the latest trend.
The couple personally select every product in the store, meaning they know their stock and can offer straightforward, friendly advice about fit, quality and what will actually work. That personal service extends to their online customers too, with orders packed with care, a personal note and a small gift.
Stewart’s Menswear offers in-store shopping in Mullumbimby as well as online shopping, with free click and collect for locals and flat-rate delivery Australia-wide. And with Christmas being the store’s busiest time of year, Gerard and Sue particularly enjoy helping customers find gifts that will be worn and loved well beyond the festive season.
Their connection to Mullumbimby extends well beyond the shop. Sue is Treasurer of the Mullumbimby Agricultural Society, while Gerard is Vice President of the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce, alongside their other community volunteering.
After almost a century in Mullumbimby, Stewart’s Menswear is still doing what it has always done — helping people find something that suits them, while offering the kind of personal service that can be harder to find in a big chain.
Profitpoint Business Solutions
Helping regional business owners build businesses that work without them
Coffs Harbour, NSW
Building a successful business is one thing. Building one that doesn’t require the owner to solve every problem, make every decision and carry every responsibility is another.
That’s the challenge Coffs Harbour-based business advisor Ian Woodhouse works with through Profitpoint Business Solutions.
Ian works with established regional business owners whose businesses are profitable, have good people and plenty of potential — but have gradually become harder to run than they should be.
After around 30 years working in and alongside businesses across sales, operations, management and business improvement, Ian brings a practical perspective to the work. Rather than starting with a theoretical model or a large strategy document, he looks at what is actually happening inside the business and where things are getting stuck.
That might mean identifying profit leaks, addressing an operational bottleneck, clarifying team responsibilities, improving systems or tackling the number of decisions that continue to land back on the owner’s desk.
For Ian, the key is working out what matters most and what should happen first.
“Many business owners already know some of the things they should be doing,” is the thinking behind Profitpoint’s approach. The challenge is often finding the time to work out what will make the biggest difference, then actually implementing those changes while continuing to run the business.
Ian’s focus is particularly on established regional businesses, where owners can sometimes have fewer opportunities to access the type of high-level business advice more readily available in metropolitan areas.
The aim isn’t to turn a business upside down. It’s to make it easier to run, improve profitability and reduce the extent to which everything depends on the owner.
Because a stronger business can give its owner something that doesn’t always appear on a balance sheet: more choice about what comes next.
For Ian, that’s the bigger picture behind Profitpoint Business Solutions — a better business can help create a better life.
Cherie Gaites Wedding Choreography
Helping couples find their rhythm — even if they’ve never danced before
Tamworth, NSW
Not everyone dreams of stepping onto the dance floor at their wedding. For some couples, the thought of a first dance is enough to make them nervous — particularly when neither of them has ever danced before.
That’s where Tamworth’s Cherie Gaites Wedding Choreography comes in.
Cherie specialises in creating first dances, bridal party dances and family dances for weddings, working with couples who may walk into their first lesson convinced they have two left feet.
With 35 years of choreography experience behind her, Cherie knows how to turn people with little or no dance experience into a confident performance team. Her experience includes years leading Tamworth Musical Society, where she served as President and is now a Life Member.
But wedding choreography is about more than getting the steps right.
Cherie works with couples to build confidence, break down the choreography into manageable pieces and create something they can genuinely enjoy performing on the day. She works directly with each couple from their first lesson through to the wedding, rather than handing them over to someone else along the way.
Lessons can be held in the couple’s own space, making it easier to practise in a familiar environment, or online for couples who aren’t able to attend in person. Cherie works with couples throughout Tamworth and the surrounding region, as well as offering online tuition.
Her approach is particularly suited to people who don’t consider themselves dancers. The goal isn’t to turn wedding couples into professional performers — it’s to give them the confidence and preparation to enjoy one of those memorable moments of their wedding day.
Because sometimes the biggest transformation isn’t learning the steps. It’s going from “We can’t dance” to “We actually did that!”
Throughout October, we’ll run stories highlighting the great local businesses we have right here in our communities. This is a free service – the businesses highlighted have not paid for this story.
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