I grew up in Western Sydney. Like many 90's kids, I loved reading glossy magazines like Dolly and these sparked my initial dreams to be a magazine editor. Now days, my priorities have shifted and my desire to be home with my kids and for work/life balance has led me to transferring my skills to the digital space.

What was your first job and what did it teach you?

I started out on the checkouts of Big W during high school and worked my way through various roles. It really taught me about customer service, as well as staff management, teamwork and independence.

What was your career pathway after school?

I studied Communications at university and took every opportunity to intern at magazines before also completing a Masters of Teaching. On graduation, I interned with a major healthcare company that turned into a full-time marketing and communications role. An interstate move, for my husband Nick's work, then led me to use my teaching degree for the next 7-8 years. Nick began working part time on websites in 2017 and sparked my interest so I retrained with the eBusiness Institute and I've been working on websites ever since.

When and why did you set up your business Platinum Website Solutions?

We had already been doing some local website builds as well as managing our own portfolio of sites. I decided when I went on maternity leave from teaching in 2018, that my passion was in digital marketing and this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go full-time. So, in 2020 we launched Platinum Website Solutions as a way to support local businesses while allowing me to have flexible work as a full-time mum.

How did you come up with the idea for your new online platform Your Newcastle Wedding?

Nick and I are always brainstorming and I threw out the idea of a local wedding directory. We thought, what better way to work with hundreds of local businesses to help them increase inquiries whilst also providing an amazing resource for engaged couples.

There are other wedding directories. Where did you see a gap in the market?

We see our offering as unique in that we only showcase local businesses from Newcastle, Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie. When planning our own wedding, we would find a vendor that serviced our area and then realise they weren't based locally and were sometimes even interstate. We thought there was a better model for both businesses and couples looking to get married. With Your Newcastle wedding, the vendors know they are getting highly targeted visitors. For couples, they can find local vendors they can easily meet and rely on to know their Newcastle wedding needs without having to weed through the listings to actually find someone local.

How does your platform operate?

Businesses can apply for a listing via our website but must be from one of the local LGAs we cover and have independent reviews of at least 4 stars. This ensures the quality of our listings. All enquiries from couples go direct to the business via their website or email link on their listing. We've done the hard work for couples by bringing together top-rated vendors and providing a platform to connect the two parties.

What is your business model?

We wanted to offer standard listings to businesses for free as we believe this ensures a good user experience for our visitors, giving them all the best Newcastle wedding vendors in one spot, rather than just those willing to pay for advertising. We wanted to ensure that our model would be successful and add value to businesses. Now that our data is starting to show that we are generating leads to businesses, we are getting ready to launch our premium advertising options (in addition to free listings) which will help us fund running the site.

What has been the response from businesses?

A few business owners asked if there was a catch to the free listings, but overall, we've been overwhelmed with the positive response. We already have support from over 110 businesses who took a chance before we had the stats to back us and now, we're really starting to see it pay off for them. With restrictions on weddings easing, we're excited to see what the site will do.

The wedding industry has been hit hard in the past 18 months by COVID-19 restrictions. How quickly can it recover?

We're already seeing signs that 2022 is going to be the year of the wedding, with many of our vendors booking out and doing more weekday weddings than usual to keep up. Sadly, we also have vendors who've had to close their doors or return to other employment to make ends meet.

What do you enjoy most about your profession?

It's nice to have come full circle and be back writing, but I also love the design and SEO aspects. It's very rewarding to catch up with clients and have them give us great feedback on how their website is performing. An online presence is essential for businesses these days and I love that we can help them achieve that.