The Top Ender Magazine June July 2022 Edition

Careers on the Move
Army Wives Find Flexibility by Starting
Their Own Business
Prince’s Trust Australia is celebrating Australian
Defence partners who are rising to the challenge of
maintaining a career and a modern defence family life.
We wish to share the stories of three Townsvillebased
army partners, Loren, Courtney and Bianca, who
have launched businesses with help from Prince’s Trust
Australia’s Enterprise Programme.
Australian Defence Force spouses are rising to the challenge
of creating flexible careers that fit around military family life
by starting their own businesses, with help from Prince’s Trust
Australia.
Historically, military spouses joined the 200,000 Australian
women who entered the workforce during the Second
World War as part of a war-effort that transformed the role
of women in society. Today, the victory curls are gone and
many Defence partners are struggling to find their place in
the workforce. And 92 per cent of those military spouses are
women, according to the 2019 ADF Family Survey.
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DIGITAL SIGNAGE - LOREN KALIS
South African born Loren Kalis loves the adventure of
moving around Australia with her Army musician husband
and young child but finds it hard to maintain employment
when moving every year.
“I couldn't keep moving from place to place, having to look
for a job every time that we moved, having to leave a job
every time that we moved,” she said.
“I knew that I needed to do something for myself that I
needed to pick up and go to wherever we needed to move
to.”
The digital signage creator launched her business Now Now
Foundry in April last year, creating customised gifts from her
home in Townsville.
“It's always been a dream of mine to have a business, to
make my own hours and plan my own day,” she said. Now
preparing for her family’s next posting, Loren is feeling
inspired.
“I get to be influenced by all the different towns and cities
that we move to and new people that we meet,” she said.
“I think Now Now Foundry can only grow from here.”
Visit Loren’s business: www.nownow.com.au
JOURNALIST - COURTNEY SNOWDEN
For career journalist Courtney Snowden, it took a
redundancy and a new baby to take the leap into
freelancing. But getting started wasn’t easy.
“Working in media, the stories tend to come to you and
you don't have to worry about trying to find the work,
whereas freelancing, you kind of have to go out and find the
work,” she said.
“And if you don't work, you don't get paid.”
Courtney found her biggest challenge was understanding
the nuts and bolts of business, how to network and how to
source clients.
“One of the biggest struggles was finding clients who I could
work with, but also finding work that fits around looking
after two young children,” she said.
Courtney signed up for Prince’s Trust Australia’s Enterprise
Programme, a series of free entrepreneurial workshops for
ADF veterans and their families.
“Being a military spouse, we move a lot. It's hard to have
career continuity,” she said.
“So having a programme like Enterprise gives us what we
need to be able to work for ourselves so we can still
contribute to the household without having to rely on
finding a new job every time.”
Courtney said it wasn’t just skills the Enterprise Programme
offered that proved invaluable, but the network she found
through Prince’s Trust as well.
“When I started the programme, I was in Sydney and I had a
young baby, so I was not leaving the house at all,” she said.
“I felt very disconnected from the industry I'd been working
in. I really didn't have much of a support network around me
at the time.”
“So firstly, (Enterprise) just gave me a social network so I had
someone to talk to, somebody I could bounce ideas off. And
then once I started establishing myself as a freelancer, it gave
me a working network of people who either needed my
services or were recommending my services to other
people.”
Find Courtney on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/courtneytodd-snowden-07135319a
GRAPHIC DESIGNER - BIANCA NEWEY
Graphic Designer Bianca Newey said it was hard to make
connections when having three small children made it
difficult to go out.
“Being a Defence partner can be very isolating and very
lonely if you're somewhere that you don't have friends and
family and support,” she said.
“My husband goes away at very short notice and then I’m left
doing everything with three kids.
“Working is not really an option”.
Passionate about design, Bianca knew she had to set up her
business B Luvd to have flexibility and a workload she could
do from home. But starting a business was difficult without
access to the right resources or knowing where to begin.
“Having advice and knowing how to do a business plan is
probably one of the biggest challenges,” she said.
“Knowing who your target audience is, that's also very
difficult to figure out initially.”
Email Bianca for services: bluvddesign@gmail.com
Defence Family Advocate of Australia, Sandi Laaksonen-
Sherrin champions Defence partners and raises awareness
of partners as a talent pool.
“Data from the 2019 ADF Family Survey highlighted that
even though ADF partners are more likely to be tertiary
qualified than the general public, they were at the time more
likely to be unemployed,” she said.
“In a cohort of at least 40,000 Defence spouses, that’s a lot
of under utilised talent. That’s a lot of potential in a modern
workforce facing skills and labour shortages.”
Ms Laaksonen-Sherrin said military partners presented a
great opportunity for flexible workplaces to attract and
retain experienced, qualified people who could keep their
jobs through different posting locations. And for
entrepreneurial spouses, self-employment is an option.
“DFA is proud to work with Prince’s Trust Australia to
develop programmes and initiatives to help Defence families
reach their full potential in their careers,” she said.
Written by Lydia Teychenné
ADF partner and Programme Coordinator
Prince’s Trust Australia
40 The Top Ender | Tri-Services Magazine Incorporated JUNE/JULY 2022 41