After giving up on the corporate world earlier this year, Point Cook resident Sara Mitchell now dedicates her time to building a stronger community through her new creation BizBuddyHub. She spoke with Adem Saban.
How long have you lived in Point Cook?
My family and I migrated to Australia from Zimbabwe in 2003. The political and economic instability in our home country was our reason for moving. We wanted to raise our family in a safe and secure environment. We initially settled in Geelong but when we started finding our feet we decided we needed to be closer to the city. With the kids in school at Geelong, Point Cook was our best option.
What do you love most about Point Cook?
The sense of community. I found it a very interesting community in that there are a lot of people interested in making things better and wanting to help others.
How did BizBuddyHub come about?
In 2012, life changed for me after a brush with breast cancer. After 18 months of treatment and figuring out what my purpose was; I realised I no longer fitted the corporate mould and I wanted to make a difference and follow my heart and gut instinct by looking at new ways to solve problems for the community and small business. It started as a glint in my eye in June this year and has really taken off since.
What is BizBuddyHub exactly?
It is essentially about joining the dots between communities, small business and corporate communities, building a strong and sustainable community model; looking at the issues the community is experiencing. We know 70 per cent of the community that commute to work spend two to four hours a day doing so, and the other 30 per cent are trying to make their income in the self-employed, micro-business environment. BizBuddyHub offers a solution to this as a local co-working community for growing small businesses. Rather than competing against each other, we solve problems together.
What next for BizBuddyHub?
Our ultimate plan is to create a mixed use eco-system business hub across our community, catering for professionals, food, arts, trade – with pathways for people studying VCAL and on work for the dole. Prior to starting BizBuddyHub I didn’t really know anybody in Point Cook. I’ve since had my eyes opened to what a great community we have here.
