For Anel, her company ‘The Date Box Factory’ was an idea born out of two circumstances. One that happened to her, the other perhaps for her. Both though were related to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, however ultimately very different trigger points for an opportunity.

 

• An Unmissable Opportunity

The first situation being Anel’s job status. When she first emigrated to New Zealand, her eyes were on settling in and building a stable life and this came with a 9-5 job working for a travel agent company. However, when COVID hit, Anel’s job was made redundant. Realising, it was a now or never kind of moment, she finally gave herself the permission to give it her best shot and go for it.
 

The second was how COVID had created the perfect scenario for her business idea. A ‘Date Night Box’, a service focused on reigniting the romance between partners. The focus of the box being to entertain couples on nights in; with good food, interesting drinks and fun games at its core idea. The enforced lockdowns and retreat to the home base couldn’t have made for a better retail landscape for Anel’s business.
 

• Learning to Crawl

However, managing a business was a completely different ball game than being an employee. Something Anel discovered fast. At first, everything she had to do felt big and important, which became distracting and confusing. Being pulled in multiple directions, she lacked a holistic viewpoint of her business and she unsure how to continue stimulating its growth. Anel solved this by joining the Entrepreneur Summer School. In the school, she was able to create a strategy for the business, which gave her a pathway to success and also monitored its growth.
 

The promotion plan provided Anel with the clarity she needed, but it was the micro-schools that enabled her to focus on the key issues and enabled her to upskill in those weak areas quickly. Through this work, Anel began to understand what was important for her businesses growth and what was not. Finally, she began to change her mindset from employee to employer.
 

• Customers Working For You

A top lesson that brought incredible results for Anel’s business was learning how to get her customers to work for the business, instead of them working for the customers. This came to fruition in the testimonials they were able to gather from pleased customers and infuse into a Facebook campaign to spread their mission. This strategy alone pulled in 5 box orders.

 

Ultimately ESS gave Anel the confidence and encouragement to aim higher than before. To push her boundaries, knowing she was surrounded by a community of people from all across the world who were rooting for her. Anel discovered her path was like so many other entrepreneurs and that together they were stronger. In the end, the love you give each other is more powerful than you can imagine.

 

Her parting advice to others, “Give something a deadline and then it’s easy to do. Sounds simple but with a community behind you, anything is possible.”

 

• Issues Faced

Unsure how to scale business
Employee Mindset
No Plan
 

• Solutions Found

Joined ESS
Micro schools focused on key skills
 

• Results Produced

Focused Direction
Employer Mindset
Successful Facebook Testimonials
5 New box orders
 

• Anel's Contact:

Genius U: https://www.geniusu.com/users/1413230
Date Box Factory: https://www.dateboxfactory.co.nz/