Meet Bianca Lea Hunt, the small business owner of “FLW connect” based in Wollongong, NSW.
Bianca’s business, FLW Connect was founded in 2022, but its beginnings trace back to 2018. She offers services and products to help improve wellbeing and build skills in workplaces. She addresses personal and workplace issues to promote inclusive practices and create culturally safe and supportive organizations. Moreover, she supports businesses to achieve their full potential by creating a workplace where employee, clients and community feels valued and supported.
“My business coach, Shelley has provided me with all the support needed to effectively run my small business. She is always around to keep me on track, listen to my ideas and shares valuable training links and has also been a participant in my pilot workshops. She has been an amazing mentor who has given me guidance with respect to all areas of my business.” – Bianca Hunt
Read more about Bianca’s business journey so far:
Bianca’s Business
My business, FLW Connect was founded in 2022, but its beginnings trace back to 2018. That’s when organisations started working with me to create and deliver tailored training, support reconciliation practices, provide cultural support and supervision, and facilitate family group conferencing. These efforts aimed to improve culturally inclusive environments and services and this journey of two years helped widen my opportunities and pursue self-determination and eventually start my own family business, FLW Connect.
Through my business, I offer services and products to help improve wellbeing and build skills. I address personal and workplace issues to promote inclusive practices and create culturally safe and supportive organizations. I support businesses to achieve their full potential by creating a workplace where employee, clients and community feels valued and supported.
What were you doing before you made contact with Many Rivers?
I have over 20 years of experience providing services and support to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations and communities. My career started in community services, and I then moved into crisis support, supervision, suicide prevention, cultural safety, engagement, teaching and assessing, and consultation. I have a lot of experience in training, supporting reconciliation, managing organisational change, and promoting workplace cultural safety.
I enjoy working with change agents and creating innovative partnerships, and passionate about volunteering in community, I was president of the board for a not-for-profit organisation in 2023 and an Inaugural member and Chairperson of a Reconciliation Action Plan working group for a crisis service, I also danced on stage for Stars of Wollongong 2022 to raise funds for the cancer council.
Over the last 12 months, three projects that stand out to me would be the research project with UOW MIND the GAP where I delivered my tailored suicide awareness training to over a 100 participants in the south coast who identify as Aboriginal or work with Aboriginal clients, the training was evaluated and the research paper is currently in the process of being published. I also worked with Reconciliation Australia to provide cross-cultural coaching and I travelled to Mildura to support an Aboriginal service by providing training and individual and group cross-cultural supervision.
Why did you want to go into business?
I am a Gumbaynngirr woman with Barkindji (Broken Hill) kinship and community ties to the Latji Latji (Mildura) community and I’ve held many different roles in the past, and I started providing support outside my initial job descriptions which showed me there was gap in organisations that wanted to improve inclusive and culturally safe practices to not just recruit but also retain Aboriginal Employee’s and increase cross-cultural knowledge and understanding when facing challenges, I felt as a business I was able to independently support organisations and reduce the cultural load of on current Aboriginal employees and provide insight and strategies to management and executives. I felt confident with the appropriate mentoring and my experience and contracts I could start my own company that was 100% Indigenous owned and supply nation registered.
As a mother with seven children ranging from 13 to 25 years old, I wanted to continue being a role model for my kids demonstrating autonomy and self-determination was important to me. My goal is to improve cultural safety and psychosocial well-being through my business, both for myself and for other businesses I support. I’ve created coaching programs, training, alternative dispute resolution options, partnerships and strategies to help organisations.
I aim to provide solutions to my clients so they can better support their employees, clients and communities they are apart of. It’s my passion to put my strategies into action with like-minded organisations and support the journey they are on as they will face challenges. I’ve also partnered with business women, one from a refugee background and together we train for culturally safe environments and communities, enhancing cultural safety from both First Nations and multicultural perspectives and the other supports sustainable development practices.
Working with Many Rivers
My business coach, Shelley has provided me with all the support needed to effectively run my small business. She is always around to keep me on track, listen to my ideas and shares valuable training links and has also been a participant in my pilot workshops. She has been an amazing mentor who has given me guidance with respect to all areas of my business.
Did you get a loan from MR? How did you use the loan?
Yes, I did, and I invested it to grow my business.
What did you find the most useful about the assistance from Many Rivers?
The most useful part of the assistance from Many Rivers was Shelley’s support. She took the time to sit with me and go through different aspects of my business. Having her there to support my ideas and decisions, and to guide me, was invaluable. Her regular check-ins were also great because running a business can be challenging and there is a huge learning curve in the first 12mths. She helped keep me on track and accountable.
Do you have any current employees? If so, how many employees? Are they full-time or part-time?
I do have two casual employees – Harmoni Hunt and Kyam Pappin.
Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge in the first 12 months was learning how to run a business. I had to improve my skills during that time through training and finding the right people to support various aspects of my business. Now, the challenges are expanding my clientele beyond my current reach and improving my marketing.
Biggest Success
My biggest success was reaching the 12-month mark and still running my business and reflecting on the clients I worked with and products developed and the challenges I overcome. I felt proud of my perseverance. I won the Illawarra Women in Business Award last month in May 2024 and was also a finalist for the JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Award. The recognition was nice as it showed that I was on the right track. Plus, my children seeing my progress and being a good role model for them is also a huge success for me.
Biggest Change
The biggest change has been the positive impact on my work-life balance and flexibility.
Future Goals
I want to increase my products and services, especially around cultural safety. I aim to support more services through my cross-cultural coaching for management and executives, suicide awareness training, cross-cultural alternative dispute resolution and helping organisations identify gaps. I want businesses to know that I help both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff, management and executives and by supporting cultural safety and wellbeing practices you will improve recruitment, retention and branding of the company.
Thank you, Bianca for sharing your business journey with us. We wish you the best of luck with future endeavours and business success.
If you would like to stay updated with Bianca and her small business, follow “FLW Connect” through the following links:
Website: https://flwconnect.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flwconnect/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090212360248&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flwconnect/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY%3D
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