Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. I’m your host, author, editor and the founder of The Grace Tales Georgie Abay. Today I’m kicking off a special mini-series where I’ll be interviewing female small and medium-sized enterprise founders. As someone who 10 years ago, left her dream job to launch a small business, how to start an SME is something I love talking about. Mostly because it’s really, really hard. But like all hard things, it’s worth it. And to take the leap, we need support. So think of this series as your support – and I hope that what you hear in these conversations might inspire you to launch that side hustle. So currently, 30% of businesses in Australia are owned by women – and that number is rising. I’m always interested in how these women actually get going in the first place? What happens when they suffer a crisis of confidence? And what’s it like running your own business?   These are all the questions I’m going to ask and I’m very excited to be kicking this series off with the amazing co-founder of furniture and homewares brand McMullin & Co Alice McMullin. A mother of two, she’s four years into her business – and why it looks like it all flows like clockwork from the outside, she’s worked hard to get where she is. There was the time her showroom was flooded. The time she lost all of her stock in a fire. And the time she was almost ready to quit, but invested her last 10K into a trade show. It turned out to be one of the best business decisions she’s made. She also used to get up at 5am with her baby and do a bread run to earn extra money while she was getting the business off the ground. So, it’s safe to say, founding her own business has been anything but straight-forward. Which is why I love the brand she’s created even more. I know you’re going to be as inspired by her determination, passion, and creativity as I am.   Now before we get started and meet Alice, I wanted to share that I’ve written a book called Best Laid Plans. It’s my most personal piece of writing to date, but I’ve also brought in the wise words of many of the women and men I’ve interviewed over the last few years. It feels really quite wonderful to have all the lessons I’ve learnt over the last few years – and actually a lifetime – in one book. There’s not a lot I don’t cover – love, loss, birth, motherhood, career – and I ask the question – what happens when life doesn’t go to plan? What do we do next? I hope you all read it and would love to hear what you think. Writing a book was a rather enormous undertaking, but I’m so happy it’s out in the world.   Ok, let’s meet Alice!   Visit mcmullinandco.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.