Business thrives when supported by clients. But for some business owners, there is nothing like support from the dearest person in their life. This Mother’s Day, four women share what it’s like to work side by side with their mums.
WHAT IS IT THAT YOU AND YOUR MUM DO?
Olivia Bezett: We’re both artists. My style is realistic with little surreal elements in coloured pencils. I’ve always loved drawing animals and that’s my main subject. My mum, Josephine Davis, started with representational works inspired by light and water and recently developed into more whimsical, nature-inspired artworks. She also likes hiding little surprises in each painting for people to discover.
Tracy Baird: For the past 21 years, we’ve owned City Cake Company – a bespoke cake shop in Mt Eden Village, Auckland. We hand-make gorgeous cakes using the best New Zealand dairy, free-range eggs and no artificial flavours. I do all the shop and customer management and day-to-day operations, and my mum, Maureen Keen, handles the accounts, website and wedding orders. My daughter, Albertine Jonas, also helps us part-time, though she’s mostly focused on her acting career.
Bianca Nottingham: Named after my sister and me, Bianca Lorenne is a handcrafted couture range of bed linen, home textiles and interior products established in 2005 and now available throughout Australasia. My mother, Alison, is the creative director, CEO and driving force. We call her ‘The Big A’. I’m the manager and spending specialist for our New Plymouth flagship store. I also co-ordinate social media and marketing and assist in the wholesale side of business.
Stacey Venter: We are a mother-daughter real estate team with NZ Sotheby’s International Realty in Taupō.
WAS THIS SOMETHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO DO?
Olivia: With an artist mum and an art dealer, gallery owner and framer dad, I grew up surrounded by art. My brother, cousins, aunties and grandma are all talented artists as well! Though it had quite an unexpected effect on me – I was determined to do something different with my life and avoided any art inclinations up until I was about 16. After one year of doing art at school, I decided to leave college and pursue art full-time. Thank God, I had my whole family backing me!
Tracy: Mum had always been a baker in our family and it was her mum who taught her everything. I used to own a different cafe in Mt Eden and mum helped me with start-up money and business advice. So, after working together for a while, we combined our skills and City Cake Company was born.
Bianca: In high school, I didn’t have much idea about what I really wanted to do. I pretty much just wanted to stay for my last year so I could attend the ball. When a position in the Bianca Lorenne warehouse became available, my mum offered it to me, while my best friend offered to take me to the school ball as her date so everything just fell into place. I would have never thought that this would be my dream career and passion if it weren’t for the push and guidance from my mum!
Stacey: My mother, Annette Cameron has been in real estate since 2001. I used to tag along to her office or watch her at the open homes. I never thought I’d follow in her footsteps though. That all changed in my university years when I was working as a part-time receptionist for a real estate company and a PA for my mother. I obtained my real estate licence right before graduation. Fast forward to 2017, we both ended up in Taupō and joined forces in a mother-daughter partnership.
HOW IS YOUR MUM AT HOME DIFFERENT FROM YOUR MUM AT WORK?
Olivia: Jo is always the same lovely lady, although we’ve always said she’s at her happiest when painting. She can sit for hours and hours and forget to eat because she just can’t put her brushes down! I remember being 10 years old delivering cups of tea to the studio every couple of hours while she was in the zone.
Tracy: At work, she’s a tough, no-nonsense person. But at home, she’s the sweetest and softest mum!
Bianca: She’s very much the same person all the time. Always crafting and creating. We’re all one big family with our employees so can be 100% ourselves and openly share the good, the bad and the ugly.
Stacey: My mum is always bubbly and positive which transpires into her relationships with clients. Real estate is not just a business of selling properties, it is very much about relationships. Connecting with people is key, and my mum is really good at that in both her personal life and in business.
WHAT WAS THE MAIN CAREER LESSON YOUR MUM TAUGHT YOU?
Olivia: To draw what you see, not what you think you see. It might sound strange but has helped me to draw more realistically. The other important advice was to do a drawing every single day, no matter how small, because every single time we draw, we improve.
Tracy: There is a solution to everything!
Bianca: One of her favourite sayings is to never, never, never give up, and believe that if you don’t take a risk and try, you will never know how great you can be.
Stacey: To stay true to yourself and your values.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE WORK AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS?
Olivia: It’s actually amazing and very helpful to have a mum who is in the same industry! I often phone her or send her pictures of my current works and ask for her opinion and she does the same with me. When we lived together, we chatted about art daily and it wasn’t even a ‘work chat’, it was always more about our mutual passion. We never really had to separate work from family.
Tracy: It’s no easy task but we’ve been working together for quite some time already and have ironed all this out. It was important for us to learn how to say ‘sorry’ and move on whenever conflicts happen.
Bianca: We really enjoy working together and get on like a house on fire. If anything, it has brought us even closer. We had to establish a few ground rules in the early days, but having such a fun, easygoing team makes that a lot easier. It’s hard not to bring work home but if one of us doesn’t feel like talking about it, the other will respect that.
Stacey: We are very blessed to have the relationship we have; we’ve always been very close. Merging into business partners happened naturally. We love that we can share so much with each other and reflect on our business together.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MOTHER-DAUGHTER ACTIVITY OUTSIDE YOUR WORK?
Olivia: We’ve been on many adventures together. We’ve travelled overseas and we never skip an opportunity for a ‘work’ trip, such as attending a market to sell our works in Wellington or Tauranga. We also love driving to Gisborne to our family farm. We’ve always had a very special relationship; she’s my best friend!
Tracy: I go to Mum’s once a week for dinner and she has always enjoyed spending time with my twin daughters.
Bianca: Eating good food, shopping and watching a good bit of reality TV.
Stacey: We are fortunate to live only 10 minutes apart, so most days we take time to walk our dogs together. Another favourite activity would have to be shopping. In fact, we often do day trips to Napier just for clothes and home decor shopping!
