ZÓ Personalised - Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year

Company: ZÓ Personalised, Sydney West, NSW Australia
Entry Submitted By: The Audacious Agency, Gold Coast, Australia
Company Description: ZÓ personalises exquisite glassware with initials in an elegant and minimalistic way. Give the perfect gift, take your corporate event to a new level, or show all your wedding guests how important they are by offering monogrammed glassware.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year

Nomination Title: ZOE SEYMOUR - ZO PERSONALISED

Zoe Seymour is the founder of start up - ZÓ Personalised. She creates unique and exquisite glassware with initials/names in a timeless and elegant way. She worked three jobs while studying full time - working and studying every day, and all weekend, she still got good marks, but was exhausted and wondering if there was another way to be successful. After completing university and being inspired by the people she met doing her entrepreneur degree, she realised she wanted more than to work for someone else.

One of her three jobs was working in a bar. She noticed the value of personalisation in everyday items. The people who ordered the top shelf spirits in the beautiful glassware also had personalised phone covers and keychain accessories. Personalisation was definitely trending. Listening to the many murmurings about business ideas, app developments, and entrepreneur projects in the pipelines from her university peers, she wanted to start her own business personalising top-shelf glass/crystal ware.

In 2018, despite a few hurdles, determined to find a cost effective way to roll out her business idea, she found a process that’s become her proprietary approach. She launched Christmas 2018 and by 2020, was turning over almost $250k.

The past year has been massive for Zoe. ZÓ Personalised hit the $1m mark in revenue, all while operating from her lounge and garage.

The business has grown to employ two people - Zoe and her mum, who has supported her from the beginning when so many others doubted her vision.

The reception from key influencers has been pivotal in her incredible growth in the past year. Influencers such as Tammy Hembrow, Steph Claire Smith, and Sammy Robinson received the glasses as a gift and raved about them.

A major eCom brand bought the glasses to send to all their major influencers as an end-of-the-year thank you, exposing ZÓ Personalised to a bigger audience, without having to pay influencer fees. With so many influencers posting about the product, awareness of Zoe’s business grew rapidly - her instagram exploded to over 22k followers.

F21 was a year of great learning for Zoe as she learnt how to protect her copyright. As a young entrepreneur, she has had many copy cats, including someone who replicated her product and services.

Zoe took an everyday product and through her social media marketing and promotion, she made people care about glassware and created a desirable product. In a short time she has grown her following to over 22k on Instagram.

Zoe will build on her Australian success and has plans to expand internationally - almost every cent she has made through her start up has been invested back into the business, gearing it for growth.

Starting a new business at 23, Zoe has been on a steep learning curve over the past three years. Her success is underpinned by her tenacious attitude that even in the face of negativity, she backed her self to start her business. Now with a turnover over $1m, she has plans to launch internationally. She will take what she’s learned, adapt these learnings and launch globally.

Increased cash flow has given her space to be creative, and she is creating a new range. She’s currently working on a range of glassware that makes wine, champagne, and whiskey taste better. There is science to tasting, so she is working with engineers to perfect the glassware. She also plans to engage specialists to help run the business. The first few years in business, she was completely dedicated to setting things up. Now that the foundations have been laid, she has time and resources to expand her reach.

Zoe has teamed up with the second biggest hospitality business in Sydney and with exciting things planned post-Covid to make their business stand above the rest and do what no one else is doing.

Expansion plans will continue, as she expands to employ more staff and goals to move into a warehouse. The increased cash flow also gives her space to experiment with fun marketing ventures, like giveaways - during the first lockdown in Australia, she gave away a genuine Cartier Love Ring.

Please see attached links to Zoe's website and Instagram page - you can see the effort and time she puts into presenting her products. As a new entrepreneur, Zoe has been working hard over the past three years, focusing solely on learning how to run and grow an eCommerce business. Up until this year, she was doing this herself - building a million dollar turnover business - and didn't have the capacity to pursue media opportunities or other awards. This is her first award entry since starting business in 2018.