Michelle Nohotima is no stranger to entrepreneurship. As the owner of a local travel agency in Laurieton, Australia, she has always sought new business opportunities that can benefit her small coastal town. Her latest venture is the acquisition of a 70-year old local news agency that was at risk of shutting down. By buying the struggling news agency and infusing it with her entrepreneurial spirit, Michelle aims to keep this vital community institution running for years to come.
Preserving a Community Legacy
The newsagency had been owned by the same family for over 30 years and was one of the few remaining newsagencies left in the Laurieton area. However, with no one in the family wanting to take over the business, the aging owner made the difficult decision to sell.
For Michelle, buying the newsagency was first and foremost about preserving its legacy and ensuring it could remain a community fixture. As she tells it:
“He put it up for sale because none of his family wanted to keep the family business going, so I bought it, mainly because, of course, I want to keep services in the community open.”
Having grown up in Laurieton herself, Michelle has an intimate understanding of how important the newsagency is, especially for the older residents in town. With the nearest large town 40 minutes away, she realized that losing the newsagency would severely impact many locals’ access to vital services.
Revitalizing the Newsagency
However, Michelle didn’t just want to keep the lights on at the newsagency – she wanted to revitalize it. Despite 70 years of operation, the previous owner had let the business remain stagnant. As Michelle discovered:
“I could see why it wasn’t making a lot of profit. I mean, he’d been in it for 30 years and wasn’t interested in introducing new things. He was just happy with the status quo.”
For Michelle, this presented an exciting entrepreneurial opportunity. She quickly devised plans to completely reinvent the product selection, expand into online sales, and make the newsagency a true one-stop-shop for the community. As she shares:
“I saw immediately that I could scale it up by introducing new lines of products, especially since he does no marketing whatsoever. I knew that with marketing, introducing new products, and making it a one-stop shop, I could probably double the revenue in 12 months.”
Michelle’s first move was to conduct market research by job shadowing at a nearby newsagency. This allowed her to see first-hand what products sold well – valuable insight she is now using to stock her store. She is expanding the magazine selection to include options for kids and families, adding gift items, and even bringing in international newspapers to appeal to local tourists.
The newsagency’s website is also undergoing a complete overhaul and will soon allow for online ordering of customized gift packages – a new service aimed at helping older customers who don’t drive.
Investing in Laurieton’s Future
For Michelle, the business opportunities presented by the newsagency are about more than just profits. All her entrepreneurial efforts have a deeper purpose – to invest back into her beloved hometown. As she explains, “My aim would be, if I can make extra profit in my businesses, a lot of that profit will go towards things like that in the community.”
Michelle has ambitious goals to keep acquiring and scaling local businesses, with the ultimate vision of creating a foundation to help disadvantaged community members. She also plans to donate to initiatives like building housing for the growing homeless population.
“I’ve always had that community focus. My businesses have always donated to different charities. But I just would like to do that on a bigger scale now.”
Michelle Nohotima has already built an impressive entrepreneurial legacy. Her latest endeavor – modernizing a legacy newsagency to serve both old and new generations – is just the newest chapter in her continual efforts to uplift her small hometown. Driven by equal parts business savvy and community spirit, there is no doubt Michelle will breathe new life into this beloved local establishment.
To learn more about Michelle Nohotima and her approach, check out her LinkedIn profile here.
