Jacob Hansen

I led Budgy Smuggler’s first store outside of Sydney, Australia, managing a high-performing team and driving community engagement to grow brand presence and customer loyalty within the Newcastle Region. Budgy Smuggler Newcastle became the best performing store the first summer we were open, the skills I learned from this role include staff and time management, KPI reporting, executing and achieving community driven marketing goals.

My position with Black Sheep marketing allowed me to develop my interpersonal skills through hundreds of face-to-face conversations, building rapport, listening, and communicating with potential customers all day. It has helped me develop the skill of setting and meeting sales targets and KPI’s.

Two years’ experience as an Assessment Officer at the Rural Assistance Authority under the Department of Primary Industries, assessing applications for financial assistance from those agricultural businesses impacted by fire and flood natural disasters. Managing clients through stressful and traumatic periods to help them access assistance.

I was selected to participate in the Start mate Student Fellowship, reflecting a strong commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation and allowing me to build my experience in business start-up and operations. The program helps connect the student fellowship cohort with successful business founders.

Working within a fun hospitality environment handling retail sales through the Shortland Hotel bottle shop and bartending outside of bottle shop hours. This gave me experience in managing stock levels, customers and their queries and sales. I really enjoyed connecting with patrons and ensuring they experienced great quality service.