Fragrance aficionado Nicole Eckels launched Glasshouse Fragrances in 2006 from a spark of imagination and a belief in the power of fragrance to transform the everyday.  Since its launch nearly a decade ago, Glasshouse Fragrances has quickly grown to become a leading brand in the Australian fragrance market.

Born and raised in New York, Nicole got her start as a Makeup Artist at SACS Fifth Avenue. After a stint in San Francisco in Corporate Business and Sales, Nicole recognised she needed a new challenge and flew to the sunny shores of Australia with her son, looking for a sea change. It was in Australia that Nicole says she found her true calling.

While shopping in David Jones to replace a beloved candle purchased in New York City, Nicole couldn’t find what she was looking for. Noting both the high end brands from Europe, and non-fragranced low-end brands, Nicole saw a clear gap in the market and out of that moment, Glasshouse Fragrances was born.

Glasshouse Fragrances is now the leading fragrance brand in David Jones and has grown to become a local and international favourite. More recently, the Sapphire Group extended their brand portfolio with the launch of Circa Home, continuing Nicole’s quest to meet the needs of every consumer.

To this day, Nicole remains passionate about self-belief and determination, and it’s her mission to assist those who believe in themselves to reach their potential by sharing practical advice and experience. She advises entrepreneurs to remember starting a business is a marathon, not a sprint: sustained hard effort and work over time equal results.

When she needs a little extra inspiration, Nicole remembers her favourite quote: Figure out what you love doing, and then dream up a way to make a living doing it.

Find out more at www.glasshousefragrances.com.

Pearl Chan has a vision – a healthy home for everyone. When she had this initial vision, Pearl believed that a total redesign of basic home care was needed in order to improve the wellbeing of our health, community and planet.
Pearl created a solution in the form of Resparkle, a 100% natural, safe and effective organic cleaning range that is made affordable by reducing packaging. Resparkle goes beyond mere home care products, Pearl’s ethos for her business is that it is a way of empowering people through the opportunity to make small but positive change to their everyday lives.
Pearl’s favourite things about running her own business are being able to pursue something she truly believes in, making choices that are in line with her values and using the business for greater good. On the flip side, what’s the most challenging? Keeping the faith when things get tough, she says. It can be a lonely journey that takes up your entire emotional and mental space.
Her number one piece of business advice is, Know your “Why”. You have to believe in yourself and your vision. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing as this will take you through the tough times. Never ever give up!
Originally from Singapore, Pearl’s family continue to be extremely supportive to her while she runs the business. Her husband is her sounding board for when things go wrong and when there is success to be celebrated!
Pearl was inspired to support Global Sisters as she has had her own experience of starting a business from scratch. She is honored to impart some of her knowledge and inspire less advantaged women to pursue their dreams and gain financial independence.
Find out more at resparkle.com.au2

Alex Riggs has always loved working in design and with colour and fabrics. Her background in screen printing and product development for major brands helped to set her up with core skills for her career, but she always felt driven to use her personal creativity to start her own business.
12 years ago in Sydney, Alex launched Oobi, the boutique childrenswear and accessories label. It all started when Alex took a pitch at Glebe market with a small design range for children. The range was an instant sell out and that was the spark for bigger things to come.
For Alex, the great thing about being her own boss is steering the business and her staff in a direction that supports her ethical position. This has allowed her to dedicate significant time, resources and creative input to supporting charitable works, NGOs and special needs kids. It is this ethos which led Alex to become a Global Sisters Ambassador.
Feeling part of a world beyond the brand and their customers is an integral part of driving Oobi for Alex and her staff. The Oobi ethos is about making people happy and this is reflected in their fun and happy designs, great customer service, events and the community.
In her spare time, Alex loves to travel and her trips overseas inspire much of her creativity, such as trips to flea markets where she finds retro clothing and design books.
Her favourite inspirational quote is ‘I Have a Dream’ by Martin Luther King,
Find out more at oobi.com.au

Mirabai Winford has always been inspired by nature, believing the natural environment is one of our greatest treasures and nurtures our health and wellbeing. When her first child was born, Mirabai’s value for nature deepened; she searched for clothing that was organic and gentle for her newborn’s sensitive skin but was unable to find many options. She discovered other parents on the same search and so she was inspired to find a solution – Purebaby was born.
For Mirabai, one of the greatest challenges of running her own business is keeping the balance between her work and home life. But despite the long hours, one of the best things is being able to have a sustainable and ethical business practice where she knows her staff, working in India, are treated well and love what they do.
Her top piece of advice for another woman starting a business? Trust your instincts, do your research and make sure you have as much information as possible to plan and execute.
Outside the Purebaby office, Mirabai is a dedicated wife to Sanjay and mum to Samara (15) and Oliver (8). Her family are a constant source of support and she hopes her children will adopt the dedicated work ethic she has tried hard to instil in them!
Mirabai feels passionately about supporting Global Sisters; being able to share all her business learnings with socioeconomically disadvantaged women, to help accelerate their business ideas and dreams. She believes that to come from a position of disadvantage but have the courage and passion to pursue the dream of running a business and achieve financial independence, is incredible.
Find out more at purebaby.com.au

Kate Sutton has always been a creative person, but it was a serious health issue that took her from her previous career path to where she is now: designing jewellery as the head of her own jewellery label, Uberkate.
Kate was enjoying a successful career in television when a stroke revealed a benign brain tumour. While surgery was successful, she had to consider lifestyle choices carefully for the future. Kate designed jewellery as a much loved hobby and decided to sign up to an evening class, making earring hooks. Earring hooks! She says it sounds so simple yet is very complex. And from that moment, she was hooked on metal.
With no commercial training, Kate has created a successful business and much loved brand which has been running for more than 10 years.
Kate says she designs with passion and with heart, and that’s what every person shows when they ask for bespoke pendants, key chains and cuff links. Kate is driven to make everything as beautiful as she can for her clients. As her clients show love for special people in buying her product, Kate ensures that love is returned, not only in the piece, but in the packaging and the chain, the finish – everything.
Kate is honoured to be a Global Sister Ambassador and to support, nurture and evolve her mentee, Yasmin. She is passionate about making grassroots change to the lives of Australian women who may not have the opportunities that she has been fortunate enough to receive. Seeing and supporting other women in business, bringing out their inner creative is her inspiration – she can’t wait to see what Yasmin does next!
Find out more at uberkate.com.au

The Cristina Re range boasts over 500 products of the highest quality which are sold to over 1000 stores around Australia and the world. Her company has sold in excess of $5o million in product sales over the last two decades.
Cristina Re is an impressive combination of artist, stylist, author, TV presenter, photographer, motivational speaker and entrepreneur. Cristina has appeared on a variety of TV shows presenting her products and showcasing her talents. Her strong business acumen has enabled her to successfully grow her company from its small beginnings to market leader for 20 years. Design aficionados, stylists, an established celebrity clientele and lovers of all things beautiful seek her unique and beautiful designs.
Cristina has a mission to educate woman on the importance of nurturing our wellbeing, mentally, psychically and spiritually by indulging and surrounding ourselves in beautiful things that make us happy. She has been asked to speak about her unique and inspiring success story to thousands of women at large scale corporate and charity events over the years, and she has succeeded in influencing, motivating and manifesting change which has become her life mission.
Cristina continues to support numerous charities, especially when it comes to helping woman, children and animals, and is seen as a mentor to many for her kind and generous nature and willingness to help others.

Diem Fuggersberger is a Vietnamese businesswoman who has experienced the true highs and lows of running a business. Her unique story is inspirational and a testament to Diem’s strength, skill and spirit which has seen her go from losing a $27million business to bouncing back to launch a specialist food business, Berger Ingredients. All the while bringing up two children!
Diem and her husband lead Berger Ingredients’ team to deliver innovative food ingredients and nutritious children’s meals.
Leaving Vietnam as a refugee when she was seven years old, Diem and her family came to Australia with nothing; not even a word of English. But her parents instilled ‘old fashioned family values’ and a positive work ethic in Diem and encouraged her to be determined and take risks.
Diem has been faced with numerous challenges in her life that have made her grow as a person. She compares the loss of her business to becoming a refugee again; starting from scratch. Diem has a steadfast belief that having faith and working hard will ultimately lead to positive karma and reward.
Her favourite things about running her own business are putting her passion into practice, being able to work with her family every day and giving back. She believes that everyone should be treated equally in life and at work and this is integral to who she is as a person.
Diem’s top piece of business advice? If you believe in something and there is a mountain to climb in order to reach success – keep going, be determined and follow your heart.
Diem is honoured to be supporting Global Sisters as the work is close to her heart and reminds her of her own life journey. She wants to offer all the advice and mentorship she can to those who need it.

A passion to unearth the best designs on the planet and share them with a wider audience led Terri Winter to establish top3 by design nearly 15 years ago.
Born out of the frustration of not being able to access a good range of innovative international design products in Australia, Terri took matters into her own hands to deliver this and she now owns five stores (Sydney, Melbourne and online) with 45,000 members.
Despite the long hours involved in retail, Terri loves what she does. She cites her biggest business challenge as balancing the emotional ties with the commercial realities. Her favourite part of running her own business is the flexibility to make her own decisions and knowing the losses and gains are down to her and her leadership team.
Terri’s top piece of advice for someone thinking about starting their own business? Surround yourself with people that are better than you are and remember that delegating is not necessarily about not doing all the jobs you don’t like to do – it is knowing when your skills are better utilised in certain areas.
When Terri isn’t sourcing the best design products from around the globe, Terri is a dedicated Mum to Jay (15) and Zac (12) and wife to Bernd. Whilst work plays a big role in their lives, Terri ensures family time is always a priority.
Terri is supporting Global Sisters as an Ambassador as she wants to offer her support and advice to those women who may not have the same opportunities or backing that she has been fortunate to have.

Find out more at top3.com.au

A childhood spent exploring the Australian bush and an affinity with the healing powers of the earth helped Jo Dampney to develop her successful skin care business, Skin Juice, which has been thriving for more than 17 years.
A proud country girl at heart, Jo has fond memories of growing up on her family property, adoring being close to Mother Nature. As a child, Jo would experiment with mineral-rich clays from the land in her playtime laboratory. She would collect and mix the purifying clays and bottle them as gifts to family and school friends, to be used for face and body painting as well as skin treatments.
As she grew up, Jo continued to expand her knowledge and fascination with the natural healing powers of the earth. For eight years, Jo owned and operated a successful salon with rituals and treatments that focused on holistic and natural choices. At the same time, she struggled to find products that reflected the ethos of her life and her business. So she gradually combined her aromatherapy knowledge with her fascination for plant oils and their therapeutic effects and Skin Juice was born.
Jo’s innovative concept, breaking all the ‘rules’ of skincare with cleansing oils instead of soapy formulas, and night oils in place of night creams, received tremendous support. The success of her business allows her to do what she loves and to share more of her time and energy with her husband Dion and children, Lila and Artie.
Find out more at skinjuice.com.au