Manager, Belmont Business Enterprise Centre
Carol Hanlon's diverse small business experience has qualified her well for the role of Manager and Facilitator at the Belmont Business Enterprise Centre Inc. (BEC) - Small Business Centre Belmont (SBC), Textile Clothing Footwear Resource Centre of Western Australia Inc. (TCFWA) and the designedge fashion incubator.
Having been on both sides of the small business fence, Hanlon is aware of the pitfalls of going into business and offers a blend of solid business knowledge with support from the heart.
The Belmont BEC - Small Business Centre Belmont was started in 1994 and is part of a network of 26 Small Business Centres located throughout Western Australia who offer free guidance and support to new and existing businesses. In 2004 Hanlon was announced the Best National BEC Manager in Australia, a prestigious award and was selected from over the 100 BEC's operating across Australia.
Carol Hanlon's small business background includes fashion design, clothing manufacturing, wholesale, retail and export for over twenty years on the east coast of Australia. In her previous life as a small business owner, she was responsible for the design, production, direction and staging of her own fashion label - which received international acclaim. The fashion studio won the Geelong Business Excellence Award for Manufacturing - under 20 employees, in 1986.
Hanlon held the position of District Governor 1985-1986 for an international Service Club on the east coast of Australia and in this role assisted with projects for the speech and hearing impaired and national projects that highlighted the community service work of young women.
Substantial funds have been raised for charity through the Carol Hanlon theatrical fashion shows. Hanlon has always been a strong community leader. She has been on numerous Advisory Committees including restructuring of TAFE fashion design courses, tourism and regional economic development. In 2006 Hanlon was a nominee of the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Awards - Industry and Commerce category.
Community based projects have included the creation of the Belmont Clothes Library - established in 1996, the first of its kind in Western Australia. The Clothes Library operates the same way as a book lending library. Men and women's clothing and accessories are loaned to unemployed people to wear at job interviews. The concept has been acknowledged internationally as being beneficial to the self esteem of unemployed people - and numerous Libraries have since opened in Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria.
Another community based project instigated by Hanlon is the Textile Clothing Footwear Resource Centre of Western Australia (TCFWA) - established in 1998, the first of its kind in Australia. TCF WA assists persons in the textile, clothing, footwear and leather industries in Western Australia with a focus on fashion and in particular micro-business operators. Special projects to date include trade missions at the Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, Sydney; Fashion Exposed, Melbourne: Singapore Fashion Week and World Boutique Hong Kong Fashion Week. Recently TCFWA has been successful in gaining support from the Commonwealth Government's Building Entrepreneurial Small Business program to extend its TCF small business support services nationally.
During 2004-2006 Hanson coordinated the TCF Australia uncovered project providing business skills to creative women in regional and isolated Australia which had a focus on Indigenous, multicultural and young women and is now working towards the development of an Indigenous Textile Clothing Fashion Industry (ITCF).
Designedge fashion incubator is another community project developed by Hanson, where new emerging fashion designers have the opportunity to showcase their designs to the public and gain experience and valuable market research. With over 70 designers in store, designedge fashion incubator located at Belmont Forum Shopping centre is now the largest retail fashion incubator in Australia.
MultiCultural Business Support Services is another project established by Hanlon where specialised support and workshops have been developed covering topics including Business workshops for Muslim Women and workshops on Understanding Aboriginal Culture.
Other past projects have included specialised business workshops, numerous large scale fashion spectaculars at the annual Perth Royal Show during 1999-2002 and the staging of the designedge - TCF Australia uncovered trade exhibition bringing international buyers and investors to Perth Western Australia in 2003.
See also: Abstract of Carol Hanlon's paper:
Establishing a national Indigenous textile, clothing and fashion industry
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