What every business I have built has taught me

I did not start in healthcare. I spent a decade in Vietnam in senior leadership at Nielsen, then left corporate life in 2012 to build an events and entertainment company. In 2019 I founded District 360, a registered NDIS provider. Since then I have built or co-built businesses across care technology, telehealth, pharmaceutical wholesale and ecommerce.

They look like very different businesses. They are not. Every one of them has taught me something the others needed. These are the lessons I keep coming back to.

1. Start with a problem you have lived

Every business I have built started with something broken that I experienced first hand.

Running District 360 showed me how heavily administration weighs on care providers, so I built LAMA CMS. Working in telehealth showed me that most platforms were not designed for regulated prescribing, so we built Mediscript360 to power Pure Lyf, our telehealth clinic. Working in pharmaceutical supply showed me how manual wholesale could be, so we built Cannsync to run Darma Fields, our licensed pharmaceutical wholesaler.

The pattern is always the same. Build the operating business, live the problem, then build the technology that solves it.

2. Run it before you build software for it

It is tempting to start with the platform. I have learned to start with the operation.

When you run the business yourself, your requirements are not guesses. You see the edge cases, the compliance traps and the shortcuts staff take when a system gets in their way. Your first customer is you, and you are the most demanding customer you will ever have.

3. In regulated industries, compliance shapes everything

NDIS, telehealth and pharmaceutical supply are three of the most regulated spaces in Australia. Each has taught me that compliance is not a department. It is the shape of the business.

With prescription medicines, you cannot market the way a normal consumer brand does. Advertising rules restrict what you can say, where and to whom. We audit our own websites and social media to make sure everything holds up. In telehealth, prescribing and pharmacy documentation have to be right every time. In the NDIS, every claim needs evidence behind it.

If you want to move fast in a regulated industry, build compliance in from day one. Retrofitting it is always slower and more expensive.

4. Stock is cash you cannot spend

Wholesale taught me this one the hard way. Our first batch was a lesson in how quickly inventory can turn from opportunity into risk, especially with stock that has expiry dates and strict handling rules.

We are recovering from it, and it changed how we operate. We do not commit to volumes we cannot sell, and we plan stock around real demand rather than hope. The same lesson applies in ecommerce. Every unit on a shelf is money that is not in the bank.

5. Traffic is not sales

SNACC Lifestyle, our beauty and lifestyle ecommerce brand, has been my education in how different retail is from services.

In care, demand often finds you through referrals. In ecommerce, you have to earn every sale. You can have visitors and still not have customers. Conversion, product range, fulfilment and follow up matter as much as marketing. Running a store fulfilled from Perth, with a team across Australia and Vietnam, has taught me to look at the whole journey, not just the ads.

6. Know when to merge, partner or step back

Not every brand needs to stand alone. We merged our previous store, Simply Hygge Living, into SNACC because one stronger brand beats two thin ones.

Not every business needs to be run by me either. Some of our ventures are built with business partners who bring skills and licences I do not have. For SNACC, I am setting up a growth partnership on a profit share basis, so the person driving growth shares in the results. Choosing the right structure for each venture matters as much as the idea itself.

7. A team can span countries if the systems do

My years in Vietnam shaped how I build teams. Today our people work across Australia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brazil.

That only works with clear systems. Who does what, where the work lives, how it is handed over and how we know it is done. Distance is rarely the problem. Unclear process is.

8. Not every opportunity is your opportunity

Founders see possibilities everywhere. I am no exception. I have started things because I could, not because I should.

The hardest skill I am still learning is saying no. Before I say yes now, I ask one question: will this make what I already have stronger, or just busier?

9. The hard years are part of the story

In 2023, District 360 went into voluntary administration. We came out through a Deed of Company Arrangement, effectuated in March 2026, and we are still rebuilding. I have written about that chapter separately.

That experience made me a better founder across every business. It taught me to face reality early, protect cash, keep people informed and do the unglamorous work.

What ties it all together

Disability support, telehealth, pharmaceutical supply and ecommerce look unrelated on paper. What connects them is the way I build: find the problem, run the business, build the system, respect the rules and look after the people.

I am still learning. Every business keeps teaching me something new. That is exactly why I keep building.