Interview

Lizette Vieyra I'm Lizette Vieyra. I come from Mexico, León, Guanajuato. I am the founder of Liliz Lu Studio. It's a studio where I can make different kind of art. 

I make sculpture by different kind of materials, mostly with recycled materials. I'm here in Australia around six years. And when I started my business was four years ago. I make jewellery and kind of sculptures, inspiring me on different kind of animals, the alebrijes. Alebrijes is a kind of Mexican folk art, moulded and painted by my hands with paper mâché.

This kind of alebrijes is very symbolic in Mexico. I think the life push me to make my dream to be artist, to make all my work at home, to take care of my son.

Narelle Sullivan They're absolutely beautiful sculptures that we're looking at in your studio here, and they're so colourful. 

Lizette Vieyra Yeah, I painted and inspired me by different kind of insects, animals, all coloured by this beautiful natural flora and fauna from here. And I paint with acrylic and use varnish to protect them, so it's a beautiful piece of art that can stay for a long time. 

Narelle Sullivan And I can see here that you also make beautiful jewellery, brooches, and earrings. Is that Frida Kahlo that we're looking at?

Lizette Vieyra Ah, yeah, it's Frida Kahlo. I feel very inspired by this lady, she's Mexican.

Narelle Sullivan And were you making these in Mexico? 

Lizette Vieyra Yeah. I make this kind of art, but just like a hobby because I just work in like a graphic design and just make a couple of exhibition and participate in some of the festivals. But when I arrive here in Australia, my hobby turned to business, because my baby born. So here in Australia, I feel like pushing myself to be artist. And this kind of work helped me to support my family. And one of my goals is try to introduce this kind of material, sustainable materials. 

Narelle Sullivan Who helped you to get your business started? 

Lizette Vieyra My son. My husband push me a lot to encourage me and after that I get, uh, support from Gals en Australia, and after that Stepping Stones, SisterWorks. I receive a lot of help and support from different mentors. 

Narelle Sullivan Did you know much about how business operates in Australia before you started your business? 

Lizette Vieyra No, no, it was very different. All the things that to know here in Australia is totally different. I feel a lot of challenge to make my own business.

Narelle Sullivan When you were starting your business, did you have any knowledge around how to create a budget or superannuation or how taxation works? 

Lizette Vieyra No, no, nothing. Just, you know, how to administrate your money and that's all. And the university, I received some classes about the administration and accountability, but that's all.

So when I arrived here, yes, it was totally different. And sometimes it was very confused, but when I start with the classes in the Stepping Stones program, I learned a lot and I think, yeah, I think it's one of the recommendations I can make for everyone that wants to try because you have to know. All the regulation have to be very good, you know… nervous because I am migrant, so I know that I have to do everything okay. 

Narelle Sullivan And were there language barriers that you had to overcome when you were starting your business? 

Lizette Vieyra I think it's most in my mind, but yeah, actually a lot of difficulty, but you can do it even if you don't have the really good English, you can hear me maybe, but I know how to make my work. I know that I love to make my own kind of art and just to share and enjoy this life here in Australia. 

Narelle Sullivan How did you finance the start of your business? 

Lizette Vieyra When I start, just $1,000 from my husband and after that SisterWorks, they offer some jobs for migrant women. So sometimes I take a couple of shifts from them to help me to push more my business. So, yeah, I think all of these ways try to improve all the time. 

Narelle Sullivan What was the best advice that you received when you were trying to start your own business? 

Lizette Vieyra The first thing, the more important for me was the legal, the correct way, because my work, I really know how to make. So my responsibility here in Australia was to start like that.

Migrant Women in Business, they support me to registration my business and also to make my own business account. I remember my first time when I leave my stuff in one of the shops. They tried to copy my work but after that I start to interested more about how can I protect my business. 

Narelle Sullivan Did you plan out your business in the beginning? Did you have a business plan? 

Lizette Vieyra Well... I don't expect to start my business here, but when I start to attend Stepping Stones program is when I start to learn the importance to do this. The business plan, I think is very important. It's a good way to clarify your mind when you have an idea. 

Narelle Sullivan How do you keep yourself motivated through the ups and downs of running a business?

Lizette Vieyra Well, it was not easy, but yeah, I think the motivation came from where you never expected sometimes because this migrant way is hard, but I don't know, just some of my customer or some of the people that know me encouraged me or some of my new customer came and made me feel like, okay, I can still support my family with my business. And I just try to focus on my goals. 

Narelle Sullivan What are your business goals? 

Lizette Vieyra One of my goals is financial freedom. I think it's important for a lot of people, but yeah, it's important for me because living here to don't feel the pressure, to make all the process that we have to do here in Australia, to still living here, to just take care of my son. I would like to bring everything that he needs. Also, I would like to bring support my family in Mexico or something, so... I think it's a great way to feel well. 

Narelle Sullivan Lizette, what changes have you made to your business along the way to make it more successful? 

Lizette Vieyra One of the things is to make my business in two ways. I make my own products, 100% Australian materials. And also, I take a couple of family in Mexico that they make a couple of earrings with different materials. And I just design and they make with team. So, I take this new products from different art designer in Mexico. So, that’s one of the important change that I make.

Narelle Sullivan I know that you have started doing workshops and other things with your business. 

Lizette Vieyra Oh yeah, absolutely. That's another change that I make in my business because my goal is to know the people, to teach the people and involve the people that really enjoy or want to do. Um, yeah, I start to offer the workshop for kids, and they can start to know about the Day of the Dead tradition. It's a beautiful tradition from Mexico. Yeah, I really love to share, my tradition is very important because also my son is learning all my culture. I think we always have to learn new things. 

At this time I still feel that I need a mentor, because all the time the mentor can help you to improve. But always I try to find some support like a mentor from accounting because I'm still learning English. Some things that one of my mentors tells me, if I get another mentor and maybe repeat me the same, but I understand better or something like that.

So yeah, I think sometimes you can find, yeah, different tools by different person or association. 

Narelle Sullivan Did you have some challenges along the way and how have they changed the way that you do business now? 

Lizette Vieyra Well, maybe one of the big challenges can be, like, to make my work in the same time to take care of my son.

But, for example, now I have more time because he start to going to kindergarten, so I have a little bit more time for me and everything change. At the start, I just feel like, uh, what can I do with my son? So, um, I just take a couple of products and I try to find some opportunity to sell my, my products, uh, is how I start.

I remember I knocked on doors a lot of times and I remember my first wholesale was just four earrings. But for me was the, the most happy sales and I feel very, very happy and I just try to talk with different customer and show my culture, my products. 

Narelle Sullivan Is it important for you to connect with other migrant women who are also running their own business?

Lizette Vieyra I feel like I don't have enough time to make network, honestly. But always you can learn. And it's nice to know the different kind of amazing ideas or different business. And also sometimes I can help, or sometimes they can help me with the things that they know. So we support each other. My first key to find all of these opportunities was one group on Facebook called Gals en Australia. It's a big, big group just for women, and they post a lot of very valuable information that can help any woman in different kind of situation. Very valuable. 

Narelle Sullivan What advice would you give to other women around finances or financial resources? 

Lizette Vieyra One of the important thing is separate my personal account to my business account. I found information, not from the bank, just from the Stepping Stones program, and I had another mentor from Migrant Women in Business, and they give me orientation, how build all the accounting things. 

Narelle Sullivan Who or what has been your biggest inspiration? 

Lizette Vieyra Well, my son, my family, my culture. Mexico is my most important inspiration and also help me to keep me in contact with my ancestor, my culture, yeah, all my family. I'm here very alone, very far away to my home, so all the things, all the traditions, very, very different. So, yeah, Mexico is one of the most inspiration for me. 

Narelle Sullivan How important do you think confidence is in starting and running your own business? 

Lizette Vieyra Okay, for me, I think it's the courage to do things because honestly, I don't feel confident in myself all the time. And especially because I speak two languages, so it's hard to speak another language and also try to make a business. Yeah, I feel confident. Most of the time I don't, I don't feel like that, but I have the courage. I have the passion. I have the love and yeah, I just really enjoy to make my kind of work and really enjoy the way that I build to support my family and to enjoy my son.

That is one of the things very important to me. To enjoy all his growing and also my business and hopefully all the dreams from me, my husband, and all my family all together we can win. 

Narelle Sullivan So what advice would you give to other women who are starting their own business around building their own confidence?

Lizette Vieyra I think you don't need to know everything to do a business. For example, I am professional to make my kind of art, but I'm not sure if I'm doing very well in my business. But it's why I recommend just trying to get different kind of support from different association. You can't do it by yourself. So I think it's important to recognise when you can do something and when you can't do something. So delegate some functions and try to, to be focused. 

Narelle Sullivan Lizette, thank you so much for inviting me into your studio today. 

Lizette Vieyra You're welcome. Thank you so much as well. Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias por todo.