A young couple is beginning to taste the sweet success of owning their own business and hope to inspire others to follow their own dreams.
Claudia Parry and Cooper Ellis, both 20, are the driving forces behind Beyond Honey. Their business venture started as a hobby in February 2019, and when they both lost their jobs due to the pandemic, they began kicking it into full gear.
“We’ve always had a passion for environment … and we wanted to own our own business; that’s always been a dream of ours,” Ms Parry says.
The couple began researching beekeeping, quickly learning the importance of bees on the environment and how commercialisation has taken the “nature” out of honey.
“We’re more interested in sustainability, ethical practices and being different and that’s something we wanted to bring to business,” Ms Parry says.
Wanting to avoid sugar-feeding and chemicals, Ms Parry and Mr Ellis were busy looking for options to harvest 100 per cent raw, natural, unprocessed and untreated honey.
“We then saw the flow hive system, where you literally jar it at the hive; you turn a tap and the honey comes out,” Mr Ellis says. “At the end of the day the product that you get is pure.”
Ms Parry and Mr Ellis build their own hive boxes from their Peregian Springs garage and find local property owners happy to host the bees on their land. Since September they have grown from 10 hives on one property to 60 on four.
They say the flavour and colour of the honey depends on what flowers are pollinating at the time.
“You can taste the different nectar sauces, so at the moment there is blue gum and clover,” Ms Parry says.
Mr Ellis says one has a caramel, toffee flavour and the other is light and sweet.
With no tertiary or business background, they hope to prove to other young entrepreneurs that it is possible to follow their dreams, if you are willing to put in the hard work.
“It doesn’t always go right but that’s part of business,” Ms Parry says.
“If you sit down and you do your research and you take your time, it’s incredible what you can achieve,” Mr Ellis says.
Visit beyondhoney.net
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