Iyia Liu, the 23 year-old founder of Waist Trainer and Luxe Fitness has joined forces with e-commerce whiz Gretta Van Riel to give female entrepreneurs advice.
Liu and Van Riel, founder of SkinnyMeTea, are offering online courses to help women in business get ahead from next week.
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"When I was starting Waist Trainer, all the way up to maybe two years in, I had no one to talk about how to run a business with and since then I've met so many girls in the exact same boat as me," Liu said.
"I went over to Melbourne recently and met up with Gretta and we were talking about how so many people ask us the same questions over and over, so we thought we would create this platform to help people out, and provide them with all the same information we get asked."
Liu and Van Riel connected on social media, over their similar business journeys.
Van Riel started SkinnyMeTea at age 22, growing sales to $600,000 per month. She then went on to found lifestyle business The 5th Watches which sold more than $100,000 worth of product in its first day of sales and $1 million of sales - in one day - on its first-year anniversary.
Waist Trainer catapulted Liu to online success, earning $3.5 million in just 18 months after investing $6000 to kick-start the business. Liu later launched Luxe Fitness which sells protein powder and apparel which has been endorsed by the likes of Kylie Jenner, YouTuber Shannon Harris and Emilee Hembrow, sister of Instagram fitness blogger Tammy Hembrow.
'How to Start, Run and Grow your own E-Commerce Business from Scratch on a Budget' will be the first course offered, followed by a second on how to leverage social media. Liu said online courses will cost $590 and run through a range of topics including how to set up business framework, creating a website, marketing methods and how to generate international growth.
"I want to help people get their mentality in the right place to be able to start a business," Liu said. "I find it really satisfying to answer people's questions."
The community Facebook page 'Girls in Business' has received 11,000 members in two weeks and includes other well-known businesswomen, including Deanna Yang from Moustache Milk & Cookies, XO beauty founder and YouTuber Shannon Harris and Georgia Wright from clothing brand Peppermayo.
"We want to provide this community with as much value as possible, we want to see other young business owners succeed," Van Riel said.
Liu launched her website to provide a free business resource for aspiring business owners and will blog her thoughts and business advice on a new website and a new clothing business in September.
Van Riel and Liu will host a community meet-up in Auckland on July 27.