Family death catalyst for business innovation

Dannevirke's Rachael Farrell says many grieving families don't know where to turn when there's a death in the family, but her business plan may change all that. Photo/Christine McKay

The shock at the sudden death of her brother-in-law last year has driven Dannevirke's Rachael Farrell to develop an online hub, supporting those coping with loss.

And although her business is still in its early stages, the judges of this year's BCC (Building Clever Companies) Innovate competition have seen the potential and propelled Rachael into the finals, along with Dannevirke's Stephanie Buckeridge.

"The death of my brother-in-law last August from a heart attack was a massive shock," Rachael told the Dannevirke News.

"When your life is thrown into chaos, you go back to the bare bones and all you are trying to do is put one foot in front of the other.

"Everyone feels massive empathy and wants to help the person at the centre of the trauma, who is overwhelmed with dealing with all the day-to-day tasks he used to do, as well as planning his funeral.

"My idea for an online hub where people can go, centres around friends wanting to help and show they care, but not knowing what to do.

"The first question my sister asked was, 'what am I going to do?', but I couldn't answer that question.

"And from our extended family, friends and neighbours came the question, 'how can we help? We don't know what to do'."

Often uncertain about what they should do, people send flowers, and although Rachael said she wasn't against that, grieving families needed more practical help.

"The idea behind my online hub is to have a safe place and a platform where families can go to communicate their needs," she said.

"And even if you've gone through something like we have, you still think, what can we do because everyone is different, as are the needs of every family.

"We discovered households aren't set up for an influx of people.

"All of a sudden you realise, 'gosh, we've got no toilet paper'. With everyone taking showers, we had no dry towels.

"Nothing is normal in that situation, so by helping in practical ways to ease things, the family can concentrate on other things."

Rachael said she didn't want other families to struggle and feel isolated like hers had and she also didn't want their friends to feel helpless.

"Death is difficult, my online tool isn't going to make it go away, but hopefully it can help," she said.

With Innovate a big believer in teamwork, Rachael is working with her mentors, Ian Harvey, founder of professional development network Creative Quotient, and business consultant Lyn McCurdy to move her idea forward.

Rachael has a 4-year-old son and her partner runs an engineering business (she looks after the books), and this busy family lives on a lifestyle block, so the logistics of working towards the Innovate final are complex.

"Being named as a finalist in Innovate, I was so proud. I just about cried," she said.

"It was amazing having people saying my idea was great. That validation was huge.

"It would be amazing if I can add to a way to help grieving families. It would touch so many lives and bring so much good out of a tragedy."

However, Rachael admits it's daunting to still be in the development stage of her business.

"It's scary," she said. "I will have to make a final five-minute pitch to a room of 300 on November 22 and as I'm not into public speaking, that idea is terrifying."

Family are on board too, offering tremendous support and helping with the logistics of looking after her son when needed.