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<\/a>Revitalising a community\u2019s social fabric was never a life goal for young caf\u00e9 owner Ana Koutoulas. With resilience akin to a tardigrade (google it) and an intuitive creativity for interior spaces, it\u2019s no wonder that when The Glass Onion Society opened its doors as an espresso bar and vintage clothing boutique in late spring 2011, the long forgotten town of Long Jetty was put on the map. Five years on, \u2018The Jetty\u2019 is a hub for creatives and entrepreneurialism, with a thriving commercial strip of cafes, boutiques and unique, independent retailers. Ana also works on the side as a stylist for many a collab and is a reluctant guru when it comes to fashion. She sets her own pace when it comes to trends and harnesses her personal style with chameleon-like instinct \u2014 she dresses to suit her own mood. It is this \u2018go your own way\u2019 mantra that inspires her muse-worthy-ness and is also proximate to our hearts at Bohemian Traders. I had the privilege of speaking with Ana about her alternative approach to navigating the small-business-owner landscape, why she loves dressing people and how she stays motivated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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JO: Tell me a bit about ‘The Onion\u2019s’ story and how it came to be.<\/p>\n AK: In 2011 I went on a holiday overseas. I travelled around London, Ireland Scotland, Wales and ended up in Greece. I visited some family there and while I was away I just decided I wanted to open up my own place. After that 2 months of travel I decided that was exactly what I was going to do. I gathered a lot of inspiration, while I was away, from different places we visited. Two days after I got back I found the location I wanted to do it in.<\/p>\n JO: What was it specifically about Long Jetty that made you want to do a caf\u00e9 here?<\/p>\n AK: Well, for one: it was really cheap and all we could afford. And two: because it was a bit of a dead spot really. It was in between the ocean and the lake and there wasn\u2019t really anything happening there. And I guess my partner Ben and I really hoped that we might be able to help revive it if we gave people something to stop for. \u2018Cause really it was a bit of a ghost town that people just passed through, which was a shame because Long Jetty has a lot of cool old buildings and geographically is in a beautiful location.<\/p>\n JO: Some research I\u2019ve done lately suggested that a community\u2019s top three most visited, or used, places are schools, hospitals and cafes and I was thinking how all of these are quite vital in their own way, and cafes might seem like the least important one on that list but they offer a meeting place for people to connect. How has it felt to grow something like that in Long Jetty? Was building a community \u2018meeting place\u2019 part of the motivation to start something like this?<\/p>\n AK: Well for us there wasn\u2019t any caf\u00e9s here, so we did see the need for that. However, I think because Ben and I had grown up on the Central Coast our whole lives, and a lot of our friends were constantly leaving town to go create something interesting somewhere else, because the Central coast is renowned for being a bit boring and there\u2019s not a lot to do, our mission was to create something worth hanging around for that we could enjoy sitting in as well. Of course hospitals are a necessity for a community\u2026 and schools, but I do think being social and having a place that people can meet and enjoy with each other is a huge part of growing a community, definitely. And in this particular suburb there wasn\u2019t that and the suburb wasn\u2019t growing. It has been quite astonishing seeing how many people also identified that need and appreciated that we did open up. We\u2019ve been busy since the day we opened our doors in 2011.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Periwinkle Sequin Dress<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n JO: So The Glass Onion is 5 years old? JO: I know in the beginning it was just you and Ben working here, how many staff do you have now?<\/p>\n AK: We have 22 staff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Strappy Marrakech Dress<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n JO: Have you ever owned a business prior to The Glass Onion?<\/p>\n AK: No I\u2019ve never owned another business. I did have my own little, self- funded, well, I suppose it was a business in a sense. I would make jewellery and sold quite a bit to boutiques across the Central Coast for a time there and that was really enjoyable and I loved being creative and getting my work out there. But really other than that, no.<\/p>\n JO: Did you ever do a business course?<\/p>\n AK: No. I actually did enrol in a business course and then a month later I just opened the business. I never did the course in the end.<\/p>\n JO: And paid for the course? [laughs]<\/p>\n AK: And paid for it. Non-refundable, in fact. Quite regrettable, really. [laughs]<\/p>\n JO: Most people when they\u2019re going to start a business take the logical route, you know, they might do a business course, do up a business plan, crunch numbers. Is that, in your opinion, where people go wrong with start-ups? They try to go too logical with it all? Rather than moving sideways into something, they take the long road.<\/p>\n AK: I don\u2019t think there is a right way to do it. I think we did do it unconventionally. I had an idea. I went travelling. I felt inspired. And I made the idea happen within three months. From getting off the plane, to finding the building, to opening our doors it was about a three month period and we\u2019ve basically been making it up as we go along for the last five years and I don\u2019t think that that is necessarily a good way to do business, or the right way, but it is my way. And it has worked to a degree and I feel like we have achieved something. Maybe not all of our goals, but we\u2019ve certainly achieved a lot of them. I kind of don\u2019t mind doing it that way because it keeps things interesting and it means there\u2019s no right or wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Strappy Singlet in White<\/a> \/\/ Resort Monaco Maxi Skirt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n “I don\u2019t think there is a right way to do it. I think we did do it unconventionally. I had an idea. I went travelling. I felt inspired.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n JO: Very true. AK: Look I think its 50:50. They go hand-in-hand. Running the business can be really challenging, but I think when it does get quite challenging, the best way for me to have a breather from the business side of things is to be creative. I\u2019ve really tried to not let that side [the business] stifle my creativity. So, after I\u2019ve done a days work and all the potentially mundane or boring things, I call them \u201cmy chores\u201d, I might stay back after hours and redecorate the caf\u00e9, or rearrange everything, or get creative somehow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Periwinkle Sequin Dress<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n JO: Aside from your passion to create spaces that have a nice feel to them and people can enjoy, I know that clothing and fashion is also a passion of yours, and that you love dressing people. What draws you to it?<\/p>\n AK: I love seeing the enjoyment in the person when they feel good in what they\u2019re wearing, and a lot of people know what they like but they don\u2019t know how to necessarily put it together. Or they don\u2019t even know what they like but they want to feel a certain way and I just get an immense amount of enjoyment in bringing that out in someone. You know, they might want to look fun and flirty or they want their creativity to come out but they\u2019re feeling quite drab. I really enjoy helping them achieve that \u2014 that feeling that they\u2019re after, helping them express it through their clothing.<\/p>\n JO: So you think there\u2019s a psychological link between how people feel and what they wear?<\/p>\n AK: Definitely. I think even in terms of things like Colour Therapy and the colours that we wear and how that makes us feel. Or we\u2019re feeling a certain way and therefore we reach for a particular coloured shirt subconsciously. You know, as an example, you really want to wear that pink dress and you don\u2019t quite know why. I definitely think that all those things are completely intertwined.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"l2\"](\"http:\/\/journal.bohemiantraders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/L2-1-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>Photography: Jozef Oldfield<\/strong>
\nWords: Jessica Oldfield<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"l6\"](\"http:\/\/journal.bohemiantraders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/L6-1-300x200.jpg\")
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\nAK: It\u2019ll be 5 years in November.<\/p>\n![\"l7\"](\"http:\/\/journal.bohemiantraders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/L7-300x200.jpg\")
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\nSitting here in the caf\u00e9 I can see all the beautiful furniture and the art and all the interiors, which are obviously your touch and your creativity, is that side of things, the creativity, harder to prioritise when you have the \u2018running\u2019 of the business to maintain?<\/p>\n![\"l5\"](\"http:\/\/journal.bohemiantraders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/L5-1-300x200.jpg\")
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