Risking it All
by Anita Beaumont,
The Herald TV Guide,
published Friday, 23 May 2008
Business expert Shivani Gupta brings her street smarts to the table to help new small businesses get off to a good start in this new four-part reality series.
As host of the show, Gupta acts as business coach to the brains behind each of the four fledgling businesses profiled.
Having been through the highs and lows of starting up her own business, Gupta hoped to help people avoid some of the pitfalls.
"Getting involved in the show sounded like a really great thing to do considering 82 per cent of small businesses in Australia shut within the first three years," Gupta said.
"People lose a lot of money and a lot of sanity and relationships in the process.
"I thought having been on that journey myself in starting up a business and knowing how challenging it was, maybe it would be a really good thing to host it and be able to hopefully entertain but also educate at the same time."
Gupta said she made it clear to each business owner that her job was to coach and guide them, not fix anything for them.
But she had been pleased that they had put her ideas into practice.
Gupta, who is releasing her book Passion @ Work in conjunction with the series, hoped the show would speak to those who were either already working for themselves , or those who were thinking of packing in the day job to follow their dreams.
"If somebody's thinking about going into small business I'm hoping the show will say to them, 'Stop, draw breath, be excited about what your doing but make sure you're doing it for the right reasons'."