Lilly Wright moved to Australia 11 years ago. Born in Malaysia, the 35-year-old has been in Ballarat for six years and launched her Malaysian and Indonesian kitchen, Flying Chillies, three years ago.
The business began as a market stall before moving into its own cafe space. Wright has since scaled back to a pantry where she also offers cooking lessons, a decision she says is more sustainable and realistic in the current economic climate.
Tell us about an average week for you
Working nonstop, seven days a week. You wake up at 7am, get ready, go to the cafe at eight, prepping [food], finish up, cook some more at home, do some paperwork, and sleep.
It’s the job that I’m good at and that I know I can do. But you also understand it’s going to be hard work. I would prefer to work less.
My vision has always been about holding classes, because I enjoy teaching people, but I think when you have a cafe, you just want to make it work, and you want to make money and you want to make sure that you are able to pay yourself and all the bills. So you need to open day and night, and we need to do the market because it’s going to bring in good cash, so it just never stops.
I find that it’s very hard for me when there’s so many elements going into [the business]. So that’s why I made the decision to focus on the classes and markets. The cost of living is high so people are not eating out that much and are not spending that much any more. We want to educate people on saving more money by cooking at home.
What are the major stressors for you right now?
Every fortnight I need to go to Melbourne to stock up and it’s always costing me $400 in petrol and $2,000 in ingredients. Malaysian and Indonesian ingredients in Ballarat are really limited. The price of food is increasing as well. Everything is expensive nowadays. Even soy sauce is expensive. Rates are increasing every single year, insurance is increasing, and it’s all just adding up. So I am always thinking, OK, how much money do we need to make to sustain ourselves? I haven’t found the answer yet.
I’m always thinking about what the [Ballarat] council can do to help small businesses. A lot of people say the first year is the hardest and then it’s going to get easier but so far that’s not the case. I think a lot of support is given to businesses that are already successful. But why not support all these small businesses so other people can know about them as well?
Are you better off than you were three years ago?
In some ways, yes. It feels better – you’ve gone from having a marquee to a permanent space, so you’re growing and evolving and you get a community that supports you which is amazing. I couldn’t survive without that. But it’s been challenging, especially financially.
Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
No, I’m not optimistic. It’s just a very uncertain time. You never know what’s going to happen in the next six months or year. Financially, not only for the business, but for yourself, and it’s just mentally challenging as well.
For example, if you need to seek help for your mental health, or a chiropractor because you’ve been working long hours, it all costs money just to keep you healthy. I’m just thinking, what can we do to at least reduce that cost? If your body isn’t working, there’s no money coming in either. It’s really hard to be optimistic in what you’re doing because there’s not enough holistic support to help mentally, physically and financially.
Do you think life was better for your parents than it is for you?
The struggle was different then. All my family members, they all have government jobs and they are financially secure, so they don’t need to worry about anything else.
For me, because I choose to have my own business, the struggle that I have is different. But I love having my own business because I’m more passionate about that and I’m more passionate about mentoring other people as well. When I feel like, OK, maybe I chose the wrong business and I’m still not sustained, so that’s why I don’t have kids yet, then I think – you know what, I’ll just try and have kids and whatever will happen will happen. You try your best, try to make it work, and just let go and see what happens next.
Where do you get your information about current events?
Social media plays a very big part. Very big. And it has a big impact on the business itself. A lot of information is around how the hospitality industry is working, the struggle, but nothing much is positive, you know, and that makes you a bit anxious because it just doesn’t make sense for us to be miserable.
Who will you vote for in the next election?
I support leaders and policies that protect the small businesses and prioritise women, migrant women and women’s issues like cheaper IVF. That’s really important.
I’m thinking about voting Green but I was hoping they would do more for small businesses and not only focus on the environment. I’ve always been pretty set on the Greens. But I haven’t seen much change [from them] in the last few years. [The] Liberals seem OK nowadays when it comes to small business.
What could the federal government do to make your life easier?
I feel with the federal government, more funding for small business would be great, because I couldn’t find any funding on how to grow your business. If there is, they’re always like $5m, and I think, OK, that’s unreasonable. How about a smaller one to help us initially?
