At the eve of Indigenous Business Month 2020, Tim McCartney owner of Wail Nursery -a wholesale nursery specialising in native plants- shared his experience navigating the pandemic and building a brighter future for his business.
He said that the sudden drop in foot-traffic and business offered him and his team an opportunity to reassess their business practices, explore new opportunities and build on their strengths.
“We are not trying to chase 101 different dreams, we want to be focused on the real core of our business and get that right and that’s working for us now,” Tim McCartney said.
Wail Nursery is planning to embark on an uncharted course opening an online store. “Sending plants through the mail presents a whole level of different complexities but that is something that we are looking at launching into in the last quarter of this year; around October-November.”
The company has increased its workforce in the last three to four months and is projecting to grow their manpower by another 50 percent in the next 6 to twelve months.
Tim McCartney says that while the industry relies heavily on casual and seasonal work; he is only interested in providing fulltime, long-term employment and opportunities to his staff and suppliers – most of whom are indigenous.
“Seasonal or casual contract is not good for our community, it is not good to close that difference between household income compared to non-indigenous families.”
