Greg Fromont, 33, is one-half of contemporary jewellery brand Meadowlark. He features in the last instalment of our ‘In the business’ series with the message: You’ll get out what you put in.
Greg started Meadowlark with his wife, Claire Hammon, in 2006.
He’d been on the artist benefit for a few years after graduating with a Bachelor of Visual Arts when he was offered a Work and Income New Zealand grant to get the business going.
Greg had been denied the grant when he first applied, but after finding a one-year business course at Te Wananga O Aotearoa’s Mangere campus he gave it another shot.
“The more disciplined you are, the better chances you have. But those skills I didn’t learn until my mid to late 20s,” he says.
Ministry of Social Development says of the 250 business training and advance grants given during 2012/2013, 50 went to clients aged between 18 and 34.
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