Viktoria Darabi

Work Mobile: 0415 676 238

Location
Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Penrith, The Hills Shire, Wollondilly

Small business experience
I have more than 30 years of experience as a small business owner and advisor, with a special interest in food and beverage, hospitality, accommodation, tourism, creative businesses, artisanal food, destination and bookable experiences.

My hands-on experience includes business strategy, business idea assessment, competitor analysis, business and product development, marketing strategy, customer experience, pricing, sales, administration, customer retention, and business resilience.  In small business and advisory since the early 2000s, I have supported small businesses owners with practical strategies to startup, manage change and disruption, growth and to exit.

I have assisted businesses with strengthening their offerings, identifying target markets, improving customer engagement, developing partnerships, creating new income streams, and building the confidence to take action.

About
Viktoria combines practical business experience with creativity, strategic thinking and a deep understanding of food, tourism and place-based experiences. She helps business owners clarify their direction, identify opportunities and take confident, achievable action.

Her Master of Gastronomic Tourism from Le Cordon Bleu, combines entrepreneurship, marketing, tourism and gastronomy to help small businesses and organisations clarify their offering, connect with customers, build sustainable income and respond confidently to change.

She has conceived, developed and delivered tourism, food and community initiatives, including Huey’s Kitchen in the Hawkesbury, the Hawkesbury Artists and Artisans Trail, the Hawkesbury Antiques Trail and was co-founder of the I Love Windsor initiative.

Specialties

• Culinary tourism and visitor experiences
• Food and beverage businesses
• Tourism and destination development
• Strategic marketing
• Business growth and resilience
• Community and economic development

Approach

Viktoria takes a practical and collaborative approach, helping businesses and communities identify what makes them unique and how they can build on those strengths. She works closely with clients to develop realistic strategies that support growth, attract visitors and create long-term value.

Strengths

Having spent more than three decades supporting businesses and communities in Western Sydney, Viktoria brings deep local knowledge and strong networks across government, tourism, hospitality and community sectors. She has led and contributed to a range of successful tourism and placemaking initiatives, giving her first-hand experience in turning ideas into projects that benefit local businesses and communities.

Mission

Viktoria is passionate about helping communities showcase their local identity, support small business and create vibrant places where people want to live, work and visit.

What is your role at WSBC & how long have you been with us?
Started as a COVID Business Solutions Advisor in June, 2020 and then in June, 2022 moved to Specialist Disruption, Tourism, Food and Beverage and Marketing Small Business Solutions Advisor

What qualifications and business experience do you have?
Viktoria holds a Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism which integrates Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Tourism and Gastronomy. In practical terms she has strategic management and marketing skills to leverage local gastronomies for economic sustainability and business profitability. She is also a US James Beard Foundation Scholarship recipient.  

Over three decades she has been a small business owner and contractor working on marketing and critical thinking skills with SMEs in the food and beverage services, tourism, hospitality, culinary tourism and events space.

Her specialty is helping organisations to harness products, services, experiences and trends – translating them into profits. She does this by helping them amplify their passions, skills and stories through events and marketing strategies that excite existing and entice new customers.

She has a keen eye for current and future trends in Tourism and Gastronomy and blends a marketer’s mind with an entrepreneur’s spirit. Her special interest is integrating the power of AI into everyday marketing strategy, innovation, problem solving, brainstorming and operations.

Her workshop topics include: Supercharging Your Marketing with AI, Marketing Strategy and Innovation Using AI, Emotional Connection Marketing and AI, Side Hustle to Small Business Marketing and AI, and Marketing Your Skill Set in the Gig Economy and AI, and 12 Ways AI Revolutionises Your Food Business.

Viktoria advises businesses affected by disruption: natural disasters, competition, new technologies, infrastructure or globalisation. She is a member of the Parramatta Civic Square and Powerhouse and Bradfield City Community Reference Groups. She founded the Hawkesbury Artists and Artisans Trail, Hawkesbury Antiques Trail and co-founded of the ‘I Love Windsor’ campaign and website.

Viktoria is an Accredited Mental Health First Aider and also holds BEC Australia Advisor Accreditation.

What is the best part/your favourite thing about your role?
People, people, people!! Helping passionate small business owners who understand that running their own business while all-consuming, is also a privilege and to treat it as such. Being able to share my knowledge and experience to help small business owners think critically and strategically about the what, where, why and how of their business. To give them the practical marketing skills to problem-solve and achieve their ‘grand vision.’

What do you find most rewarding when helping small businesses?
When a small business owner understands that to be successful marketing as an everyday occurrence, just as they do day-to-day operations and that innovation is a constant consideration in a dynamic and trend-driven world.

What is your favourite inspirational quote?
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

What is the best piece of advice you can give a potential or existing business owner?
Think critically and strategically about every what, where, why and how of anything you plan to do from a customer-centric perspective. Nothing else matters.

What is your favourite thing to do outside of work?
Visiting artisanal food and drink places anywhere in the world, speciality grocers, farm gates, tasting new foods, learning about food trends, spending time with my grand-children and cooking (for it is love made visible).

What’s your favourite line to use as an ice breaker when meeting someone new?
What are your top 3 ‘guilty pleasures.’