An entrepreneur has rubbished the stereotype of Australia being the land of the fair-go claiming she never would’ve been able to start her business without her parents. 

When Ashlee McGonigle, 18, from Ourimbah, on the NSW Central Coast, had an idea for her business when she was just 15 in Covid lockdown, she turned to her parents. 

‘I just thought why not give this a shot, I have the time,’ she said.

‘But I obviously had no financial advice or anything. I had no education in where to find the information for that, nowhere to start or how to raise funds.

‘That’s why I am so grateful my parents stepped in.’

The founder and designer of Sandy Rose Designs said her business ‘probably’ wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for her parent’s financial help.

‘They started me with $5,000 and that’s when I started building my website and started organising all my products and samples,’ she said.

‘It eventually turned into a $15,000 loan from my parents just because I kept adding products and products kept selling – I just needed to get some money to help me get a bit more ahead.’

The university student (pictured) said she borrowed $15,000 from the bank of mum and dad to start and grow her business. She admits she ‘probably’ wouldn’t have a business if they didn’t loan her the money

In just three years, the 18-year-old went from starting with her parent’s initial $5,000 loan to selling over a whopping $100,000 worth of inventory and shipping worldwide.

But Ms McGonigle believes the economic climate has made it even harder for Aussies to start a business without parents helping.

‘At the moment, I’m not sure how else other people are finding funds,’ she said.

The successful designer is well aware not everybody can rely on parents and is a strong supporter of better information being available for start-ups.

‘We need to encourage more education on financial support just so people aren’t afraid to step forward and start that business that they’ve been thinking of doing,’ she said.

Ms McGonigle noted that resources for entrepreneurs had improved drastically since she started her business. 

A new report by Australian tech unicorn Airwallex found a staggering one in three start-up founders across the country are being financed by their parents. 

Airwallex ANZ VP of growth Matt Sek, told Daily Mail Australia that although people have always borrowed from the bank of mum and dad to help start businesses, there’s been a noitceable shift.

‘Given the macro-economic environment (it’s) not surprising that this would be an increasing trend of founders looking outside of traditional funding and financing,’ he said.

‘What was surprising was the magnitude of one in three founders – that is something that is, from my perspective, unprecedented.’

Mr Sek said Aussies didn’t ‘necessarily’ need rich parents to succeed in business and believes information is more important – but admitted ‘it does help’.

‘But the biggest thing that we found was actually (founders) not knowing where to get resources – who to speak to and really be part of a community,’ he said.

Ms McGonigle thinks the economic climate it is even tougher now than when she first started her business. The teen knows people will be finding it hard to get their idea off the ground if they don’t have parents that can help (pictured one of the products by Sandy Rose Designs)

And not being aware of where funding is available can create a ‘brain drain’ in Australia.

‘My view is that it’s already happening in the sense that a lot of high potential start-ups in Australia, especially in areas of fintech and climate tech, are already looking at tapping into international investors,’ he said.

Mr Sek believes the high reliance on the bank of mum and dad is caused by entrepreneurs being ‘lost’.

‘It’s not that the investment is not available, it is making that connection point,’ he said. 

‘It seems relatively trivial, but it’s not something we have solved particularly well compared to other markets, like the US.

If entrepreneurs do rely on their parents, Mr Sek warns it is unsustainable moving forward.

‘While the bank of mum and dad may be useful to fund a small idea to get it off the ground, I don’t think businesses are able to sustain and scale just relying on a single funding source,’ he said.

AirWallex created a free community for start-ups in May where members can access financial education and grant advice.

Some 1,200 Aussies have already signed up.