How “Fearless Youth Naivety” Helped Brittany Garbutt Start Pretzel

If it's your dream to start your own business after you leave high school, TAFE or university, you’re not alone. In fact, studies have indicated that plenty within Gen Z have these aspirations; around 41 per cent, in fact, want to start their own company.

That’s understandable, especially considering there are a lot of perks to running your own biz. You have greater independence, flexibility and the chance to make a whole lot of cash. Although, if you’ve just finished your studies, you might feel like you’re not old enough to start your own business.

But if you think your age is a problem, think again. As Pretzel owner Brittany Garbutt tells Student Edge, being young shouldn’t stop you from giving entrepreneurship a crack. After all, she founded Pretzel when she was only 23-years-old.

"It was a great opportunity when it came up," she says.

"I was like, I can do that, and I can brand it. And I was 23 at the time, so there’s a lot to be said for fearless youth naivety."

Brittany opened her first Pretzel store in Perth’s Northbridge in 2017. Three years later, Pretzel has five stores in Western Australia and two in Victoria, with a third in development.

Pictured: Brittany Garbutt (supplied).

As Brittany explains, she became obsessed with pretzels while working at a family run pretzel shop as a teenager. So, when her friend suggested opening their own store, Brittany jumped at the opportunity.

"So, I planned to make the first Pretzel and sell it to her family, but then she fell in love with a boy from Canada and moved to Canada, and I was kind of left with this thing all by myself," she says.

"It was truly the worst six months of my life. But by month four I fell in love with the whole thing, so I just kept it."

Having studied creative advertising at Curtin University, Brittany put her branding skills to the test to come up with a completely original design for her flagship Pretzel store. In the end, she landed on using neon pink.

"It’s fun, so why the hell not?" she says.

"I spent so long working for people who were concerned about things getting dated and whether it was reasonable, and who the target audience was. It was kind of a bit of my own rebellion I suppose."

Brittany points out that her age and lack of business education did lead her to make "a few mistakes here and there", but it also helped her come up with more innovative solutions.

"I really wasn’t 100 per cent certain what I was up against, but it helped to be as young as I was," she says.

"You tend to be able to problem-solve a lot better when you’re not trying to follow a formal regiment of how things should be. It helped me have a broader mind about possibilities."

The twenty-something entrepreneur highlights that managing a team of people at such a young age was particularly challenging.

"I didn’t have much by way of life experience that I could lend to managing or motivating people or getting them to love something as much as I do," she says.

"As soon as I decided I needed to make learning to manage them a priority, then that emotional intelligence came fast. I sort of had to put myself in the position of someone who is much older."

Brittany stresses that starting your own business is far from glamorous and holds that you need to be inherently passionate about what you’re selling.  

"When I first started I worked 19 hour days, seven days a week, 365 days a year," she says.

"If you are more in love with the idea rather than the actual physical job, it ain’t going to work.

"Assess what you’re really passionate about, and if you find that, then you can do anything you want."

However, as Brittany tells us, seeing all of her hard work pay off is exceptionally rewarding.

"We’ve had people propose at Pretzel and we’ve seen people make their best friends," she says.

"It’s my favourite part of the whole thing, getting to see them have that fun that I had when I was a kid at that very first pretzel store.

"It sounds really bizarre, it’s just a pretzel store. But it’s so much positivity for so many people."

Header Image: Supplied