Written by Julia Day
The beauty of completing a law degree at the UNE Law School is that it gives students and graduates a myriad of career choices. After being employed at a law firm whilst doing his degree Duncan realised he ‘did not want to run someone else’s race.’ Instead he aspired to build his own business from the ground up. Duncan notes ‘even though working as a solicitor was not for me I have never regretted completing my law degree. I use it every day!’
Duncan started his law degree as an on-campus student who resided at St Alberts College. After three years he decided he wanted to make a move and pursue other professional roles. He changed his enrolment to an online student and moved to Melbourne in order to undertake wheat trading. This experience opened his eyes to food markets, futures and the food bowl of the world. Duncan notes he was able to ‘travel overseas, pursue career opportunities and live in both Lennox Head and Melbourne whilst completing his law degree.’
After a time, Duncan decided to undertake another professional challenge and found a job in a marketing agency. After completing his law degree he decided to enrol in a MBA (Masters of Business Administration) at UNE. During this time Duncan met Sam who would later become his business partner. They not only became great mates, they also found they had complementing skill sets.
Over the past couple of years Duncan and Sam have been building their marketing business Morelly from the ground up. Duncan was motivated to establish this business when he realised that many of the marketing tasks he undertook whilst working in a large agency environment could be systematised. This makes marketing strategies more accessible for small to medium businesses.
Duncan with his partner Grace
Utilising Duncan’s legal and marketing experience and Sam’s IT expertise, Morelly assists businesses with domain hosting, building websites and the management of all digital assets. Duncan notes that businesses need a good online presence in order to be heard above all the online noise.
Sam defers to Duncan for everything law related within the business. Duncan’s legal knowledge has helped him build up the business and embrace other revenue streams such as Referral Agreements. He also has a good understanding of the general obligations of directors and Contract Law which is important when running a small business.
Duncan and Sam will always be eternally grateful for the assistance the Smart Region Incubator (SRI) has provided them as a start-up business. The SRI is located in the UNE Business School and its existence has allowed them to start their business with low overheads. The SRI has given them access to a wide community of professionals who have been able to help them establish their business. Just one example of this is Brent Gregory, who is a lecturer in the UNE Business School. Brent has provided Duncan and Sam with accounting mentoring and assistance.
Congratulations Sam and Duncan on all your past and future successes!
