Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/76572
ving ... your customer's experience in your premises can be the difference between them settling in and ordering another drink and dessert or leaving straight after their main. "I HAVE THIS FUNNY little habit whenever I am out for a meal … I always have to go and check out the bathrooms!" says Rachel Tabb, Managing Director of Bubble Interiors, a Tauranga-based interior design practice specialising in hospitality, retail and office design. "To me the state of these say a lot about the importance the cafe/bar/restaurant owners place on their customer's overall dining experience. To some this might seem trivial, but for any business owner your customer's experience in your premises can be the difference between them settling in and ordering another drink and dessert or leaving straight after their main, the difference between them returning or not, and recommending you to their friends or not." Rachel is often bemused by the number of business owners who believe that their clients wouldn't want to see them 'wasting' money on their business premises, that it would make their clients think that they were paying too much for your product/services. "If you wanted to sell your house would you choose an agent driving around in the latest 4×4 or one driving a banged up old Laser? Your business premises offer the first impression, the cover of the book, from which your clients make a judgement on your business." With a Bachelor of Design from Unitec, Rachel launched Bubble Interiors in 2010 with fellow honours graduate, Anja Lee. After graduating Rachel stayed in Auckland were she worked for ASC Architects, Creative Spaces and most recently Jasmax, one of the leading architectural practices in New Zealand; while Anja relocated to Melbourne where she focused on large retail and hotel chains. "I had mostly done commercial office design and at Jasmax I started specialising in workplace strategy, working with bigger corporate clients creating design briefs for environments to support and promote their brand and company culture," Rachel explains. In 2009 Rachel and Anja bumped into " each other pushing buggies in a Tauranga shopping mall. Both had moved back to the Bay of Plenty to be closer to family and were keen to re-connect through their passion for design. With the support of their families Bubble Interiors was born on the premise that the pair weren't "cut out for full time motherhood" and wanted to utilise their creative genes in a business that was flexible around their families. The business's first completed project was the Sushi Time shop in the Bethlehem Town Centre. "An Asian couple had moved up from Christchurch to escape the earthquakes and we were introduced through one of the local commercial leasing agents. We helped them look for a tenancy that would suit them best, then managed the whole process from design to documentation for the council, coordinating pricing and overseeing construction on site." Earlier this year the structure of the business changed with Rachel becoming www.hermagazine.co.nz | 77