Mount Gambier’s Jess Tresidder built a business while still at school, is one of SA’s 40 Under 40 – and now she’s changing the way small businesses work.
At just 21, Jess Tresidder already has an impressive résumé. She’s run multiple small businesses, completed a double degree, been named one of SA’s 40 Under 40 of 2026, and also took home this year’s Inspiring Future Leaders Award.
But it’s in her current role as an AI educator and consultant that she’s making the biggest impact.
So far this year Jess has run around 140 workshops – almost all through word of mouth – helping small businesses use technology to cut repetitive admin and spend more time on the parts of the job they actually enjoy.
Her favourite way to explain it?
“AI means that a small-business owner can get their Sunday afternoon back,” she says.
She’s also showing regional young people something else: that where you grow up doesn’t have to define what you can achieve.
A business before bedtime
“My last name’s Tresidder, and you can’t find that on a keyring in a shop.”
Jess was 16, and still at school in Mount Gambier, when her personalised keyring business took off, and she found herself packing orders until midnight. The Etsy store she’d set up eventually shipped more than 100,000 orders to 327 cities.
These side hustles weren’t new.
Jess had been running what she calls “hobby businesses” since she was 14, but the keyrings were the first at any real scale.
“I realised I was solving an issue,” she says. “There were a lot of people who just wanted something that was personalised to them.”
She credits much of her success to a willingness to simply start.
“It doesn’t matter if they fail. It’s just a way of learning.
“It’s something I’ve learned and kind of taught myself as I’ve grown up.”
What her fast food job taught her
Then there was her after-school hospitality job.
“You learn a lot of those soft skills that set you up for life,” she says. “People skills, the importance of emotional intelligence, the importance of communication, how to work with others. You use all of those every day for the rest of your life.”
But she made sure none of it cost her at school.
“Usually they say if you’re entrepreneurial, you’re also not really good at school.
“Once I’ve got my mind set on something, I’ll do everything in my power to get to said goals.”
Jess finished Year 12 with an ATAR of 97.85 and a Governor of South Australia commendation, then moved to Adelaide to study a double degree in business and cognitive neuropsychology at UniSA.
The two fields go together better than people might assume.
“In marketing, you learn a lot around consumer behaviour and how people behave, and sales psychology and how people buy. They’re actually very closely interlinked.”
Giving businesses their Sunday back
As generative AI emerged, Jess quickly became the person people turned to with questions.
“I thought, this is another way that I can help a lot of those regional businesses and people,” she says.
Her workshops focus less on flashy technology and more on practical ways to save time.
“AI will never replace people, but it can replace systems. It can do the invoices, update the CRM, go through and triage their inbox and write them a to-do list automatically on what they should tackle on Monday morning.
“It’s all of those tedious, manual – dare I say ‘boring-as-hell’ – processes that small business owners are bogged down by.”
She’s also realistic about the technology.
“I’ll never force anyone to use AI,” she says. “But you at least need to be educated on what it is, the risks associated with it, how it works and how it can impact you.”
Closing the regional gap
Living in Mount Gambier has shaped the way Jess works.
For many regional business owners, attending workshops in Adelaide means taking several days away from work.
“Unless they take off three days in a row to go to these events in the cities, they’re often limited by their postcode,” she says.
So she takes the workshops to them instead, and also runs plenty online.
“We live in a digital society. We are able to make accommodations for people who are regionally based, so they can remain in their community and don’t have to move just for employment or future options.”
Her long-term business goal is simple.
“Decreasing the AI education gap – whether that be between the regional people and the cities, whether that’s between males and females”.
Be afraid – and do it anyway
Jess’s advice to aspiring business owners is refreshingly simple.
“I think you can be afraid to fail, but fail anyway,” she says. “It’s unnecessary to put that pressure on ourselves to not be afraid. If we can be afraid to fail, but know if we fail anyway we can learn and everything will be okay, then it takes the pressure off.”
The same goes for young people growing up outside Adelaide.
“A lot of young people automatically assume this belief around themselves – that because they’re regionally based, because they’re not in the city, that limits them from doing what they’re interested in doing.
“It’s a really sad limiting belief.
“Don’t let your postcode or your circumstances define your future.
“You do have to back yourself, but it makes it a lot easier if you’ve got a community and support backing you as well.”
How to back small businesses
Small or family businesses make up around 98 per cent of all South Australian businesses, employ 40 per cent of our state’s total workforce and contribute $49 billion annually to our economy.
Jess says supporting them doesn’t always mean having to spend money.
“It can look like sharing their posts on social media. Paying full price rather than asking for a friend discount.
“It looks like being there when they’re absolutely going through it. People think, ‘Oh no, you’re a business, you’ll be right’ – but business owners need support too.”
What’s on during Small Business Week
Running from 17-21 August, Small Business Week celebrates the contribution of SA’s small and family businesses while offering practical support through in-person and online events.
This year’s theme is ‘resilience’.
It opens with the Small Business Expo at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Monday 17 August, where 9News finance editor Chris Kohler gives the keynote and a panel of owners talk through what’s actually working.
After that there’s the Raising Capital 101 online session, and webinars on employing your first staff member and accessing vocational skills. Other sessions cover the state brand, export readiness, commercial leases, and the future of food and drink.
Plenty of it runs online or across metropolitan regional hubs through Community Partner Events, and on-demand content is available from the website and will be released each day of Small Business Week.
Your year-round small biz backup
The Office for Small and Family Business also provides year-round support, including:
- Subsidised workshops and mentoring through Small Business Fundamentals
- Support for digital capability, AI and cyber security
- The Women in Business program, including FoundHer grants for women founders
- Free, confidential mental health coaching for owners through NewAccess and Be Well Co, with upcoming workshops this month in Loxton
- Business and marketing plan templates, plus advice on hiring and finding new markets
- A Small Business Infoline for anyone who knows they need help but not what kind
Regional owners can also be put in touch with a local business support officer and their regional development organisation.
Explore the full Small Business Week program and register here.
