Wordsmith Lane

Notebook: Doing it for themselves

Published in Notebook:, February 2010. Copyright Sarah Ayoub 2010

Becoming your own boss takes a lot of hard work, imagination and self-belief – with a good dose of risk thrown in. Five women behind burgeoning businesses share their journeys along a steep lurning curve with Sarah Ayoub.

Cristina Re, 39, launched her stationary brand in 1997 after working as a wedding photographer. Her range now includes over 300 products, sold in stores across Australia, and she recently opened her flagship store and tea house in Collingwood, Victoria.  

“Art and illustration were always my passions. Both my parents understood and believed in my budding creative talent and sent me to art school in Italy at an early age, and later, after studying at Swinburne University of Design, I went on to found my own business immediately after graduation.

Despite not having any business experience, I had a very firm vision of what I wanted to do, and I knew I wanted to be my own boss. With lots of ambition and imagination, and some work experience in design agencies and on wedding shoots behind me, I found it easy to take the leap.

I never doubted my creative work, but I was my only critic and I doubted myself about some of the business and financial decisions I made from time to time. I was educated to be an artist, not to be a business person, so sustaining my own business for over 12 years, with 20 staff and selling to hundreds of stores has certainly been testing but rewarding. I have a lot of support from my parents, staff and fiancé, which help me believe that you are only as good as the people around you.

I faced the kind of obstacles that most young people in business face in the beginning – issues of cash flow when you first start up and then soon after once the business is growing and you need to supply major stores with product that you need to invest a lot of money in. I worked from home for a number of years, working several part-time jobs, including shooting weddings on weekends and working very long hours.  I took a lot of risks and chances but that was the only way to get ahead.

Early highlights were seeing my products displayed in Australia’s department stores, but celebrating the launch of my first store with a big party on my birthday, and  presenting creative craft workshops on the 9am Show with David and Kim have been one of the greatest highlights to date.

Over the last decade I have focused on building my business in Australia and New Zealand in order to lay solid foundations for the future, growing cautiously over the years after learning the pitfalls of growing too quickly from others.

I have current plans to expand the brand internationally, as well as expanding the range from stationery to lifestyle, home interior and fashion products. The scope is endless to develop beautiful objects that inspire people.

When one makes a life doing something they love they will ultimately succeed because passion is the overriding emotion that drives someone to work hard to achieve their goal. I also believe it is important to use intuition rather than knowledge in many cases, as we ultimately know within us what is the right path to take”.

Sarah Prout, 30, Director of Sprout Publishing, established her company in 2008. She uses the internet and social media as a business-promotion platform that helps inspire women to grow and develop their own businesses.

“At 14, I was labelled ‘Hallmark’s Youngest Designer Worldwide’ for creating a range of wrapping paper that was printed internationally. This gave me my first taste of the amazing feeling of creating something from scratch and watching it succeed.

I’ve done lots of different things but for as long as I can remember; I wanted to create a brand. SPROUT was created out of all my different experiences of trying to find the right path and my fascination with inspirational business stories, and the idea behind it is to spark off creativity through publishing and through social media strategies. I like to teach people how to flaunt their enterprises and celebrate their success in order to inspire others.

One of the biggest issues for me [when launching] was time. I needed to strike a happy balance for the sake of my children. As mothers, we tend to spend all of our time focusing on the children and not paying attention to our own interests as much as we should, but one of the bigger rewards I have found from balancing business with motherhood through time management is the awesome sense of empowerment.

The growth of SPROUT over the last year has been largely to do with utilising social media   as part of my marketing strategy. In just one year SPROUT has released a book, launched 3 eBooks and built a loyal following of fans on Twitter and FaceBook.

I also just started to branch out into speaking to small groups of entrepreneurs about how to use Twitter for business. This has been very exciting and the media opportunities that have [come my way] have been the biggest highlights.

As an entrepreneur and full-time parent you have to have the ability to self-motivate [which] can be very challenging at times. The lows are the days when it all seems like too much work, but as time goes by, I’m learning to ignore the little voices that tell me I can’t do something. One of the most wonderful things that I’ve noticed with some of the high-profile businesswomen that I’ve interacted with is that they still have the same fears and doubts that everybody else tends to experience. It just goes to show that there is always more to learn no matter how you define success.

One of the things I love about life is that everything expands. I’ve always noticed that as soon as I achieve one thing there’s another goal to work on straight away. Create a business based on what you love to do: it will be a lot of hard work but it also adds so much excitement to your life when you see the progress you make. Use social media as an excellent tool to boost your business, [but] put your personality out there a little in order to achieve results. It’s all about people, not corporate facades, so you have to employ a slightly different strategy [to succeed]”.

Paris Cutler, 36, purchased Planet Cake in 2003. In addition to making a massive variety of couture cakes, she now offers cake decorating classes, and has expanded the business to operations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Asia.

“When I was young, my best friend and I used to set up shops outside our houses and haggle, so it was always a dream to have my own business. But after finishing my studies, I became a corporate drifter, and the highly paid professionals I’d encounter would tell me that if they had their time again they would [do things over] but were now trapped in mortgages and private school fees and felt it was all too late.

What kept me from owning my own business was the belief that I needed to come up with a unique ‘idea’ – but you can buy a funeral home and turn it into something incredible with the right staff and your unique take on the business – which is something I did when I started the cake decorating school to train our own staff and address the skill shortage in the industry.

The second thing was that every business story I ever read – with the exception of Branson – was overwhelmingly positive, with $2millon turnovers in the first year and the like. Such stories made me feel like a loser when I first bought Planet Cake, but the fact of the matter is that most of these are glossed over PR, and the best source of business advice is chatting with a small business owner about the truth – including the mistakes and the rollercoaster ride.

When Planet Cake went through its dark days, people pounced and argued that I didn’t know what I was doing – these low times made me careful to only talk positively about my work. But there have been massive highlights – like making Celine Dion’s 40^th Birthday cake and being serenaded by her as a thank you.

The great thing about running your own business is that you’re in the driver’s seat. I love my job and I enjoy making cakes for my clients’ important celebrations and sharing in on their lives. I get huge satisfaction from training the next generation of cake decorators and [through the marketing budget] I am able to support charities that I believe in.

However I cannot relax because there is always something to keep me working overtime, and my mind is always with work. Some days I just wish someone else would take care of it all for a day, but I have excellent staff and I am getting there.

I think if my parents had been business owners I probably would have not been so daunted and it would not have taken me so long to make the leap.  But now that ’m in the mix, not much has changed since running shops at the top of my driveway!  My staff call it the ‘Planet Cake juggernaut’ because every day it grows and heads in another direction. The market is constantly changing so you need to be flexible, but you should never take you eye off the prize – whatever that is for you”.

Jessica McKenzie, 26, used her obsession with 1950’s fashion to launch her vintage-inspired label, Pretty in Pink, at Bondi Markets in 2003. She now operates through five different outlets, and sells her products to stores around Australia and internationally.

“Ever since I was a little girl, it was always a dream to have my own business. I was always enterprising – whether it was selling cakes outside the house I grew up in, or taking custom orders from my school friends for clothes to wear on the weekends. It just came naturally to me. Then, after finishing my studies in fashion and working in the fashion industry for 4 years, I felt I was confident enough and ready to take it all on.

Pretty In Pink started out as a little table stall at the Bondi Markets, but has now expanded to over five outlets. There have been many highlights – like travelling around the country in 2003 to promote the brand at Agricultural shows, launching the website, opening my store in 2006 and selling my products on TV.

I funded my business venture by working full time during the week, then working at the markets over the weekend. I started small and gradually the business grew, but time has always been an obstacle, even today. There are always going to be lows in any business, but we must all learn from them and strive towards making things better for the future – If something doesn’t work, you learn from it, improve it and start again.

If you are thinking of taking the plunge and starting a business, get as much experience in the field that you want to get into as possible. There is no greater way to learn than to experience firsthand. Get [the basics] right in the beginning by doing lots of research, only take on what you know you are able to handle, and get a graphic artist to design your logo and brand signatures for promotional material and advertising.

Most importantly, never lose sight of your goals. As time goes by you must always be reinventing and evolving as a brand. Your customers are demanding and will want to get excited about something new and innovative all the time, so you need to be on your toes. For a business to be the leader in its field, you must always be one step ahead of your competitors and your branding.

Launching my brand has made me feel empowered and proud and hopefully I can inspire others to take the plunge. It has changed my life in a way that I can’t ever see myself working for someone else in the future. I love what I do, and I am learning new things everyday.

My brand is an extension of my love for innocence, simplicity, femininity and fun.  People love my products because they are nostalgic and feel-good.  Whenever someone steps into my store for the first time, they can’t help but smile – and seeing that brings great joy to my life”.

Gina de Brita worked in agriculture, marketing and employment all over Queensland and Victoria before launching her coffee company, Numero Uno. She now presides over the award-winning business from her coffee house in Sydney.

“I started Numero Uno after answering an ad for a marketing guru for a boutique coffee roaster in Melbourne, moving from Queensland with my daughters, and later becoming the company’s distributor in Sydney.

I felt there was such a big gap in the market for specialty coffee companies. The large commercial companies didn’t seem to be doing anything personal or specialised and this is where I knew my strengths lay and so my journey began.

Not really knowing the Sydney market was an obstacle. I overcame that by joining every association and business network group, and attended coffee expos and sponsored industry events, so that I could build a broader network of relationships.

Looking back I’ve realised up until now that all my working roles involved communicating and negotiating with people. The greater variety of people and situations I was exposed to, the more I gained in knowledge and understanding of just how critical clear and open communication is in order to achieve success, no matter what the industry or sector type.

I’ve always tried to balance my work and family life, but at times it’s been very difficult.  I’ve always searched for better ways [when things go wrong], and if something is not working at home or in my work life I will make the necessary changes until it comes back to being harmonious and workable for all.

All this definitely set me up with the skills to run my own business and I learn something new every day.  Above all, I appreciate the importance of building relationships and that they take time, respect and have to be nurtured.

To this date Numero Uno have six very unique coffee blends, but the Picasso will always be my first born – it caters for the entire menu, suits the most discerning palettes and has won many awards over the years through Sydney Royal Fine Food and the annual Golden Bean competitions.

I have an insatiable appetite for business. I have a dream to expand overseas but before that I want to somehow reach and inspire other women and teenage girls through my experiences in life.

Although there was probably criticism, I never really listened to it and I never had any personal doubts. Don’t listen to anyone negative, because if your heart is deeply willing to do something, I know from experience you can do it.  Keep saying that it is your vision, and it will crystallise.

Make sure do your research and get all the right advice and information. Stay fit, focused and committed to the goals, remember that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and always be honest and willing to learn.

Numero Uno has gone from strength to strength since its humble beginnings in my garage.  I look back sometimes and I can’t believe how far the company has come.  I am just where I want to be, and more importantly, thoroughly enjoying myself”.