Partnerships can work well in the right circumstances. RCG is a Melbourne PR and marketing firm, headed by brother and sister business partners Belinda Richardson, 27, and Darren Richardson, 25. A partnership arrangement has worked pretty well for them, but they stress setting out clear expectations, a high level of trust and good ongoing communications are critical.

Darren and I had a number of serious talks before we finally agreed to go into partnership. We shared our plans for the future, visions, the sort of work we like doing. We also discussed the negatives: our weak points, bad habits, things that could potentially become an issue one day. First and foremost, we are brother and sister and friends and nothing should ever get in the way of that.

Belinda and Darren made an agreement that whenever there was an issue, no matter how large or small, they would always discuss it and resolve it immediately.

Questions they considered included:

In the past two years, Darren and Belinda have had to address two key issues that may arise in other business partnerships. As Belinda explains:

Business taking different priorities in the lives of the partners. The first was about how much of a priority the business is to each of us. I am a self-confessed workaholic, Darren is not! Our original partnership agreement had been based on a 50:50 split of income and this was not representative of the workloads taken on by each partner.

Belinda was happy to work evenings and on the weekends, as well as attend a lot of functions out of hours on behalf of RCG, give presentations and network, so she would often work 14 hours a day.

We both became a little uncomfortable about this, Darren feeling anxious that he wasn’t putting in the same hours and me that I was doing much more for the same amount of money. We agreed to readjust our partnership agreement so that the income split became more equitable.

The partnership agreement is now revisited every six months to address this.

Hiring the first employee. It became clear that our new business development manager needed one person to report to for clarity. Think about reporting lines prior to hiring staff.

RCG’s partnership tips:

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We believe in growth and transformation for ourselves (the people within our organisation) and our clients.

After attending a life-changing personal development seminar, Suzi went into business with her partner Peter Johnson (PJ), with a mission to offer others the opportunity to learn in a nonacademic environment, too.

I wanted to create a learning environment that nurtured the human spirit as well as a unique work environment for my staff, and it was important for me to make sure that was expressed as part of our business plan.

Pow Wow’s mission and core values are an integral part of the business.

We have them on our website and our promotional materials. That way we are constantly reminded of our values as well as making ourselves publicly accountable. It keeps us on track.


Suzi’s mission statement is:

To build a global community where people can access business and personal development education that sets them free.

Stated values include:

Part of Suzi’s contribution to society is her involvement in the Australian Businesswomen’s Network, whose mission statement is:

To provide business education for women across Australia and facilitate opportunities for them to network, learn and be inspired by role models and by each other.

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Jan Smith

Don't ever think you've missed the chance to create your dream. It’s never too late.

South Australian chemist and naturopath Jan Smith had to start her business again from scratch at the age of 54 when she lost her intellectual property to another company.

My whole reason for being was gone, but I chose to pick myself up. I said to myself, why should someone else stop me from achieving my vision? I know what I’m here to do in this life and I’m going to get on and do it. So I worked seven days a week and pulled myself out of it.

Jan believed so strongly in her dream of creating a whole range of natural skincare products made from herb and flower derivatives — what she calls skin health products — that she has re-built the business, Janesce Enterprises, into an international operation with 20 staff and 136 skin health products. In 2000 she won the South Australian Enterprising Woman of the Year Business Award at the age of 70! As she says:

I’m proof that age is no barrier to success.

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Melissa wasn't quite sure what she wanted to study at uni, so she chose business and international trade as it covered such a diverse range of subjects, from finance through to business marketing. This gave her a broad base from which to develop her core transferable skills and hence opened up opportunities for her to move roles.

My first ‘career’ employment was with a freight forwarding company, a position that directly related to my studies in international trade. It was very process-oriented and administrative and although I developed many essential skills over the three years I was there, this was not the role of my dreams.

I sat down and thought about what really turned me on: snowboarding and street lifestyle. So I thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’ I wrote to all the companies I would love to work for and sent my résumé.

Melissa was more interested in cultural fit than the actual job she did. She moved companies to extend her skill base and seek more enjoyment, typical of Gen X.

I wasn’t so much worried about the job I did, as I felt that the style of company and the brand I worked for would help guide me to the career that I’d enjoy most. I was fortunate enough to find a place with Airwalk, a US-based skate and snowboarding company, in their shipping division.

Melissa’s new role opened up opportunities to try a range of different things and learn new skills, which helped her work out what she really liked doing and had a flair for. Her ‘foot in the door’ led to a role she loved.

As Airwalk has such a small office in Australia, my position description encompassed many roles outside of shipping alone, and I quickly found that I had a flair for marketing, communications and event management. I moved from shipping to marketing, and after five years I was running the marketing division for Airwalk in Australia. The company culture was great and I worked with a dynamic group of young people who were all really motivated and focused on achieving the same result.

True to Gen-X form, after five years with the same company, Melissa had built up her skill base and was ready to move on.

At this point I had my list of job role likes and dislikes, skills and achievements, and I was much clearer on the type of appointment I wanted to tackle next. I had developed the skills to take on a brand management role and when a position came up with Australis in the Creative Brands group I saw it as an opportunity to make a difference to a very well-known cosmetics brand.

The skills she’d developed helped to leverage Melissa into the next role, still maintaining a youth marketing focus but with the opportunity for further growth into new products, including cosmetics, clothing and accessories. She was also attracted to Australis because of the community work they do, particularly with the intellectually disabled and homeless youth through the Lighthouse Foundation.

It really adds to my job satisfaction to know the company I work for is supporting good causes.

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Operate as if where you want to be is where you are.

Paulie Higisson has expanded several times on the same premises since opening Tilley’s Devine Café in Canberra back in 1984, using her great negotiating skills to acquire the space of the businesses around the cafe. (She persuaded a book store owner to go by finding him other premises and then arranging the move!)

I now turn over more before breakfast on Sunday than I used to in a whole week. Business just keeps growing.

Tilley’s began in a vacant dental surgery in the Canberra suburb of Lyneham when, as a single mother and active feminist, Paulie had the dream of creating a safe space for women to relax.

I was aware there was nowhere for women to go and have a drink without being harassed. I knew there was a market out there. I also needed to support my two daughters and wanted to be passionate about the work that I did to achieve that.

While Paulie had only been into a bar twice before opening Tilley’s, she brought many past skills to the venture. With a former career in sound, Paulie leased the best equipment she could with a view to having the best music.

A key differentiator right from the opening of the cafe was live music, poetry readings and exhibitions by women artists (through the strategic deals Paulie strikes, there is no cost to her). As a former public servant, she was able to manoeuvre through the necessary approval process to make Tilley’s the first licensed cafe in Canberra with sidewalk service, and her experience renovating old houses on shoestring budgets came in handy doing the fit-out.

I think it’s really critical for businesses not to overspend on nonproductive areas, like fit-outs. All the furniture in Tilley’s is secondhand.

Paulie created an amazing media stir with the rule she established — at least one woman in a party. (Paulie had checked out compliance with the Sex Discrimination Act with the Human Rights Commissioner.) As a friend said to her, ‘No PR is bad PR — this kind of advertising you cannot buy!’ The venue was in big demand. Four hundred women turned up to the opening of Tilley’s, which then had a capacity of 67. They were ecstatic, Paulie recalls with satisfaction.

We relaxed the rule after two years, once we’d achieved our initial aim of creating that safe space. In some ways the business has grown organically. I didn’t set out with a great master plan, although I’ve always managed according to my vision of what I wanted the cafe to be. I have a great instinct for what my customers want. Women need a safety valve, they can come here with the kids and get babycinos. People often come here to work in a different space, so we provide power points for computers and mobile phone chargers. There’s no surcharge and no minimum charges. You can stay all day if you like and no-one will question you.

Paulie believes the linchpin of Tilley’s successful growth is her close involvement in the day-to-day running of the business.

You’ll find me behind the bar six days a week. I know where every bottle is and every dollar is. I also make the staff write a report after every shift when I’m not here — just like nurses. They tell me how much Scotch has been drunk, how much cake has been consumed and by what group of clientele.

A typical extract is: ‘Busy morning, writers’ groups and gangs of nannas in full force; 300 coffees served, 80 muffins, 40 pieces of cake.’

The log helps me to ascertain trends over time — if people are repeatedly asking for a new product, for example. It helps me stay relevant and it’s also a safety check.

Growth can be expensive when you have the cost of additional staff and you’re not certain whether customer numbers will justify the expense. Paulie took advantage of a community employment program to help her expand safely and within budget.

PAULIE'S TIPS

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Quentin Bryce

Quentin Bryce, who became Governor of Queensland in July of this year, has had a deliciously eclectic career with two common threads—challenge and the desire to make things better. Trained as a lawyer, Quentin chose not to follow the more traditional path of joining a legal practice and working her way up the hierarchy, but has instead used her legal skills and training to advantage in a diverse range of other areas.

As well as being mother to five children, Quentin’s working life has included university teaching, community work on issues relating to child advocacy and discrimination, positions as Director of the Queensland Women’s Information Service and Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, President of Sydney Women’s College, Chair of the National Breast Cancer Centre Network and President of Women’s Cricket Australia.

My career has been about doing things that I care about passionately, in a political and personal and professional context. I love taking on new challenges, doing new things, making a contribution and then moving on. I feel strongly, too, about opening up opportunities for others.

Quentin left school at 16, determined to change the world.

I thought law was a good way to do it. I'm a great believer in legal reform as a change agent. A lot of people have different views, but that’s my perspective and my contribution.

It seems hard to imagine now, with women comprising over half of all graduates, but when Quentin started at Queensland Law School there were ten women out of 152 students. When she was admitted to the Bar in 1965, the Courier Mail took note: ‘Six admitted, including a woman.’

Quentin’s desire to help other women stemmed in part from her upbringing.

The women’s movement was just part of my life. I grew up seeing women around me who took charge and did things. There wasn't any cataclysmic event in my life or great revelation about feminism in particular. I just grew up with it. I started work part-time, as I suppose very many women do who have children, tutoring at the University of Queensland.

As part-time pay and conditions were so bad—$3 an hour—Quentin took on a full-time role.

I was flat out on the superwoman track. I had five little ones under seven and I wanted to be the perfect everything—wife, mother, neighbour, worker, activist, hostess ...I had this sense of madness, chaos and exhaustion balancing too many competing priorities. Women like me were struggling with guilt and anxiety about the double bind of being a working mother. It was a no-win situation: working extraordinary hours equated to being a bad mother and not working extraordinary hours equated to not being serious about career.

From bitter experience trying to do it all, Quentin despairs when she sees the long hours young women are working now.

That’s not what I wanted for them in a world of equal opportunity—16-hour days and weekend work, never having any time for relationships and nurturing themselves. I really feel quite evangelical about women putting themselves on top of the family agenda, instead of always leaving their own needs until last, looking after everybody else first. But it’s a very hard thing to do in the face of the sex stereotyping that we've grown up with and others imposed on us for generations—and we impose on ourselves. There’s a lot of issues for women who want to have it all—I believe you can, but you can't have it all at the same time. If you want to have a rich family life you've got to leave time for it and you can't do everything at once. I know. I had a go at it. You become hyperactive and highly organised and you live in a state of exhaustion half the time.

But Quentin takes heart when she looks at the way her daughters are coping.

My daughters do it so much better than me. One of my daughters said her approach is to outsource everything. We'd have felt terribly guilty if we'd done that—we had to do it ourselves. I suppose we had so many things to prove.

Quentin wants women in their twenties to start thinking about things she says it took her until her fifties to learn.

It’s about taking good care of yourself, not just in terms of money but in terms of relaxation, refreshment and regenerating your mind and body and spirit, keeping some quiet time. I've got a real sense of responsibility in passing on to the next generation the lessons I've learned as well as the benefits of what I've enjoyed and experienced. I'm always conscious of the work that was done by the women who went before me and opened opportunities up. There is a great source of courage and inspiration and support that you can draw on through other women’s experiences. There are many ways of measuring success, many ways you can have a satisfying, enriching professional life. Do what you're passionate about, and while it’s important, you can't be driven solely by economic reward. We need to remember women’s life patterns are very different from men’s and you can take time out to have a family without ruining your prospects for every other aspect of your life. You can have a successful career, or two or three or four. You can have it all, just not all at once.

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Australian businesswoman, actress and model Sara O’Hare has a real commitment to community contribution as an integral part of her portfolio career.

It didn't take too much to convince me to say ‘yes’ in 1997 when I was asked to be the Australian Ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s campaign, Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. I have a great life and I've been really fortunate.

The cause had a very personal resonance for her.

The request to be involved with the Foundation came just at the right time, when I was looking for some way that I could give something back to the community. My grandmother had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was around the same time that TV personality Belinda Emmett was diagnosed. I was so surprised firstly to have someone so close to me get breast cancer and then to hear about Belinda, who was so young.

Sarah has been modelling internationally since 1991 and in 1999 joined the prestigious Revlon family of supermodels, which has included famous names such as Cindy Crawford and Lucy Liu. Although her work schedule is pretty hectic, Sarah is adamant about making time to continue her commitment to supporting breast cancer research.

In 2001 the National Breast Cancer Foundation invited me to extend my involvement and become their Patron. Given that one in 11 Australian women will get breast cancer, it’s a position that I am very committed to.

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Fay McGuigan, Export Director of Brian McGuigan Wines, got involved in the wine industry when she married winemaker Brian McGuigan in the early 1960s, never dreaming she would be recognised some 30 years later with Exporter of the Year and Australian Export Hero awards for her efforts in opening up new markets.

Fay started to consider exporting in the 1970s when she and Brian realised that servicing the Australian market alone would limit their future growth opportunities. Their latest venture, Brian McGuigan Wines, was founded in 1992, and by 2002 they had close to 2,000 hectares under vine in 20 vineyards in ten regions in Australia, with headquarters in the Hunter Valley. Export growth has been massive—35% a year—by last year 56% of their wine production (over 450,000 cases) was being exported to 12 overseas markets, representing revenues of over $32 million.

Fay recommends taking advantage of government assistance when you start out.

It was a real challenge initially. There are so many requirements to comply with, like different labelling specifications, for example, in each country. Without government assistance from the Australian Institute of Export, Austrade and the Export Marketing Development Grant (EMDG) for new exporters, we and many others probably wouldn't have gone into export. The EMDG system is a little complex but well worth the time and effort to understand because they assist you with the costs for air travel, samples and air freight, a daily travel allowance, marketing and promotional expenses, participation in trade fairs and many other expenses, which is a fantastic support for new exporters.

Fay’s first exporting opportunity came in the unlikely form of a retired schoolteacher in Canada, who wanted to import wine from Australia. She found Fay through a list from the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation and Fay sent product samples and suggested prices, but couldn't understand why no firm orders came in.

I would never have attempted Canada as my first market had I known what I know now. Each province was controlled by its own government monopoly and was like a different country. It was only when I made the effort to go to Canada and meet the agent that I discovered the complex system of regulation we had to get through before we could export. Once I understood we needed to be officially listed, it took only three months, and within three years we had ten listings. The agent and I got on like a house on fire and a business opportunity that seemed a long shot turned into one of our most successful.

Fay recommends that you travel to the markets you want to target to build relationships, research local tastes and understand government regulations that may hinder your exporting. She believes exporting success is 50% finding the right people to import your product and 50% product and packaging appropriate for that market.

I made every mistake in the export marketing book at the start, but I learnt a lot. There wasn't the same knowledge then that there is now. You need to be aware of the cultural differences in business practices, too. Even a seemingly minor detail, like how to present and accept business cards appropriately, is of great significance to the Japanese, for example, and can influence the way our relationship develops.

Once you have developed the relationship face-to-face, it’s critical to provide continuity of supply. Fay plans ahead carefully to do this, with specialist marketing export plans that set volume amounts for each customer:

You must never run out of product because you'll probably not get a second chance.

Internet communication is now a critical part of McGuigan Wines’ export business.

Not only is our website a great sales tool, but email provides an instant communication mechanism. Now instead of label artwork taking eight weeks to get there and back for approval, it can be done in 24 hours.

FAY'S TIPS

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Patria Jafferies

Realise the dream: create a vision that others can see and embrace.

In 2000 the MD of Dôme Coffees Australia, Patria Jafferies, realised the company’s spectacular ten-year growth trajectory had outgrown franchise revenue and joint ventures as sufficient funding sources for ongoing expansion. Patria co-founded Dôme from Perth as a single mother with a three-month-old baby and a vision to create a global brand associated with the world’s best coffees. By 2000 Dôme was operating successfully internationally and external financing was needed to fund expansion plans.

The business had been dependent on internally generated earnings for growth funding so we engaged an adviser with the expertise to develop a capital-raising program.

Dôme secured $17 million, one of the largest amounts raised by a woman-owned business in Australia.

In addition to the funding, Dôme now benefits from additional management depth from private equity appointments, more sustainable growth (and bigger cheques!), but the level of compliance has increased and the company culture is now more akin to a corporate machine.

Patria recognises these changes are part of the path to her original dream of creating a global brand.

Regrets? None. Do it again? Definitely. To me, entrepreneurship is bigger than finding the opportunity—it’s about creating something that far outlives the visionary who has developed it.

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Catherine Mills, 34, founder of Sydney PR company 2iC, neede help when she felt things were getting too much. Although 2iC was the winner of the 1999 NSW Emerging Business award, sponsored by the Micro Business Network and OfficeWorks, Catherine didn’t always feel in control.

While I run a business with five staff members, now I see myself more as a ‘mentee’, an apprentice leader and most of all, a survivor. Having owned my own business for four years, I am qualified to call myself a survivor—of a decline in the economy, of staff issues (which can have detrimental effects on a service-based business), of late-paying clients and late nights at the office. I have managed and steered my business through cash flow crises even though there were times when I wondered how on earth I could go on.

So how does a 34-year-old woman with a mortgage, dreams of one day being a mother and hopes of enjoying a reasonable income turn her life around? I needed help with juggling both personal and business issues, which I believe are most definitely linked, especially for women who wish to achieve all that I have just mentioned.

I signed up for the Women in Business mentor program.

The program involved six months of group training sessions on all aspects of running a small business, from finance to customer service, and the opportunity to network with other business owners. Each participant was appointed a mentor to help her one on one.

How blessed was I to meet my mentor! Sarah Reed volunteered her precious time to listening, giving, sharing her own experiences and helping my business grow.When I asked her why she volunteered, she said it was because she wanted to put something back and help others. And help she did. Even though the mentor program outlined 20 hours of volunteer time over the six-month period, Sarah and I met almost every Saturday over coffee and breakfast to discuss my business.That’s a lot of bacon and eggs! How valuable these times were. I made many changes to my business as a result of my sessions with Sarah. She was always there for me, no matter what, and I felt special.

Knowing Sarah was prepared to see me through, I felt braver, less alone and more capable to handle the big stuff.There was an exchange of knowledge and wisdom and I felt empowered. Someone believed in me and that lifted my spirits, which had certainly been knocked around. This is an experience that can change a life and affect others in the most positive of ways.

Catherine’s tips

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Jo-Ann Kellock has had two very different experiences of leasing premises that provide some great insights for other women in business.

Jo-Ann and her husband ran a successful wool brokering business in rural Victoria that was turning over $15 million a year in the late 1980s. Tired of not being recognised for her role in the business, Jo-Ann decided to launch her own fashion business, Itswool, in 1991. Itswool attracted a lot of rural press and made encouraging sales in the first few months.

Ten months after the successful Itswool launch, I jumped into the allure and excitement of a big Melbourne shopping centre. The ‘country girl makes the big time’ scenario! The marketer of the complex assured me that in a central Melbourne location turnover would triple my best week in the country, which had been $13,000. So when I signed the $96,000-per-annum-plus-outgoings lease I was quietly confident.

Although Jo-Ann sought advice from her accountant and solicitor on the terms of the lease, she ignored it, a decision she came to bitterly regret.

The solicitor thought it was the toughest lease he had ever seen. Looking back, I made too big a leap. I made business decisions for emotional reasons.

Operating and marketing levies were tied to square metres of shop space. There were restrictions on shopfronts and customers had trouble finding the shop.

The centre didn’t attract the customers anticipated and Itswool was in a hidden position on Level 2.We had to pay for parking, security wasn’t guaranteed and we were twice broken into.

Within two years the business ran out of working capital.

With closure came a lot of financial and emotional pain, not just for me but for the many others who had helped set up the business.The losses included the breakdown of our marriage and our family home.

Jo-Ann took short-term contracts in Melbourne to support herself and her children.

It has been a hard slog and a steep learning curve. For much of the time I was too proud to ask for help—for $2 you can shower with two kids at Spencer Street railway station if you take your own towels. I lost track of the number of times our power was disconnected or phone cut off. Asking for assistance at Centrelink is a humbling experience. So the opportunity to take advantage of the Business Matrix concept appeared when I needed it most.

Business Matrix is a ‘business incubator’ for women sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust in Melbourne. It provides office space where women starting out in business can take advantage of initial peppercorn rent and shared support services. It has space for around 35 start-up businesses.

Determined to make a business work, Jo-Ann established SuitsU, a virtual fashion house that specialises in original design and customised clothing. Jo-Ann found Business Matrix helped her get off the ground again as a business owner through access to reasonable rent and shared services, resources and courses, as well as personal support through networking with the other tenants. Thirty percent of her business comes from other Matrix tenants, and the association with the Victorian Women’s Trust means there is access to a wider knowledge pool and network.

When starting a business, being in a nurturing environment makes things so much easier. Trying to navigate a pathway to success can be exhausting, confusing and costly. Moving into BM highlighted my previous loneliness.

Jo-Ann’s list of advantages and disadvantages can help you to work out whether such an environment is right for you.

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

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Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Lillian Lever is a true trailblazer, starting Australia’s first private crocodile farm in Rockhampton with her husband John in 1980. Their business idea involved starting from scratch in every way, so this is an extreme example. John had become hooked on crocs in Papua New Guinea when he ran wildlife research stations there in the 1970s. He met Lillian, a CSIRO research librarian, who had been recently widowed, and romance ensued. It continued long distance with Lillian in Melbourne and John in Rockhampton, until he offered her what she describes as a package deal.

It was,‘Love me, love my crocs.’ I have never shied away from an adventure, so I moved up to Rockhampton to be with John, continuing my work at CSIRO to maintain an income while we found the land and set up the farm.

As crocodiles are an endangered species in Australia, there was no precedent for establishing a business.

We tried for ages to get some formal guidelines, but I think everyone at DPI (Department of Primary Industries) thought we were completely nuts. We spent two years letter-writing and making personal approaches to various departments, none of whom were able to give us any policy or directives on our business concept. In the end, we bailed up Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, then Premier of Queensland, at a function in Rockhampton, and told him his government was stopping us setting up a business that would be good for the state. Finally we got some action! The Minister for the Environment and National Parks called us first thing Monday morning and struck a deal with us—if we could catch some rogue crocs that were causing problems in Halifax, we’d be able to keep them and we’d be given a permit to farm. We caught three crocs and that’s how we got started.

Most start-up businesses won’t involve quite so much drama and effort, but all businesses must comply with Australian legislation. The farm opened as a commercial breeding farm in 1981, with around 120 hectares of mangrove, saltpan and scrubland. The Levers called the farm Koorana, an Aboriginal word meaning ‘to bring forth young’.

It was horrific at times. We couldn’t afford a tractor so we had to clear manually. We lived in a caravan with two of John’s sons from his first marriage and the heat in summer was unbelievable.We had to keep everything shut up because of the mozzies and often I’d get heatstroke while cooking—the only air conditioning we had was in the car, so John and the boys would bundle me up and take me for a drive so I could cool down enough to keep cooking! It was the shared vision of what we could create together that kept us going through that really tough start-up phase.

Getting a licence to farm and breed crocodiles was only the first regulatory obstacle the Levers had to overcome. They knew from John’s experience overseas and Lillian’s research that there was a good market for crocodile skins, but it was still illegal to trade the skins in Australia. It took 18 months of lobbying to change the state law and five years to change the federal law.

It’s difficult setting up a pioneer industry. Innovators are frequently ridiculed and we were no exception.

Business difficulties were part of it, but there were personal costs too.

I became very skilled at paddling a 12-foot tinnie without clunking the side or letting water drip off the paddle, which would have alerted the crocodile we were attempting to catch. But my role with the outboard motor had some unintended adverse consequences. We didn’t realise until I had my fifth miscarriage that I had a weak cervix that was not being helped by the movement of pulling the motor. An unintended occupational hazard! I got pregnant soon after and resigned from CSIRO to work full time on the farm. I worked like I hadn’t thought possible. No weekends off, no public holidays, no sick leave or recreation leave ...

Although the Levers had pretty significant start-up capital for those days—over half a million—a farm is a 15-year investment and they needed to borrow as well.

We were lucky to find an innovative banker who believed in us and our passion and was convinced by our business plan. But while we were waiting for the legislation to change on exporting skins, we needed cash flow as well as money to service our loan.

Lillian and John began a small tourist operation with organised tours two days a week.

We had around 5,000 visitors in the first year, enough to make starting a small restaurant viable.

There were a whole host of other regulatory requirements associated with the abattoir and the restaurant to deal with.

I couldn’t believe we couldn’t have open air dining in a climate like ours. You have to pick your battles, so in the end we built walls. I worked seven days a week in the restaurant and John did the tours. Now we have around 40,000 visitors a year and the restaurant seats 200.

The day I visited, Lillian had just finished making 1,000 litres of crocodile chowder to cater for 5,000 US visitors over seven weeks! Koorana is now the biggest employer in the area, with 13 staff. While the Levers’ start-up business experience was unique because they were also creating the industry, it offers lessons for other start-ups.

Right from the beginning, we formulated and worked to a business plan.We sourced and used government help available for small business in the form of subsidies for business planning and diagnostics. Seek out all the help you can get.

We’ve continued to look for opportunities to value add, starting new aspects of the business as we can to help our cash flow. We now have experience as farmers, tourist operators, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, exporters and meat providores. We’ve learnt so much along the way. One of the things we constantly quote at our children is:

Use whatever talents you possess
For the bush would be silent if no song birds sang
Except those who sang the best.

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Bronwyn Shimizu, 33, from South Australia, has experienced two redundancies & retrenchments. The first came when she was just about to resign from the hotel where she was working to take up another job, so was a lucky break. The second, when Cable & Wireless Optus downsized its mobile division, was not such good timing.

Bronwyn had spent ten years working in tourism, consciously leapfrogging her way up the employment ladder by going from job to job in six different companies before joining Optus as a business development manager. Unfortunately, within six months of her arrival Bronwyn’s six-person project was cut, with four redeployments and two retrenchments.

Realising my history with the company of just six months gave me little chance of redeployment—although I did try—my initial reaction was to think practically and sort out some of my ongoing personal and financial matters. When the moment came that I was told of the company’s intention to retrench me, my emotions kicked in and I was upset, sad, almost embarrassed.

Even though Bronwyn had known what was coming, she felt confused about where it left her, career-wise.

I wondered how I would move forward from this point. Had I made the wrong decision in leaving the hotels and meetings industry in which I had developed a respected reputation? Was I wrong for the corporate world? Did this mean I had to go back to what I had been doing before, with my tail between my legs? My own logic told me that this retrenchment on its own did not and could not answer these questions for me. Emotionally, however, my thoughts would occasionally spiral to the depths of self-doubt and despair. I was lucky to have good support networks and my friends have been great—one rang me every morning to make sure I was out of bed!

In addition to a severance package, Bronwyn was given four weeks’ pay in lieu of notice and three months with an outplacement service—more commonly known now as a ‘career transition service’. This service included one-on-one counselling with a psychologist who specialised in helping her work out the best career fit for her individual skill set and career values, group sessions, and free use of the offices and telephones. For Bronwyn all this proved an unexpected opportunity to take time to focus on herself, her career path to date, and to learn how to be more strategic about her next move to ensure a successful transition to something she really wanted to do.

I have got so much out of the process:

I am still a work in progress. I am a lot clearer now about what I don’t want to do—I know, for example, that starting my own business is not for me and I don’t feel further study is right at this stage. I’m not yet able to say what it is that will make my heart sing to be able to make the next move in my career. What I do know is that being retrenched has given me the opportunity to focus on me, my life (in all aspects) and my desired future. I’ll be taking with me some new knowledge as well as some re-affirmed beliefs.The process has really enriched me as a person.

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Dr Angela di Marco is the first woman general surgeon to set up in private practice in Brisbane. After 14 years of study and training, Angela knew she wanted to set up her own practice in her own way. It wasn’t easy in some respects.

Not to denigrate my mostly male colleagues, but by its traditions and training, surgery is basically paternalistic. Needless to say, there is enough machismo in medicine that my touchy-feely, ‘Can I get you a coffee?’ kind of approach to surgery has been noticed. It set me up for a bit of target practice.

I had to keep reminding myself that my plan was to implement innovative surgical procedures using a different approach to a previously marginalised (mainly female) group of clients.

Angela had been saving up all through her training to purchase her own premises.

I’d always wanted to own my own rooms. I knew I wanted to be in charge of how and when I practised, without the threat of a landlord changing the rules on me, and the relatively high returns from surgery meant this was a financially viable option.

In addition to the emotional aspect, Angela also saw the business potential of her purchase.

I knew that by purchasing one of a small number of new medical suites available in a premier private hospital campus (Wesley Hospital) of a particular size and location, I was increasing the chance of attracting excellent rental income. Building up the business practice would also aid its resale potential. This was my backup plan should I decide to move out, move on or just want to use the equity elsewhere.

Angela was also able to top up her cash flow by borrowing against the value of the property.

This meant I didn’t have to take out another form of loan or use any of my other assets as security. Perhaps going against popular convention once again, I paid it off as quickly as possible. My strategy is to then borrow against this asset as a way of generating income through other investments.

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Shelley Taylor Smith

You can decide what you want and go after it. It’s always your next move.

Shelley Taylor-Smith lives by her motto: If you don’t quit, you will make it! Shelley started swimming as a child when it was recommended that her sister, who had asthma, take it up, and Shelley tagged along. While she absolutely loved swimming, Shelley suffered from scoliosis and spent her schooldays in a back brace. She had a well-meaning physio who used to warn her not to get too excited about competitive swimming because she’d never amount to much given her condition. Just as well she didn’t listen, isn’t it?

Training was relentless, but persistence paid off.

I pinned up my goals everywhere I could think of so the slog of training didn’t get me down. By my bedside, on the vanity in the bathroom, hanging in the shower, and on the sun visor in my car - anywhere that would keep me focused on where I was going. It’s a typical training day: 4.30am freezing cold on the beach as my coach stands alongside me in a wetsuit holding a steaming coffee while I’m freezing my butt off in my swimsuit and cap. I’m rummaging around in my swim bag for my goggles and I come across my goals in the bottom of the bag (laminated, of course): ‘I am the World Marathon Swimming Champion.’ I know exactly where I am going right then and there.

Shelley’s list of sporting achievements is nothing short of amazing: seven-time World Marathon Swimming Champion (1988-1995), two World Championships 25 kilometre gold medals, 15 World Race Records (five of which were mixed), and five-time Champion (overall) of the New York 48 kilometre Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, for which she is the Guinness Book of Records holder for the fastest ever swim (male or female).

In 1991 Shelley became the only woman to hold the No. 1 World Marathon Swimming ranking overall (for both men and women). Shelley laughs when she remembers, following the race in which she created history beating the Men’s World Marathon Swimming Champion, Diego Degano turning to her to ask: ‘Shelley, you are very dangerous when you are wet! Have you ever thought about becoming a mother?’ Shelley was nick-named ‘Dangerous When Wet!’ and that became the apt title of her biography.

Despite being obviously the best - winning in mixed marathon swimming is a very clear outcome - Shelley would still get paid two-thirds less than the male winner. She fought to be recognised on merit instead of being penalised because of her sex, paving the way for other women to follow. In 1991, after Shelley made history with her No. 1 World Ranking from both men and women, event organisers at last decided that it would be fair to have equal prize money for both sexes.

However, in 2002, ten years on, Shelley noted that only 80% of the sport’s prize money is split equally whilst the remainder goes exclusively to the male competitors.

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Vanessa Elliott is the youngest Community Development Officer in Western Australia and the first indigenous person employed in a senior position in the Shire of Halls Creek, WA.

As a 26-year-old Jaru woman from the Kimberley, Vanessa describes winning the Young Businesswoman of the Year award as the achievement of an underprivileged community rather than an individual.

It’s a strong message that although we’re faced with the tyranny of distance, low income and we don’t fit the profile of what the general public would say business is, our spirit and our willingness to learn without sacrificing our own cultural ethics and ideological perspectives are setting new trends of social sustainability. I believe that the paradigm of business really needs to redefine where culture has a part to play.

Vanessa is one of four generations of women in Halls Creek. She describes herself as a social entrepreneur, a catalyst for change, a dream catcher. Vanessa believes that self-determination is heavily embedded in business for Aborigines and the welfare state is strangling her people.

I went to the council to escape a situation of violence, literally barefoot and pregnant, and asked to prove myself. I initially produced a directory for local businesses with an Aboriginal flavour. When you live in a community where it’s 70% indigenous and there’s no indigenous businesses, you look at how racism and discrimination can cripple you.

Vanessa developed joint initiatives with the Argyle Diamond Mine, particularly trying to increase employment opportunities for Aboriginal people and enable them to learn skills that can be put back into the community, for example as plumbers and electricians.

We’re reshaping and remoulding our community. I believe community is the original bottom line and development is a key spin-off ambition. If we want to achieve full self-determination, we need to move away from the welfare state. Because I come from such a grass-roots - well, more like a spinifex and red dust - experience, and I’m a realist in many terms, I know that people can feel free to approach me because I’ve been through a lot.

Vanessa struggled with her mixed race heritage during her teens.

I was too white to be black, and too black to be white. Identity is at the core of your ability to first understand yourself and then reach your potential. I often look back and wish I had had more advice encouraging me to accept who I am and discover where I want to be rather than being consumed with having to fit someone else’s description of what my life should be. My vivid memory of these issues of identity, ideology and the interpolation of surroundings has given me an understanding of how to mentor local Aboriginal youth, to help them question their current social position, strive for ways to enhance their quality of life and make a lifelong commitment to self.

Key points

• Learn the rules of the game in your organisation.
• Choose how to play in line with your values.
• Don’t be afraid to move on: accept the challenge of change.
• Each of us can be a trailblazer in our own small way, and that makes it easier for the women who come after us, too.
• When women support women, women win.
• And finally, as The Body Shop’s creator Anita Roddick says: "If you think you are too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito!"

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In 2001, Lynette Palmen was feeling increasingly stressed by the rapid growth of her Brisbane-based business, Women’s Network Australia (WNA). She took stock and realised she had turned WNA into something of the corporate nightmare she’d been trying to escape when she started it in 1990.

WNA had taken over my life completely and I was on the verge of selling it and walking away to start something new when I realised there was an analogy between what I was about to do with my business and what I’d done with my personal life and broken marriages. Suddenly it hit me: ‘Hold on, this is a lesson that’s been brought in again. You’ve done it enough times in relationships and now it’s the same lesson presenting itself yet again with your business.’

Lynette decided to do what was the hardest thing for her, which was to make WNA into what she wanted it to be by changing her attitude and her approach. When she explains the process she went through, she talks about herself in the third person, as though she’s describing someone entirely different.

It was about slowing down and working out why Lynette Palmen needed to work 16 hours a day and what sort of an ego trip she was on. I realised that by keeping myself very busy for years on end, I’d managed to not have to face up to critical issues in my personal life. If you’d asked me what I wanted to do three years ago, I’d have said, ‘Well I’m doing it, aren’t I? If I wasn’t doing it, I would change it. I’m a woman in control, I know where I’m going, I know what I’m doing, I’m career oriented.’

Sometimes we reach a stage in our lives where we think: ‘I’m not actually on the right path.’ For one person that could be a breakup of a relationship, for another person an illness - everyone has different trigger points. Her realisation of a pattern in her life was such a turning point for Lynette.

I realised I was just doing things to keep busy, so I didn’t feel bad about not having worked out my real purpose, but when I asked myself what I really wanted I didn’t know, didn’t have a clue. In trying to work it out, I started looking at people who weren’t working as hard as I was and made me irritated. I had this revelation that the very thing I despised in others was actually something I aspired to secretly. So I thought, OK,I’ve got to look at how I can get more focus on other parts of my life and get some of that balancing stuff happening.

Lynette moved her city-based office back home, so she could spend more time with her children, Blake and Maddison.

I used to hide Maddie away because I’d think it was unprofessional to have children around the business once I’d moved it home. I still tried to separate who I was in my business life from my personal life. For a single mother, it was too hard. Why did I need to do that? So I changed that approach and now if Maddison is around, I say, ‘Well that’s my little girl and she’s gorgeous.’

Realising that the ‘balance’ approach wasn’t working for her, Lynette conceives of her new approach to life as ‘blending’.

Balancing sounds like you have to give something up or put something on a scale to weigh it and apportion out the bits, whereas blending is just making it all happen synergistically and that’s what I want to do.

As she reflected on how to incorporate the blending philosophy into WNA, Lynette recognised it was fear that had stopped her initially because she thought that people wouldn’t join WNA with a new focus.

I thought that I’d lose the people who used to be members - the corporate women who were hanging on by their fingernails to jobs they were scared of losing.They were beating their way into boardrooms and in a way I felt that they were hiding from who they really were to be successful, just like I had been. Now my mantra is, ‘Honour your own integrity, be who you want to be and trust that it will all just happen.’ You obviously still have to do all the mainstream stuff, the business plans, the marketing plans and so on, but it’s about your attitude, believing in what you’re doing and honouring your personal life, too.

Lynette wants to show women that being successful in business doesn’t mean negating your spirituality or your belief in yourself.

Sometimes your life purpose is right in front of you, but you just can’t see it. It’s just your attitude that needs to change. I had to get Lynette Palmen to the stage of appreciating the gift I have every day in Women’s Network Australia and then feel comfortable in aligning that with being a real business person. Spirituality and business go hand-in-hand and can blend. It’s aligning your value system with what you do - the closer you can get them together, the more at peace you’ll be and ironically, the more successful and the more income you’ll generate.

Lynn Mason

Lynn Mason moved to Flinders Island after meeting her husband, Jamie, who came from there. They had nothing starting out and worked initially for Jamie's parents as farm hands. They borrowed all they could to buy an abalone licence, which became their major source of income.

Gradually they began buying farmland and Lynn started her own part of the business running a sheep flock. Her scientific mind turned to ways to improve what they were doing, and after increasing the lambing ratios, she focused her attention on extracting more value from the abalone by sending it live to Sydney and then exporting.

The next projects included growing opium poppies (since they had a relatively safe environment by dint of their isolation) and cauliflower seeds for exporting to Europe, establishing a farm machinery business and a new venture in adventure tourism.

Lynn did not just accept the immediate and obvious possibilities for business. Instead she found a way to turn potentially limiting factors (the isolation of island life, limited resources and long distances from markets) into positives. She was the first rural Australian to become the national Westpac Business Owner of the Year, in the 2000/1 Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Awards.

To alleviate some of the stress of meeting overload, make appointments for odd times, like seven minutes to three. Because it's so unusual people immediately think they only have seven minutes (which usually makes for a very productive meeting) and remember to turn up on time.

Mindful of the need to preserve family time, Lynn and Jamie made a pact there would be no talking about business after 9pm. They try to set strict guidelines to separate business and personal life (which Lynn says can be very challenging if one partner has a brainwave at 9.15pm and is bursting to tell the other!).

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Use the net to raise your profile, build your brand and create better customer relationships.

American Amy Lyden is founder and director of Bow Wow Meow, an innovative company producing name tags for pets. Amy came to Australia ten years ago after falling in love with an Aussie.

I launched my company in 1995 after failing to find gorgeous ID tags for my gorgeous kittens, Rajah and Jasmine, and realising there was a market niche.

Amy won the 'Best New Product' Award at the Pet Expo annual trade show and went on to become 2000 NSW Micro Business of the Year. Bow Wow Meow is now distributed through over 1,500 pet shops and vet clinics around Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. The internet is an integral part of the business, both as a marketing tool to raise awareness of the product and as an ecommerce channel to sell pet tags globally.

Amy's story should give you a good idea of how the internet might help your business.

How Bow Wow Meow got started online
In 1998 Bow Wow Meow launched its first website, www.bowwow.com.au, to help pet owners find names for their pets. Processing pet tag orders had allowed Bow Wow Meow to build an extensive library of pet names ranging from the most popular to the most unusual. It was the first site of its kind in the world, and with close to two million visitors annually, is one of Australia's most popular sites for pet lovers.

It started out as a hobby and we got a student to do a lot of the research required. It was really an experiment - 'Let's see what happens if we put up a website.' Keep in mind that this was in 1997, when most businesses weren't online yet. We didn't just want to sell tags online, because the traffic wouldn't come for that. But if there was a really cool interactive website with great content that people were interested in, we thought we could build the traffic and then try ecommerce. Too many businesses try it the wrong way round, and then wonder why no-one visits their site.

The site took a lot of time initially to set up, and does require ongoing maintenance, but Amy believes it has been worth it because of the tremendous exposure it gives the company. Bow Wow Meow has been able to match increases in sales with the upward trend of hits to the site. You need to keep this in mind when working out whether the costs of a website are justified for your business.

If we had to rely 100% on web sales alone, we'd be out of business - full stop. We see the web as an add-on to existing business and a way to reach markets that we wouldn't be able to otherwise - for example, we have sold pet tags to over 35 different countries around the world. It is the icing on the cake, the cake being our physical distribution to 1,500 shops and vet clinics.

Following are Amy's tips from the Bow Wow Meow web experience.

Setting up
Tip 1: Shop around before setting up your site. You can go with a template-based site (cheapest and easy to update, but you won't get much originality) or a professional designer. If you see a site you like, contact the company first to ask if they recommend the developer (some do great work, but take ten times too long and go ten times over budget). It's important to find a developer that is timely (this can be rare), and straight about costs involved. Costs can range from $1,000 to $6,000 for a basic site, and you should count on the same again every year for ongoing design changes and updates.
Tip 2: If you followed Belinda Merry's advice in Chapter 8 and reserved your domain name, you'll already have a name for your website. Since 80% of internet sessions start via a search engine (like Google), your site must be listed and easily located. The keywords you submit to search engines to describe your site are critical. There are many services available to help get your site listed on search engines. Amy suggests www.registerit.com or www.submitit.com for tools.
Tip 3: Commit to an ongoing budget for your website. It's not over once you launch, unfortunately. Your site will need to be continuously updated, so allow for that in your forward budgets.
Tip 4: Invest the time, especially initially. Think of it as designing your company brochure. You wouldn't tell your printer, 'Just put something together', would you? Have very clear objectives about what you want to achieve on the site and some ideas from other sites about design and content. The more information the designer has, the less money it will cost to 'get it right'. If you abdicate responsibility, don't be surprised if you're unhappy with the results.
Tip 5: Select a hosting company that is reputable and reliable with readily available, top quality technical support. Check with a web developer, who should know of some good deals, or do an internet search for 'web host' then compare options and costs. You will want to keep track of who comes to visit your site and what the numbers are. Make sure you specify 'unique visitors' and not just number of hits - in other words, individual visitors to your site, not just how many times they click around when they're there. Most hosting companies include this service, but if not it is worth paying more to get this information. If you know where your customers are coming from, you'll know how to tailor your site better for them. For example, Bow Wow Meow gets most of its visitors from the USA, and therefore it prices in US dollars, uses US spelling and offers free worldwide delivery to cater for this market.

Web content
Tip 6: Provide interesting free content on your site and e-newsletters. Ask your customers what they want. At Bow Wow Meow there's information about pet names and pet-related interest stories, as this is what interests the target market.

Email marketing and communication
Tip 7: Build your e-database with first and last name and email address, so you can personalise a message to each person in your entire database. It's cheap, easy and highly targeted. Only use your database for 'permission-based' marketing. This means that your customer has 'opted-in' to hear more from you - signed up either for your free newsletter or special offers. Spam (unsolicited email) is a sure-fire way to upset your customer, not win them over, so always ask for their permission before you start emailing them.
Tip 8: Set up an opt-in enewsletter. There are various companies and types of software out there that can manage your lists and send the newsletters for you. Newsletters should include information that your customers can find value in. Survey customers to see what they want, always keep articles short and punchy, and include links to other websites for more information.
One of Amy's favourites is ListBuilder, a Microsoft product available online through www.bcentral.com. It costs approximately US$300 a year to subscribe to this service, which includes a number of other tools for your business as well.
Tip 9: Provide genuine special offers to your customers via email. It could be for a 'buy one get one free' for a product, or a free initial consultation. Make it a worthwhile deal for your customer and put a timeframe on the offer.
Tip 10: Link to other websites. Most are happy to get traffic to their site and welcome any links, but you might also collect payment for promoting other sites or referring leads. It's probably more realistic to do a trade with someone - you feature them, they feature you. For example, if you have a financial planning business and have an article on buying investment properties, perhaps include some links to reputable sites that have more detailed information about the essence of your article (and of course get them to do the same for you). When writing your newsletter remember that your customers are busy, like you, so include some recommended or top ten lists for easy skimming.

Ecommerce
Tip 11: Automate as much as possible, even if it costs a bit more, because it will pay off in the long run, but do set a budget upfront with the programer you hire because it can get expensive. Integrate your web orders into your existing order system. Have autoresponders in place whereby emails are automatically sent to your customers after the order has been placed. Look at what messages you want sent to your customers and at what stage of the order process, then automate. This will save you time and money in the long run. Do a cost/benefit analysis and make sure that this will pay for itself within a year.
Tip 12: Don't oversell on your site. This can be a big turnoff. Do make sure all the benefits are clearly listed.
Tip 13: Offer free delivery if possible - everyone hates the extra add-ons once an item is purchased. If you must charge for delivery, at least keep it reasonable.
Tip 14: Your developer should have thoroughly tested the order process and navigation of the site with various types and versions of browsers to ensure it works on each one.
Tip 15: Give something back. Choose your (or your customers') favourite charity and donate something for every sale made through your site. For example, Bow Wow Meow gives a percentage of sales to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Website tips o Help, don't sell. o Build credibility and rapport. o Focus on lifetime customer value.

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Amanda Greeves left a safe job as an interior designer for the Queensland State Government to start her own business, Spark Consultants, in 1999 when she was 28. At the end of three months, she had completed one project and spent all her savings, and there was no further work on the horizon.

I was in a downward spiral. I knew I needed a business plan to address all the areas I didn’t know much about—I’m a designer, not an accountant or a marketer. I’d started to write a business plan a couple of times, but it was just too huge. I didn’t ever get very far.

With business failure looming, Amanda sought help. She enrolled in the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) sponsored by the federal Department for Employment and Workplace Relations. NEIS provides business training and assistance from a mentor to develop a formal business plan, which is then reviewed by an independent panel. If your plan is good enough, you are provided monetary support (equivalent to the unemployment benefit) for up to a year to get the business off the ground.

The planning process helped me get a handle on all elements of the business, not just my creative work. Now I feel I have a good understanding of all the areas I need to know about to run a successful business.

NEIS was just what Amanda needed and she turned near failure into impressive success within two years: in 2001 she won the Queensland Telstra Young Businesswoman of the Year award.

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Claudia Keech

Motherhood is the most significant, rewarding and challenging career of my life - and yet we struggle as we take on this role and find that society no longer supports us, in fact often demeans the very role which is essential to human existence.

International PR consultant Claudia Keech, who launched Ken Done and Foster’s Lager in the US in the 1980s, found her life changed radically after the birth of her son, Callan. Waiting outside Callan’s preschool one day, watching other mothers collect their children, she was struck by the undeniable fact that every single one of them was stressed and rushing.
  Claudia, bottom left, with Callan and other MotherIncers

We were all the same: time-poor, juggling work and/or family and with little time to call our own. Today’s mothers are the ‘generation of change’ and we are rewriting the book on how to manage life today as a mother and a woman who chooses to re-enter or stay in the workforce while undertaking a second career raising the next generation.

Claudia found a real gap in the support structure and services provided for parents in Australia.

Apart from mothers’ groups created by local clinics for parents of newborn babies, the community is not set up to look after the mental wellbeing and personal or professional growth of mothers (and full-time fathers) as the children grow.

With the support of 15 other mothers, Claudia created MotherInc as a network of parents going through the same experiences, which would encourage opportunities to meet face-to-face and learn. Membership is more than 100,000-strong Australia-wide.

In past decades 80% of mothers stayed at home as full-time mothers and homemakers. Today the statistic has more than reversed, with 89% of mothers wishing to return to work when their children hit kindergarten. Confidence and self-esteem often need rebuilding. MotherInc provides a supportive network to help do just that.

MotherInc tips to better managing it all

• Use the internet to do your weekly grocery shopping plus anything else which saves you time, like buying tickets to a show or researching real estate.
• Have good discussions with your partner/husband about sharing the family and home chores. Draw up a spreadsheet listing all these jobs if necessary. Many men have grown up watching their mothers do everything. If their previous role model was a full-time mother, they need to be introduced to sharing parenting and home duties. Trying to do it all is not on.
• Make sure you take time out for yourself, at least once a week. This means a facial, a sporting interest, or a long lunch with friends—whatever gives you a complete break from work and family pressure.
• Introduce your children, however young, to downtime. This time could match the naptime of younger children, or be introduced to older children on the weekend in the same timeframe. This is the time the family may be all together, but everyone chills out.
• Set aside time each weekend as family time. No social obligations (unless they involve the family) and no work interruptions during the daylight hours. Use this time to have quality time altogether.
• Do get a sitter at least once a week to have time out with your husband or partner alone. If you can’t afford a sitter, share with a friend and babysit her kids the next week. After a busy working week, followed by family obligations, it is important to find at least one moment when you and your husband/partner can chill out.

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Many business owners start out as sole traders, taking advantage of the simplicity and low cost structure, and later change as they grow. Marie Morrison of Troppi Kids in Darwin did it this way, changing only after ten years in business.

A psychologist with a background in social services, Marie had always sewed as a hobby. Her hobby grew into a part-time, home-based business when she moved to Darwin with her family and found she couldn’t find cool cotton clothing for her kids. Realising there was a gap in the market, Marie completed a design course and whipped up a few samples of children’s cotton clothes. The business has grown considerably and Marie now sells her clothes all around Australia.

I’ve got a philosophy that it’s good to start fairly small and take things slowly at first and build up from there. I guess maybe I’ll never be a millionaire that way, but at least you learn from fairly small mistakes, you learn from successes and I think it’s a sound basis from which to build up a business. I think a lot of businesses go under because they jump in too quickly to something they don’t know much about.

So to me, starting as a sole trader is an inexpensive way to start up and there’s a lot less paperwork involved than in being a company. But the disadvantage is in terms of taxes and profits once you start to do quite well as a business - then it’s probably not the most appropriate structure. I restructured the business for that reason.

In practical terms it’s wise to arrange for some ‘buffer’ financing while you are still in a paid job. Start-up funding is the hardest to get because it’s seen as the highest risk - your business is still not proven. While you may think you have enough savings or ‘love money’ to see you through, it’s important to have a contingency arrangement in place, just in case. Marie advises:

Get finance in advance of setting up, while you are still earning a wage. I tried to get a Visa card while I was setting up my business from part-time hobby to business proper. I’d been previously earning $520 a week for a day and a half’s work as a university lecturer. While I was getting my business set up, I went to the bank with the form filled out and they refused to give me a Visa card without my business tax returns. As I was just setting up, I didn’t have any. When I applied I took my payslips from the previous year, but was told payslips are only relevant for your current job. Of course I was in between the two, as I was in set-up phase. After weeks of argy-bargy I had to get my husband to write a letter saying he was employing me!

The advantages of sole tradership:

• No need to register a business name if you are using your own name.
• As owner you have total control and privacy.
• Simple and cheap to set up.
• No need to lodge a separate tax return.
• The change to capital gains tax legislation in 2000 means that individuals are only taxed on 50% of the capital gain as long as they own the asset for more than one year. Companies don’t get the benefit of the discount.

The disadvantages of sole tradership:

• You are personally liable for the debts of your business.
• You are the business and that can be lonely at times.
• You are responsible for negligence by any employees you might have.
• The business ceases to exist when you do!
• There may be disadvantages for income tax purposes (eg company tax is lower than the top marginal tax rate for an individual).

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Juliet Bourke left her job as a government lawyer in Sydney to set up her own consulting business, Work + Life Strategies, so she could better integrate work and family on both a personal level and as a consultant to corporates on this issue.

For me there are four key benefits to working from home:

1. Time - it takes me less than one minute to get to work! The hour (plus) that I would have spent in traffic getting hassled, I now spend with my children.

2. Focus - without constant interruptions from work colleagues I am very focused on my work and able to use my time efficiently.

3. Flexibility - I can work at odd hours around my family and personal needs. I rarely miss dinner times because I’m working back late in the office. I just put my computer to sleep and wake it up again when the kids are asleep.

4. Cost - my overheads are very low because I don’t have to pay a high rental for office space (and part of my home office costs are tax deductible).

Creating and sustaining a business at home really worked for Juliet, although it may not work for everyone.

The Sibbel sisters

Melbourne business Sibbel followed an initial ‘doorknocking’ approach when it branched out into furniture design. Builder Meyer Sibbel’s daughter Wilhelmina (Willy for short, pictured left) joined the family business as an innovative furniture designer to take it in a new direction, so new customers were needed. Willy targeted likely stores by going in person with photos of her designer range. Persistence paid off.

I was really nervous, but I found the specialist furniture stores I approached really liked my range, so they ordered. Then I plucked up courage to call Daimaru department store and sent follow-up information. I called back again and again until I got an interview, and sold them the complete range. That was a real turning point.

Enter second sister Fleur (pictured centre), who did such a fantastic job of home-grown PR that Sibbel Furniture Design was soon overwhelmed with orders.

We took our own photos and wrote our own material. We did it all ourselves and then we blitzed the media with information and press materials. It was all on a shoestring. We used the family angle to good effect and got an amazing response. We had no idea we’d generate so much interest — we got a four-page spread in the Herald Sun. That was a real lesson for us, because then we were thrown into chaos trying to meet the demand.

Enter third sister Meika (pictured right) to help. The whole family worked like crazy to fill orders, and as speed increased, problems arose with defects in the furniture and strained family relationships.

It was really hard. We were going backwards there for a while. Too many orders, too little time to fill them, inadequate facilities — we were spray painting outside and if it rained we couldn’t work. We were just growing too fast. We needed to learn to say ‘no’ to some orders to cope, but we were scared of losing customers.

The stress mounted. No-one could take time off and the three Sibbelings, as they call themselves, found they were continually fighting as they tried to work together in a small office with one computer while their dad was in the factory. Finally, Willy’s business mentor suggested they get a counsellor in to help them resolve the problems.

The counsellor would come to see us for three hours every Monday. It definitely got worse before it got better, but it made us address all the issues we had. Once everything was aired and we all felt really hurt, I think it started to get better emotionally.The hard thing was, we’d been really close before being in business together. The counsellor helped us realise there was a real problem around boundaries: none of us had a job description so we muddled along, falling over each other metaphorically, and as we didn’t have our own work stations or computers, we fell over each other literally, too! We also didn’t have a clear, shared vision of what we all wanted for the company’s future or culture so the counsellor encouraged us to work on that as well.

Sometimes simple solutions can be found to what seem to be intractable problems, but when you’re stressed out, it’s often impossible to see any solution yourself — hence the need for an outside perspective. A move to a bigger office with separate work stations and computers helped, as did clear role definition. Each sister took responsibility for a particular aspect of the business and regular weekly meetings were set up. Strategic planning around a shared vision and clear guidelines for company culture became a focus. Now the business is thriving and the Sibbelings’ family relationships are as close as they were before.

People issues are often the most challenging in business. While family business has a supercharged emotional dimension, the lessons the three Sibbelings learned about defining work roles, responsibilities, vision and culture apply to all businesses. Clear job descriptions and accountabilities are key.

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Tasmanian pharmacist Katie McNamara secured a loan for $1.5 million to buy her first pharmacy at just 21! She had a guarantee from wholesaler Faulding, which made her application very persuasive, and she was the youngest person to ever get such a guarantee. She says getting it was a matter of thorough preparation. While not many start-ups would be looking for such vast sums, her story underscores the steps you need to go through to prepare your application.

Katie became interested in pharmacy when she saw one of her mother’s friends successfully running her own business, as well as bringing up her family with three children.

I realised you could have business and family and that fired me up to have my own business. I worked in pharmacies while I was studying and that was fantastic on-the-job training. I was really focused on my goal of owning my own pharmacy. The real turning point in terms of turning my dream into reality was meeting my husband, Paul — he has a computer science degree and a business background so with his support and knowledge it seemed we’d be perfect partners in business, too.

In pharmacy you either have to buy an existing business or set one up.

Due to government regulations, setting up is very difficult, as there are many criteria to meet which really only occur in fast-growing suburbs, ie not Tassie. So I had to buy an existing business and work out how we were going to finance that. I asked my mentors so I was prepared when I went to see the right people, and came across as having done my homework.

When seeking finance it’s important to know how it works in your industry of choice.

Obviously banks want more security than just the stock that you purchase with the pharmacy, and they won’t let you use goodwill as security although this constitutes the bulk of the purchase price for pharmacies. So you really have three choices: either you have loads of security in your house/investments, enough cash, or you get one of the pharmacy wholesalers to guarantee the loan.

Katie remembers her interview with the State Manager of Faulding, Barry Axton, very clearly.

When Barry asked me what he could help me with and I replied, ‘I want to buy a pharmacy, Barry’, he almost fell off his seat! No-one in Australia had ever secured a guarantee from one of the wholesalers for their loan at the age of 21 before.

Although over 60% of pharmacists in Australia are women, 80% of pharmacy owners are men (with the majority over the age of 50), so Katie was also breaking new ground there. Barry gave her a list of what was available and the numbers of the pharmacy brokers operating within Australia so she could check out the different options.

We spent the next two months having a good look at the different pharmacies for sale. I think that this is a very vital part of purchasing a business because you want the business that is right for you. We were really concerned to make sure the business would work well, as we had no cash to put in at the start (only the security over our home).

There were a number of criteria that Paul and I set out to define what we wanted.

• A business large enough to support us both, at least for a couple of years, so that Paul could leave where he was working and help within the business.
• A rural pharmacy. I had been working in a rural area and had also done some locum work in suburban areas. I thought we could build a good customer base where you have more of a captive market and a great chance to get involved within the community. The only drawback we could see in a country pharmacy was that it may take a while to be accepted as someone trustworthy in the community.
• An obvious element that we looked for was a business that could sustain the loan that would be needed to purchase it without anticipating unrealistic levels of growth. We were fortunate that Paul had a financial background and could set up cash flow scenarios for the different businesses — this is something where if you can’t do it yourself, you need to get someone to help you with it. It is vital that you analyse all the data given to you to assess whether the business is viable, has room for growth and can repay the loan. We covered all this with our accountant as well.

Katie believes finding the right professional partners and asking all the ‘dumb questions’ was key to getting her loan application together.

It’s vital. Nobody is successful all by themselves and I am a pharmacist, not an accountant or a lawyer, so it is important to have people you trust who you can ask for advice. You are never going to know all the steps to take or all the little things that have to be done unless you ask.

Choose professional partners familiar with your industry where possible.

We spent our preparation time asking for as much help as we could. We asked around to find an accountant who had experience in the pharmacy industry and after meeting with the one recommended we were happy that he fit in with our culture of a relaxed yet professional view towards things. We went over all the P&Ls of the pharmacies we were interested in with him and also our calculations before going for the guarantee. This way we knew that we had not left anything out from the financial side. We got very good at looking at a P&L and going, ‘Yeah, that’s a good business’, or, ‘That’s wrong.’ Knowing the industry standard is important as well, so we benchmarked.

We found a lawyer we were happy with who was a great help in explaining all the stuff that you have to wade through in setting up a loan as large as the one I finally needed for the pharmacy I purchased.

I feel that developing long-term relationships with professionals both within your industry and in areas where you are not an expert is very important to the long-term success of your business — people will help and support you if you endeavour to support them and be loyal within the relationship.

In talking with all these different people Katie did have a couple of off-putting experiences.

Some people were very negative from the start. I found this quite disheartening, as I believe that someone who is 21 may in fact be just as capable as someone who is 40. Naturally, experience must count for something but I think that not even considering a young person can be quite damaging to an industry or business. This experience was a major driver behind our decision to involve students in the business and for me to be a clinical teacher for the school of pharmacy — to give other young people a go and to encourage them into owning their own pharmacy.

We knew that we would have to be extra professional because we were so young. We talked to heaps of different people, finding out how other pharmacists had gone through the process, talking to people within Faulding to find out what they expected and the same at the bank. In writing our proposal for the guarantee we did a real SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) both on the business and on ourselves. This ensured that we had answered every question — like what would we do if I got pregnant six months into it — before it had been asked.

Katie and Paul prepared a full proposal that covered the SWOT analysis, looked at the financials and set out exactly what they could offer the business as a team. Although Katie was the one purchasing the pharmacy Paul was involved every step of the way as well.

We treated the document as our only chance and developed it as a board report would be done. Eventually all the decisions had to go to the board of Faulding. We also had to provide enough security ourselves to satisfy Faulding’s criteria. We joke about having the dog, our clothes, etc, etc, mortgaged, but it’s not that far from the truth. Our house naturally formed part of the security.

Katie and Paul then had to work out the details of the loan.

This was perhaps the most daunting time, as over $1.5 million doesn’t sound that bad when you are just talking but when it comes to signing bits of paper, it is a very big number — especially when just two years before we had been agonising over a house purchase which now paled into insignificance. The way I have always approached this, both then and now, was to think of it solely as a business decision. It is the business’s loan, the money that the pharmacy makes is the business’s and not mine until that loan is paid. I found that thinking of it in this way and knowing that we had analysed every possible thing, so that we were sure that it was a sound business decision, resulted in us not worrying about the amount of money. Something can be unsustainable if you pay $100,000 if the numbers don’t stack up; likewise, it can be a great business decision for millions of dollars if they do.

The number of papers you have to sign is amazing and this is where having people you trust around you to explain everything is vital.

Katie remembers vividly the moment that Barry rang to say that the guarantee had been approved and her offer on the pharmacy had been accepted. (She was bidding against a number of people from ‘the mainland’.)

It mostly went as planned and all of our analysis paid off as whenever something came up that may have been a problem, we had often already considered it as part of our original business plan and finance proposal and thus had a fair idea of what to do.

Business went well and Katie and Paul performed to plan. After two years they decided to do it all again and purchased a second pharmacy.

This was a lot easier as we knew what was expected, who to talk to and how to present our claim.

In just a few years, Katie has established two businesses that generate substantial income. She wants to encourage more women pharmacists to think about becoming business owners rather than just salary earners working for someone else.

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(Photograph courtesy Jason Loucas for Vogue Australia)

From a childhood in country Queensland, Helen Lynch has been a trailblazer for women and an activist for equality in financial services in Australia. The first ever woman bank branch manager in Australia (in 1978) Helen became the first ever woman General Manager (for South Australia and the Northern Territory) in 1988 and subsequently the first woman member of an executive team in 1993.

After a 35-year career at Westpac, with her 50th birthday approaching, Helen decided it was time to plan strategically for a full-time portfolio career of board appointments.

I could see that the bank was changing and I thought, well, if I didn’t take a risk on myself at this stage I probably never would. I thought the climate in Australia was right for a woman with the right experience and the right skills. I was well regarded within the bank but probably because I wasn’t part of the culture of the old boys’ club, I always had an excellent external network. Part of that was through my network of Chief Executive Women, with wonderful support from people like Carla Zampatti, Ita Buttrose and Barbara Cail — women who were very generous with their time.

In thinking about a portfolio of interests, Helen determined that what she really wanted to do was to get a bit more life balance.

At age 50 I really wanted to do a bit more travel, do some work for charity. I knew that the large public companies would take longer to come, that I would have to build my reputation in the smaller companies.

The first two companies Helen took board seats on were OPSM and Norwich Union, keeping the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Garvan Medical Research Institute and the Salvation Army as her three external charitable boards.

In the second year, I took on Southcorp and Coles Myer. I had those fairly close together so there was quite a huge learning curve and in that second and third year I worked extraordinarily hard.

In October 1997 Helen joined the Westpac board. She cautions that in looking at a portfolio of interests you should always think about how many boards you think you can really do and then take on one less. You never know when you will be called on for emergency meetings to deal with urgent issues like takeovers, and you need to be accessible in a way that may impinge on your personal life.

Being a non-executive director does, I think, appeal to a lot of women, particularly as they’re trying to balance their lives between marriage, family and children, but still want to have a fulfilling work life. I think, however, that the expectations of some women are quite unrealistic. Being on a public company board is not for the faint-hearted. You need to have a broad range of experience. Dealing with a high-level group of people where you’ve got a lot of independent individuals who need to work together as a team, you also need to be prepared to stand up and be counted and sometimes that can be quite stressful. I think it does require the kind of experience that you get in working in an executive team or in a high-level position for a company.

Helen suggests:

Starting with nonprofit boards is always very useful, because you can make a contribution and also broaden your commercial network, get some experience in dealing with boards and so on.

She cautions, however, that it doesn’t matter whether you’re on a nonprofit board, a cultural board, or a government board, the accountabilities are still there. Directors’ liabilities carry considerable responsibility and you will want to consider professional liability insurance. You need to do due diligence yourself on any company or organisation before you agree to become a board member.

Despite the US research that demonstrates a return on investment of close to 100% greater for companies that have a proven track record of diversity compared to those that don’t, Helen points out diversity is still sorely lacking in Australian boardrooms.

I think we women will never win the battle unless we can convert men to thinking about the invaluable contribution that women can make.

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Tara Hannon, 43, from Sydney, works in the volatile information technology (IT) industry and has been retrenched four times in her career, the first at age 30 from IBM (where, ironically, she had been part of a taskforce assigned with re-engineering and restructuring IBM worldwide). She describes each circumstance as different: the first was voluntary, the second political, the third a dot com failure and the fourth a US company that shut down its Australian subsidiary with only two hours’ notice! While those working in the IT industry know it is high reward and high risk, Tara still went on an emotional rollercoaster when she wasn’t prepared for redundancy.

It’s really important to acknowledge your feelings.You will feel - and it is completely normal to feel - a whole range of emotions, from anger to betrayal to ‘this must be my fault somehow’, to the fear and shame that can go with no longer being able to identify with your job. It is of course now becoming more accepted that the whole nature of work is changing and short-term contracting is becoming the order of the day, but you can still feel dreadful about a redundancy you’re unprepared for.

Tara learnt different lessons from each circumstance, both about herself and about the process.

For me, it’s really important to have someone to talk to about it, to understand why it happened, to be able to see transparency and fairness in the process. Being on the cutting edge with IT and having worked in the US, I am totally aware of the volatility of the marketplace, but job redundancy is always unsettling if you don’t know it’s coming.

Tara’s four experiences were all quite different.

My first retrenchment was voluntary and transparent and allowed me to plan my next moves. I went flying off with my payout to start my own consultancy business with a great sense of loyalty to IBM for the way it was handled. Perhaps that’s why I now feel proud to be working there again. I need to respect what the company I work for stands for. I have the opposite feeling about my last retrenchment, where we were all literally evicted from the company with no advance warning. This was a real disaster for me, because I had succumbed to pressure to start work before my contract negotiations were complete - my mistake, I know, and one that cost me dearly.

Tara’s advice is to recognise the changing nature of the working world and to ensure you plan to look after your own interests, mindful of how redundancy and retrenchment may affect your ME Inc.

So often macro events affect individuals in ways that are really unfortunate, but we have no control at the micro level. Some industries are like a barometer of the economy: leading up to Y2K IT professionals were in short supply and we could just about name our price, but in the downturn of 2001 layoffs became common.That’s why it’s really crucial to think of every eventuality when you accept a role and negotiate your contract.You have to think of yourself as an individual entity and negotiate accordingly. My third retrenchment, while unsettling, was relatively painless because I had taken the time with my lawyer to negotiate a watertight contract that gave me six months on full pay while I looked for another suitable role. So there was no anxiety, no haggling.

For Tara, it was really important to have that financial security while she was job hunting as it can take increasingly longer to find another role at a comparable level as you get older and obtain more senior positions.

I think it is even harder for those in more traditional industries, where the rules of the game are changing and individuals haven’t always adjusted their perspectives to match. I have friends who have been immensely loyal, toed the party line, jumped through all the hoops they were asked to - only to find, ‘Oops, there’s an abyss on the other side of that hoop, sorry!’ They are the ones who are totally devastated by redundancy and retrenchment and often feel really bitter. It’s crucial to keep the big picture in mind, see other opportunities in your industry and maintain your networks.

Tara’s tips:

* You must keep abreast of what is going on in the industry and keep up your networks and your skills. Too often we get so wrapped up in working crazy hours trying to do the best for our company that we lose sight of the bigger picture.
* With today’s business practices, preparing for retrenchment starts with your employment contract.
* Make sure you aren’t blinded by loyalty to the company and forget your duty to yourself. Even if a company promises you the world if you’ll start work without a signed contract (because they need you immediately, of course!), your strongest negotiating position is before you start work. This was a key lesson for me.
* At senior levels, hire a good lawyer to negotiate your employment contract - the way it is structured is the way your retrenchment will be handled should redundancy arise. If you have a good contract in place, it will not only give you a financial breathing space, but it may even give you leverage to stay if that’s what you want.

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Pictured with her husband and nine children - Judith’s on the far right!

Do it now. Do what? The important things. When? Now.

Blending family, business and personal purpose takes on a whole new perspective when you are the mother of nine.

Dr Judith Slocombe manages the seemingly impossible, running her own successful veterinary pathology business and doing an MBA at the same time. A veterinary surgeon, Judith worked part-time from home for ten years in pathology while most of the children were very small.

I had too many preschoolers for it to ever be economically viable to use childcare. Looking back I was very frustrated professionally, but in hind-sight I see that was when I really focused on handling people, learning basic skills at grass-roots level that became the building blocks of my future business.

Judith believes women who take time out to have their children don’t recognise the skills they’re developing in negotiation and organisation.

You have to value what you did as a mother and the skills you learnt while you were at home. Negotiating with toddlers - and teenagers - is not unlike doing the same in a boardroom.

Judith created a new paradigm for her business, establishing her veterinary pathology business in a medical pathology lab for the first time in Australia. To manage such a large family as well as a fast-growing business, Judith consciously separated them in her mind and tried to maintain some focus on personal needs, too.

You can’t neglect any of the three, or they’ll fall over, so work out what is most important in each. There are times when you’ll have to focus more on one element - for example, when I was establishing the new business I worked 16-hour days - but you always need practical tricks on the family side to keep things working. We roster responsibilities for the children and we teach them to be very self-sufficient.

Family and work are only two of the three elements. Judith believes you have to maintain your physical wellbeing, keep fit and healthy, and maintain your intellectual health, too.

You have to have energy in your own mind to be able to keep going, the mindset to be able to cope with all those other things. Everybody needs to find their own strategy, whether it’s taking a course or reading a book.

Reading Amanda Sinclair’s book Doing Leadership Differently and Leonie Still’s book Where To From Here? The Managerial Woman in Transition, Judith discovered new ways of looking at leadership.

I realised I could be an effective leader without being a macho stereotypical masculine hero. I have now learned that I can be determined, focused and effective without having to prove myself by staying at work for extraordinary hours. I certainly did behave like this when my business first got going. I felt that I had to prove to the managers of the medical lab, who were all male, that I had what it took, that I could withstand the battlefield.

Judith confesses she still often gets a client to sign a contract before they know any personal information about her, in case her family size is perceived as a sign that she may not be able to dedicate herself to their needs.

In some environments, I’ve even fabricated a family structure with fewer children to diminish their negative response and disbelief. For the record, in my experience, five or more children is considered undisciplined and poor management! It has taken a long time for me to see that this response to my family is not a problem with my role in business or as a family person, but a problem with the other person who’s bounded by their view of women in society.

It’s about changing your mindset.

Now I feel I can have a family and celebrate them, rather than feeling I have to hide them from people at work in case they’re perceived as a distraction and a cause for lack of undying dedication.

Judith’s five-point plan is her key to coping with the three main elements in her life:

1. The first thing to do is to stop worrying about the little things. Prioritise. Make a list of the important things you must do.
2. Cross off all but the top five, as the rest won’t be important enough to worry about.
3. Is one of the five tasks critical? If so, do it now.
4. Next choose the easiest, most convenient task and do it now.
5. And so on, until the list is complete. Then make another one. You will find that soon you can’t find five things to put on the list and you’re dealing with the most important thing straightaway.

Judith’s secret to making it work is getting rid of the things that really won’t make a difference, but she cautions:

You have to be very honest with yourself and make sure that you’re deleting trivial tasks, not things you want to keep avoiding. I’m getting better at making the list - usually if I listen to that little voice inside, I don’t get things in the wrong order too often. I want to say to the young woman who is torn about whether to have a family - make a list, and if it is in the top five, do it now. There is never a perfect time, just as there is never a wrong time. The priorities in your life just move down the list a little to make room for your child, and if you listen to that little voice inside, you will make the right decision for your child, yourself and your career.

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Wendy McCarthy, AO, designed an eclectic portfolio career of paid and unpaid work, before it was in vogue, by doing a number of things that she believed in, was good at, enjoyed or wanted to change.

I’ve had a non-linear career predicated on time out for children, family, community and feminist causes. When I first read Charles Handy describing the eclectic portfolio I wanted to beam and cry and proclaim loudly that at last my career had a name and respectability. What I had been doing instinctively was now a desirable self-development objective. Linear careers were no longer to be aspired to, and lateral moves which pursued and developed interests and skills were fine.

Doing more than one thing at a time indicated a healthy interest in community, professional synergy and an ability to balance portfolios (a skill every working mother requires for survival). The eclectic portfolio is fashionable and I have one. Professional recognition at last!

Wendy is one of Australia’s best-known feminists, a university chancellor, a change agent, a trailblazer, a mentor, a mother, a political activist, a teacher, a CEO, a board member and Chair, a community volunteer, a grandmother and a businesswoman. Throughout her career, Wendy has created new areas of work and interest, simply by using her common sense and her passion about what needed to be done. She has reinvented herself and her career dozens of times in the past four decades. Her special interest currently is mentoring.

Over the years I took an interest in the careers of people I taught at school and young women whose futures could be so much more satisfying with just a little listening space and exchange of war stories offered to them - it was always mutually beneficial. But as a process it did not have a name.

All that has changed now that mentoring is being recognised as a powerful and cost-effective method of professional development.

Just think, all that time I was talking and listening to interesting people who were trying to make sense of their careers I was really a mentor. Turning this passion into a business was both accidental and deliberate. The beginning was accidental when I remarked to a CEO that his expectations of success for two talented young women as part of a senior executive team were unrealistic, because although they were highly skilled, they knew nothing of the ‘software’ of senior executive life and would need some support.

Immediately it became ‘blindingly obvious’ to Wendy that mentoring in a formal sense would be of immense value. She began to develop a methodology which has proven successful over the last five years with a variety of corporate clients, banks, stockbrokers, universities and publishers.

Wendy is fond of quoting Winnie-the-Pooh:

When you do the things that you can do,
You’ll find the way and the way will find you.

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Look, if the blokes can do it, I must be able to.

They’re not any smarter than me.

Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon is the most senior woman in Australia’s police forces. Attracted by the idea of helping protect people from harm, Christine held out against her father’s opposition to her joining the police force.

That was the first in a long string of battles Christine fought to be able to do the same jobs as men and to open up opportunities for other women. She served a term as President of the Women’s Branch of the Police Association, helped get access for women to general policing duties and detective work, and became the first woman appointed in a number of jobs previously filled only by men.

It may have appeared dangerous to push some of the boundaries the way I did, but I had a sense of belief in my own worth that I could cope if things got too tough. I used to say that no matter what they did to me, I could always go and drive a bus - they don’t own me! I often say to people, ‘They’re not going to shoot you, are they? Get on with it.’

The impetus for Christine to push the envelope for other women came from seeing how things were for her mother.

She is and was extraordinarily talented, but was never recognised. She worked in a Coles variety store. In the ’60s and ’70s there wasn’t recognition of women in management at all, no opportunities. When I joined policing in the early ’70s there was a growing number of women who wanted to push the boundaries as well, so there was a real support group.

Christine is adamant you need both a belief in yourself and a belief that it’s possible to do what you want.

You’ve got to, in your own head, say,‘Yes, I can do this.’ If you start out with an attitude that says, ‘It’s just not possible’, then it isn’t. Of course, you have to do the groundwork, too. You can’t just walk into the chief executive’s office unless you’ve done the hard yards and you’ve got the experience. Whatever it is you’re heading towards, whether it’s winning an Olympic medal or moving one step up a corporate ladder, you’ve got to do the work.

After she won a scholarship to Harvard to do a two-year public policy master’s degree, Christine was repeatedly asked about her career aspirations.

It was kind of like,‘What are you going to do when you grow up?’, and I started to articulate - well, maybe the Police Commissioner! Years later when I saw the advertisement in Victoria for the Chief Commissioner position there didn’t seem much likelihood I’d get the job: there’s very few senior policewomen in Victoria, and they hadn’t hired an outsider since 1955 - and he was a male Victorian who’d been in the army!

But if you’re not in, you can’t win. Christine prepared thoroughly and knew she had the breadth of experience required. She was delighted to be appointed and now runs a staff of over 12,000.

There’s a great sense of support from the community and I think it opens the door for women in a range of occupations. Policing is such a male-dominated occupation, people are saying, ‘Gee, you know, if a woman can get that kind of a job then there are others who can push the boundaries, too.’

Christine appointed a Women’s Liaison Officer to look at how things can be improved for women, in line with her belief that it’s important to have more women in law enforcement.

I think the more the community sees women in those sorts of important roles of authority, the more we’ll be able to influence behaviours. I spend a lot of time talking to women about pushing the boundaries, about having some confidence, about a belief in what’s possible. I think they’re the really important parts of what we can share and encourage other women to do. Women underestimate enormously the talents and capacities they’ve got and the skills they’ve acquired. I think we have to be the ones who’re pointing them out to other women and saying, ‘Come on, you have a go’ - helping each other in that regard.

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Perth's Louisa Wood decided to start her own business both for the challenge and to give her the flexibility needed for her triathlon training regime. Louisa remembers always having a passion for business right from primary school.

I needed pocket money to buy the latest clothes and music, so even at primary school, I sold scrunchies, and at high school I tried network marketing, selling chocolates to fundraise for travel to my triathlon competitions.

In her last year, Louisa came up with the idea of reinventing the school diary because she was so frustrated that it didn’t deliver what she thought a good school diary should. For the next two years, she did her market research, surveying students to find out what they really wanted, and created My Diary based on their input.

At 19, she registered her business as Get Positive Productions.

Louisa (above, right, with her sister) entered a number of business planning competitions that helped her define her dream, refine her ideas, set goals and write a detailed business plan. She was a winner in the Nescafé Big Break competition in 1998 and Shell Livewire in 2000.

Being a winner in the competitions gave me a financial reward that I desperately needed to continue developing my idea, but more importantly a belief in myself, and as a woman, that I could do anything I set my mind to. It told me that I was on ‘the right path’ and that my passion and persistence got me there.

Louisa found the help with the business planning process invaluable. Shell Livewire involves free weekly group seminars on business planning and all participants get a business planning guide that outlines all the key elements that need to be included:

* What is the aim of my business?
* What product or service will I sell?
* Who are my potential customers?
* Where will I base my business?
* What price will I charge?
* How will I find my customers?
* How will I make them buy from me instead of my competitors?

You are also assigned a mentor in a field related to your idea. That was just amazing. Getting to work closely with an experienced businessperson on my plan helped me to really get hold of the big picture. My mentor read through my draft business plan and highlighted the areas of weakness that required more work and then pointed to sources where I could find the information I needed. She provided me with encouragement to pursue my idea further and a belief in myself that I could get to her level too ... she was normal and human just like me.

Getting help in the planning process is a great idea. And you don’t have to win a competition to get it. There’s lots of help available (see Useful Contacts) so don’t struggle alone!

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Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Three weeks before Christmas in 1998, Denise Dyer was fired from her job as human resources director for the Australian arm of an international pharmaceutical company.

Looking back, it was such a gift. I didn’t fit the paternalistic, conservative culture and I guess my rebellious nature came out. I pushed the envelope a bit far and my new boss decided firing me would be the best solution. It’s a great experience for an HR director to have the tables turned and be in the firing line, to develop empathy!

Being familiar with the legally required process for job termination (verbal warning and counselling, then three written warnings with expectations clearly set out), Denise was in a good position to negotiate her departure.

The company agreed to pretty generous terms to avoid the hassle. I thought hard about what I needed most and negotiated the use of my car and laptop for six months, along with full salary and time to work with a coach on my future. I also got my accountant to check the settlement before I signed, and he made some adjustments to ensure it maximised tax benefits.

Encouraged by her neighbour, a spiritual healer, Denise started to explore totally new areas of interest. She attended a Mind, Body, Spirit expo in Sydney and signed up for a course in energetic and spiritual healing at Nature Care College.

The irony was, the year that I was fired I had already decided I needed to do something completely different with my life. It was as though the universe had picked me up, given me a good shake and said, ‘So who are you really and what do you want to do?’ I woke up every day with this incredible sense of freedom, realising I could become anything I wanted to. I know now I was looking for my life purpose. I believe there is a reason for everything that happens and the universe presents lessons until we learn them.

Denise continued to do some part-time HR consulting work to pay the bills, but soon found she didn’t really want to work as an employee in a corporate environment.

I could feel myself starting to die inside. A lot of things had changed inside of me and I realised my new path was the right one for me. The analogy of ‘collecting coats’ is a great one - some don’t fit any more and you need to get rid of them so you’re not weighed down. Often we hide our true light out of fear.

The coach Denise worked with helped her realise she should start her own business.

After doing some suitability tests, I realised my own business was a logical progression. The name ‘Simple Harmony’ came to me almost immediately, which startled me, because I thought I’d be agonising over it. It gave me scope to develop into new areas so now, three years down the track, I provide coaching and consultancy services incorporating spiritual healing and holistic counselling, and I’m starting to do professional speaking work.

In retrospect, Denise is sure she wouldn’t have made the shift she needed to without being fired.

It was the only way I would have looked outside the square. My wish is for everyone to get some kind of opening to make real choices, to truly discover who you are. As spiritual beings we need to take note of coincidences and learn to trust ourselves and our intuition.

Denise’s tips:

* Know your rights and don’t be afraid to negotiate.
* Seek professional advice to make sure your termination package is tax-effective.
* Use the opening in your life to discover who you really are and what you want to do.
* Use this time to figure out which of the ‘coats’ you’ve accumulated you don’t need any more.
* Anyone can do anything - take time to discover your life purpose.
* Trust yourself and listen to your intuition.

Remember:

* ‘Termination’ of one job may open up all sorts of new opportunities.
* Do not feel personally responsible for your job redundancy.
* Make sure you have a financial plan in place to avoid short-term money worries.
* You may not be able to control external events, but you can control your response.
* This is a great time to take stock and give yourself the time to work out what you really want most to do.
* Get professional financial advice to help maximise your severance package.
* Life is full of adventures - it’s time to start a new one!

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Jacqui Yeo

Jacqui Yeo and her husband moved permanently to Australia from Malaysia in 1988 as part of the business migration program, after completing university study here.

Things were tough for Chinese in Malaysia so we decided to emigrate. I took the first job that I could get, telemarketing for $8 an hour selling computer papers and diskettes. We wanted our own business so I set myself up in Surry Hills, with a warehouse in Botany, and imported computer paper and just about anything else related to a computer department that I could sell.

The business grew rapidly and kept expanding into new premises. The Yeos decided to go into manufacturing themselves and bought their first printing machine. The business provided a total printing management solution for customers, including warehousing and distribution. As technology advanced and customers began converting from dot matrix printers to laser printing, Jacqui realised the market was shrinking.

We realised it was time to either get out, sell off the company, or force a consolidation in the marketplace. We decided we wanted to consolidate, rationalising that in a shrinking market fewer players in the market meant more business to go around. We decided a takeover would be the best strategy. We wanted to be one of the bigger players.

A printing business four times the size of Jacqui’s business came on the market in the late 1990s.

We knew Kalamazoo was for sale for about one year before we decided to bid. It was owned by a publicly listed company and they were trying to sell it off. Our initial strategy was to offer low. I think it’s important in a takeover situation to not appear too keen, otherwise you’ll end up paying a premium.

Due diligence is a critical element of a takeover because you want to know exactly what you are buying. Hidden ‘surprises’ can spell disaster. Remember the Ansett crisis in 2001 and Air New Zealand subsequently admitting publicly that they had bought the company without being able to undertake full due diligence? Due diligence helps to determine a fair value for the company’s assets and highlights the key risks associated with the company’s operations. It’s a multidisciplinary process that will vary in emphasis from industry to industry, so specialist knowledge is essential. It should cover information on assets and liabilities, patents and trademarks, personnel issues (including contractual arrangements and entitlements), leases, commercial agreements, business names, insurance and commercial agreements.

The Yeos purchased Kalamazoo in 1999 and began restructuring it to fit in with their own business philosophy.

We’d done careful due diligence, so there were no surprises, but there were big issues around merging two different company cultures. Kalamazoo was an old, established company, the staff were quite set in their ways and a lot of them were out of their comfort zone once we took over.

Jacqui spent a lot of time and energy in the first year of the merger trying to re-educate Kalamazoo staff about the realities of a tough marketplace.

I had quite a difficult time.There was a lot of resistance to change and our key measures of accountability and performance. Slowly those who don’t want to work in a new way drift out, so I’m putting new blood in. I want to change the culture. You have to put in place great staff training so they know what is expected within the first three months. If you feel that it’s not going to work out, cut your losses fast because it’s going to be a drain on the business and adversely affect your image in the marketplace.

The Yeos believe it’s critical for staff to be familiar with the key drivers of profitability, helping them understand the effect that fixed and variable costs have on price and profitability.

They need to understand how the business runs, what our costs are and what it’s like in the marketplace, so they can understand the consequences of the way they are managing their part of the business. It’s the same with the sales team. I say to them, if you’re asking for so much in salary, can you bring in the sales? First of all you have to pay yourself, then after that you’ve got to make the contributions for all the support staff. We want them to feel as though they’re running their own little business.

Jacqui has been practising Customer Relationship Management (CRM) right from the start, building a database of key information on clients’ business needs and personal interests. She also trains her staff on the psychology of relationship-based selling, seeing that as critical in such a competitive industry.

We diarise to prompt customers to reorder so they’re not caught short. I teach my staff to smile on the phone and to ideally make calls early in the morning or after lunch when the client has a full tummy - it’s the psychology of it. We also remember their birthdays and special events, send gifts at Easter and Christmas, take out bigger clients for a meal and try to maintain great relationships. Our business depends on client relationships.

Jacqui’s tips:

* Thorough due diligence is a prerequisite for a takeover.
* Merging two cultures is challenging - communication and training are key.
* If people don’t fit your company culture, let them go, fast.
* Educate your managers about the key value drivers of your business.
* Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the foundation of relationship sales.
* Know the psychology of selling.

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Young women are continuing to extend the boundaries for working women in Australia. Sick of taunts on the school bus that she wouldn’t have the same opportunities to do an exciting job when she grew up - ‘You’re only a girl’ - Brooke Chivers was determined to join the Air Force and fly jets.

In February 2000 Brooke became one of the first two Australian women to be qualified on fast jets in Australia.

I love flying on the F-111s, which are the Australian Defence Force’s elite strike reconnaissance fast jet aircraft. My duties on an F-111 as navigator include being co-pilot, the weapons systems deployment and electronic warfare specialist, and tactical coordinator. While I had something to prove, it’s important to want to do the job itself, and I love my office in the sky!

While you may not aspire to flying fast jets for a living, there will be a special something you’d like to achieve, a legacy you’d like to leave the world. You owe it to yourself to follow that dream. Your life work is a statement of who you are. You’re a wonderful, unique woman, so let that light shine - don’t cheat the world or yourself!

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Jill Johnson experienced her first retrenchment at age 51, when the division she was managing for Qantas was closed down. Jill’s situation was unusual in that, even though she made the recommendation to close down the division after changing world events meant a drop-off in profitability, and even though she managed the process for her 20 staff, Jill also got retrenched. This was a double-edged sword because she was still responsible for management but not exempt from feeling the same fears and apprehensions her staff were experiencing.

Prior to joining Qantas in 1990, Jill had a number of roles in sales and service in the Commonwealth Bank and PA Consulting Services. She had always been proactive about her career with good results, so finding herself facing redundancy was a shock she was ill prepared for.

While I was the one who made the recommendation that the division be closed because it was costing Qantas too much, I guess I didn’t think they would throw the baby out with the bathwater! It has been a real challenge to manage this process.

Jill consciously chose to keep her staff fully informed at every stage (she managed staff in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney).

I was acutely aware of how damaging the rumour mill can be for staff morale. Knowing that they had the latest info and were always free to check with me gave them a sense of control over a difficult situation, and also helped to keep the business functioning at full capacity. It has been a real strain for me personally, though.

Jill found that physical exercise was a way to keep her emotions on an even keel.

Feeling responsible for my team, their emotional issues and trying to find jobs for them elsewhere in the organisation while having to maintain executive management hasn’t left me much time to focus on my own future. I guess my family has really been my outlet, which has created other pressures on the home front. No matter how you try to mentally prepare yourself, redundancies and retrenchments are pretty devastating all round. I had a lot of difficulty sleeping because I was worrying about the staff and how I could help them find other roles. I guess the one thing that kept me sane was being disciplined about keeping up my daily eight-kilometre morning walk - it helped clear the cobwebs and gave me some perspective.

Through her efforts to help her staff, Jill inadvertently found a mentor.

I’ve had the blessing of being able to talk with our Group General Manager for Retail and Group Sales in trying to see if I could find my staff roles in her area. She has offered her full assistance to me in a very warm, caring and genuine way. It’s not easy finding mentors, especially female mentors at senior levels you can closely relate to, so I feel very lucky. She’s just the most wonderful person and I’ve found her support invaluable. She has been ringing me on a daily basis to see how I’m coping with my division and how I’m coping personally. It has really lifted my spirits and made the whole situation easier to bear. It makes me realise how valuable a mentoring relationship can be - and that I should have sought out a mentor before I really needed one!

Jill realised her lack of internal company networks was a real disadvantage and now has networking on her priority list.

Maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation if I had a wider network of contacts in the organisation. In general, women in management don’t network to anywhere near the same extent as the men do. Guys share a drink after work in a way that just doesn’t come naturally to women. I can see now, in hindsight, that this is where we are missing out on a lot of opportunities to break down and get through a bit more of that glass ceiling. I still can’t accept that doing 10 to 12 hours a day of fantastic, efficient, effective, solid work doesn’t get you where it should. Sadly, it’s not just based on your output in the course of your working day, it’s the other peripheral activities you undertake that assure your future. I wonder now if better internal networks might have helped me choose a new role more strategically.

The financial implications of redundancy were of great concern to Jill. Organising her finances had been on her mind for years, but she’d never been able to find the time.

I know I ought to have taken the time to deal with financial issues earlier, but it’s the old story - you tend to put work, your staff and your family first, and your own issues last. With the severance proposal, I felt bewildered by what I should do, so decided to see two different financial advisers to help me get a perspective on what the issues were and compare their suggestions. As this was an emotional issue for me I asked around and got recommendations from women friends - the last thing you want is a bad experience with an ‘expert’ who makes you feel stupid for not understanding all the financial ins and outs. It’s incredibly complex having to weigh up so many short- and long-term factors and it really helps having a professional guide you through the minefield.

Jill’s tips:

* Don’t expect that working hard will automatically lead to rightful reward; it’s important to be strategic in positioning yourself.
* Take the time to build your networks, both internally and externally.
* Find a mentor (preferably before you need one).
* Maintain regular exercise as an outlet when you’re under emotional strain; it’s a great safety valve.
* Make sure you get good financial advice.

Julia Ross

Julia Ross is CEO of Julia Ross Recruitment and was recently named the Westpac Business Woman Owner of the Year, one of the Telstra Women in Business Awards.

Julia started her business out of economic need (she's an example of what's called a necessity entrepreneur) rather than passion for the industry. After leaving her husband and then her corporate job when she couldn’t stand her boss any longer, Julia decided to return to the UK.

I then realised I was pregnant with my son, James, and so came back to Australia to try and make another go of the marriage. It didn’t work. On the back of that, I had to decide what I’d do because in that situation, unless I told lies, no-one was going to offer me a very senior position. So I decided to start my own business and after some thought, settled on recruitment - the Yellow Pages was my prospective client list. It wasn’t any grand plan. It was really based on necessity to earn a living while I was pregnant with James, so I had to make it work.

From being refused a bank loan and having to sell everything she owned to start up her business, Julia Ross now runs a company with 11 branches and a presence in all Australian states and territories and the United Kingdom. In 2000 Julia listed Julia Ross Recruitment on the Australian Stock Exchange as the largest ever woman-owned company to float.

Several times during the growth of the company I got uncomfortable with being the sole owner. From waking up in the middle of the night with the two o’clock horrors wondering what would happen if it all went wrong early on, to the business going into the multimillions ...

When we went over the $100 million mark and had around $10 million in debtors I felt it was really time to share some of the load.

Julia considered venture capital as an option, but eventually decided on an IPO (Initial Public Offering, or share float).

It was pretty traumatic to be dealing with such a lot of money and being in uncharted waters - very stressful. I was lucky to have friends and business colleagues who had been through the listing process and they were able to mentor me, but you’re learning on the job as you’re doing it, which is precarious. I had no idea how to put a board together, what due diligence would bring with it, or the extent of it.

Once your business is publicly listed you have an obligation to shareholders. The biggest challenge is having to give constant returns to the market without damaging the business. Sometimes businesses have to reinvest. Those short-term profit hurdles can be detrimental, in my opinion, to the long-term success of the business.

As Julia maintained 54% ownership, her relationship with the board is different from one of a minority holding.

They generally take my advice but they challenge me if they think something is not the way it should be. If I’d known beforehand how useful it is, I’d have set up a board earlier.

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We don’t get to choose when and where we’re born, but we can choose how we wish to live.

Margherita Coppolino is a wonderful example of a woman who has dared to dream her own dreams, no matter how outrageous they seemed to others, and she has begun to turn them into reality, despite being told throughout her childhood that she’d amount to nothing. If she can do it, so can you.

Margherita was abandoned at birth after her mother was raped, and she grew up in an orphanage. When she was about eight years old, Margherita realised that her dwarfism made others treat her differently.

I didn’t realise I was different until everyone else started to grow. At my school people assumed that my physical disability must be mental, too. There wasn’t much known in those days about dwarfism. In Year 11 Welfare decided for me that I should become a data entry operator. At the time, there was part of me saying that for the past 18 years they’ve been making the decisions so they must know what’s best, but there was a little voice inside saying, ‘I don’t know if this is really what I want to do.’

Margherita describes that first clerical role as ‘nine and a half years of pure frustration’ until, through some volunteer work, she made a breakthrough.

It was back in the early ’80s volunteering for the International Year of the Disabled Person that I realised what I didn’t want. It was quite daunting because it was like a mirror, looking at stuff I really hadn’t looked at. I’d looked at the orphanage, and surviving and mothering and all that, but not at disabilities. So I got to see how some other people with disabilities lived and how hard it was for them. And for me it hit home that I didn’t want to go down the path with them that in fact I’d actually started down.

I realised the way they let others influence their view of themselves meant the only role they could ever be suitable for was sheltered workshops or voluntary work. They would never be successful business people or good role models. They always believed that what society said was right for them and never questioned anything. I knew there had to be another way.

Margherita didn’t know quite how to move on, so she simply wrote away to three different government departments that she knew worked specifically with people.

At this time I hadn’t done any research, I just wrote away saying ‘I want to work with your department because I know you work with people, and that’s what I can do.’ I didn’t know where I would fit in. I didn’t have any qualifications, I was just a clerical assistant. Margherita was over the moon to be offered a role as an employment officer with the Commonwealth Employment Service.

It was mind-boggling stuff for me because I thought I would never be anything more than a clerical assistant.That’s what the system had told me, but I proved the system wrong! I was right out of my comfort zone and I was terrified, but I made the change. So for me it was a real turning point, and I say to myself now, ‘If I could do that then I can do just about anything.’

Margherita performed as a clown on weekends for fun and found she loved entertaining an audience and working with different types of people. It was then that her life dream was born: to become an internationally known trainer and motivational speaker, to inspire others to realise that they too could make their ambitions reality. This seemed impossible at the time because partial deafness meant Margherita also had speech impediments to overcome, but she kept remembering that first big leap from being a data entry clerk. She began to define her ideal working environment and, as her confidence grew, Margherita went on to set up her own training and consulting business, called Unlimited Growth.

I started to embark on personal development where I was doing a lot of work on myself as well. Unlimited Growth was really a reflection of where I was in my own life at that time - accepting change, going with the flow. Change is exciting, although each time I’m scared too. Once you go through the fear barrier, the change is really positive - I’ve had so many changes in my life and each one gets better and better. I keep thinking I’m taking small steps towards my dream.The real issue is, where would I be if I hadn’t been brave enough to make those changes?

Almost twenty years on and many training courses and career changes later, Margherita is her own boss, making her own decisions and not answering to anyone. She has created her ideal working environment in her home office, complete with aromatherapy burner, crystals and a ‘dreamboard planner’, which depicts visually where she wants to go. It took ten years but in 2001 Margherita graduated with a Bachelor of Education and Training from Melbourne University. She’s now a sought-after public speaker, disability consultant and trainer in Australia and is sure the international component of the dream is just around the corner.

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Tanya Ahmed's story shows how important it is to take care of yourself as well as your career. For Tanya, overwork became life threatening.

The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Tanya grew up in Tasmania determined to excel. She worked three part-time jobs to put herself through a year-long beauty therapy course, graduating in 1999 with the highest honours: the first Tasmanian ever to win the National Award for Excellence in Beauty Therapy. Tanya threw herself into her own business with the same dedication and at 23 years of age established the Sharkra Health and Beauty salon in Hobart.

Regularly working seven-day weeks and 14-hour days took its toll on Tanya’s health, and towards the end of 2000, she found herself so ill that she was unable to go on. Hospitalised for a month, she was diagnosed with lupus, a condition that has debilitating effects on the immune system if untreated. She now has to take three days off once a month for a blood transfusion.

Unfortunately my focus on the business didn’t really allow me to focus on my own health and wellbeing. I just loved what I was doing so much, I didn’t realise I was reaching burnout. I guess my initial determination for my business to succeed far outweighed my need for time out. My doctor actually had to sit me down and say, ‘If you don’t change your lifestyle and stop working so much, you’re not going to be here to enjoy your business.’

Tanya says that this was the wake-up call she needed to radically change her lifestyle. Her diet is now vegan, she makes an effort to exercise three times a week by walking a friend’s dog, finishes earlier at night, takes a day off every week and delegates administrative tasks to her staff.

While you may be able to run on adrenaline or caffeine hits for a while, you need to consciously pace yourself for the life of business - either develop a manageable pace or plan extended rest periods after your short sprints.

Tanya’s lessons

Good nutrition can give you the edge.
Go easy on caffeine.
Exercise regularly.
Allow for time out - plan it and commit to it!
Learn to delegate to others.

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Nicky explains: I was good at maths and science at high school, so one of my teachers recommended I think about engineering, medicine or veterinary science. I didn’t really know what to do so I went for engineering. I got my first choice at Melbourne Uni and I was excited about being a trail-blazer, a young woman in a male-dominated job and it was going to be so great! By the end of the second year I was starting to think, ‘I’m not enjoying this.’

For Nicky, that uneasy feeling translated into a flash of insight one day in class.

The lecturer said, ‘Just imagine it’s ten years on, you’re working for Shell, you’re checking oil samples and this is the sample you get’, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh no! That’s just not what I want to be doing in ten years’ time’, and from that point on I didn’t listen to the lecture. I started to really think about what I was doing, why I was at university. Neither of my parents had university degrees and I guess I felt real pressure to make them proud.

But at the same time I saw both my parents working successfully without degrees and so I wasn’t fearful of leaving uni. I knew that I could still do something, but what?

While I was at uni I always worked casually in one of the hotels my dad managed, so I started playing with food and cooking.

Nicky didn’t realise at the time that what was a fun hobby had the seeds of real career prospects.

I never thought I could do that as a career. After quite a few conversations with my parents, who could see how stressed and unhappy I was at uni, my Dad said, ‘Well you love the kitchen, and you love good food - why don’t you apply for an apprenticeship?’ My immediate reaction was, ‘I can’t’ - by this stage I was 21 and it seemed far too old. I said, ‘No-one’s going to take me on’, but then I thought about it and I decided I should at least give it a go.

What a great attitude! Too often we are so terrified of making a mistake that we don’t try something different, even if we’re unhappy.

Isn’t it interesting that Nicky didn’t think of turning cooking into a career until her Dad suggested it? So often our preconceived ideas of what we should be doing stop us from thinking outside the box. But once you break down those mental barriers, whole new worlds can open up to you, as Nicky discovered.

I think that if you’re unhappy where you are, then you should straightaway do something about it. Grab onto it - hold onto that feeling, don’t sort of say, ‘Oh, this is just crazy - I have to stick to what I am doing’, because it will keep coming back.

Determined to try a new path, Nicky managed to get an apprenticeship at melbourne’s St Kilda Road Travelodge.

The head chef was worried I wouldn’t be able to stick out the four years, but pretty much from day one I loved it - the whole atmosphere. I thought, ‘I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do this well,’ I was lucky my chef put me forward for some small cooking competitions and I won a couple of medals, which was pretty cool. I manged to transfer up to the Parkroyal and got the chance to enter the apprenticeship of the year competition Australia-wide, which I couldn’t believe I won.

Nicky’s growing confidence prompted her to begin to seek out a job that would take her to the next level in her career.

I used my contacts through Trade School to apply for a job with restaurateur Stephanie Alexander. She was an idol for me. I actually got my first break partly through luck - a new chef Stephanie had hired fell off his roof the day before he was due to start, so she needed someone right away. I worked really hard and in ’97 Stephanie offered me the role of head chef at her new venture, the Richmond Hill Café and Larder.

After seven years with Stephanie, Nicky began a new role in 2002 as head chef of Mecca Bah restaurant in the Docklands complex.

It has been a steep learning curve but I love it. I love communicating and creating, and at the same time I realy like to be a leader and take control of situations. I guess if I’d thought enough about what I love and what my work values are, I would have realised earlier I wouldn’t be happy stuck in a lab.

We all have some work-related values that are intrinsic to who we really are, not what others think we should be. To find out yours, click here to take the career values test.

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Nan's life serves as an inspiring reminder that while you may not always have choices in what you do to keep things going, you do always have choices in how you respond to difficult situations.

When Nan got her first job in the recruitment industry as a secretary, desperate to support her three children, she had no idea that 20 years on she would be selling her own business, with an impressive turnover of $23 million, back to her very first employer, Andrew Banks.

Married at 20, Nan initially worked with her husband in the hospitality industry as a live-in manager. She was devastated to discover, while pregnant with her third child, that her husband was having an affair.

When I was almost eight months pregnant his guilt became too much and he asked us to leave, as he was the licensee of the hotel! Naturally I was shocked, stunned and very emotional.

Her husband left his job, moved interstate and closed their joint bank accounts. Destitute, Nan realised she had to earn an income to support the family as soon as she was able.

When Luke (my youngest) was born after much trauma and worry, some fellow managers offered me a cleaning job and so I went from managing one hotel to cleaning toilets in another. I would feed Luke in a hotel room and then clean the bathrooms and public toilets - what a comedown.

Nan moved the family to a cottage in a convent and set about finding a clerical job. She waited until she secured an interview to tell Geoff Slade and Andrew Banks, her future employers, that she had three children under seven years old.

It was a momentous day on 5 January 1981 when I started my new job as Office Manager/Secretary for Slade’s newly opened Brisbane office. I gave up the Deserted Wives Pension and my divorce became absolute.

After working her way up the ladder onto the board over ten years, in 1990 Nan and Kathryn Devine bought Brook Street Recruitment.

We had ten staff and our turnover was $1.5 million. Over the next nine years, we grew the business to 35 staff and an annual turnover of $23 million.

Nan’s original employer, Andrew Banks, then made an offer for the business. Just months before, at a strategic planning meeting, Nan and her partner had begun to discuss an exit strategy: the market was changing rapidly, the importance of technology was growing (and hence considerable investment would be required), the company presence needed to extend to New Zealand and the war for talent was hotting up.

Before she decided to sell, Nan asked herself a range of questions including: Can I let go? What will I do with the money? What will I do with my time when I stop? Having answered those questions to her own satisfaction, she then did sell and as part of the deal she and her partner stayed on as joint CEOs for Australia and New Zealand, and became part of the senior management team.

In 2002 the relationship changed to an arms-length, ‘as needs’ arrangement, and Nan decided it was time to change her focus. It’s time for me to pursue other interests, particularly some important charity work. I will now take on some board positions as well as continue my involvement with the Queensland University of Technology Advisory Council. Most important of all, I’m going to spend time with my gorgeous baby granddaughters (pictured with Nan). Life is pretty wonderful!

What a great outcome, don't you agree? Nan's story is definitely one to call to mind whenever you are tempted to believe that you don't have choices in life. Yes, her journey was hard and those tough times are ones that no-one would want to have to go through, but in the way she chose to respond to the trauma of her marriage breakdown, she carved out a better life for herself and her children than she would ever have been able to imagine.

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Having started her business very young as a result of looking for and not finding matt lipstick for her own use, Poppy became a media sensation. Her story was everywhere. It was a great ride for several years, but things started to go wrong, and soon her future was looking bleak. The way she reacted to that has lessons for everyone who faces unexpected business setbacks.

I started my business straight out of high school. I wasn’t particularly motivated by anything other than what I conceived as a consumer need for matt lipstick at the time.

Poppy found that her naivety was actually a real asset in the early phases of the business. It meant that I had a completely fresh approach, not only to business but also to the idea of risk taking. With no experience and a lack of understanding about the difficulties of what I was doing I did just ignore convention and go by my gut instincts.

As we know, it worked brilliantly and the business and Poppy herself rode a huge publicity wave.

My story’s very unusual because in most situations when you’re setting up your own business it’s really the beginning phases that are the most difficult. For me it was very easy because it was helped along by enormous media exposure, which grew awareness for the brand and demand for the product. We were profitable within two months and exporting within six.

Poppy attributes this rapid growth in part to her youth and confidence.

Confidence is obviously such an important part, particularly for women in business; men sort of feel that they have a right to be there, and women don’t yet, and certainly not in this country. I think being so young and naive, so confident and having bravado meant that I did things that perhaps a more experienced businesswoman wouldn’t do.

Things like when I was in New York I just literally rang up [very upmarket department store] Barney’s, because I thought it was a great store when I saw it, spoke to the buyer and got an appointment. It certainly wasn’t strategic, it was more impulsive and that type of crash-through approach obviously worked very well for me.

But once Poppy had successfully burst onto the scene and the business was up and running, her lack of experience actually started to hinder progress. She couldn’t distinguish between the rules it was OK - even desirable - to break, and those that were there for a good reason.

You have to know when to break the rules and when to abide by them and I think that because I broke the sort of conventional rules to start with, I extended it to all aspects of my business. Obviously down the track that bit me in the behind.

There are some fundamental business principles, whether it be cosmetics or screwdrivers or banking. There is manageable growth and there’s unmanageable growth and you can’t break those rules.Poppy’s sales growth curve was exponential, from $1.5 million wholesale turnover in the first year to $5 million in the second.

We were growing much faster than our infrastructure was able to support.We were managing our business carefully, but reactively. It was more about managing what happened day-to-day rather than looking at the future. I think with better quality advice we would perhaps have foreseen that there would be a point where we needed more capital. I mean we were following the growth of the business rather than managing it and planning for the growth.

Only when the business started to mature did Poppy begin to invest in the infrastructure, which meant that profit margins started going down.

Instead of running the business as a cottage industry we had to start running it as a serious business in order to serve customers like Grace Bros and David Jones. We started to put staff in stores, merchandisers on the road, and warehousing our product, so we saw our profit margins start to dwindle compared to where they’d been.

We were sort of damned by our initial success, in the sense that everyone saw [the changes] as a sign that something was wrong rather than as a sign that the business was maturing. People kept expecting the honeymoon to continue and to grow when it was an unsustainable beginning. It was amazing but unsustainable.

Needing to raise more funds, Poppy sought venture capital. She says now that she didn’t understand the analytical frameworks or the terminology used by the venture capitalists.

I think I made some big mistakes in that period because first of all there was a whole language around investment that I was not aware of and there were all the models people would plug your proposal into. You actually have to know how to package up an investment proposal and I didn’t.

Not having any luck with the venture capitalists, Poppy began to get desperate.

The business was starting to haemorrhage and getting into a worse and worse position. I ended up going with a choice that didn’t really bring much added value from the point of view of the expertise needed for my business. It was capital, but it came with a difficult mix of personality. On top of the struggling business, a lack of harmony with strategy was pretty difficult. We got into a downward spiral and that’s very hard to get out of.

When things didn’t work out with the new business partners, Poppy had three options: receivership, administration or liquidation.

There was a complete stand-off at board level between myself and the partners as to which direction to take the brand. It was clear that our partnership was deteriorating.We tried to reach mutual agreement, but failed. Something had to be done and really the only thing to be done was to take the risk of putting the business up for sale. The way that it was structured at the time meant receivership as there was a bank facility involved.As a result of that the business was bought by a private syndicate of individuals.

That meant Poppy lost her ownership but she got a chance to continue along with the business.

We’ve rationalised it and turned it around. It was an opportunity to purge the business of many of the areas that weren’t working, from product lines to retailers.We had been taking a lot of short-term options, going into stores that weren’t necessarily right long-term because we needed the cash then and there.

My advice is to be wary of anything that has a short-term benefit because there’s usually a sting in the tail. I am yet to find anything we did with short-term objectives that actually hasn’t ended up hurting us in the long-term.

Losing ownership was obviously an emotional blow, but it was more important to Poppy to stay involved in the business.

Whenever I felt a bit emotional about the idea of losing ownership, I weighed up what was more important to me and knew I wanted to be involved with something that had a future, and if that meant that I lost the ownership to have a future, I was more happy with pulling the plug. Somebody said to me very early on in my business career, ‘It’s better to have a small piece of a successful pie than own a whole sloppy mess’, and I’ve never forgotten it.

I think in a funny way I was actually relieved to be at the lowest point because once you’re there you can deal with it and move on. I’m very much of the belief that the only way to get rid of your demons is to actually face them.The scary part is trying to run away from them and by that stage it was so bad it couldn’t really get much worse so the only way was up.

Poppy is playing the same role now in New York as she played in the original start-up phase in Australia.

Rather than being just the general, I’m the general, major and every rank along the way. I’m over there seeing the opportunities through myself and getting very involved in training at the store level, selling into the retailers, working in the magazines, doing all the things that I did here initially.

Growth is great if it’s planned and it takes the business in the direction you want it to go.

There are definite phases in a business and the thing that has taken me almost ten years to get right - and I am reluctant to even say that I’ve got it right yet - is that balance between maturation but also being able to continue to take risks.That is, to get a little bit of experience under your belt but not become inert as a result.

I think that’s a very important balance that any business needs between taking risks in order to grow but also in understanding and having the experience, recognising what risks to take.

There’s no getting around it, business is a tough game to play, and you need to know which rules you can break and which you can’t. Poppy’s approach to the heartache she went through as a result of not knowing the difference is inspiring.

Rather than being beaten by failure, she has turned it into a learning experience to help her try again and do better this time around. There are no mistakes, only lessons.

Postscript to Poppy's story:

On November 8 2002, the US-based Estee Lauder Group purchased the Poppy trademark. The cosmetics giant has hired Ms King as the Vice President of Product Development, Colour, in its New York head office. Estee Lauder purchased the trademark name of Poppy but not the business and has publicly stated that the Poppy range of cosmetics is being discontinued.

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