Dynamic Business

Have you got what it takes to make it in business? Previous Telstra Business Women’s Award winners tell how they took a good business idea and made it work.

Margot Spalding

Margot is the co-owner and co-director of Jimmy Possum Furniture Pty Ltd, a furniture design, production and retail company. Established by Margot and her husband 13 years ago in a small shed with just one employee, today Jimmy Possum Furniture employs 130 people and offers more than a thousand products through seven own-name retail stores, as well as supplying furniture to 66 stores across Australia. Margot won the Victorian Business Owner Award at the Telstra Women’s Business Awards in 2006 and was subsequently named 2006 Telstra Victorian Business Woman of the Year.

DB: What elements have been vital to Jimmy Possum’s success?
MS: We’ve really stuck to our initial tenet that we wanted to create high-quality, well-designed furniture. We wanted to appeal to the part of the market where people really care about what’s in their homes. We’ve stuck to that policy and importantly, we’ve stuck to the Australian made policy. We make all the furniture in our stores and if the material can be sourced locally, we use it.

I think originality is also of vital importance. In business, you need to have a point of difference so you can distinguish yourself from your competitors.

Other than your product, you need a strong work ethic and a good set of personal values. Honesty is very important and must extend across every facet of your business. You must be honest with your staff, your customers, your suppliers—everyone you deal with.

DB: What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs?
MS: Be focused and passionate. Passion is your fuel. Without it you won’t have enough energy to go on. In business, you need to be extremely energetic.

DB: How important is to recognise the achievements of women in business?
MS: It’s so important. The status of women in business and careers in Australia is tragic. We need more women in politics and in upper management and executive positions in business.

When I won the Telstra Business Women’s Award in 2006, our business gained credibility and my profile was raised. It gave me a lot of pride. Since then we’ve opened two more stores; one in Bendigo and another in Adelaide. We hope to end up with 10 stores and are currently exploring options to expand our presence into Canberra, the Gold Coast and Melbourne.

Leanne Preston

Leanne is the founder of internationally successful Wild Child. She founded the business after discovering that the most common head lice treatment available was toxic and had the potential to kill. After a period of intensive research, she developed a prototype of a product called Quit Nits, which used entirely natural plant oils. Such was the popularity of her product that Leanne was able to rapidly expand her business from its modest beginnings to a position where she now develops and markets natural health care products overseas. She won the 2007 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year.

DB: What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
LP: Believe in yourself, know your market, never be afraid to ask for advice, surround yourself with mentors, be innovative and establish a point of difference—there’s no point being a ‘me too’.

Most clients don’t think about the difference between a home business and a small-to-medium company and their expectations of service will be the same. Invariably, early experience shows that the customer will be the toughest boss you’ve ever had. It soon becomes apparent that small businesses are almost always under-resourced. Prudent outsourcing and time management can make the difference between success and failure.

DB: Is the current economic climate is a risky time to start a business?
LP: Any time can be risky. Wild Child began for me as a compromise between parenting and the need to gain an income. To some, the idea of a home-based business sounds idyllic but the practicalities of maintaining a balance between home life and work can require discipline and careful planning.

DB: How important are awards programs in recognising the achievements of women in business?
LP: Very. Mine has given me the opportunity speak about issues that face us all. Now more than ever, with people’s confidence at an all time low, we must respond to the greater needs of our society by instilling confidence and leading by example.