A frequently heard saying is that ‘time flies by’, and it seems the older we get, the faster it goes by. Who wouldn’t like to have more time and flexibility to more of what we want and less of what we have to? An increasing number of professional women are choosing to do just that. Taking the plunge, and jumping out the of the corporate world of back to back meetings, political game playing, watching friends being retrenched and jumping in head first into the small business for themselves. They are utilising their corporate knowledge and experience and applying it to a whole new world where they are the decision makers and political workplace game playing is left behind.



Colleen Condon, 36, is owner and manager of Sirens Jewellery and Accessories online retail boutique. Until a year ago, she had a blue chip corporate career – working as a Leadership Development Consultant and Corporate Trainer.

But Colleen decided to opt out of the world of corporate suits and restructures to build a more balanced life doing something that would give her a greater creativity and freedom.

“In a corporate role you can actually lose the sense of what you like doing or even the reason that you started on that particular career path. I found myself working enormous hours, frequently being asked and achieving the impossible. In the rare opportunities that I did catch up with friends outside of work, I frequently found myself a little embarrassed when asked what I had been up to. My answer was always the same… “Oh, you know,… work." I found that my own goals and dreams got left behind, and replaced by corporate goals."

The idea for Sirens Jewellery and Accessories came from a love of jewellery and girly handbags. In her corporate role, Colleen frequently travelled to Korea and Philippines and was well known to friends and work colleagues for finding unique jewellery and accessories that told of stories of exotic places and glamour. After a particularly turbulent year of department restructures and extensive working hours, Colleen realised that there was a significant decrease in what she was enjoying about her career, yet it was a significant part of her identity. “I knew things had to change, my unhappiness in my career was impacting all facets of my life. It wasn’t until a weekend away with my friends that I came to the startling, yet obvious conclusion that I didn’t have to stay on this career path and that I could turn my life completely upside if I wanted to."

And that is exactly what she did. After significant discussions with friends and family, Colleen spent a year researching various options, including opening a child friendly café and gallery with her sister, Erin. A short introductory course that they attended at a local CAE, put a quick end to that particular idea. “Investing $600.00 into that course was the best money that we spent. By morning tea on the first day, we knew that this was not the path for us. We persevered with the course though, as there was still a lot of relevant information that we could apply to most new business situations such as leasing a premises and what to look out for if you were going to buy an existing business. Whilst we were back to square one, it was a considered decision."

Over the next 6 months a lot of time was spent researching small business websites, time at the library, purchasing books and seeking out ideas including purchase of a franchise business and writing business plans. It was Colleen’s sister, Erin who ultimately came up with the idea of focussing on fashion jewellery and accessories. Once the business concept was conceived, fleshing out the concept occurred over the next six months. Colleen had collated items of interest when researching a start up business. Colleen says that she became a bowerbird, filing items of interest away for reference later. Some of these included:

üRegistering a business

üIdentifying wholesale suppliers

üImport and Export costs

üIcons and images that were appealing for logo and brand image creation

üMagazine articles of other start up business

üDemographics and statistical information

üMarketing ideas

This folder of ideas and concepts became a life saver when creating a business plan. These reference materials enabled our ideas to be fleshed out in detail, which enabled a compelling vision of what the business would look and feel like. Conscious that a drop of salary would occur, the next six months was spent budgeting and seeking advice from experts. " From the research that I conducted, I knew having a cash reserve was going to be really important to the survival of my business. I became a bargain hunter looking out for items that I knew that the business would need during set up. I scoured E bay and the trading post for items for the office and stocked up on stationery when large retailers had sales. Additionally I also knew that as the business launched it was going to be some time before I was going to be able to draw a salary from the business and all of these things needed to be considered".

Colleen identified that a detailed business plan was integral to the success of the launch of her business. She took the view of a gradual implementation process. The first point was to organise a six month contract. This enabled a short term increase in salary and added additional variety and experience to her resume that increased the likelihood of further contract work in the future to pay bills and mortgage whilst her business began to establish itself. It also enabled her to make the mental break from what was her current career. Colleen indicates that this was the hardest part of the establishing her new business and career. “I knew potentially I was walking away from a secure salary and career path. But I also knew that I was unhappy. So I decided to make the jump anyway. Three months into my contract, my peer had been retrenched from the company I had been working for, while the money would have been handy had I been retrenched, at least this way I controlled my own destiny."

In November 2005 Condon launched her business at www.sirensjewellery.com.au

Colleen Condon shares some of her learnings from launching her business

Stock

üIt’s easy to get overwhelmed with choice. Rather than having an item in 10 colours, select two or three at most. If customers are overwhelmed they will walk away from purchasing an item.

üMost small retail business use the Reed gift fairs to source stock. These are held twice a year.

üReview your price point inline with your business.

Research

üUse the internet – there are many Australian sites that are geared to small business from the state government, banks and consultants. Free templates are available on most to write your business plan.

üTalk to friends and business associates most people are more than happy to share their experience and contacts.

üConsider using a small business mentor to bounce idea off and to help keep you on track.

üInvest in short courses at your local Tafe college or CAE. This is money will spent and will raise all sorts of issues and ideas that you had not considered.

Building a website.

üIt took much longer than expected. Photos needed to be re shot twice with meant a significant time delay in the launch. Needless to say the additional photo shoots were not budgeted for.

üMy web developer was fantastic and patient and offered great advice about maximising the websites visibility on the net.

üIf you have a limited budget, consider using graduating students to take photos and build your website. They are often keen to build their folio and are much cheaper.

üResearch what your competitors have on their websites and review critically, rate ease of use, descriptions.

üWriting descriptions and content took much longer than I thought. It is a good idea to have a couple of friends review the content and look for errors.

üIt is important to test the website extensively before launching to the wider world. I asked friends and family to try and break the system, and to be a hyper critical customer. The feedback from this process was fabulous. There were many ideas and changes suggested that improved the website significantly. Some of the changes were really simple, but made a huge difference such as not making date of birth a forced complete answer – as this offended some people.

üRegistering more than one domain name i.e. ‘.com’ and ‘.com.au’

üCheck that spelling of key words is not different in different countries eg jewellery and jewelry

Marketing

üConsider multiple streams of marketing including contra deals with other businesses. Link your product to theirs and vice a versa.

üThink outside of the box if you have a small marketing budget. Consider advertising in school newsletters

üEnsure that your vision and identity matches your marketing

üUtilise friends and colleagues to spread word of mouth advertising of your business.

üThe best website in the world is useless if there is no traffic coming to it.

üFocus your marketing based on the demographic of your customer.

üMarketing is much more expensive than you think – research costs during the planning of your business.

üConsider pay for click referrals on the internet such as google adds.

üYou can never have too much money in your marketing budget.

üInvest in specialist help – it is money well spent

Making mistakes and ah ha moments.

Establishing a business for the first time is all about learning the hard way. Whilst the implementation and planning of Sirens Jewellery and Accessories was one year in development, there were also serval business plans that were created. The shape of the business and its direction was constantly changing. Some of the biggest learnings have come from making mistakes. The key to ongoing success of the business to actively review the business and update the business plan to ensure that the business is on track.