An end to horsing around: Jane Lu’s tips for realising your business dreams

Shortly after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis steamrolled the economy, Jane Lu found herself in a difficult position.

The brick-and-mortar fashion business she’d left her comfortable accounting job for had folded. Her business partner was giving up on their business ownership dreams, and tough economic conditions meant nobody was hiring.

With $60,000 of debt and little prospects in the job market, there was only one thing left for Jane to do: grit her teeth and start her own business.

The result is ShowPo (called ‘Show Pony’ at the time), which launched from the garage of her parents’ Balmain home in 2010. ShowPo has since reimagined the way retailers worldwide view and understand e-commerce.

By 2014, the company was turning over $10 million in annual sales ^disclaimerand Jane was one of the country’s most celebrated business success stories. Today, Jane is one of Australia’s most recognisable CEOs, thanks to her continued business success and her role on hit Channel 10 program: Shark Tank.

Here are four tips for starting a business that Jane shared with ANZ.

Watch Jane Lu reveal her must-know business tips

Vid-01

Test, repeat, test and repeat again

In the early days of ShowPo, there wasn’t much information available online to help would-be business owners turn their aspirations into something real.

In the first year or so, Jane tried to do as much research as she could, hoping to find the secrets to success early on, so she could pursue her dreams with a bit more confidence. Some of the material she found helped, but ultimately, she was feeling her way to market in the dark.

Reflecting on those first few months, she admits she didn’t even have a business plan.

“I never had a plan. I think my confidence came from naivete when I first started,” she said.

While these days Jane would advocate for businesses to have a clear plan early on, she instead relied on a sort of ‘trial and error’ approach to shaping her business.

“When I was trying to solve problems, it was just a matter of test and repeat, test and repeat along the whole of my process,” she said.

“I think the best thing about e-commerce is that you can change little things and just see what works, and when it works you double-down.”

In Jane’s case, the success of these small changes could be measured by looking at the impact on sales – likewise, when something wasn’t working as intended, its impact would soon make itself known via the same metric.

This willingness to trail new ideas – even if just on a small level at first – helped Jane to find her footing and identify new business ideas. 

Don't reinvent the wheel, just give it your own spin

To be successful, a business needs to be different. It needs to offer something that consumers can’t get from competitors.

Maybe that means offering a wholly unique product or service that customers can’t find elsewhere. Maybe it simply does what its competitors do but better, or in a bespoke fashion designed to cater to a specific segment of a rival’s market.

It’s all about having a competitive advantage that means consumers will be happy to give their hard-earned cash to your business instead of spending it somewhere else.

While this unique selling point is crucial to success, Jane cautions that it doesn’t mean you need to completely reinvent your industry or the way you trade.

At the end of the day, all businesses share certain commonalities which don’t need to change in order for your business to compete.

“With my experience across so many businesses, and especially through Shark Tank, I’ve seen that there's a certain formula to starting a business,” she said.

“Each business has its own bit of magic, its own je ne sais quoi, but ultimately there’s a certain formula to starting a business, and you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time.”

“You can get those tips and tricks and resources that are out there.”

Build your process early

Underpinning any business is a series of processes which dictate everything from ordering stock and paying suppliers, to managing customer expectations and innovating the business.

When a business owner first starts out, these processes are often an afterthought – after all, it’s hard to set up these systems when everything is moving so quickly.

“If you’re busy doing everything, the last thing you want to do is stop to write up a manual or train your team,” Jane said.

This attitude, though, can be counterproductive.

By setting up clear processes, and implementing the systems required to maintain them, business owners should find themselves with more time to focus on actually running the business.

Jane admits that this can be one of the hardest things for business owners to do, especially in the early stages. However, it’s a crucial step that can lay the groundwork for the future.

Learn to manage your money

Prior to launching ShowPo, Jane worked as an accountant, and those skills helped her to build her company.

Although she doesn’t think that every business owner needs to have that level of financial expertise before starting their own businesses, she does suggest that a basic understanding of business finances is important.

Business owners should understand their profit and loss statements, and should be clear about unit pricing and how it affects the profitability of each product or service on offer.

Jane also noted that having a dedicated business account, to keep the company’s finances separate from personal money, will prevent a lot of headaches.

“Just open a business account,” she said.

“These days it’s so easy to open a business account with ANZ, that it just makes sense to do it – because it's so much messier to try and reconcile everything afterwards without.”

Many small business owners also work with accountants and business bankers to help manage the more complex parts of their finances, so they can focus on what they do best.