This month pinklily went back on TVSN on foxtel - it’s a part of my business that I absolutely love. An hour of live television chatting and selling pinklily. It’s great to be able to explain to women across Australia how each product is best used and the live demonstrations give my clients a greater understanding of their benefits.

Last Saturday I introduced on TVSN the lingerie boxes. They were so popular because I show the many different ways that you could use the product.

• Bras
• G-strings
• Socks
• Stockings
• Sports tops and socks

They fit into most drawers and just make getting dressed so easy each morning when everything is separated and organised. Again the pinklily philosophy - if you can see it you will wear it. Disgard the old 80% of old bras, pants and socks that you are never going to wear and leave your pieces that you love in the pinklily lingerie box.

So jump on www.pinklily.com.au and grab yours now - mention pinklily times in the additional info box and I’ll give you another 2 lingerie boxes for free in November!

Bobino Cord Wrap $5

No matter which way I put my ipod away - the headset always gets tangled. Even while I was overseas this year I went into the apple shop and asked them if they sold a product that stopped it all knotting! they didn’t even have these

... and then VOILA - I found one!!!!!

These are the absolute solution to the problem of tangled cords - pinklily sells them in white, black and of course HOT PINK! They also come in small and large sizes
the Large size is great for your laptop cords and leads around the house
jump on my site and grab a few - yet another problem solved

ta da...

 

Julia - thank you so much  for joining me at pinklily times – let’s have a latte and chat about your product

Firstly the top ten :

Coffee or tea? Tea, I’m English!
Favourite season? Spring
Favourite colour? Pink (great answer! - SG)
High heels or flats? High heels
Blow Dry or GHD? Hair Dry, I need all the body I can get
Dog or cat? Dog
Are you Under or over 33? Over
How many children? 3 and 2 more on the way!
Favourite clothing brand? True Religion jeans
Favourite TV Show? Nigella Lawson on the lifestyle channel

Ok let’s talk the talk...

Here at pinklily I have sold so many of your books "Bake" – what comment would you like women to make when they have finished reading your book? "Practical, do-able and fun"

Do you think the number of women going into business on their own is increasing? Absolutely yes

Why do you think that? In the 1970’s just 4 % of businesses were run by women, now it’s getting towards 50%. It’s not that historically women didn’t want to run their own businesses but rather that circumstances conspired against them. If you think back to the pre-internet world and before the advent of low-cost-easy-to-use technology, running a small business from home and reaching enough customers to make it profitable was, for the most part, exacting, expensive and exhausting.

The fact that starting a business today is relatively cheap and quite straightforward is not the only reason that women are starting businesses. The other factor is that women, across all generations, have greater expectations of how they want to lead their lives than ever before. So Generation Y women want to run their own business so they can be in control and do their ’own thing’ Generation X women do it to so they can find some middle ground between a fulfilling work life and a hectic home life and Baby Boomers do it because they can, at last, after devoting their lives to raising children, get the thrill of doing something challenging and exciting for themselves.

What is the always the first thing women concentrate on when starting? The product. In most cases they think about ’what’ they are going to sell before they think about who they are going to sell it to, how they are going to market it and how they are going to make it work financially.

What is the one thing they always forget to focus on? The numbers, or what I call the ’money model’. A lot of women suffer from ’number blindness’ and hate thinking about how the layers of the business are going to come together in a financial sense, and how the whole will make money. Domestic Godess Nigella Lawson says that a cake demands mathematical respect, well so does a business.

If you spend 6 days a week working on or in your business how much time do you think you should dedicate to Marketing? That’s a tricky question. The key to marketing is to do the right things, and do them consistently, rather than to spend a specific amount of time on it. I see plenty of businesses spending lots of time on what they think is marketing but it’s really no more than playing on twitter or having cups of coffee. That said, the biggest threat to a busy business is doing too little marketing. You know how it happens, you are so busy getting through the stuff that needs to get done that you ignore the marketing; next thing you know customers have dried up. This is a very big problem for consulting type firms.

Having your own business, there are definitely going to be days when you get down, things aren’t going so great, sales aren’t coming in etc – what is your advice to save us from devouring the cake shop? I like to hit the cake shop too but a couple of other tactics that work well for me are to go for a walk and to get on with a strategic project. I find a good walk really helps to clear the mind, is energising and gets the brain working well. And as for embarking on a new project, it brings a lovely sense of doing something practical rather than wallowing.

Julia, a large part of pinklily’s success has been due to customer referrals – my gorgeous clients telling their friends and family about how organised their wardrobes are - do you find this is a critical part of any new business? Sascha it’s a great testament to your business that you get a lot of referrals because referrals really are the holy grail of any business, it’s the lowest cost most effective form of marketing you can do. You can’t make customers refer you, they only do it because they value your product or service. If you are a new business and you aren’t getting any referrals you should probably take another look at how satisfied, or not, your customers are.

What is next for Julia now? We are madly putting together the content for Zest, the membership part of the Business Bakery. It’s like ’How to Bake a Business’ on steroids!

What would you like for Christmas? An Amazon Kindle because I am a book fiend and love the thought or being able to carry a whole library around in my handbag.

Julia thank you so much for you time and joining me at pinklilytimes – How to Bake a Business is available to purchase from www.pinklily.com.au

Julia you have some great workshops – if some of my pinklily clients would like to get together with their business ideas – can we chat about the minimum numbers, me attending, one in each state? absolutely

This is what I am absolutely loving at the moment -

I just can’t get enough of this new fragrance Surf washing powder - it smells absolutely divine. And it works - would love to hear about your favourite powders, cleaners etc - love anything that smells divine.

Don’t even get me started on the Fluffy Dryer Pads! OMG when you put your towels in the dryer with these pads - they come out sooo soft and smell beautiful.