Kristina Karlsson knew that she wanted to start up her own business. She just had no idea what kind of business until a seemingly mundane trip to buy some stationery.<\/p>\n
<\/span> <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Swedish-born Karlsson arrived in Australia in 1995 and quickly fell in love with the country. However, she wasn\u2019t happy in her job and planned an entrepreneurial escape plan.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was working in hospitality and whinging about it, so my partner Paul said I should write down all the things that were important to me,\u201d she tells StartupSmart.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote down that I wanted to drive to work on Monday happy. I wanted my own business, but had no idea what it was. I wanted a connection to Sweden. I wanted to earn at least $500 a week and, lastly, I wanted to do something connected to design, which I was passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The idea<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Karlsson decided to set up a home office for her as-yet unknown venture and attempted to kit it out with all of the necessary stationery. This is when the germ of an idea that spawned Kikki.k was planted.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the stationery I saw was price driven and of bad quality,\u201d she explain. \u201cThere was nothing beautiful in terms of stationery. I thought that there was an opportunity because so many people are passionate about stationery, it\u2019s almost like an accessory. So I got very excited and started drawing up designs and talking to manufacturers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Karlsson borrowed $3,000 to produce some samples and then set up a series of focus groups involving around 350 friends and friends of friends. The response of the focus groups gave encouragement to Karlsson, with people saying they would be happy to pay for her range of storage boxes, folders and notebooks.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The business was named Kikki.k, adapted from Karlsson\u2019s childhood nickname, with the logo drawn up on a serviette after a few glasses of wine with a friend.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Karlsson embarked upon her start-up in earnest, filling her car, which didn\u2019t have air conditioning, with products to deliver orders in the February heat. She managed to get a Melbourne manufacturer to produce small runs of her products and then sold them onto other stores.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Struggling for finance<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What Karlsson really needed, however, was her own store. This provided her with her first major challenge, with banks unwilling to lend her the capital.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a long time to get the banks interested in the business,\u201d she says. \u201cThey are just so careful with small businesses. They talked so much about the history of the business and were very conservative when I wanted to be quick.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we had five shops, they invested in us and we were able to grow quickly, but at the start there were plenty of sleepless nights.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Unable to find investment, Karlsson\u2019s partner offered up his house in a high-risk but ultimately successful move. It provided the cash injection Kikki.k needed to open its first store in 2001, in Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was so determined that it would work,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even seem that long ago that I was driving out orders by myself after packing them up the night before. I was very hands on and it was very tough. I nearly hit the wall with it, but I now know what that role involves and what our staff have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cashflow was also an early problem. \u201cCashflow was also tough to start with, I really realised that cash was king,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were days when I couldn\u2019t pay suppliers or staff.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Despite having little experience in running a business, Karlsson\u2019s initial store was a success and won an award for innovation. A second outlet, in Chadstone was launched, with further stores in Sydney and Melbourne. The company now employs 300 people.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I opened up in Bondi, a lot of business mentors said that I should\u2019ve stayed in Victoria, but if I can\u2019t make it in NSW then I can\u2019t be a global business and my vision is to make it in Paris,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at Hong Kong and the UK now. I\u2019m still very close to the product development. I should never say never (about selling the business) but I wanted to run the business to make it a reality, not to float it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Be passionate \u2013<\/strong> \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if things are tough if you love what you are doing,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of businesses where people aren\u2019t prepared to work weekends. But I love the business and couldn\u2019t put in those hours if I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Have a plan \u2013<\/strong> \u201cYou need to have a clear vision from day one,\u201d she advises. \u201cIt gets you through the bad days and pulls others through.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Never take no for an answer \u2013<\/strong> \u201cYou\u2019ll have the daily experience of people saying no to you but you always have to find a way around it,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople often give up, but you shouldn\u2019t. We have big letters on our office wall that says \u2018don\u2019t say no, say how.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Find mentors \u2013<\/strong> \u201cDifferent mentors can offer you different things,\u201d she says. \u201cI have four mentors and I can learn different things from all of them. They can save you headaches. Go and see these people speak and be where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kristina Karlsson knew that she wanted to start up her own business. She just had no idea what kind of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,25,3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So what are Karlsson\u2019s tips for aspiring start-ups?<\/h3>\n