I Want What She's Having: The Experience Of Creating A Pleasurable Business

Australian Journal of Career Development, Autumn, 2008 by Leisha Mitchell

I WANT WHAT SHE'S HAVING: THE EXPERIENCE OF CREATING A PLEASURABLE BUSINESS.

Naomi Simson, Messenger Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9803284-0-0

Have you ever wanted to discover what it is really like inside a fast growing business?' is the question posed on the back cover of this creatively titled and attractively presented book. It tells the story of Naomi Simson, founder of online gifting service Red Balloon Days, and her journey from business start-up to business success. Subtitled 'The experience of creating a pleasurable business' it reads less as a 'how-to' guide for small business and more as collection of inspirational anecdotes. With a foreword from Margaret Heffernan (a high profile American entrepreneur) the book is pitched at women in business.

Naomi commenced her career in marketing and the opening chapters detail her experience as a passionate and enthusiastic young professional keen to make her mark. She describes her experiences working in big-name organisations such as Apple and Ansett; the learnings and the frustrations that set the scene for her later departure from corporate life. She describes wanting to be part of a 'yes' culture that listened to customers and embraced innovation, themes that flow heavily throughout the book.

Her first foray into working for herself was in her area of expertise--marketing. At this point it becomes evident that this is first and foremost a book coming from the marketing angle of establishing and running a business. While this is certainly an integral part to business success, the strong marketing perspective limits the appeal of this book to a wider audience.

The middle chapters detail her almost accidental fall into what would become Red Balloon Days, the mistakes she made, the challenges she faced, and the small successes. She describes the risks taken (and confides that they often did not make business sense) and the subsequent rewards of taking a leap of faith. She openly admits that having a husband with a corporate finance background was helpful--which no doubt it was--but this ensured the risks seemed a little more calculated than her stories would let us believe.

However, her tales of finding a purpose, identifying and listening to your customer, and building an organisation that rewards hard work and living the company's values are valuable. Eye-catching splashes of red litter the pages with 'lessons learned' and words of wisdom that drive home the themes underpinning her success.

After 15 months the business had found its feet, and the reminder of the book describes how Simson ensured ongoing success by engaging her staff and customers and embracing technology and innovation--which brings us nicely back to her reason for setting out on her own years before. The message about ensuring your business values are lived by your employees, and that your staff are listened to, recognised and rewarded is loud and clear--and many large organisations would also benefit from taking note of these points.

While the book is an easy read, written in the first person in conversational language, I found it difficult to move through more than a few chapters at a time. Naomi is a self-confessed optimist, and the tone in which she describes her journey felt a little too perky, which grated somewhat, and potentially limited the impact of her words. Her story is a pleasant read, and would probably be enjoyed by those interested more in her personal journey (it is always nice to hear stories of people who have are living their career passion) than 'wannabe' entrepreneurs seeking cutting edge tips to business glory. As a careers tool it does serve as being inspirational, and may be useful to those some way into a business start-up, with the knowledge and know-how already under their belt.

Leisha Mitchell

Principal Consultant

Tailor-made Careers