1 | P a g e

Successful Women in Business Winners Edition

Edited by Jacqueline Rose

Research by: Sarah Chapman, James Morgan, Katerina Smith, Gregory Blackman and Olivia Cartwright.

Originally Version of Successful Women in Business Published in December 2016

Successful Women in Business Winners Edition:Published by Lovely Silks Publishing November 2017

2 | P a g e

Successful Women in BusinessWinners Edition

3 | P a g e

Published by Lovely Silks Publishing 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

This book is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. The author and publisher are not offering it as legal, accounting, or other professional services advice.

While best efforts have been used in preparing this book, the author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind and assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose.

Neither the author nor the publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or incidental or consequential damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information or programs contained herein.

No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. Every company is different and the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should always seek the services of a competent professional.

4 | P a g e

I’m well known now for my quote and the mantra I live by; ‘to succeed you must first execute’, and the Academy was built around this idea.

Mia Plecic

“You can have it all, just not all at the same time.” This simple adage, coined by women’s right activist, Betty Friedan, has been an important guidepost in how I’ve managed my adult life - from marriage to motherhood, my career and everything in between. For years, I lived faithfully by this sentiment. That is, until I didn’t

Anita O’Malley

Know what you are doing and WHY you are doing it and it will be much easier be able to move forward in your life and keep your work moving out into the world.

Bronwen Sciortino

The 21st century is a wonderful time to be a female entrepreneur, the opportunities are limitless and I for one plan to take every single opportunity that comes my way!

Emma Leighton

“We had orders before we’d made enough batches and had a waiting list. It creates a buzz around the brand, but you must deliver when you say you will and make sure service is really good,”

Rubina Khan

5 | P a g e

My voice is often soft but the words I say are strong. After all, women having opinions is a wonderful thing that can only benefit us all.

Junko Kemi

Life is good, not because I’m jet setting around the world but because when I come home, I do so to a loving family. A home of giggles, happy children and a husband that appreciates the life we have together, a real man who loves my children like his own, and in laws that mean the world to me.

Lorena Öberg

Don't forget to Embrace-Life, Love and Each Other.

Rosie Shalhoub

Life is indeed unpredictable and forever changing, but it also offers endless opportunities for those who are ready to embrace them. So make sure you are ready.

Suzi Chen

Stay focused on what you believe in. It sounds obvious, maybe a little cheesy, but I have often repeated this mantra to myself over the years, especially when things get tricky.

Emma Coleman

We have built up a very recognisable brand, and by some referred to as an institution. This has been achieved through dedication, hard work and a passion for educating others and ourselves, not being afraid to fail and being innovative.

Linda Stewart

Whilst it is crucial to work towards a healthy profit margin if a business is to make a change in the world for good, that company must have a healthy perspective on what will benefit its customer, its suppliers and the community at large.

Judith Treanor

6 | P a g e

Starting a business with not much money is an achievable and rewarding path to success. Anyone that believes in themselves, and believes in their goals, like I did, can find their way into their own exciting venture. Find your own genius and create value for other people and you will find yourself skyrocketing to success.

Catherine Craig

Learn To Celebrate Yourself - guess what? You are not perfect. And you know what? You don’t have to be. Learn to accept yourself and love yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for all your failures and weaknesses instead; celebrate your strengths and successes.

Christine Khor

Word of mouth is another free way to market your business and it adds the benefit of trust. Friends and loyal customers will praise you and your products if you do right by them and give them great value.

Roberta Perry

Always remember, there is not wrong way to run a business. Seek your opinion and talk to the right people. You only live once so live it without any regrets.

Sandra Yeow

We need to know our worth and that generally it is the woman and mother keeping the family unit together by taking care of the family. Sounds old school but it is generally how a family functions. Which is why we need to be full of love, take care of ourselves and then others.

Renee Catt

7 | P a g e

The Thought Leaders Who Contributed To This Book:

Mia Plecic Anita O’Malley Bronwen Sciortino

Emma Leighton Rubina Khan Junko Kemi Lorena Öberg

Rosie Shalhoub Emma Coleman Linda Stewart

Judith Treanor Catherine Craig Christine Khor

Sandra Yeow Roberta Perry Suzi Chen Renee Catt

8 | P a g e

Table of Contents

Welcome to Successful Women in Business Winners Edition 11

'The Start-Up CEO' 13

9 | P a g e

10 | P a g e

Welcome to Successful Women in BusinessWinners Edition

Women entrepreneurs are rarely satisfied with the status quo: Instead they strive to build the world in the way it should be rather than abiding by a system that’s potentially archaic or outdated. During the course of researching this book we have come to realise that breaking down barriers for women in the workplace is key to success for companies and for countries.

That’s the message we hope you will pick up from this book. When more and more women are seen at the top of organisations and running high growth technology businesses, the more this will be regarded as the standard and a perfectly normal, and logical, path to choose.

Starting a company, or managing a company through a period of transition and growth, can be a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs and at times, difficult lows. But despite the challenges, many women have risen to become leaders and influential figures in their respective areas.

11 | P a g e

Successful Women In Business Winners Edition the forth book in this series recognizes and celebrates the outstanding contribution made by individual women to their businesses and, in many cases, their local communities. The business leaders profiled in this book are of various ages, social backgrounds and industries. However, the one common thread which unites them is that they dared to believe. And, in believing, they made the seemingly impossible a reality.

Their individual stories tell of the challenges we all face: uncertainty, fear, discouragement, hope, commitment and yes, that indefinable, illogical and yet all-consuming belief that we will succeed against all odds. These are real-life individual stories of success that I hope will also encourage you to believe - and to make that difference.

Jacqueline

Jacqueline Rose, Lovely Silks Publishing

12 | P a g e

'The Start-Up CEO'

You deserve to be happy, you are meant to have everything you love and desire. Your relationships, your work, are all meant to be fulfilled.

It all starts with your dreams, a simple idea and a feeling. Having what you want in your life is not selfish, however we’re conditioned to believe that is the case. We all have dreams, we all have that million dollar idea, but not enough people execute.

I’ve always wanted to be successful. I’ve always wanted huge growth and to be somebody who truly makes a significant difference in other people’s lives. I’ve always wanted to inspire and create a burning desire in people to believe that anything is truly possible.

When we see the end result of something spectacular, it’s easy to forget everything that comes before it to make it happen. It’s often easier to believe that things just naturally fall into place for some people and others are just lucky or blessed. Of course, there are always exceptions, some things do just come easy for people but for the majority of people, including myself, big dreams take work, effort and a whole tonne of commitment. Achieving your goals is just one element of the journey, living your goal is where the real magic happens.

Never compare your starting point to someone else’s middle and never discount your middle because it’s more important than the finish line. It’s so important to embrace the hard times because it makes the amazing times ten times more enjoyable.

I’ve always been incredibly entrepreneurial and from a young age I found making money really fascinated me. Not that I truly understood the value of money but I just enjoyed the process of making it.

I got my first part-time job when I was 13 years old. One Sunday afternoon, I was at the local pub with my family having lunch and the owner of a restaurant from across the road came over and asked if anybody was available to wash dishes that night. He explained that their regular kitchen hand had called in sick. I instantly put my hand up and volunteered to work, even though I had no idea what to do and had never worked before.

I remember the owner looking at me quite obscurely, obviously thinking “you’re way too young, you’re not going to be able to do this job.” But he gave me the opportunity anyway. That night I started my first job washing dishes and at the end of that shift he came to me and said “we’ve just sacked our 40 year-old dishwasher and if you want the job, you are the new dishwasher”. Of course I took the opportunity straight away and suddenly I was a 13 year-old earning 25 dollars an hour - cash, which was a lot of money for that age.

Even though I started working as soon as I had the opportunity - and I’ve always had the ability to work in any position that’s thrown at me - I’ve always struggled with keeping a job. Although I’m sure there are more than a few reasons for this, I believe the main one is that I always believed I was destined to be my own boss. So from a very young age I always knew that I didn’t want to have to answer to somebody and I wanted to work on my own terms.

13 | P a g e

I first discovered the power of business when I was about 14 to 15. I used to walk into the local op shop (typical Aus/NZ slang, definition of an op shop "a shop, usually operated by a charity, in which new or used goods are donated, for sale at a low price") trying to find items that had higher value to what they were being sold for. I would use my pocket money from my job that I saved up to buy these items and I would put them aside at home, then I would have a garage sale and I could up-sell all of the items.

I remember buying a pair of Oakley sunglasses for $5 dollars from the local op shop and when I had my garage sale, I sold them for $20. That was the first time I ever learned what profit margin was and the feeling it gave me to make my own money. Although making $15 dollars on a second-hand pair of sunglasses isn’t life changing, it truly gave me the fire in my belly to duplicate that model for the rest of my career.

Growing up I had all my family members around me saying “Mia, what are you doing? Get a job, go to university to study, become a professional in a field you enjoy” and unfortunately, for a small amount of time, I listened to them and I actually enrolled myself into university. I listened to the pressure of the people around me telling me what they believed would be the correct way to live my life. However in my heart I knew that I wasn’t destined for a life like that. Unsurprisingly, after 12 months being miserable trying to study something I wasn’t that interested in, I dropped out of university.

I started so many micro businesses in my childhood and early adulthood, such as making concrete pots and selling them at the local market because I couldn’t afford rent. I’d buy two bags of cement from the local hardware store for $5 dollars each and I’d make pots and I’d spray paint them cool colours and then I’d sell them. For quite a while I did this to help me pay rent because I didn’t want to go and get a job. Even at this stage, I knew that this was better than working for someone else.

I found myself in the front yard of my unit making concrete pots all night (I was that idiot that didn’t put gloves on and used my hands to mix concrete for days on end and found myself with scrapes and cuts all up my arm). Then I would get up on a Sunday morning at 5 O’clock and load my little Ford Fiesta with concrete pots and hustle as hard as I could to sell them all at the market. I remember walking away one Sunday after making about $500 dollars from a $20 investment for supplies. That was enough for two and a half weeks rent and I was so stoked with that.

That was only about 3 years ago when I was living in a really small unit in Geelong in a horrendous 2-bedroom unit that had leaking pipes and rats in the roof. However, I knew in my mind that it wouldn’t be forever and that I just had to get through that stage in my life to allow new doors and opportunities to show up.

As I continually found ways to make money during this challenging time, I remember one night in August 2015, it was about 11 O’clock at night and I was lying in bed scrolling through Instagram.

For me, social media has always been a place where I find most of my inspiration for business because it’s a perfect indication of what’s on trend and what the market placement in my target demographic want. As I was scrolling through Instagram I saw a fitness model from Brisbane post a photo promoting a teeth whitening product (I can’t even remember the brand’s name and I know

14 | P a g e

they are non-existent anymore). But I remember looking at that product and thinking: “wow, what an awesome idea!” Who doesn’t want whiter teeth?

We all know how expensive it is to get your teeth whitened at the dentist, so I was incredibly intrigued to see if this product actually worked. So I spent the $69.00 and bought myself a kit. It arrived in the post and it was a foil bag that was completely unbranded and very generic. I used the product and got incredible results instantly, I was absolutely blown away. For about $70.00 dollars I had received a whole teeth whitening kit that would last me for over 6 months and give a bright white smile. I knew this was something many people would love as well and I had one of my lightning bolt moments and thought to myself: “I could easily duplicate this product but make it ten times better” and that’s exactly what I did. That day Pearly Whites Australia was born.

I’ve always been the type of person who, once I get an idea in my head, absolutely nothing stops me from making it happen. Although I had never started a proper business before, I somehow made it work. Within 12 hours I registered the business name and had gone onto Fiverr.com and I had a logo created for $5 dollars, and I laugh to this day that Pearly Whites Australia is still an existent company with millions of dollars of revenue and still has a $5 dollar logo from Fiverr.com.

My next step was to find a manufacturing supplier over in Asia and I contacted them throughout the night. Because I had already tried the product that I purchased through that Instagram advertisement, I didn’t need to order samples. Since I was very limited in money and I didn’t have the capital to start this business, I had to get creative in order to get the business off the ground. I built my own website through Big Cartel, not something I would necessarily recommend (particularly as I now recommend Shopify). But at the time it was my only option and I started selling my teeth whitening products before I even had confirmed the first shipment from China. I needed the capital!

I set up a social media account through Instagram where I would advertise and brand the product and I started selling them almost immediately, I couldn’t believe it. I remember waking up the next morning and I had four sales, and I remember the feeling in my heart; I just knew that this was going to be an enormous company. I remember thinking “I need to sell 20 units of teeth whitening kits in order to pay for my initial capital of stock” and that’s exactly what I did. I sold 25 units within the first 48 hours of starting the business and had the money deposited in my account within 3 days. That money went straight to my suppliers that I had already negotiated with and who had my products on stand-by ready to send over to Australia. As soon as the products arrived, they were put straight into Australian post bags and shipped to the buyers and bam! I had an established business.

From there on, I found myself spending my days packing orders and shipping them all over Australia. It was such an incredible feeling, one I find really hard to explain. Although none of my products were branded at this point in time (because that was a totally different calibre of capital that I didn’t have), I knew it was only a matter of time. In fact I needed $20,000 dollars in orders to brand all of my products and make them truly my own. Up until then I was simply selling a generic product that was made in China without my logo. My solution at the time was to print off my logo on a sticker and I’d stick it over the top of the Chinese branding to make it look like my own. Prior to starting Pearly Whites I absolutely had no idea about how large the e-commerce world was but was very quickly learning the power of selling products online.

15 | P a g e

I got to a point in the business where I needed growth, which was a challenge for me as I didn’t know exactly what I needed to do in order to grow the business to the next level. In my mind I knew that I needed to get a business partner on board. One that had experience and knowledge in the large scale e-commerce field, but finding the right person wasn’t something I was sure on how to do. And therefore, I just allowed the universe to put me in the right direction.

In March 2015 I was heading overseas to meet my grandparents in Asia. When I got on the train to the airport I bumped into an old friend I had met a couple of years prior but didn’t have anything to do with since then. He sat next to me and we started talking about business. He was telling me about things that he was up to and I remember pondering in my mind whether or not I’d tell him about Pearly Whites Australia. I was unsure because I didn’t want him to think that it was a stupid idea and I didn’t want to be judged. However, I decided that I’d tell him about that new business venture that I was embarking on. When I did his ears pricked and he instantly seemed very intrigued, which at the time for me was an incredible compliment. We parted our ways at the train station.

When the plane landed I remember looking at my Facebook and I had a pending request for a message - it was the guy that I had been speaking to on the train. Let’s call him Bill for the sake of the story, because for legal reasons I can’t actually say his real name. The message said something along the lines of: “It was great catching up with you and congratulations on your new business, I see incredible potential in what it is you’re creating and if you’re looking for a business partner, please let me know, I’d be incredibly interested in jumping on board”.

For me at the time this was such an exciting message to receive because I’d felt so alone within my business and I was simply begging the universe to open up my doors to somebody who believed in my vision and would help me execute it. To me at the time I thought it was a sign that he was to be the one to help me grow my company. So, when I returned from my overseas trip, Bill and I met up and the rest is history.

Fast forward a couple of months and we had set up the company (not properly) and the business started making some serious money. But we had absolutely no structure apart from the shares we divided. For some reason I knew that I needed to hold the majority shares in the company. However, I naively decided to give away 49% of the company to my new business partner, Bill for nothing but a 20.000 dollars loan. Little did I know that this was only a loan until he took the money back 4 months later, I thought it was capital.

I was incredibly naïve when starting my first real company. I had no idea what a shareholders’ agreement was. I had no idea what a constitution was. In fact, I’d never heard of either of these two things until there had been quite a bit of damage done.

There’s so much lingo in business literature that I needed to learn when starting my business journey. I had absolutely no idea what all these big words meant. It took me about six months before I even learned what the difference between net profit and gross profit meant. I always used to go with the saying “fake it, until you make it” simply from a ‘learn as you go’ point of view. I didn’t want people to think I was stupid, although in hindsight I wish I had brought in my own independent business advisors earlier.

16 | P a g e

Fast forward to January 2016, my business partner approached me at a local cafe and said “let’s launch into the USA”. I was so excited to hear this because I was all for expansion and growing the company as big as we could while the trend was huge. However, my intuition was telling me something didn’t feel right, but I stupidly ignored it.

I remember sitting at that meeting with my business partner and, although I was extremely excited about his proposition about launching internationally, something in my gut wasn’t feeling good about the opportunity. We hear every day to trust your gut and to listen to your intuition, but why is it that we ignore it at the most important times? I really don’t know the answer to this. However, I know that by ignoring my gut feeling that day it resulted in a very painful and expensive mistake.

The proposition that was put forward to me (although I wouldn’t call it a proposition) was that we would give 16% of our company to an investor who lived in the US. This investor happened to be my business partner’s childhood friend and someone who had considerable experience in web development, graphic design and photography.

While it made sense that we gave him a portion of the company to run the US side of the business, as well as run all the digital and graphic side of the business, I had reservations about giving away 16% of the company that was predicting to turn over 2 to 3 million dollars in the first 12 months of trading. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to my gut again and because I’m not a greedy person I just ended up just agreeing with this percentage and the deal went ahead despite my reservations.

On the 27th of April 2016 I made my first million dollars. However, what should have been the most exciting day in my business journey so far was probably one of the worst.

My business relationship with my business partner was struggling and we just couldn’t communicate any more. I felt like I’d hit rock bottom in my business and I had made a huge error in judgement in my decision to get him on board as a partner. He pretty much had taken full control of the company, and he replaced all of my roles with paid employees.

Unfortunately at this point in time I was also living in one of my business partner’s investment properties, which made it even harder because I felt like I was under his thumb in all aspects of my life.

After we completed the launch and told the world we were expanding into the US, my business partner came to me and said “We need to have a meeting with our accountant“. Still to this day I remember going to the accountant’s office, sitting down at the board room at the head of the table and having these two intimidating men (his accountant and my business partner) looking over me and saying that they had discussed the situation and had agreed that my business partner added more value to the company than I did. Therefore, he wasn’t going to give up any shares in this transfer to the US partnership.

Although shocked at the statement, part of me wasn’t surprised. My gut instinct came back and I knew that bad feeling I’d had was coming to light and things were about to get real. At the time I declined this offer and said I needed time to think about the new agreement and their proposal to change the share agreement. It took a good two to three weeks before I came out with my decision, having had countless conversations being pressured into making a decision, which would benefit my business partner over me.

17 | P a g e

After a few weeks I was given an ultimatum and a deadline to come up with my decision. However, deep down in my gut, I knew that I really had no option. I was being told that if I declined the proposal that he would go ahead and launch in the USA without me. I look back now and think how naive I was to think that that could happen because legally it couldn’t. Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, I was inexperienced enough to believe that it potentially could. And that really pushed me to make the decision to agree to his proposition.

Looking back, I really don’t know why I uncharacteristically gave in. But I remember sitting in that same board room, in the same chair and hiding my discomfort by devouring the bowl of Mentos (minty sweets) that sat in the middle of the table. My accountant who represented the company and my business partner (not me) placed the crisp white piece of paper in front of me that stated “Share transfer form”. He placed a pen directly in the centre of the paper and they both just stared at me, waiting for me to sign.

As I mentioned, I was so naïve, I did not even have legal representation to turn during these times. I did not have anybody to ask for advice; I was simply in this game on my own. This was a mistake I made that by writing this, I sincerely hope helps someone to not repeat it.

I remember putting pen to paper and thinking in my mind “I shouldn’t be doing this.” But I was so emotionally broken, exhausted, mentally drained and so over the whole situation that I just signed it and hoped for the best. I remember slamming the pen down on the piece of paper and not saying a word, looking at the accountant and my business partner with no emotion on my face whatsoever. My business partner took a deep breath and said something along the lines of: “Alrighty! Let’s get this show started” and I just walked out of the office. I sat in my car and I was simply frozen. I had no emotion; I just stared at the steering wheel for about five minutes and then proceeded to drive home.

I went home and felt so defeated that I just climbed into bed and burst into tears. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever cried that much in my life but the tears were just endlessly running down my face. I cried and cried to the point where I had no tears left. I remember looking myself in the mirror and just staring. My face was just bright red, my eyes swollen like I’d been stung by bees, my heart was racing and I just had no energy left in me.

As I lay back in my bed and cried for at least another hour, I suddenly had a voice pop into my head that said “Mia, you need to capture this moment because one day you’re going to look back on it and you’re going to have defeated it and you’re going to be proud of yourself”. At that point I pulled out my phone and I took a photo and while I looked absolutely horrible that voice was right, today I still look back at that photo and I’m so proud of what I overcame. To me this photo, taken at one of my lowest points, is now an image of strength and a reminder that there is always light at the end of the tunnel; no matter what the situation, everything always works out.

Unfortunately, little did I know that I still had a few more hurdles to overcome when it came to my first business.

It was a Tuesday morning as I made my way to my new office, which at the time was a beautiful office with a stunning view and a big desk, the big chair, the couch, high ceilings and large floor boards. It was absolutely beautiful and I loved the space from the moment I saw it. I remember

18 | P a g e

waking up that morning and feeling like I wanted to dress a little more corporate that day. I didn’t really know why (it’s not my usual style) but on this Tuesday I decided to wear a black pencil skirt, black heels and a beautiful trench coat. I remember walking to my car thinking: “I feel very powerful today, I’m dressed powerfully and I’m ready for whatever is about to come my way”. Once again, I didn’t know what that was going to be, but my intuition told me that I was about to face something pretty extreme.

I walked into my office and sat at my chair and a neighbouring associate handed me my mail. I could see a letter which had a logo that suggested it was legal document. It was a letter from a local law firm and my heart started racing and my gut was telling me that what was inside this envelop was about to change my life. It took me a good five minutes before I got the courage to actually read the letter. But I finally did it, I took a deep breath and I opened the envelope.

I remember the feeling before even reading what was inside. I felt so alone, I was so scared, I felt so incredibly vulnerable and like I was about to embark on World War 3 on my own. It was such an awful feeling and a feeling no 24 year-old in my mind should ever have to go through on their own.

I looked at the letter, it was from my business partner’s solicitor and it read something along the lines of “Dear Ms. Plecic, we act on behalf of your business partner, who, as of the 15 of July is a now a majority shareholder of *Name Removed* trading as Pearly Whites Australia. We wish to inform you that your business partner and your new investor have combined their shares and have voted to remove you as a director from the company”.

I was in complete shock. I hadn’t even known that something like this was possible and I absolutely freaked out. I was about to lose my company, my baby, the business that I’d started in that old unit that I lived in, something that I was incredibly proud to call my own and to call my creation.

I, of course, burst into tears. I felt so defeated more than I did the other day lying on my bed, I just wanted to throw in the towel and give up on this thing we call “business”. Was entrepreneurship really worth all this pain and suffering? Is this a normal scenario to happen to new business owners? Or had I just screwed up bigger than anybody else?

I didn’t go home that night, I spent the entire night researching corporation acts, constitutions, shareholders agreements and trying to find out what my rights were in this situation. It was incredibly hard as I couldn’t find anything relevant to what I was going through. I was even reading through forums of people around Australia who were going through similar things, but still didn’t find the answers.

At about 2:30 in the morning, I felt asleep with my head on the desk, which didn’t last long when I jumped and scared myself awake, not knowing where I was. Lacking the energy to get in my car and drive home, I just slept on my couch inside my office. I woke up around 6:30 in the morning and I remember just looking at the roof and thinking “What the hell do I do?”

My whole life was on the line; my income, my company, even the house that I lived in. I’d recently bought my dream car, which I hadn’t even picked up yet. I’d just paid the deposit but I knew that I was going to have to give that one up too. It was a really hard situation because I knew that I had so many people who were following my journey. Every day I bumped into people around Geelong who

19 | P a g e

were congratulating me for my rising success and telling me how much of an inspiration I was to them. I remember lying there thinking “What are all these people going to think?” I felt like an absolute failure. I knew I had to get legal advice but I also knew that it would cost an absolute fortune and was dreading that I had no other choice.

To this day I wish I’d had somebody supporting me at the time. A mentor or someone that I looked up to in business, who could’ve pointed me in the right direction, giving me help with this situation. If you are reading this and looking to get in to business for yourself I cannot recommend enough getting a good team behind you from the beginning.

Within a few days I found myself sitting with the newly hired litigator and a new personal accountant, both recommended to me by someone I knew. They were incredibly supportive about helping me in my situation but deep down I knew that I’d already lost.

My accountant was the kind of man who said all the right things and automatically made me feel comfortable about everything that was going on. After the meeting, I received an email from the litigator who outlined to me her charges in order to make this situation go ahead, and yes, she was charging over a thousand dollars an hour, which was an incredible amount of money that I sure as hell didn’t have, but since I needed her help I went along with it anyway.

Over the next couple of weeks it was simply back and forth letters from my lawyer to his. Every letter costing me over a thousand dollars (which is quite a sickening feeling actually), especially knowing that there was no way that I was going to win back my directorship in the company.

I still couldn’t believe what was happening. I had to move out because as I mentioned I was living in one of his rental properties and I had nowhere to go except back to my grandparent’s house, which I really didn’t want to do. Never did I think after enjoying such success from my first online company that I’d lose it all within 12 months and have to move back home with no money, it was such an awful feeling.

I was still in my beautiful office in Geelong CBD, however I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay there for much longer because I wouldn’t be able to afford to.

However, I didn’t regret having this office at this point in time as it became my little haven. My one room, where I could sit and think and plan what I was going to do from here on. In that environment I was surrounded by like-minded people who were uplifting me and making me feel better. People who had been through similar situations like this in the past, they gave me hope and strength and an educated point of view.

This is only the story of my first business – since then I am proud to say I have gone on to move to Melbourne and have successfully founded five businesses by the age of 25, with no intention of slowing down any time soon.

After my very steep learning curve in my first business I became passionate about educating others in the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey and creating a practical way of learning about business.

20 | P a g e

The result is my latest venture, The Mia Plecic Entrepreneurs Academy. An online Academy that has an intensive 12 week timeframe designed to get you running your business by the end of the course, not just teaching you theory without implementation.

I’m well known now for my quote and the mantra I live by; ‘to succeed you must first execute’, and the Academy was built around this idea.

I hope my story has been helpful or inspiring to you on your journey in business and that you always remember to believe in your own ability.

A good friend of mine called Jack once said to me: “When the voice inside your head is bigger than the voices outside your head, you’re on the right path”.

Mia Plecic

21 | P a g e

About The Author

Quickly rising to be one of the greatest businesswomen of her generation, Mia Plecic is an entrepreneur who has successfully founded five companies by the age of 25.

Defying all odds and expectations when she decided to quit her job and ‘drop out’ of university at just 22, she was left with just herself to rely on and a big dream that she wanted to make a reality.

Mia knew there was more to her life than working to help build someone else’s empire, instead she knew she had what it took to build her own. After founding her first multi-million dollar global company at just 22, Pearly Whites, Mia made headlines worldwide, inspiring thousands of budding entrepreneurs to live their dream life.

After mastering the world of high growth e-commerce start-ups, Mia decided it was time to share her passion and help other aspiring entrepreneurs create their dream life and make their business idea into a reality. This was how the Entrepreneurs Academy was created and it proudly offers one of the most practical online business educations available.

22 | P a g e

True to Mia's drive for 'getting things done', The Academy was designed to make sure every participant graduates having actually implemented their idea and is well on the way to proudly operating their own e-commerce business.

Mia now spends her time assisting her Academy students to make their business goals a reality, while finishing writing her book and engaging in public speaking opportunities.

If you’d like to find out more about Mia visit her:

http://www.miaplecic.com/

23 | P a g e