In this episode, how a high-achieving accounting graduate resigned from her high-flying career at Ernst & Young during the Global Financial Crisis, much to her parent’s disgust, with the dream of becoming one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs.

Well, that dream eventually came true, but not without getting in to some serious personal debt and a failed business along the way.

In 2010, Jane Lu founded the online fashion label Showpo from her parents’ garage, having previously worked in accounting and corporate finance.

What started off with a laptop and two shelves of clothing, is now an online global fashion empire, shipping to over 100 countries.

Through her highly disruptive approach to online retailing, and capitalising on the use of social media, Showpo now boasts a cult social following of over 3.3 million engaged followers, a team of over 150 millennials across their central-Sydney HQ and distribution centre, and an annual turnover this year that will hit $30 million.

I caught up with Jane in an upstairs wardrobe of her Sydney office. Sitting on a couple of hard old stools, it was hot, we were surrounded by clothes (as you’d expect), and there was an Instagram photo shoot happening next door showcasing the upcoming week’s new range of Showpo originals.

But none of that stopped this quick-talking, fast-thinking fashion entrepreneur from verygenerously sharing some powerful business insights.

“One of the most difficult things (in business) is when you grow really fast and you have people that don’t grow with you. Letting people go is hard ..but keeping the wrong people can lead you in the wrong direction … then you’re left with a huge mess to clean up. ” - Jane Lu, Showpo

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“No one shops online.” Today, that sentence sounds ridiculous – some of us only shop online. But back when Jane Lu was just starting her entrepreneurship journey, that sentence resulted in the failure of her first business venture. Almost a decade later, Jane is the self-proclaimed “Lazy CEO” and founder of Showpo, Australia’s fastest growing…

The post 133: Business Failures & Becoming an Entrepreneur in Fashion w/ Showpo Founder Jane Lu appeared first on Lavendaire.

Jane Lu is the founder & CEO of ShowPo, and she’s also a total girl boss. At 32 years old, she employs over 150 people and runs a $60M business. Tune in to today’s episode if you want to get super inspired and learn about her story!

The MIMIBEE Podcast is a bi-weekly show hosted by Mimi Bouchard. It features segments on motivation and success, transformation stories, health and fitness, love and relationships, and interviews with professionals in their fields. The host Mimi is a self-proclaimed Transformation Specialist. She has undergone the most incredible transformation herself - she went from being very insecure, financially stressed, depressed, lost in life... to absolutely owning her craft and stepping in to her power. Mimi has drastically revolutionized her career, body, relationships, and her mindset. Every episode is incredibly inspiring and highly motivational. If you're looking to upgrade your life in any way, you're in the right place!

@mimibouchard

www.mimibee.com

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This week on Becoming Fearless, meet Jane Lu, the founder and CEO of Showpo, an online fashion store that sells to millennial women in over 100 countries. Jane started her career as an accountant, but as soon as she started working, she realized she didn’t enjoy it. Then her friend came to her with the idea to start their own business. After one failed business, Jane pivoted to create a new business that was everything the first business was not. Join Jane and Annie as they talk being your own brand ambassador, experiencing failure, being candid, finding people you can trust, learning how to delegate, and living a fulfilled life.

In This Episode You Will Learn About:

• What Jane loves about Sydney
• Starting her business journey from accounting
• What Jane’s rock bottom looked like
• What Showpo is and offers
• Starting a fashion business without money
• Welcoming in big numbers in business
• How Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine came about
• What Jane does in order to market her business + her advice to you
• Finding a growth hack + finding people that are smarter than you
• Getting to the next level in business
• Failures that turned into successes

Resources:

• Learn more: showpo.com
• Instagram: @thelazyceo
• Youtube: The Lazy CEO
• The Bliss Project 2020

Show Notes

Jane Lu joins me on today’s episode! Jane is the founder of Showpo, an online fashion retail empire. Jane previously worked in accounting and corporate finance, but after returning from a year abroad, was inspired to ditch the “cubicle life”, so she quit her job to start her own business. She had always had a sincere passion for women's fashion online, social media and entrepreneurship– it’s no surprise that Showpo is Jane’s creation! This conversation with Jane is SO great because she shares her business failures as well as her successes. You’ll love this one no matter where you are in your business!

Question Highlights:

• How did you start this amazing business journey?
• How long did you stay in rock bottom and what was the next step after finding a solution?
• What is Showpo?
• How did you become the person who could start to think of big numbers and just accept them?
• How did you focus on what you wanted, and not get stopped up by outside opinions?
• What should we know about marketing our business that we are missing?
• How did you know that you hired the right people?
• What advice do you have for the business person trying to get to their next level?
• What are some big failures that turned into amazing lessons?

Jane Lu founded Showpo in 2010 from her parents’ garage. Jane previously worked in accounting and corporate finance, but after returning from a year abroad, was inspired to ditch the “cubicle life”, so she quit her job to start her own business. With much enthusiasm for entrepreneurship , she set off to start her first business, which failed spectacularly. However, Jane was undeterred and got right back on the horse, starting the online fashion brand, Showpo the following month. What started off with a laptop and two shelves of clothing is now an online global fashion empire,shipping to over 100 countries.

Through being disruptive in the retail space and capitalising on the use of social media, Showpo now boasts a cult social following of over 3.3 million engaged followers collectively and has a team of over 90 across Sydney HQ and Distribution Center. A regular keynote speaker, for some of Australia’s biggest brands and having fronted stages for audiences internationally, Lu’s expertise is unparalleled, and her tone of voice, is real and relatable. A prominent figure in the Australian start up scene, Lu has been nominated for numerous awards,taking home taking the title of Cosmopolitan’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2016.

Lu’s personal experiences led her to build her own entrepreneurial community, Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine, which she co-founded with serial entrepreneur, Gen George. ​Together they have grown an active community of over 85,000 members.​​ Bringing women together to hear (and give) real, honest advice, to be inspired and to join forces - all over a good class of wine of course.With Lu at the helm, 8 years since its founding, Showpo owns its status as one of Australia’s fastest growing fashion e-commerce retailers. Recently awarded the highly coveted Australian Online Retailer of The Year Award and is on track to reach its goal of $100 million in revenue by 2020 with no external funding.

Follow me on social media @LoriHarder on Instagram and Lori Harder on Facebook