Lorraine Murphy likes to keep her career and business goals on a waterproof sheet in the shower. That way she’ll be reminded of what she’s achieved, and what she still has to do, on a daily basis.
In 2013 one such ‘to do’ item was to be recognised in four different business awards: tick.
Another was to see her new business reach an ambitious revenue target.
Well she fell short of the original figure but got close at $1.2 million.
This year, Murphy has a whole new list of items up in the shower, covering personal and professional aspects of her life, and including what she says is a slightly less ambitious plan for her business to turn over $2 million.
It’s this work ethic that originally saw the PR and comms specialist pioneer a whole new type of talent agency before reaching the age of 30.
Launched in 2012, The Remarkables Group works with influential bloggers (think Not Quite Nigella, Woogsworld and Fat Mum Slim) to develop content offerings for clients such as sponsored posts, ambassadorships, guest blogging and event hosting. Its list of brands includes Toyota, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Woolworths.
Named as one of Women’s Agenda sister publication SmartCompany’s ‘Hot 30 under 30’ in 2013, Murphy started The Remarkables young but still had plenty of experience. She’d spent eight years in five different agencies where she says she learnt a lot about management, and made an early start on seeing the potential for bloggers to monetise their by work by helping to raise the awareness of brands. Importantly, she also realised clients and bloggers needed a go-between in order to communicate with each other.
And she believes she hit the sweet spot for launching a business in terms of where she was at in life, the point where she’d acquired enough professional experience but few personal commitments.
“I didn’t have a mortgage, didn’t have kids. My now husband was extremely supportive and said, ‘If you don’t try, you’ll never know,” she says. “For me the timing was perfect, I had eight years experience. I know people who start at 21 which works for them, but wouldn’t have been right for me.”
So how does she do it? Regularly seeing her goals in the shower helps with the motivation, but recognising her strengths and weaknesses actually makes it happen.
“I’m good at building relationships and maintaining them which is useful in working with amazing bloggers, it’s not bad for sales either!” she says. “The other thing I’m good at is having vision and making it happen. I feel I’m lucky in that I have this ability to see where we need to be and in actually making that vision a reality.” Aware she’s not a ‘details’ person she knows getting the right staff members is key to balancing out her weaknesses.
Murphy knows how to think big but still cites managing her own mindset as one of her biggest challenges – it’s a fear of letting herself or others down that she believes afflicts many female entrepreneurs. To help, she’s established a board for business support and guidance and scheduled “restorative weekends” away every three months to recharge herself.
All of which are on the ‘to do’ list in the shower.
Lorraine Murphy is a finalist in the Emerging Entrepreneur category of the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. Check back with Women’s Agenda for more on the finalists.