A bold, brave move or total ignorance?

If you have a business idea and think you can do it, would you?

Only a few years into my journalism career, desktop publishing became ‘the thing’. I was curious about it.

Write to fit the space.

No more galleys that had to be cut to fit.

What’s not to love?

An early adopter, I became a leading trainer in Xerox Venturer (which didn’t hang around) and Apple PageMaker in Sydney in the mid 1980’s.

Every CEO thought their PA could create their annual report and company newsletter in-house and sent them for training, believing they’d save money and time on external designers.

But not everyone had design skills. I saw a lot of ugly documents. Poorly laid out, using too many font types, breaking all the traditional design rules.

The rules served a purpose. Keep the reader on the page. Help them stay in the story/article until the end.

The CEOs saw the ugly documents too and began to pull away from DTP.

So I created a follow-up course to the initial software training. I called it Design & Layout for Non Publishers.

The rules of design, in a nutshell. In two days. The difference between serif and sans-serif fonts and when to use them. How captions should look. Where to place images. Why white space is important.

And I taught the PAs to tell their CEOs that sure, they can do their in-house memos and newsletters, but their customer-facing documents, such as annual reports, still required professional design.

The business idea

Pitch for the projects they couldn’t do in-house. Shouldn’t do in-house.

Tyrrell Publishing was born. I bought a PC and began working from my rented flat in Kirribilli.

I was an ‘expert’ in the field and invited to speak at a forum at Darling Harbour put on by The Australian Financial Review. I was paid $900 for the two-hour presentation.

I had officially ‘made it’.

But I needed a laser printer, and if you were around at the time, you’ll remember they were expensive. About $13k. A lot of money for someone in their twenties who was starting a business on a shoestring.

No one told me I couldn’t do it. No one said I shouldn’t do it.

I may not have listened anyway.

Convinced my idea was a winner, I made an appointment with my local bank manager. I had paid off a car loan the year before. I had a credit rating.

I prepared a short business plan and already had a small list of clients and projects, including the annual report for The Australian Film Commission.

I needed the printer.

My logo looked great. I understood branding.

The conversation with the bank manager went something like this:

Susan: I’d like to apply for a personal loan to purchase a laser printer for my small business. (Hands over spiral-bound business plan).

BM: Smiles. He was probably my father’s age. Reads the three-page document, raises eyebrows. Nice logo. Your concept seems sound. Is this a family business?

Susan: No. Just me. Confused.

BM: Still smiling. Okay. Well done. I just need your father to guarantor the loan. Can you make another appointment and bring him in?

Susan: Standing up. Reaches for the document. We could call my father, I suppose. Looks at watch. But right now he’ll still be milking the cows. At the dairy. On the Victorian border, eight hours from Sydney.

Also Susan: Reached out to another bank manager, recommended by the local Chamber of Commerce. One who believed in small business. In young women in small business. Bought the laser printer, moved into a small office in Milson’s Point, hired three staff members.

The wine label promo

And this is why I’m telling you this now.

I’m moving house and found the bottle with my promotional label (liberated from Dad’s liquor cabinet after he died. Almost cried when I saw he’d kept it).

I had changed the business name to Tyrrell Publishing Creative Network.

Often asked by clients whether I was related to Tyrrells Wines, I cheekily reached out to Bruce Tyrrell and asked for permission to relabel a carton of his wine, to give to my clients at Christmas. He said yes, and we did this for a couple of years. (we don’t think we’re related).

The top part of the label (torn) said A Top Performer for 1990.

Cheesy? Yes.

But I dropped in to see an old client several years later, after marriage and children (and more businesses). The labelled bottle was on a shelf behind her desk. Empty. With my label facing outwards.

A tiny moment of pride, right there.

My point?

Believe in yourself. For me, perhaps ignorance was bliss. I didn’t overthink. I had an idea and went for it. I’ve had other businesses over the years.

Most have been successful.

One spectacular failure. If you’re keen, I’ll tell you about that one day. It involves chocolate.

And now I’m an Author. And Editor. And it is another small business for me. Small Town Publishing. I love it. Sink or swim, it’s up to me. I’m the master of my domain (not in the Seinfeld sense, for those old enough to remember …)

If you’ve noticed a few of my female protagonists start businesses in my stories … now you know why.

Girls can do anything.