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Ten questions in ten minutes Headlines
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Ten questions in ten minutes
With Lou Draper
Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Lou Draper is the owner and director of RockstarPR.
Lou Draper.
Business to Business
- What inspired you to start up your business?
Lou Draper
- RockstarPR is actually my 8th ‘go’ at business; I currently also have High Voltage Espresso, LOUD Makeup, PartySpa and before those had two events businesses and a beauty salon. I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family so it made total sense to go out on my own rather than work for someone else. I started RockstarPR as a way to help small business achieve success and avoid closure! Over the last two years we've had some great success stories and now we're helping strengthen the ME in SME brands too!
BtoB
- Who has influenced you the most professionally?
LD
- My parents for sure. They are serial entrepreneurs and instilled a fight rather than flight mentality when it comes to running a business. They worry about me a lot as it's a different economic situation now to run businesses as it was when they first started. Their experiences and advice are gold to my operations now. I'm lucky.
BtoB
- How would you describe yourself as a businesswoman?
LD
- I've come a long way in the last twelve months. Originally my heart was bigger than my business brain and I would work so hard for very little financial reward. Now, I'm smarter in the way I do things, I recently teamed up with The Biz Dojo and the boys from SlapFu who have coached me around some savvy operations and how to carefully choose who I work with. Business is really booming now!
BtoB
- What do you consider your greatest achievement?
LD
- Honestly, there are loads of things that I consider to be an achievement but the biggest and best one for me, was leaving my corporate job and ongoing confirmed salary for this life I have now. It's a big thing for anyone to give up that security to go out on their own. I wouldn't change it for the world, but it wasn't a walk in the park either!
BtoB
- With hindsight, what is the one thing you would do differently?
LD
- If it had occured to me, I would have appointed my business advisor and teamed up with The Biz Dojo and SlapFu boys way earlier than I did!
Being in business if there are two or three of you is one thing - you have someone to bounce ideas off, but when you are on your own it can be very stressful! My business advisor is my number one sounding board though! I don't make any major decisions without him being across it. I can't name him here, but he knows who he is! Thank you!
BtoB
- Who do you find inspirational and why?
LD
- My brother actually. He is in business too, recently opened his first cafe The Grind, in Ruby Bay, Nelson. He was a stay at home dad originally and has overcome some major obstacles to build his business AND be a fabulous father to his two daughters! I'm continually surprised and energised by his drive and ideas!
BtoB
- What is the most inspirational book you have read recently?
LD
- I'm still reading it - Strategy Synthesis by Bob DeWit and Ron Meyer.
BtoB
- What is your favourite website and why?
LD
- I am constantly online reading and learning... so there are so many favourite sites, all the news ones at the moment though, and twitter too!
BtoB
-What is the first thing you would do if you became Prime Minister?
LD
- Introduce a new law on drinking and driving... the current ones aren't working and I'm losing too many friends on the roads so that's the first thing I'd review and change!
BtoB
- What is the best thing about being in business?
LD
- For me it's about this new level of responsibility and the achievement of results from the effort I put in. As a reasonably good example of underachieving at school, I'm certainly making up for it now!
