Analyse an Australian Entrepreneur

Question: Discuss about the Analyse an Australian Entrepreneur. Answer: Introduction: Succeeding as a successful entrepreneur is not only about luck of a person. It is a complex and extended process which involves a unique approach combined with his abilities, risk taking capabilities and characteristics. An individual with awareness, talent, constrains, skills and courage of innovation and improvement with a definite goal or objective is known as an entrepreneur. An effective entrepreneur always recognizes the opportunity and gab opportunities for financial and economic growth. It is a self-motivated and vibrant activity that facilitates the entrepreneur to convey changes in the practice of invention, innovation in traditional business processes. Entrepreneurship is a psychological approach to anticipate risk and probability with an outlook to accomplish certain business objective with an innovative and effective manner (Cooney, 2012). Jodie Fox is the co-founder and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in Australia, successfully running the Shoe of Prey a nd swiftly emerging as a global designer footwear brand. Jodie Fox Background: Jodie Fox is a classic example how an individual with non-business background succeed in entrepreneurship with right attitude and vision. She was born in an Australian Sicilian Catholic family with strong family values. According to her she always believed in happy endings which kept her motivated in every field at life. She is an alumnus at university in Brisbane and she has an academic background in advertisement and law. She was married with Michael Fox who is also the co-founder of Shoe of Prey but divorced in 2012, still they continue to work as business partners. She initially started an online makeup tutorial at the age of sixteen which was quite popular and used the platform to start her own business. She started her career with one of the most popular advertising farm in Australia, The Campaign Palace. She has been described as an energetic, innovative, self-confident, and optimistic and opportunist who helped her to achieve to turn her love for her shoes into a successful b usiness. It is important for an entrepreneur to become successful that they must love what they do and Jodie Fox did exactly that as it is the passion that helps a business to run smoothly (Barringer, 2012). She has always been a good communicator which helped her to self promote the business idea and reach the target audience easily. She designed her own shoes as a teenager which was liked by her friends and acquaintances and were asked to commission some for them as well. The first online store that allowed women to design their own shoes was the Shoe of Prey. As a result the company was profitable within months, turning over millions within two years and has recently attracted $3 million in venture capital funds (Dafnis, 2017). Jodie has since used her hard-won start up knowledge to sustain and grow in the market. Building Shoe of Prey: At the age of sixteen Jodie Fox ran a very popular YouTube channel, known as juicystar07 where she featured in make-up tutorial videos (Storey and Greene, 2010). She initially launched a competition she requested her viewers to try designing new shoes with them. The idea was initially flop as most of the viewers were teenage girls who has limited pocket money and would not spend hundreds and thousands in buying branded shoes. That times both her co-partners Michael and Mike Knapp were working in Google. So, using technology in business came swiftly and with the help of Google analytics they find the reason why their online campaign failed. After finishing her law degree and joining an advertisement firm, Jodie Fox finally decided to launch her new business along with Michael Fox and Mike Knapp. Jodie along with her partners initiated a unique approach where they constantly search for the customer needs and expectations because according to her connecting with audience online in initi al days was quite challenging for the business (Wlia.org.au, 2017). They made use of the technology to analyse the customer base and market trends. They understood that although their online campaigning was quite popular but failed to bring sales for them and thus they experience that not all traffic is good traffic and it is important to target the right audience. They launched the Shoe of Prey in 2009 which is an online retail shoe business that aims to provide customized footwear designed by the customers according to their tastes and comfort (jodiefox.com.au, 2017). Then the organization manufactures them and ultimately dispatches them for the customers and guarantees to deliver any ordered product within 2 weeks. She realized that the audience react positively when they feel that they are approached at the right time at the right moment with right product to meet their needs and requirements. In 2014, her name appeared in Shoes String Magazine under Top 30 Most Influential Wome n in Retail and in 2013 she also own the World Retail Awards Winner Store Design of The Year Competitive Advantage of Shoe of prey: The Shoe of Prey is a unique business start up where customers are given the opportunity to choose and design their own shoes according to their taste and comfort. The business mainly focuses on the customized female footwear industry (businessinsider.com.au, 2017). Just after its initial launch in 2009, the business was a huge success as it was extensively liked by the customers. It was possible only through dynamic business approach of Jodie Fox and technological knowhow of Michael Fox and Mike Knapp (Fitzsimmons, 2017). Jodie Fox has been a vibrant young business woman who always wanted to convert her love for shoes into more productive approach. She chooses transparency as a tool to build trust with her clients. The organization shares the use of ethical resources that are utilized in the process of production. This process not only builds trust within the organization and its stakeholders but also promotes the organization as a more socially responsible (Drucker, 2014). As Jodie has an advertisement background, she understand the importance of communication with the target audience, so the organization has an active presence in most of the common social networking portals like Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, etc. This helps the management to keep in touch with the customers and understand their desires more effectively. For instance, the management used the Net Promoter Score Surveywhich allowed them to analyse the service quality that is being delivered to the customers and also receive customer feedback both positive and negative (Kimmorley, 2017). As a result, Jodie Fox used a versatile communication process to reach the target audience. Grievances and suggestions are openly accepted and worked upon for up gradation of products and services. So, the main factors that helped the Shoe of Prey to sustain and develop is that the constant effect by Jodie to keep in touch with the customers and building strong long term relation with them (Salkowitz, 2010). Sh e utilized the social media platform to facilitate in going her business viral creating more awareness than another platform could do. Recommendations: In the age of globalization and technological advancements, the market trends and business practices are changing fast. The author wants to recommend to Jodie Fox analysing the forthcoming challenges and opportunities in the industry. They are- Identify market shifts and customer preferences and re-structuring product or service model accordingly (Barringer, 2012). The Shoe of Prey is quite a well-known and successful business organization in the field of customized womens footwear retail industry. The brand is trusted by a larger customer base. Jodie Fox should utilize the brand recognition and expand and develop into new sectors with more unique and dynamic product and services. This will assists in developing a strong market presence. New technologies are emerging in the market on daily basis, Jodie Fox needs to be more effective in handling the customer base of her online business and develop a competitive advantage. Conclusion: A self-motivated and charming youthful spokeswoman, Jodie Fox is a new class of entrepreneur for the social media age, a genuine voice that the contemporary business organizations cannot ignore. In the following report the author discussed how Jodie Fox rose as an entrepreneur to become a successful business woman in global footwear retailing industry with her self-motivated and fascinating traits. The self-motivating, constant, visionary and risk taking abilities helped to understand the new emerging trend of social media and online shopping and launch a completely new business idea that facilitate in transforming the traditional idea of retailing of footwear industry. She utilized the opportunity of online media and reached a large global customer base with customized footwear collection that has unique service and product quality to offer. In conclusion, the author wants to state that a successful entrepreneur should be self determined and self controlled individual, who has a cap ability of risk taking and predict possibility of financial growth just like Jodie Fox who helped to emerge a new market in the retailing industry on global region. Reference: Cooney, T.M., 2012. Entrepreneurship skills for growth-orientated businesses.Copenhag, Danish Business Authority. Drucker, P., 2014.Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge. Barringer, B., 2012.Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, (2012). Storey, D.J. and Greene, F.J., 2010.Small business and entrepreneurship. Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Salkowitz, R., 2010.Young world rising: How youth technology and entrepreneurship are changing the world from the bottom up(Vol. 13). John Wiley Sons. Dafnis, S., 2017. - HerBusiness. HerBusiness. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://herbusiness.com/profile/jodie-fox/ Fitzsimmons, C., 2017. Divorced but still in business and living in LA. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/two-of-us-michael-and-jodie-fox-20151130-glc3nq.html jodiefox.com.au,. 2017. About. Jodie Fox. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.jodiefox.com.au/about.html Kimmorley, S., 2017. Here's How Shoes Of Prey Built Its Astounding Business By Getting To Know Its Customers Read more at https://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-how-shoes-of-prey-built-its-phenomenal-business-by-simply-getting-to-know-its-customers-2014. www.businessinsider.com.au., 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-how-shoes-of-prey-built-its-phenomenal-business-by-simply-getting-to-know-its-customers-2014-9 Tulshyan, R. 2017. Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruchikatulshyan/2016/04/15/entrepreneur-raises-15-5-million-but-investor-more-interested-in-commenting-on-her-looks/#450ba40f2c43 Wlia.org.au,. 2017. Jodie Fox | Women's Leadership Institute Australia. Wlia.org.au. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.wlia.org.au/profile/jodie-fox/