Australian Entrepreneur: Naomi Simson - Example

Australian Entrepreneur: Naomi Simson By (Name) The Name of the class: Professor: The Name of the School: The Date: Australian Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship has been significant in influencing or developing the economy of a country. A country's economy is well described through its business ideas. Entrepreneurship is equally associated with a business. Many countries in the global economic markets are characterized by good entrepreneurial objectives that focus on the growth and development of the economy. Entrepreneurship refers to the process of developing new business ideas. It is the ability through which people create new business opportunities without looking into the risks associated with a particular business. Therefore, it involves taking risks so as to start new business opportunities (Casson, 2010). An entrepreneur refers to the individual who develops, creates and manages the new business enterprise. An entrepreneur is recognized as a master of new business ideas and an innovator. They perceive new opportunities for business. An entrepreneur has a positive perception towards the business idea being developed. Their focus is the desire to meet the market needs that have never been unmet. The spirit of an entrepreneur is characterized by taking risks and being innovative. The role of an entrepreneur is to have commercial control and also in directing the factors of production in the business sector (Casson, 2010). Australia is one of the countries that has had famous and experienced entrepreneurs. Naomi Simson is one of the known Australian entrepreneurs. This paper provides her entrepreneurial report regarding her background, characteristics, ideas she has developed. It also discusses the business she has developed regarding competitiveness. Finally, it gives suggestions of how the entrepreneur may improve her business ideas. Background Information Naomi Simson was born in 1964. She is a business person in Australia, entrepreneur and a blogger. She has been very active in business and entrepreneurship since 2001 to present. She is a winner of many awards such as the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Silver Stevie Award and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As a writer, she is an author of various books that are a source of inspiration to many people in the world. She is a shark in the ‘Shark Tank show' of the Australian Television. She has been ranked by the Business Insider as one of the top tech influences on twitter (Heber, 2015). She started her business and entrepreneurial career in the corporate marketing field. She has worked with various companies to gain experience in her career. The companies include KPMG, IBM, Apple Computer Australia, and Ansett Australia. Naomi is the founder of the Redballoon which is a retailer of online experience gift located in Australia. She established the company using her investments. By 2011, the company had 46 employees, with Naomi being the Chief Executive Officer. As a blogger, she owns NaomiSimson.com (Williams, 2012). This has received the second ranking in the top fifteen business blogs by the SmartCompany.com (Cook, 2008). In 2012, LinkedIn recognized Naomi as one the most influential thought leaders in the world. She was among the only two from Australia. The other one was the founder of Freelancer.com called Matt Barrie. This enabled Naomi to continue sharing her experienced knowledge with people in the entire world about business and entrepreneurship. Characteristics Naomi's road to success in her career is not based on nothing. She says in one of her blogs that success in entrepreneurship does not just happen within a night. It means it is a process that is characterized by some factors or elements. She has unique characteristics that have seen her through in the development of many business opportunities. Her characteristics have made her extend her advice services to other businesspersons. Some of her contributing characteristics are working with passion, being persistence, being positive and working with purpose (Butler, 2009). As an entrepreneur, Naomi works with passion. She says that we cannot fake what we are doing. It is either people love what they do, or they do not. Passion has driven her towards achieving her business ambitions. Her successes are attributed to the passion of her work. She simply loves what she does. The second characteristic is her persistence in what she does. She sticks to what she has planned. She says that there is no other formula apart from being persistent. She is persistent in her goals and objectives. This is a characteristic that has moved her to greater successful business opportunities as was described in her background information. Thirdly, in one of her blogs, Naomi mentions that being positive in mind and actions is a characteristic that has made her realize her entrepreneurial objective (Simson, 2008). Being an entrepreneur involves taking risks (Cook, 2008). The risks involved cannot be taken by an individual who is not of a positive mind. The last characteristic is being a purposeful person. One cannot achieve something without purpose. Naomi Simson sets purposes of her plans and ensures that they are achieved. Processes of opportunity recognition and development Opportunity recognition and development is a significant process in any creation of a venture in the business industry. In the stage of opportunity recognition and development, entrepreneurs develop a perception regarding the possibility of being able to establish new business opportunities or putting strategies to increase the effectiveness of the current business. Opportunity recognition and development take three formal steps. They include perception, discovery and the creation of business opportunities that an entrepreneur intends to undertake. Regarding this, Naomi Simson is not left behind. She recognizes business opportunities that come her way (Butler, 2009). The process takes some steps. They include preparation, incubation, insight and evaluation. One of the stages that Naomi undertakes in is the preparation stage. Preparation involves the various strategies that an entrepreneur takes with the intentions of gaining career experience. During this process, the entrepreneur develops a high sense of creativity so as to attain his or her objectives. The incubation process involves the stage whereby an entrepreneur thinks about the idea being developed. The entrepreneur identifies the specific problem or idea to be developed. At this stage, the entrepreneur contemplates upon various ways of developing an idea. The RedBalloon journey gives a reflection of the stages of the process of opportunity recognition and development (Williams, 2012). Naomi established a gift retailer RedBallon in 2001. (Keating, 2015). She started it with a personal investment of $25,000. Currently, the retailer gets over $60 million. The establishment of the retailer has enabled Naomi to realize her specific entrepreneurial dreams. It has been a process unto her. At one point, she did not dream of becoming an entrepreneur. She wanted to be an artist. Her dream of being an entrepreneur began when she evaluated herself and the career she pursued. Today, her long entrepreneurial journey has brought more success to the business sector and has enhanced economic growth of the global society. Type of business and competitive advantage As a strong and vibrant entrepreneur and business person, Naomi has been successful in the development of a business that is unique from the rest in Australia. Her business career began in the marketing discipline having held various official positions in different companies. She established the RedBalloon which provides a type of business based on happiness (Carmody, 2015). The basic or core function of the business is based on online experience retailer. The company produces and sells gift vouchers for various life-changing events. The events range from driving experiences to encounters that people have with animals or nature. RedBalloon's business is very competitive in the market center of Australia. Since its establishment, it has remained to be the leading provider of gift in Australia (Carmody, 2015). Because of its competitive advantage, it remains to experience a wide recognition as the leading employer in Australia. Naomi has fought for some benefits to being provided by the organization, making it attain higher competitive advantage over other associated business companies (Carmody, 2015). Some of the discounts given by the organization are staff discounts based on working experiences, wellness programs, and social events. The benefits have enabled the organization to maintain a strong culture that has made it be a renowned company. The success of the business has made Naomi gain popularity in the entire economic system of the world. She also dedicates her time in sharing her knowledge in business with other people. Future Suggestions Despite the success of Naomi regarding her entrepreneurship ideas, there are more suggestions through which her ideas can be improved. To begin, the business should redirect the nature of its services to focus on the production of products and services of high quality. It should be provided at the same price as those of the competitors. Also, the business can be improved by focusing on services that satisfy the needs of the customers. This will ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved. The business company should sell its products and services at a fair and affordable price for all clients. The implementation of these suggestions will be influential in enhancing the growth of the business of Naomi. In conclusion, entrepreneurship contributes a greater percentage of economic growth of various countries in the world. This is achieved through different entrepreneurs such as Naomi Simson. Her entrepreneurial ideas have contributed more economic growth in Australia. References BUTLER, DIANNE (2009). "Millionaire uncovers 99 reasons to walk a mile in their shoes". Courier Mail. CARMODY, BROEDE (2015). "Naomi Simson's RedBalloon launches Redii, a stand-alone business for founders to reward employees". Smart Company. CASSON, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham [u.a.], Edward Elgar. COOK, TREVOR (2008). "Australian business blogs list". Crikey. HEBER, ALEX ( 2015). 30 of Australia's biggest tech influencers on Twitter". Business Insider Australia. KEATING, ELOISE.(2015). "Behind the scenes of Shark Tank with Red Balloon founder Naomi Simson". Smart Company SIMSON, NAOMI. (2008). Where it all Began. LinkedIn Pulse. WILLIAMS, SONIA (2012). Raising a Business: A Woman’s No-nonsense Guide to Successfully Growing Your Small Business. John Wiley & Sons. Read More