Australian Entrepreneur; Founder of Poppy Industries (1991) Awarded Australian of the Year (1995) Author

 “ I am inspired by providing women with “a new concept of feminine glamour” which shows that women can be interested in beauty and still be intelligent (Poppy King cited by thesupermelon, 2009)  Names her lipsticks by reading two fairly unlikely magazines…The Economist and The New Yorker. “I find the language in those magazines so inspiring that it always triggers some new lip concept for me” (Poppy King cited by thesupermelon, 2009).

 Poppy started her own cosmetics company in 1991 at age eighteen  Within three years, the company had grown to be one of the biggest cosmetic companies in Australia.  Poppy Industries lasted 12 years, until Poppy joined the corporate cosmetics world at Prescriptives in New York  Poppy re-imagined her vision of feminine glamour and launched Lipstick Queen by Poppy King last year with total control of her brand and its glamorous mission

 In 1995 she received the Young Australian of the Year award  The same year the company made a profit of $6.5 million   Authored a book; Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea that can Change your Life! Read more at: sullivan/interview-entrepreneur- an_b_ html sullivan/interview-entrepreneur- an_b_ html 

 you don't have to be rich. I just had a passion for something and decided, even though the odds were against it, I believed in myself and my product," she said.  It wasn’t easy for Poppy, though, she suffered rejection, derision and the cold shoulder from those in the cosmetics industry

 Poppy didn’t give up easily though; she made her own way, without help from industry giants  “The rest was pretty easy because I followed common sense and didn't over complicate it. I wrote a shopping list if what I needed to find like a factory to produce and formulate the lipstick I wanted. I ended up finding them in the Yellow Pages. See what I mean by not overcomplicating it” (Sullivan, F, 2009, citing King, P, 2009) Read more at: sullivan/interview-entrepreneur-an_b_ html sullivan/interview-entrepreneur-an_b_ html

 After building a successful business, Poppy was given bad business advice, tried to extend her business to lingerie and clothing, subsequently her business liquidated.  Poppy was then accused of trading whilst insolvent, but was absolved of any wrongdoing  Poppy realized her error was over extending herself too quickly, into areas she was not passionate about  “you don't have to be rich. I just had a passion for something and decided, even though the odds were against it, I believed in myself and my product," (Herald sun, 2009, citing Poppy King).   new-life/story-e6frf7l new-life/story-e6frf7l

 Poppy Industries lasted 12 years, and after it folded, Poppy joined the corporate cosmetics world at Prescriptives in New York  Poppy re-imagined her vision of feminine glamour and launched Lipstick Queen by Poppy King last year with total control of her brand and its glamorous mission  Fuelled by pure passion, unconventionality, and glamour, this Lipstick Queen is a one-woman brand  “Poppy King is THE woman responsible for the revival of the red pout in recent years” (thesupermelon, 2009

 When one door closes, another one opens.  There is never just ONE opportunity, one moment. Life is a series of opportunities and meaningful moments  The key quality for long term success and entrepreneurship is how you handle the setbacks. They will be there and you can either grow stronger and better for them or not. The successful ones learn how to grow from mistakes as well as triumph No sudden moves!  People always think that everything comes in a flash for entrepreneurs…one minute they were doing something and bang, but it really takes a lot of planning and slow steady movement

 In the words of Charles Bukowski - "nothing is worse than too late". Give things a try. Failure is nowhere near as bad as inertia (Sullivan, F, 2009, citing, King, P) Read more at: sullivan/interview-entrepreneur- an_b_ html sullivan/interview-entrepreneur- an_b_ html