"Ask Yourself If You Like What You Do" - 5 Star Plus Retail Design
I met Barbara Seidelmann, 33 from Austria , Founder and Managing Director of '5 Star Plus Retail Design', in their new office, where she told me about her retail business, where her interest in design comes from and what quality’s you'll need to create your own business.
She came to China to work for Siemens in marketing and business planning and stayed for a couple of years. She then got an opportunity to join an Austrian Luxury Jeweler brand as a country manager, so she went back to Austria and stayed for a couple of months to get to know the company better.
She then returned to China to open flagship stores, hire sales team and train them. This is how she got into retail design, and made the effort to study interior design at the same time. Then, 3 years a ago, she started up her own business; '5 Star Plus Retail Design'.
- This is the perfect job for a woman like me, because it combines everything I like; marketing, design, sales, retail, fashion… It is really interesting.
Sometimes they need a full concept design, detailed technical drawings, including production and product management. Once they know what the company is looking for, they try to understand the brands positioning, doing project analysis and research to understand who the brand is, brand values, if they are high end or light luxury, target costumers, competitors etc.
Thereafter they find inspiration to use for this concept and create schematics and designs (collecting ideas, colors, materials etc.) as well as a functional planning. Then the next step is to present a draft of the concept and await approval.
- I like it, I like what I do now, work for myself, work with a nice team, interesting clients and always new projects. All brands are different. And our job and challenge is to express who they are, it is interesting, you can really be very creative, but, of course, it also has to be a commercial success. There are many goals and targets to meet; everything together is what makes it so interesting.
'5 Star Plus Retail Design' has worked with quite a lot of well-known brands, and created everything from exhibition designs to project launch events. But if the brands are big but not 'really' big, there is room for more creative freedom.
- One of my favorite projects was working with a shoe brand, and the reason is because this brand gave us a chance to redefine their brand. So they don’t just only want us to tell them who they are, they give us a chance to tell them who they could be.
- I have always liked design. My parents probably knew I would do something like this, because I come from a creative family with musicians, writers and sculptor. So as young I liked creative things; building cities, creating things for my dolls and even putting together the IKEA furniture! But I am also a practical person. So I thought I should learn something that made sense. Because for me something creative was just creative, a hobby, I didn’t know how to make money out of that. But after joining the large company and the jeweler business, the more the company grew, the more I missed the creative component. That’s why I decided to start something on my own.
What inspires you?
- Everything, I think, everything I see, other works, architecture, artwork, people, fashion, culture... usually the way I try to work is to really understand the brand very well, who they are, what they want to achieve, and based on that I look for inspiration. For example go to certain countries, look at certain art forms….things like that.
The most difficult thing about doing this business?
- For me, not really difficult, but hardest work was to start something new that I had never done before. I was taking on a new role and had to build up a new network. So I had to go out and make a lot of new contacts. This is probably something everyone who builds up a business has to face.
Most enjoyable thing about it?
- Most enjoyable part is to work with a great team every day, to work with so many young and motivated people, having fun together while working and creating something really cool and creative. And meeting many interesting people from different countries, with many different ideas, it is pretty interesting.
- To achieve a certain degree of freedom and flexibility for myself in what I can do; how, where and when I work, this is one thing. And to do what I want and like to do, and challenge myself in how far I can go.
What do you do outside of your work?
- Great question! (haha) Well, I obviously work a lot, also sometimes on the weekends, and it is necessary, especially in China, you have to be available all the time and willing to work all the time. But to have some balance I try to do yoga when I can, meet friends and I sleep a lot on the weekends. And I take a break twice a year to go back to Austria, for 3 – 4 weeks, to get some calm, because it is not as fast paced as China.
How do you find a balance in life?
- Probably through those things. And I think it is important to take a step back sometimes and look at what you do and ask yourself if you like what you do, and if you don’t like it, you have to adjust it. But for me, generally I am a person that likes to work, so working a lot it is not a problem for me, but also being able to work with nice people is a larger plus for me, and also helps me keep the balance.
- We took a big step by moving to this new office, and from last year and this year we have a lot of large scale projects, and this is where we want to get to; increase the number of projects and client and create worldwide concepts implemented in the whole world. And at the same time, we have a design team and a consulting team and also building up a bigger marketing team. These are the next bigger steps.
Any tips for women who want to start up their own business?
- First of all , think about if you are the type of person who wants to build up something. Be clear of what you want, what you are good at , and if you are willing to work hard. If all this is “yes”, then definitely go ahead. And for me, I am person who don't like to take directive from other people that much, I rather do what I want to do, and for those kind of people it is worth a try. And then be clear, build up a business plan, know what you want to do, you can't do everything; you have to find your niche. And finally, go out and get a network.
"Five fast" with Barbara Seidelmann
Coffee or tea?
Tea, black tea, I drink a lot of black tea.
Heels or handbags?
Oh, that’s difficult... but I think I would go for handbag.
Creating store concept or restaurant concept?
Store. It doesn’t matter the product category, but it depends on the brand. I like to create for brands I think are really cool, new and forward looking.
Night out or night in?
Probably night out,
Leave over the control of the company to someone else, knowing it will do well, or, do it yourself but the future is uncertain?
Myself. I like to be in charge and do it myself.