Selling lingerie Down Under

June restarted her lingerie business after finishing her postgraduate studies because she wanted a new challenge. [PLEASE DO NOT REUSE]

Journalist-turned-entrepreneur June Ramli moved to Australia,got a post-grad degree and restarted her online lingerie business.

WHEN one seems to have it all – a great career, as well as a passion that has turned into a lucrative business, life is good. So why would anyone in such a position choose to start all over again in a new country?

If this sounds all too familiar, maybe you’re just such a person or know someone who’s done that.

I’m travelling down the same road myself and have met others who have done the same.

When former Malaysian journalist and author, June Ramli, decided to seek greener pastures in Australia, she discovered that things didn’t seem any greener on the other side.

In fact, she felt rather blue during her first year in Sydney, Australia – something many new migrants experience.

Fast-forward two years, and June has completed her post-graduate degree in creative writing from the University of Technology Sydney and is picking up where she left off in Malaysia by restarting her lingerie business. It seems she is slowly finding her feet again.

June has just jump-started June Saira Lingerie recently and is quite happy with how things are going. But how did a journalist decide to start a lingerie brand?

“I needed a new challenge in my life and I thought this business idea would bring excitement. And it definitely has. I have travelled to Paris, Taiwan, Thailand, Brunei and the UK for lingerie courses, and now Australia. It’s been great so far,” says June.

She says she chose her name for the business because her parents went through greath lengths to find a suitable name for her when she was born. Basically, she didn’t want to face the same predicament for her business.

In addition, putting her name next to “Lingerie” would help her focus on the product, which is essentially lingerie that’s comfortable and using batik motifs in their designs.

The idea for her business came about in 2009 when she was at the New Straits Times. When she got it off the ground, June sold her items through a major local online retailer with the business getting good traction in Malaysia. Now in Australia, she is trying to create brand awareness, as well as to introduce batik to the Aussies.

It’s not been plain smooth-sailing.

“It is hard to do your business in a foreign country. It’s harder here because in Australia no one knows me. But I’m not giving up,” says June, pretty much summing up what many small foreign business owners go through.

Funding and capital has always been the biggest impediment when it comes to growing small businesses. It was an issue for June, even in Malaysia.

“I’m lucky to have been able to support my business with my own money but there was a time when it was almost impossible to find seed money to grow the business. Many people laughed at my idea. I have been to many banks looking for funds but the aid finally came from a Bumiputera entity.

“They loaned me some money to fund the business but it was not enough,” she recalls.

In a cruel twist of fate, the officer in charge of her business case was so inspired by June’s idea that she left the company and started her own Hijab wear line.

“She also got a loan from the same entity, and it was far more than what I was given. It was so hard for me to get any funding from any organisation in Malaysia, and I didn’t have enough support from business organisations either.

“Also, it was hard to advertise my product in the mass media because it was lingerie, because of the skin-baring issue. But every woman wears lingerie!” June exclaims in exasperation.

But there is no problem with using live models for lingerie shoots in Australia, and that certainly helps June’s effort in promoting her brand. Currently, her products are available online.

“I’m using this approach as brick-and-mortar shops have high overheads. I’m now looking at various ways of improving the marketing concept through digital marketing as well,” she says.

Her current product catalogue features a model named Coco and photographer Serge Cohen, with the photos taken in Paris. June directed the shoot – and it was a great hands-on way for her to understand her product, as well as the specific brand image she intends to portray.

She also authored the book How Millionaires Got their First Break, a book on how six Malaysian millionaires went about making their first million.

June is not only multi-talented, but very determined to turn her dreams into a success story.

For more information, visit www.junesaira.com.