Sarah Pavillard from www.frockaholics.com

What was your inspiration for starting frockaholics?

Fashion has always been a big part of my life, and I think it was really the fashion itself that inspired me to start Frockaholics. Of course, some of the great internet success stories such as aussieBum, Net-a-porter, eBags, and Wotif have also been a great inspiraton, as have the stories of great female entrepreneurs. The desire to bring great fashion to Australia women through an easy to use site with excellent customer service has just been burning away in me for many years. It was something I simply had to do.

Can you remember the moment or how you came up with the idea?

There was no single moment as such - rather, Frockaholics is a concept that evolved over a number of years. If there was any light bulb moment, it came when I was deployed to Iraq in HMAS DARWIN. We spent winter in the North Arabian Gulf, and it gets pretty cold up there and unfortunately, I am one of those people who really feels the cold. Due to having a fully staffed ship, there was no spare bedding onboard, so I ordered a blanked through the Peters of Kensington website. It arrived on the ship less than two weeks later, and was delivered with the rest of the post via a helicopter from Bahrain. It made me realise just how powerful the internet was becoming as a way to connect with customers, and it was then that I decided irrespective of what I did in fashion, it had to be online. I was planning to launch a business very similar to Frockaholics when I re-connected with a friend in Canberra. Roslyn Wright has had a long career in fashion, and is an experienced buyer. At the time, she was considering taking the labels she had been working with online, and we realised that two heads are better than one and decided to do it together. After a year of planning, Frockaholics went live in August 2008.

How much time each day would you spend working on your business?

My business is now my full time job, so I spend all day, some evenings and time during the weekend working on and in my business. When you are running your own business, it can be difficult to detach from it so I find it useful to compartmentalise my day into the different roles I have have in my life - wife, mother, business owner, employee, friend and then still make sure I find a little 'me-time'. I then translate this into my daily work within the business to ensure that I am attending to all the different needs of the business throughout the day, the week and the month.

Do you think it’s harder or easier than traditional retail?

I think there is a perception that e-tail is easier than traditional retail, but my view is that this is a myth. E-tail is an increasingly competitive market, and the reality is that we aren't just competing within Australia but around the world. Our customers are able to access an almost infinite number of high quality, standard-setting online boutiques based anywhere in the world, and we have to provide an experience that is comparable if not better to attract people to Frockaholics. And at the end of the day, any successful business takes a lot of hard work from a dedicated team.

What aspect of running frockaholics do you enjoy the most?

I love seeing the new season fashion when it comes in, I love seeing the website itself growing, and I really love it when a happy customer e-mails us to let us know that they received their frock, they love it, and were thrilled with the service. And believe it or not, I also like receiving the occasional piece of negative feedback - it is great that customers care enough to tell us when they aren't happy with something, and even better when they then realise that we care enough about them to do something about it.

Who are you personal celebrity style icons (past or present)
My personal tastes tend to be a bit all over the place, but I think Grace Kelly's special kind of elegance and glamour is pretty hard to beat, Kate Moss because she is a woman who really represents our times, and particular mention must go to Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour, the editors of French and US Vogue respectively, because of the enormous influence they have had on the fashion that we all wear every day.

Any advice for budding entrepreneurs?
Roll up your sleeves and get ready for some hard work. Talk to anyone who will listen about your idea - the feedback you will get from them is invaluable. Never let your thirst for knowledge wane - growing a business is a journey of continual learning. Plan and set goals. Always strive to be better.

What other websites do you visit on a daily basis?
www.frockaholics.com - I spend hours every day on and in the back end of the site
www.frockwriter.blogspot.com - I love Patty Huntington's astute and witty
'fashionalysis'
www.girlwithasatchel.blogspot.com - a fellow mag lover
www.wwd.com - Women's Wear Daily - the biggest fashion industry publication
www.drapersonline.com - the British version of WWD
www.doitinparis.com - pure fantasy
awww.abc.net.au - so many podcasts, so much time in front of the computer
www.twitter.com - we love twitter at Frockaholics
www.smh.com.au - daily news
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/ - The Moment, the New York times online fashion mag