A passion for paper

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Romina Francesca left her job in the corporate world in order to turn her love of paper into a career.

Trekking to the office or doing the school run on another gloomy Monday morning is prime time for fantasising about changing your life – throwing in the job and doing something that makes your soul sing. Many of us go there in our dreams, but few are brave enough to do it for real. Romina Francesca, 30, is one of the courageous few. Three years ago she followed her heart and opened a handmade paper shop.

Tucked away in a little lane off Flinders Street in Melbourne, Il Papiro is like a temple to a more gracious way of life, making you feel like one of the initiated when you discover it. With its rich wood tones and reams of creamy paper, the shop draws you in and once you enter it’s easy to start finding that you really do need a set of embossed stationery, a leather-bound album or some darling little thankyou cards. It was this very feeling that diverted Romina from the corporate fast-track and sent her off to Florence to take a chance on life.

Romina’s love affair with paper began while she was still a student. After completing a degree in arts marketing at Melbourne’s Monash University, she went on to do honours in Italian, spending six months in Florence as part of her studies. Wandering through the city’s cobbled streets one day, Romina discovered Il Papiro, a shop devoted to all kinds of handmade paper. “It wasn’t just that they made such beautiful things, it was the connection to history and tradition that blew me away,” she remembers.

After finishing her degree Romina lived and worked overseas, first in London and then in Italy. On her return to Australia she found a job working for Mars, the confectionery company, initially in import and export and then as an account manager in the sales department. “I loved my job and the company and threw myself into being as successful as I could. I’d always assumed I’d work my way up the corporate ladder, and after years of study I was doing exactly that.” Success seemed assured but Romina couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was missing from her life. “I knew I wanted to have children one day and, for me, finding a way to combine work and children was essential.”

What was the turning point?
“I was in Auckland, New Zealand, on a business trip when I walked into this paper shop [Passion for Paper, on Auckland’s Parnell Road],” Romina recalls. “My immediate reaction was, ‘Oh my God, I feel like I’m in Florence’. All these years I’d carried an image of this wonderful shop in my head like a talisman, and I realised that deep down I’d always dreamed that one day I’d open one of these shops myself.” Her experience in the shop was an epiphany. “I’ve always believed that if I did something I loved, and did it with a passion, the money would come.” Romina flew back to Australia with a new life plan and immediately started plotting her future.

How I did it
Planning, research and taking a chance were the key ingredients to getting Il Papiro off the ground. “I emailed the headquarters of Il Papiro, proposing that I open an Australian arm for them and they said, ‘If you’re serious, come to Florence’, so I booked three weeks annual leave and started my research.”

Romina had samples of the company’s products sent over and began by comparing them with what was already available in Australia. “I was not completely convinced that one little paper shop in Melbourne would do the trick, so I sat down and designed a company structure that I thought would work.” Before heading off to Florence Romina created a framework for the business that encompassed four separate arms – retail, wholesale, corporate gifting and a personalised printing service – and a rough financial plan.

Making it happen
“On the plane I started to get nervous for the first time. I just kept saying to myself, ‘Even if it doesn’t work, at least I’ll get a holiday in Florence’, but I knew deep down that I was determined to pull it off.” Romina flew into Florence on a Friday afternoon in September with six months preparation under her belt and only three weeks to make it real. “I made my initial contact with Nicoletta, one of Il Papiro’s sales representatives, at a trade fair. I just walked in and laid the whole deal on the table for her. She was quite taken aback and said I needed to meet the owners but seemed so discouraging about it that I went back to my apartment feeling completely sick.”

With an appointment booked for the following Tuesday, Romina had several days to contemplate her future. “I just walked around Florence looking at alternatives. I’d come so far that turning back wasn’t an option, but Nicoletta’s reaction left me feeling that nothing would happen with Il Papiro.” Romina’s vision now lay in the hands of Il Papiro’s founders – Gianni Parenti and Francesco Giannini – and she remembers feeling a mixture of excitement and dread as she journeyed to the meeting at their factory, a short distance from Florence.

Happily, the meeting was a successful one. “It couldn’t have gone better if I’d written the script myself,” Romina smiles. Along with her preparation and determination, it was her enthusiasm for paper that turned out to be her strongest asset. “People who like paper love it; they are very passionate about it.” Romina spent an hour with Gianni, the businessman in the partnership, as they went through the plan she had developed. Francesco, the creative maestro behind Il Papiro, then joined them and the scheduled hour blossomed into a five-hour meeting of minds. “About halfway through the discussion it went from being ‘if’ to ‘when’ and that’s when I knew it was going to happen.”

Romina spent her three week stay in Florence immersed in the culture and business of Il Papiro. “I spent time in the factory watching the paper being made and learned how to do it myself. They took me through the history of all their designs and I found myself more in love with the product than ever.” Armed with a commitment from Il Papiro, Romina flew back to Melbourne and handed in her notice the following day. “I came into work on the biggest high and gave them six weeks notice. They asked me to take the weekend to think about it – I thought of nothing else then confirmed my decision on Monday.”

Making it work
Starting a small business requires an enormous amount of effort, commitment and determination, but Romina went into the venture with her eyes wide open. “My parents ran a small supermarket and it was a real family business. I had a good idea of what it was going to take to make this work.” Long hours and careful planning are vital, but Romina also believes that luck has a big part to play in getting a business off the ground. “I left my job on the last day of November, and the store was due to open on December 18. I had literally no time to get it ready – without a bit of luck I don’t know how I would have pulled it off.”

Romina had set her heart on opening the first Il Papiro store in the European-like warren of laneways that run between Flinders and Collins streets in the heart of Melbourne. “When the shop in Degraves Street came up for lease I just couldn’t believe my luck, the timing was perfect!”

How did you fund yourself?
“My parents were not thrilled when I told them what I was planning to do... But once they realised how serious I was they were incredibly supportive.” After securing the lease on the shop Romina turned to her father, a cabinet-maker by trade, to install the wonderful wooden shelves that give the store its ambient glow. Meanwhile, her mother agreed to help by working in the store when Romina needed to be elsewhere.

Opening a small business is a huge financial commitment and it takes more than the generosity of family and friends to get it off the ground. Romina owned an investment property with two family members and with their agreement she used the re-draw facility on the mortgage to fund the set-up and pay herself a wage. Taking a financial risk is a big gamble and you need to be confident that it will pay off. “Knowing that I had the support of Gianni and Francesco as well as my research and belief in the product gave me the confidence to go ahead.”

What skills were most important?
Alongside commitment and application, the skills you bring with you go a long way to determining the success of your business. Romina believes that the combination of her family background in a small business and the experience she gained working in the corporate world gave her the right balance of skills. Despite the international reach of Il Papiro, starting from the ground up meant Romina had to move on from some of the assumptions she’d developed during her previous career. “I had to let go of the idea that it’s all about the money. It’s important to set financial criteria and meet them, but you also need to focus on the whole picture; the atmosphere you’re trying to create and the reason you did it in the first place.”

Have you had regrets?
Although there have been moments of doubt, especially in the early days when custom was slow, Romina has no regrets. “I know it’s a cliché, but I feel like I haven’t worked a day since I started the business.” Which is not to say that Romina has taken an easy path; for the first 18 months she spent six days a week running the store and all of her free time planning for the future. “When I decided to start this business nobody thought it was a good idea. Let’s just say there were lots of sceptics; even Gianni and Francesco didn’t think it would go as well as it has.”

What are the highlights for you?
Romina says one of her happiest moments was bringing her family to see the completed shop: “They were so proud of what I’d done.” Something she herself is particularly proud of is that she has succeeded in creating a business that can support employees. “I did this for me, because I wanted to live a different kind of life, and now I can offer the same thing to the people who work for me.” A second Il Papiro shop opened in Potts Point, Sydney, last year and gift, wholesale and printing arms of the business are flourishing, but for Romina, the biggest highlight is simple: “People walk into the shop and say, ‘I feel as if I’m in Florence!’ – that’s how I felt, and that’s really why I did it, to create the same experience for other people.”

Would you do it again?
Leaving a corporate career to follow your own path is a big leap of faith. But for those who, like Romina, are driven to follow their vision of a different kind of life, the chance to realise a dream far outweighs the fear of the unknown. “If I had to do it again, I’d almost scare myself out of doing it. But I was young and just jumped on a plane and did it – in Italian! Now, I can’t imagine any other life,” Romina says happily.

Il Papiro: Shop 5 Degraves St Melbourne (03) 9654 0955. 87A Macleay St Potts Point Sydney (02) 9361 6252 ■

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