Kristina Karlsson - kikki.K

Kristina Karlsson

Ethnic Business Awards winner in the Small Business Category in 2006

The Ethnic Business Awards celebrate diversity and multiculturalism and this has been true for more than three decades. Each year the Ethnic Business Awards shines a light on the stories of inspiration of our finalists.  With Covid 19 bringing us times of great challenge, it is a wonderful idea to look back now at some of the EBA’s stories of inspiration.  

Here is the story of Kristina Karlsson, the kikki.K founder and  author of 'Your Dream Life Starts Here', who was born in Sweden but has called Australia home for over 20 years. We were honoured to award her as the winner of the “Small Business” category and it is a great joy to see her company grow into the international company that it is today.  Kristina started her global stationery empire out of her home office in Melbourne (following a 3 am identity crisis), and now she inspires millions to follow their dreams with her products and through public speaking.  

Kristina Karlsson at the EBA awards ceremony in 2006

Kristina Karlsson was born and raised in the Swedish city of Falkenberg. After finishing school, she, like many other Scandinavians, became infected with the travel bug and worked all over the world. While in the beautiful mountains of Austria she met her Australian partner Paul Lacy and returned to Australia with him and settled in Melbourne.

Soon after Kristina recognised a burning desire to start her own business. Although she was not sure what it would be, in the process of creating an inspiring home office she discovered a total lack of stylish office products available in Australia and she knew she had found her opportunity. Like so many fashion-conscious women Kristina had always loved stationery and growing up in Sweden she had developed an appreciation for the clean, simple lines and style of Swedish design. Some detailed research proved that many others saw the need for something different in the stationery market too. It was the business opportunity she’d been looking for and the chance to combine two of her greatest passions – stationery and Swedish design; the concept for kikki.K was born.

However, the path to success was not an ideal straight line, but a squiggly one with many ups and downs. Like many other migrants who started their businesses in Australia, she faced many obstacles from knowledge barriers such as English language, bookkeeping, and hundreds more. She mentioned her early days of business and the many situations where she now laughs at the silly mistakes she made in these early days. But she was determined to grow the business and was not scared of failure, so she read as many books as she could and just tried to “have a go” and adopted her lifetime principle – “It’s about progress, not perfection”. She added on later that the hardest part was for her, being far away from her family and not having any friends or advisors close to her.

In 1998, she designed her very first kikki.k product range and set it up in her friends homes, where she sold lots of products and got lots of useful feedback. By 1999, she started wholesaling to quality homewares retailers in Melbourne and Sydney - but her vision has always been to have her own stores. Finally, in 2001, the first kikki.k boutique opened in Melbourne CBD.

Within a few months, Kristina’s first stationery boutique won an award for being Melbourne’s Most Innovative Store, followed by an award from the Nine Network Small Business Show for creating Australia’s Best Small Business Website and soon after the great success of Small Business Award Category winner in the 2006 Ethnic Business Awards.

Kristina Karlsson with Governor General Major the Honourable Michael Jeffery AC, CVO, MC

Since being awarded the Ethnic Small Business Award in 2006, the business has expanded to Singapore, Hong Kong, UK and grown the number of their stores in Australia and New Zealand. They have embraced technology and grown their online store even more rapidly.

Expansion around Australia, and the world, soon followed, redefining the previously price driven stationary market, and appealing to a whole new generation of stationary lovers.

In 2018, Kristina published “Your dream life starts here”, a self-help book sharing personal insights from her amazing journey , from humble beginnings on a small farm in Sweden to the 3am light bulb moment that led her to chase and achieve dreams that are now inspiring a worldwide community of dreamers. Filled with simple and practical magic – inspiring stories and wisdom from people who have dared to dream big – this book shows how to harness the power of dreaming to transform one’s life in small, simple steps.