Being 'Lazy' Paid Off: Her Failed Side Hustle Led to a Business That Brings in Over $100 Million a Year Jane Lu couldn't imagine working her 9-5 for the next 40 years — so she chose a different path.

In 2010, Jane Lu, now the founder and CEO of Australian online fashion retailer Showpo, was working as an analyst at Ernst & Young, and she couldn't imagine doing it for the next 40 years. So Lu quit the job to pursue her then-side hustle, running pop-up stores that stocked products from emerging designers. But one month in, that business failed.

"I found myself unemployed, in debt and ashamed," Lu tells Entrepreneur. "The worst part was, this all happened during the global financial crisis, so I couldn't get another job. I was essentially left with no other option but to start another business."

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Lu did build another business — and that was the beginning of Showpo. Today, the company brings in more than $100 million annually, per Business News Australia; boasts three million followers on social media; ships to customers in more than 120 countries; and counts celebrities including Heidi Klum and Jennifer Lopez among its admirers.

Lu also hosts the Lazy CEO Podcast, where she shares "no-nonsense insights" for emerging entrepreneurs. Why the "lazy" designation? The founder says she embraces the term for three reasons:

1. Because she loves what she does, it doesn't feel like work.
2. She's a fan of Bill Gates' quote on efficiency: "I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."
3. Scaling a business requires recognizing your blind spots and finding better people to perform certain roles.

By that definition, "being lazy is a virtue," Lu says. "Of course you have to hustle so hard to get the business up and running, and to scale and to keep growing it," she adds, "but then you also have to take a minute to think about why you started the business in the first place. It's not to create a job: It is for a lifestyle, to create a lifestyle where you have the flexibility to do what you love, delegate the tasks that you don't and [that] someone else can do a better job at."

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Some of Lu's other top tips? She stresses the importance of practicing persistence and resilience, maintaining a customer-centric focus, staying adaptable and not underestimating the power of marketing and branding. "Mistakes will be made along the way, but that makes for great personal growth and ongoing learning," she says. "If it wasn't for the tiny bumps I've faced along the way I don't think I'd be the CEO I am today."

And when it comes to social media strategy, you should get to know your audience really well and post a variety of content to keep them engaged, Lu says.