I vividly remember when we moved into our first ‘real’ studio. We upgraded from our quasi-illegal, deeply humbling alleyway warehouse we shared with a family of mice and an abundance of quirky neighbours and moved into a light-filled office above an art gallery in Woollahra. It was beautiful, clean and very on-brand. To our sheer delight, it even had OH&S approved stairs, windows and walls!
And what’s more, we no longer had a studio that backed onto a lane smelling like a million garbage trucks just had an orgy! (sorry Mum)
Hoorah!
I felt like Julia Roberts in the latter half of Pretty Woman.
For me, starting a business at 22 could have been described as a case of insanity. I was a college drop out after four failed attempts, with zero savings and zero experience. It took the next three years of working 70 hour weeks to get Smack Bang off the ground. I said goodbye to weekends, holidays, friends’ birthdays, my own birthday, good health and devastatingly a loaf of Iggy’s sourdough bread on a Sunday morning (if you know, you know).
To outsiders, we’ve always looked primped and polished, but let me tell you, what may look like a well-oiled machine now has certainly had a few burnouts along the way.
This eight-year narrative contains far more ups, downs, and inside outs than I have time to write. We’ve outgrown 4 office spaces over that time, and with that went our Kikki K diaries and our USB sticks. We’ve lost clients, staff members, sleep and unashamedly our dignity (cue Xmas party 2016).
The intensity and the hurdles of the last eight years have truly built me into a bigger and better businesswoman, and woman for that matter. I feel as though I am able to handle more every day and turn each problem into an opportunity that works in my favour.
Fast forward and here we are now with 15 incredibly hard-working and capable employees, over 100 clients under our belt all the while thriving from our very own two-story light-filled studio in Woollahra. It’s been wild, it’s been chaotic, but mostly it’s been incredibly rewarding.
I’m still not entirely sure where I’m heading, and there are still many dark corners of the business. But I do feel that as a business and a collective of individuals, we are proud of the work we’ve done.
I’m still figuring out my definition of success. If you Google “success” you get a lot of trite quotes and corny cliches that feel similar to the positive affirmations hurled at me during that spin class I went to once, (in 1999….)
But when I stop and take a break from the merciless to-do’s, I can see that it’s all worth it. When my staff tell me that they’re happy and when our clients tell me they’ve had a 30% increase in sales, it’s all worth it. The moments when I’m standing in our pokey little staff kitchen making a cuppa and I can hear the team in a mix of hardcore taking-over-the-world brainstorm ideas and intense belly laughs, it’s all worth it. And when I get home to a lifestyle that I love and that I have worked my bloody ass off for, it’s all worth it.
Like most other entrepreneurs, I learned how to build a business whilst building my business. It’s been an on-the-fly, trial-by-fire kinda lesson.
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