“I now have a wonderful balance of physical styling work with new and existing clients as well as my online course business. I am in the beginning stages of writing my third course. It’s addictive – a bit like a drug!”
This past year, in a word, has been … eye-opening.
At first, my work was … Completely cancelled or postponed! It was very worrying but I knew that the industry would bounce back when the pandemic was over- but none of us knew when that would be (and still don’t, really!)
What I realised I needed to do was … create an online business. It was the only way that I could see that I could make any money while I had no other income coming in.
And so I … completed a course run by The Robora on ‘how to create an online course’ and launched my own course within the first six weeks of the pandemic!
Running my own business this past year has been … a huge life-change! I have had to learn 1000 new skills and now think of myself as a small-business owner. I have started to outsource tasks to grow my business. 14 months ago I had absolutely no idea that this would be my life in 2021. And I love it!
Now, looking back over the 12 months just gone, I feel … Very proud of myself and also pretty knackered! It is an amazing thing to think that one can come up with a business idea out of necessity and actually see it through and make a success of it.
In term of the future of my business/work, I feel … positive! I now have a wonderful balance of physical styling work with new and existing clients as well as my online course business. I am in the beginning stages of writing my third course. It’s addictive – a bit like a drug! I love teaching and I love styling so I feel I have found my ’thing’ and I am very lucky.
The hardest thing about working through a pandemic was … Having absolutely no downtime for a year. We had no childcare in lockdown one but my eldest started reception so that was a life saver in September 2020 (I also have an amazing wife who did the lion’s share of parenting while I built this new business in my garden studio). Every day was just wake up/parent our kids/work/parent our kids/work in the evening … every day. When I look back I can’t believe we got through to all – but we did.
What I have done amazingly well is … built a wonderful online community of happy, positive, supportive, homes-obsessed people in my courses. I couldn’t be more proud of that!