So, where am I going to get this money? I had to pull it from everywhere. My dad lent me some, and by lent I mean I had to pay back every last cent and then he actually asked for interest! But that’s another story altogether. I had to perform miracles, and we’ll literally down to our last $100 in our bank account. My credit card was maxed, my extra home loan payments were used up. It was very, very stressful and scary. And then I had this holiday coming up! I’ve got no money. I’ve got all these bills from tradies, I’ve got to feed my children! Oh, it was a nightmare!
But anyway, I pulled it together.
Luckily we were going to Bali and not England or America. Bali is quite cheap compared to our cost of living. So we we ate and drank very cheaply and we didn’t do many activities. We hung out at the resort which was lovely; we swam in the pool every day amazing all included breakfasts and we had a really nice time and I think it was just the break that I needed after that tumultuous few months of securing the finance and the fit out and all of the planning and everything that goes into that.
And looking back on it, I am still so glad that I did it. I’ve now been in that space for six years. And I can say that by the end of this month (November 2022), my husband and I will fully own that shop space. So we’ll have it fully paid off in just over six years. And that’s just with money from my business. So it was very worthwhile doing it; it was a great investment to make. We just recently had it valued and it’s worth $200,000 more than what we paid for it six years ago. I’m so glad this idea popped into my head back in 2015. So don’t always discount the crazy ideas that pop into your head, because we all have them, and no dream is too big. I think if you set your mind mind to it and you’ve got grit, and you’re stubborn, and you’re determined to make things happen, I think that you definitely can!
We got back from Bali (the holiday I probably shouldn’t have had and that we definitely couldn’t afford!), and we just started smashing it.
I’d hired another person amidst all of the chaos of the fit out and my money woes etc. She’s another amazing Beauty Therapist. But she couldn’t do lashes. So I sent her away for training. I sent her to Joy in Brisbane because I was “on the tools” quite a lot and I didn’t have the time to train her so I thought it would be more cost effective to put her on a plane to Brisbane and pay for a few nights accommodation there and the training itself and she came back and like all new lash artists, she needed time to perfect her skill and time to increase her speed. And within a few months she was really an amazing lash artist. A couple of months later, because we were again so busy (mid 2016), I hired my third person as soon as we started in the new shop. And then by September, I had hired my fourth and by the end of 2016 I had a part-time Receptionist as well.
The move from my little salon in the arcade to the larger space, with a considerable amount of foot traffic walking past the front door every day and having big signage all around the outside of my building (the back of my building actually backs on to a very popular car park, so people can see my branding all the time), really paid off organically. We had more people interested, more people knowing who we were. I grew exponentially in that second half of 2016. It was awesome. It was a whirlwind. It was crazy. It was fun. I really started to open my mind up to the possibilities of what could be. But then in 2017, after considerable growth and everything going really well, that second hire of mine, out of the blue resigned, and I had just sold my house. I had plans to build a new house. My life is crazy. What can I say? I can’t stop. I can’t stop the drama. When it gets quiet, I decided something new and challenging to do.
She resigned and it was very upsetting. I think I’ve talked about this in previous episodes of the podcast, but she had a big clientele base and this girl was like my best mate for the past two years and she’d been through the whole craziness of moving and going to big shop and the ups and downs of the fit-out and choosing everything. We’d been through a lot and we had a really close relationship and she was such a good employee. She was fantastic to work with, never a dull moment, so good at lashes and brows. She said she was going to go into a different industry because she was over beauty and needed a bit of a rest but unfortunately she did go and start her own beauty business, which really hurt. I think if she had just come out and said what she was doing from the beginning it would have been quite different, but it really hurt and I kind of fell in a heap after that because I’d been on a high for so long after a bit of a roller coaster and then the high of everything going really well and making so much money and the success of everything and then to just have someone do that and it really hurt and for a hot minute, I wanted to throw the towel in. I didn’t want to do this anymore. I couldn’t do it on my own. She was my right hand girl. I wanted to sell my business. I wanted to get out of it. This is too hard!
But then I had this moment of clarity where I was kind of like, hang on a minute. I’m the one with all the ideas. Yes, she was along for the ride to support me in those ideas, but I can do this! I’ve got this. I’m the innovator! And then I just pulled my socks up and got back into it. And even though she took quite a few clients, like 20 to 25, we still had more clients than we could handle. 20 to 25 clients is like 20 to 25 hours every three weeks. It wasn’t going to cripple my business. I realised that if I can recover from that, and I can still grow, then I can do anything.
So many people hold back from hiring in their businesses because they think that they can’t train someone up and then have them leave and take all the clients with them. There’s enough clients for everyone. I’ve had this happen to me a few times since, by the way and it has not crippled me. I’m still growing. I’ve just had the biggest year financially that I’ve ever had.
It’s not the worst thing that’s going to happen to you. The reason I’m telling you this is because I want you to know that it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. It’s actually been chaotic, quite a crazy ride with some big risks. And I actually thank that person who left, because I feel like I was getting complacent because I had this consistent couple of years of growth and I didn’t really have a lot of competition and with her going out and starting that business on her own, provided that competition. It put a firecracker under my ass and made me ask “How can I be different? How can I be better? Yes, I taught her everything I know, but I’m the innovator. How can I be better? How can I be bigger?”. I wish her no ill will at all but I am going to crush her business-wise.
I am thankful and I am grateful that every experience as a business owner happened, even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones. It’s a learning experience. And the reason I am being completely open about all of this is because I want you to know that it’s normal to just have times where you don’t want to do it anymore, or when you want to sell. Probably 18 months ago, I was actually in talks with someone to sell my salon. And I was all for it. And then I we started working through all the figures and I actually started feeling sick about it and had to ask myself why I was feeling sick about it. Was it because people are gonna ask me about my personal finances or is it because I don’t really want to sell it? I wasn’t ready. I’m so glad I didn’t because we’ve just done another fit-out and my current team is amazing. I’ve got such a great group of girls. There’s been massive downs with COVID over the last couple of years as well. Some very hard times, but we made it through, and honestly, if you set your mind to something and you refuse to be knocked down, you won’t be. I’m very, very stubborn person and I’m competitive. I want to be the best. I want to win. So that definitely helps as a business owner.
A lot of people look at me now and they go “oh, you don’t work in your salon? You’ve got all these days off?”, and it’s definitely not the case. I have other businesses as well. And I’m always doing work ON the business, outside the business making big decisions. I’m still that visionary person. I’m still sort of deciding on things for the future and growth plans.
It’s never a straight line process. You started from the bottom and now you’re here. It’s like a windy road or like a very hilly up and down mountain. I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m thinking of like a diagram in my head, but it is a very windy road with a lot of ups and downs. And yeah, if you are going through some tough times at the moment, it’s totally normal. It’s always good to talk to someone about it. Perhaps someone that’s been there before that can guide you onto the right path. Please don’t get advice from people that are completely unqualified to give it; that have never been through anything similar or had a business before. That’s a big mistake. A lot of us turn to our family and friends when we’re struggling with things inside our business, but these people are sort of putting their two cents worth in and they really haven’t ever experienced anything or have enough of an idea on what you’re going through; so try and find a business bestie or someone in the industry that you trust and you can help each other or look at investing in a coach. I still have a coach. I love coaching. I love having a mentor. I love learning from people that have been there before me and have done the things that I want to do.
If you want to reach out to me, my Instagram handle is laurenlappin_ – I would love to hear from you.
Lauren x
