surviving lockdown...
as a small business owner, lockdown can mean many things but for me having a service based business meant that i had to think outside the box and make money in other ways to allow my business to keep moving forward. not going to lie though, the first thing i thought about was becoming a porn star haha... but my dignity would never allow that.
instead i had to think on the fly, what do my clients usually receive from me in a service, is there ways i can assist them from home; what can i provide for them so that they can continue to work on themselves whilst waiting for restrictions to ease so all the hard work i had put into their hands and feet wouldn't reverse.
countless efforts, tears and anger was a regular thing but resilience stood strong and i came up with many plans and ideas to makes it work.
phase one, move my studio back home to the front of my apartment so that once restrictions ease i could save enough money to find a bigger space to expand and grow; phase two, create at home care kits for collection and drop-off to any location that my clients lived and to any others that required them; phase three, setup a website for me to blog, online shop, easy access to finding the business via google, bookings, all the things that people love to research about a place before they consider making a purchase, booking or telling their friends and family about it.
[oh but did i mention that in between all of this i was rushed to emergency in an ambo because a 4cm ovarian cyst decided to rupture inside of me and that i had my 30th birthday?! so many events, my life is never boring let me tell you...]
once i figured out my plans, it was on like donkey kong. then the glorious jobkeeper happened and i could breathe that little bit easier; things started to shine again; after countless knock backs from real estate agents laughing at my business name, not willing to support my vision because they thought i was mad and wouldn't be successful - i continued to persevere through the crap and just keep going and eventually i landed a space and made it mine from a landlord that was willing to support my vision and give me the opportunity to show him what i am capable of.
that is honestly all it takes to boost you to the next level, is someone believing you can achieve great things.
from there my courage radiated and i was on the hunt to grow my team; so i searched endlessly on instagram looking for that perfect someone who seemed passionate and had a little extra flare that no-one else did who was ready to take on my craziness and allow me to show them the way.
eventually i found my gal and took her under my wing and her mine with additional support of, 'you can do it jami!' and we pushed on through together with multiple video calls and messages back and forth counting down the days to when restrictions would ease.
long story short, this was the only way of surviving lockdown, keeping an open line of communication open, with colleagues, friends, family and finding something to focus on so that the days would fly by and you still felt like you were moving forward and achieving things.
my advice to all of you after this first lockdown and i am sure more to come; is that no matter how hard it gets, you can do this, do not lose hope no matter what happens; we are in this together, lean on anyone you need to, talk to people, cry and scream if you have to, smash some pillows, throw balled up towels at the wall, do whatever you need to survive because you WILL make it to the other side.