6 minute read
From Breakouts to Breakdowns!
By James Vivian
This one is for my fellow business owners. Those of us who decided, for better or for worse, to go it alone. Those of us who knew that we would not be fulfilled by following the rules of others and that creating something to call our own was our life-long calling.
Firstly, I see you. I hear you. And I want you to know how proud I am of you for coming this far. It’s essential that we all take a moment to realise the impact that our hard work has had. The fact that a client chooses to come to any one of our businesses and take our advice is an extraordinary accomplishment.
This year, I celebrate 15 years of owning my own business. 15 years of sleepless nights, backbreaking labour, moving twice as quickly, performing the role of HR, marketer, accountant, front desk, therapist and cleaner all in one.
For every single one of us, our journey into business ownership is unique. What is even more unique is how we navigate the twists and turns that every new day brings in terms of clients, global pandemics, cash flow, staffing, social media and beyond.
If you had of asked me what I attribute my success to (and when I say success I am referring to my version of success, which is unique to all of us) five years ago, I would have said time. Time to build a clientele, time to establish a reputation, time to establish a signature aesthetic and a signature treatment menu.
Whilst I do still believe very much in the power of time when it comes to establishing a business, as well as the power of exponential growth, what I now say I owe success to…is hard bloody work!
Introducing the title of my memoir…From Breakouts to Breakdowns.
What would yours be?
The breakouts are the pus-filled, inflamed, inconvenient and confidence-destroying pimples that our clients come to see us for, as well as other blemishes and concerns that our clients seek out our help for and that keep us on our toes. With each new breakout, we learn a little more about ourselves, our abilities and the lengths that we will go to be there for our clients.
The breakdowns are often not so obvious to the naked eye. They’re the ones that, if you’re like me, you keep to yourself. I do love the duck metaphor - gliding seamlessly and gracefully across the water, whilst their legs are kicking below the surface at a rapid pace to keep them afloat and alive.
I have a love/hate relationship with my breakdowns because without them I wouldn’t have my breakthroughs but sometimes I do wonder…at what cost? Could I have achieved more if I had not put myself in these chronic situations of stress and overwhelm? Or are they the very reason that I am where I am today?
When it comes to breakdowns, there are 3 that really come to mind.
The first breakdown was rather early on and you could say the ripple effect of this breakdown did rear its ugly head again and again as sadly I continued to repeat these bad habits, or as I called them up until recently, a typical day at the clinic.
It was the cumulative effect of waking up at 2AM to get to the clinic, to clean it from the day before, to package mail orders, to respond to emails from the day before that you didn’t get to because you were with clients from 9AM –9PM, to order retail, to prepare for a full day of clients from 9AM – 9PM. If this is you now, my only advice here is to begin to learn the art of delegation ASAP.
The second was when I set up our Sydney location. After travelling to Sydney from Melbourne every 6 weeks for approximately 5 years, visiting clients at their homes or offices, I decided it was time to set up a second location for clients to visit and to invest in some machinery to enhance their results.
One rainy morning in Melbourne, I packed a 4.5 tonne truck with furniture I had procured and drove said truck to Sydney in a day. By the time we arrived in Sydney, the truck was already late to be returned so we carried all the furniture up the thinnest, steepest external staircase in Sydney as it poured with rain. Luckily, the noise from the rain drowned out the profanity coming out of my mouth and the tears coming out of my eyes.
And whilst this seemed like the worst part, it was the ongoing pressures and sleepless nights that went along with running a clinic from another state that eventually led to me shutting it down and realising that a single location was more than enough for me to handle.
The third most recent breakdown was when we came out of the final lockdown in Melbourne. It was as if the skincare gods had finally blessed us with a run of uninterrupted appointments and a glimpse of what normality looked it. However, for me, it was the first moment that I had actually stopped since the first mention of the word COVID 19.
Even though our doors were closed, as someone with no children or dependents, I threw myself into doing everything I could to keep our clinic ticketing along, our staff employed and our clients cared for. The personal and professional motivation to keep busy kept the adrenaline and inspiration pumping daily but I fell into a heap when this way of working was no longer needed.
It seemed like the world was celebrating but I had forgotten how to be part of this world. I began to see a psychiatrist to explore these feelings and I came out with an ADHD diagnosis which to my partner and friends was no surprise at all.
This topic is top of mind for me as I am writing a presentation for a talk I have been asked to do on ‘Building your clinic’s signature. I have titled this talk ‘An accidental journey’ as I believe our signature is a reflection of all the trials and errors that have been part of the last 15 years (and even earlier than that). I will share more about this in BB’s next issues but until then, here’s to less breakouts and less breakdowns!
