THE BENEFITS OF SMALL
Sometimes the things that feel smallest turn out to be the biggest.
It's funny how seemingly bad things can turn out to be great things — and tough times become fond memories.
When I left corporate life, and a monthly salary, to start love Kate, money took on a whole new meaning.
For the first time in my working life, no money was coming in and plenty was going out.
I was on my own. There was no one to lighten the load.
Everything that had once been covered was suddenly a cost.
The car.
The computer.
The phone.
Right down to the paper in the printer.
So, to survive the day-to-day — and start a business with no product and therefore no sales — I kept it SMALL.
I worked from the local library.
Two months in, on my first love Kate sourcing trip to Hong Kong, my hotel room was so tiny I had to store one suitcase in the shower and the other beside me on my single bed.
The width of the room was about the span of my outstretched arms.
A far cry from the BIG, SWANKY digs I'd been used to in corporate life.
But it was NEW.
And FUN.
It was motivating.
I didn't have a business card.
I didn't have a work email address.
And I didn't quite know what the product would be.
Four months in, I had my first exhibition.
The stand was just 1 x 2 metres.
I stood for four days straight because a chair would have taken up too much space.
My first deliveries of stock were stored beside my parents' parked cars in their garage.
It was scary.
I felt completely exposed.
But it was also EXHILARATING.
I was ON MY WAY.
And I had small orders from stores I'd admired for years.
I'd achieved something.
And life found an EXCITING NEW RHYTHM.
Looking back, those tiny rooms, tiny stands and very small beginnings are some of the moments I remember most fondly.
The benefits of SMALL proved BIG.