Worked for ten years in a retail department store and saw the challenges women faced in the dressing room.
Started her styling service as a business-hobby while caring for her three young children.
Received extreme support from friends and family in the initial days, but began to feel imposter syndrome kicking in as she took on more clients.
Took an image consulting course in Melbourne to help her feel more qualified.
After five years in business went through a nasty divorce, forcing her to put the business on hold.
Got a part-time job after the divorce to supplement the income from her styling business and help with her new financial situation.
When her part-time job started interfering with her clients, she quit the job and went full-force into her personal styling business.
1. If you feel under-qualified, get some education, a certificate or qualification that gives you a leg to stand on and an easy way to prove yourself.
2. When you are confident that you can provide an excellent product or service, don’t be hesitant to guarantee your product or service. A guarantee assures your clients of what you will provide and stops them from questioning your capability.
Gerlinda is a time optimist. She figures out how long a task should take according to the shortest time frame that she has ever managed to complete that task in. She therefore overpacks her schedule and is always pushing herself to achieve more in less time. How can Gerlinda manage her time better to avoid over-exerting herself and keeping to schedule?
Since Gerlinda is a solopreneur, nothing gets done in her business unless she does it, so the drive to get things done is a great asset. But it can also be a huge headache and cause pressure and stress. To help avoid the pressure that time optimism brings, Gerlinda needs to become more in tune with how long tasks really take. Once she has figured out how long a task will take, she should then allow double that amount of time to complete the task.
Another important thing to remember is transition time. It takes about 5-7 minutes to transition from doing one task to another. Planning her schedule without leaving any time for transition means that Gerlinda is always running late, so another way to improve her time management is to allow for transition time in between tasks.
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