How I Went From Rock Bottom To Running A Business
Being unemployed is so hard. The stress, the pressure, the worry about whether I’d ever find work, whether I could pay the rent next month. There were some days when I could not afford to buy both bread and milk, I had to choose one. I had three children to support after my marriage ended so I tried everything, from driving an Uber to cleaning food trucks. I had health issues, too. Sometimes I was barely able to get through the day.
I couldn’t catch a break. At one point I was hospitalised for stress. I spent 48 hours in hospital and cried the whole time. I thought, “You have hit rock bottom. You have to get help.” The social worker was amazing. She said, “You do realise you can get Newstart? You do realise you can get access to a financial counsellor to deal with the debt you’ve been saddled with? There are charities that will help you.” I got food parcels, help with the rent, even gift vouchers for Target so I could buy my son a birthday present.
I applied for 178 jobs in three and a half years and despite an extensive corporate background, I got no offers. I had friends go through my CV to check if there was a problem but it’s just hard out there. When I was finally offered a job, I was thrilled, however, things were difficult at home. My son was having meltdowns every day (he was later diagnosed with ADHD) and at the end of my probation period the company sacked me. I decided to start working for myself. I thought, I’ve done all the right things and ended up broke – if I’m going to be broke, I might as well do something I enjoy.
I’ve loved gardening since I was very young. I had a difficult childhood and going out into the garden was my escape. Weeding was always something that gave me pleasure. I look after our garden at home really well, and my landlord asked if I would tidy up his garden. I got paid for doing something I loved and I thought, “This where I’m going.”
I put up a Facebook post with before and after shots of that garden, and within a few days someone asked me if I would do their garden. The business built by word of mouth and in just a few months I had a solid set of clients.
I’m not a horticulturist, I don’t have any formal qualifications – I can’t even remember the name of plants. But I know how I want a garden to look, how to create a garden that a client will love. After a few months I started to get really confident in the work I was doing. I stopped asking clients, “What do you want me to do?” and started saying, “This is what I would like to do.”
I realised this was a business I could grow. My overheads are really low – I started the business with some basic hand tools and a crappy station wagon. Each time I had a little bit of extra money, I’d buy something else. One day I had enough money to spend $1000 on a big mulcher – that was an amazing feeling.
Melbourne’s lockdown brought everything to a halt. I kept posting on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, telling little stories: “Look at this patch of garden, I haven’t had time to do anything with it, let’s do it together.” I did posts on the basics of weeding, on compost heaps, on worm farms.
Then lockdown ended. Ten minutes after [Victorian Premier] Dan Andrews announced the changes that meant I could get back to work, I had a message from a client asking me to do a job for them. In fact, I had so many clients come in that I was in danger of having to knock some back – and if you say no to a client, they move on. I realised I need to capitalise on this.
Hiring my first employee was a real thrill. Particularly since I hadn’t been in business for a whole year. She did a trial shift with me and blew me away from the start because we have a very similar work ethic. The clincher was when she sat back on her haunches and said, “Kaye, I’m so happy!” When I offered her the job she burst into tears and said, “you don’t know how much this means to me.” I said, “Actually, I do.”
First day back at work, I wrote my car off. I had to take a deep breath and tell myself, “It’s all right, something will happen.” On my Facebook page I posted a picture of this van I really liked, said that I’d crashed my car, and asked if anyone could lend me money to buy the van. Half an hour later two friends said they would loan me the money, because they believed in me. Then I got the payout for the car, which was enough to pay for the car’s insurance.
Starting this business has changed me. I find it easy to jump into scary experiences now. I know that whatever it is, I’ll figure it out. The biggest thing I’ve learnt is that I can direct my own life, that the decisions I make are good decisions. Some days I’m sitting in a garden, the wind against my skin, there are magpies, there are bees and butterflies, my hands are in the earth; I’m feeling completely grounded and mindful, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.
Interview with Kaye Stirland by Ute Junker
Main Photo_ Milada Vigerova/UnSplash