"Why I chose to take a Sabbatical." - Interview with AMELIA HOLLAND
With a decade of successful business entrepreneurship behind her, which involved watching her small retail Floristry business expand into three buzzing Florist stores in the Hills District of Sydney, publishing her first book, starting another business in distributing breathtaking photographic artworks, as well as managing a team of dedicated staff and loyal-to-the-end cutomers, Amelia Holland decided it was time for something more. And that "more" took everyone by surprise.
When I was a little girl . . . I was taught to have a deep appreciation for nature. I remember my grandfather teaching me the names of every different tree as we took long walks, and I don’t remember a day my mother didn’t have flowers, branches or foliage cuttings on the table. Her house was full of nature: moss, logs, twigs, plants, all sorts of natural treasures. On holidays we created nature journals with pages stuck full of different leaves or feathers we collected. Even now she is retired, taking her grandchildren on walks she always comes back with fistfuls of “treasures” which my sister-in-law and I never know what to do with! If she gives my son a gold coin, it’s wrapped in a leaf and she says the fairies brought it. My mother even claims she knew my husband was the one for me when out on a bushwalk at the family farm. She was struggling to carry all the moss she collected back to the farmhouse, so he took off his cap and carried her collection in it for her. We lived in a timber cottage that looked like a cabin straight out of the Canadian forest and it was full of antiques. You often hear women claim they will be nothing like their mother, but when I look around at my Heritage-listed house, full of plants and Antique store finds, I laugh at myself that even though I have a completely different personality and outlook on life to my mother, her deep love of nature and history has rubbed off on me.
After school . . . I didn’t have a clear plan of what I wanted to do so I tried my hand at everything and anything that interested me, and did some of the oddest jobs - the strangest I can remember is breeding seahorses. I often chose jobs that creatively or spiritually fulfilled me more than making a financially wise decision. I have certainly now learnt to think more strategically, and have become good at planning for the future, but I look back knowing I have explored many different options and have no regrets of unfulfilled dreams. I also smile at the way all these different experiences seemed to lead me on the path to running my own business where I truly found my passion. One job taught me to understand profit and loss statements, another - sales & service, another - payroll, another - leadership, another - managing a team and complex roster systems, another – decision-making under pressure and perseverance. I could go on, but all these jobs taught me the essential skills of running a business - nothing I learned along the way was wasted. I love how life weaves itself together like a tapestry - the different threads seem so unconnected until all of a sudden a beautiful picture appears.
Running three businesses was . . . not what I had planned in my wildest dreams. I expanded from one Florist shop to three very organically and I definitely grew my capacity along the way as the business demanded my skill set increase. I didn’t enter into business with the skills I walked out with, and I encourage anyone who thinks they need to first become the expert before they begin something to just step out and embrace the journey of taking one step at a time. It’s wise to be cautious about big career decisions or beginning a new business. However, if that caution turns into fear it will stop you from taking a risk or daring to dream big. I am more afraid of looking back over my life and wondering what could have happened, than I am to try and fail, so I jumped right in the deep end, taking out a loan to purchase our first Florist store and I never looked back. By the time I took on my third store it was fully paid for upfront with profit from the first store. There was a lot of hard work and ups and downs along that journey of course, but I’m so glad I didn’t allow fear of failure or fear of the unknown to stop me from beginning in the first place.
Flowers are . . . a deep-seeded passion within me. You hear the cliché, “stop and smell the roses”, however there is actually so much wisdom in that. Literally every day in my Florist stores I stopped, and smelt the roses. No matter how clever I could become at business and crafting a thriving retail environment - I could never create the perfume of a rose. I could never make something as delicate as an orchid or as perfect as a peony. There is no imitation for the creation of nature. Every day at work I was aware that I may have sold my product, but I was not The Creator. I never graduated from the humility of being awestruck by the beauty of flowers. It never became familiar to me, every new season brought precious new sights and smells that I never would tire from.
I decided to sell my businesses . . . not because I lost my passion for flowers, they will always captivate me, but as a pure business decision. It can be hard to separate the emotion from decision-making when you have put your blood, sweat and tears into building your dream business, and we had an incredible team of dedicated staff, but after a decade of retail floristry, it felt time to stretch myself again. Along the journey I had worked on projects outside the store such as publishing a book, distributing photographic artworks and becoming involved in partnering with some other businesses, and a couple of unexpected opportunities that had come along that really interested me. I had become very comfortable in what I was doing and was excited by the potential to get involved in a new environment where I could learn, grow and build again. My husband articulated it perfectly when he said, "Amelia, you're in your comfort zone. You need to stretch & keep growing in life." Selling also felt like the next logical step, or a final achievement in the particular business model I had built. I wasn’t on the market when I was approached by the buyer’s agent which was a really nice compliment, and it encouraged me I was making the right decision as the sale wasn’t something I pursued or orchestrated myself.
Handing over the businesses was . . . hard but also exciting in many ways. The new owners are an incredible couple with years of experience behind them and had a dynamite combination of skills that will take the stores to a new level. Coming in with fresh enthusiasm, new vision and commitment was something that would have been really good for the staff and it was so nice to hand my “babies” over to a couple that would love and care for them. They will inject their own style and make changes right for them, but I think it is healthy for businesses to continue to recreate themselves and this is particularly important in a creative environment like floristry. I do admit I find it very hard walking into the florist stores now, the heartstrings are pulled significantly as I watch what I built, growing and changing, however I still pop in if I need to purchase a bouquet and I get lost in the wonder of the flowers all over again.
Being a motivated business woman I chose to take a sabbatical because . . . it would have been really simple to just jump into the next project without taking time to stop, re-evaluate what was important to me and what was driving me. The whirlwind of business activity and hype of running from one achievement to producing the next can be seductive and addictive, so it has been really healthy for me to stop and detoxify from the adrenaline of that lifestyle. In constantly reaching for the next big thing, lies the temptation to miss the greatness of the moment, the beauty of the now. I had run hard and fast for nearly a decade, without even stopping during times of having a baby or a health crisis, and although I learned to maintain a really healthy work life balance, it was taking it to a whole new level to completely remove myself from the routine of activity and simply rest, clear my mind of distractions and renew my focus. Focusing on my health after an accident left nagging problems was also a big priority.
So far this sabbatical has taught me . . . that a season of rest can be as fruitful as a season of producing, achieving and hitting that massive to-do list. It’s been the refueling to give me the power to keep going and to place myself in a ready position for the next season. I’m reminded that my identity or value is not in what I do or produce, but in my character and my soul. With the ability to showcase a highlight reel removed, I’m left to look at the foundations beneath everything that was seen. It can be easy to buy into the lie that if it isn’t big and observable, it isn’t great, yet many of those things are so temporary and fleeting and don’t sustain our soul. There has been something so special about being in a hidden place away from a daily life in front of staff, customers and the eyes of the world. I’ve loved having the space to dream again with a blank canvas, undistracted by the busyness of work and learn what I am truly passionate about in this new season of life. Taking a sabbatical wasn’t the same as taking a holiday - this time was about taking purposeful rest with intent and without an end date locked in. Within the first few weeks of selling my store, although one opportunity had fallen through, I declined a different job opportunity and instead offered to volunteer within an organization that was important to me, as I wanted to stay in an environment where I was still learning and growing. I also had many obligations within the business to wind up that meant months of work beyond trading, and even now. I am also still maintaining sales and distribution of photographic works and a small online homewares range as well as serving on a board for an organization I was previously employed with. Around 6 months prior to selling my stores, and having no idea that it was about to happen, my husband and I purchased and began the restoration of a 1902 built heritage-listed property and it has been so nice to have a creative outlet by renovating and decorating the environment I would spend my sabbatical days in. I am grateful for the timing of restoring this special house that holds so much important local history & I find so much joy in being the new caretaker of the house, thus preserving it for another generation.
I am grateful for . . . this modern Australian environment that provides us the opportunity to pursue our dreams. I don’t take for granted what a privilege it is that this comfortable, western society has allowed me the power of choice for my career, and now for a break, and fully realize this is not the case in many countries around the world. Big issues of slavery, illiteracy, poverty and inequality are still prevalent amidst a world full of strife and suffering. For this reason no matter what business endeavour I take, to be able to contribute in some way to organizations that are actively working to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people is important to me. This could be with financial support, or volunteering my time - in different seasons it may be one, or the other, or a bit of both, but unless that stays at the heart of what I do, anything I did would be without purpose and meaning. When I had the chain of stores I also felt really strongly about not making a show about what we gave or did as an ulterior motive to prove our social and ethical responsibility, or to arm-twist customers into choosing our stores to make their purchases. For me, this needed to be personal and private thing, a hidden driver to keep the why in what we were doing at the heart of the company pure. To talk about it now, even after the fact, is uncomfortable, but to be interviewed for an article where I have discussed risk-taking and rest within fields of opportunity it would not be right for me to not express gratitude to be able to live in a climate that provides this, and to highlight the importance of remaining mindful of this privilege and contributing what we can to those who don’t share this same privilege.
The best advice I could give someone who was looking to sell their business would be . . . to remember why you started, and keep a clear mind about what drives you. At the start it is so easy to be passionate about the dream we are so highly motivated to begin, but endings are not nearly as motivating so it is wise to exit with a strategic plan in place, not one made by emotion or out of desperation and burnout. A couple of years before my sale, I started to think about exit strategies and I had written very non-emotional pro and con lists when I made the final decision. It is an irreversible decision so it needs to be made very carefully. So often you see particularly small businesses on the market due to owners burning out or running out of money and it is so sad to see dreams end this way. Sometimes the right time to sell is when you are at the top of your game, while the business is highly profitable, and you are still highly motivated and passionate, before you get too comfortable and take a slide. I’m proud I could finish that chapter of my life with very fond memories and a sense of pride as I look back over at what I achieved.
I’m excited about our future because . . . you never know what’s just around the corner. To live your life in a way that’s open-minded and open-handed, not keeping too tight a grip on your business identity, or whatever external titles can box your identity into a particular season of your life (e.g. mother, wife, student, business person), can mean anything is possible. And I’ve found that what is around the corner is usually immeasurably more than we could dare ask, hope, or think in our wildest dreams.
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