A 360 Degree view on Advising Small Business by Growth Wheel

it was K that I went to. He was amazing, he dumbed it all down for me, literally allowed me to ask as many questions as I needed to and not feel like a complete idiot.

Over coffee we chatted through the in’s and out’s of the tech that was going to make me, the flesh – working in fashion and styling, obsolete. How exciting, how revolutionary, how mind-blowing and a little scary. Long gone are the days where we look at the moon and wonder how it ever was that man landed on it or how we ever read a page-by-page map book to get to where we were going or how I could ever let my mother know I was on my way home. Now nothing is out of the question anymore, nothing is classified as impossible.

The question was – how is tech shaping our future as women? At a click of a button, we can book a holiday, watch a film that has not yet aired, have real time conferences from anywhere in the world and learn about anything at any time.

We are more knowledgeable, time efficient and open to possibilities and that does make me smile. Truth be told, no one knows exactly what’s next, we will adapt as technology expands and tech will adapt to our needs and wants as it learns more about us. What I do know, is that we should each stay true to self as we keep innovating. In my world as an image consultant, a stylist and personal shopper, I’m often asked; where did you find those pieces, why can I not ever find things like that? And my answer is simple, “we shop with blinders on, picking up the same stuff every time we shop, from the same stores and the same labels”, sometimes all because someone once said we looked good in “yellow” or we just got comfortable in that trend – that same safe trend we’ve had since whenever. We buy the same colours over and over again, the same cuts, shapes and styles – patterns or materials, never mind that we look half dead in it. It can be scary to move out of comfortable, but our style should grow and change with us, as our bodies and careers and life demands change.

The challenge is to be consciously open. It was my business partner that poked the bear (me the bear) in fact, I was about to rip his face off when he challenged me to expand our brand into tech, I smiled, left him with the bill and accepted the challenge. Tech is revolutionising my future and the future of my brand and is finally opening new doors, which would never have been a possibility, if it wasn’t for technology in my business.