We were lucky to catch up with Sara Andolsek recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sara, thanks for joining us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?
I absolutley take vacations and I recommend this to everyone that has their own business. It took me a long time to understand how to say no, until Covid happened. By saying no I don’t mean literally saying no. I mean, I realized how important it is to take time for myself and family. I didn’t want to say no because I wanted to get bigger and better with my business. Once Covid happened there wasn’t much of a choice to take time off and figure things out.
I feel like it took about two years for the wedding industry to get caught up again after Covid. I was taking double the weddings and rebooking on top of those to try and help everyone. I was burnt out and tired. I wanted to start crying by September, I was just trying to keep my head above water. The year after that I took one week off a month, to try and regroup, walk my dog, enjoy the outdoors.
This year I found it more important to do the same ahead of time with planning. I need to take care of myself, which helps me run my business more efficiently. I try to get home earlier to make a nice dinner and walk my dog with my now fiance. We go on a road trip once a month for a week just to relax. It helps to realize how important you are and you need to do things for yourself,
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started my business 18 years ago in my grandma’s garage. I always focused on wedding and event florals. In that time I also, coached soccer and taught robotics at the high school I attended. I worked as a coach and teacher to pay the bills and establish my business.
As time went on and I got older I realized it was more important for me to jump and see what would happen. I quite working at the school and went full time with flowers. I bought a house that I could build a studio in the basement, but as time went on I was getting bigger and needed more space.
Im proud of myself for jumping not once but twice now, I moved my home studio into a bigger space and bought a van. Although each time is scary, I did it myself and that’s the most I have to be proud of.
I try to help everyone on every budget with their wedding floral needs. A lot of emails, meetings, and pictures; it all comes together. That is my favorite part to see, a lot of time goes into planning and building the wedding day. I like to see everyone come together to make the day happen and then of course the pictures after.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My life changed drastically 7 years ago.
I had bought my house and had my studio in the basement. This was supposed to be a happy time for me, one year went by and that’s when it changed. I woke up that morning to find my boyfriend whom I bought the house with had passed away in his sleep.
Im not telling this to be a sad story but hopefully one of encouragement. I always think about that day and what has changed and how I overcame one of the hardest times of my life. Yes, it took a few years to somewhat feel normal again. I had to take one day at a time. The biggest struggle I had to take on was, I couldn’t stop running a business. I still had weddings, I still had to take orders, write emails, pay bills.
The biggest thing is I did! I kept going, even on bad days. Hopefully when reading this short story of this bad time, it helps to rememeber that. Not everything can be fixed in a day, take one day at a time, it may never be what it was but it also may be bigger and better. Push yourself to be strong, devoted and willing to take life as it comes
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The best source of new clients is referrals and working with coordinators. I still advertise on websites like the knot, but have built a nice reputation with some local coordinators that I enjoy working with.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.saramicadesign.com
- Instagram: saramicadesign
Image Credits
wild opal photography photobyjordyn danielle roth photography