This week we meet Kaycee Bay, Owner of This Little Curl, a curly hair store which stocks an awesome range of products from both Australian and international brands.

This is what a week in Kaycee’s life looks like…

MEET KAYCEE

After studying hairdressing in my teens I stepped away from the salon world for 10years…then I found the Curly World!

I did a deep dive, learning all I could about Curly Hair Care but I soon discovered it was REALLY expensive to get good products in Australia. So I decided to start my very own online Curly Hair Store right here in Australia.

4 years on we stock an awesome range of curly hair products from both Australian and international brands. We have a fantastic curly community and I’m forever grateful for the incredible support they show us.

From 2018 until 2021 I saw This Little Curl as a fun hobby and a great way to help others learn to love their curls.

Unfortunately in July 2021 my health took a turn for the worst meaning my husband was no longer able to work his day job, he needed to be home to support myself and our two kids.

After leaving his job we had no choice but to turn This Little Curl into a ‘real’ business – so that’s what we did. I can proudly say that my ‘little hobby’ now solely supports our family of four!

My husband (aka Mr TLC) takes care of all things picking and packing while I look after customer enquiries, stock orders and business growth. I love that my husband now gets to spend more time with the kids and myself and I get genuine joy hearing feedback from our curlies who are now loving their curls and themselves.

MY WEEK

Monday

The first day of the week and this always means a struggle to get the kids out of bed and ready for school.

We wrangle them through getting ready and the drop off and get home around 9am usually. Monday mornings I generally wash and style my curls and let them dry throughout the day – ready for pictures for socials and videos etc.

I always take 15-20minutes after getting home to have a hot coffee and get my mind into gear for the day, going over my to-do list and planning what I want to achieve for the day (which doesn’t always happen but dreams are free!).

A normal Monday would see me head downstairs to my office and get straight into Facebook messages, emails and website messages that I’ve ignored over the weekend.

I spent the first few years working right through the weekend but I now consciously choose to step away a bit and only get back to urgent enquiries.

During the morning Mr TLC picks, packs and labels everyone’s orders and gets them off to the post office.

If I have time I’ll log onto the Monday Academy call and listen in while I finish sewing items or similar. After the call I usually have time for a quick lunch before heading off to collect the kids, get dinner ready and get our youngest to Joey Scouts.

Then it’s kids to bed and then I’ll usually head downstairs again to either catch up on any work I need to or I’ll work on some sewing if I feel like some off screen time.

Tuesday

Rinse and repeat, for the most part. Tuesdays I will normally look over my to-do list on my phone and then pen and paper write them out at my desk. I find having them written on paper and right in front of me, gives me more chance of actually keeping on task and getting them done.

Generally I’ll check over any stock orders that need to be placed, arrange any meetings and reply to customer messages again. I’ll then snap a few selfies and give a run down on what I used for my wash day and film a quick video if I’ve got time.

I try to dedicate the afternoon before school pick up working my way through Academy…but I don’t always get there! Often on a Tuesday it’s an earlier day as we’ll have appointments for one of the kids so we scoot off to pick up a little earlier.

Wednesday

Wednesdays I take it a little slower – I’ve caught up from the weekend, orders are up to date and we’re halfway through the week – HOORAH!

I’ll log into the Academy and get as much done as I can. At the moment I’m working on updating my product descriptions (all 450+ of them!) and adding alt tags etc to all my website photos. This is a huge task so I’ve broken it down and just do a few each week.

A couple of weeks ago I had a fabulous Wednesday meeting with a lovely local mum who is going to come on board as a casual VA / Social media helper to ease some of the workload – I am BEYOND excited for when she starts.

Thursday

Every second Thursday I attend a local women in business mastermind which I love!

Getting to catch up with other women in business has been such a great boost for me. It can get a little lonely working from home in the online space so it’s great to have a regular outing. We learn a heap from the mentor who runs the classes and from the other biz ladies and it’s a fabulous community. Definitely the highlight of my fortnights at the moment.

If I’m home in time I try to jump on for Tamara’s Academy calls. I love the way Tamara delivers content and always find her very motivational – this sets me up to smash out some work for the last little bit of my day.

Friday

Fridays are often busy! We try to get any outstanding orders out the door before the weekend arrives.

Once they’re done and dusted I take some time to go through my analytics from the week before and track how we’re progressing. If I find we’re having a bit of a slower week I’ll take a look through products that perhaps aren’t selling as well as they should be and work on some weekend content around those.

I make a little “have done” list in my head and take a minute to remind myself of all that I have achieved this week, rather than getting stressed about things I didn’t quite get to, which is what I used to do!

Saturday

Saturday is advertising day in a fabulous Curly Facebook group I’m a part of so I’ll generally do a post up for the group while I have my morning coffee.

Once that’s done I try my best to avoid checking work for the majority of the weekend. We usually use Saturday as a bit of a reset and relax day so the kids can have a break after a week of school. The kids play, watch movies and eat snacks and we try to get the housework etc done so it’s out of the way.

If we have plans for the Sunday I’ll spend Saturday afternoon baking and getting school snacks ready for the week. I love cooking and baking so this is my “down time” – bonus that’s it’s productive too.

Sunday Sundays are usually our activity day. We’ll go and visit someone, head out for the day or if everyone’s tired we have family movies, I get the baking done and we get ready for the week ahead.

I’m forever thankful that I get to make my business work around being a mum. Yes, I may work some crazy late nights and weird hours but it all balances out when I can attend any school events I want to, get the kids to appointments easily and have the odd days when I get to say “blow it, I’m not working today”.

Website : https://www.thislittlecurl.com/