It has been an intense week to say the least, final deluxe before the holiday!

And do you know anything more fun? This week it's exactly one year since I started my business posts on Sundays! They take quite a long time to write but I often hear that they are appreciated so I still think it's worth it!

It is also worth it for just the simple reason that I myself am "forced" to look back on the week every Sunday and analyze, think and reflect. I think it is very useful actually although some weeks are more eventful than others :)

Makeup job at Disruptive Materials
This week I was at Disruptive Materials again (the company that works with the subject Upsalite that the professor of nanotechnology Maria Strömme developed) and when the CEO Mattias came in with a new can of upsalite powder for me, I was so happy! Upsalite is extremely absorbent for oily skin and every time I get a new sample, I always skimp on the last to save it for important occasions haha.

This time, however, I was there as a "regular makeup artist" only and did makeup before photography. On the one hand, I made up the entire board, but also some new faces that were to be photographed for their website.

I had to borrow a study where I made up people on a conveyor belt. In the background you see their slate board where they had a meeting before, I had to ask if it was ok to take photos so I would not happen to publish any trade secrets haha! It is impossible to understand what the draft means :)

In normal cases, I do not do much freelance work anymore, it often costs more than it tastes to pack everything and go away like that. But Disruptive Materials is a bit VIP;)

Creative Makeup Kickoff 2018!
On Wednesday, it was finally time for our annual kickoff that we now had for the 3rd year in a row!

We are always in the same conference place - Odalgården outside Uppsala, and it is completely impossible not to stand there and think back on the first year and how extremely much we have developed since then!

We have our whole way of working Peragenda to thank for, we started going business development with them shortly after we started the salon and our whole structure and all our meetings are based on what they taught us. So worth it!

I started the kickoff with this presentation:

1. Goal image - First, we presented our goal picture, 4 clear points with how we want the company to look within a year. But it is not enough to decide a goal picture and then go back to work and just hope that the dream comes true, but you have to start and work in the right direction to get there.
2. Current status image - And to know what we are going to do, we have to look at what the business looks like today, what opportunities do we have and what needs to be improved? This is broken down into different categories.
3. Strategic focus - But all the points listed above we can not do at once (even if you want!) But you have to look at which points are most prio and start with them. These most acute points can be summarized as a sub-goal, which must be achieved earlier than the goal picture.
4. Key figures - Now we know where we will and how we must start working to get there, but we must also be able to follow up that it is going in the right direction - and above all have time to do something about it not going in the right direction. We do this with key figures that are specific things you measure to see if it progresses. The key figures are not necessarily figures on sales and such, but you can measure just about anything, how well you follow routines, etc.

Then the staff had group work for an hour where they jointly go through the whole current situation picture, the strategic focus and the goal picture and talk about what each point means, if they agree with us and if they have something to add to e.g. the current state image or the target image. And finally - if they approve of everything :) Because it's just as much their goal picture!

During the group work, it is a tradition for me, Miska and Annika to hang on the bridge;) We are very experienced and driven so it is important that the others can talk to each other without us being involved and listening or tabling.

I love this moment of the kickoff, you have prepared and charged for so long and once the presentation is done, you breathe out and take a much needed break ♥

Then it was time for lunch! We offered both lunch and dinner :)

Last year we talked a lot about health and well-being and this year we focused on positivity, pep and warming words! We held a customer survey earlier where I ended the survey by writing in general what you think about Creative Makeup, which I read out to everyone. I also looked at our facebook reviews and the guestbook in the waiting room and put together a list. I only wrote down the reviews that "stuck out" the most because there are so many, but still the list was too long for me to have time to read them all. There we can talk positive problems! :)

Here is the part of the list that I had time to read out anyway:

We have such good customers! :)

My fantastic colleagues
I'm really hot inside after this week thanks to my wonderful colleagues at work! ♥ We had such a successful kickoff on Wednesday and everyone is so heavenly committed, focused and diligent mixed with the fact that at any moment they broke out in the ashes together and had very, very fun!

We are all very different people, but we complement each other well and above all, everyone feels so incredibly genuine. We respect each other's differences and support each other, which means that everyone dares to be themselves and also say what they think - which is extremely important in order to continue to have good cohesion.

One thing that was said at the kickoff was "it's fun when you are on holiday, we get the responsibility alone and it's fun, you grow!" and how amazing is that attitude? I mean, they could vomit bile over the fact that they become 2 people short and get both more to do + have to solve all problems themselves instead of asking Miska. But no, they realize that challenges make them evolve - and they do wants develop. Isn't that cool?

We also have a large project now where we invest more in Hairology precisely because summer and spring are a "slump" in product sales and with such advanced knowledge as hairology is, it is easy to lose both cravings and self-confidence if you do not keeps the knowledge fresh. I do not mean primarily the "basic knowledge" but it is also important to be able to explain to customers in an educational and simple way what the products do and why we mix in what we mix in, etc. It is so extremely much knowledge that you both need to be able to + convey to someone else without giving a lecture for a quarter of an hour;) So just to always be on top, they take hold of the problem and ask us to market hairology MORE so that they keep the knowledge going. They rehearse and read in the books from the education and we will also book a continuation course during the autumn. And all this is their own initiative! Everything to be the best of the best :)

Another part of the kickoff, which was actually intended as a quick "snack" of maybe 5 minutes max, it was that everyone would say a nice thing about the person sitting next to us and then we went "lap around". We ended up completely out of schedule because we sat with this for 20-30 minutes! We joked afterwards about my red ears because not only did I get warm in my heart but my whole head became physically hot and completely tomato red haha! I was so moved by all the kind things (not just against me but how nice everyone is to each other) and people in the end did not stick "to the rules" but compliments flew in all directions and edges haha. How nice is not it? :)

I forgot to take a picture of the whole team at the kickoff so I offer this old treat instead!

Quick training on business administration
Another part of the kickoff was that Annika held a mini-education in business administration. Even though not everyone needs to be able to understand accounting reports etc., it is important that they have an insight into how a company works.

It is easy to otherwise stare blindly at the high amount on the cash report and not understand why we even need to talk about keeping costs low, etc. But of the high amount on the report, a quarter goes directly to the state, then the rest will cover inventories , consumables, wages, rent and then on top of that even more taxes and fees.

Here Annika stands and talks like the balance between plus and minus in the company. Speaking of balance, it is also a balance how much you should involve the staff in finances, because at the same time as it is a and o with the finances if everyone is to keep their workplace, both Annika and I have an easy time panicking and it wants you do not get infected with it. The staff's focus is to make customers happy, have fun at work and follow routines so that everything flows smoothly - because if all that works, the economy will come in handy.

It thus becomes a balance between being financial but at the same time not becoming for pengastyrda. We always recommend the best for the customer we help, not the one that gives us the most money. We are also not stingy with quality and amenities. In addition, you have to bet to win as well, we would not have needed to have such a luxurious and nice salon with such a good location - but for us it is very important!

After explaining everything, Annika showed this example. If you have a salary of SEK 25,000, you get about SEK 17,000 in hand and to earn your own salary in product sales, you then need to sell products for a total of SEK 93,500. And then you have still only gone plus or minus zero, you also need a little profit to cover costs such as rent and so on

Early voting!
Last Wednesday, Miska and I voted early and it was so nice to have it done! I do not want to talk so much politics in the blog because it is not really my nish. I know what I do not want to vote for and then I want to vote for things that in my opinion benefit everyone, it is easy to become selfish and think "which party is best for ME" but then not everyone can think because then we will get nowhere .

What I was going to bring up, however, no matter what party you are on, is an attitude that I have heard so many times during this election period. And it is that many see entrepreneurs as something negative, to focus on companies is to "make rich people richer" and that it is better to focus on "workers".

I completely agree that we must focus on everyone in society, but I do not think that one must always exclude the other.

When Annika held the mini-education in business administration, the first sentence was afterwards "why start a business? It's no idea!“Haha, and then we would not have pushed at all for how extremely much we pay to the state or the like but just explained how everything works completely without values.

Focusing on companies IS focusing on workers, because it is in companies that you get a job! I am not saying that all taxes should be reduced in general, but e.g. such fees that make it cheaper to hire would benefit the whole country. And if more companies can survive and grow so also the tax revenue to the state increases because there are huge sums of money that companies contribute.

What I want to say above all is that I hope people can have a slightly milder attitude towards entrepreneurs because we both create jobs and contribute a lot of tax money. I paid hundreds of thousands of kronor in taxes and fees for several years before I could even take out a monthly salary. So we are not terrible, greedy people :)

Then I also want to emphasize that the really rich people rarely get it just because of their company, but of how the economic structure looks today with investments, interest on the interest rate effect, etc. And the economic structure politicians can not change anyway.

I do not say this to change anyone's opinion regarding the election, but talk more generally about this because I have thought a lot about it now during election times :) Do not hate us entrepreneurs haha!

Speaking of this, another calculation example that Annika showed at the mini-economics education! This is what a month looks like for very many small companies, and this is just VAT a part of the total amount that the company contributes to society. So all companies are very important to society, we contribute a lot! :)

Come to the beauty event with us on September 27th!
My first working day after the holidays will kick off with a corporate event in the evening! I wrote a bit about this already last week and now I have prepared the last thing for this so that we do not come home to a real stress day.

I have e.g. printed out signs, prepared prizes for our raffle, made an event invitation, put pictures in an iPad we will show before and after pictures of, checked out exactly who can be involved and gave responsibilities to everyone for the evening.

We combine our annual autumn event with Art Clinic which celebrates 10 years in Uppsala! It will be a wonderful mingling evening with offers, inspiration, personal advice, raffle of great prizes, cuts and bubbles!

In addition to us from Creative Makeup and Art Clinic, Keep Training, Galderma / Restylane, NeoStrata and Promeduc / Mentor will also be on site. If any of you who read this want to come, you can email caroline.ohman@artclinic.com no later than 17/9.

Ready for the holidays?
In addition to this, I have also fixed the last blog posts that are timed when we are in Spain. It has also been the end of the month, which means financial jobs such as salaries, monthly statistics and invoices that have been emailed out. I have also had some customers who took the opportunity to book an appointment before I leave. I have booked our barber + makeup artist Lisa for hairology training and there was a lot of planning back and forth before we got together dates and times etc. And in addition to this, there has also been an unusual amount of emailing to the right and left, including regarding the relocation but also so I get a lot of questions from readers and customers about makeup tips and product recommendations :)

In order for everything to roll on as smoothly as possible when we are away, I have also compiled two long lists. A checklist for Malin who works from home with, among other things, the webshop with tasks to be done when I'm away, I do not even think she will have time for everything until then because it is SO much haha. And then a list to the staff of things they should think about when we are away - everything from offers that end or are extended to important phone numbers they can call if something goes wrong.

I ended the week with Ida coloring my eyelashes and listening to all my catastrophic thoughts that my stress brain fantasized about, like my sister should forget to feed our cat and stuff unreasonable haha. It is difficult to relax and let go of control sometimes, but then you just have to get out of it so you can focus on relaxation later. It's so heavenly nice with colleagues who care about each other ♥

I'm really so grateful for my nice workplace and am really warm inside after this week and all the cute goodbye hugs before we went home. Everyone told us to really enjoy, not to think about the salon, they take care of everything, and that we should just have a great time! Absolutely amazing people :) I trust them to 100%!

Now I really feel ready for this adventure! We leave early tomorrow morning. The fortune teller said last week that this trip will be a real WOW experience (and I had not even said that I would go abroad) and I feel it in my whole body too :)

We pick up the rental car already at the airport and the first 8 nights are booked at 4 different hotels (2 nights per hotel) along the coast of southern Spain. And the last week is still completely unbooked - we'll see where we go! Feel free to come up with tips !!

I will read comments but as you know I will not update the blog (although it is kept updated with timed posts) but on my instagram @ imakeyousmile.se you can follow the journey on insta stories if you want :)

Kraaaam! ♥