Gigrove Stories: Earl Williams
We had a chance to catch up with Earl Williams, a perfume specialist. Earl talks how self-employment helped him, how he overcame struggles and more.
Earl Williams is an entrepreneur from the US – he founded Bespoke Perfumery – focused on providing a unique perfume bar experience, where their visitors can sample exclusive blends, select the ones they love and relax as they blend their new custom scent, right on the spot.
Fragrance shop never felt like work…
I worked for an independent fragrance shop a little over eight years ago. That was my introduction to the world of fragrance. My experience there was actually one of only two fond memories of times I had a job. I pretty much utterly disliked every other job I had. But at the fragrance shop, we made all of our perfume products by hand. Every bottle, every scented cosmetic, every household product. I enjoyed our customers as well, who didn’t just come to make purchases, but converse about various topics, play the occasional game of chess, give the updates on what’s going on in their lives. It never felt like work, even though the end result was a purchase.
Starting a perfumery from scratch…
When I started this service, I had moved from my hometown to another state. I couldn’t find any of the products that we sold where I am, so I decided to bring it here myself. It was a hit… until March 2020 when the Covid lock down happened. With that time on my hands, I have begun studying perfumery more in depth than I ever did. When we moved past that, I returned to the marketplace with some new aces up my sleeve. I introduced the new products, got feedback from the market, made tweaks and came back again. The business evolved to what it is now, and I don’t think it’s done growing yet.
..Good organization made Earl overcome challenges of self-employment.
I approach self-employment in an organized and proactive manor. I like to manage projects, no matter how complex. But I’ve been confronted with and still deal with multiple challenges. A never-ending challenge is time management. When you have a job, someone tells you when to be at work, when you can take a lunch, your project deadlines, when you can go home. Someone decides for you how much your contributions to the team is worth and whether you can be paid more. It sounds awful until you’re self-employed.
If I don’t finish a project in good time, overslept in the morning, or get distracted playing on my phone all day, there is no one to reprimand me. However, thus is a great way to end up in the poor house. If I want to be paid more, I can’t ask my boss for a raise. I must figure out how to get more out of the marketplace. All the accountability falls on me.
I overcome this challenge with an application to keep track of where my time goes everyday and plan my week and daily habits. I’m currently using a 100 day success journal to keep my ultimate goal to be accomplished in 100 days on top of my mind and perform a series 10-day sprints, every ten days to accomplish mini goals related to my ultimate goal.
..Self-employment is a great way to contribute to society for Earl…
Yes, my life is greatly improved. I can work double, even triple the hours I worked for any job I had for myself. I can do it tirelessly, I love the freedom, the challenges that force me to be better today than I was yesterday. Faster, smarter, sharper today than I was before. I feel like I have something to contribute to society and that I’m able to provide my needs and wants for myself with my mind and two hands. It outweighs all the negatives for me.
Earl’s advice to a successful self-employed life: Be resourceful, fearless, and endure hardships.
Be resourceful. As entrepreneurs, we have to be careful how we spend money. We are our own information and resource gatherers. We are the ones who refuse to accept “that’s impossible” statements thrown at us. You just can’t wait for other people, or better circumstances, to bring your vision to life. Be a problem solver, an alchemist, able to turn any situation into something positive. Hone your endurance, because it seems like most people give up before they can win.
Complexities are removed with Gigrove – and helping create a unique experience for his customers.
Gigrove is the home to my expanding range of services and “productized” services. I’m working right now to bring new products to my web store. The biggest advantage of Gigrove is the different types of products you can create. I have different things that I sell, physical products, consultations and so on. I can structure all of my offerings and cleanly organize them in categories that are searchable. Gigrove can handle complex pricing structures for products and services that have different prices depending on certain variables. The team thought of everything.