Calling all bachelorette’s
If you ever needed help planning the perfect hen do then Fairy Hen Mother, Sherrie Higgins, is on hand to make your party dreams come to true.
Originally from Scotland, Sherrie had not yet realised the business potential until she was charged with organising a bachelorette party for her best friend. After eight months of planning, spending many hour on Pinterest and holding weekly Skype meetings, the event came together is such a spectacular fashion, that Sherrie couldn’t wait to do it again.
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They always say to do what you love, and Sherrie always enjoyed planning events and after celebrating her own hen do, and attending many bad ones, she knows exactly what works and what doesn’t. Below, she talks us through her business and the challenges she faced.
What did you study at university?
My Undergraduate was in Psychology, then I did a Postgraduate in Primary Education (teaching)
What was your first job?
I worked as a part-time sales assistant in a shoe shop on Sauchiehall Street, in Glasgow, called “Priceless Shoes” when I was 16.
What inspired you to launch How to Hen?
I planned my best friend’s hen weekend in Edinburgh. We followed a theme and made a lot of the decoration ourselves. I really enjoyed the whole process, but I noticed that when I talked to other people about it, they said they would find it daunting trying to come up with ideas and wouldn’t have the time or energy to put together a hen weekend like we had. I still had lots and lots of ideas so I thought I would create a platform that would make it easier for people who didn’t have the time to come up with a Pinterest perfect party on their own.
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What are the key elements of your role?
As founder and chief Fairy Hen Mother, I essentially run pretty much all elements of How to Hen at the moment. I offer regular consultations to clients who have the Fairy Hen mother package, I design custom stationery for those who have the Full Package, and I provide photography services for those with the VIP package. I also constantly collate new ideas and information to update the site with and create video and blog content to entertain and inform anyone following my journey.
Talk us through your daily routine.
I am hopeless at maintaining a routine, but I have learned I am definitely a night owl rather than a morning person. My schedule changes so often to fit around photoshoots and vendor meetings, editing and content creation, that the only thing I do consistently every night before bed is write down my to-do list with a vague timeline for the next day. I have some great apps that help me keep on top of my 200 different lists and I have found that I really depend on a weekly calendar these days.
What advice do you have for anyone looking to follow in the same footsteps?
Ask for help. I am grateful that I have never let pride or ego get in my way when it comes to building my brand and have always felt comfortable reaching out to others for help and advice. You have to know your own strengths and the strengths of others and how they can help you in areas that you don’t know everything about. I am the first to admit that I know very little about the world of business and the technicalities of starting one. However, I am passionate about what I know I am able to do and that goes a long way when asking for help.
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What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
Know yourself and know your brand. I have learned that there are always going to be a million different opinions about what, how, why and when you should be doing things when it comes to your business. While I love getting advice and help from others, I know that what is most important is that I stay true to myself and what I am trying to achieve. If you are passionate then make sure you stay that way and it will automatically transfer into everything you create and every interaction you have. Listening to others is key, but don’t lose yourself and your message along the way.
And what is the worst?
You occasionally hear people saying that it should be almost impossibly exhausting to start a new business. That you have to work on it 22 hours a day and not do anything else for the first year of your life for it to succeed. While I appreciate that might work for some people (and I also appreciate that I have been in a privileged position to be able to take longer), burning myself out like that is not something I can do. I have tried to force early morning starts and work right through into the night but all that happens is I run out of energy halfway through the day and I start to make mistakes. I have to do the same thing more than once, I take twice as long to do simple tasks because I am tired and I forget to write things down. So for me, it’s not effective or efficient to exhaust myself on my work. I try really hard to maintain a work-life balance because I really do believe that life is too short and you need to live it as much as you can.
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What has been the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Myself. I am fully aware that starting a business and all that that entails, is very far away from all of my skill sets and comfort zones. I live in a very creative, artsy, unstructured world. I love coming up with big ideas and talking to people about our collective passions. I do not, however, love figuring out the details and real-life logistics of trying to execute these. The world of numbers, spreadsheets, plans, data and facts is somewhere very alien and uncomfortable for me. So I have had to force myself to try and understand things that make me question my confidence and abilities, I have had to learn new skills and develop ways of working that I don’t necessarily like. This will always be a challenge for me but I am confident that I will be able to move forward and continue to learn and grow along with How to Hen.
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