Yelda Adal-Hall’s passion for making homes as beautiful and functional as can be spurred her desire to start her own interior design business. Initially she began through importing porcelain urns and teacup sets from Turkey; however the business failed. Not one to be disheartened, Yelda saw this as a huge learning curve. She decided to start a property development business with her husband who was a builder, and realised that designing a home’s interior was what she wanted to do full-time. Yelda is now the successful owner of Sense of Style Interiors.
Yelda’s favourite thing about running her own business is that she gets to do what she is passionate about all the time, and she has more time-freedom.
‘I love the time-freedom that having your own business gives you. The time to attend a school event, see a friend (OK it doesn’t really happen often but it can) or take a day off when I want to (that doesn’t happen either) but it’s the fact that I can that’s most important to me.’
Yelda’s favourite entrepreneur:
“Richard Branson; because he has no limits and hasn’t stopped to question what he’s doing and that maybe he shouldn’t or can’t. His attitude explains his brilliant success.”
Advice from Yelda:
What three pieces of advice do you wish you’d been given when you started?
- Get a mentor.
- Analyse ALL the risks in your industry and put measures in place to minimise ALL of them.
- Make a plan and go for it.
What advice would YOU give someone thinking about starting a business?
‘Surround yourself with thought leaders on those topics you know little about.’
You can’t know everything, but make sure you have the resources; be they a mentor, an industry group like a professional association or a business association that can feed you the latest information to stay current and to stay on top of your game.
What skills and knowledge areas would you recommend those starting out in business get acquainted with quickly?
Marketing, managing customer expectations and cash flow management.
Yelda on HerBusiness:
‘As a Premium member I really feel that for the first time in my entire working life, I have all the resources and tools I need to make my business a success.’
“It’s just a matter of looking, listening or asking for what I’m missing or need help with. I have a great mentor, who’s been with me for 2 years so he gets me, gets where I’ve come from and where I’m going. I belong to the Mastermind program, which is like business paradise to me – that group makes up for everything I’m missing and I have the best online business library I have ever seen. Not to mention the podcasts that are on automatic play each time I get into my car.
HerBusiness is my business university; it’s my one stop shop on ‘how-to’ for every single business problem I can face.
It’s got my back and that’s a hugely reassuring feeling as a small business owner because of the huge emotional, financial and mental investment you make in your business.”
Read more about Sense of Style Interiors here.
This post was co-authored by Vashti Broos. Vashti is currently completing a journalism internship at HerBusiness. She studies Marketing & Public Relations / Communications and Media (Journalism) at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney.
