Inspirational Women: Georga Holdich

Each week SHE‘SAID’ features an inspiring woman who has been kind enough to share her story with our readers. She might be a leader in her chosen field, someone still on their own path striving to make a difference or simply someone with a remarkable story to tell. These women contribute their own knowledge, expertise and life lessons in order to truly inspire others.

Name and role: 

Georga Holdich, Founder of Pure Poppet

Tell us about your role? What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

I am the owner of Pure Poppet, a brand that creates natural play makeup, face paint and non-toxic nail polish for children with big imaginations. I created the business and therefore am involved in all areas of the brand, from product development, marketing, manufacturing, wholesale & retail customer sales, distribution, right down to administration tasks and bookkeeping.

Each day is fairly different depending on what is happening. I ensure all orders have been taken care of first thing in the morning with our warehouse and then will do activities like look at what stock we need to re-order, communicate with my wholesalers, market the brand, develop new products, etc. As I work from home I can be pretty flexible which is nice – I can pick my girls up from school and participate in activities they’re doing. I can sometimes even sneak in a cup of tea with friends if there’s time!

How/when did you know this what you wanted to do as a career?

I kind of just fell into it as I came up with an idea and decided to see if I could make it happen. I was frustrated with the number of usually quite toxic play makeup and face paint products my girls would receive as presents or that they wanted me to buy them from the shops. I would never put any of them on my skin so why would I let my daughters use them?

I decided to create a range of natural play makeup, face paint and non-toxic nail polish for children who love dressing up and becoming characters. Even if parents don’t wear much makeup children still seem to gravitate towards these types of products at some point and so I wanted to offer them a safe option to use. So having the idea made me curious to see whether I could put the range together and I did and am now running a complete brand without really thinking I would ever be doing something like this.

Where do you find your inspiration?

My daughters give me a lot of inspiration and feedback on the products developed – they will definitely tell me if they don’t like something. I also get inspiration with running a business from a number of women in business type groups online. It’s amazing how helpful these forums are. You may never meet any of the people but you can ask questions, share ideas and solve problems just by chatting online. The support is fantastic especially when you work independently.

Did you have a mentor? Who/what helped you to get your career off the ground?

I have a few mentors or contacts I can talk to about various areas of the business. I find it good to have a few people you can discuss issues with who have varied experience. As becoming the owner of a business wasn’t necessarily a plan I had, it’s been great to speak to people who’ve done this before and talk about how to move forward, how to resolve issues, etc.

I also find that reaching out to people who you think could help you or who inspire you is really beneficial. In this age of the internet we are all so much closer and I’ve contacted a number of people whose brands I admire and most times they’ll respond back and share some of their time with me to discuss Pure Poppet.

What were the stumbling blocks, initially getting started on your career path, and since then?

I think when running a business there are always stumbling blocks as there’s usually always something new you’re learning and need to figure out the best way to achieve things. When I first came up with the idea everything was filled with enthusiasm and excitement just to see if I could create the range. Now that the products are available and I have to concentrate more on growing the business and moving things forward, there are often stumbling blocks just to keep that initial enthusiasm going.

How did you overcome these?

When you’re right in the middle of obstacles and everything seems too hard, I try and remember what my husband always says which is to take a step back, don’t worry about it and everything will be alright. This is often very hard for me to do as I never believe him but it’s amazing how just switching off for the day and doing something else or taking a few days away can really make things seem a lot less difficult.

What are your goals for the future?

I try to keep my goals fairly simple and want to continue on with my balanced life where I have a rewarding job that allows me to spend time with my family.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow the same path as you?

If you’re thinking about starting your own business then I definitely recommend just going for it once you’ve done some research of course. Often it’s so easy to get scared about taking the leap as we all think “what if it doesn’t work” etc but even if it doesn’t work, giving it a go is so rewarding and you’ll probably learn about a whole new side to yourself that will ultimately lead you to the right job.