Dogged determination is the foundation of a great career

Jazz’s first three years in business were spent driving all over Sydney. She’d often get up at 5am to see her first client at 7, and wouldn’t stop till 7pm. Jazz would then head off to her bar job which would see her put in another 5 hours before her head hit the hay. This continued 6 days a week for 3 solid years!

This dedication and dogged determination paid off. By now Jazz had built up a loyal clientele and it was time to ask them to come to her.

She set up a studio in the back of her flat, making sure it was professional, peaceful and comfortable and people didn’t feel like they were visiting her home. She also wanted to keep her personal and work life somewhat separate. Her client base exploded and it wasn’t long before Jazz needed to recruit staff and relocate her studio to bigger premises to allow for her growing business.

Early on, as a struggling makeup artist, she could not afford to attend a 10-day master class run by Rae Morris. As luck would have it, her friend had booked the class and was looking for a live model for the duration. This event changed Jazz’s whole career direction. Rae’s lasting impression on Jazz was that she would not look at anyone’s work until the brow was finished. Jazz decided to focus her efforts on perfecting the brow for six months and 8 years later, this single focus point transitioned Jazz into the Brow Artist she is today.

“Beauty therapists are expected to be good at everything and it’s hard to focus when you’re trying to be good at all the things – nailing a niche is awesome.”

Her new-found focus as a brow artist led Jazz into teaching her expertise to the industry with her first opportunity at The Beauty Expo. “The opportunity came to be – a door opened and I choose to walk through it” says Jazz of the lead that changed everything for her career and profile. “Richard Sharrah inspired and taught Rae Morris everything he knows, Rae taught me everything she knew and now I get to complete the circle and continue that knowledge transfer. It also forces me to go out and learn more new things.”

“I have these goals then achieve them without really noticing as I’ve already set new goals,” says Jazz. She never dreamed she’d be needing to employ a team or get to travel around the world and look after clients like Paula Abdul, Naomi Watts and Jessica Mauboy. Often reminding herself to follow the advice from Oprah Winfrey – “Don’t forget to take in the view along the way, as you climb up the mountain” – “I forget to do that a lot” says Jazz.

“Don’t forget to take in the view along the way, as you climb up the mountain.”

Jazz surrounds herself with business mentors who constantly challenge her to be her best. After not fully believing her accountant’s advice that if she did not increase her prices her business was going to fail, she sought a 2nd opinion. The next accountant said the same thing and also advised her to increase her prices. Jazz was already well booked and had many loyal clients but the rate she was charging was well below market value and this inevitably and regrettably also meant her seemingly successful business was in fact, making a loss.

Fighting a rising feeling in her gut that made her feel physically ill, Jazz took a leap of faith and increased her prices 50% from $80 to $120 in one massive jump. To her delight, her customers commended her on the move and even asked why she hadn’t done it sooner.

“I felt physically sick, but I did it anyway – a leap of faith.”

The adjusted pricing means new clients coming into her business have an elevated respect for her and her brand. They expect quality at this price point and that’s just what Jazz delivers. Jazz is also enjoying the new tone and buzz the move has created for her brand and has found that a new niche of clients now seek her out.

This has been one of the many big lessons that Jazz is learning in business. She now swears she will review her prices annually so she never has to make such a drastic jump again, claiming that she should have done this years ago.

Jazz Pampling loves the fact that Timely has great support and found the set-up process a breeze. “I’m a not tech kind of person and had no idea… but I didn’t have to learn how to use Timely, I just started using it and it was easy.” A big fan of working on the go, Jazz is able to use Timely on her iPad and smartphone, anywhere at any time and commented how much Timely has revolutionised her life!