Opinion: Business isn't always glamorous

A white and beige colour pallet, a delicate display of flowers and not a single speck of dust or clutter in view of the pristinely placed camera angle. Does that sound familiar?

The updates I typically share when renovating the craft room.

I’m all too familiar with the set up above – at least in terms of what I see online. Social media is a wonderful tool; however, it seems to have set a standard on what running a small business should and shouldn’t be to the public eye.

As a small business owner – and a human being – I can confirm the life of a small business owner isn’t all that I described above. From my experiences, it’s often messy and chaotic. It’s often working in a small space with mismatched furniture and boxes and clutter stacked up high in the corner of the room that they don’t want you to see.

The chaos that social media doesn't see.

Running a small business isn't always glamorous - and I'm tired of pretending it is.

Case and point: welcome to the clutter behind Accessories by Antoinette!

Granted: This was in the middle of me organising the new craft room, which often involved a lot of shuffling things around and half sorted boxes, but I still feel it’s important to show.

While renovating and rearranging things, I felt an ever-present sense of disappointment and incapability, located within myself and the task I was trying to achieve. It made the goal seem further away than ever – and organising my new space a seemingly impossible task. I found myself feeling messy, dirty and unorganised.

And amidst it all, I was isolated.

I felt like I couldn’t share the chaos I had myself surrounded in, purely because it wasn’t social-media worthy. I couldn’t show the half-done state, even if I had accomplished a lot. I couldn’t reveal the clutter, even if it was reality.

How I feel I need to be VS What I am

But for over a year: this was my life.

Even prior to this, in the messy phases of moving or just the untidiness of life in general, it was a hidden shame. It felt like a failure as a business to not be a part of the image that was expected of me. And furthermore, no matter how tidy and how organised I made the space, I still never felt as though I fit the unspoken criteria.

It was tidy, sure. But was it too much? I’ve never had crisp white furniture, because I’ve always loved the look of a black finish. It wasn’t beige enough, because I crave colour. It was like a constant, silent tug-of-war battle between myself and an invisible social media entity that expected so much, yet gave so little praise in return.

The truth: my shameless chaos from 2023.

Life is messy. We are all human beings – natural clusters of disaster and made of messes. And I feel like that should be displayed more often. Why feed the narrative that life should be pixel perfect when instead, we should be aiming for happiness. Instead of stressing over the finer details, we should be actively working towards having a cosy space – even if it is what a minimalist would describe as ‘clutter’.

Out with shame, out with stress, out with the stereotype that has small businesses, artists and creatives all across the world in its grasp.

What are your thoughts? Is this a stereotype you want to get rid of as well? How do you navigate the pressures of being picture-perfect on the small screens?

Have a wonderful day,

Kimberley (they/them)

Accessories by Antoinette