My first employee; Niña: It is very important for me to write about another major milestone for You Rock and myself. I had created You Rock for quite some time in my head, put it to paper, invested time, money, tears and sweat into my brand. I went through multiple governmental institutions, filled out endless papers, awaited for weeks for my bank account to be open and functional, framed my first trade license and met with architects to explain my vision for my very first shop.  Don’t get me wrong, although I had moments where I fell into bed crying, I did enjoy every step of the way. It was just harder than I had imagined. I had opened companies before, but this time I was doing it all by myself and every mistake was leading directly back to me. I like to say that I am the cleaning lady and CEO of You Rock, because that is exactly what I am. I drive the kids to school, continue my drive to the shop, clean the shelves and the floor, do the hated book keeping, invoices, gift box packaging, executing orders, planning events, picking up kids, drive them to their activities, managing meetings, schedule deliveries and delivery a lot of orders myself.  It was so difficult to manage the shop and everything else without a team. I am doing all my social accounts, website and photos and description for my products myself. Every email or phone call is done by “moi”.  It was a fun and new hectic ride, but oh what a milestone it was when Niña joined my “one woman show”. I had about 20 interviews with not very motivated potential employees and I was rather frustrated until a friend recommended Niña. I liked her right away, employed her from the spot and I am so grateful that from day one, she proved me right. We just work well with each other. She takes care of the shop, the online orders, invoicing and packing. We clean and organize the shop and storage together and I am back to what I am good at; selling to corporate. I still do all social accounts by myself, every image is taken with my IPhone and I try to answer every phone call and email, but I am so much calmer since Niña came into my life. She has my back. We have this very easy relaxed relationship, filled with mutual respect. We laugh together, but she also knows when I am stressed and things have to be handles quicker than usual. I would not be able to do it without her! I appreciate her work ethic and she truly loves You Rock. The shop is her castle and I do not interfere here.  The feeling of being able to employ Niña and to support her and maybe even to a certain extend her family, fills me with tremendous pride. The other day I had another “one of these days” in which just everything went wrong and I where I had these moments of “why am I doing this to myself?”, but I went to the shop, saw Niña, had a good conversation in which I could empty my bags and knew that I am not only doing it for my self actualization, or to be a great role model to my kids; I also have a responsibility towards Niña and her future and all my future employees and shops around the world. Thank you Niña for all your great work, I really do appreciate everything you do.