#awinewith Sophie Law
MEET Sophie Law, Co-Founder of Hurlaw Contracting
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Oh my god. Sophie, welcome to Spark tv.
Sophie Law (00:10):
Thank you for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:11):
I'm so excited. It's so weird because we always catch up in real life and we're like zooming to do this podcast, which is weird.
Sophie Law (00:20):
Just from the other side of town.
Danielle Lewis (00:23):
Exactly, exactly. I love it. I'm so excited to share your story with everybody because obviously I've gotten to know you over the last few years and I think that you are absolutely amazing and you, I know, are so supportive of other women in business. So yeah, super excited to share your story today.
Sophie Law (00:43):
Well, thank you for having me. As I am over you, I quite enjoy your company and everything you bring to the table, so surround yourself with the right people.
Danielle Lewis (00:53):
I love that. I could not agree more. So let's tell everybody who you are and what you do.
Sophie Law (00:58):
Sure. My name's Sophie Law. Just recently married. My husband and I have our own contracting business and yeah, I don't keep still, so we've put one business, made it into two, and here we are. Oh
Danielle Lewis (01:14):
My God. I know. And that's one thing that's wild about you is corporate career, business number one. Business number two. I'm like, do you even sleep?
Sophie Law (01:24):
No, no. I don't have much downtime, but I feel my downtime with all the fun things you do.
Danielle Lewis (01:31):
I am always amazed at how you do everything because you're always also socializing. You have great family relationships. Literally, if there was a definition of superwoman, it would be you.
Sophie Law (01:45):
You're too kind. No, I think I just try to use up all my time. I literally like to use my time.
Danielle Lewis (01:54):
I love that. And that's so interesting because so many people are like, I don't have time to start a business and use time as an excuse, but that's such a cool way to look at life. I've got all this time. Let's fricking do it.
Sophie Law (02:09):
Yeah, totally. We're not all born to sit on the couch and watch home and away every night, even though I still do that, but we just multitask and we get good at, I think outsourcing, delegating, bouncing off people. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (02:24):
That is so good. So what role do you play in the businesses?
Sophie Law (02:30):
So with our contracting business, so hubby's a carpenter and he used to build boats for a living.
Danielle Lewis (02:38):
Oh, wow.
Sophie Law (02:39):
So he's worked on a lot of luxury cruise boats for celebrities and stuff. I did not know that. No, not many people do know that. And then, yeah, he's lots of concreting work, just general handyman and construction. But I've grown up in a family business. My parents have an earth moving company and I have just always been in a very empowered environment. I think that's the best way you can put it. I've had a very privileged upbringing, but I've also used it to the maximum capacity. So yeah, I sort of put the systems in place to make the business run well during the day, if that makes sense.
Danielle Lewis (03:27):
Yeah, totally. I can imagine there'd be so many moving parts, like people contacting you, trying to book in with you, getting quotes off you, then actually allocating their time. There's actually so many moving parts that's not doing the job,
Sophie Law (03:45):
And that's what a lot of people don't realize. Sure, you can have the husband who has the skillset, but it's managing the husband and the staff to work to their skillset and get the maximum out of them. So I answer the emails, I'm replying to people over text message. It's a new age. You don't have to call everyone in this day and age, people love a text message. So a lot of our business is over text.
Danielle Lewis (04:12):
Wow.
Sophie Law (04:13):
And that's just what works for us. It's our generation. You don't have to talk on the phone for 10 minutes at a time just to schedule a job in. And I look, do all the paperwork, I do all the background, and that's what sort of works well in our business. I'm on the computer doing all the digital stuff and then Ryan's on the ground.
Danielle Lewis (04:40):
Now, that kind of sparks in my mind as well. You also do the marketing. You are the social media person as well.
Sophie Law (04:47):
You wear all these different hats and you have to be good at wearing all the hats. So I'm there doing the bass, I do the payroll, I pay the bills. It's a lot to manage, but also too, when you set it up well for one business, I find you just put that method into another and it just works really well.
Danielle Lewis (05:14):
Oh my God, that is actually genius. I remember someone said that to me once. The first time you do it, it's like the figuring it out. And it was so true. Each time I've started a new business, it's like, oh yeah, I know how to buy a domain. I know how to set up an email. I know how to do this. I know how to do. Everything happens so much quicker because you're not figuring it out from scratch.
Sophie Law (05:36):
And it's like once you have your first year in business, you have your first 12 months of payroll, you do that at tax time. Well, that's cool. I know how to do that now. It doesn't matter if you've got one staff or 20.
Danielle Lewis (05:49):
Yeah, that's so true.
Sophie Law (05:52):
I think it's just learning the things, and once you learn the things, then just put it into practice.
Danielle Lewis (06:00):
And it is funny too, because it is repetitive. Exactly what you said. Once you've done payroll for 12 months, you've done the tax. You go, oh yeah, I just did the exact same thing next year. Yeah.
Sophie Law (06:11):
But yeah, a lot of it is trial and error, and that's what I just try and do. Whenever anyone comes to me, I'm like, okay, I've tried this. I've made these mistakes, so don't do what I did.
Danielle Lewis (06:24):
Oh my God, I'm forever sharing mistakes that I've made. Please learn from me. Let me shortcut your success.
Sophie Law (06:30):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Danielle Lewis (06:32):
Oh my God, that's hilarious. I love it. I love it. How do you find working with the husband? How do you find working with your partner?
Sophie Law (06:40):
Oh, so Cru.
Danielle Lewis (06:42):
Yeah.
Sophie Law (06:44):
I'm so lucky though. I've got a really good husband. I just have to stress that he's a very humble, hardworking, he's the calm.
Danielle Lewis (06:54):
So
Sophie Law (06:54):
I'm like the hurricane that comes in at the end of the day and he's like the calm at the table. Oh my
Danielle Lewis (07:00):
God, that's so good. Complimentary personalities is always a good thing.
Sophie Law (07:07):
Oh, definitely. Yeah. There's some people out there that can't work with their spouse, but we just found a system that suited us and definitely me working full-time as well helps that because I sort of get rid of my hurricane energy during the day, and then I come home and I just focus on us and our things then. And
Danielle Lewis (07:29):
So is that the way you split it up? You go, okay, I'm at work during the day and then I do all of the business stuff at night.
Sophie Law (07:36):
Yeah, pretty much. Or you have a night here and there where you've got to go out or you've got a family dinner and it's like, well, okay, I'll just dedicate more time on the weekend to sorting those things out.
Danielle Lewis (07:48):
Yeah. And I know it's interesting, the balance. Do you find that you are thinking about the business while you're at work?
Sophie Law (07:57):
Oh, totally. Totally. You've just got all these folders in your head and you compartmentalize everything. But also too, we've had it where I'm sure everyone's had it where they could have a stressful work project and they're up at 3:00 AM thinking about it. So I think you just think about everything all at once, but women do that naturally anyway.
Danielle Lewis (08:22):
Oh my God. Tell me about it. Tell me it. What is sleep? Oh, it's so true. It's so true. I know, and it's interesting too. It reminds me, someone once said, working for someone's hard, having your own business is hard. Doing this is hard. So just choose your hard. You.
Sophie Law (08:42):
Exactly. Choose what you want to put up with and what you're happy to live with. And I've always been a big believer in choices. So you can choose to go down a path that might not be very helpful or beneficial to yourself, or you can choose to go to work every day, put in the hard yards, and then see the results later. You just choose your hard.
Danielle Lewis (09:08):
Oh my God. So true. And that idea of short-term versus long term. So today might be a bit hard, but in the long run, I'm going to have built something for myself. The money will grow, my self-worth, my personal development, all of those things will grow. Yes. It may not be as immediate as going to the pub and having a drink today, but I'm actually investing in me and my future
Sophie Law (09:36):
And multiple streams of income. Just setting those up and just not relying on one set income to cover your ass, essentially.
Danielle Lewis (09:47):
Yeah. Oh my God. A little bit of ask. Covering never goes astray, does it?
Sophie Law (09:50):
Yeah. And I guess too, that's something we've learned in our two years of business together, like hubby and I. It's figuring out where your strengths are, but also where your weaknesses are, and just going, okay, we need to work harder on our weaknesses.
Danielle Lewis (10:10):
Do you guys sit down and have those conversations or how do you actually come to that conclusion?
Sophie Law (10:18):
Yeah, so one of the biggest things, we've had to figure that out along the way because we'd be getting to nine o'clock at night and I've got to have a conversation about finances with him. And in business, we all know that anything that happens at nighttime that never ends well.
Danielle Lewis (10:37):
Yes.
Sophie Law (10:39):
So we actually learn to go for a walk. So I love
Danielle Lewis (10:43):
That. That's
Sophie Law (10:44):
Cool. So when I knock off work, I go home and if we've got the time, we'll just go for a quick 20 minute, half an hour walk, no AirPods in anything, and we just sort of have a debrief. And I've found that has made us so much more productive and healthy too. Just communication techniques, everything. It just helps so much.
Danielle Lewis (11:11):
Yeah, it's almost like carving out space, like the transition between the workday and then the business day. Such a brilliant idea. I feel like you could do that, especially people who are solopreneurs who work from home and then have their husband get home from work. It's almost like a good get out of the house, do that. Just share stories from the day come home. It just give you such renewed energy, I think.
Sophie Law (11:38):
Yeah. Yeah. And just changing your environment, the environment you work in sometimes can be so stale. Like the girls at work and even everyone at home in my home office, I'm there rearranging furniture. I'll move everything around. I think I've rearranged my office three times this year at work. That sounds like me. Yeah. I just don't like stagnant energy. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (12:07):
And it's like, I feel like sometimes it's those little tricks and hacks that do just bring the vibe on the days where you're not feeling it. It's something as simple as, okay, this is now over there. That does give you that renewed energy. It might seem silly, but if you can kind of trick yourself into getting your shit together and working a bit harder, that can't be a bad thing.
Sophie Law (12:28):
Oh, totally, totally. Even just get up and do 10 jumping jacks at your desk, honestly, game changer.
Danielle Lewis (12:37):
Oh my God, I love that. So you talked about walking, talked about moving energy, moving the space. Anything else you do because you are so busy and juggling all of these things? Is there anything else that you specifically do to maintain your energy so that you can show up for multiple businesses, relationships and work life?
Sophie Law (13:00):
I try and be as authentic as possible. So I'm not over here going, oh yeah, I'm an amazing person. I am perfect. I get everything right. There are times when my communication will lack with a client, or I haven't been for a walk this week. So I know in my head my mental health needs that. And you have to figure out, cut yourself some slack. We're all human, but I try to be as authentic about it as possible and go, you know what? I'm going to go celebrate my small wins. So I'm huge on that. Maintaining a social life. You've got to get out with your friends. You can't just lock yourself away and say, I've got too much to do, because we've all got stuff to do.
Danielle Lewis (13:51):
Yeah, totally.
Sophie Law (13:53):
But also too, treat yourself.
Danielle Lewis (13:58):
Yes. I'm just recording this obviously, and I'm playing that back to Scott, Sophie. He told me that I could treat myself today.
Sophie Law (14:06):
Absolutely. No, I'm all for it. Hey, I'll go to the guys. I'm like, right, let's go for a lunch. We're doing pub lunch today. Meet you. They're in my lunch break. As simple as, oh yeah, we had a good one. Let's go for one glass of Prosecco after work just to celebrate the small wins.
Danielle Lewis (14:27):
Yeah. So that's amazing. I love that. Let's put a pin in it. So not only do you do that for yourself, but you do that for your team as well.
Sophie Law (14:36):
Everyone around me, even the girls at work, I'll go, all right, round of coffee's on me. Let's start the day. Right?
Danielle Lewis (14:43):
Yeah. Isn't it crazy too, it's just the small things like buying people a coffee, buying people lunch, or even just inviting, you don't even have to shout them, but inviting them out into your world and holding space for them outside of work or outside of the business, it actually makes a huge impact on other people as well.
Sophie Law (15:06):
Oh, definitely. Yeah. And you never know what someone's going through as well at home or in their personal life. And my biggest thing, I've always said to people, you could be the most exciting person that that person speaks to that day.
Danielle Lewis (15:23):
Yes.
Sophie Law (15:24):
So I always have that in the back of my head, no matter where I am.
Danielle Lewis (15:29):
I love that you really don't know what other people are going through, do you? No. And if you are that you might think, oh my God, what do I know? What have I done? What experience do I have? But if someone's having a hard day or they're struggling with a challenge and you just, oh, well, here's my support. Here's my opinion, here's what's worked for me in the past. That can be life changing to people.
Sophie Law (15:55):
It can. And it can be as simple as you just taking half an hour out of your day to make someone felt seen.
Danielle Lewis (16:02):
Yeah. And I mean, it's actually a good business growth strategy too, because people buy from people. I'm always shocked at the value, and we talk about, you've got to do a viral reel and you've got to pay for ads, you've got to do all these things. And I'm like, there's so much value in just helping out people, and then they become your customers or they refer you to people who become your customers. Being a good human is the best marketing strategy on the planet.
Sophie Law (16:32):
Oh, definitely. Just donating to a good cause locally or engaging with the community best marketing strategy for your business tenfold rather than putting an ad in a newspaper.
Danielle Lewis (16:45):
Totally. And it is that just, I think about networking events. I mean, we're going to an event literally in an hour and a half together. And I was just thinking about that. So we just had a girl who wants to start a podcast and we were giving her some advice, and she showed up to the event yesterday, and I was just thinking, I met her at the event you had for the small business Morning tea for WA businesses. Was that this week or last week? I can't even
Sophie Law (17:14):
Last week. Last week.
Danielle Lewis (17:15):
Last week. Oh, my weeks are just blending into each other. But yeah, literally had a short conversation with her because you are just showing up to an event, talking to good humans, and then she jumps on the masterclass and now she wants to join Spark. And I was like, just show up and be a good person and share your experience. And you just never know what will happen.
Sophie Law (17:37):
Absolutely. But even it goes deeper than that. So she finally met the jeweler that made her engagement ring because her husband brought it locally and she was like, oh my God, I actually get to see you at these events. And just that word of mouth business is so crucial for small business.
Danielle Lewis (17:58):
Totally. I feel like people think old school stuff doesn't work anymore, but I kind of think that because people think it's old school, they stop doing it. So there's actually this huge opportunity for people who actually do it.
Sophie Law (18:15):
And I'm a big believer in not holding information back. So if something's helping me, I will share it with everyone, but it might not help everyone,
Danielle Lewis (18:27):
But it probably will. But I think some people are like, I don't want to give away all my stuff for free. People should pay me. And I'm like, you know what? The people who aren't going to buy from you aren't going to buy from you and the people that will will. So it's like just, you just show up and I'd be generous and it will return.
Sophie Law (18:47):
Yeah. Yeah. No, well, I'm very lucky though, with my full-time job, I get to help people start businesses for a living. So I feel like just sitting down and brainstorming with someone, best thing, best time of my life. Yeah, I'll help you come up with 10 new products for your business. Let's do this. Let's nut it out. And no, I am not going to go and make those 10 products myself and start my own business because I really do not have the time.
Danielle Lewis (19:17):
Oh my God, I know you're like, because I actually know what it takes to start a business and run a business. I'm not going to steal your ideas.
Sophie Law (19:24):
Yeah, I'm quite happy in my bubble.
Danielle Lewis (19:27):
Oh my God. Do you find that being in that role actually helps you and your businesses because you do get that strategic time with other people?
Sophie Law (19:36):
Oh, absolutely. I just brainstorming even with yourself, when I go and I actually need help and I go, look, I've got this one system in place, this program that we pay for monthly just to track our guys and our jobs. Is there anything better out there? I'm always open to new things and change, and we all don't know anything. Again, being authentic, just going, Hey, look, I'm constantly learning too.
Danielle Lewis (20:04):
Yeah, I love that. I know there's nothing better than just having an open conversation and a brainstorm. You just never know what, yeah. Even that software example, I'm using this tool, is there something else that you've heard of? Just little things like that. You just never know what other people are playing around with. You wouldn't sit down at a coffee and be like, okay, I've started testing this project management tool this week. You wouldn't offer up that information. But if someone's like, Hey, what? I'm using this. Have you tried anything? I'll like, oh yeah, I actually just started testing something out. So those brainstorming conversations I think are so valuable as business owners.
Sophie Law (20:46):
Absolutely. The amount of tradies in this town, I've actually asked what project management software they use and believe it. They all use something different. So I still have not found the perfect project management software.
Danielle Lewis (21:02):
I know. It's wild, isn't it? I love that too though, because it always makes me think of, people think, oh, there's got to be one tool. Everyone uses it. The market's saturated. I can never start my own thing. But it's like there are so many tools. Everyone uses everything different. There's so much opportunity in the world to create something new and something bespoke and that solves a problem. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
Sophie Law (21:27):
That's literally what business is though. Solving other people's problems
Danielle Lewis (21:33):
And doing it with a bloody smile on your face. Yeah.
Sophie Law (21:36):
Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (21:38):
Oh my God, it's so true. Think's been your biggest challenge in business.
Sophie Law (21:44):
Business? Oh, that's a hard one because I embrace challenge quite well. I think I'm a Capricorn.
Danielle Lewis (21:55):
I bring it on.
Sophie Law (21:57):
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think my biggest challenge though would be like you've got that staff management aspect, and that's something I've put a lot of effort into the last sort of 12 months, is just people expect you to just know how to manage someone from the get go,
Danielle Lewis (22:22):
Especially
Sophie Law (22:22):
When you take on an employee. And we had to seriously go, okay, this is uncharted territory here. How are we going to deal with this?
Danielle Lewis (22:32):
But
Sophie Law (22:32):
We are so lucky that our first employee is amazing, but also to, I understand that they're not all like that either.
Danielle Lewis (22:41):
No, no, they're definitely not. They're definitely not. It's interesting. People often, I reckon finance and people are the top two challenges that people usually have in business, and you did get very lucky that guy's amazing. But you're dealing with personalities and you just never know who people are before in an interview. And you never know how people are during times of crisis when actually work gets hard or they have to do something that they don't want to do. Yeah. It's full on managing people. I don't recommend it.
Sophie Law (23:23):
Yeah. It's very hectic. But yeah, no, but also too, I reckon everyone should turn up to a job interview with only two hours of sleep.
Danielle Lewis (23:35):
Sleep. Oh my God, what
Sophie Law (23:37):
Is this hack? You'll figure out who the person really is if they've got sleep.
Danielle Lewis (23:44):
I would be a nightmare in that interview. Oh my God, that is hilarious. Yeah,
Sophie Law (23:51):
Don't do that. People at home though.
Danielle Lewis (23:53):
Yeah, please ignore our advice.
Sophie Law (23:55):
Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (23:57):
No, but it's so true. I really struggle with it. I used to be in my corporate career, I was a sales person, so I never managed anyone. I just managed myself. And the harder I worked, the more money I made. And then I started running businesses and I was like, oh shit. And I think when you first start, you assume everyone will be like you. Everyone will have the same work ethic. Everyone will kind of think the same. And then it's just wild, the types of things that happen. I remember when I hired young people having to teach them about how the workday starts at nine o'clock, and I was like, what is this? Is this really what I now do for a living? It just drove me up the wall.
Sophie Law (24:47):
And you just figure out in your business dynamic, who's good at the things like that. And a big thing too, if you don't like doing something, outsource it. Get someone else to do it. Your clarity and mental health is not worth trying to do all the things you don't like doing.
Danielle Lewis (25:08):
Oh my God, I love that you said that. And oftentimes it can be more expensive for you to figure it out. If you are sitting there and you take the entire day to try and figure something out, you could have outsourced that and you work on your zone of genius, make more money for the business. Sometimes it's just not worth holding onto things.
Sophie Law (25:28):
Oh, totally. And people will, might jump up and down at paying, subscribing to a software that will actually help them with their workflow, whereas I'm like, no, take my money if that's going to save me a couple of hours every week. And then they can't justify it. And then I'm like, no, but the time you spend doing all the things that could be automating and doing for you, you could be seeing three more clients, or that's money you could be making.
Danielle Lewis (26:02):
Totally. I feel like when people are, it's almost like they've created a job for themselves and they don't quite understand the steps that they need to scale, and that's literally what you've said is the key to scaling a business. It's like you have to get your time back so that you can either well do amazing things like hang out with your family and friends. The whole reason we started businesses to get some freedom, or to your point, take on more clients and make more money.
Sophie Law (26:32):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So you got to find that nice balance.
Danielle Lewis (26:36):
Yeah. Oh my God, I love that so much. Okay, you and I could talk all day, but I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be one piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Sophie Law (26:55):
Don't be so hard on yourself. Quit the whole pressure. I've got to be this. I've got to be that. I've got to be here, there. Or I'm not starting that until I've done this, this, or I've got this. Just stop it, cut it out. Be kind to yourself.
Danielle Lewis (27:14):
I love that so much. You all heard it here first. Sophie said, cut it out and just take the pressure off. Be kind to yourself. I could not agree more. We are kind of our worst enemies sometimes, aren't we?
Sophie Law (27:29):
Oh, totally. Totally. But yeah, sometimes it's okay to just go and have a coffee with your friend or go and have a glass of Prosecco and have a little debrief and yeah, wash the day away.
Danielle Lewis (27:42):
Wash the day away. I love that so much. Well, I plan to wash the day away with you very soon. But thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and your wisdom with the Spark community. You are the best.
Sophie Law (27:55):
Thank you very much, and look forward to seeing you soon.
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