Working alone has challenges and rewards

A lightbulb moment saw Vanessa Panarello open her business Sonder Hair & Co in Darlington Point.

“I was cutting a young boy’s hair and his mum said, “We usually go to Darlington Point for haircuts, but she closed.”

Ms Panarello knew the salon the mother was referring to when the boy’s mother told her she should open it back up, Ms Panarello thought about it. “Nearly two months later, I opened,” she said.

“I have been hairdressing on and off for almost 14 years.” Ms Panarello spent four years in Sydney enjoying hairdressing experiences she wouldn’t have had in Griffith.

She started a mobile hairdressing business named Sonder, a name she found with her cousin.

She returned to Griffith and worked for someone else for nine months before opening Sondert.

“My biggest challenge would be working on my own and having lots of pressure to do everything from working on clients, putting on a smile when things aren’t so good, cleaning, office work, ordering stock, keeping up with trends, keeping up social media posts, and then still having some sort of social life,” she said.

“The most rewarding thing would be working on my own. LOL. Contradicting, I know.”

• Topics:

• Women in business
• Fashion / Styles
• Hair and Beauty