As I start my new business, some people may think it’s odd that I’m planning on wearing an uniform. Yet to me, it’s a no brainer.
In my last job, I was the only employee in the organisation that did not have an uniform requirement in my employment contract. However, I chose to wear one to help some of the team dynamic issues that existed when I started. This one decision alone seemed to fix the main problem almost immediately. And yet, I continued to wear an uniform everyday for the next few years until I left the organisation.
Practically, it made sense while working in an environment with animals. I preferred to save my suits from puppy pee and cat fur which seemed to cover my clothes most the time. However, I soon realised the value in the brand recognition from wearing an uniform too as I never had to tell people where I worked.
Furthermore, by wearing an uniform, I basically mimicked the successful behaviour of many well-known people by eliminating one decision that I needed to make every day – what to wear. I had forgotten how liberating that was since my old military days nearly twenty years before this one.
So now as I start my next business, I purposely plan to wear an uniform every day because:
- It’s cheap advertising;
- It eliminates one major decision I need to make every day – what to wear;
- It allows me to deduct the cost of my clothes and laundering;
- It reduces my personal costs to keep a more diverse wardrobe;
- I don’t have to worry about ruining my good clothes while working or installing my products (or if I want to pat a dog!); and
- Just importantly, I reduce that amount of clothing I need to buy and that will eventually go to landfill. This is something that is very important to my sustainable-focussed social enterprise.
So, next time you see me in my new business uniform, you now know why!