A Work In Progress

As usual, I'm getting ahead of myself with this whole "Start your business, craft like mad, be your own boss, make money. Simple!" My first post on this blog was of course written about 5 months ago (for another, now defunct blog). I've just now decided on a name, created a Facebook page, set up a Twitter account, etc.

I'm learning, with a little bit of research that this is tough and it's a *tad* more tough because during the day my main job at the moment is caring for my 8 month old. And then by the evening, I am so tired I just want to flop on the couch and binge watch TV. Currently on the magical Sky box is Desperate Housewives. Fitting, eh?

I'm hoping that this blog can be a place where I can share some of the tips and tricks I'll surely be learning along the way as well as the trials and tribulations that go along with flinging yourself in the deep end of starting a business.

First up: how naive! 

Obviously the product is important: I genuinely believe that I have ideas for products (some made, others still hanging out in the ol' grey matter) that people would want to buy for their own home and for gifts.

But I also genuinely believe that I'll get nowhere without a solid business strategy in place. It provides a solid foundation and structure. In all my other jobs, be they in a shop or an office, I have thrived when their has been organization and clear goals in place. I think I was a bit naive (read: HUGELY naive) in thinking working from home would happen organically and I wouldn't *need* all that stuffy, boring, business-y stuff.

Wrong! So far, a lot of what I have read has stressed the importance of organization. Who knew that being your own boss would, wait for it, require you to *BE* your own boss.

I have to get tough with myself if I want to give it a successful go and I definitely realize that now. And I realize that with this tough approach, this dedication to organization it may take time, a lot of time, to get my business to where I want it to be. And I'm OK with that.

Taken from this article, a quote to think about:

"[There's] a separation [between] those who are crafting for fun and extra money and those who start out with the idea, 'I intend to make money from this, so I'm going to do it right,'" says Barbara Brabec, a homebased business expert and author of Make It Profitable! "And I've always said in all my books that the people who succeed are those who have a financial reason to do so."