Pursuing a Dream

Ok so we're all familiar with the Pursuit of Happiness and how each one of us is on our own journey in search of that true state of peace and contentment in life. I find myself no different, and feel like I am always searching for something better, particularly in my business. In my very early 20's I knew I wanted to someday be financially independent, self-employed and self-reliant, but I have learned over the years that for a woman, especially for a mother, this is nowhere near easy and that just because you want something with an all consuming desire, does not necessarily make it attainable. But that doesn't mean we don't try. I try every day to move in the direction of what I perceive to be my envisioned state of happiness with life, but occasionally I surprise myself and change my vision. So fickle is human nature!

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. I even made a related Etsy treasury if you want to check it out HERE.

So, I just got back from vacation in the city (where I spent a lot of time considering the above mentioned challenges of life as well as the direction to take my little business next) and I am not getting back into the groove of my vinyl designs like I should. I'm considering a push in the direction of freelance graphic design and backing down on the vinyl stuff for now. I already offer this service, but have had more luck locally than online. I'm thinking about designing a full color mailer promoting my service to local businesses. I hope this will drum up some business, as it's been relatively slow lately all around. Maybe this will get me back into 'work mode' and away from this burnt out uncertainty that I've been wallowing in lately. But then again it could just lead to more of the same. At any rate, I feel the need to try something different and I will be optimistic and hope for the best.

I know I'm not the only one out there in the handmade world that has run into this kind of uncertainty, so I would love to hear how some of you have pulled yourself out of the hum-drums. Did you clean out your Etsy shop and start fresh with new products? Open a new online shop, maybe in another marketplace? Stick with the originals and keep the old but gradually add the new for a wider variety?

Maybe I'll just take an extended break from it all and come back when I really feel motivated to create something wonderful.... or maybe I'll just push head first through this rough patch and pray for a positive outcome!

Letting Go

Sometimes you just have to let it go. Now, I promise not to go on and on about sappy stuff, but rather about tangible things and knowing when to give up on pushing to sell them. This past weekend, I participated in a town wide yard sale, and although the town is small, this is about the only way I can actually have a yard sale where people will come because I live in such a rural area. So after sorting, marking and folding for a day and a half I packed up 3 loads of 'stuff' and drove over to my brothers robotics shop parking lot which is located on Main Street thinking this would be the perfect, most traveled area to be in for this event. The 'stuff' I was trying to sell included a collection of baby and kids clothes, toys, and baby items. Almost all the clothing was priced at $1 or less and most all of it in great shape. I even had 2 boxes of toy action figures and a box of socks and Halloween costumes for FREE.

My house has no storage space, other than the bedroom closets, so I really needed to eliminate the unused items to make room for the stuff we did use. Most of the items had been through a couple of previous yard sales, and I was beginning to give up on ever getting any kind of compensation for all of my hard work. So, this sale was my 'last straw' I guess you could say.
I think after 6 hours of yard selling Saturday I had less than 10 customers. (I won't count the lady that came and took all the cute little baby socks for free.) My biggest sale was a lady that bought $27 worth of toys. Everything else was pocket change.
So, here I am, finally ready to just "let it go" and I am making a trip to Good Will. Hopefully someone will appreciate that $50 remote control lizard thing my son just had to have only a few short years ago, and that beautiful teddy bear quilt/baby shower gift that was never used.

Ok, so maybe the teddy bear quilt will go back in the closet... but that's it.

I'm learning that business can be kind of like a yard sale too. You work hard to get a collection of inventory ready for customers, then you advertise, promote and advertise some more. If your business is online, you also have to figure out exactly how to get those huge photo files to compress small enough to upload on the internet, without loosing the wonderful clarity and detail of the product. Then you wait and hope that someone, somewhere will see your stuff and love it enough to purchase it. When they don't you end up with tons of inventory of stuff no one wants and you have to decide what to do with it.

Most all items in any store that don't sell right off the bat get discounted eventually, but the big retail chains don't have a lot of personal attachment to their merchandise like those of us who sell hand made items. Because I created these unique designs, made the decals, then designed and made the packaging for each item I do feel a little bit more attached to them and I am less willing to accept the fact that they just aren't selling as quick as I need them to. Since I don't have a lot of extra space, I have put things on sale, donated a few items, and given some as gifts. I just don't have the space to store it for too long if I want to make new ones. So, I've learned to make most of my decals only on request now, and the inventory that I so carefully built up for that craft fair last fall... well , that is still slowly being distributed as mentioned above. I'm sure I will get to the point of being ready to just give it all away like the "stuff" from my yard sale, but I'm just not there yet. :)