Friday, February 08, 2008

News and goodbyes

Ok, so what is the news I eluded to in my post of 26 Jan?

Well, I have finally set up my business to sell my handmade accessories with plans to add other products in the future.

So what, you say - that's no biggy. Oh, but it is!! For me anyway. Since high school I have dreamed of making a living from my creative endeavours. The form of these creative endeavours has changed over the years (cloth dolls, mohair teddy bears, revamped tshirts, etc), but always in the back of my mind I've wondered "what would it be like to take my hobby and make it my profession?". For a long time I didn't think it was possible, but then I started reading books, web sites and blogs of people doing just that - making a comfortable living from selling what they love to make.

For a long time it just wasn't practical for me to even try - I had financial commitments, people relying on me, not enough time (for a few years I was working 2 jobs and doing university by correspondence). Then I got married and I felt it wasn't fair to expect my husband to carry all the financial load while I chased a dream, especially one that I didn't really believe I could achieve myself.

Then, over the past 2 years things have happened in my life that brought me to a place where I thought that maybe, just maybe I might be able to give this a try. But still I hesitated. When I started trying to work out why I was resisting doing this I realised it was due to a number of factors - my fear of failure, my desire to do everything "perfectly" the first time so not even starting incase it wasn't perfect and my worry about spending money establishing the business.

Finally, after some prodding from my wonderful hubby, I started working through these issues. I'm far from having everything sorted out and still regularly have moments of anxiety about it all. But, I have started! Things are far from perfect - I'm just starting to work with a graphic designer so I don't even have a logo yet, my web site looks very average, I'm not keen on the template I'm using for my blog, I'm still working out how to take good photos of my products, and so on. But, on the flipside - I have made contact with a graphic designer, at least I have my domain name registered and hosting set up, I've started posting to my blog, my photography is improving (you should have seen my first attempts!). I've made a start! I've put my creations and therefore myself out there for the world to judge.

I'm proud of myself because I finally pushed myself to do something I have wanted to do, inspite of my fears. I'm letting it not be perfect, but always working towards making it perfect (well, my definition of perfect anyway!). I'm working hard to do this in a professional manner, not just thinking of it as some little hobby I do in my spare time, but treating it as my job, allocating time to it, focusing on quality.

Ok, so enough talk!!

You can see what I'm up to here:
Complete Fragments Etsy Store
Web Site
Blog

Please don't judge me too harshly yet. I so wanted to keep this a secret until it was perfect! But where's the fun in that??!! So, it's out there, in all it's glory. But just watch out, it's going to blossom into something beautiful - I promise you!

Ok, so now the goodbye part of this post. I'm going say goodbye to Inspire Create, at least for a while anyway. I just know I won't be able to do everything - make products, post to my other blog, manage my etsy store, look after my family, sleep and post here. So poor old Inspire Create is going on a vacation. Thank you for reading. I will still share cool stuff I find on the Complete Fragments blog, so please visit there regularly - even better, subscribe to the feed and then you will know when I have posted something new.

Phew - there is nothing more liberating than just putting it out there! Wish me luck.

PS - keep an eye on the Complete Fragments blog - once I have the web site and my logo, etc sorted I have big plans to really get my business moving - including giveaways!!