Little Leap of Faith

It is Month 5 of The Long Vacation, and I've been sitting at my work station, kicking up a dust storm in my wake, trying to get my new little business off the ground.

Back track to end of Month 3, when I started feeling a little lost and bored, and wondered if I'm cut out for this life of leisure... Without much thought (none of the usual "over-thinking"), I decided I'd give this little blogshop thing a go, just for the hell of it.

I'm one of "those people" - the ones who cannot sit still on their asses without plotting yet another project to be embarked on. This little project, had I given it more thought, would never have gotten off the ground. Seriously. It is WAY more work than I'd imagined. Especially when one is too cheap to pay someone else to do all the hard labour...

From research on the competition to sourcing for stock, from setting up the online shop interface to figuring out how to insert a code, from posing and taking (hopefully) flattering photos of stock to starting a usable inventory catalogue, from sourcing for packaging to figuring out and making a logo, from price tagging to fun fair display trial runs, it has been one helluva month of steep learning curves! And I was all ready to whine about how many lost hours of my life I was never getting back (FOUR hours just trying to insert a Facebook "Like" box???) when...

"But are you having fun??" , someone asked.

And you know what? I am!

I'm having a LOT of fun picking up skills I'd probably never have the opportunity to pick up, simply because I wouldn't need to. I'm finally rolling up my sleeves and experiencing the nitty-gritty of setting up a business, details which I'd been sitting comfortably in a meeting room listening to over the past 6 years. I'm learning way more about marketing strategies (both off- and online) than I would ever have the privilege to, had I not embarked on this adventure (sadly, a dear friend had to be forcibly started on her Long Vacation for me to benefit from her expertise...).

As I sat at my work station, daylight streaming through the patio doors, listening to the birds chirping outside, I'm thankful once again for the fortunate twists in my life. Another leap in the dark, another little prayer muttered under the breath.