Wish: Successful Entrepreneur

Touchstone: Financial Independence
Role Models (I have several): Donald Trump; Dolly Parton; Loretta Swit; Julie Powell
Target: Earn $2,400 – $3,000/mo. (profit)
Target Date: Nov. 1, 2010
Obstacles: Time/Time Management; (lack of) Marketing Skills; next steps after starting?

Brainstorming: Can I focus on all of these areas at once?

• Graphic design for PODs
• Jewelry
• Art/Crafts
• Affiliate marketing
• Ebay
• Amazon
• Planning
• Writing/Blogging
• Cooking

Assignment direct from Barbara.

Rough and Ready Six Month Plan.

BarbaraSher @YellowRoseKat Why not create a rough & ready 6-month plan? Total fiction, but it’s a start. Then brainstorm details with us. #ideaparty 5:48 PM Jan 21st from TweetChat in reply to YellowRoseKat

BarbaraSher @YellowRoseKat No, first rough is wish-goals. ‘1st month, site is up, blog is hot, I’m tweeting sexy stuff to get readers’ #ideaparty 5:53 PM Jan 21st from TweetChat in reply to YellowRoseKat

So, taking her first month statement and running with it, here’s what I’ve come up with. She asked for “rough”. This is it.

1st month: Site is up, blog is hot, I’m tweeting sexy stuff to get readers

2nd month: I have 100s of designs up on PODs. Followers and readers are growing.

3rd month: I’m a Proseller at Zazzle! I’ve won TBA (their ‘Today’s Best Award’) and am gaining recognition from my peers.

4th month: Writing is going smoothly – I’m blogging every other day and my POD sites are bringing in sales (they call them donots) on a regular basis.

5th month: Time management and energy are no longer a problem. Blogging and adding new designs daily. Able to focus on Affiliate sites and Amazon.

6th month: I’ve been working on crafts and jewelry for Etsy. The house is de-cluttered and I have a “mailing station” for Etsy and Ebay sales. My readers and followers can’t wait to see what new designs I’m going to add next or what I might blog about.

Somehow after those first words from Barbara, I got unstuck from my Ideal Day and back on track for where I need to go next.

My original Ideal Day still stands. A few exceptions of course: I’m not living alone. We have both a cat and a dog. Our house is a small cottage house (not the 2-story one by the beach) in a historical, artistic neighborhood with a full studio in back. Our business is not just a tourist gift shop, but is also the only Rock Shop in the county, with a focus on selling/teaching art/pottery/jewelry and supplying local students.

This is my long-term Dream. Everything in my life that has changed over the last 20 years – since I first dreamed of owning a business… since I first set foot into my first Rock Shop, wide-eyed like a child discovering her first candy store – the one thing that remained constant was my dream: Own a business that supports an artistic community and helps promote learning and growth.

My business must start somewhere. It starts with the next six months. Who knows where it will go from there.

Tags: Business, dreams, support, wish, Wishcraft

I’m still trying to think through my Ideal Day. It isn’t easy because my Current Day keeps seeping in.

I’ve actually gone back a bit to daydreaming about all the “other” options out there. I find myself in a position not unlike Julia Child (with the exception that I’m not a bored housewife, but someone in need of a viable income). But I still find myself asking the same question: What am *I* going to do-o-oo?

Her husband gave a very simple reply that changed her life forever: What do you enjoy?

My partner (almost unknowingly, really) did something very similar for me. I have an idea I’ve been kicking around in my head as randomly as a person walking kicks a can out in front of them. I finally kicked the thought out of my head and into words: What do you think about . . . ?

And my wonderful, brilliant, thoughtful, supportive partner went and found information about it for me. Regardless of whether this is what I do, or whether it’s the equivalent of Julia making hats, the reply changed my life.

I thought that only dreaming is never enough. I wanted to find something so you could see if it’s possible for you or not.

Can you even imagine someone knowing you so well? (This is the same person who reminded me the other day that I need time for myself too. ♥ ♥ ♥)

I didn’t have to explain myself. I didn’t even have to say why or how or where or when. All I needed to say was, “What do you think about?” and suddenly I had someone handing me a telescope and saying, “Here. Reach for the stars.”

Here’s the explanation about this new can I’ve been kicking around. It’s something we can do together. It could really offer a viable income. We’re already in a booming market for the “high end” market and this would offer a “low to middle end” alternative. The location is ideal. And, yes, I can already think of a way to fit it into my Ideal Life.

What am *I* going to do?

Only Dreaming is Never Enough
Shoot for the Moon and Reach the Stars

Tags: brainstorming, support, Wishcraft

According to everything I’ve read from the experts, I’m going about pretty much everything all wrong. Niche! Niche! Niche! They all say. And while I do indeed have niche designs, I don’t really have a niche shop, or even a niche web site (yet. that could be changing soon.) Not only that, but my "brand" is broad and I apparently share it with a "gentleman’s club" in Houston.

The question now becomes: Why don’t I change my brand? And why not branch out to smaller niche shops and link them together?

In answer to the second question , I may do that down the road, but I’ve discovered it’s easier to work on my catch-all site first. (Plus keeping all designs at CP and Z in one "shop" is just easier for payment. I don’t earn enough yet to branch out to dozens of smaller shops.)

As for the brand, I’ve gone through countless business names (the one I paid to incorporate was the worst one of all) and none seemed to "fit." This one does – and has the most interesting story behind it of any name I could have.

My brand is me. When someone sees my logo (the drawing of the rose inside a Texas outline), it’s recognizable. When they see my icon (my manga drawing that my sweetheart did of me), or my site background (the rose trellis), they know right away that it’s me. Someone I met recently even said she recognized the icon right away and could tell it was a drawing of me, and old friends can tell it’s me too as soon as they see it. I’m extremely flattered every time I hear that because I happen to think the drawing is quite lovely. Even though there are other icons that are similar to each other, none are quite like mine. It helps distinguish my brand, which I love.

For the first time, I feel that my business name and brand "fit." And nothing feels better than something that fits well.

The Yellow Rose of Texas.

There’s a Yellow Rose in Texas,
That I am going to see.
No other feller knows her,
No other one but me.

She cried so when I left her,
It nearly broke my heart.
And if I ever find her,
We nevermore will part.

She’s the sweetest little rosebud,
That Texas ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,
They sparkle like the dew,

You may talk about your Clementine
and sing of Rosalee,
But The Yellow Rose of Texas
is the only girl for me!

There really was a "Yellow Rose" of Texas and she helped shape Texas history as much as Sam Houston himself. Emily West Morgan was a lovely mulatto slave girl captured by Santa Anna on his march to San Jacinto. Emily sent word to Sam Houston and kept Santa Anna "occupied" while the Texans surrounded his army and defeated him, literally "catching him with his pants down." Texas owes her freedom to the beautiful slave girl who risked her own life in the Texas battle for independence.

Read more in the historical fiction: Miss Emily, The Yellow Rose of Texas ♠

Tags: Business, marketing, niche, POD companies, Wishcraft

Priorities and Perspective from My Original Ideal Day

Starting back at the beginning: What from my original Ideal Day 15 or so years ago worked out? What was most important and what could change?

I don’t live in a 2-story house on the Texas gulf coast (a future goal for a vacation home perhaps?), but I do own my own home in a historic artist community.

My current business is online, though I have co-owned a (successful) gift shop in College Station. I say successful because we were earning a profit when we made the decision to close the shop so myself and my co-owner could both move away from College Station.

Supporting other artists is still an integral part of my goals, and now thanks to affiliate marketing, I’m able to do that.

Living in an artistic community is also still a priority, which is why I chose the house and neighborhood where we live now – walking distance to an arts community, glass-blowing studio, deli, restaurants and bars, and festivals twice a year – not to mention live (usually jazz) music almost every weekend. None of this was expected and now I couldn’t imagine living without it.

What priorities do I still hold dear?

• Community
• Artistic Creativity
• Artist Co-operative
• Helping Others
• Learning
• Business
• Cooking
• Animals
• Math & Programming

In my Ideal Day, these were all key factors and my day incorporated each with a perfect balance. What I find interesting are the things I included without realizing their importance at the time, much less my own abilities. I had only started making jewelry, but had never painted or drawn anything (not counting grade school, up to grade 6) much less thrown a pot or worked on ceramics. That’s right. Never. These were only things I wanted to do. And since I wrote my original Ideal Day, I’ve done all of them and managed to keep them in my life in one form or another. I didn’t own half the cookbooks I have now, had never written one (or considered writing one) and had never written my own recipe for a cooking contest. Yet, somehow, cooking dinner for friends was a priority then, without realizing how much of one it would become now. I included a database of my own making at the time because I thought I would use an existing program I was familiar with, such as FileMaker Pro (an excellent application for both PC and Mac), never dreaming I would one day write my own programs in Visual Basic.

Since my goal now is much the same as it was then, it’s easy to see the importance of Business and Community in my life. I strongly feel you can’t have one without the other. I believe I’m closer than ever before to achieving my dream of financial independence through multiple income streams while maintaining community support and connections. That’s what our sites are all about.

• Rock Salt Journals
• Yellow Rose Gallery Designs

Tags: art, artists, barbara sher, Business, community, cooking, priorities, scanners, Wishcraft