Monday, March 14, 2011

Recent Musings


I have been spending the past couple months quietly rethinking my business and the items I create. Reflecting back on my first couple years in business, I realize it was a time of experimentation, scatter brained creativity, and learning from the handmade community.

It was the past holiday season that really put my creative business in perspective for me and I realized a couple of important things: along the way:

1) I love the handmade market and community. It is a lot of hardwork but extremely fulfilling and a place I can see myself working in for a long time.
2) I can't do it all and that's okay. I love blogging. I love the blog universe and understand the immense advantage of social media when it comes to promoting my business online but staring at a computer screen for 8 hours each day and then some doesn't really appeal to me. And I'm okay with that.
3) I offer too many products! My desire to manifest new items and work in different fields is a great and keeps things exciting. But guess what? It can actually work against you if you are trying to build a creative business.
4) I am ready to start planning the next big step. For me, this entails lots of quiet musings, reorganization, and executing some serious discipline with my business. It also requires patience. A lot of it.

All of these thoughts have lead me back to pursuing what I love most, embroidery. I really neglected it the past year which is a pity considering I had initially planned on it being my primary medium when I first started my business. This weekend I took the first step towards returning to this medium that I love. Above is a sneak peek of one of my new creations which is a more detailed version of my "Married Hands" greeting card.

What about you? Do you have any new commitments/directions with your creative business?

7 comments:

  1. That embroidery is great! And I can completely understand where you're coming from! when I first started my etsy shop, it was geared more toward my polymer clay foods. But I've grown a little weary of that. and i've grown fond of my childhood craft of embroidery. it reminds me of my grandmother and time spent with her.

    i definitely have a shop with A.D.D. right now as it goes off in every direction. I recently started weeding out the photography-related items and put them in a 2nd shop.

    Now I just have to find some focus and figure out what I really want to create. I have to remember that I can make whatever i want for myself or as gifts, but the shop needs to be cohesive.

    it's just a bit difficult to let go of some items because I wonder if I would do better selling them. And I haven't had enough sales to really get a feel for what does best

    good luck to you! it's something I'm also struggling with myself. so I feel for your situation!

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  2. Tuski- I know! Keeping a shop cohesive is so hard! I am taking the next couple months to experiment with my shop to see how I can tie certain products together through my product photos. I'm hoping that will help and even increase my sales. Good luck to you too!

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  3. I struggle with these same thoughts about my etsy shop and also my life in general. I have a full time job as a self-employed attorney, but I still want to keep my shop, and my blog, and these areas are not always in harmony. I would like to be better about creating and keeping the shop updated. But that would mean spending less time on getting my practice to a level where my revenues meet or (hopefully someday) exceed my expenses. I feel torn. But it seems to work ok if I don't think about it too much and just keep plugging away. Good luck with your shop and photo experiments!

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  4. Excellent work. I am going through an experimental phase with my creativity - so I think I can relate. I am certain of one thing, I will stick with the handmade community.

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  5. I'm encoutering the same struggle. I am most definitely my own worst editor - something I think is essential to creating a 'design identity.' sigh. I like your game plan, and I look forward to seeing even more of your beautiful embroidery. :)

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  6. Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts! Just another reason why I love the handmade and blog community. It's great knowing you are not alone and somehow makes dealing with all the stress of a creative business that much easier. :)

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  7. I love that embroidery piece. Great job!

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Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!