I am starting a business too but it will be less ambiguous in title. Something like, "Mike's Spot" or" I Drink the Coffee You Buy Me" or "I spend Your Money". Not nearly as artistic, thoughtful or refined but it conveys my purposes and intent. I'll keep you posted. BTW I'm done with the computer now so she can have it back.
Ta, M xo
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Crafting Business
I've had a lot of down time recently and it's led me to do what I do best with too much free time...research endlessly. The internet is just one of those things that can really get quite addictive for me. There's so much information out there for free! So I find myself for hours and hours researching various topics with no motivation whatsoever to do anything else slightly productive. I felt terrible about it for a few days, but then realized, "Hey! I'm coming back from a year long deployment where down time was a rare commodity so you know what? I'm going to do whatever I want as long as it's not destructive in any way!" After that the guilt ceased. My research initially started off around homeschooling, which is something that I'm still going to be delving back into but I kind of maxed out on it since a lot of the reading I need to do is in books to review for potential use in curriculums.
I started drawing again, which has been really good for me. It's on pause right now as I'm in the count down of when I go home and got caught up in packing and cleaning and more cleaning and throwing a lot of stuff away. Now that my packing and clearing out the CHU has calmed down I should be able to start it up again. I made sure to keep my sketch book out for my carry on bag. I've also been doing Rosetta Stone French. One of the wonderful things about being in the military is we get the ENTIRE Rosetta Stone series for all languages completely free. When I found that out it kind of blew me away. I've almost completed Level 1 of their French program, which now has 5 levels. I'm thinking of doing German or maybe Japanese or maybe Russian next...we'll see. I'll be taking classes again like crazy when I get back so I might not have as much time for foreign language fun, but then again it's educational so I might still find some time for it. They're broken down into smaller lessons so there's no reason why I can't get through a few of the 5-10 min. lessons every day.
So back to the subject of this post. Lately I've been taken over with this all-consuming research of crafts and a craft business. Drawing again I guess unleashed the art monster in me and I've been drinking it up like a dehydrated man roaming the desert. It's fascinating and completely puzzling at the same time. I find myself wondering through it like a maze getting lost in different avenues and places. I'm really interested in starting something like this. I've found a lot of good websites/blogs that go into a lot of details around starting a craft business. There's so much out there concerning it, and it's one of those things that's easy to start small and expand as you go...depending on what your craft is. In the midst of it I've subscribed to e-newsletters to a quilting magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors. They send out some great info on resources and books about different craft topics. I get so excited reading about this stuff.
The two big road blocks I've come up against are: What would I even call my business?
Number 2 being: What would I start to sell?
I've thought about different names. What kind of mood do I want it to evoke? What kind of message do I want it to send? What sounds unique but easy to remember? I've read a lot of articles around naming your business and they're great information, but all kind of state the same thing and it still leaves me grasping for more. What I've come up with so far is that I'd like it to be two words that are easy to remember, but unique paired together so that I'm not up against millions of others with similar names. Some of the craft businesses I've found that I like their names are: Smart Fish (they sell vegan shoes), Retro Whale (she makes her own prints), this blog called Design Sponge that has all of these amazing DIY and before/after type articles, Dignity Regained (a shop that focuses on fair trade and upcycled products), Spin Thread (she makes these really cool geometric embroidery jewelry, etc. You get the idea.
I don't want words like "craft" "creation" "design" in mine just because they're kind of redundant. I also want the title to not focus on only one craft like "jewelry" "quilts" "clothes" and so forth because I'd like to have the flexibility to make whatever I want and not be tied to one thing because of my title. Although it would be funny if I did something like Rachel's Jewelry and only made prints. Except, that probably would just create a whole bunch of confusion and not be so funny after awhile.
Then there's: What would I make? With a whole world of possible crafts out there I'm overwhelmed and elated at the same time. More things to learn and try out, but what about focusing on one thing? Maybe? Or I could just make a lot of different things and that be my trade mark. Who knows. We shall see. I've just gotten lost on Etsy pages, though. There's an excellent "seller how-to" page they have that has link after link to article after article on owning your own craft business. I also found a great blog called "Crafting an MBA" that's all about starting up a craft business and tips to improve on it.
Well, Michael just got home and wants to be on the computer so I'm going to sign out. Any ideas on a business name would be appreciated! We love you and look forward to being home very soon! TTFN.
~R.
I started drawing again, which has been really good for me. It's on pause right now as I'm in the count down of when I go home and got caught up in packing and cleaning and more cleaning and throwing a lot of stuff away. Now that my packing and clearing out the CHU has calmed down I should be able to start it up again. I made sure to keep my sketch book out for my carry on bag. I've also been doing Rosetta Stone French. One of the wonderful things about being in the military is we get the ENTIRE Rosetta Stone series for all languages completely free. When I found that out it kind of blew me away. I've almost completed Level 1 of their French program, which now has 5 levels. I'm thinking of doing German or maybe Japanese or maybe Russian next...we'll see. I'll be taking classes again like crazy when I get back so I might not have as much time for foreign language fun, but then again it's educational so I might still find some time for it. They're broken down into smaller lessons so there's no reason why I can't get through a few of the 5-10 min. lessons every day.
So back to the subject of this post. Lately I've been taken over with this all-consuming research of crafts and a craft business. Drawing again I guess unleashed the art monster in me and I've been drinking it up like a dehydrated man roaming the desert. It's fascinating and completely puzzling at the same time. I find myself wondering through it like a maze getting lost in different avenues and places. I'm really interested in starting something like this. I've found a lot of good websites/blogs that go into a lot of details around starting a craft business. There's so much out there concerning it, and it's one of those things that's easy to start small and expand as you go...depending on what your craft is. In the midst of it I've subscribed to e-newsletters to a quilting magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors. They send out some great info on resources and books about different craft topics. I get so excited reading about this stuff.
The two big road blocks I've come up against are: What would I even call my business?
Number 2 being: What would I start to sell?
I've thought about different names. What kind of mood do I want it to evoke? What kind of message do I want it to send? What sounds unique but easy to remember? I've read a lot of articles around naming your business and they're great information, but all kind of state the same thing and it still leaves me grasping for more. What I've come up with so far is that I'd like it to be two words that are easy to remember, but unique paired together so that I'm not up against millions of others with similar names. Some of the craft businesses I've found that I like their names are: Smart Fish (they sell vegan shoes), Retro Whale (she makes her own prints), this blog called Design Sponge that has all of these amazing DIY and before/after type articles, Dignity Regained (a shop that focuses on fair trade and upcycled products), Spin Thread (she makes these really cool geometric embroidery jewelry, etc. You get the idea.
I don't want words like "craft" "creation" "design" in mine just because they're kind of redundant. I also want the title to not focus on only one craft like "jewelry" "quilts" "clothes" and so forth because I'd like to have the flexibility to make whatever I want and not be tied to one thing because of my title. Although it would be funny if I did something like Rachel's Jewelry and only made prints. Except, that probably would just create a whole bunch of confusion and not be so funny after awhile.
Then there's: What would I make? With a whole world of possible crafts out there I'm overwhelmed and elated at the same time. More things to learn and try out, but what about focusing on one thing? Maybe? Or I could just make a lot of different things and that be my trade mark. Who knows. We shall see. I've just gotten lost on Etsy pages, though. There's an excellent "seller how-to" page they have that has link after link to article after article on owning your own craft business. I also found a great blog called "Crafting an MBA" that's all about starting up a craft business and tips to improve on it.
Well, Michael just got home and wants to be on the computer so I'm going to sign out. Any ideas on a business name would be appreciated! We love you and look forward to being home very soon! TTFN.
~R.
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