Week 1!

While this isn't technically week one - for the purposes of this blog - we will call it week 1. So week 1! What did I accomplish? Photos! For my site!

While I only completed shooting the necklaces and I have a lot of re-shooting to do - I'm excited to get my site up. 

I'll post it as soon I re-shoot (really - you can probably just Google the blog name and find it). Some of my pictures turned out blurry and I still have a lot of earrings to photograph - which are proving a little tricky.

On Monday I have a  second meeting with a business consultant. After our first meeting he told me I need to get my site up (working on it!) register as a business (done!) get a sales tax id (done!) and figure out my pricing structure. Um... The thing is I'm horrible at this - I don't want to feel like I'm charging too much but at the same time a lot of what I do is very time consuming and I use some expensive materials. So I'm stuck on this one. After looking at a lot of other jewelry designers pricing I've come to the conclusion that pricing is completely arbitrary while staying in the range from $20-$80. So that's what I'm going with, somewhere in that range. My consultant probably won't buy that.

I'm planning on having my site up and running by next week - then my next step is packaging. I need to figure out how I'm going to package all of my pieces for all of the wonderful people that will soon be purchasing my work. I also do silk-screening and would really like to incorporate that into the package design...

Stay tuned for my new business cards and website!

Background

Maybe I should let everyone know a little about what it is I'm intending to do and what I have done up to this point.

I think all this started in college where I majored in jewelry and metal arts at the University of Iowa (go Hawks!). I had decided in high school that I would be an art major after I took a metal smithing class at my school - I won a competition and was done for as far as a medium goes (until I found silk screening and letter press but that's for later). So I continued happily through college going to my beloved studio classes until my junior year when I had a mini freak-out about what I was going to do with a degree in metals. Which is when I decided to do graphic design - it made sense it was still part of the studio program but a more marketable skill - marketable in the corporate world which is where I thought, at the tender age of 22, everyone went after college.

Which brings us to October 2010 after working in the corporate world for over 5 years (I know - so long! I gave it a fair shot.) I have decided I need out.  The thing is, I knew this about myself in college when my parents tried to talk me into taking business classes - I refused knowing I would never work in an office (Ha! if only 23 year old me could see me now).

So for the past 5 years I have been trying to figure out what it is I want to do - I have thought about this obsessively since leaving school always going back to metals. But it never really occurred to me until a little over a year ago why I kept going back - why I didn't feel right when I wasn't creating. And it all makes sense. I remember dreaming in college about having my own studio with my casting kilns, torches and giant butane tanks (and metals!) and then dismissing those ideas as out of reach. But why? Those thoughts have never left me. I like to believe that if there is something in your life you just can't let go - something that won't leave you alone - that is the universe telling you to pay attention to it.

From the time I won my first competition in high school - these thoughts have not left. I keep going back. Ever since I've decided to focus all my efforts on starting my own business I feel much better about this path (not that I'm not completely terrified!).

So here I am. I have a product, a business license, the beginnings of a website and a whole lot of learning to do. I think in order to keep up on my progress I should do a weekly post about what I have accomplished as far as turning this business into a legitimate reality. I see these posts going something like this - "Week 20: Major Meltdown". "Week 21: Sold something to a non-family member (it was a friend)" I'll intersperse these with all my delightful insights and general life happenings!

That was long - but stay tuned I'll be posting my website soon!

Beginnings

Of the blog that is - I've taken some - albeit small - steps in starting my own business but this is where I will record exactly what I'm doing and what it takes to do this.  Really this is where I'm going to hold myself accountable. So, wish me luck as I begin this journey and I'll be back soon to tell you how it's all going!