Hobby or Business????

 I've really been struggling with my business since the first of the year. I have unmotivated and just not very inspired to do much of anything in regards to it. I have a couple of leads on sales and have I followed up on them? NO!!!! Have I done much of anything to promote my business? NO!!! Have I really put in the effort to make this thing successful? Kind of. I did do a lot of shows towards the end of the year last year and was very, very disappointed with how they went. I got few sales and overall think I made a little over $600 for the year. Not good. It really got me down and in the beginning of this year I just didn't want to do anything with my business. I went for weeks without using my laser. It was not good. I have actually been considering shutting the whole thing down. But the fact is, I enjoy making things and I just need to get my act together with the business side of things. Part of the problem is that I keep saying I don't want it to get too big too quick because I still have a regular job. Well, what if it did take off? Would that be horrible? I have about 12 days every month that I can devote to it so I could keep up. If I push myself and had a plan or a system. It could be done. I have been treating it like a hobby and not like a business and I need to change my mindset. I need to put myself out there. Whatever that means. On social media. At shows. With people I meet. I just need to do it. When I first got into this, I read a post of girl who sells earrings and she said that her biggest way to sell it by wearing her earrings. Why can't I do that? Every single time I wear some of my own stuff, I get compliments on them. Why don't I get my earrings up on my website and carry some cards with me when I'm wearing them? Why don't I push them? I am in the process of designing earrings with beads and such. I will need to wear them and be ready to promote my business if anyone asks. 

The bottom line is that I have to start treating this like a real business. I have created a work flow chart on my whiteboard to keep track of what I need to do: 

This eliminates the whole, what do I want to do? Also, I have a habit of getting things half done and then not finishing them. Or even worse, not taking pictures and posting on website. This way, as soon as I do something I can move the item to the next thing to do. This way I can keep track of everything that I need to get done. 

Also, I need to find some craft shows to do. This is ridiculous. People are not going to buy my stuff if they can't see it. I also need to build up my email list and that is the best place to do that. 

Okay, I'm feeling a little better about this. I need to find the right combination of work/sales/profit/etc. and I just haven't been putting much effort into it at all. Time to change that. I'm taking a trip to Tucson on Monday to look at a laser. The laser that I have is really very limited in what it can do, I would like to do more. Especially with earrings. So I'm going to look and check it out and make a day in Tucson. All business stuff. 

Alright, off to get things rolling with this today.