What took me so long?

Hi friends! After a weekend of recharging and Christmas-ing, I’m back in action! That’s a picture of our Christmas tree. It’s a Fraser fir, so I may call him Frasier. What were you up to?

I also met up with Jess for lunch and to go to the One of a Kind show. We also talked business for a bit. One of her questions was, “What took me so long to start the business?”

The answer is similar to Jon Acuff’s most recent post about ignoring your dreams. Or getting distracted and focusing on something besides your dreams.

As you can tell from my blog header and About Me page, my favorite board game growing up was Monopoly. I’ve always understood and enjoyed business.

In 3rd or 4th grade, I sold friendship bracelets to friends and at school. I even kept an inventory and had a “catalog” in a binder with notebook paper. Each page was a different style, with a small sample taped or stapled to the top of the page. I then listed the different color combinations, lengths, and prices of each item.

It was my first foray into entrepreneurship. Since then, I’ve known that I wanted to own my own business.

Some of my high school totes

In high school, I remember reading an article about Kate Spade. I loved her concept of a classic purse, with a pop of color on the inside. I also sewed totes for my friends as birthday presents. Around then, I thought it would be fun to be a purse designer or boutique owner. My own version of Kate Spade.

I learned about Etsy in 2008 while planning our wedding. It was this post on Weddingbee. SnappyShop was my “gateway” shop and I fell hard for Etsy. I loved the concept of the online marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy is such an easy and approachable way to start selling.

Going to business school and learning about accounting was extremely helpful. And working in accounting continues to teach me how to run a business and deal with the books.

So why did I wait so long?

I didn’t have the time with the last job. Now my hours are better.

I didn’t have the space when we lived in apartments. Now I have space for a “studio” in our new house.

I didn’t have the resources. Now I have a sewing machine. And a place to sell.

I didn’t have the “know-how.” Now I have more knowledge of social media and design trends.

There were so many distractions with planning a wedding and moving from St. Louis to Chicago to a house.

I could have made it work before, but the pieces didn’t really come together until the last 3 months.

Or maybe I didn’t believe in myself until now.

Either way, I’m making it happen now!!! Thanks for following along my journey and I’ll be sharing more posts about starting a business in the future.