During this past holiday week I learned a very valuable lesson.  The week started out bringing home one child from college (a long car drive) and dining out with family all in the same day.  Reading through mountains of mail and catching up with the daily rountine after a 10 day absence took a few days which lead right into the holiday - Thanksgiving!  Did I relax and enjoy myself ... No.  All I could think about was my business which I "need" to build - one of the traits that I have is to become all consumed with whatever I am doing at the time.  An admirable trait but one that can lead to missing out on some of life's happy times.  So after the Thanksgiving festivities I rush home to continue plugging away on the sewing machine trying to create works of wonder that I can sell in my store.  I had previously decided that January 1st was the target date for finding a store online and going live - so I have a little over a month to produce the items I had in mind.  Items that are motivational and functional.  I already had hours of thought into the items and I realize that with all new skills (brushing up on my sewing) it takes continued practice.  I was successful in producing two sets of what I intended to sell while I was away brainstorming and decided I needed to create tons more since I am sure the orders will come flowing in.  Once again I sat with paper, pen and calculator and came up with figures I would need for the store opening.  All seemed doable and there was plenty of time I thought.

Catching up with all my emails and tweets and researching more on this online store brought about a major decision change - one I was not prepared for, but charged ahead with full force.  Two of the companies I was considering were offering special deals on a store if purchased within a certain timeframe.   I tossed back and forth which one to sign up with - all the pros and cons and since there were only a limited amount of stores being offered with one company I had to make a decision!   The day after Thanksgiving I signed up with Zibbet and now have my online store!  The pressure was real - 100 stores were offered; when I made my decision there were only 9 left.  A lifetime purchase of $100 - no more cash outlay.  I knew if I let this deal go I would be sorry.  I have noticed that many people can and do purchase stores from several companies at once - most offer a free limited plan where you can test out the ropes.  I do have the capability to add my own store through my website which offers several plans.  The reason I decided to hold off on this was the second plan that offers a Merchant account.  This is clearly something I don't understand and if I plan to list more than 20 items I need this which also allows me credit card services and an account with Quickbooks ... Ok, too much to try to absorb at this point especially when I NEED to get some products to list in my store!!  There are different advantages to hosting with a "community type" store (my own definition) as opposed to my own exclusive store.  At this point, I need to basically learn how to sell my products online, market myself and even how to mail the items.  Those with ebay experience have this basic knowledge, but I have clicked on ebay maybe once or twice in my lifetime ... Something more I need to research!

So back to my stress lesson and level ... very high at this point, since I now have my store and not sure what I will put in it!  First, I need to jump in the car and drive all those many hours to bring my child back to college.  I load up my sewing machine and all my ideas knowing that I plan to come home with a car load of merchandise to sell.  I plan to stay over down south near the college for a few days and create.

Glitch #1 - when we arrive at the college we find that the dorm rooms are not open and will not open for another 2 1/2 hours ... now with my all consuming, jump right in and create attitude I am beyond myself.  I have to SIT here for 2 1/2 hours and do nothing???  I let the frustration build up and at some point I could barely even think ... how could the college be so uncaring and besides that not even let us know!  Apparently an email was sent out on dorm reopening which happened to miss my mailbox and of course my child didn't see this either.  So there we sat ...

Glitch #2 - the return trip home was slowwwww - every holiday traveler in the world was driving either in front of me, next to me or far ahead holding up my journey.  I crept home and needless to say the frustration continued to build.

When I arrived at my destination, I immediately jumped on the sewing machine and started to create my designs ... a huge mistake!  I was not in the right frame of mind by any means to whip out design after design of motivational and fun projects.  I ended up using my seam ripper more than ever and by the end of the evening I just sat there - almost driven to tears ... I decided it was time for bed.

This next morning I decided to sit down and reflect on my past week and accomplishments.  I did manage to bring a child back and forth safely, visit with family, research more options online and purchase my store....But, did I enjoy myself?        

I let stress win this one. 

From now on, I need to let it be, live in the moment and enjoy everyone and everything around me at the present time.  Sometimes when we try hard to accomplish something, we end up accomplishing nothing ... except maybe learning a very important lesson.

Till next time,

the girl @TheRunningGarlic