Starting this new business venture has been pretty overwhelming so far. Don’t get me wrong, I expected it to be a challenge, but there are so many aspects to work on and so many things that need to be done, its hard to organize all of those tasks in order of importance.

Right now I’m currently struggling with the financial aspect. Last time I wrote I had an issue with finding my niche. As of now I think I’m heading in the right direction with that and I believe I know what I’m going to specialize in. I even have a mission statement to start with and use in my business proposal. However, after figuring out my niche and moving forward with that, the issue of “I’m a broke, unemployed [kinda] former graduate student and teacher” – it isn’t just a matter of having money to buy supplies and the things I need to get started, its a matter of having money to LIVE! Ha!

While this technically falls in the “personal life” category, it does however affect my “business life.” One of the reasons I thought this was a great time to pursue my business is that the opportunity presented itself. I am no longer in school, having graduated several months ago, and I am currently working as a substitute teachers since I was unable to secure a full time teaching job. This is wonderful since subbing allows me to make my own schedule and I get to go in, do a job and walk out. There are no late night lesson plan writing and researching for the next chapter unit. However, the flexibility of this job also means that jobs are not steadily guaranteed. Yes I get to chose if I want to work tomorrow or the next day by accepting or rejecting jobs BUT there has to be job offers to accept and reject. I’m finding that this isn’t enough.

Currently I’m looking int freelance writing, as a supplement to my income, since the tutoring jobs are not panning out fast enough. Being new to online freelance writing, getting started is a full-time job for me write now. I’m trying out 4 different sites that offer this kind of work and it’s very confusing and time consuming. You have to know what your doing and build a pretty awesome profile, resume, skills summary etc. in order to get accepted for jobs. Even then I’m struggling to figure out how to “bid” on jobs.

With a little more time and a lot more research I’m sure I’ll eventually get the hang of it. In the meantime, Dollface Darlin’ has one more show in a couple of weeks in the city of Cerritos. After that there will be a craft boutique right before Christmas. During this time new Etsy product pictures will be taken and new descriptions will be written. My goal is to have the shop up and running full force by the end of the year to allow me time to work on new inventory.