Moving along

Super exciting news in the world of small business action.

I think I finally have my logo. It still needs a bit of tweaking but here it is. My header logo followed by my more square type logo. It is amazing how long it took me to come to this point using photoshop. I think I still want my ampersand to be more bold so I need to work on thickening that to match my type. Otherwise I am pretty happy with what I have started.

Other exciting news is applying for another spot. Learning from our hesitation on space last time we made the move on a letter of intent pretty quickly. They aren't lying when they say that life is coming at you fast! I have my fingers crossed this will work out. It is a space that is entirely too large for where we wanted to start and over our original intended budget. On the plus side this is a space that we expect to grow into fully and the location is near perfect and accommodates everything I was looking for in a space:

• Bus line access
• Walking distance from home
• Street and dedicated parking
• Part of a neighborhood
• Other successful businesses in close proximity
• Handicap access
• Potential for a small kitchen/dye area
• Open floor plan

We have only just started the process so I don't want to jump the gun but it's a good start.

I did apply for my first vendor and was granted an account which is also exciting. They are one of my first picks for needle and crochet hook vendors. One down and more than a dozen more to go. But I am going to take it in stride till the brick and mortar is secure. I have been dabbling with the idea of just launching an e-commerce site to get the ball rolling and make some social media marketing and income to assist. I also need to order business cards that at least have the logo, email and website.

Going through this process has also forced me to work on putting my business plan all together and in writing in one place. I can talk it big but to have something physical to send in replacement of me being a spokesperson is entirely different. I actually get a bit of sick pleasure working on it the same way I do for my work at the Ohio Art League writing grants. It is very interesting how closely both grant writing and business plan writing are similar. You are basically trying to win someone over to your side with clear, precise writing, stating facts, projections and puffing your feathers a bit. 

Lord, I never thought I would want to own a business. All this administrative work is just not fun, or so I thought. There is also a sick pleasure with the idea of being incredibly successful because of your own endeavors. Even working on the projected expenses, income, and startup budget I find exciting. I know what I am good at and this store will use my personal potential to the fullest. 

I am an enabler so I make a fantastic sales rep.

I am a helper so I love to educate people and see that "A HA" moment hit them

I am a hard worker, so I will put all my energy and love into this business

I am a talented seamstress, so I know the addition of alterations will be a good profitable decision.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

This past weekend was Ohayocon and I had the pleasure of my friend Vinh taking some professional photos of me in my Lolita regalia!

I am completely in love with these pictures and wish I had more places and excuses to use them in things.  I am very tempted to change my Linkedin profile picture to the one below. 

Outfit Details:

Blouse - Fanplus Friend

Skirt - Enchantlic Enchantilly 

Socks - Enchantlic Enchantilly

Shoes- Uggs

Locket - Toronto Craft Vendor

Makeup foundation - Too faced Glitter Glue, Benefit Plush foundation, Shiseido powder

Blush - MAC Dainty mineralize and Lazy Sunday creme blush

Eyes - MAC white frost/parrot/shroomed/holographic glitter pigment, Limecrime Elf

Eyeliner - Urban Decay 24/7 black liquid liner

Lashes - some cheap fancy ones from a Korean cosmetic store

Brows - Faceshop

Lips - MAC pervette, MAC baby sparks lip glass

It is a very strange thing to look at your own face and be like WOW that is stunning! Not to be a total narcissist but the curls were just right, my hair color is spot on with my makeup and the blush was done well for once! Everything in this picture just worked right and I still can't believe that this is me. I think this is also one of the few pictures where I see the huge difference that my Muay Thai has made in my life and body.

Anyways that is all for now..... people really shouldn't be blogging at 3am in the morning anyways..

Cheers!

Happy Holidays! and oh shit... Branding.....

Happy Holidays everyone!

As I get a few days of respite I work I have taken some of this time to work on myself and my own personal ventures. I have very little work to do when everyone else is on vacation for the holidays so I might as well make the most of the time.

I am in no way, shape, or form a graphic designer but I dabble a little bit for my own sake. I know I need business cards and I need to get a branding strategy together for my wee little yarn store in the works. I didn't want to deal with bubbly or fancy lettering. I've always been a fan of a straightforward easy to read font with a little class and vintage feel. My go to font is a Courier or Typewriter style.
Since I didn't want to use the font as cute or catchy thing in my store name I decided I wanted to do a fancy ampersand. I LOVE the ampersand.

Today I broke out the good ol scrap papers with some heavy 7.0 mm roller ball pens and graphite pencils to get my rough sketches down as I work on this whole branding thang. Branding is very important to a business and I am not trying to down play it at all. It just isn't my specialty nor do I feel that I have the skill set to make it as good as it could be. But these are the breaks when you have very little, to no money allocated in the business for this kind of thing. My main focus is having the funds for stock in the store and rent for at least 5-6 months squirreled away for any emergencies.

I have taken inspiration from the Georgia BOLD style ampersand into these two iterations. I knew I wanted to use the knitting needle in some way and of course the yarn. The difficult thing is thinking how literal I wanted it to look like am ampersand. I wanted it to still have a little mystery and quirk. One of those things that you might assume and not get right away but the closer you look you can get a little chuckle from the nuance of this logo.

I think I much prefer the ball of yarn version even though it isn't as clear. It is just for branding and its like that game where you can put the letters to a simple word out there in the wrong order but the brain still knows what word was intended.

I've also started to hunker down and look at my vendor applications for whole sale ordering and realizing I need to get this business cap on and get active with the business account, email, and get card made. 

There is a lead on a possible location! but that's all I'll say. I'm not going to stress out until May about having a location but of course the sooner the better.

Cheers! and have a wonderful holiday with your family, loved ones and furbabies if you have them!