I Prayed. God Listened and Answered. Again.

This picture was taken of Izzy and Me Goofing Around TWO summers ago... Where does the time go? Our lives have changed so much!

Good Morning Friends! The house is still quiet this morning, and I'm taking advantage of the calmness. 

God definitely hears our prayers! Long story short, I was talking to Scott a few days ago and I was talking about fears about trying 150% to really make my jewelry business work. I told him about how stressful it was for me to list all of the changes I need to make to REALLY call myself "working" and how difficult it would be to work hard enough to keep consistent sales that are high enough to sustain a real viable jewelry business. I finally just laid it all out on the table for him: My Fears, My Insecurities, and My Anxieties about my recent decision to turn my Jewelry Designs from my current "Facebook Hobby/Shop" and Etsy Shop to a "Real Business" with taxes and invoices and consistency and insurance...and that's where my eyes fog over every time. 

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Some of the topics we talked about included:

• My fears about PHYSICALLY being able to actually PROVIDE the services I commit to offer and being able to rely on my body to not let me down.
• This stems from my fears and past experiences with Multiple Sclerosis and worrying about not being able to control the symptoms of my disease. I hate to admit, but there have been quite a few delayed package shipments, unreturned phone calls, and procrastinating working on orders that resulted in low customer service in the past year.
• While a lot of this irresponsibility can be blamed on the MS effects and my deep depression last year, I have to take appropriate credit for some of it on my "normal" shoulders. The honest truth is: my fears of disappointing customers or failing to thrive have ironically "paralyzed" my Creative "Side" many times. As a result, while I have received consistent positive feedback from customers that love their purchases, I'm sure they were annoyed with me for my lack of organization and unprofessional attitude. Honestly, I'm tired of doubting myself and dragging my heels, both of which cause my stomach to be in knots from guilt and worry. 
• How overwhelmed I am with the "Business Side" of starting a business. It seems like one thing leads to another. 
• For example, saying that I'm setting up my "Business Taxes" means that I'm having to learn all about sales tax, collecting and paying, how much to collect, paying unemployment taxes, when to pay the IRS, what I can deduct, Employment Identification Numbers (or if I even need one if I'm don't have employees NOW) but might in the future, and the list goes on and on... see what I mean?
• Slowly but surely building an inventory of thousands of different types of beads is a great accomplishment for me, but using so many types of components is difficult to track. How do I manage my inventory? How do I track sales? How do I price each piece to track AND ensure that I'm not losing money. What software programs are recommended by other "beaders" and how much does it cost? Will I be able to afford it? How difficult is the software to learn to use to benefit my business, and how long will it take me to learn how to use it?
• What exactly do I want to sell? Who are my target customers? I can't be everything to everyone, but what exactly do I want to be? What services will I offer? Should I sell exclusively online, or at craft shows, or sell wholesale to retail shops, or Etsy, or just Facebook?
• What are my goals? I can't start out doing everything I have in mind right away, so what am I going to start with? How big do I want my business to be? Do I always want to be working from home or would I like to eventually expand to a physical retail store? If I want a physical store, what city would I want it to be in? Will I physically AND mentally be able to run a business from a new location? Can I rely on my body to work for me on a consistent basis? How will I build my business?
• How can I plan NOW for the Christmas Rush to ensure that I won't run out of inventory like last year? What should I be doing NOW to be prepared for a boost in sales? Should I start to find someone that can work with me this year during the crazy Holiday busy time so I'm not scattered in 50 places like I was last year? Who would I find to help me, since I now live in a new city and I don't know anyone around me? How can I take advantage of the Holiday season and make the most of my holiday time, an opportunity to possibly reach my biggest sales for the entire year. How do I plan for slow sales after Christmas? What Craft Shows will I do next year? 

Those are just a few random things that I spewed out when I broke down to Scott the other day. 

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Scott "did what he does best" and kind of looked through all of the "static" I was freaking out about and asked me two simple questions: 

1. Do I use my time each day in the best way possible and work hard to sell my jewelry or am I wasting a lot of time? I had to be honest, and say that I waste a lot of time and I'm making horrible use of my time all day. So he replied, "Well, there you go. You only have yourself to blame for not selling as much jewelry as you would like to." 
2. He said, "I hear you talk about blogging and posting information online, but are you really trying to "sell" your jewelry or just talk about it?" ... I didn't like hearing what he said, but I had to give it to him: He had a point.

This is my Business Accountant, Kim... who is also my beautiful Mama! (She really is an accountant:)

I stood there, running his reply over a few times in my head, and I looked at him and explained this to him:

             When I worked my craft show booths a few weeks ago, my confidence soared, along with my productivity, my energy, and my outlook on everything in my life, both business and personal, was uplifted. I was getting a lot of positive feedback Face-To-Face, and I could study behaviors to decipher the negative feedback and make improvements. I learned more in three weeks than I have over the past year, just from customer interaction face-to-face, something I'm obviously lacking selling exclusively online. I have about a month between my last craft show and my next craft show, and in that downtime lately, my confidence has gone back to my previous bottomed-out state and I've started doubting myself again.

The good news is that my recent craft show experiences gave me a tiny taste and showed me something: I CAN sell my jewelry and there ARE people out there that will buy my designs. But if I don't put myself and my business out there, they're not going to come looking for me.

This is me, Chelsea, setting up for one of my craft shows!

After pausing for a bit, I said, "I have some jewelry from my last craft show that is still packed up in my bins, and I've never photographed it. No one even knows that I have these pieces, and I feel like if I list them on Facebook, I might sell a few pieces. I just have to FORCE myself to take the photos and then edit all of them, upload the photos to an album and take the time to price and describe each piece, respond to customer comments and replies quickly, and make necessary jewelry get my orders in the mail. And when that suffocating grip of doubt and fear starts to creep up and paralyze me again and again, I have to be strong enough to push it back." His response was something like, "Well, there you go." 

I just told myself that "It's all or nothing from this point on." 

I spent many hours for the rest of the day and half of the night pulling out ALL of the jewelry I had already made, took photographs, edited each piece, sometimes multiple photos for one piece,  uploaded pictures to Facebook, Started Pricing, and just tried to aggressively be productive, probably doing more work in one day than I would usually do in one month. It was awesome for my body, providing me with a confident boost of energy to see myself being productive, and it also gave Scott an opportunity to see that the "Process" of listing items isn't quite as easy and fast as it sounds... and that doesn't include the design process, shipping process, or buying supplies process... or the business process.

I can't tell you how many times I've asked myself..."Can I do this?"

That night when I laid down and started to say my prayers, I was pretty frank with God. I asked for His guidance and asked Him to let me know if this was the path He had planned for me. While I have felt like it is indeed in His overall plan for me to start my own jewelry business, I needed a little sign of confirmation. It was more like, "God, if I'm headed down the right path, please let some of my new jewelry sell to let me know that I'm going the right direction. If I'm completely going backwards, I'll stop with this whole "Starting a Jewelry Business" deal and move on."

I have always believed that God answers prayers, but I'm still amazed at how specific He has been as He's answered my prayer this week, more than I could have ever imagined. In the past 3 DAYS, I've sold more jewelry through my Facebook Shop and through Custom Jewelry Orders than I did at all THREE of my craft shows combined! I even sold the Whimsical Little Tray below in my Etsy Shop yesterday. I feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I can smile in relief. Our Awesome Customers we've had so far this week just don't know how much of an answer to prayer they are! I really do feel like I'm blessed, and I just feel... Loved!

Am I still scared? More than ever. Am I going to give this EVERYTHING I can... and maybe a little more? I have to... for my own sanity.

You know that old song you hear in church sometimes... I think it's called "Love Lifted Me?" Well, that's exactly how I felt this morning when I woke up... and the tune is only playing louder in my head as the morning wears on! My confidence has definitely "Lifted" and I give complete credit to "Love" ...God's love, that is.

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Have a great rest of the week! (Oh, and if you haven't already, I'd love for your to browse through my designs and SHARE my Facebook Shop on your wall for friends and family to see as well! Thanks so much!)

-Chelsea