My Plan For World Domination Is Inching Closer

March 30, 2011  
At the beginning of the year, a little nugget of an idea burrowed its way into my brain, pitched a tent, and happily thwarted all of my plans to ignore it.

Eventually - when I gave up and embraced the idea - I decided I quite liked it.  I was going to pull on my big girl panties and start my own business.  I didn't know exactly how, or when, but I knew 2011 was going to be 'it'.

Now this might not be earth-shattering to most people, but it was quite the revelation for me.  When I was a teenager, my mother (the best knitter this side of the equator) got it into her head that we would make and sell knitted toys and baby items at a local craft market.  We spent many an afternoon happily embroiled in the BBC's version of "Pride & Prejudice" (a glorious five hour romp through times past, punctuated by the very yummy Colin Firth) while knitting (her) and sewing together (me).  We were good, too, making a lot of these dolls (our favourite was Sidney - look at the rainbow colours! Squeee!).

But, you know, the idea kind of fizzled as I progressed through my teens.  I wanted to get out and do stuff with my friends and though she tried valiantly to keep the idea alive, Mum soon realised she was fighting a losing battle.

Fast forward fifteen-odd years and wouldn't you know it - the bug came back.  By this stage I'd moved on to sewing, so I started picking the brains of anyone and everyone I could grab a hold of that had ever held a craft market or sold on Facebook, Etsy or MadeIt.  And because I am such a planner, while I waited for my ducks to get in a row (namely that pesky little dude called Finances), I projected the gee-willackers out of the idea until I was satisfied there was a market for the items I was thinking of selling. 

One particularly lovely lady, Sarah, put up with my late night Facebook inbox insanity and walked me through a lot of my questions. Today, while waiting for my twice weekly crack caramelatte, I got to finally meet her and she's every bit as awesome as I expected (although I'm quite certain she now thinks I could talk the ear off a brass monkey - meh, it's probably better she realises this right off the bat!)  She's quite the success story as the business koochie koo ('like' her on Facebook, too!) and she makes absolutely gorgeous baby and kids items.

As for me? I'm not quite there yet, but I'm not far off.  My original plan was to fire up the world domination countdown (ie, launch the business) on May 17, which would have been Mum's 60th birthday (May 30 this year marks the 5th year since she passed, and she would have been thrilled beyond comprehension that I was about to begin selling again) but I'm not good with waiting so I'm going to launch before that, possibly by the end of April.

So keep an eye out, okay? Because I'm fragile and needy and want everyone to 'like' my page to validate my existence - you know, the normal stuff.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I was thrilled to finally meet you - and without getting all soppy and overly sentimental I have to say that I can see how much we have in common and how glad I am that both of our quests for world domination meant that at one point in time we were both friends with the same awesome friend!!

Looking forward to many more coffees that are planned and the chance to FINALLY see your creations

x

Karen (admin) said...

:D Thanks! You know what I'm like - I had to write myself out a schedule to see what my 'hours of business operation' might be when the laser finally does fire up...and I've come to the conclusion that a) the kids can wash their own darn clothes (actually, they are learning) and b) I think I need to make up with my crockpot. When I get as successful as you, am I allowed to hire a housekeeper? LOL.

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