Deep Breath!

I own my own business.

I am a small business owner.

I work from home.

My Etsy shop is my primary source of income.

You know how sometimes you have to say it outloud or write it down before it becomes real? Now I've said it. I've been giving it a lot of thought and I've realized that I will not get a better chance to make this happen. I am going to do whatever I need to do to make a profit on Etsy.  I will make enough money with my sewing that I don't need a day job. It's true that I have a lot going on right now, but that doesn't make it any less true that there will not be a better time to do this. If I can't do it now I'll need to get a 40 hour a week job, and if I do that I'll never have this opportunity again. This is something that I've been thinking about and talking about for years. I've made all of you follow along with me, and I really hope that you'll stick with me to see it through to the end.

Here's my game plan:

I am going to write a mission statement and post it publicly, so you can all hold me to it.

I hope to will hit 100 sales on Etsy by the end of next month, and 30 more by the end of the year. At a minimum.

Make at least one new item a day. I won't like post one new item a day, since things are easier in batches, but I want to average out to making one a day. If not more. I would love to will have a full shop of non-custom items, ready and open for Christmas shopping on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

I am going to write a mass email announcing the new shop plans and send it to everyone I know by the end of September. I will only do this one time, but in that email will be a link to signup for my real newsletter, which I plan to send out no more than 6 times a year. I hope you will all sign up for it.

I plan to blog about my journey. I'd love to read how other women, moms, parents, crafters, whoever, made their dreams a reality, and I assume that there are other wannabes out there who would like to read how I do it. (Note: Completely positive statement there! No crashing and burning!) I have four or five topics in outline stage already, and I'll often refer my business in my other posts.  It is inevitable that this will impact all the other aspects of my life, so prepare yourself for tales of how the Princess played in the dog's water cause her mama was too busy sewing to notice care, and how the Pirate wore dirty socks cause I forgot to do laundry, and how you can't walk through any room in my house without stepping on toys.

I don't plan to stop doing other things I enjoy, like sewing dresses for my little girl, or reading books for pleasure. I'll still blog about that too, just like always.  Some of you have been reading long enough to know that I don't always follow through well, I've been talking about this for years! But I've been home for over a year now and I can't imagine going back to a job every morning. I can't imagine letting my baby spend 50 hours a week with someone else. I can't imagine doing something I don't love. 

This is my chance and it won't get any better than this.