 | Businesses I Have Started! |
What businesses have you started in your lifetime? Yes, that can include a lemonade stand or dog-walking business when you were 9! Which were successful, which weren't, which were a total nightmare.
Well, all my life I have always had a 'great' idea for a business. I grew up in Ohio and I did freelance graphic art there for a few years and then learned sign painting from these 2 really old guys, very old school. It all served me well, though.
Awhile ago (now in California), I learned how to use Weebly and designed my website with it, then I made one for a friend. Seemed like it could be a good business... I invited a friend of mine to go to the Big Foot Museum with me and asked her if she wanted to start a web design business. She replied that she didn't know anything about web design and I said that I didn't either. Hence, our business started. We've actually designed quite a few websites and even teach a workshop on how to build a website using Weebly.
When the websites got a little slow, we decided to make and sell mini-pies. CA just passed a new law regarding the cottage food industry where you could bake in your own kitchen as long as it was food that didn't need to be refrigerated. We got the license, took a food handling class, and I even got my kitchen inspected! Well, pies don't make you a whole lot of money, they are a lot of work, they don't keep for very long, and I gained 10 pounds. Exit the pie business or 'pie-gate' as we refer to it.
I used to work for a family resource center and whenever we would get sick of our job we would create fantasy businesses, always with the intention to really do it.
Our first fantasy job was to become childbirth assistants. We took a 3-day workshop to get our careers started. We don't really want to talk about what we had to do there, let's just say, it didn't work out.
The next great idea was to open a fairy store. No we are not 13. We had visions of sugarplums... uh, and dressing in full fairy regalia in the store full of fairy items catering to the wee people... you know little girls and their moms. We like to make things and went off on some fairy idea, maybe it started with a pin, we really can't remember. And we were going to have one of our other disgruntled co-workers work there also. We were creating jobs!
When the fairy idea got to be too weirdly whimsical, we grew into another fantasy business. It was hard to find a good vanity, you know a desk-like thing with a mirror where you sit and do your make-up and hair. After finding exactly 2 affordable semi-antique vanities and buying them, our business became 'Vanity Fairy.' We were going to paint the vanities and still sell fairy items. We thought carrying the furniture would legitimize the fairy part. However, 1st you have to know how refinish furniture. This was hard... Too hard. We moved on.
Another of our business habits was to go to a book store and buy a craft book and bring it to work and make that our next business. One such book was on making lampshades. 'That would be a good idea, wouldn't it?' And how about using felt board cutouts to attach to the shades? Or how about just making felt board stories?!
Then the next week we realized that a good (otto)man is hard to find. And we don't mean auto. "How about making ottomans?" That seemed like a good idea. Of course we really didn't know how to make an ottoman, but we did spend a little time looking at wooden footstools, which lead us to making 'Stools for Stools' a small bench to put your feet on while you are pooping (this is anatomically a better way to poop!) However, when you have one of these little stools in your bathroom and you don't have a small child who needs a stepping stool, people start to question what it's for. So we moved on.
Check out what other Etsy Metal members have done!
2Roses
formandfunktion
Inbar Bareket
Laura Jane Bouton
Awhile ago (now in California), I learned how to use Weebly and designed my website with it, then I made one for a friend. Seemed like it could be a good business... I invited a friend of mine to go to the Big Foot Museum with me and asked her if she wanted to start a web design business. She replied that she didn't know anything about web design and I said that I didn't either. Hence, our business started. We've actually designed quite a few websites and even teach a workshop on how to build a website using Weebly.
When the websites got a little slow, we decided to make and sell mini-pies. CA just passed a new law regarding the cottage food industry where you could bake in your own kitchen as long as it was food that didn't need to be refrigerated. We got the license, took a food handling class, and I even got my kitchen inspected! Well, pies don't make you a whole lot of money, they are a lot of work, they don't keep for very long, and I gained 10 pounds. Exit the pie business or 'pie-gate' as we refer to it.
I used to work for a family resource center and whenever we would get sick of our job we would create fantasy businesses, always with the intention to really do it.
Our first fantasy job was to become childbirth assistants. We took a 3-day workshop to get our careers started. We don't really want to talk about what we had to do there, let's just say, it didn't work out.
The next great idea was to open a fairy store. No we are not 13. We had visions of sugarplums... uh, and dressing in full fairy regalia in the store full of fairy items catering to the wee people... you know little girls and their moms. We like to make things and went off on some fairy idea, maybe it started with a pin, we really can't remember. And we were going to have one of our other disgruntled co-workers work there also. We were creating jobs!
When the fairy idea got to be too weirdly whimsical, we grew into another fantasy business. It was hard to find a good vanity, you know a desk-like thing with a mirror where you sit and do your make-up and hair. After finding exactly 2 affordable semi-antique vanities and buying them, our business became 'Vanity Fairy.' We were going to paint the vanities and still sell fairy items. We thought carrying the furniture would legitimize the fairy part. However, 1st you have to know how refinish furniture. This was hard... Too hard. We moved on.
Another of our business habits was to go to a book store and buy a craft book and bring it to work and make that our next business. One such book was on making lampshades. 'That would be a good idea, wouldn't it?' And how about using felt board cutouts to attach to the shades? Or how about just making felt board stories?!
Then the next week we realized that a good (otto)man is hard to find. And we don't mean auto. "How about making ottomans?" That seemed like a good idea. Of course we really didn't know how to make an ottoman, but we did spend a little time looking at wooden footstools, which lead us to making 'Stools for Stools' a small bench to put your feet on while you are pooping (this is anatomically a better way to poop!) However, when you have one of these little stools in your bathroom and you don't have a small child who needs a stepping stool, people start to question what it's for. So we moved on.
Check out what other Etsy Metal members have done!
2Roses
formandfunktion
Inbar Bareket
Laura Jane Bouton
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