What Ever Happened To That Cute Little Store Blog?

It's been a while since I've posted a blog entry here - and this will be my last entry.

Almost two years ago I closed my Cute Little Store, and I've been moving further and further from the retail scene. Publishing the second book about the business effectively allowed me to close that chapter of my life (pun very much intended), and over the past few months I've been working on new projects - none of which have anything to do with retail and very little of which has to do with small business right now. Continuing to write for this blog is just not in the cards.

I still strongly encourage anyone interested in small business, not just retail, to read both of my books:

(Cute Little Store is also available in KINDLE Edition)

The message today for current and budding entrepreneurs is this:

• It's okay to change directions partly or completely
• It's perfectly fine to decide you want to do something completely different from what you thought you wanted to do five years ago
• The only person who needs to be happy with your career and your life is YOU

I am still always interested in hearing from people who've read the books, and I'll still try to answer questions that show up in my email ( info @ cutelittlestore.net ).

Good luck, best wishes, and if you're interested in what I'm doing next, check in on my primary website ( mignogna.org ) in a few days and you'll see what's up!

Happy Holidays!

Entrepreneurship As A Creative Endeavour (or: The Business Of The "Cute Little Store" Books)

"smart vendor sammy" recently posted the following comment on my blog post "Choose one...":

"I am a musician, and for me it is a constant struggle to try to play/make what I personally like and get paid for it. I'm doing okay, but at this point I believe that unless I have some crazy twist of kismet I'm going to have to forget trying to sell music if I really want to enjoy the explorations that I ACTUALLY want to do."

I have the same issue with writing. Creative endeavors such as writing and making music is a very different type of entrepreneurship than say, opening a retail store.

I'm going to tell the tale of part of the business aspects of my books "Cute Little Store" and "Cute Little Store 2" and hope that sammy and others can make the intuitive leap to if I was discussing a music CD.

First, for as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to write and even make money on my writing. Primarily, I want to write fiction, but I do a lot of journal writing, too. I was journaling many things related to my store and after almost 2 years, I realized that I was starting to have quite a quantity of work. It was enough so that it was worth intentionally continuing to make into a book.

The problem was of publication/production and distribution. I could submit my book (actually it's a book proposal) to traditional publishers and hope one of them was interested. But that didn't seem like what I wanted to do for many reasons:

1. Potentially low royalties
2. I felt my material was timely - and it can take months to hear back from a publisher and typically you don't submit to more than one at a time
3. Unless you're a big name author or other known person, you're still left to market your book on your own
4. And lastly, I was concerned about not having the creative control over my work that I wanted

Clearly - I wanted to be the boss of my writing career.

So I looked into self-publication. But the cost seemed to be prohibitive... in order to make it work, it seemed like I would need to produce and sell 5,000 or more copies of my book. The *average* book sells 1,000 copies in it's lifetime! This would be too huge and investment of time and money. It could have been anywhere from $10,000 on up to produce and taken a lot of my time to do things like the layout, find a printer and binder, register for an ISBN number, and get the book listed with various book distribution channels. Ugh.

Luckily, in this new-fangled internet age, I found a happy medium. There are companies out there like my publishing company, Outskirts Press, that are a little in between traditional and self-publishing. Yes, I pay to have it published, but they do all the real work including getting the book available on amazon.com.

The only thing left for me to do is market the book - i.e., sell it. This has not been as overwhelming a chore as it sounds. There are a handful of resources out there on the internet and in books on the best ways to market a creative work. This blog, in fact, has been my Number 1 marketing tool.

Which brings us back to sammy's original problem - spending time marketing/selling vs working on the creative work itself. It is a challenge. The fact that I'm spending time writing this blog today means I'm not working on my other creative writing. I struggle with this all the time - because the more I blog, the more results in sales I see on my existing books, but it takes away from me producing new work. (It's one of the reasons my blog writing is erratic - I struggle a great deal with writing this vs writing other things.)

It is a catch-22, and I think one of the best ways to deal is to block out specific times of specific days to work on one or the other. I do this sometimes - I will block out 1-2 hours of specific evenings that I devote just to marketing my existing books.

In order for this 1-2 hours to be meaningful, I have a list of things I do for marketing and I work off this list. For me, this is very helpful so I'm not just randomly spinning my wheels. A lot of my book marketing is done right here on the internet and involves being active in online communities where I might find other entrepreneurs or people who want to be entrepreneurs. If I was in music, I would definitely be maintaining a site on myspace and other places that attract music lovers.

Another option is to hire people to do some of the work. I'm not talking about hiring a manager or someone who will always take a cut of your royalties, but hire someone to do a specific task. In the case of music, if you have a CD and you want to say, get some stores to carry it at their counter and you would rather spend your Saturday making more music then going around to a bunch of stores... hire someone you know who's good at schmoozing people to spend a few hours going around to stores and canvasing them to sell your CD. I'd offer this person something like $30 flat plus some amount based on what they're able to sell.

Basically, sammy... I'm glad you ended your comment saying "I'm not going to give up yet" because you shouldn't. Earning money off your creative endeavors is possible and doable - it will just take a lot of hard work! Good luck! :)

The Simple Dollar on finances and freelancing/starting one's own business

The Simple Dollar is one of my favorite blogs. Today's post is:

Fifteen Things to Do to Make Jumping into Freelancing/Self-Employment Financially Successful

and a worthy read!

Get Your Personal Finances Under Control Before Quitting That Day Job!

I just paid off the remainder of my student loans the other day.  Woo hoo!! Outside of personal satisfaction that comes with this act, it's something that I did with the intent to reduce my monthly expenses while I think about starting my own business again.

I live by and support myself. Which means that if I want to quit my job*, I need to make sure that I can earn what I need to live off of.

When I started The Pot & Bead, this was not as big an issue because I was married and my then-husband was able to carry the household for a while. Not indefinitely - mind you - and one of the line items in the financial section of my business plan included a salary for me (although it was half of what I had previously been making).

But in having to carry it all on my own, the first thing to do is question my monthly expenditures.  If I can live on less, then I don't require as much income, which is good as starting a new business is risky and the less income you need to generate, the better.  So I've been thinking things like:  "What can I cut out?" and "How can I live on less?"  

For me, paying off my student loans now saved me $400. I had 7 more payments to go... and had I just let it go, the accumulated interest over those 7 months came to about $400. So I've saved that, and now going forward, I need $300 less a month to live! Which is also equivalent to thinking that I can apply that $300 a month to other debt reductions needed...

...which is one of several other important things to take care of as you get your finances under control such as:

• Get rid of debt (yep, you've probably heard it a thousand times already, but trust me as someone who carried a large credit card balance for a long time - this is important!).  
• Build up a savings cushion (what if your new business' sales aren't as expected? You need this cushion to live/eat).  
• Hold off big purchases (would you rather have the 65" TV or be able to quit your day job?  It's okay if you want the TV, but then you're going to be at that job that much longer!).  
• Examine the rest of your expenses carefully - what else can be cut (at least temporarily)?  Can you downgrade your cable or satellite TV package?  (I was considering disabling it all summer...)  Get rid of netflix?  (I did downgrade from 3 movies at a time to 1)  Get rid of your home phone?  (I did this a couple years ago when I realized that the only people who called me at home were telemarketers)
  

The less income you need each month, the closer you are to financial independence and the closer you are, the more flexible you become in life.  Until then, the other option is to work your new business in your spare time.  With The Pot & Bead, this wasn't possible - at least not at first.  When we opened the retail doors, I had to be there.  But my current musings about a new business all have to do with software which I program on my computer at home.  I can do this nights and weekends and prioritize this with the rest of my life as I see fit.  This enables me to keep my day job and keep the roof over my head.  

Is it a perfect situation?  No - since often at 10am and again at 2pm all I want is to be outside this time of year!  But I'm lucky to have a job and have some flexibility as I get and keep my finances under control and work towards my current goals.

*(Note to the folks who employee me right now... I have no intention of quitting any time soon! I just like to think about it a lot! :) )

It's Spring! I want to be my own boss again!

It's been GORGEOUS this week where I live (in Maryland).  It's made me very antsy - I want to be my own boss again.   Why?  At my full-time day job, I've been locked away for the last several days in rooms with too much A/C and no windows when all I want is to be outside.  In theory, if I worked for myself again, I could decide that I'd be outdoors if that's what I really wanted.

In theory.

In practice, while I did have a little more control over my schedule and activities when I owned The Pot & Bead, it wasn't absolute.  The store opened at 10am every day which meant that someone had to be there.  I had a choice.  I could pay someone else to be there, freeing me up to do anything I wanted or I could save money on payroll and be there myself.  

It was always a trade like this - but it was my decision and mine alone to make.   Often, I would chose to work the store myself and save on payroll, even on gorgeous days like this week.  It wasn't so bad - the store front was one large window and there were windows in the back.  And I could open prop the doors open and step outside at any time. But the best part was having the decision making ability.  I really miss that.

The Frugal Business Owner

If I had to boil down all the mistakes I made as a retail business owner into one it would be this:  I overspent in the first year of business.

I was definitely not the frugal business owner I should have been.  (Note:  all my sales and expense numbers were published in Cute Little Store 2: What ever happened to that cute little store?  and I'd be happy to answer specific questions here on the blog about them!)  Why? Because I had this silly notion that since I was building a business, I wasn't supposed to make money in my first year, so it was okay if I spent when sales were higher than they should have been.  Oh so wrong... so wrong.  

It took several years, but finally, out of necessity, I learned how to be cheap.  

Here's a few tips:

1. Question every single purchase.  Sometimes it helps to sit on a purchase for a day, a week, a month.  I do mean EVERY purchase - are those office supplies really necessary right now?  Is that $200 newspaper ad really going to bring back in $200 plus?
   
2. Buying in bulk sometimes means you just have too much junk later.  I bought bulk office supplies from stores like Costco and Sam's Club when we first opened.  Some supplies made sense - we went through a lot of paper.  But some didn't.  I bought a bulk pack of staples.  5 years later, I hadn't used them all!    How do you know which to buy in bulk or not?  Start out not buying bulk and see what you really use.   Frequently, you can find deals on smaller quantities of products at places like Staples, Office Depot, and even your regular supermarket.
   
3. Budget.  Plan how much you are going to spend.  In the case of a retail business, plan how much you're going to spend on payroll, on inventory, on marketing/advertising.  Question everything that doesn't fall within the budget!
   
4. Get free stuff.  When I needed a mirror or new shelves, I probably could have found a free giveaway at websites like freecycle.org or on craigslist.net (under the "for sale" section on craigslist there is a subsection called "free")
5. Explain your frugality to your employees.  I had a bad habit of buying little things my employees would ask me for.  I thought that if these little things were what it took to have happy employees, that was the right thing to do.  These were always things related to the store - like a different kind of cleaning product or office supplies when we had perfectly good stuff already.  
   

In the current economic times, now is a great time to start a business as a frugal business owner - you're practically forced into it.  And it's a great habit to develop for later!

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Have you read "Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store?" yet?

Did you like it?  If so, please write a positive review on amazon.com!  

Hiring (and Firing) Your Family

You can choose your employees, but not your family.  But what happens if you want or need to choose a family member to be an employee?  

There are a lot of good reasons to hire family members.  They might be willing to work for less while you get your business up and running, or to help out in lean times.  You've known these people forever, and may be able to trust them implicitly.  

But sometimes it just doesn't work out and you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of needing to fire your family member without destroying your relationship - while this person may stop working for you, they're not going to stop being family.  

Let's face it - not all of our family members are going to make fabulous, perfect employees just because they are related.  

So what to do?

One solution is to never hire family members, ever.  This is a valid way to go - and you avoid the situation where your Aunt Jane begs you to hire your cousin John - but while you love seeing John at holidays, you know he's unreliable and has a problem holding a job.  If your policy is to never hire family, then it should be pretty easy - "Aunt Jane, I'm sorry but you know I don't hire family!"  

But if you do decide that you want to hire family, set the expectation from the beginning.  Be honest and open and tell them that in order for your business to be successful, you need to behave as if they were any other employee.  Have them fill out an application.  Go over the rules and expectations you have for the business.  You should give them the same introduction that any other employee gets.  Don't assume that they'll just "know" how you want things to be just because they know you.  

I never hired family, but something close to it.  I was having a hard time finding a new employee, and my boyfriend's son offered:  "Why don't you hire Julie?" (not her real name)   Julie was his current girlfriend who I'd known for a few months since they'd been dating.  I was initially a little skeptical - would my other employees think I'd favor her because of the pre-existing relationship?  What if she doesn't work out?  So I did as I described above - I had her fill out an application, apply for the job, and interviewed her - everything that I would do for any other employee.   Luckily, it turned out to work pretty well and I'm thankful for never believing I needed a "no family" policy!

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Have you read "Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store?" yet?

Did you like it?  If so, please write a positive review on amazon.com!  

Is now the right time to start a business?

The easy answer to that is that it's never a *bad* time to start *a* business.  But it's not always a good time to start just *any* business.

All businesses, big or small, part-time or full-time, require planning and research.  

I saw a cute movie yesterday:  "Sunshine Cleaning"  While the point of the movie was not about the business that was created as part of the plot, I couldn't help but cringe at all the mistakes that were being made in the start up process.  While it was cute and worked for the movie - in real-life, the person starting this business in the way she did would be in A LOT of trouble.  

You can't just print up business cards and tell people you're for hire.  Be aware of rules and regulations that govern your business ahead of time.  If you need insurance, you better have insurance.  Not having these things right from the beginning can cost you a lot of money and get you into a lot of legal trouble, too.

But back to the original question - is now the right time?  The answer is YES if you 1) know how your mortgage/rent and other bills are going to get paid 2) have determined that there is a need or desire for your service or product and 3) have a plan for how you can start and grow the business.  

The Simple Dollar just posted a list of "side business" ideas that someone could start now:  http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/04/11/50-side-businesses-you-can-start-on-your-own/ 

...but beware... these aren't going to be all that simple.  Selling cakes?  Are there food, health & safety concerns to be aware of?  Hiring out as a handyman?  Do you need to be licensed and bonded in your jurisdiction?  Spend some time doing your homework first!

Good luck!  And don't forget!  Cute Little Store 2: whatever happened to that cute little store?  is now available!  If you like it, please post a positive review on amazon.com.  Thank you!

Cute Little Store 2 is now available!

Cute Little Store chronicled my story of opening and operating The Pot & Bead, a paint-your-own-pottery studio in Ashburn, VA.  
 
Cute Little Store 2: what ever happened to that cute little store? is now available and provides insights into the challenges I faced when I decided to end the business life cycle of The Pot & Bead just after 5 years and closed my cute little store.

 

Are you thinking about starting your own business?  Or have you started and are wondering:  Now what?

 

Many people start out with a dream of what their cute little store or business will be like. As reality sets in, one wonders if the dream is still there or if it was only a fantasy. Many people, either because they need to or have to, get out of business almost as quickly as they got in. 

If you haven't fully planned out an ending for your business, then you're not done planning. Every business owner needs to have an Exit Strategy. Cute Little Store told you about all the little pitfalls that happen along the way toward starting your own business. Now Cute Little Store 2 continues the story, discussing serious issues like financial troubles, trying to sell the store and even closing. There is more insight into managing employees, thinking about presence on the internet and handling cash flow.

Cute Little Store 2 completes the memoir of The Pot & Bead. In Cute Little Store 2, you'll find: 

• The full business plan that was responsible for securing a $90,000 loan and commercial lease
  
• The full text of a working commercial lease
  
• Actual financial data for 5 years of an operating retail business!
  

 Get your copy today and find out just what happened to that Cute Little Store!

One year after closing The Pot & Bead...

It's been exactly a year since I closed my business, The Pot & Bead.

It was a very hard decision to make, but for me, it was the right one.  At that point, it had been almost 3 years since I tried selling it and I was definitely not interested in running it anymore.  Add the economy issues on top of that, and I definitely needed to close.  

Are you thinking the same thing?  Wondering if you've had enough?  Wondering if you can survive the economy right now?

There are two, and only two, major items you should consider when making the "to close or not to close" decisions.

1) How much do you love your business and love what you do?

2) Are you making or losing money?

#1 is a fairly straight forward question and should have a straight forward answer.  Do you love what you do?  Which is slightly different than loving the thing you created.  I loved my cute little store, but I didn't love running it.  It wasn't me.  I'm so glad I created it, and I loved being there... but running a retail business was just not me.

If you love what you do, that's a good reason to try and stick it out.  If you can honestly say you don't love it, that's a fantastic reason to start figuring out how and when to move on.

#2 is a little more difficult because we can't predict the future.  Sales might be a little better next month, or they might stink all year.  But you can look at these things:  how was the past year?  how much do you have in savings?  how long can you last on your savings if you need to?  

If you love what you do, and financially can survive for a while, then you might not need to consider closing.  However, if you don't love what you're doing and/or you're losing more money than you can handle each month, it is probably time to consider this.

Just know this - it's okay to close your business.  You're not a failure if you do.  It's business, and if the business isn't working, it's time to make a very brave decision like I did a year ago.  You still did it, you still tried it, and that says a lot!  (A lot of good things!)

NEXT:  While closing a business is going to be the answer for some... starting a new business still can be done in this economy!