I have some really tough decisions coming my way in the next few weeks. There are so many things going on in my head that it's hard to get it all out. Most of my decisions will concern my Bead Shop. Over the last year I have become increasingly unhappy at my shop. It's hard to pinpoint at what point it started and why but I have just been really unhappy. I guess one of the main reasons for my unhappiness is the fact that I have taken on way too much. I run the shop, do the books, make samples and jewelry for the shop, teach classes, get classes together, do video's for online, write patterns, and help customers on a day to day basis. I am at my shop everyday unless something comes up. I guess that after 8 years I have just hit the breaking point and I have realized that I can no longer do it all. I have hired someone to help me out two days a week and I thought that it would help me out a lot but it really hasn't. No I shouldn't say that....It may help me but right now my eyes are too clouded over with unhappiness to see if it helps.
At least once or twice a week I come home and just have a good cry because I don't know how much longer I can take it all. I decided a few weeks ago that for me to be happy I need to decide what I like best about my business and run with it. I have reflected a lot over the last few weeks and I have decided that the thing I love most about my business are my online videos. I love to teach people to bead. Not just people but people who really WANT TO LEARN to bead. I get emails everyday from people all over the world thanking me for my videos and telling me how much they enjoy them. I can't even get my locals to say thank you and there's people that I have never even met thanking me for helping them learn. Not all of my locals are like that but many don't even care enough to come in and take classes or even come in and purchase supplies for our videos that they watch online. My videos make me money because people who watch the video's tend to purchase supplies from my etsy store. I also list patterns that I write on etsy and they are great because they can be emailed right to the customer. I don't hardly have enough time to get patterns written right now and if I had a chance I could make good money with my patterns. I love to teach and I believe that's what I was put on this earth to do.
The store has been doing OK. I am still able to pay myself but the traffic seems to be less and less. My regulars who have been coming in for years are slowly getting busy with other things and I don't tend to see them as much. I have tried numerous things over the years to get new customers through the door and they have come in but not many stick with it over time. I have people who want me to teach them but they don't want to pay to learn. They want to bring in there own supplies and then get mad when I tell them that I will have to charge them a teaching fee. It's like a never ending battle with people. I sit all day with some customers and work with them only to have them spend $25.00. When I do this I loose out on time that I could be listing things on etsy or writing patterns, or making things for the store. Classes haven't been doing well anyways. I stress over getting classes ready and getting class schedules out only for no one to sign up or only 1 person sign up. I am out of idea's. I feel like i'm danged if i do and danged if i don't.
I have decided to make a few changes at the shop over the next few months to see if they make me happy. First of all, next month I am only going to schedule classes on Saturdays so that I have my week nights free to work on other things. If I don't feel like I'm getting done what I need to get done then I plan to change my store hours in the month of March. I am thinking of only opening Wednesday-Saturday. That way I have Sunday off and then Monday and Tuesday I can work on video's, writing patterns, or creating new projects. Then Wed-Sat I can spend getting things done at the shop.I may even get my Mother in Law to take over Wednesdays for me so that I can have another day to get work done from home. If by June I am still not happy I am thinking of closing my shop to the public and becoming an online seller. At least if I do this I can travel and teach classes elsewhere and not have to worry about missing a sale.
I don't know what the next few months hold for me but I just try to remember Proverbs 16:3 "Commit your plans to the lord and they will succeed." I read this quote out of a great new book that I am reading called Leaving by Karen Kingsbury. I went to the bible book store a few days ago and found this book and the cover looked interesting so i picked it up. I never get to read anymore so I decided to buy It and make the time to read it. It is quite refreshing to read a book that doesn't have a vampire romance or excessive cussing. If you get a chance I defently recommed this book. It's great so far!
Oh well enough with my ramblings. I just had so much in my head that I needed to get out.
