For the past two weeks, I have been off work. We are on strike and I am lucky enough to have someone to take over the bills so I don't have to go on the picket line. I have had a taste of what it would be like to be running my business full-time. What an interesting view of my life.

A few things I have discovered:

1. I have the focus to sit down and work. I have been able to complete a lot of new product as well as work on some new designs.
2. I rely a lot on the paycheck to keep me going
3. I can actually have a clean house.
4. I take for granted the technology we have at work.

I have designed and completed about 20 new ribbon bookmarks that I am really excited about. I have been using more beads in the design and learning new techniques. The problem is the amount of time that it will take to get them up on the web. I so take for granted what goes on behind the scenes on our work website. Here I have been head writer, and webmaster. It isn't easy. It is so tempting to just post items and write as I go but this leads to sloppy, unimaginative writing that does nothing to capture the prospective customer. It is quicker to go this route but in then end I spend time at a later date reading what I wrote and editing it. I also find that I don't always get everything posted using this method as I tend to put the completed products away after I photograph them.

This week I received notification from my internet provider that I had maxed out my monthly usage by the middle of the month. With my son away at school, I was surprised and downloaded and trial version of a program to track my daily usage. It actually tracks every 30 seconds and I learned that my son's laptop, which is what I am using, is constantly downloading information from the internet. I was able to shut down some of the programs but I had to spend most of an entire day dealing with this. I up-graded my internet package to give me more GB for up-loading and down-loading and speed up the internet, as well as learned how to disconnect from the internet when I don't really need it but still need the computer.

I have a spreadsheet for doing the costing and realized that I couldn't use the same spreadsheet to keep track of what and where I posted items. As I have my own site, GLC Mall, and iCraft, and I post different things in different places, I need to keep track of what is posted, when it is posted, and the response I get to each item. I now have two spreadsheets, one for costing, and one for tracking.

To solve a couple of my problems, I decided that if I did my writing ahead of time, disconnected from the internet, I would be much happier. It was a good idea - one problem though, I couldn't use the same spreadsheet that I used for the costing, not really. It gets too messy and cluttered. It will help if I can force certain pieces of information from one spreadsheet to another. I will need to do a bit of research on how to do this as I can't remember how.

I also realize that I need better software. However, the problem is, I don't know how to use anything more sophisticated than Excel so I am now going to need to purchase new software, decide what I want it to do for me, and learn how to use it - I have to ask the question - do I really want to learn?

Working for someone else has benefits, but until this week I thought it was only the steady paycheck. I now much more appreciate the HelpDesk, the IT department that comes and programs Access to do an important part of my job, the Webmaster who quickly and efficiently makes the changes to our website that I need, without a lot of detail, and Marketing who does a lot the writing that gets posted on the web.

Working for yourself, especially on your own crafts, is very satisfying. The freedom I have had over the last few weeks to design and create has opened me up to do more and implement further the goals I set out in my business plan. I keep asking myself what I will need to do in order to continue this once I am back at work, because despite joy in the freedom to create, I still need the paycheck that I get from working full-time.

Keep an eye on my website over the next week for the new products. Right now, my camera is broken. I cannot connect it to my computer and have to rely on my daughter to up-load the pictures from the memory card. Hopefully she will do it this afternoon and I can start to get the new products posted.

Happy Crafting

CraftyLadyLiz