I was feeling a more personal post today so I hope that's alright...
(edited to add: my birthday isn't actually until friday, but thank you for the sweet birthday wishes already :P)
When I think back on the past 12 months of being 23, I feel like I've grown by leaps and bounds in terms of maturity (well, sometimes) and finding myself. I've always felt like I kind of knew what I wanted to be/do, but the past year has really solidified some of my life dreams.
Last March I turned 23. I wrote
a 23 before 24 list, half of it was silly, the other half semi-serious. Little did I know that so very very much of what was in store for me the following year wouldn't even make it's way to that paper. I had these ideas for myself, and Mike, that I didn't think we'd even touch on until a year or two down the road. Honeybean is a shining example of that. After being inspired by so many wonderful ladies and friends in so many cities, we decided to take the plunge. 2 weeks after the thought we had a business license, and 3 weeks later we had a full renovated camper. That was already
almost 8 months ago! Just 3-4 months into my new list and I was already tackling bigger and better things. It's an awesome feeling.
Not only that, but we signed the lease to the loft on my birthday. What a birthday present that was! We lived there for almost 11 months and absolutely loved it. Then we took a chance on the other side of the river... We've only been here 6 weeks but we think it's so great. We love our little house, and we're making it into more of a home daily. Then there was Toby... oh my stars! This obviously is the most recent (and biggest!) adventure we've embarked on, and it's without a doubt been the most rewarding. It was like our priorities all of a sudden shifted when came into our lives.
I tend to keep the "big important secrets" under wraps for a while, just to make sure they don't fall through before speaking publicly about them. But because I've found so few women who are willing to share their journey, failures and successes, with a small business, I wanted to try and speak about mine. We've been looking at brick and mortar spaces the past little while. A few "oh we're interested in hearing more" phone calls made, and a much more serious one as of late. We found a space... nearby our home and a great size for starting out. The price and situation seem great, too. The only thing we're not sure of: the location is ~eh, even though it has 30,000 cars passing by daily (!!!), and the "Are we ready?!" freak out. I thought by having Honeybean it'd help satisfy the need for a storefront. It'd give us a few years to get things ready and to plan... but it's done the exact opposite. It's made me realize how much I loved owning my own business and it makes me eager to move on to bigger and better things (all the while keeping the 'bean of course!)
We've talked with some friends and showed them the space. We've gone over it in our heads, and aloud. We've weighed the pros and cons and when we still couldn't really make a decision, we decided to re-prioritize yet again. I honestly do feel so incredibly lucky to be in the situation I'm in. To have a partner who is as interested in making this a "family business" as I am, and to have all of you to share this journey with. While our initial thought process was to put our money toward opening up a brick and mortar, then think about buying a house, we're thinking we may flip that. Or at the very least take baby steps. We won't be signing anything for that space soon, but to know that we're at that point... the looking and planning... man, it's terrifying!
One of the things I find so alarming about the blog world is how "effortless" everything seems. The perfect life, the perfect babies, the perfect jobs and opportunities that fall into laps. Life isn't like that. No matter how much we try to sugarcoat it to make it seem like a fairytale, there are real struggles there. Daily ones. I know I mentioned a handful of posts ago that I find it so disheartening that there are so many women out there that refuse to speak openly (and honestly) about their journeys. Even privately! It seems as so many just want to keep their secret locked away so they're the only ones who are successful. Maybe it's a little naive of me to think of blogging as a community, because I'll gladly be the first to admit that not everyone is nice. But to be fair, building a business from the ground up isn't something that happens overnight and it's not something that everyone can get lucky on. It takes planning and budgeting and maybe even sobbing here and there. It's a little bit bigger than just starting a blog. The idea that you can "wish" your way into a successful business is kind of foolish. And maybe I'm just slightly bitter that there are women out there who operate under the 'guise of "helping you" and "teaching you what they know" because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize who is self-motivated and who isn't. Of course this isn't meant to point any fingers (and if you think it's about you then you should have talk with yourself), because it's about no one specific. Just the general air of blogging and owning a business.
I've found so much support from so many ladies through blogging. Vanessa of
Wanderlust, Punky from
Haberdash, and even some rad ladies here in Nashville. The girls at
Old Made Good here in Nashville made a great point: "Commerce breeds commerce." I feel like the stinky air of competition drowns out so many potential partnerships and friendships. That can be even said for
just blogging! Stop competing so much and just make friends!
Anyway, I've gone on a tangent! That wasn't my intention! I guess my whole point was to say that I have big plans for 24. For me, for our family, for our business. Whether they all come to fruition or not is something to discuss in 52 weeks, but it won't be for lack of trying. I have to constantly remind myself that it's okay to start small. You don't necessarily have to throw yourself overboard to be successful. Businesses take time to build. And I'm slowly but surely learning some patience. The motto for my 24th year starting Friday: "Make yourself proud." That's the plan! And we're moving in the right direction!
What have you done to make yourself proud?
