2012 was a scary year for me. I went from a retail managing job making $50,000 yearly salary on top of a $15,000 year end bonus to hating my work, resigning and starting my own business with my own terms. Sounds stupid? More like worth it. Why quit a decent secure job with some money cushion? Simple...I hated working for other peoples goals.
One part of the job I enjoyed, without realizing I enjoyed it, was the shipments of jewelry that would come in weekly. It was exciting to see what new bracelets and necklaces that corporate decided to hand to us. Then I would test out the jewelry and get bummed. Cheap metal with faux leather and too much going on. I always thought "I could do better." So I did.
The job I had took up too much of my time. I flew out 4 times a year to only God knows where with horrible daily hours that it was very difficult to start another business with all of that going on. So I quit that job and got another job part time that didn't depend on me so much. Now remember, being young and single with no children really helped with the financial risk. All I had to worry about was me and me alone. At that time, I got a couple roommates and a 3 bedroom house to help with rent and utilities. It easily made rent only $350 for me plus 1/3 of the electricity. It was crucial to lower my "fancy" $1,100 one bedroom apartment price tag to make this new business venture happen. I really had to sacrifice everything that I was comfortable with in order to do so.
With my monthly bills lowered and a part time job that only paid maybe $200 a week, I took $100 and spent it on supplies and tools and made a couple bracelets and keychains. And that's where it all kicked off. I went to my personal social media and advertised just enough to not annoy the hell out of people. My friends were interested in the personalization part of my business and told other people who told their friends. I got orders, made a lot of errors but learned what it took to operate an online business all by myself. And with that money I purchased more product supplies to create new inventory and to keep up with what inventory I had at the time. And now, 4 years laters, I have over 150 different products within two different online stores. Oh, and I also quit my part time job just before year 2 of being in business. Then I was officially a self-employeed entrepreneur.
In all honesty, it was a struggle. The first year I hardly ate and I couldn't do anything fun. I had to keep what money I had because you never know if the next week you will make any profit or not. It's so risky yet so rewarding. Now I make more money than I have ever made in my life and I can take vacations whenever I feel like it. I don't have to answer to a boss because I am the boss. I set my own goals and I get so hyped when I reach them. Today, I couldn't imagine working for anyone else but me. It is still a lot of hard work but because it's MY hard work it means more to me. Being an entrepreneur isn't for everyone. If you are a self-starter and have the passion then you can do anything with that type of drive. You just have to make some set backs in order to begin to move forward.
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