Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Sitting on the Fence Post

You know how when you are just teetering on the edge of life and you just don't know if you have what it takes to take the next big leap? Well I have been teetering with my company for the last few months. I have put all of my ducks in a row and just kind of sat there, contemplating the next step. As I work full time, I must admit that my little Faerie Nursery somedays just takes the back burner.

Well over the past two weeks, I have managed to get myself together, have a few brainstorming sessions with great people and in the end making the decision to jump!

So, I jumped. Here I am now, dangling off the edge, with one wee little finger still hanging on for dear life. I don't know about you, but even when you have surrounded yourself with wonderful friends, family and supporters, it is still hard to say...okay, you are going to be okay and everything will work out just fine.

I have applied for two grants for small businesses here in the Northwest Territories. The first one being for small tools and supplies. Now with this grants, like all grant, I had to come up with a business plan that catered to this specific grant. In the end, I decided to commit to making 80 Faerie Suites (50 small doors and 30 large door {these sets include a magical wooden door, trinket chest filled with goodies and a flower petal faerie}{I already had almost 80 doors cut and in the stages of completion}); 50 Seed Pod Faeries (I already have 15 done so I figured that wasn't unrealistic); 25 Teacup Nurseries (as this is still in the experimental stage, they shouldn't be too hard to make, as well each nursery will come with a matching flower petal faerie); and then 200 hundred flower petal faeries (I have over 50 already in made). Now as I am only one person and each of these creations are lovingly hand made, I figured that I could handle this amount of production. The second grant was for marketing and this is the big one. I was hoping to have everything it takes to have a full trade-show booth; store displays, all printed materials, designer and webpage master time and to top it all off, advertising in the local newspaper and possibly a national magazine.

Well today, I found out that both of the grants have been approved! (Actually the small tools and supplies one was approved and signed off last week). So, now here I sit. Pretty scared, pretty nervous and feeling pretty overwhelmed to tell you the truth.

Today, I have taken that leap of faith. That next step. That saying so-long fence post, I don't need you anymore.

So I hope that each and everyone of you, will join me on this journey. As I said in my Facebook post earlier today when I found out my second grant had been approved...

WORLD....HEAR ME ROAR!!