Holy Smokes, We've Launched

With great perseverance, determination, and a bit of procrastination, we have launched our online shop! Back in April, I decided that I wanted to start this business. I made all the lists of all the things and slowly, one by one, achieved what I needed to make it all happen. I had goals to accept my fist material donation by July and to launch the shop by August - mind you I've been continuing to work 30 hours/wk at my day job -  and I've reached both.. these are milestones! What a crazy feeling this is!!

I know it's just the beginning. I only have around 60 products listed currently but know that things will continue to grow exponentially as the word gets out and more people realize what an amazing resource this is. I'm so looking forward to that growth phase. In the meantime though, I'm basking in this achievement. I can't believe how much I've learned already through this process. I know there will be all kinds of hiccups and hurdles that present themselves along the way but I'm READY. 

My next steps include shifting the focus to outreach and materials acquisition and I'm thrilled about this part! Now that I've done all the nitty gritty stuff to get my business started and have become comfortable with some of my important "behind the scenes" processes, I can shift to focusing on connecting with my community, and have a more grounded sense of self and feeling of where my place is within all of it. I love meeting like-minded folks, creative folks, nice folks. And if I've learned anything from being a part of the art/creative scene for the past 10 years, it's that ya'll are my people. And I'm thrilled to connect with you. 

I feel like I have a million ideas for what I'd like to do with Cat's Eye. Pop ups, make-n-take craft events, some form of a give back program, sustainability initiatives, artist challenges and the list goes on and on...and I'll break it all down into tiny steps the way I've been doing so far, and eventually these things will become official the way my shop did today. I've got my eye on the prize ya'll. And the prize is being able to do something meaningful, helpful, fun, and stimulating for a living. And doing it with autonomy to boot! I'm so very happy to be here now. Thanks so much for being here with me. 

Cheers, to whatever is next!