A New Approach to an Old Plan

I want feed back - please comment!!!  I am about to embark on a huge change in my shop - and hopefully my life - and I want to hear what you have to say. (Nothing negative though please - negativity messes with my head).

I asked for a sign from God and the electricity was turned off.  Was that a sign?  I asked for a sign from God and my till got robbed.  Was that a sign?  I don't know.  I don't want to give up all together, I want to change.  I want to grow and to become something.  I want to continue being creative and feeling the way that I feel when I am teaching a class of presenting someone with the beautiful (original) quilt that I made them (PITA, I need pictures please).

So I am going to find a way to grow and to change and to prosper.  I am willing to put in the work.  I want a good life, an easier life - for me and for my children.  I want for them the childhood I had.  Never having to worry, always getting what I really wanted.  Being happily carefree. 

The shop when it was in my home...

She was my reason for keeping it simple.  I want to get back to the basics.

Introduction

Since I began Sugar Shack Quilting in November of 2005, it has undergone an enormous amount of change – all of which seems to happen beginning in the month of November! (I was approved for the self-employment program in November 2005 and began the loan application process to expand in November 2007.)

When Sugar Shack first began and I was going through the self-employment program, the co-ordinator at the time said to me that writing a business plan was like taking a 1,000 piece puzzle, throwing all of the pieces up in the air and then putting them all together so that you can see the big picture.  I remember the feeling after my business plan was done of knowing how right she was to give that advice.  So, now, on the cusp of another big change, I am beginning the re-write of my business plan.  This time I am doing it only for me, to get my feet on the ground, to see where I am want to go and how I will get there – or if it is even a possibility.

In February 2008, I moved the shop taking over an existing shop downtown and transforming it into the bigger, better than in my family room, version of Sugar Shack that I hoped it would be. I thought it would be so much more profitable - busy all the time - I thought that was what I wanted.  I was wrong on both counts and now, in November 2011, I have given my notice in the space I am in and am planning for the future.

During the course of my mental planning I realized that a lot of where I wanted to go with the shop is very much where I have already been.  When I started, I started with the idea of selling the work of others as well as my own but I had not really gotten my creative feet under me yet.  I really wanted to have and sell fabric and felt that it was the be all end all of my crafting life.  I have since learned that it takes a little bit of everything as well as a lot of talent to create and it takes even more than that to be successful and to make a profit.  I have made a lot – a lot – of mistakes along the way, but I have learned so much.  I am at the point now where I want to fix the mistakes, take what I have learned and apply it to a changed concept.  I have new ideas and I want to pursue them.  I have old ideas that are resurfacing and I want to re-explore them as well.  I am excited for change.  I just need to pause and get on the right page so that I know how to do the things I need to do to get back to where I want to be – so here I sit, writing my business plan for the third time in 6 years!