Whisking on Pens & Needles

Whew.  It’s been a whirlwind the last few weeks.  In trying to keep up with everything Sweet Element, I’ve neglected this lil’ blog.  If you follow both, I guess you’ve figured out by now that this is the more personal of the blogs, where the filter is much less fine than on the Sweet Element blog!  Now that the initial excitement of actually *having* the studio completed is simmering down & I’ve thrown on my marketing hat again, I have a lot more “office” time, so I’m guessing you’ll be seeing a lot more of me on here ~ and hopefully still see new Sweet Element blog entries too!

Let’s see, where to start?  I have so much to say that I almost don’t know where to begin.  Hrm, since lists seem to work for me, I guess I’ll tackle all the floating thoughts that way.

The Vegetarian Way: So far, it’s been fairly easy to drop meat from my diet in 2010.  Granted, there have been a few times where I’ve called bacon a vegetable, and there was that one break-down burger.  In general though, I’ve found a number of pretty awesome new vegetarian recipes and have never felt as “light” on a regular basis.  The few times when I have eaten meat this year, I have felt the “meat lethargy” sink in, which definitely reminded me that even though it may have tasted awesome for those few minutes, it really wasn’t worth it for the next 24-48 hours of “blechness”.  All in all, I’m definitely looking forward to the summer’s local produce, trips to the farmer’s market & working my way through a number of delicious vegetarian recipes.  Hopefully I’ll have the time to post some here!

Entrepreneurship: Whew. This is the big one.  So after an entire year, I finally have the studio space I put on my vision board so long ago.  I’ve got all the equipment, the ingredients & the creative energy flowing.  Now I just need: CUSTOMERS.  I know that it’ll be a slow growth, especially not having a traditional storefront.  Of course, knowing it and living it are two completely different things entirely.  Having a business background, I am fully aware that marketing a business takes time & money, and if done well, the return on investment will come!  Being on a limited budget has definitely made me think creatively about ways to promote myself.  I’m hoping that at least a few of them pay off, but only time will tell.  In the interim, it’s a lot of waiting time, which makes me crazy. Do all entrepreneurs have those days where they feel they are crazy?  There’s something very comforting about the steady paycheck from corporate America, but even as crazy as entrepreneurship is making me these days, I still don’t think I’d go back to the cubicle, where I never felt I could be “me”.

Money: As you might imagine, this is directly tied to the start-up of Sweet Element and one of the major concerns of being an entrepreneur.  My nature has always been the kind to save for a rainy day, so spending all of our emergency fund & dipping into our home equity line to open up shop has me on ~~edge~~. Add to that a number of unexpected expenses in the past few months  (Thank you chipmunk/squirrel who decided to make a nest in our engine compartment to the tune of $1000+ in repairs! ), & my inner saver is just tweaked out.  I have to remind myself that Jay & I have lived through these tight times before, and we’ve worked it out.  I also have to remind myself that while not the ultimate goal of having my own business, making a profit is DEFINITELY on the list! (In case you’re curious, the ultimate goal for me having my own business is to allow me to live a truly creative life & bring joy to my clients!)

I feel oddly better after getting all that out in words.  Time for a late breakfast, a lil’ grocery shopping & chocolating.