Friday, January 2, 2009

Leap, and the net will appear

I'm usually not prone to new year's ruminations or resolutions, but this year I find myself pondering the changes I'd like to see in my life and what I'm doing to make them happen.

The biggie is to go full time with my own work. I guess I should clarify that, since I've been putting in at least 40 hours most weeks in addition to the 40 hours spent at my day job. I'd like to quit or go part time at the day job, which is growing increasingly miserable with no indication of getting any better any time soon. I'm tired of dreading going in each day and of being angry and/or outraged most of the time I'm there.

To help achieve this goal, I made the difficult decision to put motorcycle racing on hold for now. It's a HUGE cash drain ($12k to $15k a year, depending on how much broken stuff needs fixing and how many times I crash) so that will help my finances out tremendously. It's been a huge part of my life for the last 7 years, so it was a hard decision to make, but it feels right. It also takes up quite a bit of time, because the bikes are in constant need of attention. Interestingly enough, my boyfriend Kelly, who has been racing for 13 years, came to the same decision independently for himself for similar reasons.

I'm also going to work on a bookkeeping system (there's a reason I went to art school and not business school), ways to advertise my store, selling at other venues besides Etsy and I want to keep developing my skills and working on new designs. This is kind of a funky time to be starting a new business, but last year was more successful than I ever imagined, so it feels like the right thing to do.

While I'm not going to make the leap just yet, I'm glad to have made the choice to work in that direction this year.

So, what do you hope to change in 2009?

2 comments:

Chocolate and Steel said...

best of luck in the new year. I think your work is incredible.

I have advice for a bookkeeping system. I started using quickbooks last year and it has made everything so much easier.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue - When I was a contractor, I used quickbooks too, it is a great piece of software which I thought was worth the licensing fees. If you need any help let me know, I'm not a pro but have used it and found it very useful!

Good for you! I am so happy for you, you're making all of the right decisions for all of the right reasons. You're very talented and there is no reason that you shouldn't push back and do what you want to do! That is such a great thing, and I'm very envious and jealous! :)

You go gir1!!!!!

L.