We’re a few days away from launching Eleven18 Collection, and there’s so much left to do. I’ve been searching for ways to get brand exposure and share the designs I love. I have so many emotions, from fear, angst, happiness, excitement, and everything else in the book. Here are 5 things I’ve learned in the past month prepping for the Eleven18 launch.
You Cannot Plan Enough
Even if you think you’ve planned for everything, you haven’t. Whether that be planning for your website, your design, your social media… Honestly, nothing is enough, and that’s okay. Nothing will ever be enough when you love it. There’s always going to be more you can, should, or want to do, and sometimes you just have to do what you can and let the rest fall into place.
Ask For Help
In the same vein of not being able to do enough - there’s help out there. I work full-time in corporate America. I also work part-time freelancing, so planning a business and planning it well was going to be difficult. In the midst of it all, I hired two wonderful virtual assistants and a website designer. These three wonderful, smart, hard-working women have helped immensely in keeping me sane, and I’ll be forever grateful.
Be Proud of What You’ve Done
Whether this dream succeeds or fails, I’ll know that I got further than I ever have. I have thought about this again and again. I’ve discussed it with myself, my dog, and my boyfriend (in that order), and I talked myself out of it each time. Finally, five years later, I have a website and pieces I want to share with the world. Pieces of jewelry I’m truly proud of.
Give Yourself Breaks
If you let yourself, you can work day in and day out. You can create content, design products, build your website, advertise, and everything else in between, and you still won’t be done. So schedule breaks and force yourself to log off – the work will be there tomorrow. Trust me.
Take it Day by Day
I think this speaks for itself. Just do what you have to do. Focus on the day ahead, and don’t get caught up in tomorrow too much. Focusing on what you have to do in the following days will take away from what you need to do in the present.
Life is so funny. One minute you’re a Copywriter, and the next, you’re starting a business. For me, it was important to be intentional about every step. Not everything in this launch is perfect – my marketing, my advertising, my social media feed – it’s truly just me doing my best. But if I’m intentional about each moment and thoughtful about the content I create, then everything will be okay.