Hi there, fellow female entrepreneurs! My name is Natalie and I’m a new contributor here on the FEA blog. For my blog series, Launching a Creative Business, I will be sharing with you all of the steps I’ll be taking in order to build my own creative business in the hope that you’ll find something useful and inspiring to aid you on your own entrepreneurial journey.
If you’ve ever wanted to make a living by doing what you truly love, then you should know (if you don’t already) that you are definitely not alone. There are so many inspiring women out there who are already successfully going for it, and many of them have shared countless resources to help the rest of us make the most out of the obligatory work hours that our lives must center around day in and day out if we want to have the things we need and want to survive and thrive.
The great news is that you don’t have to spend your whole life working for other people if that is not what truly makes you feel fulfilled. If you’re good at what you do and you’re extremely organized, resourceful, determined, and hard-working, you can create a business where you’re the boss and you decide how you spend your time and the amount of money you want to make. Let’s face it – it’s not an easy route, but it’s an extremely rewarding one that has its ups and downs, accomplishments and yes, sometimes failures, but you can honestly do it if you believe in yourself.
Launching a business can be an insanely overwhelming task. I know because that’s exactly what I’m trying to do while working full-time for someone else. I don’t absolutely hate my day job because I do get to be somewhat creative and design t-shirts at a screen printing shop, but I know that my best skills aren’t being used and I’m not being given the opportunity to grow to my fullest potential by working here. That’s exactly why I’m sacrificing nights and weekends to launch a shop of handmade design-driven products on Etsy along with a graphic design and illustration studio. (Read more of my story here.)
My long-term goal is to eventually be able to quit my job and spend my days creating meaningful work for clients that I get to choose. Another plus for working for myself as a designer and artist is that, after I build a strong foundation for my business and good client relationships, I could pretty much work anywhere in the world just by sending my work via the internet. As a young woman who seeks to live my life to the fullest (as should you!), having the freedom to travel around the world and plan out what I want to do with my day and my life is something I greatly look forward to being able to do someday.
That would be my definition of living the dream! What’s yours?
