What a difference a day makes…
So, I’ve been in my little office since March 1. It’s been quite a journey so far, and on most days I have wanted to give up. But I haven’t yet. I go away, refocus and come back for another try. One day really does make a big difference, that and a good sleep. The first big challenges were getting this website online and getting business cards ready. Those things have been so large in my mind for so long that it was a shock once they were finally launched/retrieved. No matter what people advise on YouTube, Squarespace was tricky to figure out at first, but now that my pages are created, curated and organised, it is easy to use. Linking my Squarespace webpage to the domain that I purchased through 1stdomains was not so straightforward but the help from 1stdomains was very good. Also be aware that some of the changes that you make in terms of connection may take up to 5 business days to occur - this can be distressing as one waits to launch everything…
Once I launched the website, there were a few minutes of panic mixed with elation as I experienced the relief of having achieved what I thought was unachievable, and then faced a brain going nuts about what to do next. Everything that I have to do for my little business is new to me, and it takes a lot of energy to face each task… we all know that wrestling the imposter syndrome into the background is very hard work, but so far I’m getting things done. When the self doubt creeps in, my self talk goes something like ‘lots of people do this, so I’m sure that you can figure this out’, and ‘Just ask the question’, and ‘you gave yourself 12 months to try this, so let’s just give it a chance - you can give up later, but not now’, and ‘take a break and come back later’, and ‘just press the button, try it out!’
Yesterday marked a major milestone: I had my first customer meeting and sent my first quote! That is going to be a really cool project, part of the ‘make wool great again!’ arm of my business. I’m also in the process of setting up two other customer meetings - one for materials consultation and one for education. So things are starting to move. This is a weird fulfilment of a conversation that I had last Friday with one of the property managers of the Burns Lodge complex. She wanted to know if I was busy, and I replied with a disappointed ‘no’. She responded ‘well, soon you’ll be run off your feet, I’m sure of it.’ Hopefully that day will be very soon, but for now I need to go and promote Blaikie Science Solutions some more… Who knows what tomorrow will bring!