Tired but keeping on

It was a busy day yesterday with all that had to be done on the one day I tend to stay put here and not go anywhere. I got so much done, but I woke up this morning sore and tired from it. Not any different from any other Monday. I'm just not looking forward to going back to work, but then again, I never do. It's just not my favorite place to be, ya know? I keep beating myself up over not starting the store years ago, and I know better late than never, so I need to quit bashing myself over the head, because it's not fair to me or the eventual business. I keep thinking I should just go with Etsy, but with as much as I plan on putting up, relisting fees at 60c a year (20c per item, for four months, so 60c a year) for all those thing that I will have multiples of or will restock regularly, and my ebooks, would get expensive really fast. Plus there's the limit of only 10 categories, and in my rough draft for the store of a category listing, I'm well over 100 categories already.

So a standalone store is going to be a must. I'm thinking of Open Cart, as it's open source and free, plus there are a ton of extensions (both free and paid) for it with good support, so I could still put a tab on FB on the business page for the store, so folks can shop from there, and a tab on the blog for the store to shop from there. Add in that I can also do contests, coupons, gift certificates and an affiliate program through Open Cart, and take PayPal or Amazon Payments while I figure out which credit card processor to use (though PP will let you pay with a CC without having an account), I get a lot of things from a standalone site that I wouldn't get with Etsy. Only downside is immediate exposure, but with applying a lot of the marketing stuff I've learned off Etsy, I can easily get the exposure, so I don't think that will be much of an issue, either. It'll just take time, like anything else. As it is, you don't have to be aggressive about marketing, just assertive, and I can be an assertive person when I need to be. To build my business and get out of working at the plant, I'll be the most assertive person some folks have ever seen.

Shoot, Mom was about my age when she went into business for herself, and she just retired from it after 26 years successfully being in business. Though I am wondering how much all her tax clients are starting to scream at the higher prices they are likely having to pay for preparation now, along with higher prices for many of the bookwork clients, with whoever they've gone with since she retired. Mom (and I when I worked with her) kept the prices reasonable rather than gouging. I guess that's why I'm hearing so many screams from that area lately, haha.

The kittens are wobbly, but walking around all over the nest box, so in a few more weeks, I'll have babies underfoot as bad or worse than the adults, who like to pad slowly down the hall in front of me when I need to hurry, or worse, go running up behind me and dash between my feet trying to kill me. I swear, they are furry little ninjas. Trying to plan a garden for this year, but I think this year, I'll skip it. With no real way to water right now, and all the trees yet to clear, it kind of defeats the purpose of putting things in.

Working on Mom's quilt went well yesterday in between bouts of working on the store stuff. I am nearly done with the last of the quilting, so that's finally almost off the WIP list (Works In Progress, for those of you who don't do needlework other than general mending and sewing on of buttons). I feel like it's about darn time that I show some progress on my projects list!! But it's time to haul together for work, yay me. I get to go mess with chicken boobies again! WOOT!