I started watching on youtube a talk by Casey Neistat. I loved how he talked about his beginnings from A to B with his youtube channel and business. He has the defunct app Beme, but explained how he was able to take that failure to turn it into a 25 million dollar deal with CNN. CNN didn’t purchase the failed app, but his team creative.

I’m also watching a video about chat bot shops. It really interesting for me because I’m a one person show. I also work a full time job. It really would be great to get help with customer service. Is it possible to have this work for a small business person.

I got my paperwork sent into get my business account from my bank. I went in and talked with a banking staff. They gave me the forms. It’s good to have a business account to be able to track all your business expenses and tax purposes. I had to provide a business license and website to show that I’m legit.

I got more of my cards in. I need to get my line and whole sale sheets updated. My black and white cards came in. My stickers came in of my owls. I’m also decided I need to create a packing slip. Etsy auto can set up packing slips for you. It’s just a paper that lets you know what was in the order. I’m going to find out if Shopify or Weebly store can generate it for me.

For bookkeeping I’m looking into Quickbooks and Outright.  Quickbooks is about $7 per month. Back in the day I used it for my home bookkeeping. I’ll probably go with Quickbooks. I got this info off Olivia Haywood and Holly Casto’s Youtube video. I currently use an excel form to track expenses.

I found this info from Youtube from Fuzzy and Birch. She provides a template as well on the MORE section of the video. Scroll down. Has a photoshop template to get a preview of your Instagram as a whole. This was really helpful! Here is a screenshot of what my next 5 posts will look like. It gives you a overall view. I think people think of their feed as 1 post at a time. I think you have to look at it overall. What feeling or look are you communicating to your viewers? Does it communicate your brand? You only have less then 3 seconds on instagram to catch a viewers’ attention. Your photos have to be top notch.

Another tip is archive your stuff that doesn’t look good on instagram. Many of my early photos were dark and had a yellow cast. I archived them so if you need to go back and review your photos you still have them. It looked odd that I had so many bad posts compared to my newer lighter and brighter photos. I didn’t make my instagram feed public until much later. I had tons of not relevant posts. I like cooking and food. I removed those photos. Now there is a lighter/friendly feel. I’m getting better at taking photos. The photo booth I purchased really helped. I work full time so using natural light really doesn’t help me because I’m working during the day. I get home the lighting is just not there.  Here is the photo booth. FYI this is an affiliate link.

Just some free tips!

I was doing some more online research for ways to push and post timed messages on instagram. I’ve got a full time job, mom, and wife. My schedule is pretty busy. Then I’m doing this design and stationery business on the side. I found a program called Later.com. You register online and then you download the app on your phone. Then I post in advance for the next week. I like this better then Planoly. I signed up for that as well. The free plan only allows 15 posts per month. That’s not enough. Later allows you to do 30 posts, 50 Tweets, and 30 Pins. That’s much better. It is really easy to use. It pushes your posts through your phone app. Pretty cool stuff.  Here is a link to refer you to the site Later.com.  I do get 10 extra posts if you sign up via that link. I would appreciate it!

Hi All, I just used mailchimp to set up my enewsletter.
Link Cute Critter Stationery.
It will give you updates and behind the scenes info on my process. It’s been fun playing around with Mail Chimp it is a free (up to 2,000 emails). It’s a great way to get in touch with people that are interested in your art/products. It wasn’t too hard to learn. Absolutely no coding required. Drag and drop to design your landing page, and emails. Great product!

Feb. 2018. It seems to me there isn’t anything specific out there to tell you how to get a Georgia Sales and Use taxes. I need one because I want to sell a product online and at craft fairs in the state I live in. I went ahead and signed up with the GA Tax Center first for my personal taxes. Georgia Tax Center I visited their site registered for my personal taxes. I registered for a sole proprietorship. Now if you are already a LLC or Incorporated then this won’t apply to you. After I set up my personal tax login I went ahead and applied for a sole proprietorship. There is a section on the page after you login that says “see more links”.

Then once that clears. You’ll see it under your submission section. Then you go back to “see more links” again. This time you will select 4th from the top. Register a New Tax Account. Follow the directions. You need to know the your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). There is a search field that you can type in some keywords and I was able to find mine. That was the hardest part. Then I answered the questions. It was pretty easy. Free.

The Sale and Use tax I can pay online with my account on a monthly basis. I have to report even if I don’t make any money at all that month. I’m going to call the GA Tax Center incase I have any issues. Super nice people on the phone. Don’t be afraid to call.

After that I went to my County Business Registration office and applied for my business license. The cost was on a sliding scale. Depends on how much you think you will make per year. They helped me out at the office to fill it out. Then each year I will have to repay the fee.

It had always seemed like a mystery how all this worked. It isn’t too bad. I asked lots of questions from the different offices.

I realized I never did this before because I never really treated my design and illustration work as a real business. I never did a budget. I do a personal budget for my final. I realized after reading and listen to so many vlogs about home businesses that this is really important. I did a google search for business budget templates. Microsoft had a free template for business. Here is the link for the one I’m using.
Office Xcel Business Budget Template I edit it as needed. So far I’ve got a clear idea of what I’m going to be spending for the month and a projection for the year.

I never learned this in college. When I got a lot older I read Dave Ramsey and Jim Collins “A Simple Path to Wealth.” Then I learned how to budget for myself. I realized this is really important especially starting a new business. Who knows maybe they teach it now, but not once did anyone mention learning how to use Quickbooks or Microsoft Office. I just learned when I worked as a graphic designer. Then I never really applied it to my freelance work. Now I am. Hopefully this will mean a better start.

I so wish I could do this. But it is really hard to get the hubby and child to see the worth of it. I enjoyed this youtube video with Joshua Fields. I have a small room in my house that is full of my art and creative making things.

This was super cool! I got featured on #calligrabasics for my Namaste. I love the lettering by the other featured artists.
@airyfairyletters
@kaish_calli
@maddy_letters
It makes me feel like maybe I’m going in the right direction for my work. Lettering has been too much fun and I’m continuing to learn and grow. #namaste #handlettering #lettering #illustration #illustrator

As I get older I’m more patient in most aspects of my life. I find that everything takes time and time saves you money. I recommend using your public library. It seems old fashioned in this day in age when you can purchase a used copy of any book on Amazon. Don’t get me wrong I do make purchases on Amazon. Unless I really want to add to my small library. Space is limited in my home. I really have to want it and know that I’m going to use it beyond a simple read through. Love my public library. Got 2 books on hold. I’m inching up on the hold list. I’m doing research on selling my work.