It Isn’t Always Smooth Sailing

I had grand plans when the big blue beast became a reality. I was going to be cutting beautiful designs every night and mailing them or delivering them to people! I would be creating things that I love to give my friends and family. It would be effortless and fun. It would give me an outlet for all the stress my day job delivers. It was a beautiful dream.

But then reality started to hit me over the head in ways I didn’t expect.

First issues – materials, learning the software and facebook…

I was so excited the first few times I used Blue. My projects were not perfect – I was trying to figure out what speed and power to use (Note to newbies – you should not be cutting at greater than 80%). Then trying to figure out the inconsistencies – it cut fine yesterday – now it won;t cut at all. it cut this – why not that. First solution – clean the lenses before every use. That has saved me so much headache and heartache.

Next up – materials. In our town getting 1/8 material nearly takes an act of congress. The number of calls and visits to lumber stores and home improvement centers is endless. The number of calls that don;t get returned – nearly endless as well. I have had some luck getting remnant pieces from a cabinet maker and our local home improvement store carries 12″x24″ 3mm material. Its spendy – but at least I can keep moving forward.

I finally found a product that was selling faster than I could keep up on Facebook Marketplace – I was thrilled and optimistic. It is the 2020 F-Flake ornament and I woke up on Thanksgiving to 30 orders – I was on my way to paying off Blue before Christmas.  Then Facebook tragedy happened. My personal facebook page was hacked overnight and I woke up unable to access facebook, message people I had orders ready to deliver and was locked out of the Studio business page.

Here we are in March of 2021 and my request for access to my personal Facebook page has been denied again. But I have been able to gain access to the Studio and my Graphic Design page. The lesson here – make sure you have another person on your business page, and whenever possible run all transactions thru either your business page, Etsy, or an online order system so you are able to reach customers.

I am launching the Etsy store and website this week during a Virtual market – fingers crossed it will go well!

Happy creating!