As I continue the planning/brainstorming/gathering information stages of starting my business, I find myself ambivalent (thank you Girl, Interrupted for teaching me that word). Looked at GoDaddy.com for info on site hosting and I like what I see. For online stores they really offer a lot and have 3 different plans. The smallest definitely won’t do, can’t decide between the middle and largest. Thinking about starting off with the middle and upgrading to the largest when I have the need and the means to do so. They offer credit card processing through PayPal, shipping tables, ability to ship all over the world, advertising, online coupons, gift cards, etc. They really, really offer a lot. And it looks like they have it set up to make it pretty easy to design and get everything started.
Pretty sure I’ll be using Chase Bank for my banking needs. I’ve been using them for personal banking since I was 16 and have always loved them (I think they were still Bank 1 back then, lol). Looked on their site for business account info. They offer merchant services (point-of-sale credit card processing) which will come in handy if I start using the flea market a lot. But that will wait. I’ll start off only accepting cash and if I lose a lot of sales because of people only having cards on them, I will definitely get my hands on a machine. They also offer payroll services with electronic tax deposits. One less thing for me to worry about!
Another concern of mine is location. The obvious answer is “work from home”, but what if zoning laws don’t allow me to register a business from my apartment? And since my plan is to start small and slowly expand, I doubt I’ll find myself able to afford renting an office right away. But when I mentioned all of this to my mom, she told me that a lot of people in that situation will get a P.O. box and use that as the address with which they register their business! So I have hope!
Those are the parts I’ve somewhat figured out (or at least have an idea about) that make me more excited. Little things like that make me feel like these beautiful but chaotic and disorganized ideas swirling around in my head are finally attaching themselves to one another and evolving into an actual plan!
Then there are some things that just plain discourage me. Such as the process for starting it. Went to a website dedicated to helping you plan and start a small business in Louisiana. When I looked at the list of fees involved, I immediately felt overwhelmed. Not by the fees themselves, but by the descriptions of the fees. I didn’t know what most of it meant, it was a completely different language. What am I doing? I don’t know anything about business. I remember enough from the research I did a year ago that I probably want to have an LLC instead of a sole proprietorship or an S or C corporation.
Another problem. I really, really wanted to call my company “Everyday Gypsy”. I though it perfectly captured the style and the feel of what I plan to do. Because for most people the word “gypsy” makes them imagine something in the likeness of Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. But what it means to me is someone who has seen the world, or would at least like to. Someone who doesn’t have just one style of personal fashion, but instead decides when they wake up that morning which aspect of their personality they want to express that day. Most days I’m a low-maintenance kind of girl, some may even say a tomboy. T-shirt, jeans, little to no makeup. But then I get dressed up in some of my belly dancing stuff and I feel transformed. And it doesn’t even have to be something as “costume-y” as that. Even just putting on a dress for a party, or dressing nice for a job interview. It’s not often I deviate from my jeans-and-t-shirt style. But when I do, I don’t feel like I’m being fake or untrue to myself, I feel like I’m letting out a part of myself that many people (including myself) don’t get to see everyday. And for many people, those daily fashion choices aren’t just based on what they have in the closet, but are inspired by other cultures. That’s the part that I feel “gypsy” truly captures. “World traveler”. “Explorer”. Not only explorer of other parts of the world, but an explorer of themselves. Who are you? What are your favorite parts of who you are? How can you use your physical form to tell the people you meet something about yourself? Are you flirty? Are you creative? Are you intellectual? Are you active? Are you professional? Are you sweet? Are you strong? Are you funny? The thing is, no one person is ever one thing. We are all a collection of traits, of strengths and weaknesses. You can choose simply by your choice of outfit which of those traits to enhance. There’s no doubt about it that you will be judged by how you dress. It’s unavoidable. So of course we care how we look, we care what people think of us. But I like to think it come from more than just, “Does this room full of strangers find my outfit fashionable?” and more to do with, “What will they assume about me as a person based on what I’m wearing? What first impression am I making walking into this room? What can they learn about me before even speaking to me by simply looking at what I’m wearing?” This is what I want to do with my business. Create a wide variety of choices that can all be worn fabulously by the same person (not all at the same time, that would be bulky). Create a line of clothing that can be easily adapted to different situations and fit in with what is considered to be “appropriate” for different settings, while still letting some of your personality show through. This is why I wanted to call it “Everyday Gypsy”, because it is meant to be a way to express all of the wonderful little things about you, while still be relevant to today’s fashions.
While typing all of that, especially the parts about different aspects of one’s personality, one word kept popping into my head. “Multifaceted”. It’s a word often used to describe something that has many different sides, different aspects, a plethora of things to be discovered if one takes the time to look closely enough. I consider myself to be a multifaceted person and that is who I want to sell to. Multifaceted women.
Eureka! One quick online search yields that multifaceted.com is taken, but multifacetedapparel.com is not! What do you guys think? Multifaceted Apparel. Saying it out loud, it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as I would hope, but maybe it just needs to be said a few more times. I’m sure Band-Aid and Cheetos and Starbucks sounded kind of odd the first time they were said, but nobody questions them now, do they?!
So as I add to the list of things I need to figure out, I can find hope in the fact even while typing about the things that are not coming together I can find the inspiration to overcome them! This is what I love about my brain. As soon as one tiny little creative thought drifts in there, it triggers an avalanche of ideas, that in turn trigger more. I’m really starting to think that I’ll get to spend my life creating. Which has been a secret dream of mine for a long time.
Once again, farewell, much love and appreciation for taking the time to read my never ending rambles.
bailleecakes 