Transitioning

 What a year it has been! 2017 has been my most challenging year yet. This time last year, I was so sure that during my maternity leave, I would have all the time in the world to blog to my heart’s content, but God had other plans.

I will like to shout out to my friends who have kept asking about my blog and encouraging me to update. Thank you for believing in my journey. This post is dedicated to you guys.

This year, all 5 months of it, has been filled with more downs than ups. Just as we get over one unexpected and sad event, something else happens. I am trusting God and believing in him that the rest of the year will be filled with good news.

I said to my husband this afternoon that I felt so unsettled and I couldn’t explain why. He said this to me – we are transitioning. This made so much sense once he said it. We have so many things going on / in progress in our individual lives and in our lives as a family that sometimes it gets overwhelming. We encourage each other to take one day at a time and remind ourselves that this is just a phase – our transitioning phase. I will share briefly about a project I am currently working on.

I am sure I have shared in previous posts about how I have been looking for my entrepreneurial purpose (see http://www.justdoitmum.com). I have always had this itch in me to do something more, in addition to being a family woman and working in the corporate world. However, nothing has ever been able to fill that gap. I dabbled into knitting and crocheting, which I still enjoy as a hobby, as well as sewing, but I soon found that these things were not going to satisfy that hunger in me. This hunger grew so much, that I often stayed up late at night telling myself off for wasting another day. I felt like every spare minute I had should be invested in growing my passion.

One day, 5 months into my maternity leave, I realised my leave will be over soon and I would have wasted the best opportunity to kick start whatever it was I wanted to do. In my desperation, I saw what was right in front me and has been there for the last 7 months! A couple of my friends had mentioned in the past about selling on Amazon and I just did not allow myself appreciate that this could be a reality until January this year. When I remembered, I decided to give it a go. I asked my friends tons of questions, read a lot about the process and paid for some courses. I was amazed to see how much information was available online about selling on Amazon, eBay and the likes. Before I knew it, I had registered a company with my sister in-law, opened a business account and stocked up on my first products. All of this was very daunting for me as I have never really being a risk taker. For the first time in my life, I was taking a real risk, but I knew whichever way it panned out, I would have learned a valuable lesson about running a business from the experience.

Now, selling on Amazon is not the finish line for me, it is currently a means to an end. I am still experimenting to see what works. However, four months in and with the help of my support system, and business colleagues with the same goals, I have ordered the company’s first product from China. It has been stressful but extremely fun getting to this stage. Discussing my requirements with Chinese suppliers has been the pain of my life! One minute I think I have managed to communicate everything I need and all that is left is to pay, the next minute I am being told oh, is this what you want, it costs $x more, or we don’t have that in stock, to get it for you it costs $x more, or you want this, the minimum order quantity is more than you are asking for, and the list goes on! After all of this, I have finally been able to narrow down the specification of the product. It is not my first choice in terms of design, but it is still a very good product I believe in (more to be revealed soon). This will be the first of what we hope will be a lot more products branded by our company. Who knows, we just may innovate the next best thing since sliced bread. Until then, my brain fluids will be working way, trying to come up with our next product.

In a nutshell, this is what has been keeping me extremely busy. This, along with raising my two kids, being a wife to my husband and other day to day chores life throws my way. I will also be going back to work in a couple of months. I am curious to see how juggling all of this pans out. I know it will not be easy, but nothing good comes easy right?

Notwithstanding, I am very excited about the future! I am glad I have taken this step. Best believe, I am doing all of this very afraid, but I am determined to keep moving forward and encourage myself every step of the way. I will keep you posted as much as possible – especially when the product is ready! Watch this space.

Are you also taking a plunge into the business world, or are you well versed in this? I am always happy to learn from people or to share the little I know. So please, share your tips or ask me questions?