In the early days of starting a new business, the potential is exciting and intoxicating. I’ve been self employed for decades with various businesses and starting them is always the most fun. Deciding on the brand’s identity, values, aesthetic… I love brainstorming names to both represent the current idea and allow room to grow into other things later on as the business matures, working with designers to develop the visual assets that support the vision and function in all of the ways a brand’s identity needs to, packaging, website design, curating social media feeds. Starting is so seductive and it’s easy to get swept up in the momentum of inspiration, especially when we’re watching what other brands are doing on social media.

What takes real effort, however is maintenance. Maintaining the excitement, the momentum, the forward moving trajectory of those early days. This is not easy, in fact some days it downright sucks. It feels like a burden, like a hassle, and like it is not what you signed up for. Quitting crosses my mind in these times more than I care to admit. One of the ways that I manage to overcome these inspiration lows is to pre-empt them at the beginning. Highs have to come with their companion lows so knowing this equips me with the ability to plan for them and have mechanisms that push me ahead even if I’m really not feelin’ it.

For me, in those early days, I set my vision for the short term and the long term. I also spend time getting super clear about why I’m doing any of it in the first place. Identifying this “why” is the source of the push to keep me out of those lows. I know that my business is about helping a community and that the accomplishments achieved by my business are not just mine - they’re shared by many people and it’s my commitment to them that helps me cultivate inspiration when I may not find it for myself.

I’m committed to growing a business that will create jobs and help the Indigenous fur harvesters in my area maintain their traplines and earn a profit doing so. As long as I persist and keep working toward that goal, even in small increments, then I’m going to get a little bit closer to achieving that goal each day. Just thinking about that fans the glowing little ember that can easily become a fire of inspiration.

Self employment is a double edged sword. As the proprietor, I get to make all the decisions about product development, marketing campaigns, hiring, store merchandising, materials suppliers, etc. but at the same time, I have to take all the responsibility if a product doesn’t sell, if events are poorly attended, if money spent on marketing doesn’t yield returns. As much as the weight of responsibility is sometimes a lot, being able to look at my successes is more rewarding than most of the other things I’ve done in my professional life.

I don’t work regular 9-5 M-F hours, in fact, when I get up at 6am, I’m usually thinking about product development and marketing ideas, researching suppliers, packaging, and forecasting the next 6-12 months - all over my morning coffee. I don’t get any paid holidays (I actually kind of pay twice if I take a holiday because revenue slows or stops in my absence and my holiday costs whatever it costs). I really get one day “off” every week. I work longer hours during the last quarter of the year which is when I earn the bulk of my revenue as a retailer. But on the flip side, I get to try anything that I know has the potential to work. I get to learn what I want, implement it how I want, grow at whatever pace suits me, I don’t have to ask permission to take time off, I get to call the shots. All the risk, all the glory.

This kind of employment ain’t for wimps. It’s tough AF but it’s how I’ve done it since high school. I wouldn’t have it any other way, to be honest. I do think about quitting but I never actually do it. I think about getting “a real job” but won’t. This is how I’m wired. Doing things my own way but not with my head in the clouds. Spread sheets, forecasts, budgets, metrics, lists and every other tool to support my success. Is it what I imagined in the beginning? Hell no. Would I give it up? Yeah, that’s a hard pass, too. This self employment gig is about as good as it gets!