Working towards goals

I've set many a goal in my time and to be honest most of the time I never reach the goal - oops. This year I have one main goal (getting Rainbow Designs back on track) which leads to having reasons why I MUST achieve this goal. Not the least of which is, quite obviously, eating and paying bills BUT I also have other reasons why I want Rainbow Designs to get back on track. These are things I am focusing on to give me the MOTIVATION I really, truly need to get things happening.

All You Can Eat - an amazing variety of the products that go in our hampers!

When I start thinking 'this is too hard' or 'what's the point' I look to the things I want to be able to do to push me on. To make me get up every morning and get on with things. It's never been a walk in the park and I can't imagine it ever will be but it has been getting harder and harder to keep going. I woke this morning with the intention of letting go of the negative thoughts and to try, try, try and focus on what I need to do for my business (and my sanity!). I know I'll have down days (I'm just wired like that) BUT I am going to try so very hard to limit them and limit how much they affect me and my attitude to Rainbow Designs (and life in general really).

Sydney - Smooth Festival of Chocolate!

My biggest motivation is my family and being able to spend time with them doing 'fun activities'. I think they all start to get a bit nervous when I mention a 'fun activity' now as the last few haven't been 'fun'. Well, they have but not necessarily for everyone or when it was actually happening - great memories though. The last 'fun activity' I planned was with my mum climbing a bridge - mum is terrified of heights so lets just say not much 'fun' was had by her that day. (sorry mum) We can laugh about it now and even though during the climb mum wasn't having any fun at all the time we got to spend together is irreplaceable. We've even got some photos so if mum tries to block it from her memory I can whip out the photo album and remind her all over again :-) ha ha

The dreaded bridge! It's not that high mum.

I've been lucky to have had many fabulous holidays and weekends away but am now paying for it or more accurately still paying for them - gaaaaaa. I've always tried to justify using credit saying that I'll be able to pay it off in no time as the business is trucking along ok but in reality this hasn't been the case. Boo. So for now 'fun activities' are to be in the 'dreaming and planning' book to hopefully transfer over to the 'things we're doing' book.

Over the past few weeks we've added our Easter range plus a few new 'all purpose' hampers plus in the coming months we'll be adding some more fabulous hampers - which I am very much looking forward to. In the mean time I am focusing hard on being more regular with my blogging as well as Facebook - my main trouble is working out what to talk about and what to share both on the block and Facebook. I know I need to promote Rainbow Designs and her gifts but I also want to add other 'stuff' in the mix so it's not just a sales pitch day on day out. Nobody's got time for that! A balancing act which I am still learning even after 13 years running Rainbow Designs.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for our blog or Facebook or have any questions you think I might be able to help with please let me know - I'll try my best :-)

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs boss(y) lady and fun activities officer!

Writers block?

Not so much writers block I guess as I am most definitely not a writer but maybe inspiration block or subject matter block? I wanted this blog to be about a whole range of things related, roughly, around running my business all the issues and road blocks I come up against as well as all the highs, lows and in betweens that is part of my small business life.

Chocolate is a must when I'm working

I want the blog to have information, obviously, of new gifts etc up coming events, like Easter, how I go about my daily business life or finding new products, suppliers etc but also the parts of my small business life that aren't directly related to Rainbow Designs but are an every day part of my life or a needed part of being a person. :-)

So this is where things can get a bit 'blocked'. I'm not out and about all the time, I don't necessarily have a funny story or anecdote to share each day or even each week, for the most part each day is basically the same. Get up. Shower. Fire up the laptop. Cup of tea. Read, delete, answer emails. Process any orders (if any have come in!). Cup of tea. Eat some chocolate. Open up the blog. Close the blog. Check facebook. Pop a post on Facebook. Rinse and repeat.

No spending rule doesn't include chocolate.

I've got an enforced 'no spending' rule on at the moment. Hence the trip to the local library the other day! A necessity unfortunately which I have to stick to. The only spending allowed is for bills ie electricity, rent etc and the bare minimum of food (I do buy a little bit of chocolate BUT only if it is on special, a good special) and household stuff ie toilet paper, toothpaste etc I still allow myself to window shop but do not take my purse with me and I still holiday dream - these are things that give me some motivation to get Rainbow Designs back on track but the main motivation is to be able to pay my ever day bills without breaking out into a sweat on whether or not my card will be accepted!! Fun times, not. I was going to do a course through the community college but realised I didn't have the funds for it so I am hoping that next term it will be available and I will have some money to do it! Another thing to get motivated about.

I'm enjoying my weekends as I, for whatever reason, feel a bit of the pressure is lessened, I think it's more a case of, orders can't be processed, sent etc over the weekend so I can focus on other stuff! Also, if orders don't come in during the weekend it doesn't seem quite so bad as when they don't come in during the week. As much as I would love orders to be flying in day and night, weekends or weekdays, weekends aren't so disappointing. Luckily as I think I would be rolled in a tight ball on the ground crying!!

Here's the thing, it's TOUGH running my business. It can be a bit soul destroying when you look at the end of the week and realised you haven't made enough to cover your bills. I've worked so hard for such a long time and currently it's just not showing it. I will keep on keeping on and persevere and work hard and be positive and try and push through this very difficult time but how long can I last? How long can my business last? This is the $64 million question.

I may have 'writers block' but I certainly don't have 'waffle' block - I sure can waffle! Now I'm hungry ;-)

Are you a writer? Where do you find inspiration from?

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs boss(y) lady and waffler from way back. 

Z is for...Zero

Zero motivation to keep my business going. Nada, none, zip. It's going nowhere fast. Zippitydooda zippityaye my oh my what a craptastic day.

This is how I feel sometimes, not all the time but sometimes. It can really get you down and make you feel like you can't get any lower but then, bing, out pops an order and another one and before you know it, the motivation is back baby!

I've started the week guns ablazin' and full steam ahead and just got on with things. Writing blog posts for one and scheduling some facebooks posts for another. I've ordered some more stock and tidied my little store room. (how does it get so messy??)

I've got M&M's on my desk and a huge bottle of water, the house is clean and the pantry is stocked. I've got meals in the freezer and wine in the fridge. There's a shelf full of books to read and plenty of Dr Who DVD's to keep me occupied when the orders are slow. My meager savings account is slowly but surely growing and I'll be on my next cruise before I know it!

Carnival Spirit

So when the going gets you down just stand up, stretch those arms of yours and sing 'it's all about the base, bout the base, no treble' at the top of your lungs, take a swig of your water (or wine if it's after 5pm) and breath! You are amazing and don't you forget it!

Now go and eat some chocolate, pronto!