Dear Business Diary:An honest confession-I've come full circle...and have learned alot

Dear Business Diary,

I truly don't know where to start.  I only know that this may be a little lengthy but hey, I barely write anyway.  Let's start there.  Why do I barely write? Hmmmm? Because I don't feel that I have much to write about.  For the last six months, I have been struggling to do so many things.  I have so many ideas and I want to implement them all.  I want to be a famous icon in my industry, I want to keep up with the masses, I want to create that one product that allows me to retire! I want my journals to be in boutique shops across America and across the world! I want to have the most awesome, blog, Twitter, Pin It and Facebook page ever!  While these seem to be great aspirations, as a result, I have been bouncing around and around without a true focus on one thing, thus losing my sense of purpose, drive, and creativity (business speaking.)  All in all, I have been the Jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of- none.

Tonight, I realized (with a bump on the head!) that I have "lost my first love." (A Bible passage refers to this quote.)  My love of journals.  The true and real reason I started Journal Junky.  Let me refresh in my mind exactly why I started my business.

1. I absolutely adore, love, covet. hoard, journals!
2. I absolutely loooove to create my original slim journals.
3. I totally love meeting my customers and hearing their stories on how they are using my journals.
4. I love packaging my books to send to their new homes.
5. I love promoting eco-friendly, and earth-friendly products.
6. I love how my journals affect others, changing lives, and bringing a smile to the face of the recipient. (I get all kinds of stories about this from my customers.)
7. I love hearing how my customers are using Journal Junky journals to write and preserve their stories.

But in trying to keep up with competition, and trying to always create the next best product, I realized that I have not experienced the love of why I do what I do.  This was the first night in a looooong while that I have truly sat down and created with my original journals.  My Mini Binders are doing great, but my slim journals are my staple product.  They have been my bread and butter when times were tough.  They are where I started, and I have left them behind.  I have wholesale accounts, but that isn't the same as working one-on-one with individuals and hearing their stories.

I returned to my Etsy feedback where over 400 customers stated their love for my journals and for my customer service and my passion for my work.  This is very inspiring.  Sometimes, we have to look back and see what we have forgotten, in order to be motivated to continue.
So, to make a long story short-I will now start back at square one.  I will focus on the one thing I do well, and that is create my slim journals.  I will let other things like fundraisers, and wholesale accounts, simmer on the back burner for the moment.  Yes, these are things I would love to work on, but only after I have been creative.  I have been too busy trying to "promote" my work, but now I will also focus on creating.  That is what I love and that is where I will begin!

I feel that I need a cleaning LoL.  I need a purging.  A fresh start.  And I suppose that is why I feel the need to write this evening.  I will not longer care about how many followers I have, how many readers, how many friends or how many "Likes." I will do my passion, I will share my love for journals and for creating journals.  I will be myself-A Journal Junky.  Everything else will fall into place.  My blog, my Twitter, My Facebook, My Pinterest, and My YouTube accounts will focus on what I love and my desire to share what I love with others.

So now, dear Business Diary, I have cleared my soul and my mind.  I will now head in a new direction (or rather turn back to the right direction) and enjoy what I do.

Until later,

Nicole

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