Pity Party

I going to admit I had a Pity Party on Monday.  I was ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.  I was willing to admit I failed as a business woman.  I'm a SAHM and that was all I could be at this point in my life.  I felt alone and lost.  So, I took Monday to cried and whine.  I woke on Tuesday with a new found energy.  I'm ready.  I'm not going to make my downfalls my failure.  Mama raise a leader and this woman wouldn't fail without trying first.  I'm going to push my knowledge and listen to a great group of women, who had great advice.  Thank you Jodi and  the SuperWomen.  Ideas start whirling around.  It was brought to my attentions at the beginning of my new business adventure, there were many thing I have made before Jillie Bug Creations was Jillie Bug Creations.  Two years ago, My cousin planned to adopt a baby.  The adoption lawyer wanted her to make a brochure for the birth mother to look over to make the decision easier.  We put one together a extended brochure filled with information on the life this child would be brought into, and the results were wonderful.  The birth mother choose her and our family will celebrate his 2 year birthday this August.  I decided to start making Adoption Brochure for adopting parents.  I very excited about it and I have a business plan to get my foot in the door and plans for meet and greets with different agencies and lawyers that deal with adoptions.  This will be fun.  I know it seems silly to start a new branch of my company without having many sells from the existing products, but the farther I throw the net, the more fish I'll get.  I hate to call potential customers "Fish", but you know what I mean.

slip-n-slide

Today, I watched my kids play on a Slip-n-slide.  I sat thinking about today's blog and realized starting and maintaining a business from home is like a Slip-n-slide.  Now, stay with me.  Think of it from a child's point of view.  The idea of running into the water and being instantly cooled is a great relief from the heat of the summer.  They run and jump on their tummies. Smiling.  As an adult you know it hurts, but they continue to torture themselves, because in their sweet little heads, the thought of a Slip-n-slide is FUN.  They continue to run and fall on their faces.  Still smiling.  They get squirted in the face, and they keep smiling.  They scream "OUCH!!!", and still smile.  They go until the pure exhaustgin from running, bumping, being squirted leaves them breathless.  After all is said and done.  They say "That was so much fun, Mommy."  How? Why?  It sounds painful and tiring. (By the way, I nearly broke my body showing them how to use the slip-n-slide.)  So why did I start a business?  Because I thought it looked fun. Because I didn't know there will be spills and bumps.  I didn't know I'd be squirt in the face, repeatedly.  When asked, how is "it" going?  I continue to smile.  So, I'm a big 35 year old kid on a slip-n-slide.  Until the "Slip-n-slide" tears or a hole is rubbed into the middle of the road, I'm going to keep smiling.

Addicted and Loving it.

When I say love, I don't mean it in the sense of loving my children, love for my husband or my parents and siblings.  The love for a friend who brings cookies or peaches over on a hot day.  I mean the superficial love for a thing.  Almost like "Oprah's Favorite Things."

"Under this box is a 12 pack of Diet Pepsiiiiii."  Lift the box.
 "Bring out a one pound bag of M&M's for everyonnnne."
"Turn on the computer and bring up the website www.scrapbookgraphics.com."

What?????  You heard me.  This is my favorite website to explore the newest kits for cards and digi scrapbooking.  I love digital scrapbooking and I love a new kit.  The colors, the color combinations, the elements, and the masking frames. Colors I never would combined is combined perfectly.  All the paper matches the elements.  There is so much in one kit.  I have the worst time NOT buying a new kit.  The cost is reasonable, so that is justifiable. My best excuse is....It's recyclable.  All the elements and paper can be used over and over again.  My husband loves that paper and elements aren't spread all over the kitchen table anymore.  Because I love these kits, that love helps me put forward my best effort to bring my customers the quality the all deserve.  Now, you could have a love/hate relationship with any task that you tackle.  Sure you will get the job done, but what kind of heart will be within the end results of the task.  So, I love my job.  I put my heart into my products and I believe that each customer should feel my respect for their "event" as a personal relationship that I convey into a baby announcement, a daughter's birthday or a Christmas card for a new family. So, am I addicted? Yes!  Am I loving it?  Yes, and the result is in my product.

Trends

Skulls and Cross Bones, Pirates, Tattoos, Flip-Flops, and Justin Bieber are all trends.  Well, Justin Bieber is the biggest trend in this house.  Trends are the name of the game.  This I know and this I need to concentrate more of my attention on.  I'm unclear what makes a skull and cross bone a trend that ends up on t-shirts, shoes, backpacks, or bed sheets, but I like the prospect of what it can do for Jillie Bug Creations.  The addiction of tattoos make life dangerous.  For a 14 year old, it's not the right time, but the flourishing swirls and simplicity of a sparrow.  That is trendy.  I find this the biggest challenge of making cards.  Keeping up with the world around me.  Trends dictate the definition of a teenager.  The advancement of trends define the masses and my job is to please the masses, not myself.  I realize I need to create a card that makes me proud, but I also know, I need to create a card with the color orange and with the likeness of blood on it.  Not that those are my first choices, but that's the freedoms we just celebrated yesterday.  So if I need to make a skull and cross bones card for a baby announcement, then give me the challenge.  I'm up for this challenge and I'll do it to best of my abilities.  So for here on out, I'll be looking for trends in fashion, MTV, movies and pop-culture. This may be easier then I think.

Who am I?

My name is Marla Gurrola.  I have been married for 12 years to my high school sweetheart.  I have known him since we were in first grade.  Not many can say they were teased in grade school by their husband, but I can.  We started dating 18 years ago and we now have 2 children. A son who is going into 4th grade and a daughter going into first grade.  I'm going to start looking at all the boys in her new class.  Just a few mental notes.  After our children were born I really enjoyed making our family christmas cards.  Every year I would sit down and write out a long letter explaining to distant family members; where we were living? How our jobs were going? And the growth of our children or which child we added for the year.  Pictures were chosen and the traditional process of send out Christmas card started. Traditional, thou it's a comforting word, it scares me as to the creativity of lost during such a wonderful time of the year.  Stepping out of the box is where the best memories come from.  I stepped out of the "Traditional Christmas" card and created a "Family Christmas Brochure."  About 5 years ago, I made our families first christmas brochure.  A small picture showing our family with a quick sentence at the bottom of the picture.  A picture of each child and a quick sentence or two under their picture about their big accomplishment of the year. Completed potty training, played little league for the Angels, or started dance classes.  A picture of any major event in our families life.  These cards pleased me so much.  The thought of stepping out of the box thrilled me.  I have never seen such a creative difference to christmas cards. The first year the brochure went out I received so many compliments.  Many family members wait for our card every year and a few even save them year after year.  This lead me to want to share this new "Tradition."  I was asked many time over, "You should make some money at this."  "I want one for our family too."  That is the birth of Jillie Bug Creations.  Jillie Bug Creations is about family.  Creating a family moment in a party or announcement of a new baby, new couple, a special couple that has created their own family for many years.  Jillie Bug Creations has family written (created) all over it.

My First Order

This was a big week for Jillie Bug Creations.  We made our first profit.  A dear friend of mine ordered her son's 6th birthday invitations.  The excitement overwhelmed me until the printer wouldn't work.  I tried to make a perfect invite.  I created especially for her, I printed them up and the quality was awful.  I couldn't get past the flimsy texture of the paper and it was a popular brand paper.  I cried and felt this was the final straw that was going to brake the business back of Jillie Bug Creations.  After running out to get different paper, which turned out to be the name brand photo product of a major office supply store, the quality of the paper was great. With the help of my hero, my husband, he was able to get the printer to start printing straight and in the best quality.  The end product was wonderful and something to be proud of.  In the past I have always felt my perfectionist attitude was a down fall in my life.  Many times I wish I could just let a little glitch go, or a flaw slide by, but not me.  I dwell on it until I changed it to my specifications.  As I go through the process of creating a business I realize, it's not being a perfectionist that is the problem.  That is a quality a business should have to service their customers.  I needed to learn to be patient with the perfectionist part of me.  So, the printer wasn't the problem, the paper wasn't the problem, the need to be perfect wasn't the problem.  My patience was the problem and I will now count to 10, take a deep breath, and brew a pot of coffee.  A Starbucks run may also be needed.