Business These Days - 6 Years In

It's been a while since I've posted on the blog!  What a wonderful two years this has been for me.  The business has turned 6 years old this last week, I can't believe it. 

I had a friend that once told me that it really didn't matter what I did, as long as I was consistent.  They were absolutely right!  I've had some dips in consistency, but for the most part over the last two years I've maintained a steady update schedule, and gotten orders out quickly.  I've tried to serve my customers efficiently and enjoy my process.  It may not seem like it, but I'm constantly improving and evolving my business and dyeing processes.

That all being said, 6 years in, my priorities and goals for my business are much different.  I've recently had this nagging feeling in my head to go back to school - I have about half of a GI Bill I'd like to use, and I'll probably do that at some point, but for what?  After talking to most of my family about this, I just knew I couldn't go back to the old way of going to the office every day (unless I had to, of course).  So, I guess in the last 6 months or so, I realized that this is now my career for the foreseeable future.  Which, is awesome, because I finally feel like I'm no longer piecing stuff together into something that just generates money.  Now, it's something more than that.

It's safe to say that I started as a hobby business in November 2016.  I did sell fiber in those first updates, but it took me so dang long to figure out how to do it where 1) the fiber wasn't super faded and 2) scale it beyond a braid or two at a time.  Oh, and 3) how to do it without ruining the fiber.  For a few years I only sold yarn.  It was just easier (and it kinda still is but whatever). 

Here's one of my first braids I dyed in 2016 - I think it was Polwarth.

Another one, I sold them for $15.00 for some reason, way underpriced.

Anyhow, the end of this post is really fun, because it's where I talk about the future and all that!  Some of my goals going forward are:

1. To offer more custom blends, and bigger quantities of them.
2. To continue to offer rare breeds in fun colors.
3. To continue to try and offer as much hand-dyed US-sourced wool as possible.
4. I want to increase my production capabilities so I can have a bigger inventory in the shop consistently.
5. I want to make more batts, but I may have to wait a few years until my kids will leave me alone so I can stand at the drum carder!

Thank you all for the wonderful last 6 years, and especially these last two - I've had a blast working after my last baby, and the response to my work these last few years was really worth the wait!