Resuscitation

Here is a glimpse of what I have been doing the past few months. Although much time is spent creating these days, I do head outdoors as often as possible to fulfill that necessary connection.....

This is the start of a much needed resuscitation to this page. I have abandoned it a bit for some obvious (but not very good) reasons: busy-ness. To be honest, I was feeling a bit awkward here. Let me explain.....I am not shy. But, I am also very private. I have struggled with what to share here.....with what my intention is to create this space.

Please allow me to speak in all honesty:  It all started because I was starting a business and that's what everybody who starts a business does: create a blog. So I did. And I danced all around and in it. But one of the largest hurdles I have had to overcome is this idea of self-promotion. I am not a salesman. I am SO far from it that it is funny. I am even often accused of being too humble. But (there have been lots of buts in this post!) I have needed to come to terms with fulfilling two very necessary roles in my creative endeavor:  artist and businesswoman. Because I am. Both.
I am proud of my work.
I am proud of our business (integrity, ethics, growth).
I am incredibly proud of my own personal growth from the start of this journey.
And I am learning that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

And so my intention here is to be comfortable with sharing my work and my artistic life and all that inspires me. I am incredibly visual, and also happen to have another love affair with photography, so I want to share more of what I see that infuses my life with creativity, inspiration and happiness. And also, some honest thoughts on growing a small business.

My desire is to allow others to see more of the faces (because this is 100% Norbert and I) behind blue hour designs. Because ultimately it is not only my designs that sets me apart from others, but also who we are, that gives meaning to the pieces we create.

I am back :)

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Happiness in running a small business

Weekly Business Post

Happiness is of extreme importance in starting and running a small business. Starting a business takes a lot of time, in most cases significantly more than a traditional 8-5 job. So, you better be able to incorporate what you love into your business, or your business is not going to be successful. Alysia and I have really tried to understand what we want out of Blue Hour Designs and how we can shape our business to fulfill our desires. Alysia is a very artistic person, she gets extreme satisfaction out of being able to express herself artistically. I, on the other hand, have always loved the idea of running my own business. So, starting Blue Hour Designs really made sense for us. It’s a leap of faith, but we decided to go for it… We have also realized that Alysia needs to be able to come up with new designs frequently, otherwise she would be depriving herself of her artistic outlet. Business wise, it might perhaps make more sense for her to come up with only a few really popular designs, and focus on marketing those (many jewelry designers do exactly that in the form of their bi-annual collections). This however doesn’t make any sense for us since Alysia would quickly start disliking only making the same designs over and over (there is a balance here), and pretty soon she’d be to the point where she hates our business… And that would almost certainly result in the failure of Blue Hour Designs and on top of it all, I’d have a really grumpy wife at home (the latter being a much worse problem) :)

It dawned to me that some of you might be thinking that having your own business leaves you no choice, but to also have to deal with all those things that you hate. I agree, there are always going to be these parts that you dislike about running your own business, but you can certainly try to minimize the tasks that make you unhappy and maximize the ones that you enjoy doing. Also, delegating some of the work you hate might be an option. Alysia and I are lucky to have each other in this business as she enjoys many things I don't like and vice-versa. Even if you have no partners or employees, look and ask around for people and resources that might be of help, you’d be surprised what you can find. We have definitely found the small business world to be very helpful and supportive of each other. Just as a simple example, let’s say you dislike marketing, but love working on your craft or art form (as many artists, including my wife, do). Why not offer a trade in the form of your product to a blogger who can market your product for you. A well connected blogger can do tons to promote you, especially if they have one of your products at home and absolutely love it and just feel like raving about how awesome this artist who made it is (that’s you, and some awesome promotional press!). Alysia and I have done this very thing many times and I believe it’s truly a win-win scenario for both parties.

Next week, I’m going to write about time management…. have a good rest of your weekend.

- Norbert

Reflection & Finishing

Today, I am trying to finish up my week's batch of work so that I can put it all in the tumbler tomorrow for a good 8 hours worth of tumbling. Above, I am working on annealing some metal to get it softer for the rolling mill by the way....love, love my rolling mill!  I'll work again for a few more hours after dinner and then it's movie night!

So, I thought I would share a few thoughts about Norbert's post yesterday. He made the point that we both have spent a significant amount of time figuring out exactly how we want our business to develop based on what we do and do not enjoy doing. This was definitely not an epiphany we had at the beginning, but rather it was, and is, an ongoing process.

One thing that I personally realized, is that at heart and soul, I get the most joy out of being creative. Knowing this, I decided to start carving out more time for myself to have this creative freedom.  It fulfills me on many, many levels and it brings me great joy. I figured this out during the Christmas rush, when for almost 3 straight months I was spending the vast majority of my time filling orders. This is absolutely not a complaint! But I did learn that I need to balance out made to order/custom orders along with my need to design and create new work. This makes sense for the business as well as for my sanity ;)

I can't wait to share my new work with you on Monday! Unlike in the past, I will post some pictures of my work here before it goes up in my shop.

Have a great weekend :)

Hello!

This is going to be a slightly different post than you’ve gotten used to seeing on this blog… That’s because it’s written by me, Norbert, Alysia’s husband. My wife has mentioned my name a few times before in her postings, but to those of you who haven’t heard of me, I’m responsible for the business and marketing side of blue hour designs. We’ve been talking for a while now about me starting to write a weekly blog entry that focuses on the business side. Many of you are small business owners yourself, and I’m sure, have quickly learned that making a business successful entails a lot more than having a good product. With that said, I must admit that I’m my wife’s biggest fan and DO believe she makes very classy, unique and beautiful jewelry – which does make an excellent product! Now we just have to figure out how to best get the rest of the world to find out about it and how to keep her happy in her workshop! That’s where I try to help out and that’s also what I will be talking about in these posts.


So, where to start… or where to end… I’ve actually been thinking about these posts for a little while and there’s really a lot to talk about, since I’m attempting to cover a huge topic here. It just dawned to me, that I could probably right a whole book on this topic! Scared you, huh? Don’t leave quite yet, I’m not gonna be writing a book in this blog and make you read it on your Friday morning when your thoughts are probably already mainly on where to go out for lunch or where’s the best happy hour this afternoon! In any case, I think I’ll take a slightly different approach discussing business topics than most people would expect. The first few posts will probably focus more on the importance of understanding yourself and the importance of time management. After all, as a small business owner, and I’m sure most of you would agree, you yourself are your business’s most valuable asset and your time is the most precious resource you have. Even if couldn’t care less about the trials of starting, and running a small business, these topics (ESPECIALLY) will come in handy in many other parts of your life.

My wife and I have learned immense amounts about ourselves and each other as a result of this business, some of which has been very surprising to us. So first of all, I think it’s very important you understand yourself and your business partners in as much depth as possible before going down the route of starting your own business. Mainly because successfully running your business is (not can be, but IS) a very time consuming task, so you better LOVE what you do and be very efficient at it. So, why don’t you take a moment, a few minutes, or an hour before going to bed and really think about what makes you happy…? Again, I’m talking about digging a little deeper than the happy hour later this afternoon. What do you daydream about? Focus on what would make you happy each and every day. Also, for the time being, set aside the items that you don’t really know anything about, such as sailing in the Caribbean when you’ve never set foot on a sailboat before in your life.

I guess I’ll stop with that thought right here before you DO get scared that I AM gonna be writing a whole book. I’ll try to pick up where I left off next week, but until then, happy weekend to you all!

- Norbert

Changes...

Hello, hello :)

Here is some new work for the week:

this puppy has already been snatched up! :)

So, there is soooo much to talk about......where to start ;)

I just got back from attending my first meeting with the Louisville Art Society. I joined in November, but I was too busy those couple of months to make any of their events until now. I think I'll like it....it was pretty packed tonight, but the great thing about belonging to these kind of associations is the networking and support you receive from the group. They seem very involved so it should be fun :)

Well, I've made quite a lot of changes to my Etsy shop's profile and policies pages. I've mentioned a bit on here about how my husband has become an integral part of this business and we finally made the changes to include him. Norbert is handling most of the business/marketing end, which is allowing me to concentrate more on design and production. It never ceases to amaze me how much this business has evolved.....even in my own mind. I really had NO idea how much time running a business takes....outside of actually making my jewelry. Blue Hour Designs is now fully a team effort :)

Thank you to all who have been following my progress and watching our little business grow :)

I'll be back soon with more news!

- Alysia + Norbert :)