Friday again! They don’t feel as exciting when you’re not working. I’ve been feeling a little meh lately, though my meeting with MM (my new mentor) was very inspirational and I might get some work/projects out of it.
MM owns a floral design studio and does event planning and weddings. Her stuff is incredibly inventive and GORGEOUS! She already has several gigs lined up at various bridal shows and even the botanical garden (which is one of the most beautiful places in this city!). She has asked me to work up some bridal trend reports to present to her high-end clientele. We are going to work it through the fall! I’m very excited about that, and she seemed even more excited about ME than I am!
I have been thinking about my “product” lately…what do I actually want to sell? I have fashion design, color palette development, product design and fabric development, PR and media experience, plus technical design (fit, patternmaking, etc), among other things. I am trying to figure out what it is that I want to present to potential clients. MM told me that bottom line, it’s ME! She said to start talking with people to see what they NEED and work around those needs. Fill a niche that people aren’t currently filling.
Thanks to a lot of OD comments, plus feedback from MM, I’ve come up with some starting points of things I need to accomplish in the very near future (special thanks to CN!):
1. Come up with a unique business name.
2. Register name @ city hall.
3. Buy URL of business name and create website.
4. Start blogging (I’d started a blog on wordpress and didn’t really like where it was going, so I want to start a new one)
4. Business cards.
5. Meet potential new clients and find out specific needs (I have an idea of what I’d like to do for them, but find out how to tailor to their needs).
6. Write up basic proposal.
7. Write up basic contract.
8. Write up press release.
9. Send out.
10. Network!!
Those are the very first steps that I need to be doing NOW. I’m excited about this! The great thing is, I can still be out there looking for other things such as corporate jobs WHILE I do this. MM is super supportive and really sounds like she wants me to do a lot of things with her. The wedding industry is booming, even in a tough economy! I’m not going to limit myself to weddings, but I think it’s a pretty good place to start, especially because I can partner up with someone very seasoned who already has an established and extensive list of clientele.
THEN last night I met with my friend Bill before a happy hour. My old company has axed a whole department within the marketing organization, and part of their job sort of overlapped with what I used to do for them as well. Bottom line is, nobody’s doing that for them right now. He brought me some reports that I can use as a template. Though I looked at them this morning and know that I can do a much better job with them. Anyway, I don’t know. I have this weird fantasy of pulling these ideas together and working for old company on a contract basis for much more than I was making to begin with! Stranger things have happened, but I’m not counting those chicks before they hatch.
Still, Bill wants to retire in the next 5 years and still wants to work on projects. He sounds like he wants to go into the type of business that I’d love to start! I need to keep meeting with him to find out how serious he is about it because this idea has a lot of potential. I know he’s watching me closely to see what I come up with in the near future, so again, it’s time to get the ball rolling!
On the corporate side of things, that headhunter DID call me back, and she snagged me a phone interview for Monday afternoon! She said the company was confidential, but then let it slip at some point in the conversation. I was not very excited when I heard the company name. This company is not doing very well (though it’s a well-known name), and their reputation is so-so for people in the industry. But I’ve heard that they pay extremely well, like insanely well. So, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I guess I’ll find out during the interview.
Plus, the position is not quite a perfect fit for me. And then headhunter told me that they didn’t want to speak with me initially. But she snagged me the interview by telling the client that she LOVED my personality! I mean, I WAS trying to be extra positive even when I was talking about my stinking ex-boss. And I guess that made all the difference with the headhunter and in turn made a big difference with the client. I think I like this HH! I hope she has other opportunities in the pipeline. I mean, I was so worried about the ex-boss thing, and she’s already made lemonade out of that!
Okay, enough work stuff for the morning. I wanted to come on and write about K. and my love life, but I got carried away with work potential ideas! I suppose that means I’m actually just about ready to get myself back into the workforce! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve LOVED my funemployment, but it really is time to start being a productive member of society again.
Nothing like writing an entry to get those juices flowing again. See? I was feeling quite meh at the beginning. Now? Time to get to work!
Next entry: sex talk!
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