I was just reading through one of the blogs I subscribe to and I love this site because the writer is so brutally honest about her business and how difficult it is to run an online business and all the sweat and tears you pour into running your own business.

You know initially, when I launched this new website, my first Journal post was actually entitled “It’s a one woman show”. It was an attempt to explain how much work went into creating the new website and moreover, how much work went into creating my new handmade books. It was, in fact, the new books that motivated me to create the new website. Something I had been wanting to do for a long time.

I love the process of creating and I loved creating the books. I also am very proud of the new “sophisticated” look of my new site. Less yammer and more show was the idea.

But I digress and if you humor me for just a little longer and read on you’ll see what I am getting at. So the point of saying this was a one- woman show was to say that when you run your own online business you do everything. Creating is really only one part of it all. After creating is the photo taking and then the listing of all the items, and then trying to market it all. And that’s the part I dislike the most. I am naive when it comes to marketing. The greatest joy I get is when someone buys one of my products, not because of the money, but because to me it means “they like my work” and that is the fulfilling part - one sale and I’m good to go to make a whole new batch of whatever it is I am working on at the time.

That being said, because this is a “business”, if you don’t sell you really don’t have a business. And that my friends is the reality of things in this crazy online art world that gives us the opportunity to showcase our work but at the same time becomes all consuming because it is online.

At the start of this post I told you that my original first post for my new website was about this being a one-woman show. I discarded the post because I was concerned that it sounded like I was complaining but in truth, what this really was, was an attempt to be up front and honest with you as I want to be with all my posts, all my products, and any transactions we have together. And for those.reasons I decided to post this “one-woman-show today.

I’ve decided to offer a little incentive to my web subscribers by offering up one free mini book with each purchase of one of my Couture series of handmade books. I am still in the process of photographing and listing these mini books (they will also be available for individual sale btw) but I have shown shots of them before and share this one with you below. I’m keeping the faith, and will continue to create and share.

Thanks for listening.

Cathy