Sunday, January 18, 2009

Blooming New Ideas In The New Year






"Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your business grow?"
"Like a garden." I've always said.

To me, the cycles in business are a lot like the seasons in a growing garden.
First come the seeds of inspiration or ideas which you plant in a fertile environment.
You cultivate and nurture this environment(in this case with advertising).
You water it a lot, with your own sweat and tears!

Then you wait, watch and pray and pray....... and pray a little more.
Then one day you start to see growth; those seeds begin to take root!
Soon beautiful blooms appear and you begin to attract others to your garden.

Seasons pass and those few seedlings are now many. The garden is lush and beautiful.
You have mastered growing and caring for these blooms, yet those seeds of inspiration keep coming and coming.

Pretty soon the garden is more like a wild jungle that needs taming!

Like any good gardener I know it is time to prune my garden.

So with a lump in my throat and an ache in my heart I bid farewell to the past seasons in my business and prepare for a new season of growth; a season of branching out and venturing down new paths. Painful, yes, but necessary if I want my business to continue blooming, and thats who we are and what we do.

We bloom ideas...hence the name Blooming Ideas LLC.

We, my husband Guy and I, have been carefully planning and cultivating our new product line for some time. Some of our new ideas have begun to bud while others are still just seeds of inspiration, but I know our dedication and enthusiasm will produce a bounty of whimsical gifts and home decor.
Being an artist, naturally I am a very visual person and when I am embarking on a new venture
instead of making a task list, I think out loud through sketches. For me this adds dimension to the abstract, making it more tangible and real.

Here is a sketch of my vision for our new garden of goodies, these are just my first ideas.




I am sure it will change over time but this visual will help make it less overwhelming.
I hope.

The first order of business is to temporarily close the garden gate (our website) while we
prune the product line to make room for the new. Once the new ideas have formed into blossoms we will reopen our garden of goodies.

In the meantime I will be periodically posting and boasting about our new designs.
Your feed back and thoughts on these new products would be most appreciated.
So please comment!

We are preparing this new line for our first trade show this summer.
It is called Beckman's Handcraft www.beckmans.com it is held twice a year once in January and then again in July.

I have attended this show many times as a buyer, but now that the shoe is on the other foot it feels very strange. I guess I can chalk it up to growing pains,
and like the old saying goes "no pain no gain."

Well thats all for now from my little corner of the world.
Take care and thanks for stopping in.

Mary




4 comments:

Alisa Noble said...

fantastic analogy... good luck with your garden.
:)

Mary Wadsworth said...

Thanks Alisa.:)

PAC said...

Good luck!! It sounds like it will be fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary thank you for commenting!