Why Start A Business?
Let’s pick up where I left off. I have some items to batch prep which makes pulling together orders easier. My main products tend to have a lot of little items that make my one product. So batching some things definitely helps. Some things hold up better when they are packed and prepped when made to order.
Some things we can do are clay pebbles, and a few sets of seeds, seed envelopes, and let’s pre fold the packaging.
Between operations, emails, and inventory checks, there are a lot of hats to wear in just a few hours. This brings me to the question of the week. Why start a small business?
Let’s chat about that. I’ll first explain mine and if you’re wanting to start your own, or have already started your own, it’s always a great reminder during the hard times, good times, or any time really to remind yourself why you started.
“Spolier Alert: It wasn’t to become a millionaire!”
So back story:
So I ultimately started it after graduating college. It was under a different name back then because I wanted to design tshirts. Honestly, who didn’t during that time. It would be from 2009-2013 until what Coco and Seed is now would be formed. I graduated in 2008 and we all know what that was like. It was a recession. Times were tough and finding a job as a fresh college graduate seemed even tougher. A lot of my friends that would later graduate the following semester would end up going back to school or doing what I did which was move back home.
I needed work but also craved something creative.
The jobs available offered little to no pay (most were no pay, they were sales with commissions only no base pay). Solar was huge back then, call centers, Everyone was competing for the “higher-skilled” jobs and everyone else was competing for whatever else was available. During that time I ended up becoming a teacher. I substitute taught at a local school district as well as taught ESL from home after obtaining my TEFL certificate. This TEFL job was mostly for kids in South Korea. I actually really enjoyed that job! But none of these were fulfilling all my needs or wants. I always grappled with the “There has to be more to life!!” things when it came to work. Most of these jobs were soul sucking! I think we can all identify with those kinds of jobs at one point in our lives. For me, I felt like that’s all I kept coming across. So what do you do in times of desperation? You get creative.
So the next step was to create my dream job. It took some time but morphed into a job where I get to design packaging, new products, teach through video, experiment, and have fun gardening which was a personal goal of mine. I felt like I also solved the non-green thumb, plant-killing problem people who want to garden have. I get to take photos and learn more about product photography, interact with people, and keep my customer service skills sharp, I get to write blog articles - and I love to write, I also get to be a part of someone’s joy of planting or gift giving. Starting a small business has allowed me to learn about supply chain and logistics by forming relationships with manufacturers and shipping providers, I get to be involved in all aspects of my business. I like knowing the how and why. Owning a small business gives me a lot of pride in what I do and knowing I can contribute positively in the world. It’s soul-filling. It’s such a life reward. Definitely the opposite of those soul-sucking jobs I had before.
Watch the video here:
Figuring out what career you want I can see how people tie their work to their identity. I’m someone that has had many different types of jobs, from working in restaurants, retail, customer service, freelancer, teaching, TV and film production, sales, real estate, software developer, manufacturing, and most recently marketing. And I can see why people have identity crises. But as a small business owner I do so many things. There’s not one thing that defines me and what I do. I think my biggest why is that it’s the most accurate feeling of belonging and being happy that something has been able to provide for me. Or rather, something I couldn’t find outside of myself but had to create it.
Doing everything yourself is really a great start having a small scrappy business which is how I see Coco and Seed. I do everything but that’s because I enjoy it. I like learning and having a variety of different things to do. I like that the work isn’t boring and that they use different parts of my brain. Packing orders is pretty manual and can get monotonous but it also can be calming and fun. I can put on a podcast and get to packing.
Is it ideal? Not in all situations. But that’s something I will continue to find out.
