Starting a Baby Boutique & Clothing Line

embarking on a new year

December 31st, 2009

leaner and meaner and (hopefully) a whole lot greener. I am one happy camper today! Woo hoo, it is the last day of 2009 and I am SO happy to leave this year behind. It was so full of stress and craziness that I don’t even want to reflect on it - I just want to move on! 2010 is already opening with more optimisim and opportunity than 2009 did, so that HAS to be good, right?

This time a year ago, I was incredibly stressed out by the CPSIA (wonder how many sleepness nights they caused coast-to-coast). I shudder to even think about how crazy that was - trying to understand what was going on, what we were responsible for, how much it could end up costing us, and what the heck we were going to do about (when we did finally understand it). Now, it seems there are more options for component testing and reliance on supplier’s certificates (duh!) and an extended stay on required third party testing until February 10, 2011. I’m happy happy happy to have our components tested, I’m happy to comply with a reseasonable law!

We are slimming down the business (so it will reach new heights) - we are cutting the ecommerce portion of the site (at least for the time being), and are likely to cut most of our drop shipping programs too. I feel a huge sigh of relief at the decision to “go wholesale only”…it’s one that has been eating at me for almost a year. So, we have a lot of changes to implement to get that change ironed out, but I feel it is a change in the best interest of our retailers. They now get our undivided attention, which they deserve.

I’m happy to let go of driving traffic to the ecommerce site. I’ve been “sitting” on things for a few months, keeping the business in maintenance mode, but feeling unsure of where I wanted it to go, so I have not really been seeking out new sales channels. It gave me some much needed time to reflect on what type of business i WANT to be running vs. what type of business I AM running.  And I approach the future of my business with much more certainty.

I’m easing up on myself this year - I’m making more time for quality-of-life committments, such as playing with the kids more, volunteering at my kids’ school, visiting with good friends, going on dates with my husband, and making sure that I remember to be in the moment as much as possible.

I feel happy and confident that 2010 holds great adventure and much excitement…and I’m eager to get on the roller coaster again.

Entry Filed under: Motivation to Keep Moving, Planning beyond the collection