It’s only now that I’ve had a chance to look back on the month of January. It was a busy one. Spent time reading some more books about starting a small business and writing up a bit of a plan and setting some goals. By the way, the following two books are awesome resources if you happen to be in Canada (or Calgary) and are trying to navigate the legal bits of business set-up:
- Starting a Successful Business in Canada by Jack D. James
- The Essential Guide to Starting a Business in Calgary compiled by the Calgary Business Information Centre ( which appears to be called The Business Link now… pretty much have to go in person to pick up a copy of this)
I was lucky enough to have these provided to me by my co-worker and crafty business diva Christine. There are a lot of great books out there to read about starting a small business, writing business plans, and doing financial goals, but in terms of specific guidance for provincial licensing, registration, and such, there isn’t a ton of info. Or rather, there is lots of info on the web, but navigating through it and making sense of what to do is rather difficult. Anyway, the two resources above allowed me to put together a clear step-by-step list of what I needed to do to make my business legit. And so, I managed to get my trade name registered and a business license and all the appropriate permits for a home-based business. Phew! Glad to have that all taken care of.
The rest of January was spent on Etsy, getting a feel for the whole thing. I joined the Etsy Alberta Street Team and have been spending some time on the forum getting to know fellow Alberta crafters & artisans. Some amazing talent in that group! They are all so helpful too! I highly recommend joining a team in order to learn more of the ins-and-outs of Etsy. Oh, and I reached one one of my goals, which was to have 60 people *heart* my shop by the end of January! So thank you for showing your support!
It’s hard to be on Etsy and not buy anything, but I did manage to keep my purchases purely business related, so now my sewing room is home to new buttons and zippers! Very exciting! The buttons are destined to be used on Scarflettes and the zippers on various sizes of Purselettes.
Although I seem to be keeping pretty busy being “unemployed”, I will try to pop in here more frequently. This week is going to be slightly less hectic than last week and I’m looking forward to finally having some time to dedicate to sewing. I’ll let you know how that goes.