I’m still making coasters. It’s fun and relaxing. I added four new ones to the gallery – my first attempt at a more artistic approach. Color! I’m not saying they are good, but I like them. While I’ve been gifting coasters to friends and family, I’ve also been thinking about selling them on Etsy.
Still on the fence about the whole thing. Leaning strongly toward no. While money is always nice, I don’t really need the little bit of cash I might make on Etsy. Maybe I would break even on art supplies – that might be cool. But my career was all about trading time for money, and I want this chapter of my life to be about choosing creative opportunities that are right for me.
But … I’ve been a bit of an entrepreneur over the years, and I’ve sold stuff before. And I did it when I had a demanding job. I started a golf shirt company. I guess it was 2000 or 2001 that I came up with the idea of a women’s golf shirt with an embroidered logo.
Although I didn’t do a formal business plan, I did a lot of research and consulted with a group of retired executives who advise entrepreneurs. There were so many things to do and learn. Getting a business license, establishing an online store, setting up a payment system, buying blank shirts, getting the logo professionally designed, digitizing the design for embroidery, finding vendors, shipping, taxes – I still can’t believe I did all that while I was working.
I didn’t expect to make big bucks, but I always felt words were my strength, so I found an intellectual property attorney and trademarked the logo, some other slogans and the company name, which shall all remain nameless because of what happened next.
My eBay store had been humming along for several years, and just as I was about to break even, someone offered to “buy” one of my trademarks.
You don’t actually buy trademarks. The owner “assigns” them for a fee. It’s pretty much the same thing. The first offer was for $5,000. I was open to the idea of giving up the trademark, but I had that much invested already, so I said no. We eventually settled on $50,000!
Rather than just accept my good fortune and move on, I started up another company selling golf shirts and then t-shirts after that. Inventory was a challenge. By the time I quit, thrift shops and landfills were enjoying my unsold goods. A few dozen coasters would be nothing compared to our den with stacked up piles of shirts in various sizes.
As I’ve been pondering the Etsy dilemma, I’ve learned a couple of things. Once I started thinking about business and marketing, my creative focus changed and not in a good way. It was no longer about creating as a form of expression but trying to make something that sells. I suspect I could work through that and get to a nice balance.
However, the other thing I learned is I truly have evolved in my retirement. I’m taking control of my life … questioning old assumptions and actually thinking through what makes me happy and how I want to spend my time – not doing things just because someone else thought it was a good idea or it might be profitable. These are small signs, but I see both as positive movement:
- After golf yesterday, I thanked the women I was playing with for the game and then said I wasn’t coming in for the social hour. One of the other players said, “But it’s the meeting!” Exactly! The league has periodic member meetings, and I guess they like us to participate. I hate meetings. I said yeah, well, I did meetings for 35 years. I’m done.
- A guy on LinkedIn contacted me about being interviewed for some research related to my former profession – and I said no thanks. Then he offered money, $250 for an hour of “consulting.” The money got my attention. I’m totally up for a consulting gig, but this particular opportunity didn’t appeal to me right now. I decided it was OK to say no. Doesn’t mean I won’t say yes next time.
What is it they used to say? If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything?
I do need extra income in retirement and I think the solution is an Etsy store, but what? I have no business plan. I don’t want to do something that earns me $4 an hour.
You are a talented artist. Browse Etsy stores and look for the kind of art you like to do. I’ve been checking out the coaster competition. The biggest hurdle is shipping. Four tiles are heavy and expensive to mail. Yet I see plenty of people doing it, so there must be something I’m missing.
There’s one meeting I look forward to – the meeting with myself, sitting in my favorite chair in front of the SE-facing window in the morning with a cup of coffee. It’s a time of reflection and planning and growth. I was schooled in nursing with assess, plan, execute, evaluate. That seems to have carried over in a less formal manner to my private life – take stock, anticipate, do, how’s that working for you? Aaron Tippin sang a song with that line in it – you’ve got to stand for something or you will fall for anything.
That’s a meeting I would attend!