my business

On Friday I asked if anyone had any questions for me, in particular ones related to my business.

What I realized over the weekend though, before any questions had been asked, was that I don’t spend a lot of time on here talking about ‘business’.  You have all seen my shop, and if you’ve been here for a while, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the summer boutique.  Maybe you saw this invitation or these baby announcements. But my current design projects don’t get a whole lot of coverage, and therefore, you may not even know that I have a small business.

And that’s okay.

I like doing posts about our home and my very random thoughts. I sometimes use this platform as a personal journal or a place to document my children’s lives. I use it to store home inspiration, divine inspiration and show the world what I {and my baby} wore.

It pretty much just represents me.

But you can’t get the full picture of me without knowing that I have a business. A business that allows me to be fully me. As much as I adore being a wife and mommy, I need to have something that is my own thing. Something where I can be creative, have adult conversations, make extra money.  That, for me, is Jones Design Company.

A few friends from college recently found my blog.  I haven’t kept in touch very well with these ladies, so we are catching up after ten years.  A few of them have left the most encouraging comments saying that it is fun to see me accomplishing my dream of having my own business and designing stationery.  I was surprised by these comments because I had forgotten that this was a dream I had long ago.  A dream to use my love of all things creative to make a living.  It seemed so far-fetched at the time, and it is so cool to see how that little dream has turned into reality – almost by accident.

So let me share with you how I got started:

Seven years ago today, I was on a beach, with the man {boy, really} I loved, wearing a fancy silk dress.

wedding

We were getting married.

It was such a beautiful day filled with our friends and family and hydrangeas.

{happy anniversary my love}

………

After we came down from the ‘wedding high’, we realized we were young, married, had a baby on the way and had some big details to figure out.

Namely, how we could live on one income.

I had been working as a personal assistant for a duo of real estate agents doing their marketing and, well, assisting.  It was a fabulous job for me and one I was not crazy about ending.  But {as I’ve mentioned many times before} I had always dreamed of being a mommy and so I knew I wanted to do all I could to stay home with our little one once he arrived.

Enter Jones Design Company.

As a real estate assistant, I worked as an independent contractor and needed a business license for tax purposes.  When filling out my application, I decided to at least give this business a fun name that was vague enough so that I could use it for other little stationery design jobs I was doing for friends.  I chose my maiden name {jones} and liked the word ‘company’ and its abbreviation {co.}, so put the two together and sandwiched ‘design’ in there. Just like that, I had a business.

I have always been fairly creative and generally gravitated towards paper crafts – card making especially.  I was in the stage of life when all of my friends were getting married, so I ended up creating many of their wedding invitations.  I teamed up with a local {and amazing} photographer who referred me my first ‘real’ client and I stumbled my way through trying to be professional when I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing!  It was a great side job and the perfect way to incorporate my love of paper and design into my life.

………….

Anyway, when we were trying to figure out how to afford keeping me at home with our baby, we realized we could give this little stationery business of mine a shot.  I had completed a Christmas season’s worth of holiday cards and loved it and had even made some extra money.  We figured once the baby was born that I could meet with clients on days Ryan was home, design while the baby was napping and produce the cards {with Ryan’s help!} in the evenings.

So I quit my real estate job, had a baby and took as many stationery jobs as I could manage.

And it got us through.

With the next baby, the jobs kept coming and I was able {with the help of our family} to continue working from home.  Christmas card time became busy for us, but the fact that I could make nearly a year’s income in a few months outweighed the stress. I was {and still am} so thankful to be able to be home with my little ones while also contributing to our finances.

Plus, I designed cards for a living.

………….

Now here we are 7 years later.

I still love that boy I married.

That first baby was such a delight that we kept adding more. And more. And more. Oh my.

And my little business is still part of our lives.

It has been fun to see how things have progressed over time. I started with mostly wedding invitations, then moved into baby announcements {naturally} then family holiday cards. Over the past year I’ve been able to explore other creative ideas through my home, the Summer Boutique, designing this new website, adding new products to my shop.  It has been fun to find some success through what I do.

But, by far, the best part of what I do here on this blog and in life, is inspire.  I have recently realized in my heart {and through your kind comments} that being able to use my creativity to inspire creativity in others is my greatest joy and true privilege.

Which is why I’m very excited about tomorrow. We’ll call it Announcement day.

……….

And don’t forget that today is the last day to sign up for the

sealsm

see you tomorrow!

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