EmyJJ

Dear...

2011-02-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

Dear sfgirlbybay,

THANK YOU for introducing me to Amy Butler's inspiration page. You've either done something wonderful to me, or broke my brain with too much beauty at once — everything else is completely drab in comparison.

Sincerely,
EmyJJ

Now I know where to go when I've had too much of this snow and I'm ready for some spring!

Yowza. Take in all the girliness you can here!

Update and Vickie Howell Yarn!

2011-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Been a long time, but I'm going to get better at this blogging thing, I promise.

I'm getting closer and closer to launching my shop -- I've got plenty of earrings ready to go, and once I figured out how to strengthen my pendants, I'm way happier with the outcome of my necklaces. (Plain clay is gonna BREAK, yo! And I DON'T want a necklace to break the first time someone wears it!) I ended up using reinforced wire to build the clay pieces around. It's a little more time consuming, but I feel much better about their durability.

My first instinct was to recycle cans and make a really cool backing for the pendants. I figured it would strengthen the pendant AND look pretty cool on the back. I bought leather gloves and tin snips and got cuttin'. ...Not really my thing. Making a heart outline with humungo tin snips?? I was getting nowhere. I destroyed three cans and only had wonky circles to show for my efforts. Sorry, tin cans...maybe I'll revisit you someday and turn you into jewelry. For now, wire wins all!

In crafty news other than my own, one of my heroes, Ms. Vickie Howell, is releasing a new "affordable" yarn line with Caron and I am in LOVE with the color palette.

Dig the new colors of Stitch.Rock.Love. -- photos taken by Howell herself, so she said the colors may be a little "off." The wool blend, cutely called "Sheep(ish)" will be in select stores in May. I'm hoping my Jo-Ann is one of the stores that will be carrying it!

See a larger picture and Vickie's official announcement here:

Stay warm and keep craftin! I'll have a cute little card tutorial to share soon, so stay tuned!

xo,
Emy

An Ode to the Vast Internets

2010-06-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

image found via we heart it

Oh, Internet. How I love thee.

I knew you were good for checking out new bands and checking in on old friends. I also know that when my elbow hurts for no apparent reason, I can google "elbow pain" and freak myself out with hypochondriac worries.

For realsies, though, the online world continues to be more and more and MORE incredible for small business owners. I can't imagine attempting to run my own business without referencing blogs for help, or reaching out to someone halfway around the world who has had the same issue that I am having with my epoxy, or searching for the best deal on business cards!

I know this is a big, "Well, DUH" intro, but the whole point of this post is to share some of my favorite bizzy blogs.

First of all, thank you Design*Sponge for #1 -- being AWESOME and #2 -- for the Biz Ladies posts. These posts have been so useful and inspiring to me. If you're looking to start your own business, I think it's a great place to start.

I have checked in on Scoutie Girl once in a while, but I'm starting to frequent it more often. It really gives me a boost when I'm feeling discouraged, and what's not to love about that?!? Tara says it right away -- she thinks big. And I like ladies who think like me!

Crafting an MBA has also offered me a lot of businessy help, and challenged me to think of EmyJJ as what it is -- a business, not a hobby.

Lastly, of course I have to mention my dear Etsy. They have so much help for beginners out there -- I always hit the Community tab on the homepage and visit the Storque Blog. I'm a fan of Quit Your Day Job and Art of Pricing, both of which provide helpful tips and endless insight and inspiration.

It seems like every day, I'm finding a new blog that helps me out. These blogs are only the beginning... the list on my RSS feed continues to grow. But it's these blogs I look forward to reading. Oh my dear Internet, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you for all the help you've given me.

And p.s. -- After a bit more googling, my elbow's just fine.

xoxo
EmyJJ

Ok, so I'm not the only one...

2010-05-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in some gnarly traffic (I still love you, Chicago) and flipping through the radio stations. I heard that new "California Gurls" song (not a typo, fyi) by Katy Perry... and as SOON as I heard the chorus, all I could hear was Ke$ha's "Tik Tok." [Why in the world am I writing her dollar sign in her name???? Why am I conforming?!? Oh, pop culture. I am thy bitch.]

Anyway, thanks to the wonderment of YouTube, I was able to find someone who thought the same thing. If you want to cut to the chorus, skip ahead to 53 seconds... they sync right up!

Check it out here!

Just thought it was funny. I'm all for recycling, but c'mon, ladies. Let's switch it up a bit.

Luckily I don't need a summer jam... I've got a whole album already picked out! (At a mere 32 minutes and 5 seconds, I wish it was a bit longer, but I can't complain.) Because...

SLEIGH BELLS is rocking my world upside down!!!

Stream it at NPR -- if you're wearing socks, take them off and save yourself the hassle of having them knocked off.

Listen here!

On the business front, I feel like I'm getting closer. I still have to build my lightbox to take pictures. I hope to do a tutorial on that soon.

Happy weekend!!
Emy

Whoopsie

2010-04-07T09:58:00.001-07:00

Um... didn't realize I have to file my ST-1 every month for 1-2 years. I received a letter -- "Notice Before Collection Action" and had a little freakout. So I called the number, and the kind lady explained to me that even though I haven't done anything with my business yet (explaining that to her made me feel like I had rocks in my stomach), I still need to fill out the form with a 0 for returns. Then after 12-24 months of monthly filing, they'll get an idea of how my business is doing, and it will switch from monthly to quarterly filing.

So. Gotta stay on top of that! Glad I had a chance to correct my mistake!

But then comes the next question -- when I DO make a sale, will I know how to fill this thing out?? I'll probably need some help. :) But that's thinking way too far ahead. It's probably a good idea to focus on the task at hand, which is GETTING MY BUSINESS GOING!!!!

It's getting there. No matter how slowly, I'm going to get there.

Oh My...

2010-04-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry, been a while.

Conundrums. *le sigh*

Trying trying trying to get my Etsy shop up and a-runnin. And I keep missing the mark.

I've been crocheting like a mad woman. I have a lot of stuff built up, which is very exciting. But now I must assemble, which -- while it's one of my favorite parts -- takes some precious time that I simply don't have these days.

In January, when I wanted to open my shop but missed my deadline, I decided to reason with myself and not even try for February, shooting for a March launch instead. I KNEW I'd have stuff ready to go by then.

And here we are, April 1st. EmyJJ.Etsy.com... still 0 listings. I DO have stuff. But not enough. And I need to build my lightbox so I can take purdy pictures of everything. And I need my logo. Then I can make my shop purdy also.

While the crocheting is going along swimmingly, I'm running into problems with the clay. After years and years of using Sculpey for myself, I've never had a problem. Until I made a necklace that everyone seemed to be especially fond of, and one day it just snapped in half. Just what I was afraid of.

The good news is, I found that out before I sold them and let customers down with an item that couldn't handle daily wear n tear. The bad news is, I'm switching clay brands -- or at least mixing stronger clays like Premo or Kato with my Sculpey. And this has turned out to be a long process, because I like to make my own colors. I was pasta-rollin an ugly yellow for hours on Sunday before I tried to make a rose. By then, the clay was STILL waaay too firm to work with, and too brown to be my cute mustard yellow.

So again, *le sigh*

But there's light at the end of the tunnel, folks! EmyJJ will INDEED go up, and soon. Then I'll have more than enough time to make lots of stuff and continue to update my shop and wait ever so patiently (or not patiently at all) for my first sale.

Until I get some lovelies up, check out these lovelies:

Dottie Angel
Been looking at Dottie Angel all day. Such fun, beautiful stuff -- I want to go home and crochet NOW. And maybe re-do my apartment a bit. ;) And I loooove the skirts and boots she wears, too. Girl after my own heart.

Ms. Elsie Flannigan
Elsie has a pretty rad deal -- always making stuff, runs a store, has lots of crafty friends and the girl's got a fabulous eye!

Skunkboy Creatures
I saw Skunkboy Creatures at Renegade and felt like I saw a rockstar. Her adorable daughter was there too! I think they have one of the cutest mother/daughter relationships I've ever seen. They seem to have a lot of fun together! And the stuff she makes is super cute!

I heard about Dottie Angel and Skunkboy Creatures through Elsie -- and heard about her through Stacey from Eisley.

I love how music and craftiness and photography all bunches together. All things I am very, very fond of. <3

Just in case anyone wondered...

2010-01-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

On the business front, things are moving slower than I had anticipated. I'm all ready to sell (legal stuff, official business stuff, etc.), but I need a few more things to actually put in my shop. Then I need to take quality pictures, upload them, write about the products, and so on. This is the big build-up... I want to have lots to offer so I open my store with a bit of a bang! And then from there on out, it's just upkeep. But since I don't have enough built up yet, I unfortunately may have to move my official opening date back. January 2010 sounded so great! But I'm just not there yet. Aiming for February!

I take this seriously, ya'll...

2009-12-10T12:04:00.001-08:00

So last night, there were TWO envelopes in my mailbox from the Illinois Dept. of Revenue. Uh-oh. Did I send my form twice or something?

I opened up the first envelope. It was my certificate from filling out the ST-1! With clip marks around it and everything so I can cut it out and frame it! (Is it completely nerdy of me that I'm psyched about that, or only a little? I think I'll frame it and stick it right above my sewing machine...)

So, then I opened the second envelope. It was basically a "Congratulations on getting your sole proprietorship in order! Now you can file for the ST-1!" note.

Funny they arrived on the same day! I'm not messin around here, kids. I'm off and running with this thing!!!! Glad they send reminders, though. It's nice that they're on top of it and make sure I'm getting everything in order!

I can't wait to open my Etsy store. I'm hoping to officially open in January. I have a few things ready, but I want a nice supply of stuff to offer right off the bat! And right now, I'm a little sidetracked with some special handmade Christmas goodies. :)

Can't believe Christmas is only 15 days away! Then it'll be 2010, and then I'm opening shop! Whoa!

Got it!

2009-12-02T09:25:00.001-08:00

GREAT surprise! Over the Thanksgiving week/weekend, my Doing Business As (DBA) self proprietorship certificate came in the mail!

I had called Vital Statistics earlier last week before taking off for the holiday. Turns out I was basically pestering them. The thing is, after you're published in a paper, you have to go back to Vital Statistics and show them that you were printed. Then the certificate is on the way. In Chicago, when you register your DBA name, you have 15 days to publish it in a weekly Cook County newspaper, and 50 days (from when you registered at Vital Stats) to prove the publication of your DBA.

I chose the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin to publish my notice. It was only $50 and they were awesome to work with. Within a few days, they sent me a copy of my clipping from the paper! There was my announcement -- a business had started! It was so exciting to see!

The people at the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin told me that they would turn in the proof of publication. Let me tell you now... I'm a worrier. So after a couple of weeks passed, I started to wonder if they would really turn it in. Or maybe my clipping would blow away or get lost in the stack... whatever my fear, it always ended the same -- I was SO scared Vital Stats wouldn't get it, and I'd have to start all over again.

So I called them, and was told that they couldn't check to see if my proof of publication had been turned in -- "We can't check them all..." They told me to wait a couple more weeks. So I was ready to wait. Thank goodness I didn't have to wait too long!

I know since I'm a business owner (!) I should put a little more faith in people to come through. But I'm a follow-up type of lady, which is one reason why I think I might actually be okay as a business owner.

So last night, I hopped online and filled out the REG-1, the Illinois Business Registration Application for the Illinois Department of Revenue. I'm so glad they had clear directions! It really helped me! You need to check on the status within 24 hours, so I looked this morning, and I have my number for my ST-1, my Sales and Use Tax Return. Easy!

Next, I'll fill out the SS-4 form (the Application for Employer Identification Number). As far as I know, that's the last step, and I should be ready to run my business and take care of all my taxes and whatnots!

But like I said, AS FAR AS I KNOW... I'll keep you updated.

Woo hoo!

2009-11-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

Hello, all!

I am starting a business with my handmade goods, and want to share the process and my thoughts/randomness along the way. :)

I just registered my business as a sole proprietorship yesterday, and I'm psyched! When you register a Doing Business As name in Chicago -- in which mine is EmyJJ -- you need to have a notice published in a local weekly newspaper once a week for three weeks. (Which is a little freaky, since I do my work out of a spare room in my apartment. Nothing like broadcasting who I am and where I live! Oh well. I brazenly carry pepper spray.) Anyway, then I have to prove that it was published to the Cook County Clerk. THEN my certificate is on the way! (I will later register with the state and IRS.)

Along with researching how to start a small business, there's a bit of paperwork to do. But filling out forms has never been so fun! Having my own business has always been my dream, and I'm finally doing it! Woo hoo!