Why I started my business

Starting a business is a huge decision.  It takes time and money and a lot of both.  I always wanted to be my own boss but was too afraid to jump in and do it.  I went back to school and earned my MBA.  That made me want to start my own business even more.

I began to soul search and see where my passion was.  In order to know that I would keep myself motivated it needed to be something I could give all of myself to.  I had done wedding invitations for friends and family after doing my own and loved it.  I love weddings and really loved the design process of wedding invitations and knew that was the business for me.  But I still was too scared to jump in.

Then on June 21, 2016 it all changed.  My normal 40-50-minute commute home from work turned into over 3 hours.  That gave me the time to finally come to the conclusion that I had had enough of the 9-5 life and the commute that went along with it.  My husband had already put our kids to bed by the time I got home which meant I didn’t see them at all that day because I left before they had woken up that morning.  I walked in and said to my husband “we need to talk.”  I explained to him that I had been thinking about it and was so frustrated with my commute that day.  My awesome husband said “I love you.  I support you.  Do it.”  So I was going to start my custom wedding stationery business.

Luckily, I had a friend that had been a wedding photographer for 7 years.  The next day I texted her and told her I needed to pick her brain.  We got together a few days later and she passed on some wonderful information about starting a business, how to determine pricing, networking, marketing and how it won’t be easy.  I was lucky to have my own Obi-Wan to help get me started.

So I was on my way!  I had what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, but I needed to know who I was going to be?  My business needed a name.  I knew I wanted “Printing” in the name so people would have a better idea of what I did.  I decided I wanted to use a tree in the name because paper comes from trees.  Apparently, a lot of people had the same idea!  I had the hardest time finding a name that wasn’t already in use. I have always been intrigued by bonsai tree pruning so I thought it would be cool to use that.  My favorite color is blue.  So Blue Bonsai Printing LLC it was!

Now that the major decisions had been made it was time to get on the roller coaster of business ownership.  While it has had its ups and downs I have been loving every minute of it.  I am happy to say that on June 14, 2018 (less than 2 years from when I started my business) I moved to being full time self-employed!  It was super scary but it is what I had been working towards.  So excited to say I made it.  Now I am a year into doing my business as my full time job and I am loving every minute of it.

Keywords: wedding, wedding business, invitations, invitations designs, my wedding