The Curvy Elle Blog & Shop is about one month out from our two year anniversary (see year one). It’s hard to believe that I have been doing this for that long! Running your own business has it’s ups, downs, and slumps. It’s never perfect, and in the moment, it is sometimes hard to see the accomplishments and forward moving. But, ultimately as long as it’s what you love, then it’s all worth it!
Lately, I’ve been in one of those ‘slumps’ on and off. I feel a bit stagnant, and have been feeling the proverbial ‘twitch in my feet.’ This means I need some change. And, don’t take this as a bad thing. It isn’t. That’s how I work. It’s what pushes me to do new things (eventually). I’m just in the midst of figuring out what that is. Thoughts and ideas are starting to swirl, and the future will eventually see some changes…
For now, I wanted to come up with a list of 10 Goals for Year 3. (See some of the things that I accomplished this past year here.)
1. Design More T-Shirts for The Shop
I loved offering my two t-shirts (logo tee and ‘lips and lashes’ tee) on The Curvy Elle Shop, but I want to do more. I also want to do more fitted tees with fun small run designs. I have a lot of fun ideas I’d love to create!
2. Design Dresses for The Shop
I love dresses and I love designing dresses. I want to start making and offering some more of my own dress designs on The Curvy Elle Shop (both modern and modern vintage/up-cycled).
3. Learn How to Screen Print
I really don’t know how I never got to take a class in design school for screen printing, but it never happened! This is something I’ve wanted to learn for a very, very long time. I have to find a class or work shop that teaches this, because I definitely learn best from hands-on teaching methods.
Learning this skill would enable me to have control over making up my own shirt and tote bag designs. I don’t know if it’s actually worth doing myself (financially and time wise) or if it’s better to hire someone to produce items, but I still would love to at least learn more about this.
4. Take 2 Photo Shoots a Week
For a while I was very on top of doing two photo shoots a week (one at the beginning and one at the end), but then business started expanding, my focus turned to keeping up with the shop, and blah, blah, blah… Excuses, excuses. But, truthfully, I really want to try and make time for doing this again. Even if it is not every week, but most weeks. I need and want to do this!
5. Make More ‘Modern Vintage’ Pieces
This goes hand-in-hand with number 2. I have fun altering vintage pieces to make new items or combining multiple vintage pieces to make new, “Modern Vintage,” pieces to offer on The Curvy Elle Shop.
6. Add Specialty Vintage Items to The Shop
This one I am mentioning, but am not sure it’s a direction I really want to go. It’s an idea I have been mulling around… What I mean by adding “specialty vintage items” to the shop is — basically, offering non fashion vintage items such as house goods, nick-knacks, etc. This could be a way to diversify and stay with the mission and aesthetic of The Curvy Elle.
7. Do (at Least) One Pop-Up Shop
Last summer I did my first ever The Curvy Elle Pop-Up Shop. It was a learning experience, to say the least. It ended up being a big investment without being very fruitful. I would like to try doing another one this coming summer, but at a different venue and with some changes.
8. Collaborate with Other (Local?) Businesses
I have a few ideas for this, some of them being — find a local print shop and screen printer to work on producing some of my graphic designs in different forms; and look into local consignment shops to have a booth with.
9. Take on an Intern
I want to have an intern at The Curvy Elle. It’s a goal of mine to be a mentor as well as get the help and ideas of another creative person. Interested and located in the San Francisco Bay Area? Check out the intern page!
10. Research Local Production
If I do have some of my own designs produced, it is very important to me to keep production local or at least domestic (LA or New York areas?).
