The Glorified Lemonade Stand by Mariah Laughlin
When I told my friends and family I quit my job (a job I didn’t really enjoy anyways) to start a business as a fiber artist, no one really took me seriously. Well, the people closest to me did, but only after I was perfectly clear that this was my job now, and that yes it is a real job. One of the biggest challenges was realizing how few of the people I knew took me seriously. People would ask how my “little project” was going, or if my “yarn thing” was working out. It was a bit discouraging in the beginning and well, mostly just made me mad. The frustrating thing is that its people you know or felt like you knew who are making these comments. The strangers who would come by my booth were the most supportive, telling me how talented I am, or how much they love my work, and becoming repeat customers. But to the people who didn’t take me seriously in the beginning, I would never live up to their expectations of what a business should be unless I was in some Home magazine, or selling my things in major department stores, or getting in big name galleries. Just because it’s a ‘small’ business doesn’t mean it’s not a full-functioning business. Success is all relative. I had to learn and realize that I wasn’t making my art and products for those people. I was making it for myself and for the people who genuinely liked what I made. That might come more naturally to some people, but for me it was hard to do.
Those people with big grand visions of what a business needs to look like will never really understand the joy of making something with your hands that others actually want to buy. The relationships you build with other vendors who become your friends. The comradery at markets. The little successes that feel like big steps in your journey. The customers who are in love with what you do and want to share it with others. Those are the customers I want anyway, not the friends and family who thought I was just having a glorified lemonade stand. Maybe that sounds harsh, but that’s how it felt at times. Those people will also never truly understand how much work you put into your small business. It’s hard work. There’s so much to learn in the beginning. So much that falls on your shoulders, I mean you have to do e.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e task that any other business does, but all on your own.
Since those people will never understand what you do, I learned you just can’t care about what they think. Easier said than done, I know. Here’s the thing, that was my experience, and I have lived a life where I moved a lot, switched jobs all the time, and was always coming up with new ideas on what I wanted to do with my life. So I get why some people didn’t take this new venture seriously. I still had very supportive people in my life, thankfully, who helped me in so many ways and never doubted me.
In the end, it’s your business. You started it from the ground up. You get to decide what you do with it, how you grow, at the pace you want, and how your business affects others. It’s not always going to line up with other people’s view of what a business should look like, and that’s okay. How you run your business and the products you make, or services you provide should be done the way they are because it’s fulfilling to you and your customers, not the glorified lemonade standers.
Mariah Laughin
Mariah’s Macrame
