About Me setting up my own business.

Hello everyone, my name is Michelle Jackson, the creator of my own business Knitaway. I have decided to share my experience through this new exciting, new journey in my life.

I am proud to say I am a woman in my 50’s and I am raring to go with loads of energy.

As I enter this new phase in my life, which is quite exciting, yet scary and a few doubts in setting up my knitting business and asking myself, “am I good enough”?

So the aim of my blog is for you to follow me through my journey and hopefully encourage people that whatever age you are, it’s not too late, just go for it!

I consider myself a really outgoing person and love to have fun, which includes a bit of Soul and Motown dancing.

Where Do I Start?

The things I needed to think about when setting up my business.

Well to be honest, I had to really think about a lot of things:-

1. Where do I source my yarn from? Loads of researching on the internet helped me to achieve this.
2. Who will deal with a small company that has just set up? This was a worry to me, however all the companies I have contacted have been really good and allowed me to set up wholesale accounts with them.
3. How much will it cost me? This can vary on how much stock you want to start with and the cost of a website if I wanted to have one and other little things that I wanted to look at, like printing costs and packaging etc.
4. What do I call my company? After hours and hours of checking on Instagram, Facebook and domain names to make sure no-one else had it, I finally found one.
5. I had an idea of how I wanted my logo to look  – I was very lucky here (that’s not happened much), as my friend Julie Tyler is an Art teacher and she has designed my logo for me. 

A Little bit proud of myself setting up my own business.

However, I am really proud of myself as I’ve been learning loads about social media, (not quite there yet),  I’ve watched loads and loads of “How to set up Instagram, Facebook, do YouTube tutorials and write a blog”.  

My word, looking at this I have had alot to think about, not to mention Twitter, Pinterest and Ravelry,  I am gradually working through them.  I know they might be a little basic at first but as I learn more they will get better.

Ideally, what I would really like is for someone to come and sit with me, who knows how to do all this and say “Michelle, you need to do it this way”, ( I would supply them with chocolate and cakes) If only!

A little bit about my family

Not only do I have all this going on, I have a 13 Year old daughter, going on 16, which I am home schooling through this lockdown. 

 Well, let’s just say guiding her where I can, like asking her “Have you done your school work”?  However, setting up my business was a little easier than trying to help and support my daughter with her school work, particularly maths. 

We are lucky as school are sending her lots of help for the work she needs to do.

Then,  there is my 19 year old son who has set his own business up, which I am really proud of him as he is doing really well  and it’s an interesting business as he buys old radios and camera’s, various other items as well. 

When he comes back with new stock, we love to look through it with him as it brings back loads of memories. 

 I must admit that he has inspired me to set up my business as well.  

The other dilemma I had was I needed to have my hair coloured during  lock down, so I had to let my husband colour my hair.

 This was a very nerve racking experience, as you will know ladies we like our hair to look good, not that I’m going anywhere at the moment.  

However, he did a really good job and it came out fine and I’m still blonde.

Where am I at?

I feel I need to have tick boxes here:-

1. Set up Instagram – basic and requires improvement. 
2. Make a Facebook Business page – not sure how I did this in the end.
3. Create a  Website – This is still a work in progress, it is live and I am really proud of myself as I had someone set it up for me but I knew what I wanted it to look like for my business.
4. YouTube – Well, try to video yourself and then watch it back and oh my word! New questions came to me, should I lose weight? As I don’t look good on that video, cameras are not always kind. 

So at the moment the other dilemma is do I start and cut down, I’ve done it before so I know I can do it again.

This lockdown has not helped.  My son and daughter are good, saying “Mum go on the Fitness Pal App” good encouragement from them.  

 I can hear you say you should be happy as you are, but really I’m not so I need to sort it.

Another thing I am having problems with, is which tripod do I buy? Enabling me to do better video shots from close ups.

Well not too close at the moment and filming from a distance. , especially when there are so many to choose from and I don’t want to spend too much at first.

Every time I come to do something, there is another thing I need to sort, yet I keep on going and I’m loving it.

Why Not follow me with my new journey!

I hope you have enjoyed reading my first blog and found it informative and maybe some of you can relate to it. I am just a normal person (well some of my friends would question that) who is trying to do something I’ve always wanted to do, instead of saying I’m going to for the last 20 years.

I would love you to follow me on my new journey and let me know what you think to my website and have a browse through my shop, looking at all the kits I have designed for everyone to make.

If you would like to drop me a line from any of you that are thinking of setting up a business and I will try to help.

Have you set up a new business and found different problems?
Have you any tips that you may have which could help me develop my business? 

Maybe I have just motivated you to go and achieve your goals and make those dreams become a reality for you. 

I am working on my tutorials on “How to Knit” for when I go live with my YouTube Channel – So watch this space!