The Blustering Baker Leaps into the Dark

Not entirely true.  I decided where I wanted to be a long time ago, but there were always so many things holding me back.  What if I don’t make enough money?  What if cupcakes go out of style?  What if I fall and break my arm?  What if I’m not cut out for this?!?! 

I finally let go of the fear and decided it was now or never!  Beginning April 1^st, I cut back to 20 hours/week at my “real job” and on May 1^st, I will officially be employed by…ME!  It’s hard to describe how I feel about this.  Half of me is scared shitless.  Half of me wants to shout it from the rooftops. “I’m finally doing it!!!”.  

The decision was made during a lunch with my boss on Monday afternoon. Shortly after I left for the evening he sent out a mass email announcing it everyone.  When I saw the email, I thought “that son of a bitch!”.  He knew I was going to go home, pine over it, not get any sleep, and probably come in on Tuesday telling him that I'd changed my mind.  So by sending out the email, there was no turning back.  He knows me well, my boss does.  And he, along with everybody else at the office, have been nothing but supportive.  The responses I got from his email damn near brought me to tears.  I’m really going to miss these folks.  L 

Lucky for me, I’ll be at the “real job” for 7 more weeks!  And if this week was any indication, those next 7 weeks are going to be HECTIC to say the least. Not only with tying up loose ends at work, but with figuring out what’s next for Roxie’s Cupcakes.  I think I’ve stumbled upon my first “gig” already while browsing the classifieds yesterday - a mid-week Farmer’s Market in Port Warwick.  I spoke with the market manager and once I’ve secured a business license with the city of Newport News, I should be all set to sell cake pops and cake truffles every Wednesday from May through September!  That definitely helped me to feel a little less scared.  I'm just going to have to get out there and sell, sell, sell!  I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain!  

So I hope, now that my days of never having any free time are almost behind me, that I'll be able to share a little more of my journey into self employment via my blog.  Then again, I also hope that I'll be so busy baking cupcakes to feed the masses that I won't have time to update the blog.  We'll see...

I'm so excited about what the future holds for Roxie's Cupcakes!  I feel confident and happy and ready to begin this new chapter in my life!  Yes, I realize  that I could go broke in a matter of months.  Yes, I realize that I may be searching for a job in a year from now.  I know that 80% of small businesses fail and I know that it's not going to be easy.  But I'll be damned if anyone thinks that I'm not going to go after this with everything that I've got!!!

That about sums it up!