May I Have a Sick Day, Please!!

This week I speak from first hand experience about one of the toughest challenges of owning your own business.  There are many benefits to being self-employed that outweigh all of this for me, but I don't think people think about the few downsides.

The past two weeks have been a wild ride.  Thanks to my customers, I have had the best few weeks of business since I opened my shop!  I am deeply grateful for all of your business and in no way mean any differently from that in this post, but it has been challenging being faced with basically "LIFE" at the same time.  During this exciting time, we also celebrated the wedding of my cousin who I consider a sister.  I'm so happy for her!  The girls and I participated in her beautiful wedding!

After coming home from an eight hour drive, I got orders out for two days and then had sinus surgery.   I knew that it would be difficult, but not that it would be this difficult.  When you are the sole owner, worker, etc, there is no one to fill in for you.  I'm very lucky to have great support from my family and friends, but no one could "fill in" for me while recovering.  Orders continued to come in, people sent messages, and I tried to keep up.  One thing the doctor neglected to tell me was that not only could I not wear my contacts, I also could not wear my glasses for several days!!  I do not recommend trying to sew while on pain killers with no glasses!  I pushed myself to the point one day I felt horrible, so bad I shut down my shop for a little while.

What did I learn?  Cell phone capabilities are a blessing.  I could answer most questions from the couch on my phone.  Although somehow I also managed to send friend requests to some unknown person on Facebook.  I still haven't figured out how I did that one, but she did accept.  I guess I made some new friends out of this adventure!  I also learned to pace myself and let my customers know what was going on.  I was afraid at first to contact them.  I didn't want them to think I was making up excuses.  I am very lucky to have such understanding customers!

So, there are no sick days in this line of work...but I still love it every day!  Thank you to all of my customers for your business!  I hope you enjoy my products and much as I love making them!

Check out my new Easter items at Anne Maddox Boutique!  There are several new Easter shirts available such as a sequin carrot shirt, Easter egg shirt, and sequin Easter Bunny shirt!

Visit my Facebook page for a chance to vote and win an Easter Shirt!