One Year Slinging Dough
Can you believe Sweeties has been up and going for ONE YEAR? Yeah me either. All the days, weeks and months string together some way, some how. I have felt such highs this year accompanied with a few days of what feels like constant learning and brain stretching. Haha. The good days definitely out weighed the bad, but there were certainly days I thought, what the heck am I doing? There have been so many pieces of this business I did not anticipate - the accounting of it all, the hard learned mistakes (more on that in a sec), even the immense joy I would feel when I get to spend time doing stuff for Sweeties was completely unanticipated. Things were not perfect when I started and they still aren’t but I’m committed to learning and growing and seeing where the journey takes me. I think starting was the hardest part and letting the leap unfold in an organic way is a close second. Considering I’ve been slinging the dough for almost a year now, I thought I would share a few things I’ve learned along the way….
Hold true to who you are and be yourself. This seems so simple, but social media can be persuasive, people can be persuasive and before you know it, you’ve lost touch with why you started and who are. At the end of almost every day, I’ve come back to my why for starting and feel pretty darn good about where things are today, because I’ve held true to me and what I want this to be.
Find your tribe. One thing I’m incredibly proud of is the female company I keep close to my heart. I have a really great group of friends - old and new, however very few of these people are involved in my day to day decision making. Outside of my husband, a few people that helped me get off the ground and a new business coach/friend, I don’t let a lot of people in on Sweeties Dough. I feel good about the people around me and those helping me make big + small decisions. Very important!
Remember your “WHY!” I touched on this a bit in #1, but seriously sometimes you run into road blocks or mistakes and it’s easy to get frustrated and wonder “what am I actually doing?” Every time I’ve felt this way, I let myself feel the feels and then before bed always remind myself why I started and what ignited the passion for me. Falling back on that every time will guide your heart and mind in the right direction. I pinky promise! :)
Remember lessons learned are exactly that. Not everything will go perfectly. That’s honestly kinda the beauty in the process. One decision leads to the next - sometimes it’s the right one, sometimes it isn’t. Find joy in the learning process and know that things will work out in the end.
Get out of your own way. This is a toughie for me. I can overthink and over analyze with the best of ‘em. I had a few moments of insecurity, I still struggle to show my face on IG stories ;), and I’m guilty of holding myself back a bit. Once I let some of those things go, the process got a lot more fun. Why be your own biggest critic, when you could be your own biggest fan!
Last but not least, DON’T EVER BE AFRAID TO FAIL! I’ve certainly had my fair share of failures in the last year - one being I changed my name from Sweeties by Market & Modish to Sweeties Dough, and ended up discarding a bunch of marketing material I had already paid for. And another mistake being I ordered the wrong shipping material when we started and ended up ordering all new shipping supplies a few months later. Both failures were a bit maddening, but I definitely learned something and have not made the same mistake twice. #socre! Don’t let analysis paralysis be your Achilles heal because you’re afraid something will fail. My advice would be to go for it and trust that things tend to work out. And if I’d been afraid to fail or still thinking about how to start, I would have missed out on all the joyful moments of this past year……and you all would still be waiting for the most delicious cookie dough to hit your lips. ;)
Alright, that’s all I got. Those are all my words of wisdom after 365 days of opening this website and launching this business. My genuine hope is these words help someone else if they’re thinking about taking the leap! And to all of you that have purchased cookie dough, or hit the little heart on IG, or followed along silently from afar while rooting me on, THANK YOU! I appreciate all of it more than you know and I will always be forever grateful for your support. And cheers to another year of slinging the dough!
xo.
AFK
