Know Thy Self

If you wish to be successful in buisness--no matter what kind or at what scale--you must know yourself. From this basic principle comes the idea of the 30 second "elevator speech" to pitch yourself (or your buisness!) to others.

I know this. I've even contemplated this for papers on other businesses--what their core markets are, what their "essential business" is...but I've never sat down to do it for myself. Quite frankly, it's hard. After all, there is no rhyme or reason to why I decided to start making flower cards. I just liked them. I draw dragons because I like them too. I didn't find some pressing void in the market where people were clamoring for flower cards and dragons. I just went with the good old "If I like it, others will too."

Anyway, Janine of Athena's Armory made a post on this topic, inspired by a discussion in the forums. And so, inspired by her brave example, I'm going to give this a whirl.

Who are you?

I am lots of things! In the context of my buisness, I am creator, photographer, copy-writer, copy-editor, accountant (yeuck), web developer, PR, marketing, and one-woman cheer squad!

Outside of my buisness (but all of which inform what I bring to my buisness), I am a wife, kitty-mama, sister, daughter, artist, engineer, mentor, mentee, student, and teacher.

What do you do?

I create things that I find personally meaningful to me. The sentiments on each of my cards is carefully chosen to be "just right" according to my sensibilities. My dragonlings are a more literal interpretation of aspects of myself, my friends, and my world.

Why is that important?

My works are important because they inspire conversation. My cards, quite literally, in that they carry one person's words to another. My dragonlings however, also cause discussion. At craft fairs my items get people talking, "Ooh, look at this one. Read what this one likes! Oh, that's so me!"

My works are also important because they show deliberation. When someone purchases one of my items as a gift, they are purchasing a card that says more than just "thank you", a pin that says more than "hey you like dragons". The small, personal touches, the messages and the interests, make each card and dragonling individual.

The Real Challenge then is what to do with this information. I find what I have written under the "why is that important" category to be the most interesting. Until i starting writing that, I had never thought of my work in those terms. That lack explains my difficultly in creating a catchy slogan.

Right now my buisness cards read "Handcrafted and heartfelt paper designs." *yawn* Seriously, it even puts *me* to sleep and it certainly doesn't make me stand out!

The first step to creating a slogan is to distill down what I have written. Looking up I see "inspire conversation" and "individual" as standing out. Of course "individual creations that inspire conversation" is still pretty yawn worthy and rather long.

After several failed attempts at a catchy slogan (something I'm not very good at), I've decided to ask you, my blog readers to help me out. If you suggest a slogan that I select I will send you merchandise of your choice (custom orders included) of up to $15 plus free shipping. That is enough to buy any single item, or several of my smaller items.

To get you started here are some other thoughts on my shop:

*I see the target market for my cards as women, 30+. This is not always true, by any means, but it is largely so.
*I see the target market for my dragonlings as dragon lovers. They tend to be younger (although, again, not always).
*I like my cards to have sweet, uncommon sentiments that are gentle and thoughtful.
*I like my dragonlings to feel as though they might spring to life when you turn your back. A small friend and ally.
*I also use my dragonlings as a stand in for myself, often on ACEOS, exploring issues that affect me emotionally. (This, I imagine, appeals to an older crowd that my usual dragonlings, and an "artier" crowd than any of my other work.)
*I plan on adding more items and variety to my shop as time passes, however, the central themes will remain my dimensional flower cards with a short saying or quote, and my dragonlings. Future items are not guaranteed to all be paper.

This is exceptionally good timing as I need to have new buisness cards printed soon anyway. I can't wait to hear everyone's ideas! ^_^

ETA: The contest will end on Thursday at midnight EST.