Christmas Designs

I am so excited for Christmas this year and the designs that I'm already planning that I had to start early :-)

Working Weekends

Yep, no more working Monday-Friday for me anymore. My client base is starting to grow and my existing clients are asking more of me which is great - I couldn't ask for anything more!

Geoff and I had a big, busy day last Saturday. One of the businesses I have been doing a couple of projects for has asked me to set up and manage their e-Bay store, starting off with selling approximately 130 items. First we needed to sort through everything in one of the many storage rooms before we could start taking photos and if it wasnt for Geoff's help, I'd still probably be there! What a big task!

Here a couple of pics of some perfume and one of (many!!) watches we took...and me, busy sorting everything :-)

Q is for Quiana

Last Saturday whilst doing the video shoot, I met a beautiful young woman named Quiana, who is a well-known photographer on island. We got chatting about the ins and outs of weddings, events and starting our own business (mind you, she's had her business for years and is doing very well for herself) and I was asking her about whether she knew of any work going.
It was the biggest compliment to hear her ask me, whether I would be interested in working with her ! This week has been jam-packed full of meetings with clients, potential clients and friends but not yet a business associate so we met this afternoon for a long discussion about her new projects and how mine could tie into that.  Stay tuned... I will be posting the first of many more Quiana/Michelle projects within the next few weeks...


In the meantime, check out her collection at http://www.qstudiovi.com/index2.php#/home/
or http://www.facebook.com/QStudioLLC?sk=wall

Things are looking up!

This evening I met with an amazing born-entrepreneurial woman who owns and manages a very successful business on St. Croix. We had a brief meeting earlier this week to discuss just general opportunities on island and she was even open and trusting enough to give me names of a few people to "stay away from". She said at the time, there wasnt anything she could offer me, as much as she would've liked to.


This morning, less than 48 hours later, I received a phonecall from her to say that she had done some brainstorming and wanted to meet again. This "lets-throw-around-some-ideas" turned into a 3-hour, professional business meeting together with her partner... I guess the first encounter with her earlier this week had really been a pre-interview and although she had said there had been nothing she could offer me, had decided after our chat that she wanted to create a position for me! This really moved me and gave me a glimmer of hope that my talents, skills and personality are being recognized in a very positive light by professionals.

Portfolio...Part 1

Sommer Sibilly, a massage and reiki therapist on island asked me to design her business card.. she had specified only to me that she wanted something to do with chakras, spirituality and energy, so the first thing I had to do was research what all of that even was! I've realized that designing people's business cards is actually a very educational experience, as I'm learning a lot about different things and jobs as I research each one.

I came up with this design below, which I've gotten an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from already. I cant wait to get it printed!

Front:

                                                                           

                                                                             Back:

Business Licence

The last couple of weeks I've looked into the steps to applying for a business licence.. I havent even really begun and its already seeming like an absolute nightmare.

Have spoken with several different people, including professionals and even the DLCA (Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs) and everyone is telling me conflicting things... for some reason I need to get a certificate verifying that my office space (i.e. HOME) has had a fire inspection and is safe...even though I will not be bringing clients through home.

The usual procedure of getting a background check and applying for a tradename seem like all reasonable requests but I've heard this entire process can take up to FOUR months! Please someone organise some champagne to pop once this is all over and done with, I think I may need it!

2nd Anniversary

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all our family for helping make our second anniversary memorable! We received gifts and wishes and even had a beautiful dinner overlooking the ocean with a nice bottle of Italian red thanks to you!

Also - just an update on my business.. for those of you that dont yet know, I've decided to start flying solo and pursue my dreams of creativity, events, tourism and marketing and have teamed up with an amazing woman named Wendy who has lots of experience and many contacts on island.

We've developed: Spotlight St. Croix, or Spotlightstx for short. ("We help put YOUR business in the Spotlight!")

Yesterday we received our work email addresses and domain name for a website that is now officially ours! Its not up and running yet, until we can create a little portfolio of our work, and most importantly - have our business licence... that will be taken care of next week.. wish us luck!

Home Office :-)

We picked up this desk at Officemax last week for just $56!! I can finally get organised and really begin working on my own business now!