There's a lyric from The Bravery's Time Won't Let Me Go that strikes me every time I hear it.
I am so homesick now for
Someone that I never knew.
I am so homesick for
Someplace I will never be.
Obviously, these lyrics mean something different to me now than they did to my 21-year-old self when the song was first released in 2007. (Now that I'm considering it, they might have meant something different to me every single time I've ever heard them.) Although they're pretty melodramatic, they're easy to identify with, both personally and professionally -- the bigger my dreams about running my own business, the more out of reach those dreams seem to be.
I've been working on my own definition of success and creating measurable goals recently to try to counter that feeling. One goal for the remainder of 2016 is to bring on more small projects/individual clients. A few weeks ago, I created my second-ever set of bridal shower invitations.
While I was working through some style options, my client started sharing additional details about planning the event. Instead of congratulatory cards, she wanted guests to bring recipes for the bride-to-be. We discussed how to ask this and ways that we could encourage folks to participate. In an effort to minimize costs, our initial plan was to design the invitation as a stand-alone postcard -- a 4x6" postcard, which is the same size as a recipe card.
With a quick pivot, we dropped all the event information on the front of the postcard and made the back a recipe card. Our new costs were letter stamps ($0.37 v. $0.49) and envelopes ($7). We made it simple for guests to participate for only $11.80 in additional expense.
