Rug Update

Okay so I'm finished with the first rug. It was definitely an experiment. It still is until I get it fully finished and down on the floor somewhere for photos. I'm still figuring out how much of everything I need and how much it is costing me so that I can come up with a decent price to sell the things for. Today though I ordered the wool for rug #2 and it will be even cooler than #1. It's weird how I was so excited for #1 and now that I'm done with it I can't wait to move on to something else. I love doing this. I was in heaven as I went through my wool tufts to figure out what colors to use for #2. I still haven't figured out how I am going to sell these yet. That is the only hurdle and experiment I have yet to figure out. I know they are beautiful. I have good taste, but the problem is how to let everyone else know about them too and how to do it for lilttle to no money. An ad in Architectural Digest or Elle Decor would be a good place to start, but that is too far out of my non-existant budget.

The really frustrating part is this........ I have no extra money to fund these projects. My architecture income was paying for all this and now there is no architecture income. My goal was to pay for everything in CASH. I have been for the past few months, but I am out of cash. This time of year all extra $$$ goes towards property taxes and Christmas. So my dilemna is do I charge it so that I can move forward and get closer to the day when I will make money at making rugs, or do I sit and wait until there is cash to pay for my projects?

I have made the executive decision to charge it. I'm not happy with the decision, but I see no other way to move forward. I still need to have more samples of my work in order to sell them. I still need to spend who knows how much getting 12 (1'x1') samples of some patterns made in Nepal. The samples themselves will not be too expensive, but the shipping is ridiculous. I had a brochure shipped from Kathmandu and it cost me $50.

I think this is just what it takes to start a new business. All of our other businesses are service businesses. There is no cost of goods. There is no product. So this is all new to me and I'm just stumbling through it. In order to sell a line of products with original designs you have to have samples of the products before you can sell them. There will eventually come a time when things will start to move forward and cash will start to flow, but until then my AmEx is going to get a work out.