BEING A BUSINESS OWNER ISN'T ALWAYS SUPER-FLY-FABULOUS

Please enjoy the images above. The image on the left is my desk on a typical day - very OCD, very organized, very neat and clean. The image on the right is my desk today - woah. What happened. Please note the Happy Meal cup and Jolly Ranchers. Yea, I'm pregnant.

But today, after sitting in my car outside Staples, slobbering all over my iPhone as I cried to my husband about my terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day, I realized... being a business owner isn't always super-fly-fabulous. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it involves working with people who are different than you, making difficult decisions and (brace yourselves) dealing with money. And I don't know about you guys, but I prefer not to do those things! I shot a text message to a friend who immediately warmed my day. I came home and put on my favorite music (Watermark). Actually, I stopped and got a Happy Meal first - so that kind of helped too. Oh the joys of pregnancy :)

When I got home, I sat for a minute and thought and said a little prayer. Being a business owner is hard. Working full-time for yourself is hard. I had a couple client phone calls for Emily Ley Creative after that moment and I remembered why I love this so much, despite the hard parts. I'm blessed to work with and be surrounded by some of the most amazing, inspirational, talented and sincere people I've ever known. I get to help brides and other business owners turn their big dreams into something visually and wholeheartedly personal and strong.

But along with all that passion, today I realized in a big way - a business owner has to have the strength of an army and savvy that is keen and refined. I also realized that kind of savvy comes from making some pretty big mistakes: making non-lean business decisions (IE spending money where you don't REALLY need to), trusting that every person you work with has your best interest at heart, not clarifying, being direct, and standing up for your dream/business/project/passion. All that to say, my savvy got a little keener today - a little more refined. And my strength got a little stronger. Embrace mistakes and move forward. Learn from them. "Feel the hurt, let it hurt and move on." Quoting myself there...

Like I said to my friend today - being a business owner isn't always sunshine and happy faces, but it's so worth it in the long run. Kind of like pregnancy :) Speaking of which... where are my jolly ranchers...........