In 2013, i registered KinkyBlueFairy as a company and started my own business – to deal with my blog earnings and jobs in a more organised manner, get on interns and contributors, start an online store, and conglomerate all my other projects under one roof i.e. PR, social media strategy, emceeing, event styling, etc.

Of course i was a bit terrified of doing it all at the beginning. Before i registered my company, i made a list of all the things i had to do to get to where i envisioned myself to be – and the list was so long it put a real damper on my spirits. There was so much to do! Where was i gonna start?! I don’t even know how to do task numbers 3, 5, 24 and 348!! Plus there’s only one of me! SCARY!! AHHH!!!

Yup. That’s how i felt for a while.

In the end i learnt how to take baby steps. I don’t know when i started overthinking things i wanted to do, i used to just dive right in. Now i felt fear… maybe it was fear of losing money. Fear of failure. Fear that i wasn’t good enough. Fear that i was overestimating my abilities.

Starting a business sucks up a lot of time… but i still wanted time to spend with Clem, my family, friends, and myself. In the beginning, i had very little time for either.

I stopped trying out new recipes and started cooking out of necessity to eat,
i stopped taking my mum out for random weekday lunches,
i stopped having time to have lunch by myself which i love,
i stopped working out regularly,
i stopped having time to eat my evening snacks and got hungry and grouchy,
i stopped having the house cleaned and laundry done as often as it needed.

It was chaotic. I felt like crap. So now, i make up my own rules. My company, my rules right? Why not! Isn’t that the whole point of running one’s own business? I didn’t quit working for other people just so i could work for myself under the same regulations. I told myself: This isn’t going to work. I’m gonna make some changes and CREATE the life i WANT.

As it is, i already implement a work day that starts at 10:30am. Because i don’t see the point of everyone sitting through morning traffic and wasting time.

Just recently i started a practice where one day a week, everyone works from home (on the same day). People get to save a bit on petrol and toll, and i personally think it’s great for the soul to work in solitude once in a while.

There is a point where i figure i’ve made enough money for the week, why push it? How much more do i need? What i need, what we ALL need, is time with our friends and family and ourselves to make us happy! And when we’re happy, we’re definitely gonna be much more productive at work.

There are times when i hit a wall when it comes to a particular problem and i have learnt to be outspoken and unabashed to ASK questions and for help. I never used to be like that. I find that i receive the most solace for my problems from women. Women who are like me, and women whom i’m trying to be like.

I think it’s because us women understand how more difficult it is to run a business while running a home at the same time! You don’t see men having to sort out the cleanliness of the house or make notes to top up household products and food stuff while juggling cooking and socialising in the same week! Speaking of girl power, i just remembered Beyonce’s documentary Life Is But A Dream. Watch it!

There’s also a local website called Shine On that features Malaysian women who are doing their own thing, and it’s so inspiring to discover so many women out there reaching for their dreams.

I read an interview with actress/singer Adibah Noor on how she was a school teacher who opted for a school in a less desirable area, how she was a big sister to the students, and that she admired them for their stories that they shared. She later went on to compete in singing competitions, try her hand at copywriting, and translating for a corporate company, before performing on stage and on screen today! What an amazing story… i didn’t know there was so much behind her journey and you can really feel how much she went through discovering herself when you read it. You can read it *here*.

There are also interviews with Nur Moana Ishak, one of Malaysia’s first female commercial pilots; and Yeo Yi Lin, a musician and swimmer who lost her leg to cancer at 10 years old. They have wonderful stories that make me feel like i can do anything too 😀

I even discovered new women in business on Shine On (under Street Savvy) – like Juwita who runs a carpentry and antique business, Tee Reei who started gourmet popsicle brand The Potong, and many more. On each of their pages, you can interact with them and ask them questions on how they started their business or anything you want to know to get your own off the ground. Think of it as a forum or chatroom, cos you just need to connect via your FB account to chat or even give words of encouragement.

If you’re a woman in business yourself, you can join in their ranks to inspire other women by applying to be featured. They’re always looking for inspiring business stories, awesome ideas or great business models to share with the community. All these stories in turn will inspire young or new women interested in pursuing their passion! 😀 So even if you just started out and feel shy that you haven’t accomplished enough yet, don’t be! The main thing is that you ALREADY STARTED which is the first major difficult step. Tell people about it and challenge your own confidence. Your contribution could change another woman’s life without you even knowing it 🙂 Click on the *Be Featured page here* to fill in a simple form to get started.

All these activities are spearheaded by Shine On, who is basically creating a community of Malaysian women who run businesses, and those who are interested to start their own (Shine On posts articles *here* on the nitty gritty on starting your own business).

If this is all getting you pretty excited about starting your own business in 2014, have a look at their Let’s Get Down To Business page – it’s filled with in-depth articles and PDF files you can dl on all these topics like how to get your own web domain, how to set up a website to display products, postage queries, how to keep track of stock, how to monitor your expenses, and even on taxes! There’s a lot to read there that’s really helpful which i WISH i had before i started mine!

Shine On is a platform created by Libresse, which i think is a really cool idea (and i wish i thought of it first haha) cos it’s so awesome to bring women in business together where we can inspire and be inspired! There are a lot more pages and info to Shine On than i mentioned, just go explore it for yourself *HERE*.

     COMMENTS (5)