I opened a shop, syrupsbyseme, on Etsy. I put up a picture. Entered in a few details and wham! I joined a legion of small business owners. There is a moment when you are going through the many pages on Etsy when you get to that button that signifies that your business is open. At that button, I paused. Said a prayer. Then pressed the button and suddenly my business was open.

My shop came about randomly. My mother had been telling me she felt I needed to find something to do on the side but I had never given it much thought. My life is fully occupied by my job. I just want to relax after work without having to worry about my obligations as a business owner. Then, I was talking to my sister and I somehow sketched out this dream to own a syrup shop. And in the way of an older sister, she goes “do it”

So I did. I started thinking about what I wanted to do with this idea. Then I started actively planning and researching options for canning food. Then I decided on one recipe and went from there. I made my syrups. Took a picture. Put the picture online and opened a shop.

I think there is a part of me that just sort of thought it would be an overnight sensation. Wham! So many orders, so many requests and I am running a multimillion dollar business. Instead, I look at my metrics and see a bunch of zeroes. Zero visits to the shop, zero visits to the listing, zero orders, zero comments. I realize that hard part is not the opening. It is the going forth. The waking up each day but being excited at the potential that is to come without any valid reason to be excited.  Starting and growing an online business is about living in the future and take small incremental steps to get to their future.

Visit my shop on Etsy for some of my delicious Spiced Apple Hibiscus syrup.