Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Lemon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Heather , thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

From time to time, I often wonder if I should go back to working for someone else. It can be very hard as a business owner, doing the necessary little jobs that need done that are very boring, or tedious, or repetitive, or just prep work instead of working on actual projects, or designs, or creations. The potentially less stable income, and ability to have financial freedom and security. The longer hours, the longer work weeks can also wear on you and after a while really make you wonder if this was what you truly wanted to do in the first place.

When I get into the sort of place where I’m asking myself that question I start weighing the pros and cons of which option would give me what I truly want and need. If I decided to go back to work for someone else. What would I gain from this? I could have a shorter work week, maybe financial security with a steadier, more reliable paycheck or health care benefits that are cheaper, paid time off, paid sick leave, and less overall responsibility.

Then I look at what I lose if I went to work for someone else. While I may have less hours, I would have a less flexible schedule. I wouldn’t have the flexibility to work when it was best for me. I would lose the ability to work from home and all of the benefits provided from that, including the increased time with my family. I might have a reliable paycheck, but I wouldn’t get the big pay offs on an idea. While I would have less overall responsibility, I would also have less identity and have a higher chance of being just another employee. Losing my ability to help develop myself and develop and grow the business I work for.

Ultimately when I look at going back to work for somebody, I lose the things that are the most important to me, my voice, my input on designs or direction of growth. I lose the ability to be there with my family whenever they need me. I also lose doing something that inspires me and drives me. Something that forces me to learn new skills and actively refine and often teach known skills. It’s something that makes me get out of bed and actively want to get work started and projects done.

Heather , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I spent many years in retail management and I loved what I did. It never actually inspired me it never drive me to be better. After years of missing family events and missing out on my daughter’s growing up and having kids of their own, my youngest child came along and I didn’t want to miss out on her growing up, it just did not seem appealing to me.
While I had always felt that I’d been setting an example to my children on working hard and working to improve yourself, and what I thought was success. I realized that wasn’t the only version of success that there is out there and I needed to do something about it for myself and for my children.

I had always designed things and made them. I’ve always crafted things for friends and family as gifts or by request for them. 1 day I was introduced to someone who really inspired me to try. And to keep going and really showed me that I could do this and make this as a business for myself.
I started making purses and keychains. Then graduated into making epoxy sculptures and tumblers. Now I’ve added making 3D printed items.

With the new skills I’ve found new ways to provide services and customizations for clients. Especially with venturing into 3D printing. Things to make people’s lives easier and prettier.

As each year goes by, I feel more and more accomplished and happy about helping others.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I really struggled building an audience. I’m not an influencer by any means and found it very difficult in the beginning. I had some really wrong ideas of what I needed to do. I thought I had to do huge productions for videos and really push sales. I started to give up honestly. So I restarted, but this time I did it for me. I just made fun and silly videos. I made behind the scenes videos and videos with tips with the way I do things. Before long I started growing followers and then the sales followed. Especially when I stopped trying to guess what people wanted and just started showing off what I loved. That’s when things started to pick up for me.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I started with Etsy. I found very quickly that it didn’t work for me. I rarely had sales without large expenditures of money. What I also found was that I wasn’t making all that much money on what I sold if I did actually make money at all. I switched to doing local craft shows and a general online appearance and before long I was receiving repeat business and several new clients based on referrals and social media. I’ve also researched other online websites and local businesses that want to resale my products.

Image Credits
Photos by Lemon Drop Designs LLC