Start a second job and end up owning your own business… What?

How does that even happen? Easily. And yes it’s all in jest, but looking from the outside on the quick progression of things it’s pretty darn funny!

Keep in mind that this is still a big learning process for me, but I am progressing slowly towards the goal of actually knowing what in the world I’m doing!

Starting a sole proprietor business was recommended to me by my new boss as something to gain experience and to establish a little name for myself. So now I’m the proud owner of a little, framed piece of paper on my wall that says I’m officially recognized as my own business! Of course, I had a little panicky moment when it dawned on me that I have no idea how to run myself as a business. Do I pay myself? How do I figure that out? Then, good lord, there’s taxes… and the major questions start pouring in like a deluge. So I research a lot and that helps to ease my worries. Sometimes fear is just born out of a lack of knowledge, so educate yourself and be confident!

Then, as I gain said confidence, the funny questions and thoughts hit me: Can I give myself a raise? I think my office (which is my extra-bedroom-turned-odd-little-livingroom) needs an Espresso machine. I should make a wall with “Employee of the month” frames (which would most likely just be pictures of my dog). And can I fire myself? I’m sure it goes without saying that I laugh rather loudly at all these because I have a habit of thinking the absurd things I say or think are pretty funny.

All joking aside though, so far the only real difficult thing has been deciding what to name my business. Because using my own name is way too boring, I decided I wanted to be clever. Unique. And apparently, I just like making things really difficult for myself. So I started with the idea of clever little foxes. Did I mention before that I love foxes? Because I do love foxes. Those little clever faces, intelligent brown eyes, russet-y coats and bushy tails… I digress. Yes, I’m fond of foxes and let’s face it, they’d make a cute logo! I couldn’t leave it at that though, I had to take it one step further. After more deliberation and you guessed it, research, I remembered reading about Will O’ the wisps. Little gas lights that trail you deeper into dangerous swamps. There’s another sort of light like that called “Fairy lights” that comes from certain fungi that grow in the woods. It glows and creates the illusion of “fairies” cavorting around the trees. An illusion of something that’s there, but really not. Kind of like a Virtual Assistant. A home-body fungus that’s there to assist in a virtual capacity. Do you see where I’m going with this? The best part of this is, the other name these little fiery fungus lights go by is “foxfire”. Bingo.

Being satisfied with the name encompassing the features I was after, I christened my new little business “Foxfire Virtual Assistant Services”. And then my mind turns to awesome little logos and what color theme I’d pick if I built a website. The list goes on and on.

The real moral of the story is this though: you really never do know what’s going to happen when you take that step. I still don’t know what this little adventure will turn into, but I’ll keep taking those little steps forward to find out! To borrow a quote from one of my favorite authors: “Little by little, one travels far” – J R R Tolkien.

So if you need a little encouragement: don’t get discouraged by things not turning out as you hoped. Find the things in what you’re doing that you enjoy, focus on those things, and keep taking those little steps forward! Life is most definitely an unpredictable adventure.