Hey guys! I have a different kind of post for you guys today. One of my big goals for this blog is to help other moms out there get started with their blogging and/or working at home journey. I hope to start sharing even more tips & tricks for blogging, social media, working from home, etc… and I wanted to start by sharing MY story with you guys about how I got started in hopes that it might give some of you guys out there some inspiration to make your own dreams come true!
Okay, so my story starts many years ago, back to my teenage days. I remember creating my own web pages on AOL. I can’t even remember what they were called back then in the dial up days (AOL Pages comes to mind), but it was very similar to a tumblr, I just found cool images I liked and put them up there. I guess I was always kind of a web nerd you could say. Then, came Xanga. I had blogs on Xanga, and then Myspace, and so on… This came and went as I was a teenager, but I always had a love for the internet and learning about creating websites and all of that stuff.
When I first got married to my husband, he was in the military. I had a part time job, but things got pretty boring while he was on deployment. This was the blogger (blogspot) days. I started reading lots of great blogs and thought, you know, I could do this! I had several attempts at blogging, but I had a hard time sticking with one for several years. However, all that trial and error really taught me a lot about blogging. I researched and researched, learned about promoting my blog, linky parties, commenting, etc… Remember, this was back BEFORE Pinterest even existed! Crazy, I know.
I eventually got a job on the military base where we lived that fluctuated from part time during school time and full time during the summers. I had less time to blog, but I was still trying and learning and going through failed blogs. I really couldn’t tell you how many blogs I had gone through, seriously. It was really a time of finding out about myself (I was young when I got married, mind you, at 19 years old) and I feel like that’s probably why my blogs went in so many different directions. I learned all about how to design my little blogger blog myself and how to work html. I thought it was a lot of fun and it was my hobby, I guess you could say.
Somewhere along the way, I discovered Etsy. I want to say it was through my mother. She was always into selling her handmade goods- her sewing, embroidery, etc… I remember being really young and we would do these local craft shows where she would sell all sorts of handmade stuff she created in her “craft room.” She eventually graduated to selling on Ebay and Etsy, and I’m pretty sure that’s where I first learned about it. I tried my hand at a few different handmade things while my husband was in the military- hair bows and little things like that.
I even made the rounds in the direct sales world. I’ve sold Scentsy (twice), Lia Sophia jewelry, AND Beachbody. I remember starting Scentsy the first time after my husband had gotten out of the military as a way to bring in some extra money. Direct sales was never really my thing, you could say. I did fairly well when selling Lia Sophia, but having to be salesy made me feel yucky and I didn’t like doing parties at all. I’m an introvert, and standing in front of people was pretty much my worst nightmare. I hated it. With Beachbody, it was nice because I started after my son was born and it helped me lose the baby weight, but eventually, I started to really dislike having to be salesy there, too.
Creating things and selling to people who WANTED those items was always more my thing, and I did not want to have to RECRUIT people to buy my products or join any company that I myself was already struggling with. Yuck!
So, back to my days working on the military base. I worked there for quite a while after my husband left the military, but it was a long drive to where we moved to once he was out, and eventually I ended up leaving that job and starting my part time job at a grocery store. Without having attended college, it was hard to find a substantial job that would really help me support myself and my husband, unfortunately. It seemed like I was going to be stuck in part time jobs forever.
Then, we found out we were pregnant!
My husband got a full time job, but we had to move an hour away for him to take that job. So, I ended up leaving my job not long after I found out I was pregnant. My husband’s full time income was enough to support us, so I ended up getting bored at home again and getting back into blogging some. I even started up a little Etsy shop just to see if I could make some extra money to help my husband with the bills. I discovered that I loved making printables, as a still somewhat new wife, I enjoyed working towards being organized with things around the house, which is what prompted me to make my cleaning checklists, meal planning printables, etc… So, I created some of those things to put into my shop. As it turns out, that little Etsy shop would really be our saving grace.
When I was about 6 months pregnant, my husband unfortunately lost his job. He wasn’t unemployed long, but my shop saved us during those days when we didn’t have any other income coming in. During that time I really amped up my efforts to make really great products that people would love and to promote my shop and really make it into something great. I went back to work part time at 7 months pregnant, but I knew in just two short months my little boy would be here and I had to figure out something. I wasn’t making enough part time for me to pay for him to attend daycare, and I really always wanted to be able to stay at home with my little ones. My Etsy shop was growing slowly, but I felt like it definitely had potential. So, while I was still pregnant I used all my spare time that wasn’t spent at work building up this shop. I researched, researched, researched each and every way I could improve my shop- seo, social media, photography, I learned it all from scratch with the help of good ol’ Google.
A couple of months later, my little boy was born and we were really blessed. He was born December 14th, and around Christmas time, my Etsy shop exploded. I had created this blog I have now and was using that to help get traffic over to my shop and all of my efforts from the last couple of months had really paid off. I wasn’t making a ton of money, but between my husband’s part time job and my Etsy shop we were able to live comfortably and provide for our new baby.
I really started to get into blogging after the baby was born, and started working hard on the Mama’s Got It Together blog, too. I migrated from Blogger to my own self-hosted blog here on WordPress all by myself. It was terrifying, but again thanks to Google and some tutorials others had posted, I made it happen and really became official. I’ve since started learning more about how to make money blogging through ads, sponsored posts, etc… and it has been a lot of fun.
I kept working and my Etsy shop has continued to grow and be such a blessing in our lives. I never thought I would ever be able to do this- stay at home with my little one AND help support our family. I’ve been so grateful for this blog and my shop and everyone who has supported me, read my blog, or purchased anything from my shop.
This past year I’ve learned that business really does have its ups and downs, and I’ve continued to learn a ton about blogging, Etsy, and running a business online.
It’s my hope that this year you guys will see my own standalone shop pop up here on my own website, and I’m looking forward to writing a few in depth e-books on how to start a successful blog as well as an Etsy shop. I am so looking forward to the future of Mama’s Got It Together & what my little space on the web will bring. I’m especially looking forward to helping other mamas out there like me! If you made it all the way through this, I hope you enjoyed my story!
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