Are you crazy? What do you want to do? Wake up, be realistic! Do you know how much money you need to invest?
I have a dream (I have had it for some decades now): I want to live in southern Toscana in the countryside on a podere (country home) in the middle of nowhere, growing grapes and making the best red wine, producing the finest olive oil, planting my own vegetable, herbs and fruit, surrounded by happy animals and welcome family and friends.
Toscana
Chica
Did I tell you I have a knack for business plans? I use it to underline any harebrained idea I come up with, it strenghtens any feasibility study and may counter the above comments.
Olive Tree
This vision of a rural dwelling in southern Toscana has kept me surviving many crisis. Above in the last two years when I was unemployed and swamped with so many problems I did not know which to tackle first. 2010 was my annus horribilis (where have I read that before? Thank you for letting me borrow it).
These years have done something to me I did not think possible before: they stole my energy, my voice grew dimmer and dimmer, my financial situation became worse every month, I lost interest in many things. There did not seem to be any perspective for the future.
What has kept me going and pointed me to another direction? The wish to succeed, use and combine my experiences, talent and skills to do something useful, be creative and use my organisational and management skills.
For years I have been experimenting with fragranced soy wax candles, it seems logical to expand that hobby into something bigger, adding new complementing products such as handmade soaps and diffusers.
Goatmilk Soap
I am a passionate cook and have always been encouraged by my mother from an early age on (I remember coming home from school and baking a cake; after the same cake for a long stretch of time my family went on strike). I tend to exaggerate and produce far too much: chutneys, jams, marmalade, sauces.
Jams
Why not go into business? But how will I distribute my goods? Why not combine another skill – writing – and start a website with a webshop?
Splendid idea, have you ever had the same plan? Little did I know, the time spent on research, the frustration of “why does this darn thing not work?”. But I am a stubborn and ambitious lady and with little experience and even less money but with the help of my lovely daughter I set upon that task.
A Dove with a Mission
I registered my company in the name of Late Bloomers (the name has nothing to do with a coming out, it was originally the name I gave a collection of leisure wear I designed but never produced). And I am proud to see my baby learning something new every day, it is a work in progress.
There is a lovely saying in German: kleinere Brötchen backen, which literally means baking smaller rolls.
No knead bread
Sometimes, it makes sense to take it from one step to the other. And let the dream persevere.