Hi fellow entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs,My name is Kara, (As an intro, here's Me in our converted garage workshop crafting hollow books which my husband and I make and sell online )I started out handcrafting hollow books using just an x-acto knife in 2009 after coming home from working as a gallery attendant at the MCA in Chicago when we used to live there. (In the years between graduating from SAIC with a BFA in painting & drawing/some bookmaking and taking up hollow-bookmaking, I had a long string of odd jobs in no particular order, some overlapping: selling luggage, horse-carriage driving, stuffing envelopes, counting out drill bits, teaching basic papermaking, coordinating craft workshops, and a horrible holiday stint at The Gap).I'm not Japanese (I'm Korean-Minnesotan), but I've been attracted to this workplace organization method I heard about from another redditor called "5S":seiri (整理), seiton (整頓), seisō (清掃), seiketsu (清潔), and shitsuke(躾). These have been translated as "Sort", "Set In order", "Shine", "Standardize" and "Sustain".Off the top of my head changes over years we made to help streamline:Then: we were doing a lot of one-off titles having to photograph each one and spending lots of time buying books in personNow: focus on easy-to-find multiple copies of books from Amazon which can be bought only days before needed as well as no need to take new photos of every bookThen: I cut books in small 2nd bedroom in our Chicago apartment, I couldn't run our scroll saw/hammer things late because the landlord would call and tell me to stopNow: Work out of converted garage as homeownerThen: bought DeWalt scroll saw I thought would be an upgrade to a Craftsman kept crapping out and we wasted a lot of time and money getting it fixed and buying a 2nd one that also crapped outNow: Returned to amateurish-looking jerry-rigged Craftsman that is excellent for our purposes and extremely reliable as well as hundreds of dollars cheaper.Then: Shipping in own boxes weighing each bookNow: Shipping USPS Priority Mail flat rate using their free shipping suppliesMy work personality is what some might call "control-freak", and others might call "detail-oriented." When my husband joined the business after getting laid off from his job, I had a hard time delegating any work to him even though he's the most trusted human in my life. The two of us were able to start making a living by making hollow books by my first putting them up on Etsy which was then kickstarted for free when Etsy featured me I first thought of making a hollow book when daydreaming about Anne Frank hiding while I was at the museum while automatically telling people not to touch the art. When I got home I wanted to use my own hands to make something, and slowly crafting a book was enjoyable as well as beneficial to my mental health.I don't own many actual hats, but I wear many of the figurative hats in our business; and I must say I enjoy each one: cutting books with scroll saw, gluing books, wrapping books, communicating with customers, and arranging online promotion. One benefit of online free promos from blogs/gift lists/social media is that most of them are still online appearing in searches and for example these are a handful of pretty old ones that we still get hits from and sales from:Buzzfeed "14 Surprising Gifts For Complete And Total Liars"Go Fug Yourself 2016 2016 GFY Gift GuideMashable "The Book Safe Every Bibliophile Should Own"Thrillist "Keep Your Flask Hidden Inside Legendary Books About Boozing"Snippet and Ink "Secret Garden Wedding"During the aforementioned odd job 10 yr phase in my life, my husband and I spent most of our cash on month-long travel during Feb. to escape the MN winter to Thailand/India/Sri Lanka/Indonesia. In Thailand and India you see monks about frequently. I think subconsciously over the years, the ways of the monk with emphasis on an introspective life while meeting basic needs doing daily tasks seeped into me. I grew in appreciation of my own daily crafting tasks and the satisfaction of carving out a living independently, however modest.My latest hobby is embroidery, and I could see selling PDF design downloads in the future or something much more unexpected. I'm open to unexpected opportunities, but I'm shooting for trying to stay in my comfort zone meaning keeping working for myself mostly by myself. Is that the most unpopular thing to say in this sub or what? AMA. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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