How many times can a person lose gracefully at something before you just suck at it and should give up to become part of a normal boring society? I personally can not count on my fingers and toes the number of times I have created a new business for myself and my family over the years and failed, yet used the failure to build on the next business to keep me going. My entire life is full of binders loaded with my next project. As I have gotten older I had to come to terms with picking one thing. One thing I can do well, one thing I love, one thing that will carry me through into my later life financially, also allowing me to use my God-given talent.
Some of my ideas remained in thought only, others were played out in binder form with loads of brainstorming, helping others kick off businesses with no vested interest. I found that I was giving myself away for nothing and I had to turn that around. I am more than just a worker. I have a lot to give and always have been a creative source for many.
I've gone from delivering casseroles all over town or cupcakes galore to setting up booths in flea markets selling $2.00 cookies and water to the overheated shoppers and vendors. Painting lightbulbs and coffee cans to look like Santas and selling them for extra Christmas money while raising small children as a stay at home moms. I am an entrepreneur and always have been, but in the meantime, I am your bartender, caterer, server, and local cook.
So, here I am with PaigePotPie and it is nothing like it should be...is it a fail? Too early to tell. I just bought the domain for another year and I have two to find out. Let's go...
PaigePotPie is a brand I created for myself a few years ago on Instagram when I began to share my art and I was baking a lot of sweets for people so I wanted a name that fully represented who I was and what I wanted to do, and this was it. I had decided to take the leap and try my hand at being a professional artist, but I knew I had to do something else to bring in income.
Coming up with a business plan for myself and my future based on doing what I love was my main objective. I had no doubt I would be successful because I loved it and it was my natural talent, add in my stubborn drive to succeed on my own that keeps me pushing for something in life that would keep me happy and healthy for a long time. Making up my mind was not hard and soon decided I was to open a shaved ice business with an art gallery of my oil paintings and "pop art" for sale. I could have a studio and a side job, that I owned, to fill in the financial gaps that come from being an artist.
Selling shaved ice has low overhead and a nice return on investment and there isn't one in my small town of 20,000 people so, I thought it would fit my style as well because I paint bright pop art paintings that would pair perfectly with the fantasy flavors in a shaved ice business.
I had it all planned out and actually had friends donate to my plan, then, after much convincing, I was finally was able to get my family to invest in my idea. My business plan would expand into a family business as me and my sisters ago, also I have a son and a niece living in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina on the beach and we discussed branching PaigePotPie Shaved Ice into a chain once I was off the ground with our first business model.
Along with the support of lifetime good humanitarian Loy Stewart Sr. keeping a close eye on our progress at PaigePotPie I was so excited and was on top of the world ready to take it all on and grow this outstanding opportunity. Because...
It is Paige, that is me, Pot for the progress of America and legalization, and Pie refers to being a baker of all things sweet and savory. Put them all together and it is a perfect term of endearment that some people in my small town refer to me as. I hear "Hey PaigePotPie!" here and there and I love it. It is catchy, rolls off the tongue, and I have plans for that name.
I decided to take the leap into becoming a professional artist only 2 years ago and at that time I knew I need to have my own website. I was able to buy this domain and secure my brand name.
This domain was for a family shaved ice business that was to open late summer of 2019 when tragedy struck our family and suddenly my aging parents needed full attention. We all had to drop any plans for our future business and devote all of the time to a very dire situation that was more important than anything else in the world.
It has taken us 6 months to even feel like maybe we are out of the woods but not really. My parents now require one of their 3 daughters to be with them 24 hours a day. Things have changed and they may never be the same.
As of right now, it looks like PaigePotPie is just another failed project that never got off the ground. I am thinking maybe it looks like this was just a gamble that didn't work out to some people but, I am a little more attached to my business plan this time and am not ready to let it go so I keep the website and all of the boxes of things I ordered, ready to jump.
Please find me on my other website www.paigekeatonart.com where I write in a blog about historical photos of early America and my family history as well as paintings of historical sites and a history to go with it. Podcast in the works. Youtube channel is running current. Subscribe to my channel. Thanks and I hope to have this site up and running for its original purpose sooner than later. Life is too short and the people in it will not be there forever. Cherish the time with the ones you love. Be a hero. Take chances. Put others first. The right thing comes from doing good things. Thanks for taking a minute to read my latest fail. I am always working on something new so keep your ears peeled.