We are getting ready to launch our new site and this Romance & Finance theme could not have come at a better time! One of the things I’ve learned about being an entrepreneur is that we have to put love and money into our businesses to take them to the next level. This can leave us financing what we love from our savings and sometimes living paycheque to paycheque (& eating lots of rice + ramen) to make it work until we get momentum. All of this is possible but there is a reason why Kickstarter is so popular-funding what you love can be tricky! The story: I invested most of the OMHG profit from the last 2 years into building a new virtual home for our community based on input and insight from you. Our community needed a place to connect and collaborate, a better online Guide to Businessy Goodness, community taught classes and workshops, live events and, and, and! The ideas were endless and the end result was not your average or even above average site budget. But with Aeolidia brilliance the new Oh My! will offer all of these things for the creatives of the world. The struggle: There is one little problem with bootstrapping your business. Launches can take longer than planned especially when you have grand ideas. Our original launch date was December so I thought I could budget carefully and take some of my personal savings from our house downpayment and commit to our site redesign, right? In the lovely world of entrepreneurship sometimes everything happens at once and not at all as planned. So instead of launching the new site, paying myself back for loaning OMHG the money, and putting the downpayment on our house all easy 1, 2, 3 like, both the site launch and our house payment happen the week of February 15th. Add to that the investment of attending Spark retreat, Etsy training, and Altitude Summit-all expenses (no one tells you all these great opportunities cost money & rarely pay enough to cover costs if they pay at all!) that I couldn’t have predicted when I committed to the new site. I am in the position to cover the site or the downpayment for our new house. Talk about trying to balance love + money (noted: the importance of having a back up plan)!
Introducing our Community Financing Campaign!
The solution: Get creative! Instead of a Kickstarter project I am trying something new and running a 10 day Community Financing campaign. I am offering 100 spaces in our vendor marketplace at a special rate of $150 for the year from Feb 5-15th! If 100 vendors come onboard to support the launch of the site I can pay myself back for the site design and pay our genius team, hire an editorial assistant, cover our hosting fees and we will have a fully set up marketplace on launch day. Our 100 vendors get promotion of their services & supplies, a great rate on our new marketplace & the warm fuzzy satisfaction of helping a community thrive. Our family gets that new pink house on the hill and our community gets a virtual house all of our own. A win/win for everyone!
For this to work I need your help! Click here to visit the Community Financing page and find out all the details + benefits, check out a preview of the marketplace, peek at some of the new site features & help me launch our community of goodness.
Don’t sell services & supplies but still want to support our community financing campaign? Visit our Oh My! Shop to buy a $5 copy of my new set of Foundation prints and get an invite for the members only mailing list to be first in line for when our members site is ready for you! Have an idea for how you can support our launch? I’m all ears! Share in the comments or Tweet me @ohmyhandmade.com
Thank you for helping to build a foundation for our community-this would not be possible without you!
100% thrilled to be part of this project!! Wishing you all the best.
xoxo
Patti
I am so excited to have you join us Patti & share your beautiful work in our marketplace! Thank you for your support!
This is so exciting! I can’t wait for it all to come! Great job Jessika 🙂
Shared on FB and twitter and anywhere I can! You can do it Jess! 😀
you are a GENIUS! I’m so excited to see all of this growth (and I wish you calming breaths and sleep-filled nights in between)
Just yesterday I was thinking it was time to renew my ad 🙂 So I just did it, I am so glad!
Jessika again, your ideas, the way you live and breathe this community is really inspiring, can’t wait for the new website…
Brilliant! Sold! This is such a great way to build community, Jessika!
So excited Jessika! What a wonderful piece of writing that gives us all a great insight into the roller coaster of running OMHG :o)
I’m so in. Can’t wait to see it flourish, Lucy xx
I just pulled the trigger! Glad to be a part of a groundbreaking, awesome opportunity!
Such a great idea – I’m so happy to be part of it and can’t wait to see all of the good stuff to come… from this wonderful, wonderful community 😉
Stupendously well done, Jess!
Just signed up! Feeling very happy to be in such good company. 😉
Thank you thank you thank you for all your cheerleading, support & spreading the word! We are almost 1/4 of the way there and already filling up with the most amazing crew of services + supplies. This adventure is going to be incredible!
So excited for the launch and also to “see” you get moved into your adorable pink house. Hope we get updates on that too! 🙂 Congrats and great job lady!! XO
http://www.ahmelie.com
Hooray Ahmelie! So happy to have you as part of our new marketplace! I will definitely be sharing our adventures in the pink house-I love that OMHG will be moving into a new home while our family is too. The most perfect synchronicity of all-thank you for helping to make it possible!
Can’t wait can’t wait can’t wait! So happy to be involved in this amazing opportunity with so many wonderful people. Jess, you’ve created something truly exciting and one of a kind. 🙂
Just sayin I’m probably one of the luckiest mom’s around to have such and inspiring daughter and such a great role model. Shame I didn’t have a “Jessika” around when I was young. Thank you Jess, for making communities so fun to be apart of and so lovingly accepting and joyful. You rock.
Oh mamasita you are the best & I am the luckiest girl ever to have you as a mom/cheerleader/necessary kick in the pants! I love that you are a part of this community and that everything we do here is rooted in family & community-the two things you taught me matter most in the world. YOU ROCK!
As an artist, this is the one website I check into daily. If you are offering services to creatives, you will find me here. xo
Jess….this community is a warm welcoming soft sofa…..thank you…..xo
I claimed my spot. Can’t wait to see the new site Jess….I know you’ve been working hard!
This is so so so good friends! You’ve all inspired me so much in the last 2 days I bet you can hear & smell my brain burning from Australia! The possibilities of small scale community funding like this have made my non-profit/social-enterprise/innovation investment heart fit to burst with excitement. I feel like this experiment is only the start of something truly incredible, thank you!
Just joined! Really excited to be a part of this new community!