Monthly Update – Clever Cactus is alive!

Before I get into the news, I first want to link you all to my post last year about the Holiday Budget. It’s the holidays again & I’m not sure about you, but I need to stick to my budget now more than ever.

It lives! It lives!

By that I mean, my new business, Clever Cactus, is up and running. You can head over to the website and read all about the company, browse the (very) few blogs that are there, and even check out the store.

Yes! A store! My day planner is almost ready to purchase. It’s at the printers now and will be in my hands by the end of next week. Hopefully! I’m aiming to open up the store for pre-orders next week. I just need to iron out some kinks and make sure the payment options all, you know, work. Plus, shipping these amazing books requires some finesse.

Do I use a box? Do I use a padded envelope? Should I order fancy stickers? How will I know where to send the order? How DO online stores even work?

These are just a few of the thousands of questions I’ve asked myself these past few months. I knew intellectually that there was THIS MUCH work in running a product-based store. But I think if I had known emotionally how much it really was, I never would have dreamt up the day planner in the first place. It would have been too daunting.

Thankfully I lived in ignorant bliss for most of the process. Now I’ve gone too far to turn back now.

I wish I could fast forward to a year or five from now, when everything is up and the business is humming along all smooth like. But alas, I cannot. I have to work through the uncertainties, google how to do the things I can’t and then, only then, can I get back to the part I’ve come to love: designing new ways to stay organized.

And boy do I love that part. When I was proofing the test sample of the first day planner, I swear my brain developed an entirely new design all by itself. I’ve got that plan tucked away to start on in the new year for the 2022 planner. Reining myself in, focussing on the next steps rather than the project-I-just-dreamt-up has probably been the most challenging part of this whole process.

One day, I’ll be able to hire people to handle all the finicky stuff, so I can focus on the new products and future plans. That’s the goal anyway. In the meantime, I get to click around the website editor and figure out HOW uploading a new logo to one page of the site managed to UNDO EVERY LAST BIT OF CUSTOM FORMATTING I SPENT HOURS ADDING TO THE REST OF THE SITE.

*deep breath*

Yes, that happened. Earlier this week. Nearly rage-quit right then and there. But I re-did most of the custom stuff (what I could remember anyhow) and now the website is almost as perfect as it was when the error occurred.

I think I may have gotten off topic.

The point is, Clever Cactus is live. It’s a thing now. Everyone should go visit the website. Or not. Really, it’s up to you. I don’t control you.

Or do I?

Haha, no, I don’t. That’d be ridiculous.

In other monthly update news!

NANOWRIMO
I participated (rather badly) in NaNoWriMo again this year. When I drafted this blog post, I was only at 23,000 words. Today, the day it is published, I’m at just over 35,000, so the likelihood I’ll hit 50K by … uh … tomorrow is slim. But, it’s possible! I just need to write my fingers off today and tomorrow.

SHORT STORIES
At the beginning of 2020, I had set myself a goal of 12 short stories by the end of the year. I have six or seven that are worth polishing, one that’s been “in progress” for the entire year, and four more ideas. So December is going to be interesting.