01/10/2024
Hi friend! I have an announcement and update for you! I emailed this out a bit ago but forgot to post it here for those of you who aren't on my email list.
This is about the new Christmas & Holiday SVGs I had been planning to make this year.
And unfortunately... they won't be happening ๐
There has been quite a bit going on in the last few months... and like always, I am going to be fully transparent with you.
As you may or may not know, I have some health issues that make it very bad for my body to sit at a computer all day, so I had to quit designing last year.
This May, I found some workarounds and some help that allowed me to get some done again, and I felt that things were going well in a sustainable way.
But I have since run into a different problem.
You see - I had to take off a lot of time before any of that happened, as I got my house in WA ready to sell and relocated my family to Missouri.
And then after we got settled here, was when my symptoms started to come back, because I was back to sitting at a desk all day, which was when I had to stop designing.
All in all, I haven't really been working full focus on B&B for about three years.
Oh and also, Covid happened and tremendously impacted the industry as a whole.
And the very unfortunate bit is that I seem to have lost my momentum in the business, enough to where it isn't sustaining my family anymore.
To be honest, I'm not even sure if it can pay for itself anymore, since there are quite a few costs to keeping things going.
And my health problems still persist to the point where I wouldn't be able to do this full-time regardless, so I'm at a point where my health limits my ability to "recover" from this.
So - I am at a momentary impasse. I'll be real, I'm not 100% sure what I want to do.
Actually, no. You know what?
That's not true.
I actually DO know what I want to do.
(Side note, I have been doing a TON of reflecting on what it is I want in my life as opposed to what I'm doing out of obligation, expectation, fear, etc but that's a WHOLE different post)
My FAVORITE part of this business is actually the parts that many of you like the best - the chats.
I love talking to you about LIFE stuff.
I love inspiring you, sharing my life journey, and sometimes being a catalyst and encouraging people to make positive changes in their lives.
And judging from a lot of the emails and messages I get saying things like "You're the only email list I'm on" and "Reading your emails feels like sitting down and visiting with an old friend" I think a lot of you appreciate it too.
I know I've talked about Youtube before. Or maybe a podcast.
And hey, I just keep coming back to that.
So maybe that's what I'll be doing, in spite of everything.
But I won't shut down B&B as long as we can have it pay for itself, so I'm still gonna do a big sale on the Christmas bundles in October, which should keep the lights on the business until I decide what to do.
Earlier I was going through my shop and realized I had never shut down the Christmas/Winter lifetime bundles - so I think for this year, I'm still going to leave them open.
For those of you who are new to me - Lifetime bundles are bundles I would put together with a few designs, and then every year would add new designs in those themes to the bundles, and the price would go up accordingly.
And anyone who had previously bought the bundle, would get free updates of all the new designs that got added.
However, as the bundles grew larger and my system had more orders to fill, they started to get glitchy and I realized I had to stop doing them because they aren't delivering the file updates without serious workarounds, etc.
So - this will be your last chance at getting in on the Christmas/Holiday/winter Lifetime bundles.
I'll be doing a sale on ALL of them starting Oct 10th, as well as the Full Shop Bundle.
Now, granted, I don't know how much designing I'll be doing if I am unable to continue, as far as those updates go.
The sad part is, and this is me being SUPER REAL with you, is that I think Covid may have permanently impacted the SVG industry.
I've spoken with other designers who also had serious drops in their income from it and things still haven't gone back.
So I've got some contemplation and research to do before I decide if I am gonna try and build it back to where it was, or keep it open and do enough sales/new designs so it pays for itself, etc.
But I think I'm pretty solid that where I WANT to go with this is this - I just don't want to lose YOU.
I feel like I've built so many relationships with so many of you and I love chatting with you... so I'm going to do that.
Not sure how yet.
I did buy myself a fancy camera and whatnot so I could do Youtube, so that's probably where it will start.
But that also is probably best left for another post, and definitely some more planning and thinking along the way.
In the meantime, I'm going to do what I do best - figure out a way to follow my dreams, always.
Because that's what I do :)
Even if sometimes it means making big unexpected changes because life puts you in between a rock and a hard place.
And hopefully, taking you along on my journey will inspire some of you to also follow your dreams.
So with that said, I will bid you adieu for now - I'll write again in a few days once I have details ironed out on the sale for October, and of course I'll keep you posted on what I'm doing.
I appreciate you, and I am SO grateful to walk this journey with you alongside.
And who knows what will come of this!?!
That's it for now - chat soon.
๐ Love,
Bethany
(Pic is taken off my back deck... love Missouri so much!)
