I officially formed Mummy’s Muse as a company in March 2017. This means that I’ve technically been at this thing for just over two years. Sometimes this makes me feel so …. frustrated/upset/resigned/bewildered…I could go on. How has it taken me two years and I feel like I have so little to actually show for the fact that I’ve been on this journey? I mean as a typical over achiever I give myself little credit that in that time I’ve taken a baby from 3 months to a year, gone back to work, started a new job, had 16 weeks of morning sickness and another 20 or so of indigestion, had a baby as well as the regular things like JUST TURNING UP as a wife/mother/sister/daughter/friend/employee. I felt exhausted just writing that very long sentence. I won’t go on about how hard this starting a business thing is, you can read about that here, something I’ve learned is that there can be long periods of waiting. I’m in one right now. With my tech packs with the factory I’m waiting for quotes and questions to come back. I’m the smallest of start ups so I have very little clout, I can’t demand that they come back within a week or they won’t get the business…I’m happy they’re even giving me the time of day, and so I wait.

I know I can be working while I wait, but this has been something I needed to learn rather than something that came naturally. When you’re waiting for something as monumental in the process as a quote from the factory, it feels like you’re waiting for a traffic light signal. Their answer is either going to be a green – yup good to go, a red – I really need to go back to the drawing board or an amber – there’s more work to be done. I feel like I don’t want to get ahead of myself especially if the traffic light’s about to give me a red or a reddish-amber colour. I know this whole theory I devised is one long, irrational, big fat EXCUSE. So I’m working on pushing forward. Even in these periods of waiting, there are things I can do that will help me accelerate the process once I get my green light.

So while I wait I’ve decided I’m going to start looking into the photography for the site and advertising as well as packaging options. It feels odd – especially for photography – when I don’t have my products yet, or I can’t really be sure about lead times, however, there’s no harm in starting to work out my options and importantly, how much they may cost. Also while I wait, I will commit to remaining positive and engaged. At this early stage of my business journey, keeping momentum has definitely been a huge challenge.

Here’s to not waiting in vain.