What Starting a Tiny Business Taught Me

I didn't really know what I was getting into when I started Amateur Pen.

I knew I liked making things.

I knew I wanted to put some of those things out into the world.

And I had this slightly optimistic thought that if I made nice things, people would find them.

That was about it.

Turns out, there is a lot that happens between “I have an idea” and “someone has bought it.”

There are designs to make, things to print, photographs to take, descriptions to write, prices to calculate, packaging to order, orders to pack, messages to answer...

And then there is the website.

Oh, the website.

I have spent a completely unreasonable amount of time staring at my Shopify screen wondering why something that looked perfectly fine five minutes ago suddenly looks terrible.

I'm sure every small business owner knows this feeling.

You become the entire team

When you have a tiny business, there isn't really a marketing department.

Or a photography department.

Or a packaging department.

Or someone whose job it is to decide whether the product photograph looks better with the plant on the left or the right.

It's just you.

So you become all of them.

Some days I enjoy that part.

Other days I look at my desk and think, I really should have hired someone for this.

And then I remember I'm the person who started a tiny business, so...

Making something is one thing. Selling it is another.

This has probably been one of the biggest learning curves for me.

When you make something yourself, you know exactly how much thought went into it.

You remember changing the design ten times.

You remember the colours that didn't work.

You remember the version you almost kept and then decided was terrible.

But a customer doesn't see any of that.

They see the finished product.

And you have to figure out how to communicate why it's worth choosing.

Not by saying it's amazing fifty times, but by actually showing people what went into it and why you made it.

I'm still learning that.

Pricing still makes me uncomfortable sometimes.

There is something very strange about putting a price on something you've made yourself.

You start doing maths.

Then you do the maths again.

Then you wonder if anyone will actually pay that much.

Then you remember the paper, printing, packaging, shipping, time and everything else.

Then you do the maths again.

I've learned that “it's handmade” can't be the only reason something costs more.

But I've also learned that my time can't be worth zero.

That's a lesson I'm still getting comfortable with.

One order can make you ridiculously happy.

This one is difficult to explain unless you've run a small business.

You see an order come in and, for a second, everything stops.

Someone actually went onto the website.

They looked at something I made.

And they decided they wanted it.

It could be one order.

Just one.

But I know exactly how much that one order means.

It still makes me happy.

Probably more than it should.

I've also learned that not everything works.

Some ideas are great in my head.

Then I make them.

And...

No.

Some products get lots of love.

Some don't.

Sometimes something I personally love isn't what people are looking for.

And sometimes the thing I wasn't sure about ends up being someone's favourite.

You can't really know until you put it out there.

So I'm learning to experiment without getting too attached to every idea.

That's harder than it sounds.

I still have no idea what I'm doing sometimes.

I think this is probably the part of running a small business that nobody talks about enough.

There are days when I feel like I've got it.

And then something completely basic will confuse me and I'll spend an hour trying to figure out what I've done wrong.

I've learned that you don't necessarily become confident before you do something.

Sometimes you just do it while slightly confused.

And eventually you get better.

That's probably how Amateur Pen has grown so far.

Not because I had everything figured out.

Mostly because I kept going back to it.

And I think that's what I like about having a tiny business.

It still feels personal.

When someone buys something from Amateur Pen, it doesn't disappear into some huge system.

I see the order.

I pack it.

I think about the person receiving it.

And sometimes I wonder where the notebook will end up, or who they're buying the gift for, or what they'll eventually write on that first blank page.

That's a lovely thought.

So I'm still learning.

About business.

About people.

About making things.

About selling things.

About what to keep doing and what to let go of.

I'm sure I'll get plenty of things wrong along the way.

But for now, I'm quite happy figuring it out as I go.

One product at a time.

One order at a time.

And occasionally, one slightly chaotic Shopify evening at a time.

Thanks for being here while I figure it out. ♡

— Deepika
Amateur Pen