QMDJ

This title kind of looks like gibberish, like I just whacked my keyboard and ended up with a blob of letters. But it's not! It's an acronym I learned on the Etsy forums:

I won't keep you in suspense any longer: today is my last day at work! I'm officially self-employed starting tomorrow! Aaaaaah!

If you had said to me at my college graduation, "Paige, in three years you won't be using your degree--you'll be making jewelry and working out of your guest room!" I would have replied, "Totally! Do I also have a clone?"

This is NOT how I thought my life would go, but now that I'm here, I feel like I should have been doing this all along.

Of course, I didn't get here by myself. My family and friends have been incredibly supportive, and have a knack for shamelessly promoting everything I do. The Etsy community has offered more advice than I could have imagined. And then there's Hubsey. I joke that he's just the business end of this, but he's really a partner in every sense of the word. He helps at craft shows, reminds me to do my bookkeeping, talks to me about web strategy, and is there with a hug and a pep talk when I need them.

So, basically, I have some awesome people in my life and felt like I should say so. You guys are the best.

I'm not gonna pretend that I'm some huge business expert now, but if you have any questions or feel like you could use some advice, I'll be glad to help if I can. Just leave a comment.

And to those of you who already crossed the bridge to self-employment, do you have any tips to share with the class? Anything you wish you knew way back when?