This year marked my 10 year anniversary of being a designer in IMVU and SecondLife. It’s been a really great experience and I learned a lot about running a business, even if it is a virtual business. That alone made it a challenge, but I feel like it will help prepare me for “real life” situations.
After so much time, I’ve found myself wanting to do something else. I would love to be able to adopt another hobby that could become a business. Over the past three years, I’ve come up with a few things I’d love to do. Last year I started to seriously research a few. Here’s a list of my somewhat unconventional, but hopeful, possible business ventures.
Create my own nail polish
Last year I was feeling a bit down, and every time I do I try to focus on something new. It happened to be nail polish this time. I knew indie polish was a thing already, so I set to work researching what supplies I’d need and how to use them. It’s definitely something I’d like to pursue further.
As of right now, I have my eye on some mica powder samples I want to get so I can mix some colors. This project is going to need a little bit of an investment. Besides the powders for coloring, you need bottles, brushes, and suspension bases. Fortunately, there are kits with all this included. I figure I can buy a kit for the experimentation phase. Once I have colors I like and I’m sure this is really something I want to keep doing, I can invest in my own favorite suspension bases and packaging.
Not gonna lie, part of the reason why I wanted to start blogging was because of this idea. I thought it would be a good idea to have an audience available. Especially one who might be interested in buying from polish from me once I’m ready to start selling. I certainly hope so!
Design my own perfume
I never really thought about an doing this till I heard about a shop called Love Potion. They sell pheromone perfumes, which you can take that or leave it, but the perfumes are great! I ordered several samples a few years ago and still use them.
I read a few posts here and there about how they make their perfumes. It occurred to me that, just like any other cosmetic item, people probably make their own, hand-made perfumes. And they most certainly do. I would love to get into it. I’ve even already purchased a trial kit of a whole bunch of essential oils to start mixing scents.
This project would probably be more for myself than something I would sell. It’s difficult to sell perfume when your customer can’t be there to sample the product. Also, the health and safety have to be ON POINT. I would need some help with that for sure. I’d consider it if my little indie nail polish venture became a big thing, and I wanted to branch out into other cosmetics (and oh god, do I ever).
Curate a boutique
One of my favorite ideas for SURE. I’m already trying it with some affiliate products. It’s more difficult than it seems, though. I think I might set up a mini catalog of my favorite things here on the blog. I’m not sure if that looks greedy, though? Really, I just want curate fashion into buyable selections. I know I don’t have the time, money, or business acumen to actually run my own boutique, at least not right now. I figure this is the next best thing. Baby steps.
It’s a little bit of a childhood dream for me. I wanted to be a fashion designer forever, which is really the thing that got me into 3D. I could make clothes and accessories without the costs. Ironically enough, I hardly ever make any clothing. My favorite non-hair related thing to make is shoes, so I guess I’m at least a little bit in the accessory game.
Open another hair shop in SL
I’ve actually already invested a ton of time in this and before my PC died last month, this is what I was working on. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but I’m at a point where I could almost start releasing product.
Though I already run a hair shop, I feel like it’s reputation is badly damaged. By having a product that was so different from what everyone else was doing, it was confusing for a lot of customers to use. I changed my products, but I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from that initial confusion. Plus, I have given away way too much free product. I allowed myself to be devalued.
So what I want to do is start something new, under a new name and see how it goes from there. Definitely no more devaluation and my best work forward. I still want to be innovative, but also stay user-friendly.
Open a clothing shop on SL
I’ve always thought modeling clothing (in 3D, I mean) would be pretty difficult. I’ve done it before a few times but my texturing skills and a distinct lack of an eye for detail have held me back. I’m rethinking that mindset entirely. If I want to do it, I can learn, right? Plus, since I’ve been paying more attention to clothing lately, the ideas are coming more naturally. I’m not sure I want to do yet another virtual world thing, though.
Run a fashion blog
As you can tell, I’m sort of here! I really want to focus on fashion, but what I want to do is a lot of work. Plus I need to be able to buy clothes. With my weight loss, the only clothing I’ll be investing in for awhile will be transition clothing. Which I’ll probably still post about, but to keep the blog fresh, I need consistent content. I don’t see that happening in the fashion sector for a while, so I’ve chosen a broader approach with a lifestyle blog. Plus, with such varied interests, I tend to get bored of one thing if I do it too long. Who knows what this blog could grow into right? I like the open options if there’re opportunities for “spinoff” niche blogs.
Sell graphics for bloggers
This is my most recent obsession. I started making my own graphics for social media and I’m hooked. I’m not surprised. I’d been considering making graphics for Twitch.tv streamers before I started blogging. I may still do that.
Graphic design was originally what I had planned to do as a side job after getting my BFA. I wanted a Masters in game design, but well, that didn’t exactly work out. Perhaps in the future, though.
So I do already have a graphic design background, I just really hated actually doing it for clients. Now, in 2016, we have marketplaces like Envato and Creative Market. That would allow me to create whatever I wanted, on my own schedule. I’ll still have to deal with people, of course, but I wouldn’t be constantly bound to clients. I like this sort of set up much more.
Start seriously streaming on Twitch.tv
Speaking of Twitch! This is another thing I’ve been planning for awhile. I used to stream all the time, back before Twitch was even Twitch. I ended up busy with work and lost all my following.
Now, I want to start over again and possibly become a streamer of some moderate success. Gaming takes up a lot of time and I’m not sure I could juggle streaming, blogging, and my SL store. I’ll certainly give it a try, though.I know you all have things you want to accomplish. I want to hear all about them! Write in the comments your life goals, or drop a link to a blog post you’ve written about them.
What do you want to do?
I know you all have things you want to accomplish. I want to hear all about them! Write in the comments your life goals, or drop a link to a blog post you’ve written about them.