{"id":973,"date":"2011-10-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gingiber.com\/business-basics-the-birth-of-gingiber-2\/"},"modified":"2011-10-22T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-22T12:00:00","slug":"business-basics-the-birth-of-gingiber-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"Business Basics: The Birth of Gingiber"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Month I had my 500th Etsy sale, and it got me thinking about how Gingiber<\/a> began. I don’t think that I have ever told the full story of Gingiber, so here’s a blog post devoted to the birth of my business.<\/i>

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It might be a bit long, but bear with me \ud83d\ude42 <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I had always been drawing. As a kiddo I would doodle on napkins, the margins of my Bible at church (don’t tell my mother), and occasionally on my walls. When I went to college, I had no doubt in my mind about majoring in Art and Design. I crammed 2 degrees into my 3 years of college, got married, and continued to work at a Starbucks Coffee Shop simply because I needed a paycheck to support my husband and I.<\/p>\n

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I graduated from college in December of 2007, and was pregnant with Violet 2 months later. This changed the entire trajectory of our lives. Within a few months, Nathan and I picked up and moved to Springdale, AR, where his mother and brother lived. Nathan had been offered a nice fellowship to pursue his Ph.D in Mathematics at the University of Arkansas (please note: not our dream school<\/u>). But, a baby on the way meant that income was what mattered. I was offered a management position at Starbucks in Fayetteville, AR, so the move seemed opportune.<\/p>\n

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note the sad Starbucks face \ud83d\ude41<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Neither one of us were super happy. We were excited about the baby on the way, but just a few months prior we were exploring opportunities to move overseas, living in Scotland. I had even filled out some applications for Master’s Programs in Edinburgh. Now, family was what mattered. And I was focused on working my coffee loving butt off at Starbucks.<\/p>\n

Yet, I really REALLY missed art and design. And I had heard of this online market for artists called Etsy<\/a>. Honestly, I was really intimidated to put my artwork out on the web. Mainly because I was afraid of rejection. But, while sharing a pizza with 2 of my favorite Springfield friends, I remember discussing how I had been looking all over Etsy for some nursery art to fill our soon-to-be daughter’s room, and finding nothing that suited my taste.<\/p>\n

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And then I said it out loud, “I am going to open up my own Etsy Shop filled with really great kid’s art<\/b><\/i>“. The concept of Gingiber<\/a> was born. And about that name, Gingiber<\/i>. I have been using this moniker since my junior year of college, when a Publication and Design professor required each student to create a magazine about themselves. And this was the name I settled on. It is the Latin word for ginger, and I thought that it sounded kind of cute, so I went with it! When it was time to name my Etsy Shop, I stuck with it. And I still like it \ud83d\ude42<\/i><\/p>\n

In May of 2009, I opened up shop. I had my 1st sale a month later. It has taken 2+ years to finally work my way up to 500 sales.\u00a0 But last year at this time, I had not even reached 100 sales. The past year has been the most satisfying and fulfilling year of my life creatively. And I am overwhelmingly happy! <\/p>\n

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I’ve done a lot of learning and growing since I opened up shop. I’ve changed day jobs so that I have more time to work on my art. I’ve tried and failed at different artistic ventures (PDF embroidery patterns, anyone?) but have also slowly carved out a niche for myself in this handmade corner of the world.<\/p>\n

And guess what? I am incredibly hopeful for the future of my business. Gingiber<\/a> is now a legit LLC (quarterly taxes, blargh). I am contributing monthly to my family’s income, and really believe with all of my heart that someday I can grow Gingiber<\/a> into a full time job.<\/p>\n

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Thank goodness for Etsy<\/a>. And our handmade community. And an entire group of online friends who encourage one another to keep going. I am so thankful. And happy.<\/p>\n

So that is how Gingiber<\/a> came to be \ud83d\ude42 Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Month I had my 500th Etsy sale, and it got me thinking about how Gingiber began. I don’t think that I have ever told the full story of Gingiber, so here’s a blog post devoted to the birth of my business.It might be a bit long, but bear with me \ud83d\ude42 I had always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-basics","category-gingiber"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gingiber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}