4 years in the making! We are live! I can’t believe I am writing those words and what a journey it has been!
It all started 4 years ago when I was on a business course set up by the local Enterprise office. I had already been talking to a web development company I had experience with at previous job and had pretty much decided to go with them. At the Last minute I changed my mind. The mentor on the course owned web development company so signed a contract with them. I was so new to the entrepreneur scene and probably didn’t ask the right questions or look into it more before making the decision but jumped straight in. There were big plans, a design feature that allowed products to be personalised instantly and it all was rather exciting! I put my full trust in the company and paid half the money upfront.
I totally underestimated how much work there was for me to do! I think I expected someone to take the reins, guide me with the design and do all the content! I look back and laugh at how naive I was. Of course I had to create the content, how could anyone else tell our story!
Anyway…. the build was 90% there but as the owner was my mentor and knew I had applied for a grant for the website build, its called the Trading Online Voucher Scheme It’s a one time grant you receive from your Local Enterprise Office to assist you with trading online. It can only be reimbursed after final payment has been made to your supplier. So guess what I did? I paid the full fee before the build was complete and never received the finished website. The company went out of business and I lost all access to my domain for 2 years till I could prove It belonged to me.
It was an expensive lesson that nearly put us out of business.. We lost close to €5000 the month we signed a lease for a new shop and it had such a huge impact on our tiny business at the time!
I spent the next two years trying to build the website myself with the help of a very patient husband and a friend Aoife (Fou Tees). We could just never get it finished or how I wanted it to look. It became such a negative block for me and the business and I think I became attached to the sad story behind the build of the website and it just stayed the same, unfinished for months almost years!
When we started to work more and more on building Paper Tree again I knew something had to change this time for us to really succeed! I decided I had to face my fear and figure out what I needed help with. I let go of needing to do it myself, I let go of it needing to be perfect, I let go of the mistake I made and let Gráinne from Catching Dreams Design help me! She took control, kept my worries at bay and kept me informed so I could make my own decisions
Now with the light at the end of the tunnel and many personal and business lessons learned we are here, we are live and we are ready to move on to the next step of our business …and our lives! Feeling grateful today
Laura x
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.