This morning I’m all of a tither and I can’t seem to focus on anything. I’m not feeling 100% (man flu on and off for the last 2 weeks) so that doesn’t help.

It’s snowing which makes me want to go outside. It’s blowing a gale which makes me want to stay inside. I really got into my art yesterday which makes me want to go up to the attic. I’ve just received Michael Neill’s newsletter which makes me want to listen to his recorded call from last week.

And . . . I also want to write a blog post since it’s been a while since the last one. So, in between getting up and faffing about, checking emails and looking up stuff on the web this is me endeavouring to return to my chair and keep writing . . .

Until yesterday evening I had expected to write excitedly about how my unbusiness plan (that’s what I’m calling it these days) had moved ahead in leaps and bounds but, alas, it is not to be. Actually that’s not strictly true. It has moved ahead in leaps and bounds it’s just not exactly where I expected it to be this morning.

You may remember that I only had 2 points on the “plan” – one to paint 10 small paintings with inspirational quotes and one to investigate the possibility of using Paypal on my site to sell them. The latter is where I’ve come a bit unstuck.

I’d chosen to use Ecwid as the storefront for my site as it was free for the first 100 items. I thought that would be enough to test whether it was worth putting more money into it. Yesterday I finally got it to the point where I could go live but then discovered it wouldn’t let me add an 11th product without payment. Bummer!

It seems the information I looked at originally was out of date and the free 100 threshold was changed last October. Zero points for attention to detail!

All is not lost, however.

I’ve written the product descriptions, scanned the paintings, done some pricing research (= asked 3 of my mates) got my head around Paypal (I think) and, I’ve decided on “take 2” for my store front. I’m going to be giving WooCommerce a bash. Wish me luck!

So . . . enough of the nitty gritty details stuff and on to the more mysterious, exciting, unknown, scary, experimental stuff, i.e.

can I build a business by focusing on the next thing only, rather than the long term

and without all the normal “good practice” paraphenalia

of “to do” lists, time management, motivational tools, target markets, USPs, elevator speeches, budgets etc?

Well, so far so good.

I completed my first painting some time back and then created a few more backgrounds and then stalled. I kept staring at the half finished canvases with no inspiration whatsoever. Then, suddenly, I looked around one day and saw that I had completed 4 more. I’ve no idea how that happened.

• I didn’t try and discipline myself to paint a little every day.
• I didn’t decide to “just paint” and get them done.
• I didn’t give myself a good talking to about not  being focused, never following through etc.
• I did spend some time looking on the web for inspiration but it never came.

I sometimes  felt frustrated that nothing was happening but mostly I had a sort of “oh well” attitude and didn’t think about it much and then, one day, (cue fanfare of trumpets), I saw that I now had a total of 5 completed.

It gets better . . .

A couple of weeks ago a friend came to visit. She looks at the paintings and says “I’ll buy those 2 and could you paint me another one with a different message to match, please?”

Stunned I was, and chuffed to bits of course!

So, although I haven’t actually received payment yet, as the shopping cart adventure is taking longing than expected, (please hang on in there Sue) I think it’s fair to say that my unbusiness is under way. Not to mention I completed another 5 canvases yesterday and now have a total of 12 (2 more than my original target) and all without any pushing or making myself do stuff I didn’t want to.

Smug? Did someone just call me smug? Yeah. Well. Maybe just a tad!

This is the point where I planned to direct you to my new online shop but it isn’t online so I won’t. Shouldn’t be long though . . .

Linking to Inspire Me Monday, Monday Meet Up and Make It Monday