Making the Brand

Hey Y’all

I feel like I haven’t been here in forever. I scheduled the few posts that you saw this week and my reader is off the chain. I will get around to your blogs sometime this weekend. Don’t disown me!

This week has been busy. I am knee deep in pulling together the pieces to get Divinitee’s photoshoot together. I am designing new shirts while working with the printer to get them printed and back for our proposed January 6, 2012 shoot date.

There is so much work that goes into these things that it’s mind boggling. I have decided I will share with you week to week what I am doing to rebuild my business/brand . I have been so inspired by many of you who are following your dreams so I hope that maybe by me sharing with you the mistakes and triumphs that I encounter in this process you will be inclined to step out and follow your dreams in the new year.

So far the past month has been spent doing background work such as designing a new logo, getting the website created and operable, growing the Twitter and Facebook following, searching for a printer,  someone who creates swarvoski designs, applying for licenses and filing the paperwork to establish an LLC. All of this has either been done or is a constant moving piece and now I have moved on to more production oriented nuances. A great help during this setup phase was HowToStartanLLC.org. They have fantastic resources available showing you an A to Z on how to start up.

Much time was spent researching costs. When dealing in quantity $.75 makes the difference. I spent nearly 2 weeks researching and researching and researching some more until I found the best price. Just when I found the right price the fit of the shirt was very small and I wanted to include my busty girls so I went on the hunt again and was very pleased to have found a cut that shows ev’ry body love….and the fact that it was $2 cheaper than my initial pick and a better quality …..*praise dances*!!

I haven’t had too many hiccups in the process. I did make one mistake that will  cost money. I set up an LLC under a broad name to encompass some other businesses that I want to start next year and the blog. I found that you have to file a trade name request to do business under another name.

In Layman’s terms. I set up the LLC as Essence of Glam LLC but I wanted Divinitee to fall under it. Well I have to pay $197 to see Divinitee as a tradename so that it would appear as Essence of Glam LLC doing business as Divinitee. Got it? Well the LLC only cost $100. So more than likely what I will do is see if I can change the name from Essence of Glam LLC to Divinitee LLC. If I can’t I will just spend the $100 for a new one. The other will get used, and since I saved so much money on the shirts I’m still on budget. All of this LLC business is necessary for tax purposes so I need this to be right starting at the beginning of the year. I’ll update you next week on how that goes.

Word of advice: If you plan on filing an LLC make sure you do your homework and read the fine print guidelines for your state. Set your business up the correct way first. I hear it’s a headache to move backwards.

This week the press release was sent out!!!!!!!

Today I will drop these off to the printer. Uber excited!!!

This is the paper I was working off of #bootleg

I’ll give you a bit of a sneak peek when they come back!

Please make sure you are following on Twitter, and Facebook. Giveaways may or may not be on the horizon 😉 You can find the links on the website…that is now live!!! You can’t purchase and the photos are old but will be updated after the shoot. The designs there will be in the new collection but they will be amped up a bit!!!

Divinitee.com

 Thank you from the bottom of my heart Christina of Visual Luxe and Being Mrs. Jones for all of your help. You are appreciated.

I’ll be back next week. Have a great weekend!

What steps are you taking to make your dreams come true in 2012? < !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!