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The New Business Rollercoaster Ride

For the past few months I have been investing lots of time and money into a new business venture called Just Be Products LLC.

The idea behind Just Be is that it is a state of mind…a way of life…a philosophy to live by. Just Be is a new line of graphic tees not meant to inspire…but to Just Be. The tees allow people to express how they feel or how they would like to feel.

Each shirt will have it’s own Just Be saying—be fabulous, be crazy, be flirty, be sweet, be cool, be groovy, be punk, be spoiled, be unique, etc. The possibilities are almost endless. The saying will be paired with a large illustration whose inspiration comes from vintage poster designs or styles from the 1920s to the 1980s—art deco, pop art, punk, Russian poster art, Constructivist, etc. These illustrations will be silkscreened on a unique location on a t-shirt (e.g. right or left shoulder, wrapped around the mid-section, aligned with the bottom of the shirt).

The design part of the business will be easy and, to me, the most thrilling. I have been a freelance graphic designer for 7 years and in the trade for almost 20. Wow...that's a scary number seeing how I don't picture myself as that old!

The hard part will be catching up on all this Blog, MySpace, Twitter, Friendster and Facebook stuff. You see, I've been purposely ignoring this part of the web because I saw it as just a bunch of tweeners, teenagers (like my kids) and twenty-somethings trying to avoid personal, face-to-face contact. These tweeners, teenagers and twenty-somethings are all my target market for these products. So, I need to learn what makes them tick...and, more importantly, what they like and what they buy.

I plan on building hype for my products around an online community/blog for people to share how they Just Be (exactly what I've been avoiding all these years). A viral marketing campaign will be used to create a buzz for Just Be. So, you see, I now need to learn how to use all the stuff I've been trying to avoid like the plague!

Every day that passes, I go through a rollercoaster of emotions...one day up and the next one down. One day excited of all the future possibilities and the next day scared to death that I won’t have what it takes to do all that needs to be done...not even to mention the money it’s going to take.

Hopefully some of the money woes will be taken care of by a little contest I am in. It is called “Inspired Innovations: The Great Idea Contest”. I stumbled upon the site one day and entered my Just Be idea on a whim. Top prize is a profile in Fast Company and Inc magazines plus $5,000 to develop the winning idea. To my surprise, I was named a top 10 finalist. I couldn’t believe it! Now it’s up to the public to vote on the winner. You can help make some of my money woes disappear by voting for the Just Be idea at http://www.inc.com/greatidea.