Pain. And Growing Pains. And Growing Greatness out of it all.

Let’s talk about pain.

Gut-wrenching, life-changing, soul-crushing. Pain.

Pain is one of those grungy little secrets that you’re not supposed to talk about when polite company comes over. It’s one of those things that everyone deals with, but no one really talks about because it’s depressing and makes people uncomfortable.

But here’s the thing: Pain isn’t all bad. On the contrary, without it, we have no way of knowing when to slow down, when to back off, when to change pace. Pain tells us what’s working and what isn’t.

Pain is something I know really well.

Pain is the reason why Makeness exists.

See, about ten years ago, I was cruising right along, pretty sure I was on-track to rule the world by thirty.

It happened slowly at first, just a pinch. Then a pinch turned into a squeeze and that squeeze began to squeeze out my ability to cope with day-to-day life. It wasn’t fast, and the stuff I deal with isn’t life-threatening. But after about six years, I was unemployable. Even with fancy credentials and lots of experience, employees that call in sick a few weeks out of every month are not exactly in high demand. {To read more about how I coped with all this, check out a guest post I did over at The Middle Finger Project}

So, I started down the path of creating something I could do on my own terms.

First, I went to my fall-backs, my side-lines, my hobbies. I mined my half-interests for something that could help me pay the rent. I landed on accessory design and started making upcycled jewelry and handbags. I learned just about everything about getting a business up and running on Etsy, and in the process learned a shitload about creating my own website, blogging, and social media in general. I learned it ALL the hard way. I couldn’t afford ebooks and guides. I couldn’t afford to pay anyone to do anything to help me. I borrowed fifty bucks from a friend to get my first box of business cards. It SUCKED.

To say that I bootstrapped would be wrong.

…I couldn’t afford boots.

Unfortunately, right when I was finding some footing, I discovered something… I didn’t want to make earrings for the rest of my life. There was a reason it had always been a hobby. I loved doing it, but the thought of having to do it every single day started to induce that familiar feeling of inner rebellion (panic).

I also realized, around the same time, that my blog readers (at my old blog for my design biz), were not really reading my posts about business. Unfortunately, those were the posts I liked writing the most, so I decided to launch a separate space for my business musings and voila! Makeness was born.

When I launched it, I broke every single business rule in the book. I gave the name zero thought. I designed the logo in an hour and asked exactly one person for feedback (my boyfriend). It didn’t even occur to me how (or even if) it would help me make a living (and I went to business school?!?). I had no unique selling proposition, no marketing plan, nada. Zilch. I bought a domain, threw up a site on Blogger and started telling the word my philosophy on business. I did everything wrong.

Someone once told me that if you listen closely, your customers will tell you who you are.

I listened.

Over the past year, Makeness has grown. Like, A LOT (thanks for that, by the way). Despite my utter lack of any kind of plan, it grew anyway. I learned slowly, I failed slowly, I did everything the hard way, and yet, it still grew.

Now, Makeness is ready to grow up.

She has a plan of her own and she is SO ready to kick some serious tooshie.

Makeness has decided that she would like to help people not make all the same mistakes she did.

And you know what?!?

She is really, really smart.

She listened to her customers and has decided that there are enough expensive business coaches out there.

There are enough business philosophies out there.

There are WAY enough people telling you how to spend your money and that their systems are worth every penny of the unattainable sum they are asking. And, in a lot of cases, they ARE worth it. But that’s not really the point when you can’t afford premium toilet paper, is it?

Makeness would like to be an oasis of self-directed learning and bite-sized lessons for the busy, the broke, and the bold, and she would like to do it now.

In the coming weeks you are going to see piles of changes here. The site will be down for a few days while we give the girl a new coat of paint, and when she returns, there will be all kinds of new nooks and crannies to explore.

And you know what else?!?

I am finally going to have something to sell. Something I created. Actually, a bunch of somethings I created and few somethings that other people (AWESOME people) created. And they will be stupid-cheap. And they will be exactly what you need. And you will not feel like you have to choose between groceries and these fabulous somethings.

So, over the next couple of weeks, start digging into those couch cushions. You’re gonna need to save up about enough to buy a beer or two. You can do it. I know you can.

Related Posts:

• 40 Tweetable reasons why you should stop looking for a job.
• I want to tattoo your brand on my butt.
• Do EVERYTHING. Be great. Screw decisiveness. Change your mind.