Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We celebrated early so on Thanksgiving day we relaxed and put up Christmas decorations. Lovely in my book!
Today I’m excited to share with you April Bowles, the mastermind behind Blacksburg Belle, a business behind helping entrepreneurs succeed in the marketplace. She talented, dedicated and knows her stuff! So let’s meet April.
Tell us about your business.
My business, Blacksburg Belle, is all about empowering small, creative business owners. I help creative biz owners {mainly women} get their products in front of the right people who are ready to buy, up their productivity, and make money by doing what they love to do.
How have you grown your business from an idea to where it is now?
Many, many steps. First, I started my own creative business selling jewelry and mixed media. Then, I realized that I loved learning about marketing and I started helping other creatives market their products. I blogged about all of the things that I was experimenting with and learning and then I brought my background in therapy into the mix by giving advice on productivity, goal setting, and time management. After about six months, Etsy asked me to
come speak at the Etsy Success Symposium, and things grew from there.
Why did you begin your business?
I was practicing therapy and I needed a creative outlet. It didn’t start with this business. I simply started by spending time in the mornings writing and time in the evenings knitting, scrapbooking, making jewelry, and experimenting with different recipes. When I realized how much I loved creating, I decided to turn it into a business.
Where do you draw your inspiration from and how do you apply it to your business?
I draw inspiration from so many different places such as blogs, books, movies, podcasts, and spending time with friends and family. One of the things that I’ve learned to do is write down my inspirations when they pop up or I usually will forget about them. I keep notebooks with ideas that come to me while reading, watching movies and talking with other people and I look them over whenever I’m looking for a new idea.
Some of my current inspirations are: scouring fabric stores, Social Triggers, anything that sparkles, The Hunger Games, and Marie Forleo.
Describe a typical day.
Wake up between 5:30am and 6:00 am. Go to the gym with my husband. Then we come home and cook and eat breakfast together. He heads off to his law office and I get to work. What I’m working on changes each day depending on what courses I have going on or products I’m working on. Sometimes, I’ll also have a consulting call in the morning. I break for lunch around 12pm and watch television while I eat my lunch. Then I feed my 3 dogs and take them out to play for 15 minutes no matter what the weather is like. After I get back inside, I get back to work until about 5pm or 6pm. During my work time, I check in with ARTrepreneur, work on current projects, write blog posts, and consult with creative biz owners. I feed my dogs dinner and play with them outside again and then I start dinner. My husband gets home at 6:30pm. We finish up dinner together and then settle in for the night. We watch television, play Wii, or read. We turn the lights out about 9:30pm and get to bed.
Name 3 interesting facts many people don’t know about you.
1. I make my husband check the mail, because I’m super terrified of spiders and for some reason there is always at least one spider in the mailbox.
2. I started out as a fashion design major in college—and ended up majoring in human development and psychology.
3. I love tofu. I used to HATE it, but once I learned how to cook it, I fell in love.
Show Hide 2 comments
Thanks so much for having me Bridgett!
[...] desk with your name on them. If you want to go beyond names you can write poetry, personal jokes. (photo via) ” Good for: a Coworker 2. A Poster of the Stars $50 Anything collected by the Hubble [...]