What is your name? Anne-Marie Kovacs
What is your business name? The Succulent Wife
What is your website URL? www.TheSucculentWife.com
When did you start your business? In November 2005 in its initial form (Online store promoting women artisan and designers) to a relaunch in November 2008 as a lifestyle blog.
Why did you decide to start your business & why did you choose the type of business you chose? I have a professional marketing & branding background but have always been interested in independent design. My sister is an artist and not a business person. My initial start, when The Succulent Wife was an online shop, was to give artists & designers a channel to sell their wares without having to deal with the marketing/merchandising aspect of it all. All economic conditions aside, I realized that having a store was not the best vehicle for me to help promote these artists. As a store owner selling their wares, I was “biased” and so could not authentically sing their praises or even the praises of other artists not represented in my shop. So the new iteration of The Succulent Wife, a blog where I have no vested interest, allows me to reach across all retail channels to pick and choose the stories that The Succulent Wife feels passionate about, in all sorts of categories and disciplines.
What is your favorite thing about being in business for yourself? Besides the cliché “setting my own hours” and working in my pj’s (I actually don’t do that, I find it depressing), for me it’s all about having my own voice. While that can be isolating at times since there is no one around to bounce ideas off, it’s also helped me build confidence in my own ideas.
What turned out to be harder than you thought? Not having a fixed work schedule. Getting something done for a client or for the blog is on my mind 24 hours a day.
Looking back, what is one thing you know now, but wish you knew back then? I wish that I would have known how to take advantage of social media much earlier. The places it can bring you, the contacts to be made, the ideas it spawns…
Do you participate in any business groups (mentoring, networking, etc)? If you mean the business luncheon type of networking, that has never been my scene. Instead I have initiatives like holding a curated marketplace on 1000 Markets, where I can further promote favorite artisans and my own brand of aesthetics. Social Media networking has also offered a very do-able form of networking and has provided some delightful contacts.
As a business owner, it can be easy to work all the time – do you have any tips for balancing your business and your personal life? It took me a while to discover the benefits of self-discipline. I now focus on getting certain tasks done in fixed amounts of time, with a timer! With that focus, I get through my work to-do-list and get to enjoy the time with family. There are also certain allotted periods, like Friday nights which are sacred family, no-computer time.
What have been some of your best business successes? Success is such a relative term and can be quantified in so many ways. In my professional career, this is easy to measure in terms of “ROI” achievements. With The Succulent Wife, quantifiable success is still lurking and but can begin to be measured with growing traffic, great reviews and appreciative readers. At the moment, as this is very much a labor of love, I quantify my success by giving independent businesses another place to be featured. A recently featured artisan just signed a large wholesale order with an illustrious retailer as a result of our story. That is success!
What are you planning to do with your business in the future? The Succulent Wife was relaunched about 6 months ago from an ecommerce site (promoting women artists & designers) to a lifestyle blog. I would love for The Succulent Wife to become a valued authority on lifestyle ideas, especially promoting the things and practices that make life more meaningful. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about her!