“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.” - George Moore
Things are progressing; a bit too slow for my taste but still… this is how it goes when you are doing almost everything by yourself and trying to do thousand things at the same time. But a lot has happened, even if the main task during the last 1,5 months has been having a superlong summer holiday, loads of fun and relaxation. For the first time in my life, I have had a chance to spend the whole holiday with Laura, and I have made sure I have taken everything out of it.
Trying to create a company from a fragile idea to a fully functioning organisation with a strong product and identity is not an easy task, especially when you are doing it in a foreign country. You barely know anyone (businesswise), and don't have much money to invest. One just has to have a lot of faith, be prepaired to work hard and a bit of that famous Finnish SISU! (Plus a lot of coffee and chocolate biscuits)
So, what have I done so far? One of the first things I did, was a business plan – to organize all those hundreds of flying ideas from my head. And the financer – my husband - also needed to be shown where all the money is going to go for the next XX years. Then I officially registered the company and booked domain-names.
At this very moment Julia, the best Finnish graphic designer in Melbourne is sketching a logo for the company. It sure isn’t easy task for her, since this time the customers have no idea what they want… but she is a genius on her own field and the first suggestions she sent couple days ago were magnificent. There's still a long way to the final logo and the whole visual look but we are on our way! This much is certain at this point: It will be something stylish, something very Scandinavian and there will be a kind of a “northern” trick in the logo. It will be SOOOOOOOOOO good!
One of the most fantastic things about Rainy Days Joy is that the whole family has been really excited and thrilled about it. Laura is heavily involved at the planning process, and already proudly announced for her teacher that her future profession is “a business woman in RDJ”. She is constantly planning other businesses too, like a restaurant (she loves cooking and baking) and a fashion-company.
So last week she naturally came with me to a meeting with graphic designer Julia – she took care that I remembered to take all samples and a copy of the business plan with me. She was really serious. At one point she noticed that there is no notebook or pen in my bag for notes, so she borrowed hers, and gave me a small speech how those should never be forgotten when you go to a business meeting. Krhm.
Laura sure is an essential part of the company; she has already contributed a lot to the designs and has shared a lot of great ideas and views. I’m so proud of her, and it will be extremely interesting to see what will the future will bring for her and the company.
Rainy Days Joy will be so much more than only a company making craft packages; it will be a family effort, it will have a strong social concept (I’ll tell more later) and it will be a window to Northern design and life philosophy. It will create joy and positive feelings, it will encourage families to enjoy the moment and stand for values of fairness and equality. And did I already say it also makes craft packages :-D.
