Remember me writing about my applications for YEoS and a businessprogram for female entrepeneur with promising ideas?

Somehow, this has been like "Official Accept Fröken Rhodin-month".

1. I got into the international buyers program.
2. More stores than I could ever imagen has taken in or is about to start selling both my jewelryline and my fashionline (the precollections A/W 09).
3. YEoS (Young Entrepeneurs of Sweden) wants to schedule a second interview next week.
4. And I got the businessprogram for promising female entrepeneurs!
5. I found a fantastic businesspartner for my other company
6. A secret fashionsite is interested in having me as a projectmanager, updating their image.

It's so overwhelming I don't really know how to celebrate except blogging, drinking iced soyalatte and working on a saturday..

And oh, did I mention I'm supposed to fit in fashionweek and a hysterical amount of production to do while also looking for a new apartment/studio? It's really, really extra crazy right now. But it'll stabalise when summer turns into autumn.

Making small or large events is a great way to strengthen you image, your brand or just for the simple reason that things you do, like go to an event, is more often spoken about in private- and business-relationships than a brand or person you've met. It's just the way we function now a days.

Happenings, event, show, exibition, gathering, meeting, forum, intermezzo, fixture, market, showdown, tournament, adventure, episode, party, opening, premiere, release, revival.

Many think that "Should I really? what can my company have a party around? What if no-one comes?". But really, you can have a party or gathering about almost anything, wether it's a new product, a new area of business you expanding to or a way to meet others in you business.

Some tips are:

• Always be overdressed. Then everyone will know it's you hosting the party and you get a slight "upperhand" on the situation.
• Always have something that people can do, eat, read, drink or listen to. Wether it's wine, interesting pictures, folders, a band, a speaker ect, it's will make an excellent starting point for conversation and having something to do makes people relax when mingeling around with unknown people. If it's something new, refreshing, funny, surpricing and interesting, even better! Goodiebags and samples together with folders ect is a great way to get people to "take you company with them" when leaving the event.
  
• Choose an easy-access place to meet (If it's not a treasurehunt or course...) and always include a map or road description with the invitation.
• Designed, fresh invitations are to prefer to email-lists and facebook, though this can be included too as an extra! Make sure atleast the most important customers or visitors get proper, old-fashioned invitations!

When it comes to location: You don't have to rent a 30 000 dollars/night event- or showroom. Sometimes having private gatherings in you home makes your loyal customers and buyers see what an open and hostpitable person you are. A great example is an wine-exporter from Argentina who had an private winetasting at her home.

Other ways to find cool and odd showrooms are to call brokers who have down-town apartments up for sale. An empty upper-eastside apartment makes a very special and flexible showroom. Renting it for a night or two before it's up for renting or sale is often possible of you call the brokers and negotiate with them.

Got great news today. my distributor of silver seems to be able to make the deadline. It feels great. I just want to praise him. Also I'm very proud of my designerassistant/personal assistant this week, as she's done a great job! Easy to work with, eager to learn and she always seems to be on the same track as me! It's a joy to work with her!

Next week is hard work in the studio and alot of meetings with journalists and other contacts I want to work with on a new project. (I know, as if I didn't have enough of projects). As it's storming worse than in Rihannas "Umbrella" I've desided to give you a fashionspread today for rainy days. Enjoy!

Do you ever have time for each other or friends?

Yes I do. The People who work for me I consider friends. That's what's so lovley, We have a great time while working hard. Otherwise I probably wouldn't like it. That's one of the largest pros when being you own, you can decide to work with people who are interesting and fun to work with!

When it comes to friends, most of my closest ones are law-students, managers of different kinds, selfemployed illustrators and webdesigners and don't have alot of time themselves. I talk alot on the phone with them and we often arrange big parties to meet. But when you have that dinner or coffee together, you really appritiate it more! I'm very close with my family too and often go for "mini-vacations" to the archipelago where my parents live for sailing, dinners and talk, talk, talk.

When it comes to my loved one, he works as much as I do... There's a lot of cellphone messages updating eachother on the other ones projects for the day and alot of emails. And many weekends we end up working late... But together! we go to his office together and work side-by-side. But when we actually have free time (which we schedule in, so it won't be forgotten!) we smile like morons the whole time because it means so much to us.

For me it's essential to be with someone who has the same view of work, goals happiness ect. It's very important, if both work alot you have to be interested in eachothers work and support eachother. I think there is to little of that in this world.

Support you family, friends and loved ones on their path to dreams, happiness and love! Only good things can some out of it.

This week has been filled with interviews of asorted kind and meetings, meetings, meetings. My head is spinning from the rush. In a good way.

I just came from a meeting at Stockholms International Trade School for a spot on their international byers trainingprogram. 99 others where interviewed. Only 35 get in. We'll see how it goes. Now I'm off for another meeting about EU trade. I've also been interviewed by the exclusive network I wrote about, Young Entrepeneurs of Sweden. It's like a dream come true for me. A businessnetwork with people like me! A place where you don't have to tone down to sooth peoples fear of success and strong, odd personalities.

Yes, I sound a bit like a penguin who's been living with polarbears for the last decade, lost on the wrong side of the ice. And it feel a bit like that. The risktaking and joy of being an entrepeneur is best understood by other entrepeneurs. Unfortunatley maybe. But networks are really a great way to find likeminded souls out there, no matter what subject you are interested in or what kind of business you do.

Seach for networks in you area, you never know what is hiding around the corner.

Aren't you stressed out?

Well, sometimes, yes. Right now I mostly feel like standing on a surfboard just before the dreamwave hits you. You bend your knees, clench muscles and wait for the right millisecond to head off on it. But in periods it's been very stressful, though, I've learned to handle stress at a very young age. My best tips are cellphone, calendar and notebook.

Reminders are put in the cellphone to beep me when nessesary, the calendar gives me a colour-coordinated overview** and the notebook is my place to store ideas bothering me in the middle of work and my to-do-lists gathered in one place. Everyone can learn to relax and be focused. I know now for example, that all my projects will never turn out exactly like I planned.

But I always give myself credit when finishing them and always think about if they achieved the right goal, not in what way it was achieved. Also, I know that they can't be done all at once and therefore I keep putting stars in the corner of my to-do-lists to locate the priorities easily. That was something that I didn't do two years ago.

I rarely feel really stressed out, the way others do. what makes me stressed out now adays is not being able to efficiently use my time or spend it having fun. Like being stuck on a mindless job without possibility to either have fun and socialise or make great things happen during it.

Four things that really is the reason you're stressed:***

1. Money

2. Low selfasteem and insufficient understanding of selfvalue

3. An unorganized and spidery, non-prioriticing life

4. Lack of goals and direction.

**Green is work, blue is studying, purple is leisure/social events, red is money/transfers/billing and violett is deadlines.

*** read the spread about "Quickfix for stressed out people" to find out what books can help you deal with these four subjects. Seach in the seachbox for "Quickfix" or scroll in the blog.

When did you have time to educate yourself in all these areas?

I've studied tv-production, filmproduction, digital photography, digital editing, photoshop, illustrator, indesign, graphical design, digital fashionillustration, CAD, Colour and chromatics, fashion, cutting, textiles, journalism, japanese, mandarin and marketing. People get really confused when we talk about previous educations and timelines. People often ask me, when in the world did you have time for this?!

Well, first of all, I started early. I went to artschool and learnt in an artists studio from the age of six and onwards. Setting a base for colour-, painting- and lighting education. Then add an obsession for clothes from the age of four and onwards. That makes any girl sketch clothes until she falls asleep in the watercolour after school (and during school...) all through high school. But don't think you've had to been interested in an area from you tumbling age to be good at something! Trust you exprience and dare to get into areas you want to explore. Being careful has never meant becoming successful...

Then I started studying tv, film, media, photography, marketing and japanese in senior high school. Knowing that chinese was a very important language in the fashionbusiness, I took the next best thing, japanese, as I was studying kimonoart in my free time. Chinese I added later on.

Being very interested in everything my father could (If he could, I should. now!) I got into technical stuff in his workshop at home. I even took apart videorecorders in daycare i remember... So learning the techinacal part of filmediting, recording and later on digital photography was a quick fix.

I continued to study fashion beside school and japanese, journalism, digital design and graphical design at universitylevel right after graduating senior high school. And of course, books, books and lots of books. I knew what I wanted, being my own fashion designer. So I educated myself in the areas I needed for it, just enough for me to be able to handle things on my own.

This might sound fantastic, but the truth is, most employers don't see the red line here. Writing all my education and experiences on a CV, makes them think I am one of those "planless people" instead of the opposite. So be aware of that. The system still, even in the twentyfirst century, doesn't appritiate entrepeneurs and cross-area exprience. It means to them that you are one of those who won't stay in your place...

Online-studies are the best invention ever. Because that is the way I've managed to study the last two years and still getting experience in worklife.

Though I've studied many different areas and been to places like Pingyao in China and back again, it's all for the same reasons: Keeping my goal in sight.

Has it been worth it? Yes, it always has. Be curious, that's the important part of life. 

How do you have time for all this?

I manage my own time. When I was younger I went to an eliteschool which taught me to manage alot of different subjects all at ones. We simply had to.Then I was young and stress came creeping up on you. But we got some kind of system for it after a while, as with all studies.

And about having time, honestly, we don't. My To Do-list never ends. But it's important to see work as a flow with valleys and peaks and not in a start-stopp balance. Then you'll always be stressed out because you feel you never "reach that finishline". It's important to structure you work but also to be satisfied with your human effort. Reward yourself weekly. Either it's a dinner with friends, a bag of cheesedoodles only for you or a round of tennis.

And about time: I don't own a TV. When people feel stressed out the often tend to turn to the object that can turn off 80% of our braincapacity, so we don't have to think and deal with our stress. The Tellie. Give it away to charity! You'll descover that movies and series are available online but in a timelimitied way. reduce all the "non-active/dead time". Which means when I want to play videogames (which I LOVE madly!) or want to watch a movie, I plan it and it becomes a reward instead of a way to pass time.

Me and my James Dean often talk about the mindset of the entrepeneurs brain. As we manage about three and eight projects/companys each, and both are below thirthy years of age, we can without a doubt call ourselves entrepeneurs. And people often ask alot of questions, trying to understand why we do it. These are the 6 most common questions which I will try to answer:

How do you have time for all this?

When did you have time to educate yourself in all these areas?

Aren't you stressed out?

Do you ever have time for each other or friends?

Aren't you burning yourself out?

How do you come up with all these ideas?

All the question will be tagged under "Questions" and "Questions and answers". check for the tags in the right column of the blog or use the searchengine in the right column below "Latest Comments" to find them.