About |
I am a semi-retired senior lady and own and operate a kid’s toy website. Besides spending time on my website I am working part time in the marketing field. I spend my spare time reading, watching old movies, attending community concerts and plays, shopping with girlfriends, volunteering and performing with a community orchestra in which I play Timpani/percussion.
Being born and raised in Chicago I experienced culture shock when I moved to the Atlanta area about twenty years ago. But I quickly learned that the weather is much nicer in Georgia and there are longer periods of all four seasons.
Most of my life I worked in the business world as an administrative assistant, although I interrupted this work for about ten years when I went into the health care field. My transition into the health care field led me to enter college around my mid-fifties when I entered a community college to earn my CNA (Certified Nursing Degree).
While there I also decided to go on and get an AA in Accounting. Then I enrolled in a Web Design Class for a year (never dreaming I would ever own and operate a website).
During the time I was working at a large printing company in Atlanta I went to one of those free lunch seminars and was introduced to the world of websites and online selling. I knew from this seminar that owning a website would be a good way to earn some income when I retired someday as I knew living only on Social Security was usually not sufficient.
After 9/11 the printing company’s business began to decline and after several layoff’s I myself was laid off. Never having had time to begin a website while I was working I knew this was finally the time to do so.
As they say, “the rest is history”. I decided to sell children’s toys as I remembered learning at the website seminar we should sell something you loved because you would be spending a lot of time with it.
Even though I have never had any children I have always loved kids toys (I love attending train and toy shows and looking at the toys our parents played with as well as the toys my brother and I had as children in the late forties and early fifties.) A little over three years ago I went live with my first website, All I Can Imagine. (www.blocksand3dpuzzles.com)
Owning a website and working part time means I have much less free time to spend with my friends but I have found working, designing, writing text etc., for my website is just the sort of work I was cut out to do. I love detailed work and never (well, almost never) get bored with working to improve and update my kids toy website.
My plan for the year 2009 is to launch a second website selling organic and natural products and I have already selected my suppliers. But with the slowing economy I am hesitant to rush into a second website.