Couch Business Meetings

This past week I got a new camera!  I have been saving up for over a year for it, knowing that I would need it soon.  Every single cent from prints that I sold I put away for my camera.A couple of weeks ago, I realized that the time had come.  But when there is a big dollar amount in front of me, I get a little panicked.  To calm myself, I went through the same process that I have used for every big business purchase in the past.  I put together all the math, all the dollar amounts, and presented it to Trevor.  We always laugh about these so-called presentations because I act like we are in an official business meeting even though we are in our pajamas sitting on the couch.It is really very silly because I am extremely careful with how much money I throw at my business, never wanting to put our financal stability at risk. Trevor has always said yes, but I feel so much better when I do hear that confident, "Go for it" from him.When I was presenting the camera to him, I was taken right back to our very first "business meeting".  We had only been married for about seven months. I had just quit my job that had started out being a short 6-week sales assistant job, where I was just filling in, that turned into an eight month long job where I became the veteran sales assistant.  It was a role that I dispised - mostly talking on the phone (cold calling), which if you know much about me, the phone is just not my thing.At the same time, I was only nine months removed from a college environment which motivated me and inspired me in ways I had never known.  I went to college in Columbus and had gotten quite used to the city.  We moved back home for Trevor's job as soon as we finished our last class, and I was heartbroken at the time.   I was trying to get reaquainted with being in a small town, working a job that I felt sucked every piece of my dreamer spirit out of me, and had just received a rejection letter from my last hope, grad school.  I had wanted so badly to go to grad school for Art, but with only one school even relatively close to us that offered the degree, I knew my chances were slim.So I went back to the dream I had in the beginning, the reason I went to school for Art in the first place, for photography.  I had been lucky enough to be second shooting for a wedding photographer in Columbus all that summer, and I thought there would be no better time to jump head first into my own business.Once I had started, I realized there was one big item that I needed yet...a Mac.  I went to Trevor with all the computer specifics printed out, every number was wrote out with the different options, and how I planned to pay for it.We sat on our armed chair next to one another in our cozy little apartment and had our very first business meeting.  I almost fell off the chair when he said yes without any hesitation.  I couldn't believe that I was beginning my business.  I was excited and terrified all at the same time.Whenever I feel like I want more, that I haven't reached my goals yet, I look back to this moment.  Because if that 22 year old young newly married woman saw the business that I own now, she would be ecstatic.  She would see the business and feel the she reached every goal that she set for herself. It is amazing how far I have come since that moment.  I am so blessed to be able to do what I love, what I am absolutely passionate about.  And do it from my home with my baby boy, which was always my other dream - being a stay at home mom.  I cannot believe how lucky I am.I hope that in five years I look back at our couch business meeting that we had last week and think, "Wow!  How far I've come!"