How To Start a Business, The Wrong Way

I started an Etsy shop on May 5, 2021.

I was exclusively selling tarot readings, delivered by email. I was really proud of my small little shop - I had made the logo myself and created every aspect of my business, so it was a cool thing.

As that summer went on, I was getting more and more into crystals. I was inspired to sell crystals in my shop as well, and on August 3 of that same year, I launched nine different varieties of crystal in my shop. The name of my shop was also changed from ReadingsByAmandaCA to The Metaphysical Method. This was much catchier.

I was so proud of myself. By this point, I had sold a few email readings in my shop. The crystal sales came in steadily, one by one over the next few months. I did a little happy dance every time I made a sale.

Somewhere in between, I changed the format of my tarot readings. Instead of delivering written readings, I was doing video chat readings. I did notice that when I made this change, the small amount of tarot reading sales that I was getting would practically disappear. Not to mention that most of the video readings I did do during that time were negative experiences. This clearly wasn't the right path.

Instead of changing the readings format again, I decided to take the readings off of my site completely. I was also starting fresh. I moved off of Etsy, purely because of paranoia. Etsy is a site for selling homemade items, and my tarot readings were technically homemade, but the crystals weren't. And now the readings were coming off of the site, so it didn't make sense to stay on Etsy anymore.

I decided to move to our very own website on Square. This was a huge step for me and I was really excited about it. We had our own URL (I'll always remember http://themetaphysicalmethod.square.site because I've said it and typed it out so many times...) and our own platform to literally do whatever I wanted to do.

I did a lot over the next few months, coming up to the end of 2021. I kept our social media managed, posting about three times a week. I fulfilled orders that were coming in here and there, including local orders. I designed the website to encapsulate the whole 'Metaphysical Method' brand, including a detailed about page that introduced our team, a frequently asked questions page for questions that nobody was actually asking, and a blog where I was posting articles that I had written.

In December, I introduced a new item into my shop - the 'Spark Your Inner Truth' guided journal by Vanessa Sieger. I love this journal, and I was given the chance to sell it in my shop, and I couldn't turn it down! I sold every copy that I was given, except for one. Not a ton, but it still matters.

Then, the worst happened.

The Metaphysical Method lived on a USB stick. One day I looked, and that USB stick had gone missing. I looked everywhere. My boyfriend looked everywhere. It had disappeared.

Everything that I had for my business? Gone. From product pictures to written descriptions of the crystals that we sold, from invoices to stock records, everything was just gone, like that. What affected me the most was all of the planning that I had set out for our social media pages, and it was gone forever. I had at least one month of consistent social media posts planned on that USB, and I was so disappointed that I would never get this back.

It really brought my spirit down at the time. Now that I think about it, it was divine intervention.

I thought that the universe was giving me a chance to rebrand and start my business over again. Really, it was leading me to start a whole new business, on a whole other journey.

I started finding real purpose through tarot readings again. As I leaned away from The Metaphysical Method, I leaned into Happily Mander - my new tarot-based brand. I didn't even realize that I was doing this at first. I was coming full circle, coming back around to where it all started... written readings delivered by email. The good stuff.

I was extremely distraught when I came to terms with the fact that The Metaphysical Method was holding me back and that I needed to let it go. When I started this business, there were people who doubted that I could stick with this. Hey, maybe they were right.

But maybe not. I didn't just give up on my business and let it stop me there. I picked myself back up, changed my perspective, and started something new. That's what I'm in the process of now - starting something new.

I feel honored by the new label that I have given myself: intuitive energy reader.

I started my Etsy shop to connect with people. The whole point of The Metaphysical Method being on social media was to inspire people to help themselves. It's always revolved around people. Now, I am finally embracing who I am. I use my energy to connect to others, and receive messages through tarot and oracle cards (or sometimes just channeled messages). I'm not telling people what they want to hear, I'm telling people what the energy around them is like. It's up to them to change the energy if they want to. This work doesn't change people's lives, but it inspires people to make changes in their lives.

I hope this story can inspire you. I was so upset that my first business didn't succeed the way that I wanted it to. J.K. Rowling, the world's first billionaire author, submitted the first Harry Potter book to over 10 publishing houses before finally finding a home in Bloomsbury Publishing. Have you ever heard of Laugh-O-Gram Studio? That was Walt Disney's first animation company, and it went bankrupt after two years. And let's think about Albert Einstein for a second - a literal genius. He had 'mentally slow' labelled on his school record.

My point is that plenty of people didn't get their big break right away. Trying and failing is a big part of life, and if you think about it, I didn't fail. I just moved away from something that was no longer serving me.