Life Update: A Month off and What’s Next

It has been just under a month since I wrote my last blog post. Just under, because I actually published it late for reasons I am about to discuss. For the month of May I took my first ever ‘intentional’ month off from blogging in over 4 years. I wish I could say it was for ‘self-care’ or relaxing, but it wasn’t. It was out of pure need and a bit of desperation, but all is well that ends well.

For those of you who don’t know, last year in March when I quit my day job to pursuing blogging full time. My husband and I already owned one business in addition to the blog, so I would be blogging full time and running that would be my side-hustle. Things changed though last summer when we saw an opportunity to open a second business, and we took it. This meant that the blog took a back seat yet again and we flung ourselves head first into dual business ownership.

Fast forward a year and both my husband and I are full-time at both of our businesses. We were working 7 days a week, working at least 9 (sometimes 12)  hour days between the two stores and then on top of that driving to make deliveries and pickups on a daily basis. We were learning so much but at the same time our pace wasn’t sustainable. I struggled to find time to spend with our dogs, to exercise, to cook dinner, let alone take blog photos or write content. Something had to give so I decided to give myself a gift of a month off from the one thing I had control over, the blog.

What a difference one month makes. I was shocked at how the choice to not blog ended up helping us hone in on what we needed in our lives. I LOVE writing this blog and by removing myself from it only reminded myself why I have done this for the past 4 years. . Our health and well being (not to mention our sanity as a couple) had become a point of conversation as well and as the ‘month off’ came to an end we had to make a hard decision. The only solution was to close one of our businesses, so we did.

As of this month we are now back to a single business which now has more of our focused time and effort and is growing rapidly as a result. Time is the greatest gift you can give yourself and with the closing of one of the businesses that is what we gained in return. With that time we can cook, exercise and generally live healthier lives. Ironically this was one of the reasons we had chosen to become self-employed in the first place, to have more freedom with our time, so it is refreshing to get back to that. Of course now I have time to focus on this lovely website of mine as well and the community and purpose behind Blogger Not Billionaire and I could not be more excited.

When I contemplated my return to blogging even after such a short time one thing stuck in my mind: I felt like I wasn’t being true to myself. My life used to completely revolve around fashion as I worked in the fashion industry, but it doesn’t anymore. 90% of my life revolves around the challenges of small business ownership and I would love to share more of that. As we get older and embark on having families and launching new ventures there are a lot of unknowns but I hope I can help with the business side of that through sharing my experiences. Closing a business is a big deal and that failure, or decision, is also worth sharing. So moving forward this isn’t going to purely be a fashion blog, but a true blog about my life, my businesses in addition to fashion. Now that I have found the space and the time I want this blog to be oh so much more and I hope you will join me in that journey. Oh and ps we are moving soon too (as if we need one more thing on our plate) so more on that as well.

Zara Jacket | Pull & Bear Jeans | Everlane t-shirt | Zara Rainbow Heels

Lastly, thank you for continuing to follow along on this journey with me. BloggerNotBillionaire.com is a labor of love for me but it is you, my readers that make everything worth it.  Stay tuned for new posts as I discuss fashion, business, life and sometimes even the unique fashion challenges of being a business owner, because believe me, there are TONS! Also if you have any questions or post suggestions please shoot me an email or send me a message! This is a community and I want everyone to feel welcome here.

Thank you so much for joining me! Cheers! -Rebecca

Photography: Vivian Hsu

Styling: Rebecca Thayer