Book it

31 December 2009

The last week of any year forces me to reflect on the year that is about to end. I reflect on mistakes I made, achievements gotten, family and friends, the state of my life, things I’m grateful for, things I expect to have in the new year, how I want my life to turn out in the new year, I set goals, I take up new hobbies, decide on what fantasies I want to live out in the new year, etc. I enter the New Year with so much expectations, I feel like I’m about to embark on a journey, and the thought of a journal to start the year with is a welcome idea.

I’m sure you guessed it by now, you can start a journal business. A lot of people will like a good looking journal to document their journey in the New Year; they want to write how they’ve been able to stick with or fight their New Year resolutions, they want to write their hopes for the new year, their dreams, fears, expectations, etc.

There are a lot more things people can use journals for. Someone interested in culinary skills can use it to collect recipes, a fashion designer can use it to draw designs, the possibilities are limitless.

It’s really simple to get started, and I’ll show you how:

Step 1: Get your tools:

· Paper.

· Ring binder.

· Paper Cutter.

· Art Supplies.

Step 2: Prepare your sheets:

There are a lot of ways you can do this. You can buy journal paper or plain sheets and cut them to the size you desire with the help of a paper cutter. If you want lines to be printed on your journal paper, you can design your sheets with the help of Microsoft Excel. Punch holes and bind with a comb binder.

Step 3: Decorate the journal cover.

Now, this is totally up to your creativity. You can decorate the cover to reflect dreams, hopes, expectations, or even ventures like cakes, fashion designing, etc. This is what will make people interested in your journals. It has to look good, and be durable.

Study decorative books to see how the covers are made, visit craft shops to see what is available at your disposal, experiment with different, materials such as fabric, photographs, cardboard, etc.

You can consider protecting your journal by laminating the cover with a self-adhesive lamination kit.

You can decide to separate your journal into sections by using dividers or colored tabs. Label these tabs with headings like "dreams," "memories," "lists," "poems" or any other categories you can think of.

Step 4: Sell and be creative about your marketing ideas.

We’ve all done this before, one way or the other, probably when we were doing a term paper in school, or a proposal for someone.

Either way, this is not rocket science.

Cheers.

See you in the New Year.