Last April 2009, i took a walk during my lunch break and reflected on life (sounds so cheesy, but it's true. haha!) I had a great full-time job and was enjoying life but something was missing. I didn't feel fulfilled. I knew that hands-on creativity was more of my forte instead of working a regular "9-5" office job so I decided to do something about it. At first I thought that making handmade cards would be a great business so I ventured off to the arts & crafts store that weekend to stock up on supplies. While I was looking around in the paper goods section, my bf spotted a t-shirt printing machine and said "why don't you just make t-shirts? you're a t-shirt kind of girl." I brushed the idea off and proceeded to look for paper goods. Weeks later, something brought me back to the t-shirt machine and I ended up getting it, completely scrapping my idea of making cards.
I have a machine, i have some supplies, but what would I call my business? My brother, bf and I brainstormed together and started out with really cheesy, "try hard" names and after awhile we just got tired and started fooling around by throwing out silly names. My brother, in his best asian accent, said "'herro?' you should just name it that! Herro Kishi! Kishi because your name starts with a K!" We eventually decided that it sounded too much like Hello Kitty and that might create legal problems for me down the road. We kept the "Herro?" part and I decided on "Hachi" for the second part as it means Bumblebee in Japanese which has a personal meaning to me. That same week, I marched to City Hall to apply for my business license, set-up an Etsy shop online and began blogging. I've come a long way since, thanks to many of you!
Anne from LOLANNE was one of my first few customers back when I started and when I created a "Boy Neenja" she requested that Boy Neeenja have a girlfriend so "Girl Neeenja" was born. She's now hosting a giveaway inspired by the two + many many more! Thank you Anne for thinking of me for this giveaway :)
Enter her giveaway here!
