You know by now that I’m a multipod – someone who thrives on doing lots of different things, having lots of varying interests, and pursuing more than one thing at once.
My latest venture is a mermaid business, which combines some of my greatest passions with one of my favourite pastimes, and also includes a good chunk of the things I am good at.
My mermaid business first launched in early 2016, but as I’m now in the process of rebranding and relaunching, I thought it would be good to share the story here on my business blog, to track my journey and see how it evolves over time.
Mermaiding UK – the backstory
Mermaiding UK started out in late 2015, formally launching in early 2016, as Run Away Days.
Initially planned as a series of day-long retreats around the theme of running away to the circus, the idea to make it more mermaid-centric came around December 2015, when my own mermaiding enthusiasm was growing & I’d finally met some other mermaids this side of the Atlantic.
By June 2016, I’d wrangled insurance out of a broker, chosen & secured venues, imported tails from Fin Fun (my first attempt at importing, the ups and downs of which I will cover in another post), honed my teaching technique and run two parties, one in a spa and one in a private pool.
Where I am now
Fast forward to early 2017. I’m recovering from the death of my beloved Dad, and wondering how to rehabilitate myself back to real life and a new normal – a normal I will have to build, because I don’t know what my life looks like without him in it.
Mermaids and unicorns, and all things magical and sparkly, have become my signature thing, both at the day job and in my personal life.
Dad always thought the mermaid venture had legs (fins!). He ran his own business right up until he died, and he adored it – it was his hobby as well as his job – so I think he would approve of this attempt at a healing process.
Why this particular business?
I chose Mermaiding UK as the business to focus on, alongside my stationery joint venture Ink Drops, for several reasons.
Firstly, this year seems to be the year of the mermaid trend hitting the UK in a big way, and it would be silly to miss that – it’s the first time in my life I have ever been ahead of a trend with something I truly love.
It combines so many of the things I love about my businesses – mermaids, crafting, photography, writing, sparkles, colourful photoshoots and a wonderfully Instagrammable, shareable theme.
I get to develop my own skills in something I love, look at taking it further via learning to freedive properly, be my mermaid alter ego Kerenza Sapphire more often, photograph people and products to my heart’s content, make beautiful things, and most exciting of all, make people’s dreams come true. There are a lot of grownups out there who always dreamed of being a mermaid – and I can make it happen!
So what next?
Since Dad’s death, I’ve not really had any heart for anything, least of all the hustle of a new business. But I know that starting & running businesses is my lifeblood, and is very probably the thing that will help me recover and re-learn how to live, without Dad’s physical presence here.
Following my first few events last year, I knew I wanted to make changes to Run Away Days and relaunch, so this seemed like a good time to put that into action.
Watch this space for updates and follow along with the journey – and drop your email in the box below to join the Improper Job Collective and make sure you don’t miss out on any news.
