My wife and I have finally gotten the initial rough draft of our online store out there, Need2Bead.com. The layout and design still need a lot of work, but all of her products are done so there was no sense in waiting any longer.
I think this venture is going to be pretty successful. She does local bead parties (in metropolitan Phoenix) in addition to the online business. I think that will be an important marketing vehicle in the future since all partygoers will be familiar with her site because the invitations list the address prominently. Plus, the name is un *pause* believable.
Once the design is finished, then I can move on to my projects and get them started. I've been putting them off for a long time; I felt like I made a commitment to help her get an online presence and that it would be wrong to put it aside to work on my own stuff. But I can't help but feel jazzed at the prospect of adding a few more revenue sources to the family coffers.
On a technical note, the store is built using the fabulous open-source ecommerce engine Zen Cart, an offshoot of openCommerce. The templating system leaves something to be desired, but I'm sure I'll get used to it at some point. It is an extremely powerful application, which is partly why it's taken me so long to get it going. But the dizzying array of options have helped me more often than they've hindered me and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.