Profit Shmofit

I learn a little more every day.  For now I've learned that if I don't charge enough, I don't make a profit.  Unfortunately I'm not prepared to up my prices yet, in fact I've had to drop many.  It takes so much money to start something like this up, it takes a while to make it back.  Between ETSY, word of mouth and the craft shows I average an order everyday or every other day.  For a business that's been running for less than 2 months...I'm feeling pretty good about that.  But, on certain items I've lost money.  I didn't charge enough for shipping, I didn't take into account the cost of the extra things (shipping tape for example), I didn't know how much ETSY and paypal took for their cut.  In the end the profit (if any) is small.  In fact, the Winder show I did I actually paid to make and give products away.  In reality I sold three products, but since I had to pay to be at the show and I didn't cover the cost of it...I actually had to pay to give those three products away.  So the money that went into the products, the time I spent making them...all wasted, never to return to me.  That's hard.  Because in the end, (while I love designing new products) if I can't make money off of this then I will have to stop selling things.  Of course that doesn't mean I have to stop selling altogether, but eventually I would have to decide that this will never be a full time thing and move on with my life.  Of course I'm not thinking about that right now.  That's my practical side talking.  My dreamer side says "of course this will happen!"  Although I'm not sure my dreamer side believes it will happen, it just hopes it will happen.  

What kind of dreamer am I if I can't even dream that it will happen?!?!  A practical dreamer I suppose.  That sounds about right for me.  I've always ideas, but I've always pushed them away for school, work, etc.  It wasn't until recently that I allowed myself to not only stop pushing them aside, but to actually embrace them as they came.  You'll rarely find me without my idea book.  Every time an idea pops into my head I try to stop then and write it down or sketch it out.  If I don't I'm afraid it would just slip my mind, never to return.