Midyear Reflection: When “Set It and Forget It” Doesn’t Go to Plan
Going into 2025, I decided my business motto would be “Set it and forget it!” The dream: passive income streams, automated systems, and more time for the fun, creative stuff while the business side quietly ran itself in the background. But in order to accomplish that some upfront work was needed.
Now more than halfway through the year… I've successfully accomplished a good chunk of the "set it" part, but let's just say the "forget it" portion hasn't exactly materialized as I hoped.
Here’s how it’s gone so far (spoiler: not exactly according to plan), and what I’ve learned about patience and managing a creative business through adaptability and self-reflection.
The Grand Plan
My “set it and forget it” plan had two main pillars:
Licensing my surface pattern designs
Creating digital products (specifically Notion templates)
But why these two paths in particular?
First, I was looking for more diverse revenue streams and a way to bring income other than needing to do constant customer outreach and marketing needed for bringing wholesale orders, (once I did initial work to set the foundation). After years of running paper&stuff, my wholesale stationery business, with its natural sales cycles and seasonal ups and downs, the idea of building up to steady, passive income streams was incredibly appealing.
Second, I was honestly hitting a creative wall with greeting cards. I found myself struggling to generate fresh ideas, while simultaneously feeling a strong creative pull toward pattern design. I’ve always loved patterns and the idea of pursuing surface pattern design licensing felt like an exciting next chapter
So while my creative energy was naturally flowing toward patterns and I needed a bit of a creative break from paper&stuff's demands, it seemed like the perfect time to explore these new directions. In my mind, these would eventually turn into reliable income streams that needed way less daily attention than paper&stuff.
The licensing push started strong in Q1: I built collections, sent pitch emails, and uploaded designs to Spoonflower. In my most optimistic moments, I pictured a flood of responses, signed contracts, and royalty checks arriving by fall.
Reality check:
I got one response (that went nowhere)
Crickets on Spoonflower
Four or five months of steady effort later, I was… bored. Frustrated. Ready to ghost my own plan.
As for those Notion templates for small business owners? Still in the “someday” category, waving from the bottom of my to-do list.
The Pivot
Here’s what surprised me: Instead of doubling down, I kept drifting back to paper&stuff—making new greeting cards, refining products, and reconnecting with the heart of the creative business I’ve already built.
At first, I saw it as a distraction from my “set it and forget it” goal. But actually? It was more like a compass pointing me back to what matters most. My brain was basically saying,
“Hey, remember this thing you built? The one with your name on it? The one people actually buy and love? Yeah… maybe let’s do more of that.”
That shift in focus caught me off guard. I had started this journey because I was struggling with p&s, and it turned out I just needed a little break from it and to relieve myself from the pressure of powering through when I wasn’t ready to. It ended up leading to one of my best new collection releases since starting the company and maybe even an entire pivot for brand ethos (more to come on that later!).
From Frustration to Reframing
After some good old-fashioned soul-searching, I realized I wasn’t wrong about what I wanted: financial sustainability and creative freedom. But my approach needed tweaking. So instead of scrapping the motto altogether, I rewrote it into something that feels a little more appropriate to how I’m feeling right now:
“Follow what feels right. Trust that the rest is taking root.”
Here’s what that shift is teaching me:
Working with your energy beats forcing yourself down a path just because you planned it
Creative businesses rarely grow in perfect, straight up-and-to-the-right lines
Sustainable growth usually takes longer than you think, so patience is key
Not every year is a breakthrough year, and that’s fine
What This Means for Right Now
For the rest of 2025, I’m giving myself permission to:
Release the pressure to make every single year “the big one”
Let paper&stuff be both a creative playground and a slow, steady foundation
Move between creative and admin work based on where my energy naturally goes
Keep licensing in my peripheral vision without making it my main focus
Embrace this as a season of patience, presence, and slow but steady progress
The Takeaway
Creative entrepreneurship isn’t just about setting goals and hitting them—it’s about building a flexible relationship with your work that can roll with the changes in energy, market, and creative seasons. “Set it and forget it” might still be in my future, but for now? I’m choosing a more present, intuitive way forward with paper&stuff.
