The idea of self reliance, I think, innately appeals to both crafty do it yourselfers as well as to people who build their own businesses. Simply following through with the dream to build your own craft business requires a bit of an independent spirit.

That independent spirit and the dream of self reliance, though, can be a bit tricky to maintain when you realize that self reliance, and self employment, require you to be the expert at everything. When you run a small business, all of the decisions, whether they fall within your areas of expertise or not, come down to you. When you have a home based business, there is no technical support, no accounting department, it’s just you.

Happily, being self reliant does not mean you have to do everything yourself. In fact, smart business people understand their strengths and limitations. They know when it’s smart to maintain control of a project and do it themselves and when they’d be better off outsourcing tasks. Outsourcing tasks that are beyond your area of expertise, such as finding a good accountant or a craft photographer, or (when your business has grown) not an effective use of your time, can be crucial to the success of your craft business.

Build the skills that you reasonable can, but recognize when it’s wise to call on the skills of others. That’s smart self reliance.

Technically, this baby room mural should be filed under my husband’s crafty projects. I created the image (based on an image I liked from the Better Homes and Gardens website), but he did all of the painting. I like the fact that it’s understated and not too cutesy, and I’m convinced that unless you are a skilled painter, the key to creating a good looking baby room mural is to keep things simple, stick with images that use simple lines and consider using a single color that’s a few shades darker than your wall color.

You’ll find instructions for how to paint your own baby room mural on the main Inspiri site.