Retirement time ahead
- Maritza Messer
- Jun 18
- 2 min read
With only four working days left until retirement (from my full time job), I find myself both excited and a little worried about what comes next. For more than four decades, my work has provided structure, purpose, and daily challenges. Soon, that chapter will close, and a new one will begin.
Jewelry making will certainly fill part of my days, but I also realize that I cannot spend every day creating several pieces. If I did, I would end up with hundreds of them within a few months! Retirement is giving me the opportunity to think beyond production and focus on growing the business itself.
Yesterday, AI suggested that I dedicate some of my time to improving my website and transitioning to a new platform. My goals are to create a smoother purchasing experience for customers, improve my SEO, and make it easier to connect with other sales and marketing channels.
One of the challenges I am currently facing is deciding what to do with my past designs. I would like to create a catalog of pieces that can be reordered, allowing customers to revisit designs they may have missed. I would also like to create a separate gallery for one-of-a-kind pieces that can never be replicated, so they can still be viewed and appreciated as part of my creative journey.
With my current platform, managing multiple catalogs is difficult, and integration with services such as Google, Facebook, and other marketplaces has been frustrating. I am hopeful that the new platform will simplify these processes and make it easier to publish products across multiple channels, including Etsy and eBay.
Of course, my free time will not be devoted entirely to jewelry and websites. Retirement will also bring opportunities for travel, time with family and friends, and the chance to tackle projects around the house that I have postponed for years while waiting for “someday.” That someday is almost here.
As retirement approaches, I am beginni
ng to realize that the question is not how I will fill my days, but how I will balance all the things I have wanted to do for so long. It feels a little uncertain, but it also feels like an adventure waiting to begin.
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