Sometimes I use this blog to talk to myself and talk through things that are on my mind, and lately my cosplay accessory business is on my mind. Specifically, whether it’s worth continuing, where do I see it going, and is it making me happy? Or is it taking away from something that was making me happy? Have I created unnecessary work and stress when I could be putting it toward better things?

Almost twenty years ago I started a custom costume business called Three Muses Inspired Clothing. It grew from an Etsy shop to my own eCommerce website, and then to a brick-n-mortar boutique. It was still going really well when I decided to close the shop and retire from custom costuming.

I was going through a big life change (having a baby), moving to a fixer-upper at the beach 40 minutes away from the shop, and was pretty burnt out after 11 years of cranking out custom fit costumes. And I told myself, no big deal, if I wanted to get back in business, I knew how to get it going and make it a success. I did it all before.

And then the world changed

What I didn’t count on was the whole damn world changing at such a rapid pace that within five years everything about doing business had changed.

When I had my shop, Amazon was just starting to creep in as a competitor. Social media wasn’t such a big deal, and TikTok hadn’t been invented yet. SHEIN, Temu and other fast-fashion type places weren’t an option. Neither were the multitude of cosplay website stores you see online now. I started my store to fill a need, and when I came back, that need had been filled and then some.

But as I started to crawl out of the black hole that early motherhood sucks you into, I still felt the desire to start another costume business stirring. And as I got back to being myself and not a sleep-deprived mom zombie (or mombie), and delved back into my costuming happy place, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wanted to create some sort of business even though I already have a pretty good mom blog business thing going.

Starting a New Business

After much thought as to how to go about it with minimum customer-related stress, I dipped my toe back into things by sticking to accessories and created The Midnight Pumpkin Shop. I had lot of ideas and was ready to take lots of pics and do all the fun stuff.

But then there was still all the not fun stuff like building the website, adding product descriptions, buying wholesale merchandise, stocking inventory, filing taxes, trying to find vending events, etc. And I’ve been working on that part for 10 months now and have not gotten all that far. And while I keep telling myself it took me three years to really get my previous business going, I feel that this one is not accelerating the way that one did, and I feel that maybe it’s because I don’t have the drive to push it like it needs.

When I started Three Muses, I stood out because there were very few people making the costumes I was making, like Slave Leia and LeeLoo. Most options were ill-fitting bagged costumes at the party store. I had my own line that I was able to produce myself and custom fit to each customer. And since I was unique, I was able to charge enough to make it worth my time and energy.

But now? People can get some pretty well-made stuff for cheap on Amazon and even cheaper on SHEIN, and they expect those prices everywhere else. Stuff that used to sell overnight for hundreds of dollars doesn’t even sell for $25 now. It just sits there until I mark it down so low I might as well give it away.

And I’ve even joined that crowd because I don’t have time to custom make everything now. And why would I when I can just buy it online for cheaper than the materials would cost me, and have it at my door the next day? How do you compete with that? Most of my costumes are 3/4 store bought these days, and I just fix them up to look better.

But still I figured maybe I could do something neat with the website and branch out from accessories into some costume type stuff. But I haven’t even managed to get the accessories all added to the website yet.

Everything is Different

And the other thing is the wholesale suppliers are not like they used to be. The quality is all over the place. Sometimes the product doesn’t even look the same. I was having to reshoot website pics when I restocked because the product didn’t look right on the website anymore.

And after adding together the cost of website hosting, the PO Box so I don’t have to give out my home address, inventory purchases and other supplies, the only way I can foresee sustaining this business is to vend somewhere 3-4 times a month, and that sounds exhausting.

So here I am, contemplating the future of Midnight Pumpkin after not even one whole year in business. I’ve barely given it a chance, but on the other hand I haven’t put so much time into it that it would be wasted years if I closed it. I wonder why put myself through all that again. I had a good thing, I closed it, it’s gone, move on. Do I really have the time and energy it takes to build and sustain a thriving ecommerce type business?

Deep down I think the answer now is no, I do not. I had the energy to lay the foundation but pooped out on the marketing and growing. It started to take my joy rather than grow it. I was planning a big Halloween sale and to have all this stuff ready and I haven’t done a single thing for it. I haven’t even listed costumes on Poshmark like I usually do around Halloween time.

Why? I’ve been too busy working on the thing that actually makes me money- the blog and my cosplay-related social media accounts. And while the income from those continues to grow, the accessories biz just kind of sits there not getting the attention it needs to thrive.

So, while I’m not closing the doors yet, I am contemplating it at the end of the year. Then I can be a little less scattered and focus more on things that are already working, rather than creating new things to tend to. I do plan to still vend here and there because I enjoy it, and it is very fun to sell people sparkly tiaras. But I don’t want to do it every single week. I want to be able to spend quality time with my family and do the events here and there.

So that’s where I’m at. Thanks for reading my rambling.

I Closed the Business

Just an update to this rambling post- I did in fact close the business. It was just too much, and the blog was doing well so I put my time and energy into it and am enjoying doing blog work fulltime now.

I kept the Midnight Pumpkin going as a blog, where I may occasionally list things for sale, or point to where you can find them online. I’ll also still be doing pop-up vending when I can.

Check out the new blog at: MidnightPumpkinBlog.com