About a couple weeks ago, we discovered this amazing FREE app for iPhones & Androids called ‘Intuit GoPayment’ which allows you to accept Credit Card payments wherever you go! The card reader that comes with the app was even sent to us for free as well. So in other words, if we ever come across ‘Bobby’ while we’re out and about and he informs us he would like to cop some of our gear, but oh no, ‘Bobby’ doesn’t have any cash on him… Not a problem ‘Bobby’, now you can pay with your Credit Card, thanks to this super convenient and easy-to-use system!

We’re super stoked to start selling more at live events & shows now, since we can just imagine how relevant and handy this new system will be to us and all of our customers! It’s unfortunate that it’s only for iPhones & Androids, since every business owner should seriously have this app. If you don’t, you should definitely check it out and consider getting it!

Feast your eyes on two of our brand spankin’ new products: Tri-blend tank & Tri-blend t-shirt.

For this release, we decided to try out the American Apparel Tri-Blend collection instead of the regular Fine Jersey tees we usually print on! The Tri-Blends fit amazingly snug and their really soft and light fabric makes these products super convenient and awesome for the warmer weather!

Unfortunately, the third and most exciting product we wanted to release along with these two, is still undergoing production. But fear not, for it shall soon be coming your way!

Make sure to head on over to our shop and get yourself some new gear while quantities last!

P.S. FIRST 25 ORDERS OF OUR NEW ‘OBSIDIAN‘ TANK GET A FREE BONUS LIMITED EDITION BUTTON-PACK! 

*** P.S.S. WANT TO WIN ONE OF OUR NEW PRODUCTS OF YOUR CHOICE FOR FREE? CLICK HERE TO BE ENTERED (TWEET THE TWEET)! ENDS ON MON, JUNE 4th @ 12PM EST ***

To conclude this two-part series, we thought that since we discussed some of our opinions on the advantages and disadvantages that running a home-based business entails, we’d share our insight on some solutions we came up with for the cons we discussed in our last post, that help keep us focused and stay on track with Dream Gold.

• Lack of self discipline: We found that setting daily goals of tasks that need to be done help us a lot with staying on track. A good example of this would be to make lists, charts, calendars, etc. that contain all of the tasks/goals somewhere that is easy to access or even right in front of your face so you’re always reminded to get the job done! By doing this, you don’t have to over work yourselves, since you can have the whole day to complete your goals and appropriately and conveniently work them in to your schedule.

• Work environment: You’d be amazed at what a clean organized room can do to your mood as opposed to a sloppy crowded room! Treat your space as if it were a real office. We found that by doing this, it can help with your work ethic. If you have family that nag at you, it’s important to talk to them and make them understand that you’re working and are busy, so that they don’t use up your time with daily tasks/chores. Setting up a time schedule can help sort things out. Ex. Setting a couple hours dedicated to work/finishing up as many tasks as you can, then taking an hour break to do other things and have some time to yourself and/or family, then getting back to work for another couple hours, and so on. Following a work/time pattern can help with using your time efficiently. Last but not least, prepare and plan ahead of time. That’ll make sure you effectively get the job done!

• Storage: The solution to this pretty much boils down to common sense. Prioritize your stock/materials/tools/etc. Don’t hoard things you don’t need. Doing a monthly clean out can really help make/save some space & keep things clean and tidy. If your stock is consistently expanding, look into some other alternatives such as renting a storage unit close by, which will save you the hassle of having to mission to go import/export stock.

We think the most important tip to wrap up this post would be to STAY POSITIVE. Keeping a positive mindset in stressful situations is key. Just try and make the best out of each situation. In the end, all we can really do is work with what we’ve got. So instead of complaining and being pessimistic about everything, look on the bright side of each situation and be thankful for what you’ve got.

Hope you enjoyed these posts,

Stay Gold.

Some of you may not have known this, but Dream Gold is a home-grown and home-run business! Everything we do is done straight out of our cozy small bedroom. We thought it’d be interesting to write a blog post about our brutally honest opinions on the advantages and disadvantages that running a business out of your home entails.

You may think that being a home-run business is all fun and games and awesome, but that’s not true at all. We find ourselves consistently struggling to find the balance between our work lives and personal lives, which in the end does more damage than you’d imagine. Although we are aware that the advantages and disadvantages kind of play off each other, in the sense that they are intertwined in a way, since minor advantages can be pulled out of one of our disadvantages and vice versa.

Let’s take a look at all the disadvantages we have run into with being a home-run business:

• Lack of self discipline: Since we work from home, it is very difficult to fully understand and realize that we are actually at work. For example, we find it difficult to set appropriate work times and are often distracted from our own personal entertainment/leisure time, and considering we’re our own boss’, we can get away with it and not have to worry about getting lectured or possibly fired from slacking on the job.

• Work environment: Working at home makes it rather challenging to stay focused on the job and what has to get done. We’re not the only ones who live in this apartment, the rest of Serji’s family live here as well, so you can just imagine all the daily tasks and chores that get thrown our way, which can be insanely time consuming. We’ve found that working from our bedroom just doesn’t generate the same results as opposed to if we were to have our own office/work space. We feel we’d be less distracted and get a lot more work done.

• Storage: Since all of our stock is kept in our room, we find ourselves trapped in a less-than-ideal work space. Not only does it make it difficult for us to freely move around and work efficiently, but it also has a negative impact on our personal lives. Every now and then we tend to purge all the irrelevant or unneeded materials/equipment into our storage unit, which helps free up some of our space. For now, we just try our best to work with what we’ve got, but organizing and strategizing a fresh & tidy floor plan can really help in times like these.

Now that we got the negatives out of the way, let’s move on to our positive thoughts on what we feel are some of the advantages of running a home-grown business:

• Flexible schedule: Since we’re not tied down to strict shifts, like your average employed worker, it allows us to bend our schedule and have more time on personal projects, without worrying about losing work hours or our pay getting deducted from having to take days off. This can become a disadvantage though when you lack the self discipline and motivation to work.

• Save money: Working from home means we have access to our kitchen, which also means that we have access to food therefore we don’t have to worry about spending our precious money on buying lunches or snacks on our work breaks. Working from home also keeps us office rent-free, since our home is our office! Finally, since our home is our office, we don’t have to worry about transportation fees, such as filling up on gas, buying tickets for buses and/or trains, etc.

• Being your own boss: We saved the best for last, BEING YOUR OWN BOSS. Who wouldn’t rather work for themselves as opposed to working for someone else?! Being the boss means you call the shots, and you get to run your business however you’d like without taking orders from anyone else. Not only does being the boss give you the power to share your business with the world and give people the opportunity to work for you, but you also get to live with the feeling of self gratification and pride. It’s nice to be able to call something your own.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post and that it gave you some insight. Let us know what you think & if you run a business yourself, feel free to comment sharing your opinions/thoughts/advice!

This is the first post of our 2 part series. Keep on the lookout for part 2 on our solutions to the disadvantages explored in this post.

Recently, Serji decided to make the big switch from a Blackberry to an iPhone. Of course, by now ‘Instagram’ had blown up and we were all curious as to what it was and how it worked exactly, so we installed the app & checked it out for ourselves!

We absolutely love this app. It’s super convenient and makes it so much easier for us to be able to share our lives and our adventures with Dream Gold with you all!

‘Instagram’ is available to those with iPhones and Androids (and hopefully coming soon to those with Blackberrys). If you don’t have this app, you should definitely get it! Best part about it is that it’s FREE.

If you already have ‘Instagram’, then make sure to follow us: @DreamGold

Considering it is May, you would’ve thought that by now the weather would be warm, easing towards hot for Summer. If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, you know just as well as we do that that just so happens to not be the case!

When we woke up this morning, we realized that it has been quite chilly these past few days, something we like to call ‘sweater weather’. Which is why we thought it’d be a great idea and a perfect opportunity to have a brief weekend-sale on our sweaters!

SAVE SOME BIG BUCKS AND PURCHASE ONE OF OUR SWEATERS FOR 20% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME OFFER! (No coupon code required. Items have already been marked down).

Embrace this sweater-weather for as long as you can! Sale ends on MONDAY @ 12:00AM EST. ORDER BEFORE 4:30PM FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING!

Head on over to our shop and get yours today. You don’t want to miss out!

This week brought us big tunes from Mizuki’s Last Chance and Mojo, who are high up on our all time favourite Dubstep producers.

Eptic – Oh Snap (Mizuki’s Last Chance Drumstep-Jump Up Bootleg Remix)

Mojo – Showtime (Skream & Benga)

Mizuki’s Last Chance – Finishing Move (Available Now On Beatport!)

We thought you guys would be interested in seeing how we get our product shots done, since we don’t use any fancy equipment, it’s all DIY right from our very own room!

We made this little prop with a large hardwood painting resting on our bed and against the wall. We used a large roll of white printing paper as a backdrop.

We then lay out our products and start taking our product shots with our lovely Canon 7D!

(Yes, that is one of our new tanks we’ll be coming out with shortly).

When we feel we’ve taken all the necessary shots, we then select the best of the bunch and process them with Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

Here’s an example of what the final product looks like: