Hence, my lack of updates to this blog. I definitely overestimated my ability to maintain 3 jobs and still keep up with blogging, which I am terrible at even when I have free time!
On the bright side, however, I've been selling a ton of jewelry! No sales on Etsy yet, but I've done a craft show and a jewelry show, both of which went fairly well. In addition, I've been getting a lot of custom orders, especially with Christmas just around the corner! Also, I bought a Gift Guide showcase spot on Etsy for Cyber Monday. I think my biggest problem on Etsy is a lack of exposure. It's easy to get lost among all the other jewelry designers up there. I've made in-person sales to people I already know based on my Etsy postings, but I've yet to have a complete stranger order directly through Etsy. Hopefully by next week that will change!
I haven't quite broken even yet, but I'm getting there. I expect to turn a profit by the end of the year.
I'm getting antsy to start working more with sterling silver and gold-filled chains and findings. I'm hesitant to do so yet, since those supplies cost significantly more, and I stand to lose more money if the jewelry I make with them doesn't sell. But I will use the better metals for custom orders that I know I will sell. In the meantime, I'm sticking with steel, copper, brass, and gold/silver-plated findings for my pre-made stuff.
Got a shipment of beads and findings from Fire Mountain Gems yesterday. Can't wait to play with them during my long Thanksgiving break!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Open for Business
Oh my, I am TERRIBLE at blogging. I definitely just went 2 1/2 weeks without posting.
But I have been busy!
On October 25 I had my little grand opening party. It really got spread out over the whole weekend though, since I saw friends on the 23rd and 24th who weren't able to make it to the actual party, and therefore got a bit of a sneak peek at my stuff.
I made a decent amount of sales. Not enough to break even, but enough to give me funds to buy some more supplies, including some display stuff for doing craft shows. Speaking of which, I am officially signed up do to a craft show at Warren Hills High School on November 14. I have until a week from tomorrow to really build up my inventory and get my act together. Especially since I already have a jewelry party scheduled for November 17, only 3 days after the craft show!
I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about my designs, but so far it's all been from friends and family. The craft show will be the true test, since I'll be dealing with complete strangers who will likely not care about my feelings. If I make a good amount of sales there, it should be safe to say that I can turn this into a viable little side business.
Last, but certainly not least, I finally managed to get some of my pieces up on Etsy. Some items from my shop are listed to the right, or to see everything, visit my Etsy shop directly. No sales through Etsy yet, but hopefully soon. At the very least, it gives me an easy way to display my work online, and with any luck I'll start getting some online sales soon!
But I have been busy!
On October 25 I had my little grand opening party. It really got spread out over the whole weekend though, since I saw friends on the 23rd and 24th who weren't able to make it to the actual party, and therefore got a bit of a sneak peek at my stuff.
I made a decent amount of sales. Not enough to break even, but enough to give me funds to buy some more supplies, including some display stuff for doing craft shows. Speaking of which, I am officially signed up do to a craft show at Warren Hills High School on November 14. I have until a week from tomorrow to really build up my inventory and get my act together. Especially since I already have a jewelry party scheduled for November 17, only 3 days after the craft show!
I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about my designs, but so far it's all been from friends and family. The craft show will be the true test, since I'll be dealing with complete strangers who will likely not care about my feelings. If I make a good amount of sales there, it should be safe to say that I can turn this into a viable little side business.
Last, but certainly not least, I finally managed to get some of my pieces up on Etsy. Some items from my shop are listed to the right, or to see everything, visit my Etsy shop directly. No sales through Etsy yet, but hopefully soon. At the very least, it gives me an easy way to display my work online, and with any luck I'll start getting some online sales soon!
Monday, October 19, 2009
I managed to cross a couple of things off my to-do list from the previous post, hurray!
I got some bags and printed a logo on them. There's only about 20 of them for now, and they're actually favor bags from Party City, but they totally work! And once I get a feel for how well my business is doing I'll be ordering larger quantities of bags that are intended for actual merchandise, rather than party favors.
I actually bought the business cards, but can't print them out yet since the website I was using to design them started doing maintenance just as I was about to click "print." Quite frankly, I'm not surprised by my awful timing. Hopefully it'll be back up today.
I found a stand for displaying bracelets for about $5, so that's taken care of. Still need more stands for necklaces. And I may have to just go ahead and order an earring display stand before I get any actual income, because...
I am going to start doing craft shows! I'm planning on sending out the paperwork to do a craft show at a local high school. They're doing it as a fundraiser, and the fees are $10 for the table plus 10% of sales. I like this setup for my first craft show, since the table itself is cheap compared to any other listings I've seen so most of the fee is dependent on my sales. If I do poorly, it's not that much out of my pocket, and if I do really well then I still get to take home 90% of what I make.
I also have one request already for a jewelry party, and potentially a couple of orders for custom pieces. Hopefully those will all pan out.
I have definitely decided that I prefer working with chains as opposed to wire, although the stuff I've done with the beads strung on exposed wire has definitely evolved. And I've started doing some necklaces that are totally beads with no wire exposed. These are actually a bit easier than the ones that aren't completely covered with beads since I don't have to worry about putting crimp beads in exactly the right place. I just lay out my design and start putting beads on the wire til I'm done.
That's pretty much all that's been going on in the wonderful world of Mischievous Kitty. The Etsy shop should be up in a week. Pretty sure no one actually reads this, since I haven't even told my friends and family about it, but just in case a random passerby stumbles upon this site, I'll be posting the link. ;-)
I got some bags and printed a logo on them. There's only about 20 of them for now, and they're actually favor bags from Party City, but they totally work! And once I get a feel for how well my business is doing I'll be ordering larger quantities of bags that are intended for actual merchandise, rather than party favors.
I actually bought the business cards, but can't print them out yet since the website I was using to design them started doing maintenance just as I was about to click "print." Quite frankly, I'm not surprised by my awful timing. Hopefully it'll be back up today.
I found a stand for displaying bracelets for about $5, so that's taken care of. Still need more stands for necklaces. And I may have to just go ahead and order an earring display stand before I get any actual income, because...
I am going to start doing craft shows! I'm planning on sending out the paperwork to do a craft show at a local high school. They're doing it as a fundraiser, and the fees are $10 for the table plus 10% of sales. I like this setup for my first craft show, since the table itself is cheap compared to any other listings I've seen so most of the fee is dependent on my sales. If I do poorly, it's not that much out of my pocket, and if I do really well then I still get to take home 90% of what I make.
I also have one request already for a jewelry party, and potentially a couple of orders for custom pieces. Hopefully those will all pan out.
I have definitely decided that I prefer working with chains as opposed to wire, although the stuff I've done with the beads strung on exposed wire has definitely evolved. And I've started doing some necklaces that are totally beads with no wire exposed. These are actually a bit easier than the ones that aren't completely covered with beads since I don't have to worry about putting crimp beads in exactly the right place. I just lay out my design and start putting beads on the wire til I'm done.
That's pretty much all that's been going on in the wonderful world of Mischievous Kitty. The Etsy shop should be up in a week. Pretty sure no one actually reads this, since I haven't even told my friends and family about it, but just in case a random passerby stumbles upon this site, I'll be posting the link. ;-)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Party Time!
In two weeks I'll be celebrating the official launch of Mischievous Kitty Jewelry.
I decided the best way to do so would be to host an "open house" for my jewelry collection. The afternoon of October 25, I'll be displaying my jewelry in my house and inviting friends and family over to take a look at my work. Hopefully my offer of a 25% discount off of the list price will encourage a few purchases too.
I feel like there is soooo much to do between now and then. I'd like to make at least 20-25 more pieces of jewelry. I'd like to design a website that will link to my Etsy shop, contain a portfolio of my best work, and list upcoming shows where I will be selling my work (once I actually start doing craft shows, that is). I need to make business cards. And I would really like to get some bags for people to take their jewelry home in. My husband, wonderful man that he is, is designing my logo. Hopefully that will be done this week so I can put it on my business cards. He's also going to be hosting my website because, again, he is wonderful. (P.S. Go pre-order a copy of his movie!)
I've figured out everything I need to do tax-wise, so now it's just a matter of keeping accurate records. I've figured out how to do that, so now I need to focus on the little details that will make my business seem more professional and official.
On my to-do list once I start bringing in some money:
I decided the best way to do so would be to host an "open house" for my jewelry collection. The afternoon of October 25, I'll be displaying my jewelry in my house and inviting friends and family over to take a look at my work. Hopefully my offer of a 25% discount off of the list price will encourage a few purchases too.
I feel like there is soooo much to do between now and then. I'd like to make at least 20-25 more pieces of jewelry. I'd like to design a website that will link to my Etsy shop, contain a portfolio of my best work, and list upcoming shows where I will be selling my work (once I actually start doing craft shows, that is). I need to make business cards. And I would really like to get some bags for people to take their jewelry home in. My husband, wonderful man that he is, is designing my logo. Hopefully that will be done this week so I can put it on my business cards. He's also going to be hosting my website because, again, he is wonderful. (P.S. Go pre-order a copy of his movie!)
I've figured out everything I need to do tax-wise, so now it's just a matter of keeping accurate records. I've figured out how to do that, so now I need to focus on the little details that will make my business seem more professional and official.
On my to-do list once I start bringing in some money:
- Order a custom stamp with my logo on it, so I can put my stamp on boxes and bags and whatnot.
- Order bags on which to put my logo (boxes are already ordered).
- Open a business checking account.
- Buy shipping supplies for internet orders.
- Get more jewelry display stuff for when I do craft shows. (Right now it's just one necklace stand. I should really consider getting something for earrings and bracelets.)
Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to cross at least a few of those things off my list!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Conquering Excel
At the moment I'm sitting at the reference desk, about 3 hours into my 4 hour shift. (This is after working 8 hours at my day job, mind you.)
It's been a slow night, so I took advantage of the peace and quiet to create an Excel document to track my inventory, revenue, and expenses. (One of the many advantages of being a part-time librarian is being able to work on stuff like this during the free time you get when there aren't a lot of patrons!) The worksheet tracking inventory has a record for each item, and each record includes a sale date, sale price, shipping charge, and sales tax amount to be filled in as each item sells over the course of the year. The worksheet that tracks my sales gets all its information from the inventory sheet, but is broken down by month.
My attempt to make this work resulted in a 2 1/2 hour long battle with the "SUMIF" function, since I couldn't quite seem to get it to pull the numbers based on a date range. I did finally figure it out, thank goodness. I'm feeling pretty accomplished at the moment, though I can barely see straight after staring at the computer for so long.
If this works as planned, all I'll have to do is plug in numbers from here on out. Yay!
It's been a slow night, so I took advantage of the peace and quiet to create an Excel document to track my inventory, revenue, and expenses. (One of the many advantages of being a part-time librarian is being able to work on stuff like this during the free time you get when there aren't a lot of patrons!) The worksheet tracking inventory has a record for each item, and each record includes a sale date, sale price, shipping charge, and sales tax amount to be filled in as each item sells over the course of the year. The worksheet that tracks my sales gets all its information from the inventory sheet, but is broken down by month.
My attempt to make this work resulted in a 2 1/2 hour long battle with the "SUMIF" function, since I couldn't quite seem to get it to pull the numbers based on a date range. I did finally figure it out, thank goodness. I'm feeling pretty accomplished at the moment, though I can barely see straight after staring at the computer for so long.
If this works as planned, all I'll have to do is plug in numbers from here on out. Yay!
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