Ad Campaign

I just started doing some advertising online. My real-life sales have been pretty strong, but I really need to start drawing some attention to my Etsy shop so I can continue to justify its existence. ;-)

At the moment I have an ad up on our.city.lights, a wonderful blog I stumbled upon after reading Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas. The author's wife, Diana, writes this blog and runs an amazing shop on Etsy. I've already ordered several items from her and can highly recommend her based both on her products and the excellent customer service!

In about a week she'll be doing a sponsor profile on my business and I'll be donating one of my pieces for a giveaway, so definitely take a look at that! In the meantime, please visit her blog and take a look at her shop!

Philanthropy

Exciting news!

Since Mischievous Kitty Jewelry turned a bit of a profit in 2009, I have officially started using part of that profit to do something good in the world.

Tonight, I helped to fund my first microloan through Kiva. Check out my lender page to see who I've loaned to. I'll make a new loan once each quarter, and as the loans are paid back, I'll continue to reinvest in new entrepreneurs.

Beginning in April, I'll start making quarterly donations to the Dear Jack Foundation.

Please check out both of these organizations and consider lending/donating! They are both very worthy causes!

Resolutions

I'm about two weeks late on this, but I have decided to make a couple of business-related New Years resolutions.

1. I will post at least one new item on Etsy each week.


2. I will keep my office neat and organized so I can focus on being creative rather than trying to reign in the chaoes.


3. I will make quarterly donations, equal to at least 10% of my profits, to each of the following organizations:

• Kiva - I was fortunate enough to have the money to cover the start-up costs (minimal though they were) for my business , but not all entrepreneurs are so lucky. I want to use part of the money are earn though this venture to help other entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground


• The Dear Jack Foundation - I've been a big fan of Andrew McMahon's music for many years, and I really admire his ability to take his cancer diagnosis and turn it into an opportunity to help others.

I also managed to follow through on my promise to myself to finish my office. It's painted, organized, and is much easier to work in now. All I need to do is hang up my curtains, but that's purely cosmetic, and I'm taking care of that little detail this weekend.

Recently I started designing jewelry with antiqued bronze. I really love the way it looks. One of my favorite pieces so far:

And the matching earrings:

I like the antiqued brass because it really seems to lend itself to pieces that have a vintage feel. Expanding my jewelry design horizons is fun!!

Remodeling

I haven't been designing much jewelry lately. I just barely managed to keep up with my gift orders for Christmas, and now I'm in the middle of re-doing my office.

It used to have a relatively nice, textured, neutral wallpaper. As much as I hate wallpaper, I have to admit it wasn't the worst. But there were some fairly sizable holes that I could only cover up by strategically hanging things, which was great until the rat cage got too close to the wall one day and the little buggers chewed up the wallpaper. (Yes, I do have pet rats. And I love them.)

So I've decided to use my break to overhaul the entire space, starting with wallpaper removal. I started Sunday night, continued through most of yesterday afternoon and evening, and am finally almost done. My hands are killing me, but I have a little break, since I'm right in the middle of a 1-5 shift at the library. I need to finish removing wallpaper tonight, then run out to pick up paint. At the moment I'm learning toward Valspar's "Lip Balm."

Not sure if I'll stick with that once I see everything, but I know I want something warm and neutral, and that seems to fit the bill. I'm hoping to get everything painted tomorrow before I have to come in for my 5-9 shift at the library. It's then or never, since I'll be out of town for New Years Eve and in NYC all day on Saturday.

Also on my list of things to do before I return to my day job on Jan. 4: pick up a cork board to hang up behind my desk, get rid of all the stuff in my closet that I probably don't need or want, find a home elsewhere for non-jewelry related things, and find a phone with a built-in answering machine that I can hook up to our land line, which is about to become my business line. I don't want to use my cell phone for that purpose, and we don't have a phone hooked up to that line at the moment, because it exists exclusively for the purpose of providing us with internet access.

Hopefully by next week everything will be in order and I'll be able to get back to designing jewelry and get some more stuff posted on Etsy. :-)

Turning a Profit & Finding My Niche

Wow... so unless things go horribly wrong during the next 10 days, it looks like at the end of the year Mischievous Kitty Jewelry will officially turn a profit, after less than 2 1/2 months in business!

I'm not really sure how much sales I'll be making in January/February of 2010... I want to focus on photographing more pieces, fixing up my official website a bit, refining my bookkeeping methods, etc.

I'm also planning on funding my first Kiva loan in January. My plan is to fund a new loan once each quarter, and when each loan is repaid I will reinvest the money in a new business. It's really exciting to think that I can use my business to help other people improve their lives, and it gives me a little extra motivation to succeed.

In other news, I also think I have found my niche: custom orders. I'm selling a decent amount of pre-made pieces, but I've gotten at least half of my business from special requests. A lot of times people will see a piece I've already made, but want me to make it in a different color or different length, or some other modification. I love how happy people are when they see a unique piece they requested become a reality. It gives me that same warm, fuzzy feeling I get when I help a library patron track down a book they never thought they'd find.

That's all for now. Hopefully 2010 will be just as exciting and successful as 2009!