Business Tips - Packaging and Tagging

I know, I'm sorry. I just don't give you enough tips for you business anymore. After all, who wants to hear about the crazy lady next door ripping open her garbage and throwing it all over the yard, or see pictures of the tree that fell on our house. You want to see better ways to sell your wares, right?

I had to share this one, because I'm very proud of the idea. I've been wanting to wholesale, because I really hate craft shows, but online just doesn't get the traffic I need. If only I could sell what I make at the winter holidays, all year round. But to be able to wholesale, you have to still have a profit with a hefty discount, and I didn't have many items that could support that.

Recently I started making bow ties. They're very popular and material cost is decent. Time needs to be worked on, but I see ways that making larger quantities can cut that down. My bow ties are easy to use and can be sold at a pretty decent price for bow ties.

The problem with wholesale is packaging. You can't just tissue wrap and tie with ribbon. Smaller items need to be carded or window boxed. I ordered clear pillow boxes, but those still need cards and the cost is bout $.25 each.

Then I thought that Post cards might do the trick. They're about the right size I could match them to my business cards, and have info and care instructions on the back.

Here's the front and back of the card. The bow will be on the front and the ribbon band will wrap across the middle of the back. I can reasonably make custom cards for the seller too. And I can whole punch the center for hanging.

There was a sale. So the cards cost about $.10 each and they are nicer than if I printed my own, which with ink, could cost more. Click to enlarge. I got them at overnightprints.com. Their quality is pretty good and I like their postcard size better than Vistaprint.

My daughter uses business card to print little tags, by having 3 tags printed across the vertical card. She cuts them in strips and uses a swift tagger to tag them on a seam of her clothing. Merchandise can't be returned to her if the tag has been removed. Another clever idea.

When you buy business cards on sale from vistaprint.com, they are incredibly reasonable. Much better than printing your own tags.

I'm also considering making fabric labels at spoonflower.com. Their quality is much better than my printer printed labels, and at $15 a yard, I can get a LOT of fabric tags made. I think I can use a spray fabric stay to keep them from fraying too.

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing. There's a lot of innovative ways you can use the resources available to you. Why you could make cute tags for your jewelry boxes from those little business card strips, couldn't you? Oh and of course you can make business cards or post cards too.

Lifetime Gurantee

One of my first jobs, well actually my fourth job, not including my freelance craft and art work that I started when I was 16 (I really didn't like working for the "man" even then) was working in the pet department of a major department store.

Could I tell you some stories about my few years working there, like the day I picked up a bag of snakes and a bag of frogs from one store and kept them in my bathtub until I could get them to another store. But that's a story for another post.

We sold mostly parakeets and fresh water fish, but we had small animals, hamsters, gerbils, mice, snakes and lizards, and occasionally a spider monkey. They were mean.

We had one and only one animal with a lifetime guarantee. If you purchased one of our parakeets, you got a lengthy piece of paper with a certificate for a lifetime guarantee. We had to fill them out at the time of sale, sign them and hand them over to the buyer, who took their little bird home in it's cardboard box and never took a second look at the certificate they filed away in their important papers.

A lifetime guarantee on a parakeet. The purpose of course was to protect the buyer if the bird passed in the first few days, which is possible when bringing a young delicate creature in a new environment. But more often is was the little old lady, sobbing and crying, who after 5-10 with their loving parakeet, would bring their cold little bodies to us in a cardboard box, The fine print on that certificate? The parakeet is guaranteed for life, but what you get is a replacement parakeet of your choice.

I can't begin to tell you how many of the sniffling little old ladies broke down when they heard they weren't getting their money back. They didn't want another bird, how could they love another, their sweet bird was barely in it's grave (not really, it was in that cardboard box). We really didn't require the body either, but they never read the certificates.

There just HAS to be a moral to this story. But I'm not even sure what it is. Oh, maybe you can offer your buyer a lifetime guarantee on your product, because chances are, they'll either loose their certificate, or never read the fine print.

Life on Mars - After the Fall

I haven't posted much lately. Not that I don't have time, or that my life has been uneventful. Far from it. I guess that Falling down the steps of the house, and the stiffness that came of it, just threw me out of whack.

It's been overt 2 weeks now, and all that remains is a 3" x 1 1/2" lump, a 3" diameter bruise over my tailbone, and a 3" X 7" bruise on my butt cheek. (Don't even think to visualize). The bruise on my elbow is barely noticeable.

I guess I was lucky, the wood on the back porch is kind of rotten and moldy and the steps get slippery when it rains. I usually hold the rails, but I was mad at the pup who peed in the kitchen and I was running her out cursing. Both my feet flew out from under me and fortunately I landed on my back near my hip on the edge of the stairs. I actually feel blessed, because it was a very hard fall, and my spine was just a few inches away. It could have been much worse.

Long story but short version, I tell the lady owner and she yells and swears at me. Then she comes over later  with sandpaper step treads (not really waterproof) and gets mad when we say that there is no way in hell that the sticky backing will stick to the moldy rotten steps. (I actually said it much nicer). Then her husband comes over and starts swearing at me and tells me he's going to raise the rent $100 a month and then tells me to leave, all because I fell down the stairs and told them I wasn't going to the hospital, because I didn't want them to have to claim in on their insurance. What a couple of freaks.




Other than that, we had a very late Halloween, due to Sandy. I'm sure some kids in Jersey haven't even had theirs yet. Emer dressed in gore and when Poppy posted the pics, friends thought it was another real accident. No Emer is not the accident prone one. Very realistic bullet hole, but once again Emer is entirely inappropriate as he wore this costume to the neighborhood where kids were shot at the High School last year.



Luna was an adorable little witch, but she wasn't very happy. She hates coats, shoes and hats.

The Dink is a Spy of some sort. Video Game character.

Puppy is growing. Business is post Halloween slow, but we're taking the opportunity to rearrange the house to better suit the needs of growing children with a school in the home. (moving the business into the living room instead of the bedroom), which means I get to move into a bedroom instead of the living room. Bottom bunk bed, but better than the living room sofa.

Biz Buzz - Holding On or When to Close Shop

early photography with flash

I see a lot of twitter and blog posts lately from sellers debating whether or not to give up their shops. I can tell you from several years of experience, that July is a very bad month and not one to really judge the validity of your marketing and design skill from.

There are several factors that should go into your decision making. First look at your annual profit. July and early August are slow. It's a great time to relax and organize. Look at your sales figures and do your monthly sales for the first half of the year. That way, in January, you won't have so much to do. I do monthly profit sheets so I can see how I compared to the previous years. You may think this will upset you to see your sales figures, but you might just be surprised at what trends you find. For instance, although this was a lousy July, it was still better than last year for me.

natural light photo

If your sales are a bit lower, don't be discouraged. this was a particularly bad July. the only reason my sales were up at all, is because I opened a new venue since last July.

Look at your product. Are there too many similar items on your venue? Are you unique enough to hold on? If not, think of what you can do to make yours different. It can even be customer service or packaging. How about making your tags out of seed embedded papers, or packaging in a little reusable satin bag? Your product may be pretty, but what makes you special. This is a perfect time to take a good hard look at what you're selling.

How about Photography? Do your photos outshine your competition? Handmadeology has some great photography tips HERE.

professional photography

Maybe you're just tired of trying to climb to the top. Maybe it's just hot, and you're too busy with the kids, and your sales are so low this month, that you just don't want to try anymore. It's OK. We are not all cut out for this thing. Some people are better at selling in person at shops or craft/art shows too. Internet sales is a lot of extra work with photography and marketing and listing descriptions. The reason I like it, is that I can make a sample and, then make the product when it sells. I don't have to have an inventory. Very nice for my very small house.

Let's take a close look at your bottom line.

PHOTOGRAPHY - Is it good enough? Look at my early photos compared to my pro photos and improved home photography. Can yours improve too?

PRODUCT - Is your product unique? When I started selling beach glass jewelry, I was the only Etsy seller with it. Then there came all the others, so I decided to try something unique. My flame shaped flowers are different that others on the market. Are they unique enough? Maybe not, because I'm considering dropping this line and moving on to something else.

PROFIT - This is the biggest deciding factor. Are you making a profit? If you haven't made even the tiniest profit in 3 years, you are doing this because you love it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with loving your craft and not making a profit,but if it has become a chore, and you don't love what you're doing anymore, then your decision to quit is valid. It's OK to so something you don't love if you are getting something out of it, but if your heart doesn't sing, and your wallet is empty, you just might be right. There is a place for you and your art  in the world somewhere. maybe just not online sales.

Life on Mars - Business as UNusual

At the beginning of this year I wrote a blog about spending Four Months trying to increase my sales of my handmade jewelry and doing some freelance design work because I really didn't enjoy making the Aprons and Bow ties as much as I liked making the jewelry and designing.

It's really the sewing thing. I have to cut fabric on the floor and it hurts my aging hips and knees, and I have a hard time actually seeing what I'm sewing. Meaning I have to wear reading glasses to sew, then I can't see anything else when I look away. It's kind of a pain.

I guess I have to wear them to make jewelry too, but I just need to complain. It's who I am.

Well I did increase business in my jewelry shop a bit, by reviewing my product and making some serious changes. Mostly I added reasonably priced brooches and have sold a lot of those and some large orders too. But still, that shop income is nothing to make a living at.

As for my design career, I'm sure the small commissions I get will be good, and it is fun, but I'm not willing to give up my freedom at the moment, to go at it full time, and that's where the money really is.

I have however, found that opening up a real store on eBay has found me the income I really needed, through my Aprons, Bow Ties and Pillowcases. Yes, the thing I really didn't want to do. By opening a store, and a facebook page and more promotions, I've nearly doubled my sales from last year. However, that does include better jewelry sales, and freelance design commission, no matter how small those are.

I've resigned myself to sewing. I've even accepted it as my lot in life at this moment in time. I'll still keep my jewelry shop open, and work on new merchandise for a time, but my main focus right now is income. And after all, those designs are cute too. Now I need to finally design those messenger bags I've been wanting to make. And maybe, just maybe, I'll add some jewelry to my eBay store.

Putting it Together - Spool Knitting

Most of you must know what this is. We used to make these out of wooden spools and 4 nails when I was a kid. You make a rope or tiny knit tube with yarn and this little gadget.

I got this for Poppy's 7 year old. The fascination was short lived so I swiped it thinking I could make some nice neck chains for my Felt flowers. The other night I thought I would experiment with it. I "watched" a Dr Who that I had already seen and worked on the chain. I say watched, because I found that I had to keep my eyes on the craft constantly, otherwise I might not "pick up" all the bottom threads. I've seen some homemade ones that use little paddles instead of posts and I'm wondering if that might be easier to use.

Not only was this more concentration intensive than I imagined, after the 1 hour show was over, I had only 12" of chain done. As I have said in yesterday's post, at an average of $6 an hour for minimum wage (I know, not all states are the same, and I wouldn't want to live in Kentucky), that's not great money. I'd need a much longer piece for what I wanted to do, long and doubled, at least 60 inches. That's 5 times my original piece! At that rate the chain alone would be $30 not including material or other fees involved.

Maybe it was me. I could make it faster, I'm sure! So I tried it again, and again and still the same results, no matter what I did. I'm pretty fast at crafting too. I would probably have to charge at least $35 for that darn 60" rope chain with nothing on it, just to make minimum wage. Would you buy it?

I think I'm going to try some more timing experiments like this. Would you like to see more? Let me know if you can do this faster.