Wednesday, December 24, 2008

New Beginnings, A Reprise and Some Hopefulness



   Many months have passed since I last posted to my blog. Large portions of my world have changed. Private tragedies and opportunities for greater happiness. Etcetera. My husband is no longer with me, and I hope he is able to find a meaningful life. I'm in the process of rebuilding. Currently I'm running Damselle out of a room in the home of my parents, and waiting for Spring. I think my last post is actually a very perfect way to begin again:

The unknown is a frightening thing. In spite of the fact that humans are an amazingly adaptable species we still get very hung up on the uncertainty of what's around the bend. Some people never get over their fear of making changes in their lives, but if you can push yourself out of your comfort zone you may very well learn that you are capable of a lot more than you expected. Running a successful business has a lot to do with change. Are you willing to take calculated risks? How well are you able to adapt your business strategy in an ever-changing marketplace?

Damselle is going well and we'll see how she floats as a sole income with no training wheels.. well... right now. I designed the jewelry for a high profile southern wedding in October, and the wedding and jewelry are expected to be featured in several wedding magazines soon. (not soon enough.. I need to pay off that startup debt!) I'll let you know when I have more info about that. My holiday sales have been decent, but it is becoming apparent that weddings really drive my business, and that needs to be my primary focus. My intention is to move myself and Damselle into a new place in the spring, after spending a little time paying off debt, regrouping, and determining what my income is going to look like. I'll do whatever it takes, to hell with the economy. Anyone want to be roommates with a girl who's home all the time, a jewelry design business that takes up a lot of space, two rowdy cats and a high maintenance goldfish? (I say this with a twinkle in my eye.)

I was thinking of Chris and Haim, and of Etsy when I wrote the last post, but the same is absolutely true for myself as well.

I don't think I'm going anywhere but up. Life is an evolution, and change can be a scary thing. I'm sad that some things I've built have been lost in this transition, but I'm confident in finding new opportunities to really shine and challenge myself.


Oh yeah! I also wanted to share with you this great idea I had. I heard from several Etsians that it was very important to update your profile information because some customers were printing it out to give to their gift recipients along with their purchase. I thought it was really wonderful that our customers care so much about the special uniqueness of their handmade gifts, and the people behind them, so I created a little printable artist's bio to include with every order. I think it's great and my customers have already let me know they really appreciate it!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Times They Are A'Changing


          The unknown is a frightening thing. In spite of the fact that humans are an amazingly adaptable species we still get very hung up on the uncertainty of what's around the bend. Some people never get over their fear of making changes in their lives, but if you can push yourself out of your comfort zone you may very well learn that you are capable of a lot more than you expected. Running a successful business has a lot to do with change. Are you willing to take calculated risks? How well are you able to adapt your business strategy in an ever-changing marketplace? 
         
 Two of the original founders of Etsy, the main site on which I sell my handcrafted jewelry have just announced they will be leaving. This abrupt and surprising news brought with it much speculation and doomsaying about the future of Etsy as a company. I guess this really isn't a big surprise because a lot of people depend on Etsy's continued success for their own financial livelihood, and any time any sort of change has occured, it's been met with resistance and claims that yes, the sky is in fact falling. 
       

  I don't think Etsy is going anywhere but up. Growing a business is an evolution, and change can be a scary thing. I'm sad that Chris and Haim are leaving, because they're obviously leaders... but they may have outgrown their jobs now that Etsy is growing and maybe they have found new opportunities to really shine and challenge themselves. 
 

Friday, August 22, 2008

717 Butterflies... and counting


Every time I put a new item in my shop, I get butterflies in my stomach. Every time I sell something I get butterflies in my stomach. It's been over a year now and it still happens to me. 

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Lean Mean Crafting Machine


Keeping diligent and detailed accounting is one of the best and smartest things you can do for your small business. This is something I learned the hard way, but it's 100% true and could even save your business.


When I first started Damselle, I knew I would need to keep records and file my taxes properly and do some math blah blah..... but I'm the artistic type. I knew from doing some rough figures that my profit should be about 75% of my total sales and shoot... My work is so fabulous and I'm so determined......of course it's going to be great!

So I took that ball and ran with it. And didn't look back for a couple months. I knew it was going to be tough going at first anyways. My husband was pushing me to start making spreadsheets with detailed information, but... I'm the artistic type. Math is not fun for me. Yes, I'm totally capable and I understand the numbers once I bother to look at them... but looking at them might show me that everything was going horribly wrong and my business was not viable after all.

So finally, after cleaning every wooden molding in the house, polishing the record player, and searching for every other thinly veiled distraction from my task, I sat down and spent many hours looking up the information and creating the spreadsheets. The first thing I noticed was that once I entered in all my expenses...jewelry supplies, shipping, site fees, advertising, office supplies... I was actually making about 50% profit and not 75%. That is a pretty big difference and was completely disheartening. I would need to be doing much higher volume for those numbers to be acceptable.

Then I started looking harder. I noticed fairly quickly that I was spending too much money on supplies compared to what I was using up. Granted, I wanted to have some stockpiled for holidays etc. but looking at my supply, I was a veritable dragon sitting on a horde. I also noticed that the amount I was spending on advertising was too high compared to how much money I was bringing in. The ads were effective, but increasing the spending on said ads hadn't really increased sales as much as I had anticipated. There. I had my first action plan right in front of me.

You can't make good business decisions if you don't really know what's going on. I try to do my accounting once a week to every two weeks at the minimum to give my self a little business meeting, see where I'm at, what needs attention... can I buy those new beads I wanted to try this week or am I cutting it too close? How are my shipping costs? Am I losing money on wrapping and tape? Do I need to tweak my pricing? Are my custom orders priced well? How can I lower the cost of shipping and office supplies?

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Custom Order Mania




        I have been doing a *lot* of custom jewelry recently. It's been pretty exciting, and it really challenges my creativity and makes me grow and try new things, some of which I explore in more ways through my regular jewelry line. Custom work is also much harder and time intensive. I'm fortunate in that I work very quickly, but there are a lot of decisions and waiting for e-mails back and forth, and waiting for supplies to arrive. In the last few days, I have been taking a new custom client almost every other day. I'm able to get it done so far, but soon I'm going to have to start asking myself how much is too much, for my workload and for my stress level. I think I need to charge more. I'm not desperate for sales anymore and clearly my prices are very attractive. I've never had anyone balk at them. I may need to raise them a bit to make sure it is lucrative for me as well as my client. 

             Also exciting: Some of my jewelry has been blogged on WeddingBee.com and as soon as I was notified, I sold two pieces to a customer who referenced their site. Yay!! (I may also be doing some custom work for the bride-to-be who posted my necklace on WeddingBee.)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Designing for Myself: The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes


  Since I started my jewelry design business a little over a year ago, money and time have been tight. I don't design jewelry I wouldn't wear, and mostly, I'm absolutely in love with my designs. But I'm running a business in order to support myself and I can't really keep very much of it for my own use.  In the last few months I've made a couple repeat necklaces for myself.. from items that I am able to produce over and over, but the lovely, one of a kind pieces incorporating vintage treasures are all sold away. I can't afford to keep them in spite of the fact that they are really special to me. I always feel a pang when I sell these pieces.

  Last night, however... I made a one of a kind necklace from a vintage pansy brooch and lovely yellow beads. It was very beautiful.. and very *me*... my favorite color.. casual enough to wear every day, but still in my vintage formal style. I showed it to my husband and he agreed that it was perfectly my style and that it was a shame I could only create one necklace. As I started writing the description of the necklace for my shop... talking about how the necklace would look great with so many things... trying to decide how much I was willing to sell it for. 
Then I reached over with the mouse and deleted the listing for the necklace. This one is mine and I'm going to look fabulous. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Audiobooks


 I love my job. It's my dream job and if I have to work for a living, I can't think of anything I'd rather do. That being said, right now my job dominates my existence in a major way and gives me little down time. Also, I get really fidgety when I have to sit at my desk for long periods of time making my craft. I constantly think to myself... "Okay, just this one strand and then I'm going to check my e-mail. Or my Etsy account. Or get a glass of water.... or peer out the window.... or sing a little song to my goldfish....and *then* I'm going to get right back to work! " I probably take a break every half hour or so and my fidgeting really cuts into my productivity. I was able to get away with it during the slow summer months of vacations and barbecue holidays but now my shop is really picking up again, I have several custom clients at once right now, and customers are abandoning the cheeky bright colors of spring and summer for more sultry, rich autumn tones. 

   I have not read a book in at least 6 months. I was ashamedly lamenting this to a close friend of mine over a glass of wine. I live in a house with over 4,000 books. In my home, we display our books proudly as the family wealth. I may not have read a book in almost a year. My friend suggested I get books on CD from the library or download them from one of the many online sites created just for this purpose. It seemed like a good idea, but I would definitely not have ever followed through except that he burned some of his personal favorites onto a disc and handed it to me to take home. 


   Okay, books on cd are *awesome!* The first one I listened to was Hitchhiker's Guide as read by Douglas Adams. It was really cool to hear the author infusing the character's voices with the personality that he had originally imagined for them. I was able to sit at my desk and be extremely productive, while the time sped by in a breeze. Problem solved! I'll be going to the library later this week to check out audiobooks later this week!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Death, Introspection, Self Actualization, A Cow


I haven't posted for about a week due to a tragic freak accident in my family involving a motorcycle and a black cow crossing a dark country road. This event, and the necessary and appropriate emotions and time spent with family left me with a lot of things I felt I needed to spend some time with.

When someone dies, people take stock of what they have left. If I died today... what would I regret? Am I happy.. and is that enough? How do you measure a life? I feel a strong sense of my own mortality, and get very introspective. In this specific instance, I made some macabre cow jokes with my husband to self-medicate against the senselessness of the absurd world we live in. Inappropriate, I know. We do what we can to get by. Humans are a very adaptable species. 
At this point in my life I feel pretty ok with who I am and where I'm going. After all, it was only a little over a year ago that I found out I was losing my job and in the midst of the panic and self-doubt I realized I had wasted some years of my life and was not living my life on my terms. 
It was then that I began to redefine my values and accept that I would need to take more risks in order to do what I love. Now my goal is to stabilize and grow my own business to a level at which my husband is able to be liberated from his demanding job with long hours so that we can spend more time together and have the freedom to choose our own path. 
I know we rarely get to choose our demise... but I'd be okay with a shocking, abrupt, and completely unpredicted death by cow. It's senseless and bizarre, but no one is to blame. It's just... one of those things, and maybe.... in a few years, my death would be immortalized in family toasts. The cow was unharmed. 

Monday, July 28, 2008

My Etsyversary


Today is the one year anniversary of opening my Etsy shop. I didn't actually get a business license and start being serious until October, so this is more like the Dating anniversary than the Wedding anniversary, but still.. I think it's important to celebrate milestones and achievements. Plus, a lot has actually happened in one year. On this date last year I was still working for The Discovery Channel Store, although the last day was drawing near, and I was getting very emotionally exhausted by it and ready for new beginnings. Since then, my business has made a few transformations.. from online experiment to full time traveling craft show circuit to primarily web-based. I'm sure there are a lot more changes ahead of me and I'm excited and optimistic about being able to meet the challenges.

Also.. I got a treasury! It's like a special little present from the Etsy Gods. I decided to do an Autumn color theme to symbolize looking ahead to what's next.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Handmade Terrariums




I just wanted to add that I have a serious crush on these gorgeous terrariums by The Oak Leaves on Etsy. I wish her enormous success because I need her to have lots of them available at Christmas time because that's all I am asking for.

The Lost Art of Saving Money


Currently, we are in debt. After making the decision to start a business and thus become impoverished people.. we of course immediately had to make large purchases in the form of supplies and business necessities. And some Learning Experiences occurred involving craft festivals and the current economic climate tacked on extra debt. It's not massive debt, but a lack of self discipline has kept the debt gnawing at us.
But now it's time. Past time, in fact. The truth is, we want a house. We need a house. We don't have enough space and we're ready to move into the next stage of our lives..i.e. move to the country and live on a piece of land in a little house. I crave it so much that during my workout sessions I find myself fantasizing about herb gardens whilst doing lunges. I'm completely ready for this new life which will make me so happy.
So this week we started our action plan. We need to make and save enough money to pay our debt and have a small down payment for a house by Spring. That means living below our means and having great holiday sales. I'm now at the point in my life where I recognize that doing without things and simplifying my life in order to have the things which will make me exponentially happier.. i.e. run my own business, spend more time with my husband, private little house in the country, ability to travel. It's actually sort of exciting and I hope our new lifestyle sticks and we're able to do lots more with our money.
The funny thing is that in many ways we are actually living much better now. We're cooking lots of fresh foods at home, I'm working out more (stress reduction) and we've been working at getting rid of a lot of things we don't need in order to be more ready for when we do move. So our home is less cluttered and nicer to enjoy.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

No More Trips to the Post Office (mostly)!!


I am so excited because my shipping scale arrived in the mail yesterday! This was the final step in avoiding trips to the post office on a daily basis. I already ordered and received my free Priority Mail boxes from USPS . Now I can print postage online and schedule pick-ups to come to my house. Yay! I used to enjoy walking to the Post Office as an excuse to get out of the house but as my business is growing I find I really could use the extra 5-6 hours a week. Plus, it's going to be horrible in the winter to try and brave the weather with all of my (hopefully) bazillion holiday orders. 

Monday, July 14, 2008

Taxes and a Wacky Squirrel

 I'm  spending the day working on my Sales and Use taxes(due 4 times a year) and entering information into new  spreadsheets my husband made for me. It's going to be completely boring.

So instead I will regale you with a tale of Cute Animals.  I am frequently jolted from sleep at sunrise by the sound of my two cats hurling themselves at the bedroom window and howling in rage and frustration at a squirrel who comes and sits in the window taunting them. If it weren't 5 a.m., it would be hilarious and adorable to see how the squirrel parades back and forth clicking and chattering at the cats. It still is a little cute... but if you were wondering...attempts at covering the window have been torn down by my cats in their enthusiasm for teaching the squirrel to mind it's manners. 

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Consigning at Pink Moon


I just started consigning at Pink Moon. It's a really adorable cupcakery/gallery that sells handmade goods. My philosophy with consignment is to never accept a contract I'm not happy with, insist on good communication, and be willing to try different places and see what works. It's an experiment. 

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Getting Yourself Out There


Okay, so you've come up with the most amazing Thing since sliced bread. It's better than sliced bread, even. You thoughtfully priced out your Thing, worked really hard on making it perfect, and now you are literally up to your armpits in Things because any minute people will be breaking down the door to get your Thing. So where is everyone? 

Promoting is one of the most important and most overlooked aspects of running a successful business. No one will know about your awesome Thing if you don't tell them about it. Repeatedly. I spend almost as much time promoting as creating. I spend hours looking for new places to expose people to my product. There is no secret recipe for promotion success. We all have to figure out what works best for our own business style and target customer base. But taking calculated risks and trying new things is key. 

Free Exposure

Get a page on Myspace, add your etsy mini, and start searching for your target customer base, then friend them. Also a good way to update them on new product sales etc.


You can start a Fanpage for your business without having to open a new account. People can become fans and then your Fanpage shows up on their profile too. 

Describe your items on Base and they will appear in Google Search if searchers type in matching results. 

Free advertising, but don't put a direct link to your e-commerce site or it will be removed.


Build a mini-page about your product and connect it with others.

Put photos of your product on Flickr and join photosharing grups. Don't put a link to your e-commerce site anywhere except in your profile.

Blogging

A juried site which is great for finding wholesale contacts.

A fashion site that allows you to publicly display your favorite fashion picks. Throw a few of your own creations in for good measure! 

Paid Exposure



Ad Space on Websites, Online Newsletters and Catalogs which are read by your target Customer Base

Online Selling Sites
Set up shop in more than one place to gain more exposure.
Some popular handmade selling venues include:

Promoting Locally

Look into selling via wholesale or consignment in local shops. Make sure you understand the contract and come to a fair agreement on your terms. 

Participate in festivals and community events.

Having home parties works for some people. 

Donate to Silent Auctions

Network with other small business owners in your area. Are there ways in which you can cross-promote?


I know there are thousands of other great ideas for promoting your business! Free free to add them in the comments.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Working on Vacation


My husband is off work for vacation time this week. It's really nice to spend more time together, but it's also tough because I'm *not* on vacation. Business is as usual at Damselle. Besides the usual making jewelry, updating my shop, going to the post office and promoting myself through the usual sites (by the way, one of my style picks is #1 in popularity on Stylehive right now) I also am meeting with a shop owner about doing consignment this week and working on a very high end custom piece.
It's a little hard to concentrate on work when I keep thinking of all the fun things I'd like to be doing. My husband has read 3 books so far since Sunday, waiting around for me to get done with everything so we can spend time together in the evenings.

I don't mean to complain. I knew running a business means hard work and sacrifice. I have start-up debt to pay off and it presses me like a weight. My goal is to be able to pay it all off by the end of the holiday season. And then take an inexpensive but well deserved vacation *with* my husband in January.

Back to work!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Another Custom Bridal Necklace


I'm designing another custom bridal necklace, which is fun and exciting, but also nerve wracking because it can be difficult to figure out exactly what the client is envisioning and make it happen. I frequently use my Flickr account to take photos and write explanations of the materials and the process, so that my customer can be involved and there won't be any surprises. This time I'm taking it a step further and I actually made a mock-up of the necklace. The strands of pearls are just held in the back with clamps but I think it really helps to see the design and ask the customer what they like and wish to change. Better now than once everything is strung together and finished!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Red White and Boom!


Columbus' official Independence Day celebration called "Red White and Boom" is today. Columbus frequently schedules it's holiday events on the wrong day, so that all the surrounding areas can have their smaller celebrations on the correct day and still attend the big Columbus event. Which is convenient, I suppose, but to me it's just not very festive. (side note... why the heck am I typing at the computer with my safety goggles on? I forgot about them!)

Anyways. So today I'm only working a half day because I'm going to see the fireworks tonight. I have to bring something delicious to share with everyone. Which is A Problem because my cooking skills aren't too hot, and there are other people attending who are Kitchen Wizards. I've decided to make Fake It Wonderful Blackberry Brownies.

Here's the recipe:
Buy Duncan Hines' Oven Ready Brownies. They're in the freezer section.
Buy Frozen Blackberries
Follow the instructions on the Brownies.
Microwave the Blackberries in a bowl for two minutes to defrost.
15 minutes into the brownies' cooking time, put the blackberries on top of the brownies and sprinkle liberally with sugar.
Let cool and enjoy! Everyone will think you're a genius.

The only problem so far is that the plastic tray the brownies are in is melting to the cookie sheet. Crap. I followed the instructions perfectly. I'm going to continue with the oven at a slightly lower temp and hope the tray will peel off the cookie sheet once it's cooled.


On a side note- Thanks bunches to LuluVillage for saying nice things about my shop in her blog!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Dawanda

I started my online shop on Dawanda today. Dawanda is an online handmade seller's community similar to Etsy but geared towards Europeans. I know Etsy has been good to me, but I'd like to have my eggs in more than one basket and find more ways to expose my product to more people. I figure if I start now, I'll know the ropes of Dawanda and be established by the Holiday Season.
On a side note... I tend to have some sort of self-confidence issue with my pricing (which I think a lot of artists struggle with) I try to choose wisely with my materials so that I can make items which are affordable to a person like myself. Which is good. *However* I also sometimes make pieces which are more difficult to make and more high end, and that's where I wrestle with myself over pricing. Like for instance this Baby's Breath Necklace. After cajoling from my husband about undervaluing myself, I listed it at $80.00. And it sold in 3 days! Lesson Learned. Hopefully.


Monday, June 30, 2008

My Favorite Pizza Recipe


Running a business turns you into a thrifty person. Especially in this economical climate. My husband and I cook a lot more, and buy in bulk now. Which is really not our style. I'm a horrible cook. But one thing I do love to make (and make weekly!) is home made pizza! We make it Neopolitan Style and just dump the ingredients into our bread machine. (The secret is the cake flour!)



1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil for the bowl

Turn your oven up all the way and pre-bake the crust and sauce for a few minutes before adding your toppings. We usually make a fresh tomato sauce in the blender. Super Easy! Or we have a white pizza and sprinkle it with red pepper flakes! Mmmmm.
Today I'm having the leftover dough from last night as a mini pizza with leftover blender sauce, mozzarella, and fresh cilantro. Cilantro is my favorite.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Wedding Season!







Last week was a good week for reminiscing about weddings for me. Besides celebrating my own wedding anniversary on the 19th, I have two necklaces going down the aisle on the necks of blushing brides. How exciting! I'd like to do more wedding orders, because it would be easy for me to make duplicate or similar jewelry for an entire bridal party.

My own wedding was a handmade affair, partially because I'm extremely picky and wanted everything to be my exact vision, and partially because we didn't have $27,000 to spend on a party. We rented a bed and breakfast in the country with a beautiful extensive garden. Everything was handmade from the wedding dress, the flowers arrangements, the invitations, down to the paper cranes folded by the wedding guests which still grace our home for good luck and fond memories of our perfect wedding celebration.




Thursday, June 26, 2008

What do you do to increase your productivity?

In order to get into some good business habits, I'm going to work on increasing my productivity. What I really need is a studio with a door that can be closed to shut out the computer, the world, and this little helper in the photo. That isn't possible yet so I came up with some other solutions. My action plan includes
  • Using a timer to control my time online. Promoting is good but I can get really sucked in.

  • Getting up, exercising, showering, getting dressed right away instead of staying in my p.j.'s until I go to the Post Office.

  • Making duplicate items in batches, which will be faster and I can stay in my routine, plus I won't have to pull the supplies out multiple times.

Other great suggestions from the Etsy community included
  • Using Flock browser so you can handle your RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, e-mails etc. all at once

  • Keeping your promoting and your creating separate. I.E. promoting during the day and creating at night when things are quieter.

  • Keep great records so that you know exactly where you are in terms of profit and loss, supplies, sales trends ect. Then you know exactly where you need to be focusing.

  • Create a daily Must Do list that incorporates both housework and business goals. Plan your week and your goals in advance.

Meet My New Boss


In spite of the fact that I'm a pretty driven person, left to my own devices I have a tendency to use my time in a less than efficient manner. Especially when it comes to the internet. I like to stay current with my web site views, who's added me to their favorites, check the e-mail... read the forums.....okay. Maybe it's an obsession. Maybe I check these things constantly... re-loading the page over and over after I've just added a new item to my shop... hungry for the approval and views of my customers....

So I realize I have this problem. And especially now, when I'm getting my shop in shape for the holiday season (i.e. have added lots more tasks to my workload) I need to address it and build better habits for the future.

So meet my new boss!
The super annoying clicking countdown and shrill alarm will definitely keep my mind on getting the job done. I'm going to budget my time while having my tea in the morning and then try to stick to the budget as much as possible.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Quitting my Day Job...Again


I realized that I really needed to get a part time job to help bring in a little extra money and ease the stress of building my business. It takes a lot of time to build up a following and I was a little naive... or a little over confident? It will happen for me. It's happening right now! But anyway... I got a job from February through June part time hostessing in a restaurant in my neighborhood. This gave me time to start to build up my customer base and experiment with different ways to promote.

I'll talk about promoting a little bit later. It's super important even though you may not see results right away and feel like giving up.

But now my sales are at a point where I can make more money by focusing on and influencing my sales than by spending time at my part time job.

The Backstory


Here are the lost posts which include the dramatic events of me struggling with the ugly reality of how hard it is to begin to build a business.





an update on Damselle and my life in general

I have a lot of friends who are important to me even though I don't talkt o them every day...or month...and I thought I'd start a blog so I can communicate on certain things which are happening without having to relay the info over and over, and most likely forgeting some people.

So recently, witin the last 6 months, I started selling my handmade jewelry collection on etsy.com , and after our trip to Boston, Jason and I felt pretty bad about not having it together with our goals, like we were wasting our lives focusing on the teahouse and not getting anywhere, when in the big picture we really just wanted to work for ourselves, spend more time together, and live a more deliberate and meaningful existence. So when we got back, we decided to take more risks in order to get back on track with what we really want to do with our lives. Our first experiment was the antique mall, which does okay and provides us with a little more cash to work with in our budget, but isn't going to support anyone on it's own. We like being antique dealers though. It makes us more interesting.

I started selling my jewelry at sparrowfish on high street, and was getting generally good feedback from everyone I showed my collection to. Around that time, The Bombay Company anounced they were closing, so I decided to take the plunge and start doing jewelry making full time. I lined up craft shows for every weekend through the holidays, and my last day of employment at Bombay was last thursday.

I had my first show yesterday in Cinncinatti. It was from 9-4 at Sycamore High School. (yeah.. all the really big shows book 6 months in advance) I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially since it was a high school, but the show was actually pretty big. I was pleased because I think I made really good choices with my displays and my signage, and looked very striking and professional in general. I do have to figure out something to make my banner more rigid. I was also really happy that I took the step to facilitate credit card transactions, because that really drove our business. (jason worked the show with me) One thing that did impair our sales was the fact that all the jewelry merchants were lined up along one wall. What a bad decision! In general, I got really good feedback from everyone, with the most constant comment being that my jewelry was completely different from everything else being offered at the show. One weird thing that everyone wanted was matching earring/necklace sets. Every time I had earrings to match a necklace, they automatically bought both. I'm going to have to make sure I take more advantage of that. I was also told that I would do really well at the high end juried shows, which was good because I was concerned about whether I was ready for that or not. I ended up doing about $700, which would have been higher if I wasn't part of Jewelry Row, but still not bad for 7 hours at a high school. I was really excited when I got home, because I had two more sales on my website from people who had been at the craft show the same day, and 8 people from the show had added me to their favorite merchants on etsy. I wasn't counting on having that much of an impact on my web sales from a show. I also talked to some people at the show about doing consignment. So yay.

Today I'm spending time updating my etsy page since it's going to be more important than expected, and trying to organize my stuff, which is a complete disaster right now. I have a two day show in lancaster next Friday and Saturday. And that's that. Hopefully I won't have to take up waitressing in January, if i'm willing to work hard enough. we'll see.

Fighting Depression and The Man.

First of all, if anyone actually reads this you might notice that I had to move all my old blogs because hotblog is shutting down. How irritating.

Don’t read this if you are considering starting your own business.

Also, you might have noticed that I haven’t really been seeing anyone or returning anyone’s calls or generally being a decent human being. sorry. Things haven’t been so great for me recently. It’s hard for me to talk about it because i have a tendency to want to breeze over these sorts of issues in my life and… honestly I don’t like for people to see me struggle. But I’m going to go ahead and tell you what’s been going on so that I’m forced to do better. It would be totally humiliating for me to anounce that I had some really rough things to work through and then not actually be able to come out on top.

So anyway. Damselle isn’t supporting me and I’ve run up some debt trying to make it float. Which isn’t really surprising except that I really *wanted* things to go differently. I guess I’ll just have to work hard like everyone else. My stress and Jason’s stress has caused a lot of problems in our relationship, and I’ve been downright depressed. *really depressed*. It’s been pretty ugly. We came up with a plan over the summer for how we were going to take the plunge and do the things we loved, and then.... when it appears that you can’t actually do those things… what then? We’ve been stumbling around in a numb and miserable stupor with our hearts broken and without a plan.

I’m trying to rally though. I feel pretty fiercely about my jewelry designs, and I live and die by the amazing feedback I get from the people who are actually buying my jewelry. A huge percentage of them are repeat customers. Most people who buy jewelry from me buy multiple items. I had a woman who purchased a piece last week and as soon as she received it today she went online and bought another necklace from me. She told me she’s addicted. This sort of strong customer loyalty makes me think “wait.. I can’t give up on this, somebody thinks I have talent. I have value to somebody!”

And the idea of being a leader is also important to me. I need to be personally responsible for the choices I make. Being a small business owner, instilling the value of buying handmade items from real people who spend a lot of time and skill making a product in a way which is positive for the community and the environment. If you want to change the world, start a business.

I don’t even know if I’m being stupid and completely denying the fact that I’m not successful, in a situation where I need to cut my losses and move on. But I’m really angry about the idea of being defeated by the evil corporate consumerism rotten dreamless wal-mart infested world.

So I’m trying to pull it together. I’m still probably going to have to get a full-time job.. which I don’t even want to think about right now, despite the fact that Jason will be really frustrated if I don’t find one soon… I’ve spent lots and lots of hours doing social networking trying to build my business. Which is the advice that all the successful businesses have given me.

Here are the links to some of my sites

Please click here to go directly to my storefront!
My Etsy Shop

Please click here to become my friend on Myspace!
Damselle Myspace Page

Damselle Squidoo Lense

and my screen name on flickr is damselle.

so we’ll see. i dunno.

An Update on Damselle That Is Nicer to Read


So I definitely knew going into the “after Christmas” season that things would be slow. And they were really slow. And I totally freaked out because I’m investing so much time and money and belief in the world being a good place. Things were not so good.

However, I’ve been working very, very hard and things are picking up. I had a show at the Cincinnati Museum Center last weekend which was a very positive ($$) experience for me. My ad campaign has also been highly effective. I have a target amount of money I need to make in a week in order for Damselle to be my only job. Between the show and the money my ad campaign brought in the door at Etsy, I actually made the target last week. And it’s still February. And I’m still learning. And my business is still growing.

I plan on getting a part time job to help pay off my debt and take some of the “performance pressure” off of Damselle. But I feel fairly confident that I will get Damselle to a place where it can be my only job.

Also, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. Jason and I went to see a performance by them at the Southern Theater last week and were absolutely moved to tears by a horn solo. Check them out. They’re something special. We’ll probably donate money to them this year.

I can’t wait for spring, how about you?