Again, no photos so sorry about that......
But things are going quite well. Fortunately I haven't got a great deal to do. I say fortunately because of this cat saga which is happening at the moment - this last weekend, everything jewellery related totally stopped so we could take care of this cat. I just could not do anything jewellery rtelated for 2 days last week because of it, I had no concentration, I couldn't sleep. It's fine now, but hopefully she won't be in the cattery for too long. We'd gladly have her here but I am allergic. Every time I go to see her or take her to the vets I have to take my meds. Hopefully it will al be sorted out soon.
Anyway, back to the jewellery! I have completed my website and I have actually published it, but with hiding pages and a big message saying "UNDER CONSTRUCTION". This is because I wanted to make sure of the web address so I could put it on my business cards - which I have ordered now. And they will be fine because I haven't put the address on, I have put my etsy store, website and email.
This weekend I'm going to Oxford with my boyfriend from Friday - Monday and after that I will have 2 days to prepare myself to go live with selling jewellery on September 1st! It's quite exciting and daunting at the same time. But as I have said all along, I am not expecting loads of sales right away. I have plans to manage my time each day so I am promoting on Facebook and Twitter (hopefully I have this "selective tweets" business sussed), whilst making 1 or 2 pieces of ne jewellery per week. In the meantime I will be putting one new item up every 2 hours in my Etsy store, and after the first couple of days I will actually tell people about my Facebook Page, Twitter, and website. The reason for the delay is purely because I don't like the idea of telling people about it all before I've put much up for sale, otherwise I get the feeling people will go there, see about 4 items of jewellery, and leave. I need to have at least 10 items up before I make everything official to everybody I know :)
Also there is a possibility that I might be going back to archaeology - temporarily!! There is a site coming up (they think) which they are willing to take me on as paid staff because of my specialist skills which would be very welcome on this site. I said yes of course...although it will mean making selling my jewellery alot more difficult, and I won't be able to make much except at weekends. I could still market it via Twitter on my mobile, or I could get one of those little laptops...those mini ones. I love them! But I have never needed one. I probably wouldn't want to bring it onto site actually, it would most likely get scratched or dirty. Anyway, I guess that will probably be another challenge, but it will get me a bit of money coming in too. Perhaps that could mean spending longer concentrating on selling jewellery after it's finished? :)
What I have to try and to this afternoon is to try and give my jewellery names - it's proving to be quite difficult. How many times can I say "Step back in time", "Step into the past", and call things "Egyptian Gems", "Egyptian Sunrise", "Sumerian Sands"......I'm trying not to be repetitive but I am sure there will be some repetition at least....!
I have been trying to write stories about each item too. Not sure if they will work, but I hope so. I know I'll be saying pretty much the same thing about them all, such as "made with gemstones adored and worn by ancient Egyptians", but I am assuming that if someone looks at one of my necklaces, they won't look at each and every one of them.....I don't know.
Anyway, things are going well, I'm just working on titles and descriptions so when it comes to posting them onto Etsy I won't have to sit and think too hard about them :)
Next week I think I will blog on Thursday, as it will be September 1st and my shop will be live! I hope everything works..... :)
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Just a quick blog!
Yes, I know I totally missed blogging last week....and I almost missed this week too. Well this week I have put a reminder in my mobile so it should go off every Wednesday and hopefully I'll get into regular blogging!
So, sorry but this is just a quickie, as I have plenty to do and I have a BIG distraction in the shape of a small black cat trying to get to the US from the UK...!
Anyway the jewellery is going well, I have made quite a lot and I have - for the moment - stopped making, and I have been concentrating my efforts on creating a website which is almost ready, my photos are definitely ready and I will be ordering business cards very soon. This week I have been REALLY trying to compile some good descriptions for my jewellery for Etsy. So far so good. Also planning on re-doing the business plan including a cash flow forecast which I have just got to grips with and re-doing the marketing plan. I've been quite productive today and I hope to continue being productive up until Friday afternoon, then I'll be taking a break on Saturday to visit my brother in Milton Keynes.
As I said, sorry about the quickie, but I have put a reminder in my phone to blog every Wednesday. Something is better than nothing, right? :)
Siobhan x
So, sorry but this is just a quickie, as I have plenty to do and I have a BIG distraction in the shape of a small black cat trying to get to the US from the UK...!
Anyway the jewellery is going well, I have made quite a lot and I have - for the moment - stopped making, and I have been concentrating my efforts on creating a website which is almost ready, my photos are definitely ready and I will be ordering business cards very soon. This week I have been REALLY trying to compile some good descriptions for my jewellery for Etsy. So far so good. Also planning on re-doing the business plan including a cash flow forecast which I have just got to grips with and re-doing the marketing plan. I've been quite productive today and I hope to continue being productive up until Friday afternoon, then I'll be taking a break on Saturday to visit my brother in Milton Keynes.
As I said, sorry about the quickie, but I have put a reminder in my phone to blog every Wednesday. Something is better than nothing, right? :)
Siobhan x
Friday, 5 August 2011
More creativity!
I know its late again, but here is my weekly post! :) I'll get used to it and post every Wednesday at some point. I think I might have to put a reminder in my phone or something!
This week I have made quite a few more necklaces, a handful of bracelets and quite a few earrings. Soon I will need to take proper photos of these for my ETSY store - I hope to get those done either this weekend or at the beginning of next week. I am starting to run out of supplies too, like specific headpins for example. I tried using longer headpins for a couple more pairs of earrings, but I discovered that the longer the headpin, the wider the wire, and they don't thread through my freshwater pearls!! They will have to wait. I suppose I could try and undo a couple of the other pairs and re-do them with the other headpins....I'll see about that next week!
Also, I managed to cancel my order from www.moo.com just in time - because after the Business Day class last week, we were advised not to put our postal address on business cards. I managed to get a full refund, and they just told me I will have to start from scratch to re-order. They are such a good company! I know I created stuff like a mad woman for a while JUST to get the photos for the business cards, but now it's not so much of a big deal and when I take the photos again I can take a little more time. Last time my photos on white busts came out dark, possibly because I did those at the end of the day. Some of my photos came out really well, so I will be going through all the photos I took last time and re-taking others next time, along with the new jewellery I have created.
Another thing I have to do this weekend or next week, is sort out a website. That's another thing I want to get sorted out before I create the business cards because I want to put either the website address or my facebook page address on the card. I investigated using CoffeeCup to create my own website, but it turned out that for me, I think it's far too much hassle and expense - paying for a web domain AND the amount of space you can fill online. So, I went to www.wix.com and I thought it looked pretty good - then I discovered a couple more people who I know have also used this website to create their own websites for free!
I chose a few templates and played around with them, and I have decided that I think this is the way to go for me. I only need a portfolio website to show off my stuff, with links to my ETSY store, I don't want another shop as well as ETSY, and if people are genuinely interested, they will go to ETSY and check out my stuff. It means sacrificing the opportunity to have a website which is www.MY STORE NAME.com but with wix.com, I can upgrade for a fee to buy the domain. Which I might do eventually, I'll just have to see how it goes. All I know that it's not actually worth me paying £40 - £80 a year to have my own website when I don't even know how much money I will be taking!
Anyhoo, once I have all that sorted out I think I might re-visit my marketing plan and tidy it up somewhat, and perhaps go to the Business Plan - which currently doesn't have a great deal in it at the moment. It shouldn't take me too long to sort those out because I have the basics there and I just need to update all the complicated and boring stuff! :)
Anyway, I have written far too much already, so....I shall see you next week and in the meantime, Happy Crafting everyone! :)
Siobhan x
This week I have made quite a few more necklaces, a handful of bracelets and quite a few earrings. Soon I will need to take proper photos of these for my ETSY store - I hope to get those done either this weekend or at the beginning of next week. I am starting to run out of supplies too, like specific headpins for example. I tried using longer headpins for a couple more pairs of earrings, but I discovered that the longer the headpin, the wider the wire, and they don't thread through my freshwater pearls!! They will have to wait. I suppose I could try and undo a couple of the other pairs and re-do them with the other headpins....I'll see about that next week!Also, I managed to cancel my order from www.moo.com just in time - because after the Business Day class last week, we were advised not to put our postal address on business cards. I managed to get a full refund, and they just told me I will have to start from scratch to re-order. They are such a good company! I know I created stuff like a mad woman for a while JUST to get the photos for the business cards, but now it's not so much of a big deal and when I take the photos again I can take a little more time. Last time my photos on white busts came out dark, possibly because I did those at the end of the day. Some of my photos came out really well, so I will be going through all the photos I took last time and re-taking others next time, along with the new jewellery I have created.
Another thing I have to do this weekend or next week, is sort out a website. That's another thing I want to get sorted out before I create the business cards because I want to put either the website address or my facebook page address on the card. I investigated using CoffeeCup to create my own website, but it turned out that for me, I think it's far too much hassle and expense - paying for a web domain AND the amount of space you can fill online. So, I went to www.wix.com and I thought it looked pretty good - then I discovered a couple more people who I know have also used this website to create their own websites for free!
I chose a few templates and played around with them, and I have decided that I think this is the way to go for me. I only need a portfolio website to show off my stuff, with links to my ETSY store, I don't want another shop as well as ETSY, and if people are genuinely interested, they will go to ETSY and check out my stuff. It means sacrificing the opportunity to have a website which is www.MY STORE NAME.com but with wix.com, I can upgrade for a fee to buy the domain. Which I might do eventually, I'll just have to see how it goes. All I know that it's not actually worth me paying £40 - £80 a year to have my own website when I don't even know how much money I will be taking!
Anyhoo, once I have all that sorted out I think I might re-visit my marketing plan and tidy it up somewhat, and perhaps go to the Business Plan - which currently doesn't have a great deal in it at the moment. It shouldn't take me too long to sort those out because I have the basics there and I just need to update all the complicated and boring stuff! :)
Anyway, I have written far too much already, so....I shall see you next week and in the meantime, Happy Crafting everyone! :)
Siobhan x
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