Happy Wednesday! :)

I have to say I have been quite productive lately - this week I started listing my Prehistoric jewellery online, and I realised that I didn't have a great deal of it....so I made more! LOL!  Actually the thing which irritates me the most about all this is taking photos.  It so annoying when I take lots of photos of one necklace only to find out that they are ALL blurred and I have to take them all over again....!! I think it was too dark though, I did that last night, late afternoon after the sun had made its way around the garden :)

Anyhoo, I now have 21 followers, and of course I would LOVE some more!  I have sent messages to LIKE my Facebook Page to pretty much ALL of my friends on Facebook and I know only a handful have done so.  I'm not sure when to send them out again....I don't want to spam everyone!  Of course, there may be the odd chance that nobody can be bothered.

But hey, it's early days yet, I've only been going for 2 weeks, and the other thing I have been doing is looking at statistics of how often I have visitors and when.  Quite useful - at the moment I have discovered that Thursday and weekends are fairly quiet days.  Weekends - possibly because I don't list anything then, but I have no idea about Thursdays.  Ialso found it interesting that as I promoted my jewellery online I was still getting quite a few visits.

Last weekend I wasn't able to do much as I was in Cambridgeshire watching my brother take his vintage biplane flight (woohoo!) and on Saturday I was in London at Proms in the Park (again - woohoo!) and didn't get back until Sunday late afternoon.  It was still useful to find out how visits drop during the time when I am not listing or promoting!

Also, my website has finally corrected itself! It is www.wix.com/gemstone_orchid/portfolio
I have added my Twitter feed on the right hand side twitter.com/GemstoneOrchid
But unfortunately I can't find a widget for my Facebook Page so I'll put it here:
Gemstone Orchid Facebook Page

See you later! :)
Siobhan xx

Here we go!

Hi everyone :)

So my store is up and running, and I have added a little Etsy widget on thi sblog here, it should be on the right hand side there.  on September 1st and 2nd I uploaded several items of jewellery, and I have continued this since Monday 5th September.

I have been tweeting and posting messages on my Facebook page.  I only have 11 followers at the moment, yet I have sent requests to many more than that....but I won't be deterred!  I will continue selling.

I haven't had any sales yet, but it really is early days.  I went on a few forums on Etsy and asked someone in the States to tell me if they thought my jewellery is too pricey, and she thought it was just a little too pricey.  I have brough down prices of earrings and bracelets, but not the necklaces yet.  I'm asking a couple of other people I know in the States to get their opinion.  Its really hard when you start thinking about prices which are reasonable in the UK, but when you convert them to US, Canadian or even Australian $$, it's hard to know whether it's a reasonable price for them too, or too much.  Perhaps I shouldn't be thinking this way?  Perhaps I should be pricing things at what I think is a decent UK price, and not think about how an American would see it?  I have no idea, I'm still very new to this!

Anyway, I need to find a widget or something to put on this blog, which connects to my Facebook and / or Twitter page.  I shall investigate this later on, so watch out for it!

In the meantime I have made absolutely NO more jewellery LOL!  I have been concentrating on listing my items, and so far all the Egyptian / Middle Eastern pieces are up.  Today I decided to plug seperate pieces on Facebook and Twitter every 30 mins.  I didn't think this was too invasive of me, and I have kept an eye on my Etsy shop stats and Google Analytics, which both come up with similar numbers but different useful and sometimes random information.  For example, most people who have visited my Etsy store in the UK are in Liverpool, and most in the US from California!

I will be looking into joining a forum or two soon, and I will be uploading prehistoric inspired jewellery next I think.  I'm putting up my best pieces of jewellery - which I think are the Roman, Greek, Tudor and Victorian pieces - last and nearer to Christmas.  I really like a lot of my jewellery and I really hope it starts selling soon.  I think I just have to work on my networking, and perhaps when Etsy have another live critique session, I might join in to find out several opinions.

The website it up, but there is a problem with the url which appears in Google searches.  It turns out that Google crawled my website before I even uploaded it, but why it's got a different name I have no idea.  The good thing is that the link works, as does the url, wierdly, as well as the real url which also appears at the top of the web browser either way.

Did I mention my business cards?  They are BRILLIANT!  And because I reported to MOO that there were 22 cards which were mis printed, they are sending me 100 more business cards for FREE!!  How cool is that?!

Anyhoo, I must have a look at widgets so I can add things to my blog so everything is linked up.  Sorry for the rambling! :)  I have a busy weekend ahead too, I'm seeing Lee Evans in Nottingham tomorrow night, going to see my brother take his vintage bi-plane flight on Friday (weather permitting) then gatecrashing my boyfriend's parents house for tea and cake afterwards.  On Saturday I'm going to Hyde Park for the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday, and coming home on Sunday.  Perhaps I will wear a noticeable necklace in the hope of getting comments so I can distribute business cards...... ! :)

Siobhan xx

Gemstone Orchid is on Etsy!

Yesterday I finally went LIVE with my launch of my Etsy store here at www.orchids.etsy.com!  Hooray!  I have been making quite good progress listing my items up gradually throughout the day, and I also managed to make one treasury which has great comments and as a result I have been starting on a little Etsy network!  How exciting!

I have been Tweeting and posting messages on my Facebook page, and this afternoon I will be letting more people know about the Facebook Page.  I have a few followers on Twitter but I hope to increase that number soon.  I think it all has something to do with hashtags and trends, I have been looking to see who I can follow.  The main thing to know about folowing people on Twitter is that you can lose your account if you follow people aggressively - if you follow 50 people in one go.  Not good!  Yesterday I think I followed around 8 people and 4 of them followed back which I think is about average.

I'll be adding a widget to my blog if I can too.....and the Website is ready but there is a problem.  Well, it's Google's problem....basically, when I searched for my website on Google, it came up and worked but the URL was totally wrong and I need that to change to what it actually is before I make the website live.  I don't really want people getting confused with the URL, so I might have to wait another month before Google updates it.  I'm not too fussed about that as Etsy is my main concern :)

There are still lots of things to do of course, tweaks here and there, but I think everything is going as I want it to.  I have even had my mini cards delivered which I love, from www.moo.com and 22 out of 200 of the cards had been misprinted - the image was crokked on the card - so I let MOO know and you know what they did?  They're sending me 100 more cards for FREE!!!  I love MOO!! :D  They are brilliant!

Ok, gotta run, I have jewellery to list in my online store!

Siobhan xx

Almost ready!

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..... :)

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

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

London Jewellery School Business Day Class

Ok, so yesterday I went to a Business Day Class at the London Jewellery School!  And the first thing I will say is that I can definately recomment it to anyone who is thinking about starting a Jewellery Business.

For me, I kind of knew half the stuff which we talked about as I have been reading up and researching this for a few months now - things like PR, Advertising and Marketing stuffm Packaging, Pricing jewellery, IT, Websites, Networking and Craft shows.  But there were also very useful nuggets of information which will definately come in use for me, as I feel there are always at least a few things which aren't ALWAYS mentioned in books and other websites which have this sort of information on.

What was also very useful for me was the first part where we focused on our strengths and weaknesses, VERY useful information about hallmarking, how to get into galleries and shops and what to expect when you do decide to try, including the legal side of things and how to draw up an order form and a document of "Terms of Trade" which can be used as a legally binding document.  I also found it VERY useful to find out abou legal requirements and insurance stuff - this bit usually fills my head with candy floss and I get very confused....I swear all this legal stuff is purposefully made to be hard to understand to prevent people from wanting to run their own business!  Seriously - some of this stuff is enough to put some people off even starting...!!

Anyway, the best things about this class was that it was small - only 8 other people were in the group, which meant that the entire days' discussions could be focused on what WE wanted to know and learn. Like me, with all the legal stuff, and others who wanted to know more about being at craft shows, selling to galleries and doing commissions.  I also felt that the entire class was quite informal, fun, and it was nice to be with other people who had the same sort of interests and ambitions, and that our ideas were so different from one anothers.  It was a really good place to share ideas, advice and knowledge, and I have to say the teacher was very approachable and experienced in running a business herself - I always find it better for someone experienced to teach something that they know a lot about, rather than having a list of stuff and a random person just talking at you all day.

Sorry there are no photos in this post, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the Jewellery Business Day at the London Jewellery School, I recommend it to anyone who is thinking of starting a jewellery business, and it has got me thinking of several things which I need to look at before I even start selling my jewellery...!!  Hopefully we're all going to keep in contact and share our shops and websites - I'm afraid I only have my blog to offer at the moment as my website is not ready, and neither is my shop!  I will be ready in the middle - end of August which isn't too far away, but I will be blogging when everything is up and running, I promise :)

With the website, I have to re-arrange a few things and put my photos up, and I need to wait for my business cards which - I know I took all those photos in time for the 30% discount but it turns out that there is something which I put on the cards which at the Business Day Class we were advised not to do....!!  I have contacted the company to find out if I can cancel and start over - and that's another thing: I need to amend my business card design!

So there are a few things I need to do before launching this business of mine, but I will get there in the end!