More about Etsy.  Did I mention it is a large and overwhelming site.  So much do to, so many things to fill in, lots to read.

I spent last weekend reading the Seller Handbook.  It is essentially a series of blogs full of great advice.  I made notes and then would go back to my site to up-date things, follow the advice.  Trying to find things is so hard.  There is so much on each screen and my logic again escaped me when I could't find the "Profile" page, thinking it might be with the Shop Settings.  Apparently it's not, but under the my account tab at the top.  Silly me, thinking that the profile, which is public on each page, would not be with shop settings, where everything else public is set up.  I wasted half an hour looking for it.

The Seller Handbook is a great resource for all things selling on the web.  The advice is nothing I don't already know and read elsewhere.  However, it is all in one place, and relates directly to the site.  It is also more involved and it includes the experience of others who have shops on Etsy. I really wanted to read to find out what a Treasury is and how it is set up and then what to do with it.  I haven't found out yet but I know that the majority of my product views have come from a Treasury.  I feel bad because I am on a couple of teams and haven't had much time to participate because of all the reading. Participation on the "Teams" is very important.  I think I might kicked off soon.  For someone knew to selling on-line, Etsy is a great place to go.  It has everything in one place, especially information.

I think I earlier mentioned that it was $.20 USD per item for four months.  Silly me, when I have read blogs were people complain about being nickle and dimed by Etsy.  It is $.20 per item per month, with the posting lasting four months.  I don't get that.  What is the point?  It is adding to the amount of work you have to do.  It helps you to be visible if you are constantly posting items.  If you were to post an item every few days, you would be spending the same number of days each month paying $.20.  To me it seems like a waste of time.  Pay once, pay for a long period of time, post at will.  There is enough you need to do on-line to aid in selling without having to constantly go in an pay your bill.

Etsy has its pros and cons, as with any other site, but for someone who knows very little about on-line selling, it is a great place to set up shop.

All the best for the Holiday Season.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I have been busily teaching myself bead weaving and discovered I like it more than any other beading technique I have learned so far.  I copied this necklace from a Bead and Button Magazine book with great success.  As you can see I made two versions of it, one for my daughter - a red one, and one for my friend - the black and silver one. shown below  Both were for their holiday parties this year.  What I liked about it was its elegance and how simple it was to make.

I started working with beads and a needle and thread for my bookmarks.  I wanted a tassel at the end of the bookmark that wouldn't come apart easily.  I have since discovered that I really enjoy the process.  I have always been content working with a needle and thread.  I love to quilt and cross-stitch.  This has added a new element to the needle and thread.  I have also been combining cross-stitch and beading by adding beads to my cross-stitch, mostly for my stockings right now but I am making a key chain for my son for Christmas.  What guy wants cross-stitch on his key chain.  I am planning on keeping the colours muted and the design simple.  Possibly, only his initials.

I custom made the necklaces to suit each person, their colour choices and length.  It added to the quality of the product but also the price.  One was definitely more expensive to make than the other.  When doing custom orders, this should always be considered when pricing. Changes in length can add more to your material costs and the length of time it takes you to make the item.  Offering custom orders is worth the extra effort as customer satisfaction is higher.  You also get another collaborator. I would not have selected the colours that my daughter did but it really worked for her.

Last week was my big week for sales.  I had three through one site and two custom orders.  One of the custom orders was the black and silver necklace, the other was a Christmas Stocking.  Click here to see the stocking on my iCraft site https://icraft.ca/member_product_detail.php?fmRecKey=28730&fmReturnBack=https%3A%2F%2Ficraft.ca%2Fmember_products.php  It was all enough to keep me busy along with work.

I have also had a request for a private quilting lesson and asked to see if I can finish some partially made jewellery.  Looks like I am going to be a busy crafter.

With the holiday season upon us, I am going to take the time to make for my family and friends.  I am dismayed to say I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards.  They go in the mail on Monday but I don't think they will be delivered on time.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Holiday Season


Happy Crafing
CraftyLady Liz

I received an e-mail from PayPal the other day that my account was going to be suspended because of too many unsuccessful attempts to log in.  It gave me a link to click to log in and up-date my password.  I decided the best thing to do would be to log into PayPal separately.  I didn't trust the e-mail.  I wonder why, since I have not been able to find it again.

However, I did change my password and my security questions for further security.  I really wonder what my strange e-mails had from the oceanographer had to do with this.  All I know is that I feel safer now that my account cannot be compromised easily.

There has been a lot in the media recently about internet security and it cannot be taken lightly, even if you have a series of passwords that you use for the various places you need to log into.  For simplicity sake, it is so easy to just use a series of passwords over and over again, but it doesn't take much.  My daughter recently had herself locked out of her Google e-mail account in an attempt to get her passwords.  Thankfully, she is pretty determined and was able to wrestle control back after a couple of attempts by the other party and protect everything but I suspect that this was an attempt at PayPal as well.

The other scam I realized I was hit with was a phone call from someone, I don't even remember who it was or where they were calling from even though I asked again after they identified themselves.  The service they were offering was to be given access to my computer and they would go in and see if there was anything wrong with my computer and fix it.  I was stunned, and asked more than once:  "You really want me to give you access to my computer".  They were deadly serious.  I found out later that this was a scam.  They would be given access and go in and crash the computer and then you had to pay them to fix it.  Needless to say, I didn't give them access to my computer and only found out later it was a scam.

Both of my two experiences really showed me how good these people can be.  Both the phone call and the e-mail were deadly serious and had a very good and believable story.  I just am so skeptical that I don't believe much that people say and so didn't get caught.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or not but I think it saved me in both instances.

I can't stress the importance of having a secure password for your PayPal account or account for any site you buy from or sell from.  Change the password regularly and your security questions as well.  I am lucky to have a Blackberry with a password keeper in it so that I can store the password there or I wouldn't remember them most of the time; and that is the big problem with changing your passwords and security questions, remembering the passwords or answers.  Finding a secure place to put them is difficult, and as my daughter had her e-mail compromised, that is not a good place.

Happy and Safe Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I am busily working on-line today, my normal Sunday morning.  I try to get up fairly early to start work, and spend most of my day on-line, drumming up business.  It occurred to me today that I was beginning to find my balance.  Between reviewing sites and blogs, I started the laundry and tidied the kitchen.

I talked to my daughter about balance awhile ago, and she told me that for the entrepreneur, there is no balance.  I began thinking about that and decided that there had to be some sort of balance or the business wouldn't work.

I asked myself some basic questions:

What did I need
What time did I have
Who am I and how do I work
What were the priority of the needs.

It was a good place to start and I found that had to include personal needs as well as business needs.  The other thing I realized was that I should concentrate one one or two needs at a time.

I work is a busy college in Ontario coordinating the academic records area.  This encompasses a lot of different things from transcripts to graduation.  In my day to day work I see a lot of needs analysis and had to put the concept in to practice when staffing was short or changes elsewhere had an impact on our jobs.

I approached my business in the same way.  I took my business needs down to a basic level which also became my priority list

I need:

• To craft - this is my most basic need and is both business and personal.
• To sell

Who am I and how do I work:

• I am easily bored
• I can be incredibly focused  when engaged
• I am very detail oriented
• I demand the best from myself
• I am solitary

What time do I have:

• I have two days on the weekend
• I have about two hours each evening
• I have one hour for lunch
• I have a half an hour before I start work.

I set a schedule and wrote procedures - it was that simple.  I limited the tasks to less time than the scheduled allowed and did not overlap tasks within the schedule.  In other words, the same time of the day, regardless of the day, I do the same thing, and I kept a time sheet.  Each day before work, I focus on up-dating a website to enhance visibility.  I discovered that I could make some improvements to the site that generated visibility, by taking an analysis of the site and making targeted changes.  A quick spreadsheet (including calculations) of my products, the views I received, helped me to see what was being viewed, and how often.  I now had a target of what needed to be up-dated or enhanced.  I also keep a list beside me when I am doing the up-dates, of what products should have improved photographs, to help me keep track of what I need to do in the future.

I decided that I would spend all day Saturday crafting, whatever I wanted.  No schedule, no task list, I just craft.  The result has been two custom orders, one of which will appear for sale in the future.  I keep paper beside me for design ideas, as well as having at least two additional projects on the table that I don't necessarily work on but let ideas perk through as I am working.

I discovered that little I scheduled could be done at lunch during the week.  That time was for me will only do work on my business on a whim.

I constantly keep track of how much time it takes me to do something so that I can estimate how many hours I will need to complete a project.  I was able to complete a custom order this week in two evenings, and deliver it to the customer on time.  Keeping track of your time is important.  I was able to work stress free and come up with the finished product with time to spare.

I give up my Sundays to on-line work, search engine optimization, website maintenance, and analysis of the weeks efforts.  There are days I start and 7 am and end at 7 pm but it is worth it.

Knowing that I get bored easily means that I will have up to 7 sites open at the same time, bouncing back and forth between them, posting, analyzing and improving.  I write a lot of my blogs, and save them in draft for future posting, read blogs I am interested in and post responses when something catches my interest.  I look for craft shows, I add to forums, and gain and pass on knowledge.  In between, I take care of the personal side, doing laundry, dishes, tidying, cleaning, when I need to think of what I want to write.  I rarely get bored now.

I now create a meal plan for the week and double up the cooking in the evenings where possible.  What can be cooked ahead of time goes into the fridge and freezer, and I when I bake I double up on everything.

As I become more proficient at something and am able to reduce the time it takes, I add other things into the mix, and stop worrying.  I took the time to organize my computer, especially my bookmarks, to find things easier.  If I find a site that interests me, I will bookmark it under on-line leads for something to go back to.  I have found lately that I have extra time on Sundays to craft as well, although I think that I will turn this time into further research time and planning for craft shows.

Take the time to do the needs analysis.  If you think of something that will assist you, determine the expense, or the time it will take, and factor that into what your next step will be.  Sometimes, it is the little things that we keep putting off that will help us the most.  I realized that the the small portable external jump drive I wanted would really be better than the the large portable external drive that I hate carrying around for storing key data for when I was not at home.  I now do the occasional data analysis at lunch.  I just have to figure out how to transfer the data from one portable drive to the other on the ancient lap top that I have.

I used my ability to focus when engaged to accomplish this.

I would love to here about what you have done to help you achieve your balance as an entrepreneur.

Happy Crafting

Crafty Lady Liz

I have been a busy little crafter lately.  What I have been making is for gifts, mostly for my daughter.  I really want to show off what I have been making but my problem is that the connector to link my camera to my computer is broken and the only way to up-load the pictures right now is by taking the memory card out.  My laptop doesn't allow for that but my daughter's does.  So, I can't post any pictures until after Christmas or she will see the gifts ahead of time.

I have been working on a necklace for her for her Holiday party.  I will try to get that one up soon, as it turned out nicely, even if I had to make it twice.  I am hoping that someone at work has a laptop that will take my memory card so that I can up-load that way.

For now, check out my store at Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/elizanne1?ref=si_shop  It's not much yet.  I haven't even come up with a name or banner yet, although I have some ideas perking in my crafty brain.

My third attempt at Facebook ads were a little more successful, especially when what I want to increase my web presence, more than make a sale.  I received a lot more views on my site from the ad but my bounce rate was not great and the number of pages viewed was pretty low.  What I am really trying to do is determine how well I have set up my site, and are people going to look at it.  It looks like I found out my answers.


There are lots of things that can be done with hyperlinks, and how you can direct potential customers.  This time I directed prospective customers to a particular place on my site, based on the ad, rather than just my site alone.  For instance, I will open a specific Valentine's Day page on my site in January or I will create a catalogue category for Valentines day alone and move product there and the ad for Valentine's day will go to this page directly.  

Using any on-line site to promote your product takes a lot of reading and researching.  I have been into a craft forum which is very helpful.  It is a great place to ask questions.  It is also a great place to find products.  http://www.craftster.org/ is a great place to find answers.  As a crafter, become a member and you are able to post, and can ask questions.  I have been following a great discussion about Facebook, and have been able to add my insight from what I have learned using Facebook Ads.

I asked people through Craftster what they think of my site and took their suggestions to heart and made some changes to how things were organized.  I don't think that I am done, there are still some changes I want to make, but the Facebook Ad has confirmed that what I did do has been effective.  I also think that as I understand more about the Facebook Ads the better the bounce rate is.  I will make the further changes, and then test again using the ads to see how it is doing.  I will also start a thread on Craftster for those of us that have asked for advice, to have people go back in and up-date their opinion or critique our changes.

The biggest problem I have with using Facebook Ads, or any on-line advertising site or crafter mall is fitting my product into a category for searches or target market.  I find them restrictive.  For instance, I have bookmarks that are made with ribbon or wire and one site only offers bookmarks under paper products.  I am often not sure if I am hitting my target based on categories available.  Part of this is probably my logic, I am not following the logic of the site, or the customer, to find what they or I want.

I seem to be rambling today, yet everything seems to be interlinked, Craftster, asking questions, up-dating my site, Facebook Ads, testing the response, and hitting my target when testing.  They all swirl around the issue of research.  As a beginner in the world of selling crafts on-line, I don't have a lot of money to spend on professionals who can help with marketing, so its all up to me, and what tracking tools are at my disposal to determine the success.

I will definitely go into this topic further, as I have been analyizing lots of data recently.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I thought I would try Etsy.  I only have a few items posted, but since I had decided to use iCraft over Etsy, I thought it was time to find out the differences.

I feel like I have been swallowed by a giant.  It is huge.  It will take days of research to go through everything there and figure it out.  I can see why I chose iCraft first.  It is smaller, and easier to use.

After two days of postings, I have 11 views of my products.  I decided to only post bookmarks here to see how they do.  The scary thing, after two days posted, searching the item within the category, I ended up on page 19 before I found any of my bookmarks.  There are 40 listings per page.  Well, at least I am in the top 800.  Now, I will need to see what I can do about moving myself up.  Not much, I think.

How does this compare with other sites?

iCraft - there is a photo ribbon across the top of most pages and any up-dated items will show there for a few days after the item is up-dated.  They also send out messaging on Twitter when a new item is posted or an item is up-dated.

GLC Mall - the more active you are on the site, the more items of yours will show on the home page.  When I do a Google search of GLC Mall, my site shows in the search results.  Other than that, I am not really sure what they do to get visibility for their stores.


Fees:  It costs $.20 USD to post an item on Etsy for four months.  At the end of that time, the item is deactivated.   It can be reactivated  and the fee paid again.  This fee is based on the number of items you have.  If you have three of the same item, it will costs $.60 for the listing.  I of course, only listed one of each item.  What is the point of listing that I have three if I don't sell any of them.  If the item sells, I will list it again.  When an item sells, Etsy takes 3.5% of the total sale price as a fee.  Although I didn't take this into consideration when I priced the item, this could be added into the price of them item to ensure you are receiving the profit you are looking for. Right now, I am more interested in selling.  I will, however, ask my daughter to set up a formula for me so that I can calculate the selling price less this fee, to keep my profit margin.

So how does this compare to other sites?

iCraft
Charges a $25 registration fee.
1- 5 items free indifinitely.  You can put times on hold, and post a different 5 items.
 5 - 50 items $5/month
5 - 100 items $10/month
Unlimited - 15/month

I paid on a deal and received three years for $150 which is $50 per year.


GLC Mall


1 - 12 items - free - cannot put items on hold.  If you want to rotate items you need to delete some first.
13 - up - $12/ month - unlimited


How does this compare?

I have 108 live items on iCraft which would have cost me $64.80 per year on Etsy - significant savings there as I could double the items and it would double my Etsy cost.  I have the same number live on GLC Mall and it is costing me $144 per year.  Significant loss in comparison.  However, I can easily reach $144 per year on Etsy by putting the actual number of items I have, which is generally 3.  This would then cost me $194.40 on Etsy.

Etsy sells in US dollars.  I remember that this was something that stopped me from using Etsy before.  This time around, I was able to change the currency, although it took a while.  My items are listed in Canadian dollars with the US price below it.  There is not a significant difference, although the difference is absorbed by the buyer and the exchange rate can change the price for the US buyer.

Setting up a store is pretty easy, as well as posting an item.  It helps that when you are ready to post items, you have reviewed all the fields and have the appropriate descriptions ready.

If you really want to get into the community side of crafting, Etsy is definately for you.  The community is large and varied.  Lots of teams to join, as well as forums.  I joined one team and applied to join two others. You can only post if you join the team.  There are lots of people to talk to, places where you can ask questions, seek help, exchange ideas, or just get involved.

There is a Sellers Handbook which I will need to go through before I can really say much more about Etsy.   Since I can track the views, it will take a couple of weeks to see if this is worth it in relation to the amount of time I need to spend on Etsy to stay visible.  I only need to spend about 15 minutes each a day up-dating items on iCraft and GLC Mall to keep my items visible.

Any feedback about Etsy would be appreciated.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I had an interesting experience last week and was very glad for the support of iCraft.  I received an e-mail from someone who was interested in purchasing one of my products.  Of course, I was excited, who wouldn't be, and I responded accordingly. Here is the story"

The person wanted to know the condition of the item and wanted my Paypal information to pay for the item.  She was going to arrange for someone to pick up the item.  I realized that she was not buying off my iCraft site because she was having the item picked up and didn't want to pay the shipping costs.  I went in and reduced the price of the item by the shipping cost and told her to go in and pay for the item.  I was willing to allow the pick up of the item in the interest of the sale.  

Her response was to again ask about the condition of the item and then told me that she was having trouble paying her pick up agent through her bank account and could she send me the money through PayPal and I wire the money through Western Union.  

Oddly enough, the first question I asked was "What does she mean am I sure of the condition of the item?  Of course I am, I made the stupid thing".  This is what really caught my attention that something was off.  I also asked myself if I wanted to got to the trouble of doing she asked, but my first question was what really caused concern that something was off.  I sent an e-mail to iCraft about this and found out that I was not the only person who had received the e-mail from this person.  We were advised to not respond to her.  That it was a scam.  I am not sure what the scam would be, whether it had to do with PayPal or if she just wanted my address.  I was voting for the second and that really spooked me out.  

It is not nice being suspicious, and losing a sale is not always easy to handle, but I wrestled for a large part of day with the question of how for I was willing to go secure a sale.  What were the limits of customer service, and how did her requests and situation follow-up with my question of why do people buy on-line (she said she was an oceanographer who was at sea).  Others I spoke to me asked her she didn't get her friends or family to accept her bank money to pay her pick up agen, and I eventually realized that the story was questionable because she would have to be buying everything on-line locally for the pick up agent story to work.  

It was a disturbing experience but I have to thank the people at iCraft for being there as support.  It makes selling through a crafter mall totally worth it.

I tried the Facebook ad, and what an eye opener. I cost me a fortune for a lot of nothing. I paid what I considered an outrageous dollar amount per hit and didn't get much for it.

When faced with composing an ad, it got an insightful view of my business. I realized that I am making too much, I feel like I have the equivalent of an on-line department store, stocked by one frantic manufacturer.

 My daughter asked me once if I knew why people shopped on-line. I have been puzzling the answer for while and I think that this question along with my insight into my department store status, has given me an answer.

 People are looking for the unique, not the generic, that they can find while cruising the Mall or a department store. When you are creating at a frantic pace, you can easily end up with the generic, cranking different versions of the same thing, with little thought to uniqueness. This year I created one new holiday product, it took me weeks, and I really love it. My newest Christmas Stocking. I blended my different skills and came up with something definitely more unique. I am leaving the rest of my crafting time to make for my friends and family, and work on my web presence. I am more planning to post photos of items I make for gifts rather than for sale.

 My problem is that I love to make things and have far too much to give away. I do well at craft shows, selling quite a bit, however, with a full-time job, I find going to craft show a strain.  The uniqueness should also show in your website, and/or craft table.

This has become a challenging thought, and a definite new direction to follow.  Now, if I were less impatient, what I am doing might work.  How can you establish a niche or a uniqueness when you keep changing image, every 6 months or so.  It is a good idea to review your business plan and marketing plan on a regular basis, and track what you are doing, to estimate the success of what you are doing, you just have go give yourself enough time to accumulate the data for comparison.  For all I know, what I considered a bad ad campaign was just that, or it was actually good, I just picked a bad time of day.  I will try again, I shouldn't give up so easily, it really doesn't do much for establishing myself if I don't.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I have grabbed a weeks vacation from my full-time job and intend to spend the week crafting.  To celebrate, I am offering blog readers a 25% discount on anything on my GLC Mall site.  There are lots of great, inexpensive ideas for the holidays, some are even unique.

Until December 15, 2011, readers of my Blog can save 25% with this coupon on my GLC Mall site at http://www.glcmall.com/store/store-detail_192_elizanne-handcrafted-treasures.aspx

GB261111

Enter this code at the time of purchase and save:  GB261111

My gift to you for the holidays as my thanks for following my blog.

See something on my website or or my iCraft site that is not on GLC Mall that has caught your attention?  E-mail me at www.elizanne@rogers.com and I will post it on GLC Mall, you can only keep saving.

Thanks and Happy Holiday shopping
CraftyLadyLiz

If you are looking for somewhere to set up shop, I have previously given reviews on a couple of market places. I went back to a link that I have on my website for Free Craft Fair - Business Resources for Crafters, to see if there was anything new that I might be interested in. I came across a section under the Sell your Crafts tab about On-Line communities. They had some great advice and suggestions about how joining an on-line community can help. Unfortunately, they didn't give any links to on-line communities. I am probably pretty stunned because I didn't know what an on-line community is.

Thank-you Wikipedia. I searched online communities and this link gave me some insite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community and I realize that I already belong to a number of on-line communities. The article is fascinating and helpful.

I searched on-line communities and came up with the Wikipedia link for virtual communities. This was even more helpful and I realized that I was involved in a great many more on-line communities than I thought.

Great examples of on-line or virtual communities are:

Chat rooms,

Blogs,

Internet Message Boards - forums

Facebook

Twitter

When you are trying to sell on the internet, getting the word out about your website and your craft is important. Search engines find your site and rate it higher the more it is accessed. The more visits (hits) on your site, the higher your site is rated. Being involved in on-line or virtual communities is a great way to get the word out.

They are also a lot of work. I have been posting, reading, updating, chatting all over the place. My fingers hurt, my brain is tired, and I have three half finished projects on my work table. It is, however, working. I note that when I search GLC Mall, my store is one of the stores that shows up on the Google search. It is not my actual website, but it does have my personal site there. I get a few links to my site from GLC Mall.

As the holiday season approaches, I am planning an ad campaign, probably on Facebook to generate more interest in my Facebook page where I have been posting new items and talking more about them than I do on my website. I have generated hits to my website from Facebook thanks to my brother, who posts it up periodically that I have some great things for sale.

Off to do some crafting, I think I will crank up some music and work on an idea I have for my kids for Christmas. If it works, you will be the first to see it.

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz

I was browsing through Google Blogger today to find some interesting blogs to follow. Subscribing to and following Blogs is a good way to generate interest in your website. I don't really want to follow too craft blogs as I do have other interests. I came across one that looked interesting as it was titled Felt & Wire Shop. I like to work with both and thought it might be interesting. What I found was a "marketplace" Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with felt or wire, but rather paper. It is a curated marketplace for printers, designers, bookbinders, and artists.

You apply to be a seller and can be approved or denied. The sellers are from all over the world, predominantly the US but also Canada and Europe.

I browsed through many of the designers and saw some really awesome paper craft. Lots of unique products and interesting designs, from note cards to wedding invitations, art, and blank books. Check them out at http://feltandwireshop.com/

This is a link I will definitely add to my website - the card can be as unique as the gift. If you are interest in selling hand made paper products, check this out as a potential marketplace to set up a store. Unfortunately, without applying as a seller, I didn't find anything on the website about cost of the store. If you do apply as a seller, please let us know more about setting up shop.

I am off to find more blogs. My favourites are about cooking and healthy eating, but think I will see if I can find something else this time. I have come across some interesting recipe ideas in a few of the blogs that I follow that make me want to spend my day cooking and that means shopping. As it is rainy and blustery out today, I am in the mood to stay in. Maybe I'll see if I can find out anything about home decor as my son is now off to University and I have a whole room to redecorate, any way I want.

Happy Crafting

CraftyLadyLiz

It has taken me this long to recover from the craft show at the Markham Fair. This is the third year that I have been at the fair. I knew what I was getting into. I knew it was in an outdoor picnic shelter that has four open doors, I knew that it was the end of September, I knew it would be cold. I have done fairly well there in the past, and had hopes that I would do better this year. In a way I did do better this year, there was just very low attendance at the fair. It was so cold and so windy, one person didn't return the next day as her displays kept blowing over in the wind. I didn't put out a lot of my stock as it would just blow away. We spent a lot of time straightening things on the table.

There was someone there who was prepared. She had weights on her table cloth and nothing blew away. Her stock was also heavy enough that it didn't blow away. I will go looking for weights for the table covers.

One of the good things about the lack of attendance was getting to know the other crafters and getting tips and suggestions. One crafter gave me a great idea for increasing web presence and another told me about a great packaging place where I could get what I needed for a few of my sets at a reasonable price. I even had time to check out the website on my Blackberry. We also exchanged information about craft shows and made suggestions about ones to go to and warned against others. I got some very good suggestions. We got talking about transporting out merchandise and where to get some good totes on wheels.

I did decide not to go back to the show next year. There was no sign on the building and none of the listings on Facebook mentioned the craft building. Fair patrons would come in to get warm and leave immediately as there was no relief. Given the cold and the length of time we had to be there, we all felt that they could have done a bit more for us to get people in. However, with a windchill of -1 on Sunday morning, I think I will pass next year. There are enough shows inside at this time of the year that I don't need to be chilled to the bone.

I did sell some of my new bookmarks, they were quite a hit, and as always, my felt ornaments did well, even if it was only the first of October. Hopefully the flyers I handed out will net me some interest closer to Christmas.

As with anything, the more often you do things, the better they get. I tried out new display ideas that worked well, although one did not. I will have to check out a Grid Wall distributor to see if I can get the size I want. I really want to display my product up, not just flat on the table on hanging from the unusual items I have found at the thrift store. More about craft show displays later.

Happy Crafting

CraftyLadyLiz

For the past two weeks, I have been off work. We are on strike and I am lucky enough to have someone to take over the bills so I don't have to go on the picket line. I have had a taste of what it would be like to be running my business full-time. What an interesting view of my life.

A few things I have discovered:

1. I have the focus to sit down and work. I have been able to complete a lot of new product as well as work on some new designs.
2. I rely a lot on the paycheck to keep me going
3. I can actually have a clean house.
4. I take for granted the technology we have at work.

I have designed and completed about 20 new ribbon bookmarks that I am really excited about. I have been using more beads in the design and learning new techniques. The problem is the amount of time that it will take to get them up on the web. I so take for granted what goes on behind the scenes on our work website. Here I have been head writer, and webmaster. It isn't easy. It is so tempting to just post items and write as I go but this leads to sloppy, unimaginative writing that does nothing to capture the prospective customer. It is quicker to go this route but in then end I spend time at a later date reading what I wrote and editing it. I also find that I don't always get everything posted using this method as I tend to put the completed products away after I photograph them.

This week I received notification from my internet provider that I had maxed out my monthly usage by the middle of the month. With my son away at school, I was surprised and downloaded and trial version of a program to track my daily usage. It actually tracks every 30 seconds and I learned that my son's laptop, which is what I am using, is constantly downloading information from the internet. I was able to shut down some of the programs but I had to spend most of an entire day dealing with this. I up-graded my internet package to give me more GB for up-loading and down-loading and speed up the internet, as well as learned how to disconnect from the internet when I don't really need it but still need the computer.

I have a spreadsheet for doing the costing and realized that I couldn't use the same spreadsheet to keep track of what and where I posted items. As I have my own site, GLC Mall, and iCraft, and I post different things in different places, I need to keep track of what is posted, when it is posted, and the response I get to each item. I now have two spreadsheets, one for costing, and one for tracking.

To solve a couple of my problems, I decided that if I did my writing ahead of time, disconnected from the internet, I would be much happier. It was a good idea - one problem though, I couldn't use the same spreadsheet that I used for the costing, not really. It gets too messy and cluttered. It will help if I can force certain pieces of information from one spreadsheet to another. I will need to do a bit of research on how to do this as I can't remember how.

I also realize that I need better software. However, the problem is, I don't know how to use anything more sophisticated than Excel so I am now going to need to purchase new software, decide what I want it to do for me, and learn how to use it - I have to ask the question - do I really want to learn?

Working for someone else has benefits, but until this week I thought it was only the steady paycheck. I now much more appreciate the HelpDesk, the IT department that comes and programs Access to do an important part of my job, the Webmaster who quickly and efficiently makes the changes to our website that I need, without a lot of detail, and Marketing who does a lot the writing that gets posted on the web.

Working for yourself, especially on your own crafts, is very satisfying. The freedom I have had over the last few weeks to design and create has opened me up to do more and implement further the goals I set out in my business plan. I keep asking myself what I will need to do in order to continue this once I am back at work, because despite joy in the freedom to create, I still need the paycheck that I get from working full-time.

Keep an eye on my website over the next week for the new products. Right now, my camera is broken. I cannot connect it to my computer and have to rely on my daughter to up-load the pictures from the memory card. Hopefully she will do it this afternoon and I can start to get the new products posted.

Happy Crafting

CraftyLadyLiz

Back to School Offer

The kids are back at school, including mine, and to celebrate (and I am celebrating as I thought he would never go), I am offering a 25% discount coupon to all my Google Blog readers. Click on the My On-Line store at GLC Mall link and start shopping. When you check out, enter coupon number GB07911 to receive a 25% discount off your purchase. Discount available until September 30, 2011.

• Think stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, or someone far away. Most items are inexpensive, and easy to slide into an envelope.

• Get ready for Christmas, check out the Christmas Ornaments and stockings, or add something new to your holiday table with coasters or wine glass rings.

• Spoil yourself with a bookmark for your winter reading, curled up on those cold winter evenings. Lots of different themes to chose from.

• There are some items already on sale and more to come so just add to the savings with the coupon.

Thanks to all my readers, hope you find something you like

Happy Shopping

CraftyLadyLiz

The New School Year

Well, it has been quite a week. I finally got my son off to University. This is his second attempt and hopefully it will work out for him. It is also the first time he has left home so it was a bit of push to get him out the door. The good news is that I get my workroom. I have been sharing work space with my bedroom since my daughter came home from University. This has not been good. I have also been trying to do all my office work off a small computer desk.

No more. I have expanded. It is amazing how important lots of room is to your success. I have most of my office set up now, including lots of shelves, a filing cabinet, and a place for office supplies. I can now find the stamps, three packages as I kept loosing them and bought more. I like to keep the office stuff separate from the crafting stuff, that way I am not in the same space all the time, and can focus on the task at hand.

I am delaying setting up my work space through, it is an overwhelming job. One step at a time, is all I can think of. For now, I will continue working on the dining room table, and organize things as I need them and put them away.

Having a well organized and comfortable work space is a necessity, not just from a practical point of view. It can be quite frustrating to know you have something and not know where you put it for all the clutter. Sharing space with laundry, cloths, and other essentials to get your day started, means that things are piled on top of each other, shoved into corners, or stored in the wrong container. I am not sure if I am out of 8 mm jump rings or if I put them somewhere. As much as I enjoy going to bead stores, I don't really want to spend money on something I don't need. I have been putting off a project until I have rearranged everything.

I am looking forward to having a comfortable chair to sit on at my worktable and get my radio set up again so that I can listen while I work. I have been hunched on a hard wooden kitchen chair for the last little while. The only good thing about this is that it forces me to get up and move around every once and a while, which reduces the strain on my back and legs, and even on a comfortable office chair, I have developed the habit of moving around more often. Today, I am thinking I will make muffins to break up my day.

My work table also has better lighting, essential when doing small, detailed work. The room has great overhead fluorescent lightening and I have some good movable spot lamps as well.

The entire work space has lots of shelves and drawers that I have labeled to easily find everything. I have a great shelf for finished products. I store everything in plastic containers that are similar is size which helps when getting ready for a show. They are portable so I take them with me, and pack everything back up at the end of the show and put them back on the shelf.

After much searching found a great shower caddy with lots of slots that holds my tools. It is portable so it can go where I want. My sister also bought me a craft box with lots of storage that I use for a items I use for multiple projects, glue, scissors, needles, sequins and seed beads.

I keep my reference books and magazines in my office space as I usually browse through them when I am not creating or if I am, I like to get away from the idea that isn't working for fresh thoughts. If I get a good idea I take the book back to my work table or flag the page and leave it on my work table for later.

Watch this space over the next few days for some great offers that are coming for both my website and my next craft show.

Happy Crafting and Shopping

CraftyLadyLiz

Having a Sale

There comes a time when you need to move out the old stock and make way for the new. Your creative ideas have moved on to better and brighter things. There are a number of things you can do with the old stock, give it as gifts, donate it to a charitable organization, or put it on sale.

I decided this week to move out some of the old by putting it on sale in the hopes that I can at least get back my cost. I created an "On Sale" category on my website and moved a few things there. I am hoping to not only sell the items but also get people browsing through other things as well.

Some of the items were moved there because I can no longer get the materials I used to make them, so they are being discontinued. It is unfortunate, because I like them but can't get what I need to make more. As I have made some new items to replace them, it is time to move themalong. I am hoping to post the new product next week.

Last winter I donated a number of earrings to an annual Toy Drive, knowing that there is always a need for teens, who often get forgotten. This year I will do the same with what it left and maybe make a few items specifically for donating.

I also put my lacing bracelets and handbag charms on sale for two weeks at 30% off. Deciding the percentage of the sale is really up to you. I did a quick chart of the different prices and the per cent off and decided what amount looked enticing to shoppers and not painful to me - 30% it is.

The sale is on all three of my sites, although the way iCraft is set up, they round the numbers so that sale is better on elizanne, and GLC Mall, an extra fifty cent savings. The great thing about iCraft is that you can put the items on sale and give the sale an end date. On that date, the sale automatically stops. On elizanne I will have to remember to go back in and change the prices back to the original price. I would prefer to have both the original price and the sale price visible to the shopper so that they can see the savings as well. GLC Mall is a bit between. I still have to remember to go in and change the prices, but the original prices are still there.

Not all items are on all sites, there is some variation as to what I have posted, although all items have been reduced.

I am also planning a sale for my next craft show. I will be offering a coupon through elizanne and through my blog for those who come to the show, and a coupon for those who come to the show for my GLC Mall site. This should be fun as it is more paper based so I can get creative with Microsoft Word to make it look pretty. The goal here is to get some cross traffic going between the two. There are a couple of places that I post things so I will be including them there as well.

Sorry, no pictures this week. Next week I will add some pictures of the new stock - I have been working on the Holiday Season for the last month and some it looks good.

CraftyLadyLiz

Full-time Work and a Part-time Business

As can be seen from the date of my last post, 14 months ago, working full-time and running a craft business do not necessarily go hand in hand. Trying to find the balance between the two is extremely difficult, especially when my 4 man department was down to two for three months and we went through a major up-grade that monopolized about 4 months of my time. I didn't even do much crafting as I spent most of my free hours doing overtime. I was also disappointed that I had to miss out on a major craft show due to not enough time and energy to get ready for it.

As a treat, I spent the first three weeks of my vacation crafting and with three more weeks of vacation to come, am looking forward to lots more crafting time.

When I am not short-staffed and actually get home on time, I work the balance. Usually two hours crafting in the evening at least three days a week (I get to do housework on the other days). This gets me a fair amount of product done and leaves me the weekends to design and work on the less glamorous side of the business - paperwork. As I have never had such a bad year at work, I am spending a bit more time on paperwork and organizing myself so that I won't have to miss another craft show.

I have expanded a product line - bookmarks. My old stock has been donated or given as gifts to make room for the new. I am excited about it and have enjoyed blending my creativity and experience to create the new bookmarks. One of the few things I could do towards my business when I was really busy at work was design in my head, usually during my commute. If I had time to get to a bead or craft store, I generally bought only what I needed to make a single product and was often happy with the results.

The wire bookmark above is my favourite, and just recently posted it to my website. The bookmarks generally run $12 - $16. Checkout the rest, click here to see the entire selection. They would make great stocking stuffers, secret Santa gifts, or slide it into a birthday or holiday card.