Pridefest and Updates

Well, aside from having to move this past weekend (and yes, I had just moved into my new place last month...), things have been going well.

Pridefest was on the 15th, and that went over really well. I didn't meet my goal of $100 in sales, but I do do better than at Summerfest. The colorful Devil Ducky earrings, keychains and zipper pulls were the biggest hit. I also got some sign-ups for my mailing list, which is pretty awesome. I gave away some Etsy sampler bags that I made with promos from a ton of awesome etsy sellers (list).

I'm also now a proud member of one of the newest Etsy streets teams -- EtsyU. Everything is still in the early stages, but it looks like this is going to be a fun group of people, and since it's all college aged (and some highschool) Etsyians, we can talk about ways to juggle class, homework, part time jobs, AND Etsy.

Let's see, what else am I working on... I'm going to do a promotional thing during the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I've been working on some pink items (not really my color, but I'm having fun with it so far). For all my pink item sales, I'm going to donate a certain amount to breast cancer research. I'm not sure what that amount should be -- 10%? 15%? Any suggestions?

Have a great day!

September Goals

As a result of various posts on the Etsy forums, I've decided to set myself some goals for the month of September for my Etsy shop.

1) List/renew 1-2 items each day of the month (so far, so good!)
2) Get 15 sales
3) Get 36 more hearts
4) Post t0 blog at least three times per week


The third one isn't that big of a deal, but hearts are nice, ya know?

Well, I'm off to go to some creating so I have new things to list tomorrow!

Summerfest!

Well, overall I think Summerfest went really well! The last two nights before were VERY hectic and stressful as I tried to make sure that I had enough stock, the right paperwork and signage, all the random tools, supplies, etc. that I would need. I'm pretty sure I drove my poor boyfriend up the wall... Anyway, I have a few pictures of my booth for you to gaze at, they're on Flickr. I made about 15 sales, a little over $50 worth of stuff. I made more than my booth fee, and I made sales to people that weren't friends! (That's what I was worried about -- making sales to "real people"). But I came away from the event with a few new ideas, lots more confidence, and a custom order request! I placed a few supply orders last night and today, so hopefully I'll be able to get a ton more stuff made in time for Pridefest. I think the market will be a little better there -- Summerfest had less people than I was expecting, and a lot came without very much money. They also had to pay to get in, which I didn't really know about until a few days before the event. But I had a really good time, and as stressful as it was, I'm still REALLY excited for my next show! My goal... sell $100 worth of stuff!

What's New...

I have been slacking a bit, so I'm still panicking and rushing like crazy to get my stuff ready for the Starving Artists craft fair at Mankato Summerfest on August 25th. I made 12 pairs of devil ducky earrings the other day, and I've been working on some bracelets and necklaces as well. I'm really nervous that I won't have enough stock to make my table full. But on the other hand, I'm worried that I'll make a ton of stuff, and then none of it will sell... But if you are in the area, be sure to stop by my booth and check me out! I'm hoping for nice weather and things running smoothly, but I'm going to prepare for the worst...

I am also confirmed to participate in the SCMN Pridefest festival on September 8th, but I want to get through the summerfest show before I start worrying about that one. I feel bad for my shop, because it is getting somewhat neglected between still not being entirely unpacked and spending time getting ready for the craft shows. I've heard that the holiday season on ETSY starts fairly early for most people, so I'd like to get some more stuff added to my shop so I can keep up with the (hopefully!) holiday rush. I recently quit one of my other jobs, so I'm crossing my fingers for good sales for the next few months.

Moved in

Well, I am moved in to my new house, although not quite unpacked. I will officially have my own "studio" space here in the new place, and am hoping to get that all set up this weekend. I also have tons of ideas running through my head for stuff to make, so as soon as I get settled in I'll begin creating again! Watch my shop for new stuff in the next few weeks, because I know it will be there!!!

Flickr

I may be on vacation, but I am still busy working on Etsy related things...

1) I have finally joined the ranks of everyone else that has a Flickr account. I am still working on adding all of my pictures, but you can click here to check out what I have so far.

2) I have also been randomly distributing some of my business cards at restaurants/etc. around the area. They all have special coupon codes on the back, so if/when someone uses one of them, I will have an idea of where the card was found and whether or not my promo ideas are working. So far I've left them at tables with the tip, on random boards, and I even left one in a bathroom...

3) I'm also working on a few new pieces. I didn't bring any beads or anything here with me, but I started to get withdrawals so I went to the store and bought some beads and chain :)

It has also come to my attention that I have a LOT on my plate for the next few months. I am planning on doing a craft show at the end of August, Mankato Summerfest. I am also going to apply for, and (crossing my fingers), hopefully get accepted to, No Coast Craft-o-Rama. It would be a MUCH bigger show, on December 1st. And to top that all off, I have Christmas to prepare for. So if I end up doing both of those shows and trying to prepare my ETSY store for Christmas, I'm going to be a little bit busy. Class start again at the end of August, but I will cut down work hours, so I will probably have around the same amount of free time to work on Tangerine Sunshine...

So much to do, so little time... I will keep you updated on how things go!

I've been featured again

I just wanted to point out that I found another blog post about "Tangerine Sunshine", found here. If anyone else is interested in writing about me, your are DEFINITELY more than welcome to mention Tangerine Sunshine in your blog, website, etc.

Additionally, I am currently in the process of working on my first ever custom order (that wasn't a friend or family member). Two versions of my Jumbled Bruise bracelet, only in shades of pink instead! It's going rather well, although I am still waiting for some of the beads I ordered to arrive.

Other than that all is well in the world of Tangerine Sunshine. Next week I will be adding a lot of new stock to my shop, as well as trying out a ton of different promotional ideas. We will see how that goes, and I will post a list of everything I do with comments, etc.

June recap

Well, I've started all of the bookkeeping, spreadsheeting, and paperwork for making my business "official". I've filled out my Certificate of Assumed Name for Tangerine Sunshine, and early next week I will be applying for a tax id number. My paypal has been switched to a merchant account, and I purchased a set of spreadsheets from serena to do my bookkeeping (trust me, they're a lifesaver! I don't know if I could have set this all up myself, or how long it would have taken me if I could). With the start of July I am also going to start setting weekly, monthly, and long-term goals for myself. Blogging more often will be among the long term goals, so be sure to check back! I am also going to be including some links in here about how to start up a business so I can hopefully help some other people out. I just got a book in the mail that I ordered -- it's called Handmade for Profit! and I'm hoping it will give me some good advice for turning my hobby into a profitable business. My biggest problem is STILL pricing, so that would be some of the most helpful advice right now!


I've made a few more sales over the past week or so, and I've listed a few more things in my shop. I also have quite a few projects that I'm working on, so I'm hoping I'll have a few more things to list in the next few days. I would totally be happy if I could manage to list something new every day for the weekend (or maybe even two new things!) I would like to get my inventory up to about 25 by July 1 (which is Sunday), so I should probably list 2 or 3 things each day.

Well, I'm signing off for the night. Don't forget to stop at Tangerine Sunshine to see if anything suits your fancy!

Early June rant...

Sales pretty much stopped for me for about two week, but the end of this past week I had some more sales. As I've read on the Etsy forums, if you stop listing new items, sales and views seem to decline. I definitely agree...

I bought a bunch more beads today (I know I shouldn't, but I just can't resist...) Anyway, I'm going to try to add new listings every day or every other day this week, to see how much frequent listing of items actually helps sales in my shop.

I am waiting to hear from octarine about whether she got the promos that I sent out -- hopefully those will start going out to people soon, and maybe I will see an increase in sales from that too :)

That's about it for now... When I get around to putting some stuff together and taking some pictures, I'll post some of my newest stuff on here.

On/around June 1st I'm going to be completely re-vamping the shop. I've got some more jewelry made up that I would like to post, I just haven't gotten around to it quite yet. I'm also going to edit all the listing that I have up -- better pictures, better descriptions, etc.
I FINALLY have my promotional box put together, and I'll send that out to octarine tomorrow so my name can get out there. I included 15 pairs of earrings, and 15 business cards with a 10% off coupon on the back.

In other recent news, I got featured in a blog by Pistol & Stigma -- check it out and read the good things she had to say about my cute little owl earrings!

Things are still going fairly well for me. My bedroom is sort of a disaster with bead stuff and shipping supplies all over, but I'm slowly cleaning that up and organizing it :)

I have had a few more sales, and am keeping up with shipping. The new shipping rates are a bit of a pain, as some of my packages are costing nearly twice as much as they used to. I haven't raised my rates yet on Etsy, because I know people hate to pay really high shipping costs. I think I may just start "eating" the costs of my shipping materials, or maybe just cut down to the bare essentials. I do like having things nicely and cutely packaged though...

Other news... I am trying to clear out my current inventory so I can sort of "start fresh" and fill up my inventory with all sorts of new stuff. I am having a big sale today where all customers get tons of random free stuff when they buy things from my shop -- you can read my forum post about it here.

I'm also trying to get some sample packs/promotions put together to send out to various sellers. Some of them will include them with their orders (like the All Things Etsy sample packs) and/or put them out on their tables at craft shows. My big thing now is that I need to do a bit more promoting/marketing so I can get more business to my shop...

That's it for now... I'm trying to figure out stuff with actually registering my business name and such, but I will put together a post about that later this week.

MN Street Team, and grants!

Well, I discovered the MN Etsy Street Team today. I joined the yahoo group, and I've read the blog and the thread on Etsy forums. I sent a few messages to people, so I'll see what I hear back from people. I would love to get involved with some other MN area Etsyians. I'd also like to try my luck at a craft show, and it seems like they know a bit about all of that stuff.

Related to the craft shows... I found out that I can get art grants from the state for stuff... I'd love to go to a craft show, but as of right now I can't really afford one, and I don't think I would make enough at one to pay for the cost of being there. But if I got a grant to cover the costs, THAT would be pretty amazing... The one I found though, had a deadline of May 15... today. And since it's already midnight, there's no way that I could get it filled out and postmarked by today... That sort of sucks, but I can look for other opportunities...

Anyway, that's everything for now. I'm working on some random jewelry projects, but I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule so I haven't had a chance to post pictures in my shop. I have some stuff that I need to ship out tomorrow though, and I'm currently features in 3 Etsy treasuries, so I hope I sell some more stuff :)

I added a nifty little "Etsy Mini" so visitors to the site can see some of my favorites and/or the newest additions to my shop. Enjoy!

A little pick-up

Sales have been going pretty well the past 2 weeks or so -- I think I've made about 5 sales in the past two weeks, which is quite a few considering I had two in the entire first month I was on Etsy.... I've also been spending a small chunk of change on more beads, more organizers, shipping supplies, all that fun stuff. I made a banner for my esty site, check it out if you have the time.... I've also been making quite a bit of new stuff. My goal for this week is to post at least 2 new things on my etsy store each day. With classes almost over (it's finals week!) I'm going to have a lot more free time for making jewelry :)

I've been really in to pendants lately, so I think I'm going to learn how to make pendants. I'm not really sure how, but it will be a fun venture, right?

Another sale :)

I has another sale, one of my other pairs of coin earrings. They're a pretty popular style! I actually really liked these ones a lot, and am a little sad to be parting with them. I'll probably end up making another pair for myself!

As far as shipping goes, I have bubble wrap now, so things should work out a lot better for shipping. Hopefully nothing breaks again :(

I'm a little upset, because I had my first ever complaint a few days ago... Apparently one of the pairs of earrings I sent out was broken during shipping, so when it arrived to the buyer one of the earrings was broken. I corrected the problem immediately though, and sent her a replacement. I'm pretty sure that was the best way to deal with the situation, other than maybe a refund. But in her email to me she asked for a replacement, so it seemed like a good idea.

Other than that not much has been happening in my jewelry world... I've listed a few more things on etsy, but I have been REALLY busy with classes (only 2 more weeks left, so there's a lot going on). I will definitely have more time to devote to the jewelry business after the first week of May.

Just wanted to keep everyone updated...

My first etsy sale!

I made my first sale at my Etsy store, a pair of dragon coin earrings that sold for $3. They were pretty cute, the same ones that I sent to a friend in Milwaukee so she could help me promote. So anyway, YAY! The girl that bought them has a brand new Etsy profile that was started the day she bought my earrings, so I'm assuming (hoping) that one of my business cards, or links somewhere, referred her to my stuff, she liked them, and set up and account to buy them.

Now I feel a little bit more confident about my stuff :) Also, I bought a light tent/box on ebay last week that should be arriving soon -- it will help me take better pictures of my stuff, which should translate into better sales (which is what I've heard from other people)

Well, here's to hopefully more sales to come!

myLot User Profile

Finally, some sales!

I found a new site today call PoshPoints, which is sort an online trading site, similar to ebay except that you don't use real money, just points. You get 15 points when you sign up, which you can use to buy anything on the site. You can also sell your own stuff for any amount of points that you want. The seller pays for the shipping of the items, and the buyer doesn't have to worry about anything other than having enough points. Anyway, I listed a bit of my jewelry on there, and within the first hour I sold 3 pairs of my devil ducky earrings! Yay! I also bought 3 different packs of beads with my sign-up points. So I am going to ship them all out tomorrow, and of course I will include a few Tangerine Sunshine business cards in each -- 1 for them, and 2 or 3 that they can hand out to friends, family, etc. (hopefully)

Frustration

My motivation for jewelry making is really low right now.... My roommate opened up an etsy store and sold two things in her first day -- how come I can't do that? I suppose I ought to try harder, but sometimes it's just so frustrating... I always end up making things that I would like, which is apparently much different than what most people would like, ya know?

On another note... I made up a flier to hang on campus, but I am having some printer problems right now. Hopefully I'll get that all taken care of soon, so I can hang the fliers up early next week, and HOPEFULLY make a sale or maybe even two ;) I have the beads and stuff in a baggy for this necklace that I want to make, I might take it with me to work tomorrow and finish it. I currently have 8 things listed in my store, and I would like to have about a dozen or so when I put the fliers up.

Some new jewelry, and my business cards!

My business cards showed up earlier this week!!! I was really excited, because I wasn't really expecting them this soon. They look very nice, and they will be VERY handy for marketing, etc. I can start passing them out to friends, family, and people on campus. I will also be able to put them in my orders when I ship them out. (that is, when I finally make a sale...)

But on another note, I made two new pairs of earrings, and I'm going to make another necklace and maybe some other things tonight. I have a cute idea for a necklace that I want to put together, and I also bought a wire jig at the store the other day, so I want to make some sort of cool wire necklace.

* If anyone has tips on how I can take better quality pictures of my stuff, that would be greatly appreciated.

New Link

Thanks to Mike for stopping by and leaving his link, I've added it to my favorite links ---->
http://mikesmoneyrants.blogspot.com/

Some more jewelry

I've made a few more pairs of earrings and a necklace, but of course I have been too busy/lazy to take pictures. I want to get 10 or so things up in my store before I start putting signs up on campus to have people go there. I know that things are always slow for people starting out, but I'm so desperate to get a sale.... I just want to have a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling that people like my stuff enough to pay for it. Is that silly? I would just feel a lot more confident about my stuff if I knew people liked it...

In other news... I also picked up the paperwork today to start an organization on campus. That way my roommate and I can find some other people that are interested in making jewelry and get together all the time. And if we're able to set up a table in the student union to sell stuff, we'll get a lot more "coverage" because hundreds of students walk through there every day. And people tend to make purchases on impulse a lot more when they can actually see something and have it in their hands, right?

Slacking Off...

I got sick over the weekend, so I've been slacking off terribly... I haven't gotten a chance to look for a template, nor have I worked on any new pieces. I do have some ideas for a few cute pairs of earrings though, and I' m hoping to work on those tomorrow after I get done with work and class, so we'll see how that goes.
So far nothing has sold in my site... I'm waiting for my business cards to get here, because having something tangible that I can hand out to people will be helpful. I'm also going to make some signs with my email and website address on it to hang up on the bulletin boards on campus. Every bit of advertisement will help, right?

Layout

I have received a few comments from people saying that I should search for a template to change my layout a bit. This is something I have been considering, I'm just not sure what I am looking for yet. I want the basic color scheme/design for this site to go along somewhat with the logo that I make for my jewelry biz. I have been playing around with a few ideas, but haven't gotten anything cool yet.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them with me. I promise to give you credit for your work, and a free jewelry item from my store if I end up using your design.
Thanks all!

New Bracelet

I ended up having to stay longer than expected at work last night, so I didn't get a chance to work on jewelry as much as I would have liked. I did make a really cute bracelet though. I listed it on Tangerine Sunshine. It's so fun though, I think I want to make another to keep for myself!

Thanks!

I would like to thank everydaywear for reviewing this new blog in her blog. It's great to have a little bit of support getting started! Thanks!!

A little bit of business.

Well, between last night and today I've gotten some of the business out of the way. I came up with the name last night -- after debating over several ideas, I ended up with "Tangerine Sunshine"

I heard about a site called Etsy from a fellow poster on myLot, so I thought I would give it a shot. I originally created an account with my default username, then realized I ought to make on that goes along with my shop title. Deleting the old account and starting up a new one took a bit, and I did give out the old link to a few people so I have to notify them of the change, but I think this one works much better. My shop can be found at www.tangerinesunshine.etsy.com :) I also set up a new email account to be used for this blog and my shop -- tangerinesunshine@gmail.com. After deciding on a name, setting up and email account, and creating the store, I ordered a few free business cards from VistaPrint. So now I have something to mail out with any orders that I might get, and also to hand out to people at craft fairs, coffee shops, or anywhere people might be interested. Every little bit of marketing will help, right?

Today I put a few listings in my shop. My camera is on the fritz, so some of them aren't the best quality, but I now officially have stuff in my shop! I also signed up for Google Adsense, filled out my profile, and started putting some links up in this blog. I think that's enough of the technical stuff for one day, now it's time to have some fun creating jewelry!

A little introduction...

My post yesterday didn't say all that much about me, so before I "get down to business" I would like to introduce myself a little bit more. I am 20 years old, currently going to school for a double major in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, with a minor in Spanish. I work about 25 hours a week in an on-campus office and at a Cold Stone Creamery. When I'm not in class or working, I'm usually playing video games, cooking, or, of course, making jewelry! I did a lot of jewelry making when I was younger, including buying all of those Lisa Frank jewelry kits (I was a huge LF fan!). Last fall I finally got back into jewelry making when I realized how much fun it it is to create funky pieces of jewelry for myself that I can't buy anywhere else. Once my collection got a little too big for just me to wear, I started giving stuff to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas, etc. At some point last month I realized that this little "hobby" of mine was getting a bit expensive, and I realized that I needed a way to finance myself, so I decided to sell a few things. I put a few listings up on ebay. Only one sold, but hey, at least I had sold something! I got a little frustrated with my lack of success, so I searched around to figure out other outlets for selling my growing pile. And this, my friends, is where the journey begins...

A new start...

This is the start of a new project for me. Since last fall I have really gotten back into making jewelry -- bead stuff, hemp, bracelets, necklaces... all sorts, really. Well, the "casual hobby" has gotten to be a bit expensive, so I've decided that I need to sell some of my stuff to help finance my growing addiction. This blog will be a way for me to chronicle my experiences -- successes, failures, frustrations, new ideas... everything that comes along with running a little side business while still going to school full time and working 2 jobs.

Wish me luck!