April 2018
2/4/18 - 8/4/18
- This week was the first week of the Easter school holidays, so the kids were home, and we had family staying for a visit. We also spent a whole day out at Kingston Lacy to celebrate my friend's birthday (and had curry for dinner too - yum). So the week was busy before I even started thinking about work!
- I posted off some custom stencils which had been ordered by another Dorset Team member. It was fun to help with designing them and getting the packaging just right, so that she could sell them through her business. I love making other people's ideas into a reality.
- I posted out packages to my new Gifting Moon brand reps - 3 packages to 3 different countries! Fingers crossed that they take some amazing photos for me to use on my social media channels.
- March wasn't as busy as I'd hoped it would be, especially the last week of March. So I decided to turn on promoted listings on Etsy, to see if that boosted sales. I had one order from it on the 2nd of April and one on the 3rd so it looked like it would help, but time would tell.
- I joined in with the #DorsetTeam twitter chat on the 3rd, one discussion was about whether having more listings (e.g. over 100) helps to get more sales or not (asked by @flossandjet). I replied that it only helps if you look at your SEO too (100 listings with bad SEO won't help you), and @studiopickles recommended Marmalead to help improve SEO.
- On the 8th of April I joined in with a Market Night on Facebook, with a Rainbows and Stars Theme. A Market Night is when a bunch of small businesses add photos to one album, usually with discounted prices / new products, and at the alloted time on the night itself there's a codeword for people to use by commenting on the photos of items they'd like to buy. I had 6 orders, so it was pretty good - but it did involve a lot of Facebook networking in the run up to the event, so I wouldn't do these regularly as I don't have enough time!
9/4/18 - 15/4/18
- It was the second week of the Easter holidays. We didn't have any family down at the start of the week, but we did have a day out swimming and going to the beach with some friends.
- I had to make and post my orders from the Market Night as well as my usual Etsy orders so these all kept me busy whilst also entertaining my kids!
- I hosted the #DorsetTeam Twitter chat on Tuesday 10th April - it was on the theme of 'Dorset And Your Etsy Shop' and we had a good chat about how Dorset inspires us and what local shops we have our items for sale in, etc. I decided that I need to put more about Dorset into my 'about' page too!
- I was away from the 13th to the 16th of April - taking a trip to St. Ives Cornwall with my Mum, Sister, and Brother. We had a great laugh and it was good to get away from it all for a few days. I didn't put the shop on holiday mode while I was gone, but I did extend some shipping times by a couple of days.
- I didn't get home until Monday and spent a lot of Tuesday unpacking, and catching up with orders that had come in while I was away.
- I had a request for coasters with the drinks 'moscow mule' and 'bloody mary' on. As it wasn't the first time someone had asked for these I decided I'd better hurry up and draw them!
- I had a custom order for mirrors with a different layout to my usual design, so I spent some time making mock-up images and tweaking it until the customer was happy. Custom orders do take a little bit longer but I love doing them as I like helping people find the perfect gift!
- I spent a lovely day painting watercolour flowers to use in upcoming projects. I've been doing so much on my Ipad Pro lately - it was nice to get out my paints and get a bit messy.
- I had quite a few orders from Gifting Moon this week, with over 25 coasters and 15 mirrors going out. 4 of those orders were from Promoted Listings, with 15 orders in total from it for the month. I don't think I will keep it turned on every month but it gave me a bit of a boost this month!
- This week I was making and packaging lots of Happy Scatter stencils, stickers, and die-cuts for the Lollipop Box Club Subscription Box.
- I had a discussion on Facebook about subscription boxes, explaining to a couple of people about what they are and how they work. It made me then go and look for other subscription boxes - I don't want to regularly do another craft box as I want to stay loyal to Lollipop Box Club for crafts, but I could look into gift-style sub boxes for Gifting Moon items...
- After all the stencils and things were packed I then prepped for the Dorset Team Spring Fair. I made some new mugs, printed lots more coasters, and got things together like my float and charging my Izettle card reader. It always takes longer to prepare for a fair than I think it will!
- I struggled with cash-flow this week. With lots of orders to pay for postage for, and needing to buy more stock for the fair and future orders, and needing a float for the fair - money got a bit tight. It something you have to really stay on top of when running your own business but sometimes when I'm busy I forget to keep checking!
How did your business get on during April? Don't forget to let the Dorset Team know about your successes (and failures if you need some advice or commiseration!) via the forum, FB group, or by tagging #DorsetTeam on social media.
Don't forget to join us next week for the next in our Business Building series!
Don't forget to join us next week for the next in our Business Building series!
