Trunk Show Flyer

Trunk Show Flyer, originally uploaded by stephgibson23.

Biting the bullet.
Doesn't "Trunk Show" sound sooooo much better than "home party"?

Click on the flickr link if you want to see the whole thing - I am much too lazy today to fix this photo.

Mooooooooooooooo! Cards

My Moo Cards came today.

I am in love!

A little bright spot in an otherwise yucky week (I promise to post more about the yuckiness later - everyone is fine - but not quite ready to write about it.)

Happy, happy little cards!

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Two blog posts I read this week have made me start thinking about my shop and what I can do to make it more successful.

The first was Miss Fickle Media's post about her 1,000 sale in which she outlined her Etsy history. She wrote about working "smarter, not harder" which sounds good to me. She did a lot of research of selling trends and the habits of top sellers. This led me to believe that it is time to do some research of my own. After some light research of a few top jewelry sellers I see that they each have between two and five very distinctive, very simple items that they sell over and over again. So, what can my item be? Yes, well, it is going to take me more than a few days to figure that one out.

The second blog post belonged to Littleput Books. She has some terrific tips for Etsy sellers on her blog. In particular, tip #10 stood out for me. Sell What You Love. She suggests you get rid of any item that does not represent you at your best. According to this advice, I have several items that I should toss from my shop. That is going to be really hard to do, because it has happened more than once that just as I was thinking I should get rid of an item, somebody bought it. Nevertheless, Littleput is a very successful seller, so I am going to compromise. All the items that don't seem to fit with my favorite things are going on sale and will not be renewed. When they expire, I will put them in my box marked "old stuff" to be scavenged for parts at some later date. My second "Sell What You Love" plan of attack is that I am just going to stop worrying about the price and make what I like (see the photo above. $135) To some extent I have been doing this with bracelets and wire wrapped necklaces in the last couple weeks, and while those items have not yet sold, they do have lots of hearts, so i must be on the right track.

Wish me luck.