Five Year Plan

I started dabbling in jewelry design five years ago. I didn't expect much to happen for the first three years at least. I read that most businesses don't turn a profit the first five years. I told myself I'd give it five years. So here I am...I don't feel like I have come any closer to turning a profit than when I started doing this five years ago. It has been ultra hard during this recession to convince people that, yes, they should buy a new piece of handmade jewelry even though they lost their job and their house is about to go into foreclosure.


I have seen other artists who have had sales...numerous sales, actually. Artists whose work is no better than my own. Why is that? What makes the difference? Well, I'm not entirely sure. I think a lot of it is luck, honestly. I know that there are some things that I need to do better, though:


1. Marketing. I have to get into the habit of doing some marketing every. single. day. I have a short amount of patience and often I will go full force on marketing myself for a week, see no results, then give up. I have to remember that it doesn't work that way. It builds up over time. I read Jack Canfield's The Success Principles, which was a great read. He talks about doing five things every day that help market your business. I think about that every day, but don't follow through. That hurts my business because if I don't hit the market with my name every day, people will forget who I am.


2. Hustling. If I had the courage and confidence to really hustle my product, I could sell it. I'm sure of it. The problem is I don't. The confidence is coming along, but the courage? I get an anxiety attack just thinking about it. I prefer to do shows and tell people "hello" and "let me know if you have any questions." The other day I was browsing at a Swarovski store. The saleslady was trying SO hard to make a sale to me or my mother. It was so annoying, I just wanted to get out of the store asap! It was like she didn't even really "see" us, she just saw a potential sale. I don't want to be that sort of person, always pushing a sale. That said, I miss great opportunities when I'm out and someone says "I love your necklace." and I simply say "Thanks." I know what you're thinking. Believe me, I know. I'm working on it.


3. Patience. I have realized that five years is nothing. It has gone by in a flash. I may not be making a profit, but I have come a long, long way since 2007. This dawned on me when I created a board on pinterest recently. The things I have accomplished in five short years made me proud of myself. It's not all about the money, anyway. It's about the journey.


So what's my five year plan now? I'm not sure. I think I'll just focus on one year at a time.

Bizarre Bazaar 2011

This was my second year selling at the Bizarre Bazaar in Lawrence, KS. I was told about this event from a fellow artist a couple of years ago. It is not advertised as far as the application goes, yet over 400 people apply for the show every year. It is a first-come, first-serve show. Once you get the application mailing, you have to pop it right back in the mail with your entry fee the same day, as they fill up usually within a couple of days. I am amazed at the quality of artists in this show, especially as it is non-juried, but all items are expected to be hand made by the artist. It is truly a pleasure being surrounded by so many great artists.

Unlike last year, the event was held Friday evening in addition to all day Saturday. Last year I had my two tables set up side by side and only had room for a small stool to sit on - that made for a long day! This year I set them up one in front of the other and added a backdrop. Not only did I have room for two chairs, the backdrop really helped bring attention to my booth.

I also took advantage of the electrical outlets available. The extra lighting makes a world of difference when it comes to jewelry.

Sales were good. Not amazing, "oh-my-gosh I can't believe how much money I made" good, but they were up slightly over last year. I even had a repeat customer from last year search me out to purchase more of my designs. That was the best! I also sold to one of the founding members of the Kansas City Artists Coalition. She purchased almost all of the cuffs I had for sale.

I feel like I am gaining a following. I also feel exhausted. It takes every bit of energy I have to get through these shows because I hate the actual "selling". I don't like standing there talking to people all day. It is simply exhausting. That said, I do love that most people had really good reactions to my collections. That makes the physical and mental exhaustion worth it.

Before doing this show, I had been suffering a severe lack of motivation. A period of "why am I even doing this?"..."do I really like doing this?"..."why isn't it fun any more?"...this show bounced me out of that, somewhat. I am more inspired to create than I was before. It's hard at times to just focus on the creating and not think about the bottom line. However, at the end of the day, if this is going to be a business, it has to make money. I can't survive on simply looking at my pretty creations. I have to SELL them. That can be a tough task in this economy and especially in this field, which is SATURATED with designers, as well as cheap imports.

SO...I am going to spend some time pondering this task...brainstorming...and hopefully coming up with new collections that will blow people's minds.

I don't have any more shows scheduled the remainder of this year, but I do have items listed on etsy, and I will be listing some new creations. I am really looking forward to spending a lot of quality time with family and friends. That is always a great way to re-energize. Happy Holidays!

Hello ArtFire

I recently opened up a shop on ArtFire, which is most likely going to become the permanent home of my shop, which for the past three years has been on etsy.

It was the amazing deal they recently offered that prompted me to look into ArtFire further. Just under $6 per month, list all you want, no fees on the selling end. I can easily spend that on etsy in a week, just listing items or relisting in an attempt to get a few seconds on the front page.

Up until a year ago, etsy was good for me. I averaged a sale per week...not horrible, not amazing, but it was consistent, as were views. As etsy has gotten super saturated with sellers, the views and the sales have continued to slow, no matter how many items I list or how much I promote my shop. I notice that often when I list an item, it never shows up on the front page, thanks to the batch uploading etsy implemented.

Needless to say I have been frustrated, and, although I love etsy, there are a few features about ArtFire that I love even more, as will my customers.

You do not have to open an account with ArtFire to buy! I think this is awesome! I really think I have lost some buyers because they don't want another account with another username and another password. They just want to buy something and get on with their life!

Also, sellers can run coupons and sales very easily! In fact, I am running a 20% off coupon the entire month of October for everything in my ArtFire shop! If I wanted to do this on etsy, I would have to "refund" buyers the difference in Paypal, or go through and mark down each item manually.

Finally, the search engine on ArtFire is so much better. Example: I did a search for "resin bangle". On etsy, there were over 47,000 results, many of them having nothing to do with "resin bangle". On ArtFire, the same search yielded a mere 7,000 results, most of them relevant. Granted, I know the traffic is higher on etsy, but still, their search engine leaves much to be desired.

SO, long story short, I have set up shop on ArtFire. And, like I said, I am running a sale for the month of October. 20% off any purchase! Just type in "october20" at checkout!

Line Sheets

In my previous post, I mentioned "line sheets". Until a few months ago, I had no idea what a line sheet was or it's function. Basically, it's a sheet that has your products listed and pictured, along with the wholesale price, suggested retail price, and wholesale terms (minimum quantity, etc.). At least that's my take on it. After doing some research and looking at other line sheet examples, I came up with this for my new summer line, Ocean View.
It features the following: Clear photos of the merchandise, short and concise descriptions, basic measurements of each piece, the wholesale price and suggested retail price, and the minimum purchase requirements.

I might need to make changes down the line, but you have to start somewhere! Plus, it sure is nice to have something that can easily be emailed to retailers!

Speaking of retailers, I have an appointment next week at a fabulous boutique in town! All because of the promo card I sent out! If anything develops, I'll be sure to post the news on this blog!

Courting Retail

After spending the last few months preparing collections and getting my website together, I decided it was time to seek out some potential partnerships with retail shops. I have done consignment, and still do, but it is quite a financial strain to have to create all product up front, then wait (sometimes for a loooong time) for it to sell.

Now that I have a more concrete focus and definition to my collections, I feel confident in offering a select few as wholesale options. But how to go about it? I have no real experience or training in selling or marketing, plus I'm not a natural born salesperson...it is a challenge for me to get out there and see people face to face, touting my product. I tend to market the way I like to be marketed to...no pressure, show me what you have to offer, let me decide. SO, what I started off with is a "targeted" mailing, focusing on a select group of shops and boutiques where I think my product would be a good fit.

First, I did A LOT of research on local and regional boutiques, creating a list, then narrowing it down to those I considered the most relevant to my product offerings. Once I had my mailing list finalized, I needed to decide what to send. It would need to engage the store owners within the first, oh, three seconds of looking at it. I know how fast promotional mail gets tossed. It would also have to be limited in cost. Like many small business, my marketing budget is teeny.

Lucky for me, I am a graphic designer by trade, so I know how to create a marketing piece on the cheap that has impact. Instead of paying to have a postcard-type piece printed, I wanted a piece that looked custom, so this is what I did:

I took 4x6 prints from the photo shoot of my newest collection and adhered them to 5x7 pieces of high-quality ivory cardstock. Then I printed my logo and copy onto 5x7 sheets of ivory vellum, which I used to overlay the photos. I chose dark brown metallic envelopes and addressed them with gold ink, giving them a rich and a bit more high-end look, which is very important if you want the recipient to actually open your mailing, instead of throwing it out with the rest of the unsolicited promo material they recieve.

I kept copy to a bare minimum because my goal is to drive the shop owner to my website for more information, where they will look through my products, and at some point (hopefully) request line sheets. Speaking of linesheets, I will post another entry about them soon, so stay tuned.

The cost of this marketing piece? Well, the paper was on sale, making each 5x7 sheet approximately 15 cents (2 pieces cut from an 8.5 x 11 sheet), the photo print was 20 cents, the envelope was 50 cents, and the stamp of course was 44 cents. That brings the total cost per piece to $1.29, including postage. Not bad at all for a custom-designed piece!

In case some of the shop owners don't make it to my web site, I will send a follow-up email after the initial mailing. Even if I don't receive an immediate response, this piece still gets me in front of potential buyers. They might not buy now, or next week, or next month, but maybe, just maybe, they'll be thinking about me when they have coffee with their friends, or they'll happen to mention my company or my designs in random conversation. I have learned that every little bit of exposure helps, and that you never know where your next raving fan will come from...sometimes they show up seemingly out of nowhere...then you find out they are a friend of a friend's sister, whose mother's cousin owns a boutique and received your promotional material...you just never know.

Adventures in Dreamweaver

Ten years ago I purchased Macromedia Dreamweaver 3, thinking that, as a graphic designer, it would be a good thing to expand my skills into the web design arena. That thought quickly faded and the program sat virtually unused until recently.

Since the beginning of the year, I have really wanted to design my own website, so I finally opened up Dreamweaver and ran with it. My biggest hurdle was that my design mind thinks in "print media" - I spent years designing brochures and magazines - instead of "web media", which is an entirely different animal. SO, I would work on it a little, get frustrated, set it aside, go back to it a few days later, figure something out, get excited, get stumped again, get frustrated, set it aside, and so on...I of course didn't read any manuals or watch any tutorials because of my innate desire to make things as difficult as possible. :)

After a few months, I had figured out enough to actually create my site with links that actually worked (after few rounds of adjustments). I researched the crap out of hosting options, then just settled on godaddy because I had used them previously, and frankly, because I got tired of doing the research. It's really hard to find honest reviewers of hosting sites that aren't being rewarded in some way shape or form for their review.

One HUGE lesson I learned is that most ftps (file transfer protocols, which you use to upload your files to the hosting server) do not like slashes or spaces in titles. So, I had to rename some files and fix a bunch of links. Once I did that, to my surprise, everything actually WORKED. I have since even made a change to one of my web pages, uploaded through the ftp, and the change actually appeared almost instantly on my website - that was a relief. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with my abilities now, but I still have a looooong way to go!

I wanted to keep my website simple and clean, with the main focus being the photos of my products. Each collection has a shop link, which takes the visitor to my etsy site to make any purchases. As confident as I'm feeling about getting a handle on basic web design, I'm not ready to handle the ecommerce aspects of it on my own - yet. I did, however, figure out how to add meta tags to my site - oh, was I giddy over that discovery!

One other thing. Being from the print media side, I assumed that if you manually centered elements in your web page, they would automatically show up that way on the web. Of course that isn't the case, so I need to rework the layout at some point - this time, I have a book I'm reading so I can do it right the first time.

Ok, now that you're dying of suspense, here's a link to my "possibly" centered website (but no guarantees).

2010 Will Be The Year!!!

2009 was great, really. I grew enormously as an artist, and my understanding of business has grown exponentially. Ok, maybe not exponentially, but I do understand more than I did!

As great as 2009 was, 2010 is going to be even better! I will have some fun and fabulous "collections" and I will promote them ferociously! I am working on several of these collections currently, and hope to have a photo shoot in the next month! For the first time, ideas are actually coming together into multiple pieces...very exciting, as I have spent a lot of time evolving my style and focus since beginning my company in 2007. I feel more than ever that I actually "know what I'm doing".

My main goal for 2010 is to further develop the branding of my business, as well as obtain press coverage to get my name out there, all while having fun and continuing the learning process, which never stops!

I hope all of you realize your goals in 2010...at least some of them. Never stop trying! And never stop dreaming!

Jewelry Tag Branding

As anyone who is trying to build a business knows, branding is a crucial part of marketing. For quite a while I have realized that when someone purchased one of my items, chances are, two months later they will not remember who made the necklace or where it came from. I finally came up with a solution after seeing what a fellow seller on etsy was doing.

After running out of ink on my inkjet printer and not wanting to pay the money for new cartridges, I decided to hand-typeset a logo tag on shrink plastic. Not perfect, but it really adds something to my pieces, and at least now people will remember where their purchase came from. I wish I had done this sooner! I was able to fit about 48 tags on one 8x10 sheet of shrink plastic. The cost of one sheet is around 60 cents. So each tag costs me just over 1 cent!

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have tiny metal tags with a professionally embossed logo like this, but for now, my charming little hand made plastic tags will have to do.

Gift Gallery 2009

Yesterday I participated in the 2009 Gift Gallery, held at Cure of Ars church and school in Leawood, Kansas. It was a great show - the best I've ever had, actually! Here are some shots of my booth:My good friend Lauri Meyers also had a booth with her mom that was super cute!And here's a shot of Angie with JunieC's setting up her darling booth.

I think I had more success at this show than in past shows because of my booth set up. In the past I have had just one small table, but I have learned to utilize more space and spread things out so buyers can see. Overall, it was a great experience! I really, REALLY appreciate my mom helping me with this show, although I didn't get a photo of her - she's the BEST!!!

New Press Kit - Finally!

I have been working on my "new" press kit slash look book since early this year and finally have it up. Feel free to take a look by clicking on the link in the upper right of this page.

Collections?

When I began designing jewelry a couple of years ago, I never really thought about where I wanted it to go, who I wanted to market to, what my ultimate goals were. I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out, but am starting to realize some things.

First, I've realized that I want to be a brand. I want people to see my product and know that it is a "Deanna Burasco". How to go about that is a long and arduous journey. With so many designers out there, I think it can be daunting to establish yourself apart from everyone else. Also, I've seen how designers are constantly copied, and that to remain on the forefront, a designer has to re-invent themselves constantly to stay ahead of the copycats.

Second, I've realized that I have wasted a lot of time creating pieces and have not spent enough time marketing. I would try to make new pieces weekly or even daily, hoping each new design would spark a sale. This led to a mish mash of products (I think) with a lack of consistency and direction. One of my new goals is to create fewer pieces, then focus on marketing them, eventually gaining a solid fan base and establishing some solid wholesale accounts.

Third and last, I am working on creating "collections", which ties into what I just mentioned. Not only do I want to create fewer pieces, I want to have lines of pieces that coordinate and compliment one another. Whittling down all of the designs that I'm excited about is the hard part. My mind seems to not understand the concept :). When I look at the mainstream successful designers, most, if not all, have collections. They carry these collections for a time, then retire them and introduce new collections. It allows them to have a more cohesive grouping of products, which is easier to market and sell, in my opinion.

So, that's where I am...

On a side note, I am excited to be involved in the next Impact Fashion workshop. It's a day-long event for fashion designers, make-up artists, photographers and stylists to explore ideas and build portfolios. I'm the only participating jewelry designer, so this will be a great opportunity to get some model shots of my "collections", which I will figure out soon....I hope!