Finished the second quarter USO donation tally and sent the check out in todays mail.
Aprils total- $18.30
Mays total- $9.50
and June- $14.20
Total check amount $42.00
Sales were down for Military as well as for everything else in the shop, Etsy has been ramming through some very massive changes to how the customers put items into their carts to how they view our items, which now show our competitors items when a person is viewing our item that they might have followed back from a link or social media site.
A lot of shops have closed down and moved off site, but there are always new ones opening so I don't think etsy is going to go anywhere anytime soon. In order to bump sales I have even found it necessary myself to move off site. I still have both shops on Etsy with items in both but have found it necessary to "spread" the wealth to other sites to see if we can bump up sales.
My primary web site which has the links to each of the separate selling shops that I operate:
www.GabbysQuilts.com
Etsy custom military shop with sewing and craft supplies:
www.GabbysQuiltsNSupply.etsy.com
Etsy handmade shop with military baby , crochet and lanyards:
www.GabbysQuilts.etsy.com
Ebay with precut cotton fabrics for quilting sewing and craft uses:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/gabbysquilts518/m.html
Artyah with my husbands handmade wood items and the rest of my handmade items that I make as time allows:
https://www.artyah.com/seller/gabbysquilts
We are also getting ready for Craft Fair season and listings for the local sites we are vending can be found on my web site under the tab craft fairs 2017, my husband will be bringing his new wood items to display as well. Hoping for a good season this year as we have added a few new venues that we haven't participated in before so we shall see.
I'll leave you with this cute pattern I found for those of you into sewing :)
http://www.handmadiya.com/2015/09/zipper-wallet-diy-tutorial.html
Til next time have a good summer and I will be back soon with any new updates.
Showing posts with label business decisions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business decisions. Show all posts
Monday, July 10, 2017
Monday, January 18, 2016
Shop News for the New Year
Hi Folks,
Well 2016 is off and running, most of the tax paperwork is done, final Military donation for the year was made and for the last quarter , with sales contributions of $69.90 from my military customers and I pitched in a final amount to get us to the $100 level. With the total donation for the year coming in at $598.00 my Military customers rocked the USO this year, hoping that 2016 we can do it again.
Looking at some different variations on what we are already carrying, with lanyard machine issues constantly cropping up I am forced to keep what we can make on the small side, so look for some new mini key fobs for the different branches with dual branch embroidery on both sides of the fob, I am going to see about making some small size quilts with coordinating fabric for the different branches and their logos and maybe if we have the time I can introduce personalized Christmas stockings this year.
We start this year off participating in a Team Event on Etsy, the Quiltsy Destash Party, please if you have the time and either sew or craft some real bargains can be had by shopping the stores participating, some are just cleaning their sewing rooms and others, like me, have had to down size to fit into smaller places when we moved over the past year.
Check it out here:
Please also feel free to browse our handmade items as well at:
Well 2016 is off and running, most of the tax paperwork is done, final Military donation for the year was made and for the last quarter , with sales contributions of $69.90 from my military customers and I pitched in a final amount to get us to the $100 level. With the total donation for the year coming in at $598.00 my Military customers rocked the USO this year, hoping that 2016 we can do it again.
Looking at some different variations on what we are already carrying, with lanyard machine issues constantly cropping up I am forced to keep what we can make on the small side, so look for some new mini key fobs for the different branches with dual branch embroidery on both sides of the fob, I am going to see about making some small size quilts with coordinating fabric for the different branches and their logos and maybe if we have the time I can introduce personalized Christmas stockings this year.
We start this year off participating in a Team Event on Etsy, the Quiltsy Destash Party, please if you have the time and either sew or craft some real bargains can be had by shopping the stores participating, some are just cleaning their sewing rooms and others, like me, have had to down size to fit into smaller places when we moved over the past year.
Check it out here:
The Great Quiltsy Destash Party
Starting Date: January 15th, 2016
The party ends when its all gone!
Place: The Quiltsy Team Pages on Etsy
We are a team of quilting entrepreneurs dedicated to making quality products, advancing our love of quilting, and supporting each other. In 2016 we will be working to showcase new products and ideas, promoting our shops, and changing the way you think about quilting! All this creativity means we are opening our quilting studios up to you. Fabrics, Patterns, Quilt Books, and Kits are all available for the taking. We welcome you to start your shopping and browsing at any time by clicking on the links below.
Please also feel free to browse our handmade items as well at:
https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam
Find us on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/QuiltsyTeam
Find us on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/QuiltsyTeam
Thanks for stopping by and giving us a look. Happy Shopping!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Decision
Well I made a very difficult decision concerning my Hand Made shops, after intense conversations with my husband, I am shutting them down due to lack of sales.
After constant critiques of my shops, and trying to retake pictures, to no avail, and trying to learn a photo doctoring program to get the pictures up to par, it still wasn't working. No matter what I do the pictures are too bright or too dark, and with a paying job that takes up on average 60 plus hours a week, I also have run into the problem of not being able to make new product to keep it "fresh". We are still doing the Craft Fairs, that has actually turned out to be the best business solution for my items, people can touch, feel and see the true colors up close, and I actually make sales that way.
The larger items have been donated or given away already, and the quilt tops that are finished will be donated for raffles and given away as gifts just like before. There is too much completion online for what I make and no matter what I did off of the sites to get my name out there for the handmade items, nobody bothered to check them out, so the Etsy shop is already gone, and Artfire is paid up to October 31st and will be gone by then as well.
I had also explored the option of a eCommerce web site through someplace like Weebly, but with the hate relationship between me and my camera, I didn't see that working out any better then what I had before, you still need nice crisp pictures, and that is something I just don't have the ability to do, and paying a professional to do it is not in the budget at this time.
The only shop being left open is going to be the Supply shop, that has received good comments and reviews so we will have to continue down that avenue for a online venue that actually will work.
I honestly don't think people really appreciate Hand Made, and until they do, my shops were doomed from the start, I just didn't realize it at the time. I, at this point, consider it a lesson learned, and so we made the decision to continue with what works and drop what doesn't. I truly would much rather make things to sell, then order from my supplier, but I guess it wasn't in the cards.
After constant critiques of my shops, and trying to retake pictures, to no avail, and trying to learn a photo doctoring program to get the pictures up to par, it still wasn't working. No matter what I do the pictures are too bright or too dark, and with a paying job that takes up on average 60 plus hours a week, I also have run into the problem of not being able to make new product to keep it "fresh". We are still doing the Craft Fairs, that has actually turned out to be the best business solution for my items, people can touch, feel and see the true colors up close, and I actually make sales that way.
The larger items have been donated or given away already, and the quilt tops that are finished will be donated for raffles and given away as gifts just like before. There is too much completion online for what I make and no matter what I did off of the sites to get my name out there for the handmade items, nobody bothered to check them out, so the Etsy shop is already gone, and Artfire is paid up to October 31st and will be gone by then as well.
I had also explored the option of a eCommerce web site through someplace like Weebly, but with the hate relationship between me and my camera, I didn't see that working out any better then what I had before, you still need nice crisp pictures, and that is something I just don't have the ability to do, and paying a professional to do it is not in the budget at this time.
The only shop being left open is going to be the Supply shop, that has received good comments and reviews so we will have to continue down that avenue for a online venue that actually will work.
I honestly don't think people really appreciate Hand Made, and until they do, my shops were doomed from the start, I just didn't realize it at the time. I, at this point, consider it a lesson learned, and so we made the decision to continue with what works and drop what doesn't. I truly would much rather make things to sell, then order from my supplier, but I guess it wasn't in the cards.
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