Thanks to a late-January sales blast in my Etsy shop, I've now surpassed 400 sales! I love turning any milestone in my sales numbers. I know 400 sales isn't huge on Etsy, where some people have sold thousands of items, but for me, each one is still a huge accomplishment. It's such a dream come true to be able to make stuff and sell it, and every single sale on Etsy fills me up with joy. Thanks to all of my customers out there, you mean the world to me!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sales Milestone!
Thanks to a late-January sales blast in my Etsy shop, I've now surpassed 400 sales! I love turning any milestone in my sales numbers. I know 400 sales isn't huge on Etsy, where some people have sold thousands of items, but for me, each one is still a huge accomplishment. It's such a dream come true to be able to make stuff and sell it, and every single sale on Etsy fills me up with joy. Thanks to all of my customers out there, you mean the world to me!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Back to Real Life
I'm back! I've actually been back since Saturday, but it's taken me a while to get back into the groove of things. Our fun-in-the-sun vacation turned out to be more of a fun-in-the-cold-and-gray vacation, thanks to a freak streak of cold weather in Florida, but we still had a good time!
While I was in St. Petersburg, Florida, I had the opportunity to check out a bit of the local clay scene. I started off by visiting the St. Petersburg Clay Company, located in the old Seaboard Train Station, built in 1926. This facility is home to about 60 artists. They're unique in that they offer various levels of membership and studio rentals. They have a massive kiln yard that includes gas and raku kilns, as well as an anagama kiln. Throughout the facility, you can view the work of almost everyone, all the way from the artists-in-residence to the some of the original SPCC founders. If you're in St. Pete and into clay, you definitely want to schedule of a tour of this place!
I also got to visit the lovely Craftsman House Gallery, which is housed in a renovated 1918 Craftsman bungalow. I wandered for what seemed like hours through the sunny gallery space, and was delighted to find that the gallery carried work by such pottery greats as Tom and Elaine Coleman and Natalie Blake. I came away with a stunning Tom Coleman bowl, which looks a bit like the one here. Craftsman House owner Stephanie Schorr gave me a tour of the pottery studio, located in the adjacent renovated carriage house, and her kiln building. Craftsman House also has a wonderful cafe where you can get coffee drinks and a great little meal. I had the olive tapenade platter and the mango iced tea and it was fantastic! I can see why this place does such a huge local lunch rush!
After St. Petersburg, we headed to Orlando for a few days of fun at Disney World. This is my third Disney World trip in five years, I love it there so much! My first trip was for a friend's wedding, and I have to say, I was skeptical as to why two adults would want to get married in a place that's obviously for kids. Then I got there, and saw Donald Duck for the first time, and promptly fell under the Disney World spell. I've never had more fun anywhere in my life! The food, the rides, the beautiful gardens and hotels...I could go on and on. If you've never been, you must go at least once in your life. You won't regret it!
So, now I'm home and trying to switch over from vacation mode. I'm firing a glaze kiln next weekend, so look for some new work in the store soon!
While I was in St. Petersburg, Florida, I had the opportunity to check out a bit of the local clay scene. I started off by visiting the St. Petersburg Clay Company, located in the old Seaboard Train Station, built in 1926. This facility is home to about 60 artists. They're unique in that they offer various levels of membership and studio rentals. They have a massive kiln yard that includes gas and raku kilns, as well as an anagama kiln. Throughout the facility, you can view the work of almost everyone, all the way from the artists-in-residence to the some of the original SPCC founders. If you're in St. Pete and into clay, you definitely want to schedule of a tour of this place!I also got to visit the lovely Craftsman House Gallery, which is housed in a renovated 1918 Craftsman bungalow. I wandered for what seemed like hours through the sunny gallery space, and was delighted to find that the gallery carried work by such pottery greats as Tom and Elaine Coleman and Natalie Blake. I came away with a stunning Tom Coleman bowl, which looks a bit like the one here. Craftsman House owner Stephanie Schorr gave me a tour of the pottery studio, located in the adjacent renovated carriage house, and her kiln building. Craftsman House also has a wonderful cafe where you can get coffee drinks and a great little meal. I had the olive tapenade platter and the mango iced tea and it was fantastic! I can see why this place does such a huge local lunch rush!After St. Petersburg, we headed to Orlando for a few days of fun at Disney World. This is my third Disney World trip in five years, I love it there so much! My first trip was for a friend's wedding, and I have to say, I was skeptical as to why two adults would want to get married in a place that's obviously for kids. Then I got there, and saw Donald Duck for the first time, and promptly fell under the Disney World spell. I've never had more fun anywhere in my life! The food, the rides, the beautiful gardens and hotels...I could go on and on. If you've never been, you must go at least once in your life. You won't regret it!
So, now I'm home and trying to switch over from vacation mode. I'm firing a glaze kiln next weekend, so look for some new work in the store soon!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
In a sunshine state of mind...
This is my last blog post for a couple of weeks! My dear husband and I are heading to Florida for a fun-in-the-sun vacation, complete with a side trip to Disney World. My mom will be running my Etsy store while I'm gone, but only jewelry items will be available. Pottery, chopstick gift sets, and international shipping options will return on January 26th!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Money Matters
I've been away from my blog for so long! I took a few days off from the computer around Christmas, but this long absence is due to the fact that I threw out my back a little over a week ago. It's getting slowly getting better, but it's been very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for any length of time. Or to do anything else, for that matter! I've never thrown out my back before; I had no idea it was so debilitating.
Since I'm not up to anything in the studio, I spent the morning doing the bookkeeping for my pottery business. I'm proud to say that I made a profit in 2008! I've never actually made a profit in my business before, I've only sort of broke even. I took my profit and divided it by a rough estimate of the number of hours I worked at my business this year. I discovered that I earned $4.00 an hour making and selling pottery and jewelry this year! Hoots toots!
Of course, I would like to make more than $4.00 an hour making pottery. And I'm beginning to understand how to do that, finally. I'm discovering that it takes careful tracking of information of all sorts. I track what I spend on my business, in various spreadsheets for material, marketing, and overhead costs. I also track my sales monthly and annually to see which sales venues are producing the most income. I got my spreadsheets from an excellent art/craft business book called Making a Living in Crafts. I highly recommend checking it out if you're new to running a small craft business or you just never feel like you know what you're doing when it comes to the money side of your business.
I used to worry endlessly about how I would ever make enough money to continue to be able to make pottery. I wondered how in the world anyone ever supported themselves with their art! Now, I just try to do better than last year. I used to think there was some sort of magical plan or system that I just had not discovered that was the Answer. Now, I realize that pretty much everyone does the same thing. They do research, they try things, and then they keep what works and they pitch what doesn't. It's really that simple.
Going into 2009, I'm looking carefully at my spreadsheets, trying to determine where I can cut costs in order to be more profitable in the coming year. I see that my shipping costs and shipping supplies categories are where I spend a lot of money. Maybe I can search around for lower costs on bubble mailers and shipping labels and the like. I also see that my advertising section is pretty hefty, probably due to all those Etsy showcase spots and co-op ads I bought into early in 2008. I was just signing up for things willy-nilly, because I had no idea what worked for me. Now I know a little more. Etsy co-op ads, such as those in Bust or Craft magazines, have done nothing for me. Main Showcase spots are usually worth the money, but Category Showcase spots are not. I dropped Constant Contact's e-mail marketing services in favor of Vertical Response, because Constant Contact costs $15 a month whereas Vertical Response is pay-as-you-go and normally costs me about $4 to send an e-newsletter to my entire mailing list. It's amazing how little things like this add up to big money at the end of a year.
I know a lot of people don't like to talk about money, and some think it's crass to do so, but I don't agree. How will anyone learn about money if no one talks about it? I would love to see more money talk in artists' blogs, because I'd love to learn what they've learned without having to go through it myself. Why do we insist on reinventing the wheel? Let's just all share what we've learned so we can all do better.
On that note, I hope 2009 will be a happy and prosperous year for all of you. I know that our economy is feeling pretty shaky right now, so it's more important than ever to learn what we can about money. If your personal finances need help, check out a little gem of a book called All Your Worth. I read this book two years ago and it changed my financial life forever. If you've resolved to get your money act together in 2009, start with this book. You won't regret it! Happy New Year!
Since I'm not up to anything in the studio, I spent the morning doing the bookkeeping for my pottery business. I'm proud to say that I made a profit in 2008! I've never actually made a profit in my business before, I've only sort of broke even. I took my profit and divided it by a rough estimate of the number of hours I worked at my business this year. I discovered that I earned $4.00 an hour making and selling pottery and jewelry this year! Hoots toots!
Of course, I would like to make more than $4.00 an hour making pottery. And I'm beginning to understand how to do that, finally. I'm discovering that it takes careful tracking of information of all sorts. I track what I spend on my business, in various spreadsheets for material, marketing, and overhead costs. I also track my sales monthly and annually to see which sales venues are producing the most income. I got my spreadsheets from an excellent art/craft business book called Making a Living in Crafts. I highly recommend checking it out if you're new to running a small craft business or you just never feel like you know what you're doing when it comes to the money side of your business.
I used to worry endlessly about how I would ever make enough money to continue to be able to make pottery. I wondered how in the world anyone ever supported themselves with their art! Now, I just try to do better than last year. I used to think there was some sort of magical plan or system that I just had not discovered that was the Answer. Now, I realize that pretty much everyone does the same thing. They do research, they try things, and then they keep what works and they pitch what doesn't. It's really that simple.
Going into 2009, I'm looking carefully at my spreadsheets, trying to determine where I can cut costs in order to be more profitable in the coming year. I see that my shipping costs and shipping supplies categories are where I spend a lot of money. Maybe I can search around for lower costs on bubble mailers and shipping labels and the like. I also see that my advertising section is pretty hefty, probably due to all those Etsy showcase spots and co-op ads I bought into early in 2008. I was just signing up for things willy-nilly, because I had no idea what worked for me. Now I know a little more. Etsy co-op ads, such as those in Bust or Craft magazines, have done nothing for me. Main Showcase spots are usually worth the money, but Category Showcase spots are not. I dropped Constant Contact's e-mail marketing services in favor of Vertical Response, because Constant Contact costs $15 a month whereas Vertical Response is pay-as-you-go and normally costs me about $4 to send an e-newsletter to my entire mailing list. It's amazing how little things like this add up to big money at the end of a year.
I know a lot of people don't like to talk about money, and some think it's crass to do so, but I don't agree. How will anyone learn about money if no one talks about it? I would love to see more money talk in artists' blogs, because I'd love to learn what they've learned without having to go through it myself. Why do we insist on reinventing the wheel? Let's just all share what we've learned so we can all do better.
On that note, I hope 2009 will be a happy and prosperous year for all of you. I know that our economy is feeling pretty shaky right now, so it's more important than ever to learn what we can about money. If your personal finances need help, check out a little gem of a book called All Your Worth. I read this book two years ago and it changed my financial life forever. If you've resolved to get your money act together in 2009, start with this book. You won't regret it! Happy New Year!
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