My Life is Insane!

It's been awhile since I've been here ... my summer was absolutely crazy! And fall is looking mighty busy!

I've had a garden this summer. I don't always live in a place where I can have one so it's been awesome! I grew green beans, corn, cantaloupe, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, peas, kale, peppers and potatoes -- some things in multiple varieties. I've had the best corn crop ever and everything has been growing like crazy! But it's also been a bit of a battle with the weeds .. and more than once, I've felt like the weeds won. But it's been worth it! Almost every afternoon, I walk out to the garden and pick something yummy and take it back to my kitchen to make it for dinner. Throw a couple chicken legs on the grill, and it's been all good!

Several of my Saturdays have been spent selling jewelry at the local farm market -- that's been a great experience! The other vendors have been so nice and I've had some nice sales. I've been busy with business during the week too ... I've had a few sales on Etsy and done several pieces of custom work. I have some ideas for new designs and have been working on developing them.

Our building crew changes from project to project and on this build, it's changed during the project! This summer, we've had 5 groups in for a week at a time to help with the building and our crew has been a pretty social bunch.

I hope to pop back in a little more often this fall ... have some ideas for topics I'd like to chat about. See ya soon!!

So .. Why the Changes? Part 5

Business has been rolling along ok ... not fabulous but ok. I started doing some research on marketing (because I was a serious rookie about this stuff) and I began paying close attention to what people were telling me at craft shows. I came to the realization that my business name, B-Jeweled By Susan, might not have been the best choice.

When I first named my business, I was only thinking of doing craft shows and my contact with customers would be live. “B-Jeweled By Susan” was fine in print (on business cards and flyers) and substituting the “e” with a hyphen looked kinda clever.

But then I got an email address. And I was introduced to Etsy. Neither wanted to take my hyphen or my spaces ... so my online name became “bjeweledbysusan”. It’s not a bad name .... but no one can find it. When you’re in business, that sorta defeats the purpose! Even my friends say they have a hard time remembering the unusual spelling so they got frustrated trying to get through on my email or find me at Etsy. If my friends are having this problem, nobody else is finding me either!

And there was another problem -- to those who haven’t seen my name in print, it looks like I don’t know how to spell .... because the “bjeweled” without the “e” really doesn’t make much sense without the hyphen (b-jeweled).

And, to be honest, when I first started at Etsy, I made some mistakes. Nothing glaring or terrible. Just didn’t get off to a great start. I'm thinking that a fresh start might be a good thing.

So, before I get too much more invested in my name and image and marketing, I want to change my business name. That has turned out to be a bigger project than I expected ... but it’s all working out. On Etsy, that means opening a new shop and it involved quite a bit of research. And choosing the new name? Well ...... more later.......

My First Farm Market

Life has been crazy busy the past few weeks. Our daughter is dating a young man -- his brother was killed last week in a hit and run -- a tragic situation. We've had a couple volunteer groups helping here on the building project. I'm still TRYING to get some things organized in my life and get into some semblance of a routine. I'm working on some small changes in business ... at least, they seemed like small changes ... getting them made is taking a lot longer than I thought. I am particularly trying to change the way I display necklaces at craft shows -- I like my ovals on the jewelry displays, but I have a lot more necklaces available than that and need to figure out a better way to show them off.

This past Saturday, I did my first farm market show -- it was great! I really had no idea what to expect, so set a sales range with the thought that, if I sold in that range, I'd be happy -- I exceeded my range!!! The market is in Elkhart Lake, which I've been told is a cottage community for Chicago executives. When it was time to sign up for the farm market, I knew my schedule would not allow me to be there every week and I was a bit concerned about "saturating my market" to be there each time, so I carefully chose 4 Saturdays. It seemed to me that if there were a lot of cottages in the area, a lot of people would "go to the cottage" for Fathers Day -- and I had that pegged. What I didn't realize is that it was also a race weekend for Road America -- town was packed! I've also chosen July 4 -- I expect a lot of people at their cottages again. I picked 2 dates in August -- they are more random but should be when produce is really filling the market. We'll see if I made good choices -- so far, so good!

Today I have a "private show" -- I'll be setting up for some new friends who want to see my work. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!! Wish me luck!!! Oh, and Part 5 of my new business "adventure" series will be posted in the next day or so.

A Business On the Move - Part 4

I didn’t have much capital to start a business and every penny made (and then some) has gone back into buying supplies and improving displays. While in Florida, I had purchased folding tables – the kind that are 2' x 4' and fold in the middle for storage (since my storage space is so extremely limited). They’ve worked out really well for me, too, because it seems that the booth size of every craft show is different. I have 3 tables, and can configure them in several different ways, depending on the size of my booth. I also acquired a canopy and got matching table cloths. My craft show set up was starting to look professional.

We also developed an idea for new jewelry displays. I needed displays that would be easy to transport, take minimal storage space, and assemble and dis-assemble quickly at craft shows. Because my jewelry is made with Swarovski crystals, the displays needed to allow plenty of light to show off the crystal’s sparkle and they needed to be as elegant as we could make them. I wanted them to be white so that no color would distort the color of the crystals -- but I didn’t want just any white -- I wanted the white of a grand piano. I wanted that deep, rich elegant white. And in our design, unfortunately, we also had to be able to have a good view of everything because some people just aren’t trustworthy. So after much research and thought, we came up with an idea: Keith would make some wooden boxes that would serve as a base. On the ends of each box, we have uprights that look a bit like stairsteps. In each step there’s a little notch where we place a steel bar, loaded with earring cards. Each box has 7 steps and each step holds 13 earring cards – so we can put 91 pairs of earrings on each display and 2 displays fit on each of my tables (they’re about 22" long).. But there’s more!
On the front of each display, there is a detachable shelf, sitting on a slope, with 4 ovals in a row – each oval is the perfect size to display a necklace, so we also have 4 necklaces on each display.

We finished in Florida last year in April and our next building project brought us to Wisconsin. I was able to participate in several craft shows in the fall (including my first juried shows) and I’m planning my 2009 show/market schedule now. Our show set up has been improved again with the addition of table skirts, which I designed and made (I sew too). Things are looking pretty good and I’m looking forward to the new selling season. Now, if only the economy doesn’t kill me .....

A Little Sunshine to Help Things Grow - Part 3

Just as things were starting to pick up for my jewelry business, the church project we were building was done and it was time to move on. We had been in the north, but it was October, and we just don’t start new projects when snow is about to happen. There was a church in Port St Lucie, FL who needed to get their pre-construction work done in anticipation of building – prints have to be approved, sub-contractors and materials found and a lot of little details worked out. So we were off to Florida!

I didn’t know much yet about finding craft shows on the internet and we weren’t really sure how long we were going to be in Florida so planning was difficult. I also didn’t realize how many craft shows there are in FL in the winter – or that many of them are “professional” shows which are very strictly juried, have high entry fees, have very strict display requirement and do not benefit any local organizations. I knew I wasn’t prepared for that yet ... but what to do? I ended up selling at a flea market for a couple months. The flea market definitely was NOT my best venue – my handcrafted items in with a lot of foreign made bargain junk. I didn’t fit. And it was the beginning of the big hikes in gas prices -- fewer people were coming to Florida so there were fewer tourists in the flea market. But I was getting some exposure and learning more about the business part of a jewelry business. The creative part had come easy – the business part was a process ......... a long, slow process!! We were blessed to meet a couple other vendors who had years of experience in flea markets and craft shows – I learned SO much from them! Before we left Florida, I was also able to get into a couple local craft shows and a festival – they were good experience and I picked up a little more knowledge from them.

At my early craft shows, I’d gone alone, or sometimes took a friend. At the flea market, my husband was able to go along with me. With Keith there to keep the selling going (and yes, to keep an eye out for light fingers), I was able to concentrate on making jewelry “on demand” – if someone saw a style they liked, but wanted it in a different color or wanted it on a post instead of a French Hook, I could make it while they waited. That service now makes up about a 1/3 to 1/2 of my craft show sales.

Keith is a pretty handy guy and when I suggested that I still needed to do something different for my displays, he understood what I was needing and why. It became our Saturday ritual to go do the flea market in the morning and early afternoon, then pack up and stop at a restaurant to eat on the way home. At those dinners, we began working out the plans for new displays that would better meet our needs and suit my jewelry. I was up to about 40 designs of earrings and 5 designs of necklaces. And because I use Swarovski crystals, we needed something that would allow plenty of light to show off their sparkle. The next display would also have to be very portable, easy to assemble and take down, easy to store and be a more refined way of displaying my work. I had decided that I wanted white so that no color would reflect and distort the colors of the crystals. But not just any white – the kind of white finish on a white grand piano – that deep, rich elegant white. I had been looking at displays on the internet and we spent a couple Saturday evenings haunting Home Depot looking for ideas. We finally came up with a plan. More later....

Nurturing the Baby - Part 2

I grew up on a farm, and I’ve always had a garden – so I have long understood the concepts of nurturing and patience. (They also came in handy as we raised our kids!) Once the seed was planted to start a jewelry business, things began to happen. I began to develop designs and started looking for supplies. I told the ladies at church about my interest and a couple of them started watching for ads for craft shows. I was a total rookie about this stuff – and somewhat like the gardener needs a little rain at just the right time, I was learning a little here and a little there – just when I needed to learn it.

I have to tell ya ... those first craft shows were a little rough. I only had about 7 styles of earrings. My “display” was a foam board covered with white lace, propped up with plate easels. Earrings were on homemade cards and the cards were tacked to the board with clear push pins. In each show, I had a board full of sterling earrings and a board of silver plated. As I look back now, it was NOT pretty. But it got me through my first few shows and in spite of the terrible presentation, people liked my work – and I made a little money.

Our youngest daughter went to work for a small Midwest chain of jewelry stores. Unfortunately, the stores failed and she was out of work. But when her store was closing, she was able to get some of the displays for me (for free!). So I graduated to spinners for my earrings, put my earrings on real earring cards and I had a couple busts to display a necklace or two. I felt like I was in the big time! As I made the transition to the new displays, I also decided to go exclusively with sterling silver and eliminate the cheap plated stuff – it was a good move. By this time, I was also up to 18 or 20 earrings designs. My craft shows were stepping up and business was improving.

At one of the craft shows, I met another vendor who was VERY sweet! She had a nice business card and had a web store on a site called “Etsy”. I’d never heard of it, but as she explained it, I found myself intrigued. Etsy is an online marketplace for artists and crafters to set up shops – kind of a web based craft show. This gal, who was selling children’s items, was enjoying quite a bit of success. I signed up! But there was a lot I didn’t understand about doing business online .... and I made quite a few mistakes. More to learn. (Sigh)

As I look back at taking those first baby steps, I’m amazed the baby learned to walk!! And like any baby, once they learn to walk, the next thing you know, they’re running! More later...

Crafty Conception - Part 1

I’ve always been crafty – able to work with my hands, take some basic materials and make something pretty out of them. And I’ve used that ability in many settings, but particularly in making a home. Those years when “country style” was popular – well, they were MADE for me! And I’m one of those people who can pretty much just look at something and figure out how it’s made. The one exception was making baskets – I took a class to learn how to make them because, while I knew weaving, I didn’t know much about using reed or finishing a basket. If it involves fabric, I can usually figure it out in minutes and I think I have a natural eye for balance and color – I know that I have memory for color (which has come in handy on more than one occasion!).

A few years ago, I bought a new outfit that was very pretty, but the color was a complete deviation from the rest of my wardrobe. Now, I don’t really wear a lot of jewelry but this outfit was dressy and I knew I would want earrings to go with it (at least). I browsed several costume jewelry shops but found nothing that stood out. I went to visit my daughter, who had recently been to a jewelry making party/class – she showed me a couple basic techniques – and we were off to the craft store! I picked up a couple basic tools and a few jewelry supplies and we headed back to her house where I made my first necklace. I knew about “lead crystal” but I hadn’t heard of Swarovski – but I’d found some Swarovski crystals that looked like they might go with my outfit. They were the Padparadscha color and I mixed them with white pearls – it was a stunning match! And I was hooked!

Because of the travel involved in our ministry (and for a long list of other reasons) I homeschooled our 2 youngest children – over 15 years. For those who are unfamiliar with homeschooling, I can only say that it is a huge commitment of time for the teaching parent. When our youngest daughter graduated from high school, I felt a little at loose ends. I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands. Because we are missionaries, and have never been fully supported, I began looking at a job to help financially. But because we also move so often, my options were very limited – employers don’t usually like to hire someone who is moving in a few months. And I didn’t want a job that would interfere with our ministry and the commitments I have there (these are my first priority). I’ve done home-based businesses and considered them, but they are most successful when you develop repeat customers and some require maintaining stock – neither of which suited our circumstances. I needed to do something with flexibility and mobility but requiring only a small space.

I’d gotten a lot of positive comments from the ladies at church about my jewelry – and they seemed impressed that I could make my own. Then a friend, who’s daughter was getting married, was complaining about how difficult it had been to find nice jewelry that was reasonably priced. Timing is everything! I began to consider a jewelry business – and B-Jeweled By Susan was born! More later....