Slow but steady

So my progress has been a bit slow on either side of my business. I have been dedicating a lot of my thinking time to our injured hamster and enjoying the backyard. While sitting there in the in the glorious sunshine, increasing my vitamin D levels as I photographed some 11/o Delicas (two pics are posted below) for http://addictionbeads.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76 I let my mind roam. My mind kept returning to policies that I should be writing for my business. So I think tomorrow I will start the day off in the backyard, uploading the Myuki Delicas currently available to Bloor Valley Beads and write the final "About Me" info as well as my product guarantees and jewellery return policy. I will also have to outline the hostess benefits for hosting a jewellery party.

I've been wanting to try my hand at soap making for quite some time now. I realized that I have too much going right now (I'm also installing hardwood flooring in my living room and dining room, before and after pics to be posted when I'm done). Just because I'm not making the soap doesn't mean I can't use handmade soap. I found a local seller on Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/shop/SoapBliss and placed my order. I will hopefully pick up the order tomorrow. Check in a few days and I will post my opinion of it.

So it begins

My name is Samantha or Sam for short. I am a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, crafter, artisan, DIY'er and more. Entrepreneur has now to that list. I have been playing with beads more about two decades and twisting wire for about one decade. I love both.

Shortly after my daughter was born I decided to sell beads. It was a lot of work but after about two years I had earned repeat customers and business was starting to grow. Sadly, this was not the right time for me and I abandoned my hard work. While I discontinued my business to focus my energy on my personal life I continued to create when I could. That feels like ages ago.

I am at a better place in my life and am ready for the challenges of entrepreneurship. This time I want to not only sell my beads and artisan created components but also my jewellery and accessories. I'm lost on where to start with my jewellery and the online bead sales environment has changed...there are so many vendors online now that my previous strategies aren't working or am I just trying to accomplish too many things at once. 

So where do I begin? I chose to begin by deciding what I want to achieve and figure out what I need to get there. This is difficult this time around because my business has two faces this time, the jewellery sales versus the beads and components. Blogs always seemed to be extra work to me. I couldn't see the value in the extra work of maintaining a blog in relation to a business, or rather my business to be more accurate. It occurred to me that by putting my ideas in print that I can gain some direction.

Thinking back to my previous business which I know view as somewhat successful, the most beneficial think I did was online networking to promote my online shop. I posted in many forums, joined online groups, and sold on eBay. At this point I do not have an adequate online presence or shop. But I do have product. The thing I remember wanting to improve on was local person to person sales. So this time I'm going to attempt to gain person to person sales through networking. While I have a pretty extensive customer service background, sales and self promotion are by far not my forte! To correct this I have decided to attend some networking events to meet new people and learn how to promote myself. The first and only one so far has been a Heart Link Network meeting in Brampton (https://www.facebook.com/HLNBrampton). It was different and I learned a few things. I will be attending other events.

Until next time,
Samantha