Battling Burn Out

Okay guys, we all know that we can get board when working on our projects. I can only knit certain items for a month or two before I need to take a break. I tend to blame this on my ADD then try and push through it. Then I would start to resent what I was doing and it was bad news.

Now I stop when I start to feel burned out. Crazy right? It helps me to move to a different project or stop knitting all together. Here is a list of things that you can do in your down time.

- Photograph your work

- Update your inventory paperwork

- Look coupons for items you use everyday

- Make a Treasury on Etsy

- Catch up on your reading list (remember at least 3 "improvement" articles a day )

- Prep your packaging so that you are ready to ship when the orders come rolling in. (Make sure you have at least 5 at all time.)

- Look up local craft fairs or shops in your area to see if that might be a good fit for your business.

By the time you finished working on this list you will be ready to start your project again.

Go forth and take a break!

-LB

The Million Dollar Idea

I was visiting with my in-law this weekend and we decided to watch some "I love Lucy" episodes. We all love Lucy, I think it's a fantastic show and I love to watch Lucy get herself in to these crazy situations. I laugh and think about how silly she was to even think that was going to work out the way she thought.

I found this particular episode relevant to etsy sellers though. It is called the Million Dollar Idea.

Lucy decides to bottle her amazing salad dressing and sell it for $0.40 a jar.

To market it she phones a friend who's husband has a TV show and promises her $0.03 a jar of the total profit if she can have an 5min spot.

The orders come rolling in.

Lucy and Ethel are creating their dressing when Ricky ask them how much it cost to make their product. They look at each other and realize that they have no idea. So Ricky does the math. Without factoring in shipping they are making $0.03 a jar to which they have to turn around and give to their friend who snagged them the TV slot.

It is a wonderful reminder to all of us about the importance of pricing and planning.

There are all kinds of websites and handbooks about pricing, but I just use this model:

Time to create x Your Hourly Rate + Materials = Gross Profit

Gross Profit - Etsy Fees - PayPal Fees - Shipping - Packaging = Net Profit

I also take into account that there are some items in which I sell for a little bit more so that I can afford to sell some items for a little less.

Go forth and watch Lucy's Million Dollar Idea!

-LB

The Pickiest Shopper on Etsy

If you are an Etsy Seller you should try and buy on Etsy when you can. If you believe in handmade items and feel like people should buy from you instead of from Target then you should try to do the same. I am not the best at this, but I try. However, if you have never purchased from etsy you REALLY should because you will learn a ton about what kind of customer you are.

I recently made an Etsy purchase so I thought I would share my thoughts on the off chance it helps you.

First of all I have to say I love the product I received and I was purchasing a supply that was not handmade.

I believe that I am the pickiest shopper. I ordered unfinished wooden buttons on etsy because my supplier stopped carrying them (there were lots of tears.)

Here is how my purchase went.

- I found my item by searching "Unfinished Wooden Buttons." I then proceeded to debate over the store that looked really cute and the one that had more of what I was looking for at a better price.

- I purchased them and etsy sent me a receipt. There was a note from the seller. "Thank you so much for stopping by my shop!!!!! and thank you for you order. I will be shipping your order within the next day or two. Good Luck with your project!!!!!!" I loved the note and then went to bed excited about my purchase.

- Then I waited. Not any length of time, but it seems like a long time to me. I was waiting for a message or email from the seller about my product. When you buy from a commercial retailer you receive a email saying that your product has shipped or something along those lines. I wanted that from my seller.

- Now is when you have to note that she informed me that my item would ship within the next day or two. However, the picky shopper in me did not go back and look at that. I wanted more interaction. (Crazy, I know)

- I went out of town and when I got back my item had arrived. Just like she said it would. I received it less then a week after I ordered it.

- Sat down to open the package (much like a child on Christmas) and saw my wonderful products. There were also two marketing items in there. A business card with all of their information on it and a thank you note. It is a nice note with helpful info on it, but it is not signed. In fact there is nothing on the product that has any handwriting on it. Apparently, I wanted that.

I learned a lot from my etsy purchase. I want a second order confirmation from the seller as well as something personal to accompany my order.

What will you find out about about the buyer in you?

-LB

Test Photoshoot

From the LowlaBug Test Photoshoot today. I can only think to discribe this as "I love you Dress Form." It's nice to work in a theatre with so much stuff hanging around.

Knitting in progress

The process.



- LB

It's all Relevant: Etsy's new search

Hey Guys,

Much like you I am trying to research all I can about the new etsy search. I must admit I am still a little confused, but making a treasury really helped.

I made a private treasury (that only I could see) and filled it with my items. I have done this before to evaluate how my photos stack up against other shops, but it also helped here. I picked a theme (Autumn Harvest) and I searched for my work.

I defiantly learned a lot about what triggered my items to appear and how many pages I would have to go through to see them.

I suggest that you grab a piece of paper and start searching for your items now. It will help you understand the difference between a "Colorful Cowl" (pg. 9) and a "Green Cowl" (pg. 2)

Go Forth and Search!

-LB

The Bethenny Factor

You are probably wondering what is the Bethenny Factor. Or even who is Bethenny. Well Ladies and Gentlemen I am talking about the one and only Bethenny Frankel. She is a reality TV starlet who is best known for being a Real Housewife of New York as well as getting her own show Bethenny Ever After.

I am not one to get into reality TV, but like a car crash you just can't walk away from I got sucked into the Real Housewives of New York. I try not to judge these woman. I have little in common with any of them, but it is hard sometimes. Bethenny was my saving grace of the show. She always seemed honest and straight forward.

Now that you are caught up on who Bethenny is, let me explain what I mean by the Bethenny Factor. She created Skinny Girl Margaritas. She took a great idea and made it into a drink that is celebrated worldwide. It is a great idea and I think that she is brilliant. This is not the Bethenny Factor.

The Bethenny Factor is the fact that I drink it. I don't drink a lot. It's not because of any real reason, I just don't unless it taste really good. The SkinnyGirl Margaritas aren't sweet enough for me. I am not interested in a Skinny Cocktail. I don't mind the extra calories.

However, I keep buying them. I bring them to parties. I give them as gifts. I keep a bottle in the house and I continue to drink them. I did not even realize what I was doing until I read an article about why artist should keep a Blog.

I only buy SkinnyGirl because of Bethenny. Even though I have never been in the same room as her or know anything about her that was not on the season and a half of her show that I watched, I still feel the drive to support her. I want her to succeed, but more importantly I know there is a face behind what I am purchasing and I love that. This is why I buy and sell handmade, Because of the Bethenny Factor.

Go forth and drink SkinnyGirl!

-LB

PS. The men in my life LOVE SkinnyGirl Margaritas! They have no clue who Bethenny is or that it is low in calories, but they can't get enough. I do have to say that I am excited to taste the new SkinnyGirl Sangria.

Analyzing My Sales

As promised I have put together an analysts of my etsy sales. I have also put together a way for us to walk through it together.Okay. I wanted to put together my sales data from etsy to see if there were any trends in sales so I could focus my energy.

In putting together my information, it was important that I keep certain things in mind.

1. The massive wholesale order I received was mainly Scarflets and cowls

2. The consignment shops took mostly scarflets, but with no preference on color. The cozy cable scarflets also seemed to sell extremely quickly in a sticks and bricks store.

3. I did not create even numbers of each product that I offered.

Here is what I found out about my etsy store.

• I sold 25 scarflets, 17 Cowls, 3 patterns, 20 coffee cuffs
• 16 of the scarflets were in the Lattice Pattern and 12 were Braided
• I sold 5 Hogwarts House Scarves (before I stopped making them)
• The colors were as follows
• 18 - Green
• 10 - Purple
• 10 - Red
• 6 - Gray
• 6 - White/Cream
• 4 - Blue
• 2 - Brown

Here is how I did it.

1.) Download your CSV Files. (Shop Settings - Options - Download Data)

2.) Import them in to a Google (Or Excel) spreadsheet

3.) Copy all of the Item Names and paste them in a Word Documents (you will want to use Microsoft Word)

4.) Go to the toolbar, click edit and then Find. Once the window pops up type in a specific word. (Ex. Scarflet, KeyFAB, etc.)

5.) You will see in the pop up window the number of times your search word was located.

6.) Collect all of your data and proceed to analyze.

I hope this helps you with your shop stats.

Go forth and Analyze!

- LB

Knitting in July

It is that time of the year again. When I pull out my needles and get down to business. Despite the fact that the heat index says that it is 104 outside, I am knitting. Do not let me fool you, I love knitting. I love designing new items and thinking about how I am going to sell them. Who might buy them and whether they will have a remarkable moment (first kiss, reunite with an old friend, visit their first Dooney & Bourke flagship store) while wearing it. However as I knit, it is unbearably hot in the the midwest. I wish I had a pool. Like an adult size kitty pool. You can knit and swim right?

I digress. This post is about analyzation. I recently read a blog post (I try to read 3 post a day, everyday.) written by a woman who realized that here most popular etsy item (the one that landed in all of the treasuries and had hundreds of hearts) was not her best selling one. In fact, her best selling item was rarely listed in treasuries and was more expensive. That is when it struck me, I have not analyzed what the best selling items in my shop are.

I am now on a mission. I am going to actually download my Shop Stats (go to your Etsy page and look under orders) and go thru item by item to figure out what I sold the most of and try to figure out why.

Wish me luck friends, this might suck. I will, however gain some much need knowledge of my store.

As always I will share the details of my quest.


Go forth and Swim!


- LB

The End of an Era

This has nothing to do with Etsy or crafting. I am just being sentimental.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out tonight and I am a little more emotional then I thought I would be. 10 1/2 years of movies is a lot. I saw the first movie at midnight with some of my closes friends. We were seniors in High School and we thought we were the coolest (We kinda were, but in an extremely Geeky way.)

It is interesting to think about how much has happened in the past decade and how many things have changed. There is a line in RENT that says "I can't believe a year went by so fast." I know that people say that a lot, but hearing it in the context of that play was the first time I really understood it. I graduated from high school, went to college and graduated, fell in and out of love, lost loved ones, had my first job, quit my first job, got married, bought house and about did a million other things in between.

So, I guess the end of Harry Potter really means that I am officially, without a doubt an adult. (In case being in my late 20s was not enough to cement that.)

Well at least Cassandra Clare's awesome books are keeping me going.

Go forth and see HP DH P2!

Always,

- from my iPad

Lowlabug.etsy.com

Location:Home

Vacation & July Showcase

Hey Blog World,


I took a vacation and went to Las Vegas with my husband last week. It was great, full of Luxury and that is exactly what I needed. A week was a long time in Vegas, but we filled it with shows, sites and way too much food. I owe all of you pictures.

I also signed up for two showcases in July. Now you might be thinking to yourself "Why did Laura sign up for July Showcase?" I signed up for them because I am curious to see if it will help boost my visibility during LowlaBug's off season. I also have yet to sell a eBook Cover and would love to know if it is because people can not see them or if they are just... mis-priced, common, uninteresting, etc. You know the normal "My stuff's not selling" designer fears.

I do think that the 7 Showcases that I did this winter (a low cost of $100) made a huge difference in taking me from 25 sales to 97 sales in 3 months. That does not include the two Sticks & Bricks who found me during that time.

Needless to say I am a big fan, but I prefer to book a specific showcase like the Main One or the 'Winter Clothing Showcase,' But an Accessory one will do.

I did finish an accessory showcase yesterday and ended up featured in a treasury... Is it related, who knows.

As always I will keep you posted.

Go Forth and enjoy the day

-LB

Logo, Logo, Logos

Hey Blog World,


LowlaBug Designs got a face lift this week. I put the new logo on EVERYTHING. I am very proud of myself. I have been reading for years about branding yourself and how important it is, but I never really did anything about it. As someone who has enough paper marketing (postcards, business cards, flyers, etc) products to make small corporations blush (thank you Vistaprint). I was ashamed. It was not until I saw Mary from ArtTales logo outside of the twitter world that I realized how important they were. I new that it was her instantly, and she is just 1 of hundreds of people I see on twitter.

My Logo is not fancy. In fact it is the same logo that I have been drawing for 14 years. I am happy with it though.

For those of you who have not created your logo yet and are looking for a simple way to create a logo I suggest Google Documents.

Sidebar:I use google docs for EVERYTHING. They are so simple.

So go into Google Docs and select New Drawing. From there you can insert photos or use shapes to make your shapes. I used the free draw option (Go to the shape drop down and it is the one to right of the "T".) The really nice thing about their free drawing is that it smoothes your lines out for you so they don't look like you drew it in the car.

Once I created my drawing I downloaded it into Picasa and crafted the lettering.

I highly suggest you try it. If you don't have your own shop or you already have a logo but would like to try it out may I suggest making a logo for "Pops Soap Shop." It doesn't exist, but I feel as though it would be a great way to use a bunch of different techniques in Google Drawings.

Go forth and Logo!

Always,

LB

Love Letter: craftopolis.com

So this is a new series that I would like to introduce on my Blog. There are a couple sites that I use everyday and I think that every etsy seller should know about. Things that have made my life easier, or at least taken a little bit of mystery out of this thing called the internet. Today's Love Letter is to and here is why.

Craftoplis is a fantastic site that allows you to do a couple of things that other sites don't. It connects to your google analyitcs as well as etsy to grab tons of information. However, my favorite

Tag Reports -
What are tag reports you ask? They are records of what people searched for on Etsy that brought up your items. Fantastic, I know. You can look at tag reports for 60 days - 30 days - 7 days - Yesterday and Today. I would be lying if I said I was not completely obsessed with this feature. It will also give you the search terms that they used. For example I just listed Lowla's Library and I can see that someone searched for Kindle Book Cover and one of mine came up on page 11.

I have also learned (some of you may already know this) that the title of your item also counts in etsy's tags. So, it might not be the best use of Tags to double up on things that are already in your title. This site has been amazingly helpful.

Go forth and explore it for yourself. It is a blast.

-LB

They say you're only as good as the company you keep...

...but lately I've been keeping to myself.

Thank you Brair Rabbit for the perfect title to this post. With my new pledge to post I have decided to start with a personal update.

2011 has been interesting for me as well as LowlaBug Designs.

LBD selling out 2 weeks before Christmas was nuts. I have never knitted so many items in such short amount of time. Supply and Demand. I have not experienced the scales so drastically before. I know have had 97 sales on Etsy and that does not reflect wholesale orders, craft sales and consignment shops. I was completely burned out, but in a nice way. I did feel a little sad about having to work at my in-laws (who I love beyond words) house over the holiday season. However, with the help of my niece and nephew we took 2 radio flyers worth of packages to the Fort Worth, TX post office.

My husband and I bought a house! 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, yard and basement. We now live in the amazing little town of Homewood, Il. It is great, they have farmer's markets, parades and festivals. It is a welcomed change from Chicago and a great place to start a family. Our new house also has a studio which is amazing. I get so much done and am no longer trying to move folding tables around in a 2 bedroom apartment to make enough space to craft and have dinner.

As you know from reading this blog I have started making eBook covers, Lowla's Library. I love them and they are now the only things my husband and I use for our kindles. I haven't sold any yet, but hopefully that changes soon. They are kind of like crack to me, because it is letting me explore paper as a medium while allowing me to change my covers as often as I change my shoes. If it catches on it will be a great off season product.

We just got back from camping in Lake Geneva, WI and I was really inspired. There is going to be some great fall knits coming to LBD this year.

My Brother released his debut solo album (Brair Rabbit and the Company You Keep) this January and the buzz has been great! His CD release party was booked pass capacity. He has been featured in the newspaper multiple times since April as a top 10 new band in Chicago as well as the top 12 bands to see at Taste of Chicago this year. It looks like he will be making his first TV appearance as Briar Rabbit this month as well. I am so proud of him. He is also super good, so you should check out what people are calling Though Pop.

My husband is still unemployed, which brings us to 9 months and counting. We are lucky that we are not extravagant people and that the most expensive thing we buy are books. We are lucky enough to have an amazing family as well as the ability to buy a house and head to Vegas at the beginning of July!

We also joined weight watchers at the beginning of the new year and I have lost 20lbs. Who knew.

Oh, and one of my best friends is moving to Denver and I am having a hard time with it. It will be awesome for her, but as juvenile as it sounds, we met before freshman orientation and have not been apart in the 10 years since. It also does not help that all of my close friends with the exception of 2 are currently in California, Berlin, China and now Denver. Maybe Peter Pan was on to something with this never land thing...

So life is good, but lately I have been keeping to myself.

Go do something that makes you happy!

Always,

LB


- from my iPad

Lowlabug.etsy.com

A better blogger

From this day forward I am going to be a better blogger.

This is a promise I have made many times before, but this time I mean it.

I can not say that the post will be long or not follow which ever tangent I start off on, but they will be frequent.

I can do this, it just like 20 Twitter post in a row...



- from my iPad

Lowlabug.etsy.com

Location:The University of Chicago

My Library by LowlaBug Designs

I am happy to introduce "My Library" to the LowlaBug Designs gallery.

I love reading and I really love to read on my Kindle. However, I have never been able to find the right case. All I wanted was a case that looked like a book. Something that was affordable so that I could switch cases as often as I wanted. So after years of searching I decided to make one, and I love it so much that I wanted to share.

This is a case for the person on the go. I take My Library with me everywhere. I read on the train, in restaurants as well as outside. It is created out of paper and sealed with a glossy coat. It is not water proof, but the sealer allows for an easier clean up of everyday messes (it starts to rain, sticky kid fingers, dog kisses, etc.)

The E-Book attaches to the case with Industrial strength velcro. I know, I made that same face when my husband suggested sticking something to my precious Kindle. However, it comes off so easily, doesn't obscure any product information and the soft side of the velcro is what attached to your E-Book. (I use Goo Gone to remove it and it worked like a charm.)


The Nuts and Bolts
- All of My Library Cases by LowlaBug come with a handmade fabric slip cover
- The velcro is included with your purchase.

My Library Cover will fit the following e-books:
- Amazon Kindle (Generations 3 & 2)
- B&N NOOK (color & 1st Generation)
- Kobo (Touch)

My Library Measurements:
8 1/4" - High
5 1/2" - Wide
3/4" - Depth

It is handmade with paper. I have been using mine non-stop for the past 4 months, but it will like not last forever. With that said I will send you a 10% off coupon for your next My Library purchase every time you order a new one.

FREE SHIPPING within the USA and $2 shipping to Canada.

Go forth and Read!

You can check out the listing here