Writing policies instead of lists

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Coin pursesWith the Market Collective sale behind me, I have had a few extra moments (when I’m not prepping for Christmas) to start working on my Etsy shop. One of my big goals for the holidays is to get my Etsy shop all set-up with items listed so I can greet the New Year with a fresh approach to my crafty business. Of course, if I’m going to take my online shop seriously, there is a lot more involved than simply slapping up some items for sale.

I’ve continued to do quite a bit of research and now I’m all set for the planning stage. The big hurdles are writing up the shop policies and determining shipping rates. I’m sure one could take a very simplified approach to shop policies at the beginning, but I’d prefer to have some well thought out policies. These policies, after all, determine how you conduct business in your shop. They are guidelines for you to follow, just as much as they are for customers. Most importantly though, your policies represent your customer service. They will be the first taste a buyer gets of how convenient and supportive you are as a seller. Having beautifully crafted items is one thing. Providing a positive shopping experience is another.

This week, I began writing out my policies. While I still have a number of items to clarify and decisions to make on business practices, I made a pretty decent dent. I used the following Etsy references:

Coin pursesThe greatest tip I can suggest for writing out your shop policies, read the policies of top selling Etsy shops, some of your fav Etsy shops, and shops of local sellers. You don’t need to be exactly like everyone else, but it will give you an idea of what other shops offer and don’t offer. Then you can start considering what you envision for your own shop. Reading through the policies of other shops will also likely make you think about things that probably hadn’t crossed your mind yet. For me, it was thinking about shipping insurance and tracking. What to include, and what to offer at an additional fee?

I discovered the greatest variation in policies when it came to the exchange and refund section. Before reading through the policies of others, I loosely framed in my mind what I thought was the most fair and best service. After seeing such a variety of what other sellers offer or refuse to offer, I’m stuck pondering my own policies. I lean towards a much friendlier, if you’re not satisfied, you can exchange or return the item within a certain grace period with shipping costs non-refundable and the sole responsibility of the buyer. There are so many possible mishaps that could occur too, that need to be considered, besides a customer changing their mind. How will you deal with lost or damaged packages? This is where I began thinking about insurance and tracking options. The exchange and refund policies might be the type of thing that gets revised and more detailed as I experience different scenarios with customers.

Any thoughts on how your fav online shops handle refunds and exchanges? Ever had a really horrible experience with trying to return an item to an online shop?

Santa’s workshop

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Christmas tinsOur house felt a lot like Santa’s workshop this past weekend. There was so much “making” going on in in the basement, the kitchen, the dining room, and the sewing room. And it was just the two of us. I’m so very thankful that we have the space to do so much in our home. I can’t imagine trying to do it all in our old apartment! There would a lot more swearing, chaos and ruined carpet. With our home though, we can keep the dangerously messy task of dying fabrics contained in a section of undeveloped basement, leaving hubby the entire kitchen for his “making”. Some of my “making” is still in progress, but the result of hubby’s is in those lovely tins. Aren’t those simple paper tags so sweet? That’s all him. Quick sketches on kraft paper, backed by an art degree.

Tissue wrapped giftsWe have regularly made gifts for Christmas, sometimes out of need because money was tight, and sometimes just because we love making things for our family and friends. There has generally still been bought presents in amongst those handmade gifts though. This year we have been thinking and talking a lot about gift giving, in particular, for Christmas. I have become a lot more conscious of, well, everything this past year. Spent time questioning how much of the super consumerist world I want to get entangled with, what’s healthy and what’s not, and what really matters. There have also been lots of conversations about how we would like to raise our children. In reflecting about how we celebrate Christmas, we have a strong desire to simplify the gift giving. Some of our thoughts were nicely expressed in Leo Babauta’s post “The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents“. So we hope to cut back on the amount of gifts that we receive from others and eventually move to gifts of “time”, especially with family. As for hubby and I, we want to move to only making gifts for each other. No bought things. We didn’t really come to this decision until after we had each bought items for each other this year, but we’re excited to do this next Christmas.

As for the Christmas “making” that I undertook this year, I can show you a sneak peek, but the rest will have to wait until after folks receive their presents (as some of them may be reading this). I am enjoying the colourfulness of everything! So typical of me to point out the colour, isn’t it? Anyway, the gift making is a nice mix of crochet and sewing projects with tie-dye thrown in there. Most of the Christmas crafting was put on hold until after the big craft sale, so I’m now working diligently to get everything finished up in time. Lucky for me, my brother and his wife are away for Christmas, so that’s two gifts I can complete after Christmas while I have some time off work. Now I just have to figure out when I’ll sneak some baking into the week.

Red, yellow, green blue dyed fabricsCrochet scarfCrochet sock in progress

That time again, with turns ahead

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Christmas bird ornamentAnd I’m not just talking about Christmas, although I am trying to remain in the spirit of the season. This year has been one of the craziest years I’ve lived through. It was month after month of riding such a huge emotional roller coaster. Every truly wonderful thing was so quickly followed by something down right tragic. I’m not an overly dramatic person, but when I talk about ups and downs this year, I mean life and death-type stuff (although thankfully, that’s not the challenge I am currently facing). I should have known that following such an amazing weekend at Market Collective, during which I finally felt like I’d found my passion, I would be hit with some hard news. So for now, I’m in one of those upside down twists in the roller coaster. That’s just the way this year has been. It is humbling. Truly humbling. And a bit motion sickness inducing. The whole expression of old doors closing and new doors opening springs to mind. Is that too cliche?

Counting the days until the end of this year and now seriously wondering what 2011 will bring. Certainly things have to get better in general. I mean, they must. I suppose deep down I’m really ready for a fresh start with things, which is why this most recent bit of news is more a mix bag of challenge, uncertainty, relief, fear, excitement, hellos and goodbyes.

For now, Christmas is fast approaching and I have a list of gifts still to make and traditional baking I want to indulge in. That should keep me busy right up until December 25th. Wishing you all some quiet time by your Christmas tree to reflect on things that have gone and things to come.

Craft sale craziness

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Craft fair tableI survived. Actually I more than survived. This weekend at Market Collective was truly an amazing experience. A very crazy, busy, exhausting, satisfying, successful, fun, experience. I am just feeling so full and incredibly thankful. After years of friends and family telling me that I should be selling my craft creations, I now get it. I SHOULD be selling my crafts. It’s funny, I went into the craft sale thinking that truly, I would be happy if I sold just one of the scarflettes, because the main purpose of the weekend was to learn from the experience. Having a single person out in the world who liked one of my scarflettes enough to pay for it, would make the whole thing worth it. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I sold half of my scarflette stock!!

My brain is still spinning with everything. Above and beyond the selling, I did learn so much and met some wonderful people, including the very lovely Nicole of Noela jewelry. She is actually a close friend of one of my co-workers and we completely lucked out with tables right beside each other. Besides chatting with a couple of the vendors, it was pretty amazing to talk with all the folks that came through the market. I hope that everyone enjoyed their time shopping and listening to some of the live music. It was fascinating to see how many people treated the market not just as a sale, but an event. Folks would spend hours there and I now understand how much of a “happening” Market Collective is.

Craft fair tableOn a business level, one surprising thing for me was that my coin purses actually did not sell very well. I thought that they would definitely sell and I had been a bit sad that I didn’t have more to bring along. As it turned out, I have plenty left. Folks seemed to genuinely like them. They would spend plenty of time picking them up, opening them, flipping through all the colours, but then didn’t buy them. So I’m left wondering what else I can do to encourage folks to take one home with them. This again, is all part of the learning.

In the end, my table display was pretty simple, but I think it was fairly effective. I had some things raised at eye level, which people were drawn to. I rotated which scarflette was displayed on the top of the shelf. If folks took a second to touch the scarflettes while they were passing by, it always made them stop and feel a bunch of them. I soon discovered that wearing one of the scarflettes in person was key. Customers often picked one up to try and figure them out, then glanced at the photos, but as soon as they realized I was wearing one, their face lit up in understanding. They are an odd shaped thing, I kept admitting, but once around your neck, their shape makes sense. I encouraged folks to try them on and I had a mirror hung on the wall, so that they could take a look. All in all, I think the simple table with a few important pieces (like a mirror) worked well for me this time.

Before the weekend was even finished, I was all set to start thinking about the next Market Collective. I would love to do it all again! Thanks for everyone’s support and continued interest in the blog!

Shoe boxes everywhere

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We spent an evening this week volunteering with friends for Operation Christmas Child (a program run by Samaritan’s Purse). Many years ago, my mom and I used to put together shoe box donations for the program. In recent times, I missed out on this while we focused our donations on local needs through our church. This year, though, hubby and I had quite a bit of fun organizing items to fit in our shoe box donation. We have friends who volunteer each year at the actual facility where the Calgary shoe box donations get sorted, packed and shipped. So it was with great thanks that we accepted the offer to join them in their volunteering efforts. It was just one evening, a few short hours, but it was nice to spend some energy towards helping others after focusing so much on starting up the craft business these past couple of months.

Market Collective

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This is where I will be, along with a bunch of other very talented folks, this weekend. If you are in the Calgary area, be sure to pop down to Kensington for some wonderful Christmas shopping. Market Collective will take place in the old Ant Hill building (148 10th street NW) this weekend from 10-6pm on Saturday and 11-5pm on Sunday. There is a $3 fee to get in or you can bring a non-perishable food bank donation. I will be sharing the table with Mr. Frank of Two01 Studio, so make sure to check us out. I am super excited to just be surrounded by so many other creative guys and gals for two full days! And although I won’t be attending as a seller the following weekend, Market Collective is also running the weekend of December 18-19th, with a whole new batch of sellers. If you are still needing some Christmas gifts (even for yourself), come out and support local artists and artisans!

Here are a couple of fellow artisans that will be in attendance this weekend, just to get you in the mood:

– PeekoApparel
– Zatko Creations
– Noela
– Knittles

She’s making a list, checking it twice…

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Crochet scarflette with tag… tryin’ to figure out just what’s been missed. Oh, the joys of list making. I am feeling deep in the thick of it right now. There are only four more days left until my first craft show and I only actually have two evenings left in which to complete, organize, and pack everything up.

All the scarflettes that were “in progress” are now complete. The scarflettes were super simple to tag and I am really satisfied with how they look. I just used scrap bits of yarn left over from making the scarflettes to attach the business card tags. The contrasting scraps play-up the overall colourfulness of the scarflettes, plus it uses up bits that might otherwise be tossed in the garbage or left outside for the birds.

Stamped paper bagsThe shopping bags are all sitting pretty, waiting to be used. The handmade stamp was fun to carve and I think it suits the brown kraft bags. I considered carving my entire logo and name, but opted to just tackle the glasses, which makes for some pretty funky bags. They feel like they have a good mix of mystery and hipster-ness. I’m sure there are folks who feel that the bags should clearly indicate the shop or company they are from and act as some free advertising. Which I get. Personally, though, I am more likely to re-use and keep re-using a bag that doesn’t act like a blatant advertisement. Afterall, the re-usability of the bags is definitely a concern for me. One day I might still switch to a sticker instead of the stamp, but in the meantime, I have an inexpensive stamp to decorate everything with (it only costs me a small blister or two).

Framed craft sale signsLast night I spent some time typing, printing, cutting and framing (they look so nice in frames) signage for the craft table. Besides having the scarflettes individually tagged and priced, I also wanted to ensure I have some price signs to set out in the display. There is nothing more frustrating as a customer than not being able to tell at a quick glance how much an item costs. Yes, I am one of those people who won’t purchase something if I have to ask how much it is. I know I’m not alone on this either. Sure, there is the random thing that just gets missed being tagged, but if the next two or three identical items I pick up still don’t have a price on them, then I am likely to move along. This goes for signage too. If I can’t clearly figure out which price sign goes with what item, it’s a turn-off. Customers are out to shop, not problem-solve your pricing. So I hope that my signs and pricing will be nice and clear.

Craft sale signsBesides some price signs, I also printed out a few photos of the scarflettes being worn by none other than myself. I really need the help of one of my beautiful friends to model these at some point. Thank goodness for the cropping and blemish removal tools! Anyway, trying not to be too self-conscious, I will hang these photos on the wall by the mirror, so folks can see at a glance what the folded, cozy, fuzzies on the table look like on someone. Plus, I will be wearing one. That wooden box on the right will display the coin purses, which I haven’t individually priced, but I figured placing them in a container all together with a clear price sign should work. Tonight, the list checking continues, as I prep the big table cloth, figure out a container to keep the money, and finish sewing the last four coin purses. Wish me luck with the last bits and pieces!