Baby Steps

"Baby steps onto the elevator. Baby Steps into the elevator. I'm in the elevator. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" ~ Bill Murray, What About Bob?

One Step at a Time

Me baby-stepping across a narrow footbridge in big snow shoes on Hurricane Mountain

There is some "moving forward" that I want to do right now, it's just a matter of getting the guts, not to mention the resources, to do it. I'm getting there slowly. I reunited with a friend from high school on Facebook a couple months ago. She saw in my profile that I make jewelry, browsed my website and decided she wanted to host a jewelry party for me. I politely declined. I'm not a salesperson, there is a reason why I sell online, so I don't have to make a sales pitch to someone's face. She asked me a few more times and I finally caved in, deciding it would be a good way to break into face to face jewelry selling should I ever get the nerve to rent a booth at a craft fair.

It was such a nice gesture on her part that I wanted to make it worth the guests while. I came up with a few give away ideas... free holiday earrings with a minimum purchase of $10, and for every $25 spent would get the shopper a raffle ticket for a turquoise necklace drawing.

I scurried to buy some displays and busts, and I got my business card couch from Stormy. I purchased some black velvet fabric to cover the tables with, and a pretty glass heart shaped bowl to dangle the free earrings from. I made some raffle tickets on the computer, created a constructive criticism feedback survey, and printed out instructions on how they can shop on Etsy in the future (particularly my shop). I took some advice from my pre-party blog post and had a variety of different types of bags for shoppers to take their goods home in, and some pretty tissue paper for the fragile pendants.


The drive to the party was almost an hour and a half north, and I was hoping to make $150 bucks, as my hostess figured 15 people were going, and they only had to spend $10 to get the free earrings. Only about 10 guests were able to make it. Everybody bought at least something, and I had a couple of big spenders too, going well over what I had hoped that I would make! I tried to listen to comments while they shopped, someone liked the velvet cloth idea (thanks TiLTcreations). I put out a spiral notebook for an "email list" and got a few contacts. Lots of nice comments about my angel earrings. I heard a few admiring some earrings but mentioning that they were too long for their tastes.


I went through my confidential feedback surveys, and got perfect reviews on all my questions. I just hope that they really felt that way about each question and weren't being nice. Not too many handwritten comments.

I took some poor quality pictures while shoppers were breaking for snacks. I meant to get some shots before the party started but some were confused about the time and came early.



What I got from the experience:

Positives:

• Black velvety cloth
• Free gift with minimum purchase is a good idea as everyone spent the minimum
• Had enough cash and quarters to make change with
• Sales tax included & rounding price to nearest quarter is easier than math, pennies, and nickels
  
• Business cards
• Saving price tags to keep track of income was probably faster than writing it down as I went
• Having a holiday section
• Large price tags allowed me to write shoppers names on them so that they could set stuff aside as they browsed and buy later
• Mirror
  

Negatives:

• I was a lot faster at checkout when I worked at Price Chopper with a barcode reader, computer, and a bagger
• Large tied on price tags got tangled en route
• Nobody commented but I thought the display looked a little sloppy with only 4 busts to hold the necklaces
• Jewelry party for people that know each other were trying to shop for each other with everyone there
• I still don't know how I'd bag up goodies for a large crowd with out spending an unnecessary fortune
• I'm over analytical of everything I say and how its going going to be taken, so I probably came off as socially awkward, trying to find the balance between being helpful without being annoying
• The survey didn't give much as far as constructive criticism, actually no criticism or suggestions at all, just niceness
  
• Necklace raffle. It was a lure to get people to come, but they loved jewelry so much that I think they would have come anyway. Nobody appeared to buy a little extra just to reach the next $25 mark either. Ah well, my biggest spender won it, and certainly deserved it

Next step? Perhaps a jewelry party with people I know? I think it's too late to rent a booth for a holiday craft fair, besides, I'm still unwinding from this one. Maybe by this summer I can beef up my inventory and my confidence and rent a booth at a craft fair then...

Project Make a Lot of Jewelry Really Fast

I have been ignoring my blog quite a bit lately, and my Etsy shop too, because I'm working on something huge. It's called Project Make a Lot of Jewelry Really Fast. A friend from high school and I recently caught up on Facebook. She looked at my jewelry and asked me if she could host a party. I said no a couple times... There's a reason why I sell online. People can find my stuff, if they like it they can buy it. I don't have to do anything pushy face to face. Finally, I realized it's a way to get experience, like a trial run, if I decide to work a craft show some day, and agreed to let her host.

I'm getting really nervous, not just about the interaction and sales, but the presentation. I bought some displays but I know I can't have every piece on a bust or display because that would cost me a small fortune. I bought a business card couch from Stormy to hold my cards, and I think I'm going to pick up a small mirror for people to try on necklaces before purchasing.


I'm trying to come up with some promotions. I'm toying with the idea of a free pair of Christmas earrings with each purchase, or at least for the first ten or twenty purchases, depending on how many I can make up. Of course, that's assuming that I'd have ten purchases or that anybody will show up, for that matter. Maybe a discount code for the next future purchase?



I'm also afraid I won't have a large enough variety. I'm trying to make some more chokers and necklaces since I've been on an earring run for a while. I'm done making clay beads for now, just making stuff with them. I'm trying to make enough Christmas stuff, but want to have everyday jewelry on hand as well. So I've made a few chokers, some gemstone necklaces, and played with some Swarovski crystals. I'm not putting too much new stuff on Etsy yet because it's time consuming and I need to be keeping my fingers busy making jewelry for the party, as opposed to cropping pictures and writing up descriptions. But don't worry, anything that doesn't sell next week at the party I will share online with you.

If you have ever hosted a jewelry party (or other craft party) please leave some suggestions here! Should I provide brown paper bags? Offer gift boxes for an extra charge? Go green?