Philosophy of Failure

Not hitting your targets is hard. Especially when you have been having a successful run at things. I haven't hit my April sales target, and in fact have missed it by a significant stretch. This might be my second-best month on Etsy, but it has been my most disappointing in terms of expectations.

Missing your goals is tough. It doesn't matter where you miss them, be it a fitness goal, a sales goal, a maths score, it is always disappointing. And of course, it is inevitable as well. At some point, we all fail. And if we don't fail, we don't really get tested as a person - we don't really understand the joys of our success if we haven't tasted defeat. And yet. And yet missing your goals also draws in self-doubt, the whispers of failure, the nagging thoughts of just jacking it all in. So, how can we turn missing our goals into something positive?

Well, it gives us a chance to reassess ourselves. This is a crucial part of any learning exercise. Let's go through my thoughts on my failure this month, and see what sort of action list I draw up for May.

• Are my products right? Well, I've been shifting my products slightly, and maybe I have gone too far away from the crochet products in preference of the easier to make felt badges. My word badges usually sell pretty quickly, quicker than the pretty embroidered badges. ACTION: work on creating at least four crochet pieces this month to list. List more word badges.
• Have I promoted as much? I haven't been posting as much in the forums, since I was worried that I was going to lose my job from my far too frequent etsy surfing. I'm not going to go back to that though! I did spend some time in chat rooms, and that vastly increased my hearts and views, but did nothing for my sales (short term). I also haven't been posting as much to flickr. My blog posts have been fairly consistent. ACTION: spend at least two hours a week posting photos to flickr, taking part in groups, commenting etc. Try to upload at least 2 new photos twice a week. Also, do at least one myspace promotion this month.
• Have I been listing/relisting as often? Yes. I've been listing/relisting almost every day. I am loathe to get into things more than that, as my products are not such high cost that it is worth spending a large amount of relisting fees. I have a reasonable number of new products to list that I can continue to list something new every day for the next couple of weeks. ACTION: continue with listing trends.
• Have I been advertising enough? I've had one round of project wonderful advertising. That is probably not enough, to be honest. ACTION: undertake at least 2 campaigns of PW advertising through May.

There's also the question of outside factors, and whether I set myself realistic targets in the first place.

I believe, that whether you are doing well or not, that it is important every so often to stop and reassess - what am I doing, how am I doing it, and is it working?

Let's see if my proposed actions have a positive impact on Moose and Bear over the next month.

Back to Reality

Another month, another craft fair. This time it was organised by Edinburgh Craft Fairs, who had done a large amount of promotion and had signs plastered all over Morningside. It was quite cool seeing pictures of my wee beasties blown up to being a foot tall! The craft fair itself was fun enough - I got talking to some really lovely people and sold the odd thing here and there (octopuses continue to be my most popular item), but not enough to dine out on my takings (we dined out anyway at the lovely iglu anyway!). For most people there, craft fairs were their main source of selling their business, and they approached it as an average basis - some are good, some are bad, and it's hard to tell which it's going to be from the start, since there are so many factors to consider - the venue, the weather, the time of year, credit crunches, etc. Christmas is always good, though. But whilst I was there, I realised that I just don't really love doing them - I hate the sitting around, the constant waiting and hoping that someone's going to buy, the fretting about whether my stall is good enough, looks attractive, is set up in a good place, whether other people round me are selling more and all that. That is all a part of retail which I just don't relate to enough. So I've decided that I'm not signing up for anymore fairs at all, apart from the Christmas one. I've tried something, and I didn't enjoy it. I think that that is okay.

Craft fairs do kick my productivity up a notch or five, and so I now have heaps to list on etsy (and a few things have also been deleted thanks to a couple of sales). I'm taking a break from the sewing and the hooking for a few days to let myself get back into it and get excited, but I've got a good amount of stuff to tide me over listing-wise in the meantime.

It's nearly the end of April, and unfortunately, I didn't hit my sales targets which were either hitting the big 5-0 on my store, or selling 15 items this month, if I hit the first one. Well, I didn't. I have sold nine so far, and am stuck on 46 sales. I'm really willing people to click on the buy button on etsy, but it just doesn't seem to be working! I'm sure I can tempt some people in with these new listings, fingers crossed!

Update on the To Do List

Firstly, check out this amazing banner that was put together for me by cultivatedmindart. How fantastic is it?! I adore the lo-fi, diy, doodle approach she's taken. It's just perfect for moose and bear. I gave her such a random brief, and I'm so impressed with what she did with my really rubbish directions! I was actually a little bit nervous when she asked what I wanted - I didn't want to be too directional or prescriptive, because I'm pretty open-minded and trust graphic arts people to be able to produce something fantastic that I didn't even know I wanted. I did say I didn't like orange or purple, so she has nicely avoided those! If anyone else is looking for a banner, I would definitely recommend her.

Soooooo, my crafting to-do list. It now looks like this:

• make legs and finish a blue octopus - the legs are done, the octo is not finished!
• make six more sugar cookies - I've done a tiny bit of three
• make six matryoska dolls - I've not even started
• make 4 felt ninjas - not started
• make 3 crochet ninjas - not started
• make 3 keyrings - not started

Should I be freaking out? Well, yes, probably. But I have been really rubbish at focusing my efforts this week, instead getting addicted to jezebel.com. Rookie mistake. Tonight my boyfriend is out for the entire evening at basketball, so that will give me a huge amount of time to just sit down and focus my sewing efforts. I am determined to get the cookies done and at least 3 more matryoska dolls. I know I can do it, I really do! I just gotta have faith! (and large quantities of diet coke! and my favourite sewing soundtrack).

to do to do!

My moleskine is no closer to turning up, so I'm going to have to struggle on without it. I'm really gutted, as it was only about a quarter on the way through, and I had so many fantabulous ideas in it. Grrr.

It had my this week crafting to do list for a start. I have been just about the least productive laydee ever this weekend, and really have to knuckle down this week and do some serious work. So, what does my to-do list look like?

I have to:

• make legs and finish a blue octopus
• make six more sugar cookies
• make six matryoska dolls
• make 4 felt ninjas
• make 3 crochet ninjas
• make 3 keyrings

ha ha - not much then!!! I can finish the octopus tonight, and the cookies tomorrow night. The matryoska dolls will take wednesday, and the crochet ninjas thursday. I'll outsouce most of the felt ninjas to my boyfriend (does that still count as me?). The keyrings I can do Friday night. See, I reckon that list is totally do-able.

Or maybe I just am a complete optimist!

Last Full Day of Crafting Before Fair

Today is my last full day of crafting before next Saturday's craft fair in Morningside. Given that the last one I attended, I didn't sell heaps, I am not as stressed this time about having heaps and heaps of product (although it is a completely different market, so maybe I should be! Still, that doesn't mean that I'm outside enjoying the crisp (okay, chilly!) April sun. Instead, I'm inside finishing up a whole load of octopi (I love making bodies, hate making legs!), and then making a heap of crochet and felt ninjas. I've also been experimenting with play food - I really wish I had had time to make more of it. Play food is soo cool, and I really think that the Morningside yummy mummies would have got quite into it. Shame. What is more of shame is that I seem to have lost my fantasticly useful and important moleskine which basically kept track of everything that I had done and needed to do. Without it, I am lost. I am loathe to start a new one in case it turns up. It basically was where I put every idea about monsters, ninjas, blog posts, badges to make, and marketing plans. See, totally totally lost without it!

After last month's fantastic success on Etsy, this month has actually been really quiet. No sales in over a week! Still, that just gives me a chance to experiment with some different stuff, relax a little from the manic making, and focus on next week. I won't be listing anything this week (maybe a bunch of renewing to make sure I'm still showing up in search results), and next week I'm sure I'll be back with renewed vigour. These two badges are my latest listings. This is the last fair I have in my calendar for the moment, and I'm not sure how I'll progress with them at the moment. Instead, I might start looking more at consignment opportunities at local places.

Following on from my last post about once you get in one treasury, you start to get in more? Well, here is my little yellow ninja in yet another treasury (it has been in at least two so far). Thanks to kankalinhats for that.

sucess begets sucess

success as we all know, breeds success. I happen to think that this is particularly true when it comes to being featured in a treasury. Recently, I've noticed that the lovely lupin's work has been on a front page a number of times recently. Abi has also been featured twice recently as well. And I notice that I've gone from being in the odd treasury, to being in a few more again, like this lovely pink one curated by boffin. And from this I've come to the conclusion that once you have gained some exposure for your work, like promoting your little bum off and eventually being featured in a treasury, people notice you a bit more, add you a few more times to their favourites, and then, when they come to make a treasury, come back to you. And so the circle continues, and is heightened even more by hitting the front page. I would like to say at this point that there is no way you are going to get a front page if you don't have amazing amazing work. I am certainly not saying that people who are on the front page do not deserve to be there. But I have a gut feeling that once you get there, the heightened level of exposure that it brings increases your chances of ending up there again.

What do you think? Do you think that hitting the front page is more likely to happen once you've done it once, or do you think that it all is down to the fabulousness of your stuff, the long slog of promoting your stuff, and a teensy bit of luck

a game of tag!

I've been tagged!!! Leah at Moxie Photo and Design has tagged me. Unless I follow the rules, she's threatening to put her finger in the peanut butter jar. To be honest, that's not much of a threat to me, since my boyfriend shoves his finger in there all the time, but I'll still behave myself and play by the rules!

They are:

1. link to the person that tagged you.
2. post the {very important} rules on your blog.
3. list 6 very unimportant, random nothings about yourself {should be an easy one}

So, 6 random nothings about me then....

1. I love lighthouses
2. Despite working in IT and having an online shop, I have watched about 3 youtube videos in my life.
3. I have an extremely broad back - my dad refers to it as my builders back.
4. Rice is my least favourite form of carbohydrate. Noodles or potatoes are my favourite.
5. My favourite show ever is the west wing. My second favourite is the OC.
6. I keep buying high heels that I don't wear.

okay, so now that I've done my part, I've got to tag some other people. So I'm going to tag Abi and NikonGirlsPhotoshop.

Oh, and that cute little badge up at the top is my latest badge that I just listed.