I am enjoying a cup of coffee and getting ready to head over to my Grandparents' house in a little bit. My Grandmother is having her 84th birthday this weekend and she has asked me to play chef for a birthday dinner for her! She is going to pick the menu and she might have some other jobs for me to do. Several members of my family are unemployed or underemployed due to the recession of doom, and my Grandmother has stepped in, offering us odd jobs to help us survive, for which I am eternally grateful. My Grandfather's health has become more fragile this year, but Granny is amazingly robust for her age. My bank account definitely needs some fattening up, so I hope she will have plenty for me to do.
I'm a creative soul, and I make a lot of art and crafts. I have a shop on Artfire that I've been neglecting since Christmas, but I've just finished spending all my birthday money on new supplies, so I need to put forth an effort to get things rolling again. I really love what I make, but it doesn't sell very well, unfortunately. I've been at this for more than a year now and it's done nothing but suck money into a deep, black, bottomless pit. But I keep doing it because I love to create and I need a place to at least display my work to the world. One of the hardest things is photography. I still have products that aren't listed because I hate doing the pictures and descriptions. And then, to add insult to injury, after spending countless hours getting great product photos, retouching them in photoshop, resizing them, and then creating voluminous listings for my web gallery... they never sell. I don't get it. My stuff is really awesome. I'd buy it! But I just don't get the kind of traffic I need to make the sales.
Since I started this "business" casually, I've only recently created spreadsheets to help me keep track of my costs and effectively price my items. I had a decent Christmas season last year, so I will have to start NOW to get ready for the one time of the year that I sell anything. I've been re-organizing my supplies and shipping area. I have an elaborate range of gift boxes and other packaging to keep track of, and of course, my trusty postal scale.
One thing that makes me happy about my business is of course, my customers. I love my customers. Not for their money, but because they shopped a small, handmade marketplace like my website. They love the same cute things I do. They appreciate creative packaging and the free gifts I like to include with their purchases. They get excited when their package arrives in the mail, with all the signs of love and care I took getting it together for them. I love my customers, and I love making them happy.
Well It looks like my trip is being delayed, the sky is purply-black with thunderheads. The heavens are going to open up any minute. I think I will wait till I have the car!
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