Tag small business

September Update

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How is everyone on this hotter than necessary Friday?

I’m in the process of updating the shop product selections. I have already added a few Desk Gremlins and a Zombie Cthulhu. I will be adding stress eggs, potion bottles, and keychain octojelly to the shop today and tomorrow.

I have removed a couple of nessies, gremlins and the dragons from the Desk Buddy section as they are now at The Village Knittery at Old Hilton Village in Newport News, Virginia. If you are local, you should absolutely check them out. They are open Wednesday through Saturday. Please check their Facebook page for the hours.

I have started working on larger one-off pieces, including a winged Cthulhu and a Phoenix.

I’ve also revived my big project of crocheting all the monsters in the 5E Monster Manuel for Dungeons and Dragons. I have at the time of this writing, 59 of the 313 patterns I will need to make all the monsters in the book that aren’t in the appendices. You can follow me on Instagram (http://www.instagram.com/octojellycrochetstudio) if you’re interested in following along with this project.

I will have my next live sales event in 40 days in Richmond, Va. I will be at the Pumpkin Witch Market at Diversity Richmond on October 15 from 12pm to 5pm. Come out and say hi if you’re in the area

I have been working on improving my presence on the various social media platforms now that I am not currently working a day job. This crochet business is currently my only source of income. I am working on finding a part-time day job, but I would really like to get this business to the point where I have a steady income.

I’ve been adding my Twitch stream to YouTube to build my presence there, I do plan on recording some actually YouTube how-to/Informative videos soon.

I’ve been doing some more up-to-date research on growing my Instagram/Facebook/TikTok presence and I hope to implement some things soon.

The tea blog series will continue on Monday and I will have some actual crochet and fiber related content soon.

Is there anything you would like to see me cover in the blog or on YouTube? Suggestions are always welcome.

June Update

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Greeting and Salutations,

Just a quickish update while I take a break from product prep for Cosplay World Richmond Aug 4-5 in Richmond, Virginia.

So I gave in and ordered business cards with a QR code of to my Linktr.ee since I have more than 4 social media links now.

I also had to make a new Instagram account as the old one is still linked to the original Facebook page. My 100+ messages to Facebook Customer Service have gone unanswered and I really needed to be able to edit the shop section. The old Instagram page will be permanently deleted as of July 11, the new one can be found by looking up OctojellyCrochetStudio.

I also started the paperwork to convert the business into an LLC. As the business’ is currently a sole prop, a lot of the basic paperwork , like a DBA and a License to sell for the Virginia Department of Taxation, is already completed.

As I need to make a few changes to the business, once the LLC process is finished, I will be doing regular social media updates starting late July/early August.

The goal is for this business to be the majority of my income withing the next 2-3 years.

Running a business is hard

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If someone ever tells you that running a business is easy, they either have a staff who does 99% of the work for them, or they have no idea what they are actually doing, especially if they don’t understand that not all business run into the same cookie cutter set up.

The three most important things that I have learned about running a business : it’s hard, burnout is most definitely a thing, and staying organized in a way that works for you, takes time to figure out.

I’ve had this blog for 4 years now, and it’s only been in the last 2 years that I’ve really done anything with it. Most of the changes took place in the last year. Despite me making multiple blog update schedules, over the last year, I still have yet to follow through with any of them.

My on-line business started on Etsy, before I moved it to this site. I only started doing in-person selling events in the last year. I’m still trying to find time to create YouTube tutorials. Add Facebook/Instagram/TikTok and Twitter to that social media list and I have my hands full.

Not to mention the full-time job I already have and my currently 5.5 year old son, and its a wonder I’m still trying to get this business off the ground.

I do have a plan to make this my main source if income in the next 2-3 years. I also plan on changing this business from a sole-proprietorship business to a LLC business before the end of this year. I need to do a little more research on that though, before I start that process.

Ramblings

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So..it’s almost midnight, but I figured I’d get a quick update of sorts up.

If you’ve been on the site, looking around in the last 72 hours, you’ll have noticed some changes.

I updated the layout and color scheme to be a bit more professional looking. My goal for the business is for this to be my main income stream within the next 5 years and I’m hoping that this will help with that. I’ll probably be tweaking it here and there over the next couple of weeks.

The shop has also now been added to the site. At the moment, I only have dice bags in that shop, but I do plan on adding amigurumi animals, scarves, and blankets throughout the week.

I’ve almost finalized the new business cards. My plan is to get those finalized and ordered before the month is out, just having problems with the logo not looking right on the cards.

If you opt to take a look at the rest of the site, please let me know what you think, or anything you suggest that might make it better.

World View

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So I do my best to stay away from the political.

With what is going on in Ukraine right now, it’s affecting everyone, whether you want to admit it or not.

While I know that I should be pushing my products, I’m not going to do that today.

I’m going to recommend, if you shop on Etsy, to look at the digital files available from Ukraine. They may not be able to get you physical products, but digital items are available for download almost immediately, and it will help those business owners have income in these troubling times.

Changes coming

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Hello,

So, in light of Etsy’s news to raise the seller’s fee to 6.5% in April: which would bring the overall fees, including the seller’s fee, the transaction fee, and a shipping fee, up to 14.5% + 0.20 per item.

This is not financially feasible for my shop as I barely have any profits as it is.

I have started the research into other sales platforms. I’m planning on transitioning off of Etsy and onto a new platform by the end of April.

I would start the actual transition before the new fee hike takes effect, except that I have MarsCon in 3 weeks, and I need to focus on getting the final touches on that setup done.

I am aware that I’ll need to have new business cards done up, which is fine because I need to have the new logo that my sister designed for me last year, put on them anyways.

If you have a suggestion on what selling platforms I should look into, I would love to hear it.