Tag business planning

2026…What’s Changing and What Isn’t

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So we made it. It’s 2026.

Last year was, a lot, wasn’t it.

Between the American Political System,  the tarriffs, Joann’s closing, and life in general.

This year, I’m actually hoping to improve my online presense as I will be reducing the number of in-person shows I will be doing do to IRL work obligations.

I’m in the process of re-organizing the menus for both the blog as shop. My hope is that this makes it easier to navigate the website.

I’m planning to add a lot my crochet content this year. I have tutorials in the works, as well as pattern collections, and reaserch I’ve been doing on the different crochet styles.

I’ve also been working on reviews on the various crochet books that I have, so I can get those listed.

The tea reviews will be an ongoing thing. I just have to get better at finiding time to drink the tea so I can actually do the reviews. I am going to add other tea brands beside Adaigo and Friday Afternoon, I promise.

I do plan on doing working on my personal crochet challenges. I’ll make posts about each of the creatures as I get them done. I have Lovecraftian, and Cryptid creatures in the works and I hope to have those posts up soon.

I have a few other side projects that i’m working on but I’m not ready to announce those just yet.

Is there anything that you’d like me to do this year?

 

2025 We Made It

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It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.  – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

 

2024 was a mess to put it nicely. 

Financially, the business was up 49% over 2023. Despite two very bad shows in 2024, over all, it wasn’t to bad. I did learn that just because its a nerd/geek convention, it’s not necessarily a convention I should sell at.

I also learned that 9 shows in a single year is definitely to much for me at this time. I’ve figured what my 4 biggest shows were in 2024 and I’ve decided that those 4 (if they accept me as a vendor) will be the only shows that I do in 2025.

Physically, 2024 took a lot out of me. From January until May of 2024, this business was my only source of income, which meant I was doing everything I could to promote the business. Somethings succeeded, others did not. I had to pivot a lot.

I did have to pack up the studio, and I’m just now able to start setting it up.

 

I have more manageable hopes for 2025.

I do plan, in the next 2-3 weeks, get a streaming schedule figured out. Creating YouTube videos is also in the plans, I just haven’t quite narrowed down a time frame for that yet.

The various social media platforms will all receive more steady attention this month. 

The Tea Series will start back on Saturdays, I may put it out twice a week, but for now it will just be on Saturdays. I have a few other series planned, but those won’t go live until later this month.

I’m going to do something a little different with product updates this year. Instead of uploading everything at the same time, I ‘m going to release a new creature every other week. I’m hoping that this will be less overwhelming for everyone one. This will also be less stressful for me when it comes to taking good product photos and writing descriptions.

The Newsletter will start back up in the next 2 weeks, so if you haven’t signed up for it, please do so.

If you’re interested to talking about crochet and fiberarts in a low key, no politics setting, I do have a discord channel. It can be found here.

 

 

 

Upcoming Plans

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So, I touched on this a little in my monthly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up, I do ask that you do, as I announce sales and updates  there usually a week or two before I announce on Social Media.

2024 has been an interesting whirlwind of things (so far) for me.

While I have done slightly less (and yes I’m counting the 3 upcoming in this count) shows compared to 2023, I’m actually less than $200 away from what I made all of last year.  All but 2 of the shows I’ve done this year were new to me and larger (in visitor count) to the 2023 shows.

A side effect of this is that I’ve actually put more thought into my display set up for indoor shows. It definitely looks more cohesive and less haphazard now.

If you haven’t noticed the updated header on the website yet, I now have a Commissions page. It’s still evolving, but there’s now a form for inquiries. I do plan to add specific forms for Dragons and Chthulu in the coming months.

There will be one product update in November, once all the shows for 2024 are finished. I just have too much product to make in the next 3 months (plus a kid and a day job) and won’t have time to add product  to the website before then.

I’ve decided not to start posting on YouTube until after Jan 1 2025. This is before many reasons. A few of those reasons are because of the kiddo being under foot when I’m not at my day job. He starts school in a week, so I’m planning on getting some recording done then. Twitch streams will start back up then as well.

I’m going to be trying something a little different with the social media content starting Sept 1. Follow me on Insta/Facebook for more on that. I’m still working out all of those details, so I’ll share more on that next week.

If you need to find me on my socials, use https://linktr.ee/OctojellyCrochet

Is it August Already?

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So…with in the next 90 days, I will have 3 events.

These will be my 3 largest and 3 final events for 2024.

The September event will also be my longest event since I started doing events in 2020.

I am planning on using all of my free time to make a lot of products, some of which will be never before seen product.

I have also started experimenting with glow-in-the-dark yarn. Pictures are coming to the social media soon.

If you are interested, I’ll be streaming tomorrow (Sunday 8/4) from about 9:30 PM until  6 AM or  until I feel like sleeping, whichever happens first.

The regular streaming schedule will start back up after the 26th of August, as that is when Quality Control will be starting 1st Grade.

I also plan on getting a regular blog schedule actually hammered out before then, too. So far, I have the tea blog done to Wednesdays, and the Fact/Opinion days are on Fridays, but I’m debating moving those to Saturdays.

What do you think?

The Brand Overhaul Starts Today

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If you’ve been following me on any of the socials (https://linktr.ee/OctojellyCrochet) than you’ve seen whispers on what I am about to elaborate on.

Since October of 2023 I have been putting serious research into how social media works for small businesses. I’ve take all of that research and come up with a new marketing plan for the business. I’ll be introducing this plan in phases. Starting with overhauling this website , the Facebook page and the Instagram profile. Phase 2 will be the YouTube, Twitch and TikTok channels. Phases 3 will be new, steady blog series, some revived old ones, and a few new ones, and a steady Twitch schedule. Phase 4 plan involves YouTube videos and a posting schedule.

I’ve decided to open Commissions for late June and July. I may keep them open longer than that, but that depends on how the next 2 months go. I’m currently working on a form to streamline the process. The link for commissions will go live at the end of June. I’ll be sure to announce on all the socials when it does.

I have a couple of new blog series planned. The one I am most excited about is a Friday small business series where I’ll be talking about a fellow small business that I think will appeal to my readers. They  won’t always be a crochet business. If you know a small business that might be interested in this, please let me know.

I will be streaming on Twitch in June. The plan is to stream atleast 2 days a week. Not sure which 2 days, but I will send out a weekly email with the streaming schedule as well as post it on my Instagram.

I have IAWIA on June 2 at Tradition Brewing Company in Newport News, Virginia. There will be a product update in the week afterwards. There will also be a sale June 16-22. More details on that after IAWIA.

If you like the changes, or don’t like the changes, please let me know. If you have suggestions for me, please let me know. I am open to any suggestions.



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It’s March and Full of Madness

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I am not apologizing for yet another sports title.

So, a few things.

Starting later today, the tea blogs will start back up, daily for now, though those will taper off to 2-3 days a week by the end of the month. Crochet Book blogs will come out on Mondays, and Crafts From Around the World come out on Wednesdays and Fridays. Crochet patterns will come out a few days a week, I’m still working on that schedule. I’m also going to start writing down when I think of the yarns in my collection. That will probably be updated on the weekends.

YouTube videos will be starting this month. I’m thinking How-To videos on Fridays and Vlogs on Mondays. What do you think?

I probably won’t have many behind the scenes blogs going forward, between all the series starting back up, the YouTube channel, and general inventory prep for the shows in May, it’s a lot going on. I will be doing a weekly newsletter for those who join the email list letting all of them know about upcoming product updates, the actual YouTube upload times, and when I’ll be live on Twitch. There will also be more about the sale going on the week of my 39th birthday.

Halfway thru 1st Quarter

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So, the first 2 events for 2024 are now in the books.

I have 2 more confirmed events in May and possibly 2 more in August, though I am still waiting on confirmation on those.

Making upgrades to some of the gremlins.

I had a conversation at today’s event that I have actually had a few dozen times.

Inevitably, some will look at my work and ask how I get my stitches so tight.

Usually telling them that I have essentially crocheting since I was a child will stop the conversation. Unless they see me writing just before or after they see me crochet.

See, I’m left-handed. Except when it comes to crochet. I was taught to crochet by right-handed people. I learned to use my right hand to hold a crochet hook. Which also means I hold my hook with what I (and a lot of crocheters I know) call a death grip. I also crochet counterclockwise. Which, for crocheters, means that I crochet backwards.

It makes it interesting when I go to teach people how to crochet, and they get slightly confused before they realize what I’m doing. The people I teach do crochet in the right direction because 9 times out of 10, they are right-handed.

I’m getting ready to start writing about the yarns I use.

On the YouTube front, I have deleted the 3 videos that I had up on the site. I do plan on re-recording all 3 of them this week. Starting with the crochet tools and the yarn types videos.

On the blog front, I have 3 series that will be starting or restarting soon. I spent the weekend adding 250 draft titles to the site to make writing the posts easier.

The Holiday Update

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Greetings and Salutations.

So, over the last 24 hours, I have been updating the inventory in the shop.

All of the amigurumi options have been updated. I’m still debating adding baby blankets, scarves, and shawls. I may put those on the ko-fi portion of my business instead.

In December I will be adding a new category to my shop. This will cover all the DnD monsters out of the 5E Monster Manual.

I’ll be streaming on Twitch atleast 2 days during the day and early Sunday mornings starting the Monday after Thanksgiving.

All the blog series will restart on January 1, 2024. I have to much going on to be able to keep up with them at the moment. I do have a good portion of the Tea Series written and staged for January. The Crafts of the World Series is still in the research stages. I’m also working on a new pattern series.

I plan on turning the Granny Square series in to how-to YouTube videos in the new year, recording for those should start sometime next month.

I have finished the market season for 2023. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, I had just about half the markets I did not even make back the table fee.

I have better hopes for 2024. My first event will be ConVival 2024. This will take place in Williamsburg, Virginia January 12-14, 2024. See https://convivialva.com for more details. As of this posting, they are still working on the vendor list.

I may try for the Smithfield Farmers Market for 2024 as well.