more marketing

I have been consumed for the past weeks with listing. Phil & I have been working together for years, collaborating in the design, production, and marketing of our craft pieces. Somehow, we have managed to keep things together. It has been stressful though, as we never could do it all, and even now, we are it - Either Phil or me.

We always seem to run in circles though.

• We never have enough time.
• We set goals which are basically unattainable.
• As craftsmen, we understand that in order to sell, we have to have product. We have to get it to market.
• All these years, we have done art shows and markets.
• We make things to sell.
• We listen to our customers, and try to respond. We listen to ourselves, and try to be true to our nature, and create from the heart.

Many of the things we do are mutually exclusive, so we have to make do and do the best we can. That means, we never have a full inventory.

Ever since we started selling online, we have had to deal with the problem of the time it takes to list an individual item vs the price for which we sell it.

Our marketing on line has developed to the point earlier this year, in which on all three of our online venues, (eBay, Amazon and our Web Site) we are listing items which we can repeat. We make so many different items, that we never have them all made up, so we are listing primarily the items we can get shipped within a day or so, if we have to make them from scratch!

That may sound easy to most people, but trying to work with dozens of wood species, styles, and three venues is, to me, a relative untalented web person, pretty formidable.

This week, we started on the barrettes. I am making all kinds of spread sheets to keep track of which clip size, wood species, and shape is listed where!

Here are some pretties:


So, maybe if we had a staff or something. But anyway, we are adding every day, We cut, sand, polish, glue, and then we take a picture and write a description, and list them. We have not started on the hairsticks yet, or the boxes.

We know it is not like going to market or a show with WHATEVER we manage to get finished, but it feels right, and we are building a virtual inventory, the likes of which we could never have anywhere but here !