Some times plans change. . .

I had a plan at the beginning of the year but then the year started and the plan went out the window. 😏  Now I find myself in a high stress, short notice, cross country move with only a loose fly by the seat of my pants plan that currently doesn't include an exact re-open date for RainbowMaille.  

Online sales are temporarily suspended while I pack it all up and move it four states away.  Both the Etsy and goimagine shops have announcements and no active listings at this time.  I do plan to re-open once the relocation is complete but it's a weird housing market out there so I'm not sure exactly when.  😉  

Happy new year, happy new plan. .

It's a new year and of course I have plans for my business. 😇

I plan to work on expanding, last year I bought my domain name, this year I have upgraded my goimagine to include Mosiac.  I am trying to decide which summer events I am signing up to vend at, both local and a bit further afield, maybe.  I am also planning to expand some product offerings like new patterns of rubber-maille, new patterns on barrettes, and maybe those cool Christmas ornaments (later in the year).  

I will once again be trying to improve my photos and get more stuff listed, that's an every year thing.  The Mosiac will be a work in progress for a while, there are so many options for the multiple banners 😅 what to say, what images to use, to link the banners to things ?  ? ?  I have to make the banners but I can't decide what they should be visually, message wise, content.  I'm going to get right on that. . .with thinking ~LOL~ because really I have to finish up my tax filing stuff, get photos of the rosette chainmaille and get all that listed before Valentine's sale kicks in which is . . . OMG 7 days. 😵

Star Seller. . .

Etsy is often glitchy and weird but this month has been especially interesting, I was randomly awarded a "star seller" badge on December 23rd like it was a Christmas present or something. 😏  I say "randomly awarded" because I know did not meet the qualifications.  I readily admit I did not qualify for December, not enough sales, not enough revenue, no fresh reviews. 

Yet right there on my shop is the little purple star, which I do appreciate as purple is my favorite color.  😇 

Now in just a few days it will be January 1st a whole new year, also a whole new review period for me to not qualify. ~LOL~  😂  I am interested to see if my current star disappears or sticks around.  I am wondering if they changed the criteria to qualify but I have re-read the articles and links from my dashboard and while there are some changes none of them should have resulted in my Christmas star. 

I am curious because while I did meet the sales and revenue this time I am still short a "fresh" review. 😕 Like all the 5 star reviews I've had in the last 6 years don't even matter.

Etsy 2021 "Year in review". . .

I know etsy has done these year-end reviews before and I thought I had posted previous ones but maybe I named the post something else and that's why I can't find it. 😏  Or maybe they didn't do it last year, or maybe they did but my shop didn't get one because it was closed half  of the year or something, who knows it's etsy.  😄  

I did get one this year but it's not really that great because. . . well I was closed for several months early in the year, it's for the online shop so doesn't include in-person sales, and the "star seller" just became a thing in September it didn't exist before that. 

Yeah not particularly impressive, I know 😕 What can I say year 2 of a global pandemic, closed most of the first quarter, oh well.  I do love the optimism of the "so far. ." in the sales graphic, but there are less than 2 weeks left in the year so. . .  I'm not expecting much.😆😉   Although, I am only one $40 sale and 1 fresh review away from getting a "star seller" again, I really doubt I'll get it.  

  

Black Friday weekend Sale. . . .

Well of course RainbowMaille will be having a BlackFriday Sale!!

As a matter of fact I plan to have "BlackFriday" last all weekend 😉 so the sale will start on #BlackFriday (November 26th) but it will continue thru #SmallBusinessSaturday all the way until #CyberMonday 30% off everything 

I have been busily adding gift wrap options to #goimagine listings, while adding listings. 😁 I've updated some photos, worked on seasonal keywords, scheduled sales, made graphics and promo stuffs.  This whole "one woman show" business means I'm always busy with something, I wish I had a "marketing department".  I need a nap.  😴  But right now I'm planning and scheduling social media stuff. 

I can't believe I actually have products in the #goimagine gift guides!!  😁😍

https://goimagine.com/holiday-gifts-2021

Happy Holidays. . .

 Welcome to November and the countdown to Christmas! 😃

RainbowMaille is having a month long 10% off sale in both shops to help you get your holiday gift shopping done early. 😉  

https://goimagine.com/rainbowmaille/  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RainbowMaille  

I have been working on getting all of the wire trees listed on my  goimagine.com and I am really close, only a handful left to go.  Yesterday I changed the banner on my facebook page and both shops.  Today I'm going to set up a "gift wrap" option in my goimagine shop, there will be a charge but only a couple of bucks. 😇  Just working my way down the holiday checklist. 

Progress. . .perhaps

 

I have been trying not to think about the fact that I will likely lose my "star seller" badge next month but with the stupid emails and permanent reminder on my dashboard every time I log into etsy, it's kind of hard not to think about. 😕  

There is a survey link at the bottom of the star seller page and I have taken it before but I decided to take it again. . . see I am still bothered by the phraseology of etsy's original spin on this program trying to say how it was all "within the seller's control".  I have said all along that virtually none of the criteria are within my control, yes I control how long it takes me to respond to a message but I cannot control when people message my shop.  Yes, I control when I ship my packages and to use tracking but I cannot control when people order or how much they order.  😒  Trust me I am a total "control enthusiast" and I know when I am not in control. So I filled out their survey again and wrote paragraphs explaining how wrong I think it is to be punished for not receiving a bunch of messages, like I'm sorry my descriptions and photos are so good that I don't get a dozen dumb "how long is this necklace" type of questions.  

I think what I wrote finally got through to someone because I noticed a change on my star seller page this morning.  Now, all I did was suggest that I could delete all the measurements and material info from my listings and force shoppers to message my shop if messages were so important to etsy's program. 😏  Now the metric for messages has a note under it that says it doesn't count since I didn't have any messages to respond to, which is better than the "Not there yet" note. 

So at least it won't be the stupid lack of messages that costs me my badge, I'm just short on the orders and $$$ requirements. Maybe in the next 10 days I'll get a big enough order or maybe more than 1. . .what miracles happen right?!  😁😂😅😇  

On a more personal note I'm feeling incredibly lazy and demotivated the last week or so, not sure if it is end of market season exhaustion, early onset S.A.D. due to the weather, the dental issue that has flared up, oncoming depression, or a combination of all of the above.  I have been fighting and forcing myself to work on listings, update tags for holidays, pre-schedule my sales, but what I really need to do is a massive photo shoot so that I can add a bunch of listings to goimagine.com I have a new pattern of stretchmaille bracelets, I have new barrettes, I need to get more art listed and wire trees too.  Unfortunately, it seems that any day I feel up to it the weather is all wrong and the lighting is bad.  😕