Notes from a novice seller

Hey folks!  So I've been reading around the interwebs and have been given lots of hints and tips the last couple of days so thought I'd share them with you, aren't I nice? So first thing I found and which makes me laugh every new article I read from her as she's just so funny and it makes SO MUCH SENSE is Indie Retail Academy by Claire Yuille.  It's tips and tricks on how to sell to shops, but it's got so much more than that as it's a good kick up the backside to to get you promoting and selling what you make!

The second thing I found was this website called inc., it's probably more for businesses which are much larger but I found some of the articles interesting and could probably use them for interview techniques as well as craft selling.

My third thing was that I took up the offer from Moo to have 100 mini business cards printed up.  I had a lot of fun putting on the pictures of my products and although you can have every single one of the 100 cards showing a different picture I limited myself to 5 pictures and can't wait for them to arrive, should be sometime in the next week or so.  I needed new cards as although I haven't run out of the old ones they don't have all my info on them now I've joined Facebook etc.  If anyone wants a discount code for 10% off their first order I have a coupon code so just email me or leave me a comment with an email address and I'll forward it to you.  And don't worry the old cards won't be put in the bin, they shall be recycled as card backs for my products so will have a new lease of life and usefulness!

My fourth thing is that after being sent the link by the lovely Giles from the Guardian I signed up to Big Cartel as you can set up shop for free and list five items for free on a one month trial.  Yup.  No charges.  No charges on what you sell either, better than Etsy, Folksy or anybody else for that matter.  So you can try before you buy, otherwise there is a monthly fee but it's flat rate.  According to the article in the newspaper the lady trialling this got £141 in sales after a week.  I'm crossing my finger's I've made my pictures and descriptions as appealing as I can to make me sell out in a week!

And because I wanted to treat myself, as I've been told it's good for me by lots of articles and I can honestly say it's true, I've made myself a new necklace out of old things.  I've used a costume jewellery necklace which was owned by J's grandmother, one clip on earring from a pair that was my grandmother's (the other earring has a stone missing otherwise I would have incorporated both) a key which was given to me by my sister when she was leaving a job as the desk it belonged to was being thrown out as it was broken beyond repair, and the organza ribbon was on a present my mum had and she gave me the pretty ribbon as knew I could use it!  I think that means it's full of memories and love and I love it to bits.  Here's a snazzy photo taken using Instagram:

And here's a more detailed set of photos:

Pretty sparkly necklace

close up of earring and key

So I hope that's useful to you all who want a go at selling all your lovely stuff and I hope you all liked the pretty sparkles at the end.  It's always good to end with pretty sparkles isn't it?