Market Day - Part 4 of Organising an Online Market

Finally the big day arrived!

I, along with about 8 other stallholders, had been networking madly - promoting the market, liking each other's posts, sharing various wonderful items of jewellery on our pages... in short, doing a whizz bang job of advertising.  Just like it was detailed in the information sent to everyone taking part.

So how come only 8 or so people were doing this, when 20 were involved?  Good question!  Here's my answers (and as it's my blog, they're the only ones you're getting - if you've got others, make a comment).

1/  Laziness
2/  Selfishness
3/  Stupidity

I have about 10 answers, however it deteriorates rapidly into foul language after number 3, so I'm letting you use your imagination for 4 through 10.  It was so bad, that I made a little ranty 'on my soap box' post on Facebook the day of the market, threatening to delete the photos from those stallholders who hadn't done any promotion.  That caused a little flurry of posts on 11 pages let me tell you. 

When I say "little flurry", that's precisely what I mean... little.  Flurry is an exaggeration.  In the case of one, they actually sort of mentioned it under their own sale promotion, but didn't even bother to link anything for anyone to find the market.  Yay.  Way to go.  (There isn't an "underwhelmed" font, or I'd be using it).

I would, at this stage, like to give you some background on this particular "business".

The people involved with this page had, for several weeks prior to confirming they'd love to take part in the market, been crying poor, wondering why no one was buying from them, giving a number of sob stories pretty much making out they were starving to death whilst waiting for sales.  So wouldn't you think this was a perfect opportunity to get some momentum happening with a group promotion?  Apparently not perfect enough for them.  They did enjoy the shares others did of their items, as I noticed they managed to like more than one of them.  Oh, and it's a family affair, so several members of their family managed to like those posts.  But, they didn't like a single other post, they didn't share the market until threatened, they didn't join forces with the other stallholders to build a following.  They just left it to others.  Quite pathetic.

You know what?  I couldn't care less about their business!  Sad, but true, and I really hate to break it them so harshly - I'm quite sure they'd be shocked to hear it.  But the reality is, now we've had the market, I'll be going out of my way to not care, not help them in any way, and not recommend them to others.  I might even feel the urge come upon me to be, well, quite harsh when they're asking for critiques of their page or website or products, or reasons why people aren't buying from them. And you know what else?  There's about 11 other pages who'll be getting the same treatment.

Colour me a bitch.

Here's the good news though.  Of the 8-ish who really got behind the market, I think all reaped some benefits one way or another.  Firstly, they got lots of people viewing their goods online, who may never have seen their page before.  Many got sales during the market, and I know a couple got sales fairly soon afterwards.  I think all of them increased their fan base with, of course, qualified fans - we know they love jewellery.  I hope these 8 enjoyed themselves at the very least, and will have some valuable insights into this market, and possible future markets, when I send them a teensy quick survey to complete.

The survey will be anonymous of course, as you can't be honestly critical when needed otherwise.   But, even though 19 surveys will be going out I'd like to place a bet now on fewer than 19 responding!  The survey was also part and parcel of the commitment to participating, but I'm guessing if you can't bother promoting your own stuff in a market to thousands of people, you're probably not going to bother returning a survey either.  Their loss really, in the long run.

I'd work with the 8 any day, any time.  Those others - they'll be the ones sticking up the post eventually that says "oh woe is me... this is just too hard, other people/things/reasons have conspired against me and I'm going to close my page".  I'm sure you've seen those - they have 500 fans and 3 go "no, no - awww, that's terrible that those things have happened to you".  And the other 497 remain silent - because they actually don't care all that much. Oh, and they're busy hitting the unlike button and moving on.

My original thought behind hosting this Just Jewellery Market, for MinzBeadz, was promotional.  Was this achieved?  Yes, quite definitely.  Would I host another Just Jewellery Market?  The day after the market I would have said you've got rocks in your head if you think that's ever going to happen!  A week later (which is when I'm writing this), I'm saying maybe...  Possibly in another week it will be a bit like having a baby - the pain is all forgotten and you just have a wonderful loving feeling.  Ask me again then.

PS - Its now 2 1/2 weeks after the market, and I'm starting to work out the best day for the next one... well, what can I say? The baby's sleeping through the night :)

Organising an Online Market - Part 3

In my last blog, everything was a bit "eek, this is actually going to happen".  Then I moved into "easy peasy" mode, patted myself on the back a bit for my organisational skills, and sat back and waited.  Photos and descriptions weren't due in for a while from the stall holders, so nothing much to do in the meantime.

A few days before the deadline, I posted a nice friendly reminder on Facebook which worked quite well - for half of the people who had committed themselves to participating in the market.

So I sent an email on the due date.  I messaged people on the due date. I ground my teeth in frustration on the due date.  And repeated these things for two days after the due date.  Then I cracked it!

Here are just a couple of excuses that I received after chasing those people for a while (bearing in mind, these people confirmed their commitment to participating):
"Oh, I'm going to a rally tomorrow, so I'll give it a miss this time."
"Sorry, I'm going out to lunch so I won't bother doing it if that's okay?"
and the classic, but straight to the point... "I've changed my mind, thanks."

Well golly gee (and if there was a font called 'sarcasm' then that would have been in it) - don't let your commitment to anything interfere with your social life hey!  And why (oh why!!!) did you commit to this????  And thanks for letting me know in advance that you've changed your tiny little mind, before I chased you up 3 times.

And on the off chance that one of you uncommitted people should ever take time out of your busy social schedules to read this, here's a definition for you - commit - to pledge: to commit oneself to a promise; to be committed to a course of action.  Hey, guess what?  I know who you are, because you all got in touch with me.  And I also know who never to purchase anything from (how could I trust you now really).  And what's more, I also know who to tell my friends not to purchase from, because I could never recommend you as doing the right thing by anyone, could I?

Do I sound just a bit cheesed off with these people?  That's because I am!  They showed their complete lack of respect for myself and the other people participating in the market, who did the right thing.

At the last minute (and for some time after), I found myself chasing around getting random people to participate.  This was, I'd like to point out, during an extremely hectic time personally for me also, with much more going on than lunch!  Hats off to each and every one of these people who jumped in at the last second with nothing more to go on than the fact that I asked them to.  I owe you a debt of gratitude for not leaving me with the wanting-to-avoid-at-all-costs red face.  And a huge thank you to those who remembered they were taking part in the first place, and did everything required of them.  Love you to bits.

Sadly there have been some lessons learned the hard way in this stage but, being an optimist, some really great things too.  You can never have too many people to trust and appreciate in the world now, can you?  It's also advantageous to know who to avoid.

Organising an Online Market - Part 2

Well, my last blog ended with a bit of a freaked out "eek", at the thought of our online jewellery market actually happening. But what next?

Never having actually organised a market, I'm fairly sure there are steps to take between getting people interested in participating, and the event itself (dum de dum de dum, whistle, drumming fingers...). Ooh I know what that might be - having those people interested actually confirm their place.

Yes, this is where it could all come unstuck.  What the hell did so many people ask for information for?  The information itself wasn't that tricky... then name of the market "Just Jewellery" kind of gave it away (didn't it?).  Were they looking for kid's clothes? Homewares? What exactly is the freaking problem with sending back a confirmation?  Just so you know, for all of you at home who are silly enough to try this, this part is definitely harder than getting expressions of interest!

So far, several legitimate questions, several questions where the answer is in the info, and several rounds of photos sent for products that can't be included because they're not jewellery (also in the info).  And I'm not having a go at anyone, because none of you are alone! (And I will admit, although very quietly as we don't want to think I'm a complete and utter nong, to having to re-read the info I sent out just in case I didn't mention certain things, and also I couldn't remember what I did or didn't say myself).

Despite a lot  of shouts and posts about confirming places, at the date of writing this, we are one biz short.  Yes, 19 out of about 40 odd interested have bothered to confirm. I'd dearly love to know why the others didn't (feel free to comment if you're reading this).

*Interlude of 2 weeks where we play interlude music ♫ ♪ ♫

I cannot believe we are still one short!!!!  If I have to change the very pretty advertising banner that I've made now (I used my interlude music time wisely), to read "19 fantastic jewellery bizzes" then I'm going to be pretty ticked off.  And seriously... 19? Doesn't have the same powerful ring to it as 20, does it?

On the plus side, some of the wonderful 19 have started sending in their photos and descriptions for the market - wow!  There are some really, really (and one more) really wonderful pieces.  I find it fascinating to see how other people's imagination manifests itself, even for those of us who don't necessarily make everything ourselves.  Why do we go in the direction we've gone? What makes us love those pieces and not others?  I guess that's jewellery for you - as individual as our tastes are to wear something, there's someone out there who can make you happy in supplying it!

*More interlude music while we wait for magical number 20 to arrive ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ . In the meantime, I'm off to learn how survey monkey works... I really hope I don't need a monkey to work it though.

PS - The second lot of think music worked!  Number 20 is now with us, places are locked in Eddie, and the Just Jewellery Market is ready to go.
PPS - Many thanks to the mysterious and elusive Number 20, who not only has beautiful jewellery, but a great sense of humour too... love your work!

Organising an Online Market - Part 1

Anyone who has been on Facebook for more than five and a half seconds has seen an online market.  Many of us who have business pages have been asked to participate in an online market - and done so.

It's great - someone sends you a list of rules like how many photos you can include, the date you need to get them to the organiser by, and then asks you to share a few goodies from the other pages to advertise the market.  Pretty easy stuff.

As the hour of the market approaches your heart beats a little faster in anticipation of the sales you're about to get, the tv gets turned off (or at least put on mute!) so you can concentrate on business, and you flex your fingers so your super fast typing skills will impress a potential customer and of course make the difference in getting a sale.

The reality is often quite different.

There are goods from every area imaginable, and a few services thrown in to the mix as well.  It takes you 15 minutes to even find your own stuff (and you know what it looks like) - and there you are, photo numbers 463 to 468.  Not surprisingly, many potential customers either lose interest before they scroll that far, or have spent their money on something from the first 462 items up for grabs.

And what have you gained from your participation?  Often not that much, except you missed out on your favourite tv show and now have super flexy typing fingers.  Although flexy fingers when you make jewellery is a pretty good thing to have gained, you probably didn't need to join a market to get them.

I started to think how a market that suited me would work, and came up with a list.

1/ Jewellery only.  I would have a far greater chance of selling jewellery if the only items in the market were jewellery.  This would mean that people who checked it out were looking to buy jewellery, rather than chasing up an oh so cute softie or teeny tiny pink dress with the sweetest little applique on it that you ever saw.

2/ There is no 2.  Really, my only criteria for what would suit me best was a jewellery specific market.

So I sat and waited for someone to organise one.  And waited... and waited... and HELLO???? ORGANISERS OF MARKETS - waiting!!  For 4 months I waited.

Then the little voice inside my head said "why don't you organise it yourself then?".  Which was quickly shouted down by the big voice of reason and why-take-a-risk-like-that, that said "are you mad?".

Lists, that's what I needed - lists.  I actually have pretty good organisational skills, and us organised types have lists.  We like lists.  We like the making of them when we put our thoughts down in some kind of order, and we absolutely love crossing things off them because we know we've accomplished something.  If a list maker is having a slow day they'll write things like "make coffee" on their list, just for the sheer pleasure of being able to cross it off again once the aroma of caffeine fills the room.

The first thing needed on my list is what I would like to gain from such a market.  Obviously the joy of using my organisational skills for everyone's benefit except my own wasn't going to be enough, there needed to be a business advantage in there somewhere. Gaining fans for the MinzBeadz
Facebook page, fans that really liked the page, was the first.  Gaining new customers, or potential customers was the second.  Making sales during the market was the third.

What were the negatives though?  The big voice of reason and why-take-a-risk-like-that said I might completely stuff it up and look like a total fool.  As in a beetroot red, never show my face in public again foolish.  As in I might be the only person in my online market kind of foolish.  That one went on the negative side of my list.

So I told the big voice of reason and why-take-a-risk-like-that to shut up.  (You should hear the inner dialogue some days!  Honestly, I just wish for some peace and quiet), got on with making a pretty little pic to post on Facebook asking for expressions of interest, and held my breath.  Good thing the first EOI came back in about 5 minutes, because I was starting to black out!

All up, in only a matter of days, 30 lovely jewellery people showed interest, and a few more trickled in over the next week or so. Fantastic! The market is going to happen! Woo Hoo!

Oh shit! The market is going to happen! 

Clay Play - Jewellery 101

Determined not to leave my lovely new packet of clay sitting for too long and building up to an anxiety attack over starting something, I jumped right in.  After 2 weeks.  However, being a reasonably intelligent person, I was determined to go in prepared and not have a situation similar to the glue ooze happen.

So, tools required - something to roll, smoosh, press, work the clay on.  I swear I used to have this lovely thick PVC sheet for pastry - where the hell has that gone? Hmm, as I can't actually recall the last year I made pastry, I've probably chucked the sheet out.  So, plan B - baking paper. Check.

Something to cut with - this might require two cutting implements.  Something to cut a chunk (technical term, try and keep up with me people) off the block of clay, and something to use for some finer detail.  We've got loads of old knives in the third drawer in the kitchen (it might be the second or bottom drawer in your house, but you know the drawer I mean).

Okay, apparently we have no knives whatsoever in the third drawer - clearly left home with the PVC pastry sheet.  As the entire contents of the third drawer are now spread over the kitchen table, I'm quickly assessing and rejecting possible implements, at the same time wondering whether I'll get away with using the good knives...  No, naughty! Do not use the good knives!  So I settle on an old cake server for the cut-the-chunk-off-the-block tool.  Although I am wondering why I still have the old cake server if I no longer make pastry.

Now, being a plan ahead sort of person, I've already sussed that I'll need a hole pokey thing to make holes in the pendant I'm planning, in order to attach a jump ring and chain later on. As I was hanging onto a broken piece of memory wire for something, I feel entirely like this was the reason.

The perfect clay jewellery tools

 Plastic wrap - even without reading instructions, I've figured out that air dry clay is going to dry out just as much in a big block as a little jewellery sized piece and some wrapping will be required.  And drat 'him who hates the cling film box' as he's tossed it out and I have to struggle with cutting off a sheet of plastic wrap without wearing it.  (Although it might keep the clay off my clothes, which could be a good thing).  I'm planning on neat and tidy, but I've discovered that's not usually the case when I start a project!

I'm ready! So exciting! Cut a chunk (cake server works well) - not too big, not too small, press, roll.  And did you notice earlier what wasn't done... well catch up now. Forgot the knife for the detail work didn't we hey? (Yes, I'm including you in the blame.  You didn't notice earlier, so don't say you did).  Quick, what to use - bloody cake server's useless.  Really, is it too much to ask that it doubles as a scalpel?  It's not like it's being overworked on cakes.  Scissors are cutting implements, scissors will cut clay.  Hah! Not that exact, but I have sandpaper, she'll be right.

I also have a lid from a tablet bottle to hand (i.e. the glue ooze catcher), so that will work just like a scone cutter... or not.  Take note: unlike a scone cutter, there is another side to the cap and you can't poke your clay scone out.  You shake it.. then jump up and down with it for a while.  Then you resort to pushing it (because of course pushing it further into the lid will help!), then you turn your back on it and sneak a peek over your shoulder just in case it's too shy to drop out while someone's watching.

So, I cut/hack/chop/chunk away, I press/roll/smoosh away - it's like playdough... so much fun, and I get to call it work.  So my first clay pendants are cut, holes are poked (the hole pokey wire worked beautifully), and now we wait for it to dry.  Then some sanding and painting (I'm just going for a painted design on these first ones).  And lastly there will be something to make it shine over the top. I'm not actually sure what that might be at this stage (I never said my planning included how to finish this), but it can't be too hard to work out.

Perfect (haha) wet clay pieces

In the meantime, I'm just going to go and play, er, work, with the clay again.  Anyone got a playdough machine?  The one where it all comes out in long squiggly bits?  Can I borrow it?







Some days later...
So much for just painting. Truthfully, I can't draw. I know I come across as being a completely accomplished artist in many areas, so this will probably come as a shock to you. So the nice round pendant is a little thicker than it started because it's got about 20 coats of paint on it from painting over my woeful art, but that just makes it stronger.  The two large triangles broke when I picked them up - you can apparently roll clay too thin. Who knew?

However, the whole point of this was to learn, and I've learned heaps - what not to do, and what will work well next time. So in the end I decorated my lovely round pendant (the others are still waiting for inspiration) - dragonfly, hand coiled wire flower and a pretty purple crystal heart. I'm going with the theory that purple improves the look of any jewellery! It looks great on.  And when I wear it absolutely no one is going to stare closely enough at my boobal area to see the little imperfections! (The imperfections of the pendant, not my boobs).

My perfectly imperfect clay pendant!

What do you think for my first attempt - pass or fail?  (PS - I've just bought some actual clay tools, I think the cake server can retire to the third drawer and wait for a cake again).

My hypo cement needs to relax

I have to admit to having had a little bit of fear of the unknown, with regards to glue.  I realise how absurd this sounds, let's face it, I've been using glue in one form or another for decades without any real dramas.

First there was flour and water paste, which is even edible if you get hungry doing your pasting project. You can't really ask more of a glue than to be the snack too, can you.  Next came Clag, with its bright red, stiff plastic bristle brush that was also the lid of the bottle - a pretty clever concept all those years ago. Later on there were glue sticks, and then there were giant glue sticks when my children were young. I've never actually purchased a giant glue stick, mostly because the thought of all that glue let loose in the house with children was a bit daunting.

As I grew up, and less likely to plaster an entire room with glue, there were nifty glues that involved stirring two separate parts together.  I quite liked those - I always felt powerful mixing a potion that was going to heal a broken toy, or save my favourite coffee cup.  And of course the two part glues were ultimately improved by some enterprising person, into being in a single tube where you pushed the end up, and the right quantities of each part magically came out.  (Yes, in the olden days we had to actually judge the correct quantities and stir it together with a dead match).

Glue has really been my friend over the years, unlike sticky tape which is most decidedly my enemy.  Wrapping gifts for Christmas sees me spending eleven and a half months recovering from the trauma of having sticky tape everywhere except the present!  By the time all the gifts are wrapped I'm literally wearing a sticky tape hat, coat and mittens (they're not gloves, there are no separate fingers!) and cursing the inventor.  And I know I'm not the only one - why else would someone have invented the gift bag?

And then there was superglue. What did we do before superglue? And the question that plagues us all - how come it doesn't stick to the inside of the tube?  We all take superglue for granted these days, but it was just an amazing thing when it first came out.

Anyway, given my history of glue usage, it's sort of strange that I'd put off buying jewellery glue for such a long time.  Oh I've looked at it, researched it, admired it, and wanted it - just never quite got the courage up to buy it.  Because, of course, once you buy it you have to use it.  And what if I couldn't make a great piece of jewellery with glue?  It was like my original fear of making the first piece of jewellery with my lovely stash of beads, all over again.

But I've done it - bought the glue.  And I've used it too!  Just took a deep breath and jumped right in before I could chicken out.  What I didn't do first was read the instructions.  BIG boo-boo.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not a complete idiot, despite any evidence to the contrary.  I know that a glue that will stick anything to anything is going to need care so I wouldn't be forever carting a work bench around on my elbow (work bench is my artistic name for white fold out table from the local hardware!).

What I didn't read was what to do when you've finished gluing stuff and want to put the cap back on.  You'd think that would be the easy part really, however the glue kept oozing out of the top faster than I could catch it (we're talking a really minute nozzle here, maybe a quarter of a millimetre in diameter).  So because I was watching the ooze and popping things under it whilst trying to find an actual bucket or something to put there, I hadn't really considered the rest of the packing up part.  Like... a glue that sticks anything to anything might need something to stop it up before the lid goes on to prevent air getting into the tube.  And like glue ooze is probably not a good thing if you ever want to open the tube again.

 

 You need to understand something about the ooze - I wasn't squeezing the tube, you don't need to squeeze the tube, it ... just... oozes... and oozes... and oozes some more, all by itself.  It sort of rushes towards the light when the cap's off, as if it doesn't escape in a nano-second it might be trapped inside forever.  They should have given it the more apt brand name of Ooze.   It's actually got a boring name of GS hypo-cement.  You'd think being called 'Hypo' it would be fairly laid back rather than this frantic rush wouldn't you? Oh, light bulb moment - perhaps this is relaxed and if it wasn't hypo then it would be doing more than ooze out of the end.  (Now I'm imagining myself trying to catch a river of it gushing out, rather than the ooze... too awful to contemplate. Let's move on).

So, having found a bucket and having managed to balance this tiny little tube carefully on its pivot point over the rim (which was pretty darn clever of me!) so the ooze was going to go in the bucket, it of course stopped oozing. Figures!  But at least I can grab the cap properly, decide how I'm going to clean the ooze off the tube (tissue - and yes, it stuck to the nozzle, thanks for asking), then decide how I'm going to clean the tissue off the nozzle (dare I try a sponge?  And if a sponge, will a blue one work better than yellow?  Sometimes life's decisions are hard!)

I chose the blue which worked well.  Great decision making skills are necessary when you're a sole trader / jewellery artiste.  Yellow wasn't going to work for obvious reasons (i.e. there were only blue sponges in the cupboard).  And then came the fun part.  The inside of the cap has a teeny weeny filament attached to it that needs to be inserted into the teeny weeny nozzle when you put the cap on.  At least I worked out how it wasn't going to dry up before I used it again.

Many, many frustrating minutes later, at the point I was nearly in tears, I finally got that stupid filament in the stupid nozzle.  The nozzle hole is microscopic and therefore the filament is slightly smaller than microscopic and hey! I have old eyes - I don't do microscopic!  And the ooze had started again, because of course I had to pick the tube up to try and insert the filament and obviously woke it up.  So there I was, wiping ooze, holding tube, trying to throw tissue and sponge anywhere they weren't going to stick to something because I needed that hand to insert the filament/cap.  It was a race against the ooze, with the ooze winning.

All I wanted was one little drop of glue to make the perfect match of bee & flower

 You can't imagine the trepidation I felt the next time I opened the glue, wondering how the hell I was going to get the cap back on this time.  Although I did come prepared with bucket (and a spare, just in case), tissues, blue sponge and a yellow sponge for back up.  All for nothing as it turns out - the cap's gone on perfectly every time since!  Somehow I seemed to have passed the glue test.  So, now glue is my new best friend again.