And the Winner Is...The Duck

Well, it's been quite some time between blogs. What with one thing and another - winding up the first MinzBeadz end of financial year, still trying to master Facebook, going to markets, re-jigging the website, and generally running around like a lunatic with no time to scratch -  let's just say I've been busy!

So what have a learned during my first year (or part thereof) in business for myself, you might ask? (And even if you didn't - bad luck, because I'm going to share some of my fascinating insights).

Like me back or else!

• I've learned that Facebook is neither a book nor do you see people face to face. And just today I learned that there are some really peculiar people (and I use the term 'people' loosely) who want you to like their page - apparently an extremely clever dog has now liked mine and wants a return like. Dream on dog, dream on.  

• I've learned - a little anyway - how to talk about my business without feeling like I'm that excruciatingly boring person that everyone avoids at all costs. I count myself lucky that most people don't feel that way, or are way more polite than I give them credit for and don't show it. (Thank you to those polite and well brought up people).                                                                 
• I've gained a better understanding of what my "unique selling point" is, and might become, in having found a little niche area for MinzBeadz - sourcing jewellery for people, which has enabled me to help, and get to know a little, some really lovely people in the past months.

• I've learned that getting people to take 30 seconds to look at your website can be likened to  pushing the proverbial "stuff" uphill - and I can't think of any reason other than laziness! (Oh, just thought of one - they might be the polite people who I've bored, so I take back the lazy comment for those people).

Freebie 0 VS Duck 95

• I've learned that, despite the number of articles I've read on what makes a Facebook page engaging, following the formula can work really well one day and not at all the next!  And that it can be excruciatingly difficult some days to even give away something for nothing, to the point you think you're the only person left in the world (or the world of Facebook, which some may think is the whole world, but us older and wiser folk know there's more out there), and 3 seconds later 95 people hit the like button for a photo of a duck. Isn't it great that we're not alone and the duck likers are still watching us... I really feel comforted knowing that.

A lot of what I've learned in the last few months relates to people - myself and others - and how they behave.  Of course I always behave wonderfully, but there's some really, um... (trying to think of a word that isn't a swear word), um....well shit, there's some real bitches out there!  And we won't dwell on them because in the end, karma will take care of them. It always does.

Another really important thing I've learned is that Zen Cart (the shopping cart software on my website) does not induce a zen like state and would be more aptly named Wonky Wheel.  Wonky Wheel was written by someone cleverish, and then tested by someone cleverish, then they patted themselves on their mutual cleverish backs and gave it out to innocent bystanders for free. Just to laugh their cleverish laughs at our attempts to understand what they mean with their software.

It is impossible to believe that they gave Wonky Wheel to the average person, asked them to use their help file, then paid attention to any feedback. 

Yesterday I discovered that there does not appear to be a way to have a screaming red sign jump out at you if you haven't chosen a shipping option! I mean really...are you joking??  The default "choose your shipping area" option, which I can't seem to shift from being the default, just bypasses charging any postage costs if you don't go in and select your country. What's with that?

Consequently, we now have one very happy customer who was charged no postage, and international customers will have to email and request a postage fee and be invoiced separately. So much for fully automated and saving me time and energy.  So if anyone is a Wonky Wheel expert, it would be wonderful to hear if it's actually possible to have a loud red sign that waves a flag, saying something along the lines of 'YOU HAVEN'T CHOSEN A SHIPPING METHOD YOU DODO, WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT ENTIRE PAGE WAS ABOUT".

And having just passed the end of the financial year, I've remembered how horrible finalising all the accounts is. Stupidly enough, I'm struggling more with the formula for my stock spreadsheet for the new year. Every night, right before I slip into sleep, I have the formula worked out, then in the morning it's totally vanished and I sit staring stupidly at an Excel page. What's worse is that I know it's just a simple formula. I'm taking the position that once the books are finalised and I have time to stop running around like the aforementioned itchy lunatic, that it will just come to me in daylight.

I know, I live in dreamland...but it's my dreamland and I like it here. The natives are friendly and I'm the Queen. 

Stolen: Floor - REWARD offered for information

Attention everyone, my office floor has been stolen!  It was last seen 2 weeks ago under my desk, filing cabinet and feet.  A reward is being offered for information as to its whereabouts.

Let me take you back to the last time I saw my floor, and the circumstances leading to its disappearance.

*Six months to two weeks ago:

Starting and growing a service based business is somewhat different in space requirements to that of a product based business.

You need a desk, a computer and printer, and a file cabinet (until the business grows and woo hoo a second one is required). Then the stuff that goes on the desk - noddy head toy, stress balls, large doodle pad (lots of doodling time in the early days) - and of course pens in all the colours of the rainbow (if one is going to doodle, then one's doodles should be attractive) along with paper clips (for chain making) and so on.

A paperclip chain is a must have in any decent office environment

You might also require a car - however I don't park mine in my office so I'm not including that.

When you have products to sell, you need all of the above - and then you need the storage space for for your lovely products.  Day one of the whole new life is easy - there's no stock at that point, so the office (which like many home based businesses starts on the kitchen table) is quite spacious.  You look around at your new work environment, nod a little in time to the noddy toy whilst thinking "damn fine office...and so neat - and hey, I've got a floor".

By the time 6 months has rolled around it's a whole different story.  You can no longer work from the table because the rest of the inconsiderate people in the house actually want to eat their meals there without balancing plates and cups on piles of beads.  I think it makes meal times a little bit more fun playing 'catch the crockery' as it rolls along.  Apparently though, I am the only one who has a sense of humour here.

And so us home based people are banished to the back bedroom.

But in the meantime, while we were having fun at the dinner table/office, the gremlins have been destroying our workspace. Where's all my space gone?  And while we're looking for things, where the hell's my desk?  Who dumped all that stuff on it?  If I only had a dog these days I could turn around and glare at him or her in an accusing fashion.  But I haven't, so I had to glare at the Other Half instead (it was almost as good, except I don't remember my dog ever talking back like that...).

Clearly a storage system was required for all the different types of beads and charms, then a separate area for the made up jewellery.  So far so good.  Then I packed everything to go to a market - still following a sort of system, still good.  Then when the market finished the people who were running it wanted to get to the pub for lunch, and literally threw everyone and their goodies out of the door to lock up.  Not good at all, and my system started to get a few cracks around the edges.

Meanwhile, MinzBeadz was growing slowly but surely, and the amount of stock, logically, was increasing too.  So more storage, more sorting, more stacking, more labeling - ahh, nicely under control again.

And then The Son came home.

*Present day

So, his former bedroom, which housed the mess of my Other Half (his is mess, mine is work - let's make that clear), had to be relocated in MY office!  Crowded you ask? Apparently only on my side of the room (I have to take his word for it as I can't actually see over the top of the piles of his mess).  Periodically a paper plane flies across to me with a note that tells me how he's stretched out and comfortable over there and doesn't understand how I can be so disorganised.

My other half also puts earphones in and listens to his really bad music.  At first glance this is a considerate thing to do, however random extremely loud taps of the workboots (presumably to the music), coupled with earphone deafness shouts, of a word here and a word there, do not make for a great experience.  More like losing a few years off your life with fright every time one or the other occurs.

And the son seems quite comfortable in his old room, which magically has more space than when he lived in caveman fashion there before (primarily because we had the bulldozer through after he moved out).

NB: To be fair to said son, the move home is a temporary after an operation whilst needing some TLC, so not entirely his fault.  Alright - not his fault at all (why must you be so pendantic?).  I just don't see why he can't play at being the princess and the pea and have a few beads under the mattress - didn't he sleep enough during his operation?  And from ages 13 to 18?

Anyhow, back to the story - in order to actually do some work in the day, access to the computer and desk is required. So I did a major tidy up (no mean feat given the three square centimetres I now have to move around in).  I also thought that perhaps I might like to join a circus - I seem to have accomplished a fairly impressive balancing act of things on top of things... on top of things.

The good news is, I found my desk, diary, computer and pretty coloured pens and paper clip chain (I was a tad worried about the chain, it took quite some time to get it to that length).  But the bad news - when I stopped being impressed by finding my desk I discovered that my floor was missing.

Theft is the only logical answer and, to whoever took it, I'd like it back NOW please.

Misfits and Marvels at the Markets

Many of us with small businesses that have a product to sell have begun our new lives at local markets.  If you've been a stall holder you may recognise some of the people I've come across.  If you're a market goer, you may recognise yourself!

Ms Upherself

Ms Upherself is fond of telling you from 3 metres away, on her approach, how she can only wear sterling silver, because anything else touching her delicate skin will turn it black - or the jewellery black - I never really figured out which.

If you point out glass beads with a sterling silver core in them, she will launch into her story again..and again...and again.  Ms Upherself has decided before she's even looked at any jewellery that none of it will be sterling silver enough for her.  Obviously she is a woman of extremely refined tastes, which is why she moves on to the second hand clothes stall - probably to let them know she can't wear anything except Dior.

Ms Repetetive

Ms Repetetive asks the question "how much?" of each and every bead and charm on the table.  By the 100th ask, you could cheerfully stuff a handful down her throat.  Here's my advice (just in case you are Ms Repetetive):
1/ listen to the answer the first time
2/ the big sign with the prices on it that's about to bite you on the nose may help
3/ if all else fails, see clue #1 or clue #2

There appears to be no way to move Ms Repetetive along to the next stall, unless every item has had a price check (although I admit to not having tried a fork lift).  Occasionally though, Ms Repetetive actually finds a price she likes (even though it's the same as the previous 50 she's asked about) and will buy something.  If not, you can have a little satisfaction in half and hour or so - when she moves to the next stall holder who's been snickering at your plight. (Who's snickering now eh?)

                                                   



Ms Tactile

Ms Tactile was clearly not told by her mother to "look with your eyes" when she was a child.  As a consequence, touching and rubbing a single bead will not suffice - all of them must go through the process.  Ms Touch and Rub never ever buys anything, however I have found she is useful if you put a polishing cloth in her hands.

Ms Feralmum

Ms Feralmum is the one with the totally feral child (and occasionally *shudder* more than one) who is obviously the case "for" when the debate about compulsory sterilisation comes up.  In her eyes, her child is an angel, and obviously we stall holders have the problem when we gently ask said angel to move their dripping ice cream or greasy sausage sauce away from our goods, where a pool of sticky goo is forming over them.  The resultant glare from Ms Feralmum is enough to wither the hardiest soul.

Ms Feralmum can be stopped with a simple "You'll be taking that then? That will be x dollars", whereby she will hastily usher the mini feral/s away - to the snickering stall holder next to you.

                                               

Ms Text

Ms Text is a mystery to me. She is the one walking through the market constantly texting on her phone - doesn't look right, doesn't look left, doesn't look up.  People move out of her way as she enters at one end and exits at the other.  I am a little in awe of her power to move people like that - it would have been handy when the kids were teenagers and I wanted them to clean their rooms.  All I can think is that her mum and dad made her come when she really wanted to stay home on the couch and text. Consequently, I have some sympathy for her - who wants to be dragged along to the market where you might be seen with The Parents.  All her other 30 year old friends might make fun of her.

Miss Cute

Miss Cute is adorable. Each bead receives its own little exclamation of "Ohh, so cute" as she moves along.  The ego boost of hearing this over all your jewellery is enough to make me want to hire her for low ego days.

Master Lookacrocodile

Hard to believe amongst all the bling on the stall that Master Lookacrocodile can zero in on one bead so quickly. I'll let you figure out which one.

                                                 



Ms Happy

Ms Happy is a complete joy to talk to, often buys my jewellery, loves to look without touching everything, and is having fun just being out at the market.  She also remembers me from the last market - and what we were talking about!





I'm considering having another side business - making badges - to be handed out at the market entrance after the completion of quick paperless, wordless survey (just put a table full of anything at the entrance, you'll know immediately which category the person falls into).  Another one of my brilliant business ideas, if I do say so myself.

Ms Upherself would obviously get a silver badge (.925 stamped sterling of course), Ms Repetetive could have one that said PTO (on both sides), Ms Tactile's would be etched, Ms Feralmum's would have a spray on grease coating that gets stickier as the day goes on, Ms Text's could be something like "wtf", the young and enthusiastic children get gold stars, and Ms Happy gets a smiley face.

The other stall holders would, I'm sure, welcome an innovative business like this, as it would only enhance their selling experiences at that market.  Think of the advantages of being able to say to the next stall holder 'be back in 5 minutes, can you watch my stall? got to go to the loo" and beat a hasty exit as Ms Repetetive approached.  You'd just have to be careful and watch the approach from both sides - you wouldn't want to be stuck watching someone else's stall for the same reason!

But between MinzBeadz and my fledgling business of knitting websites, I really don't have the time. And besides, Ms Tactile might not get past the my stall at the gate and, well, I don't really want to clean my own beads.

Don't You Love Our New Yak?

Step 3 of my master plan was word of mouth marketing.

Talking about yourself, being passionate about your new business, raving in glowing terms about your jewellery - easy as pie. Having everyone you come across jump on the bandwagon and then watch the sales 'ka-ching ka-ching' through the cash register - logically that follows.

However, tooting your own horn can be difficult - what if the audience likes the cello?

At my "day job" (that I was still working 5 days a week at while MinzBeadz was in the initial stages) it was easy to talk it up.  Our customer service record was terrific, the value to someone's business was indisputable, and we cared about what we were doing and did it well. Consequently, we had a lot of "word of mouth" referrals.

Talking about yourself, promoting yourself, is a whole other ball game. (Okay, I'll stop with the cliches now).

There's nothing "wrong" in having a jewellery business. It doesn't hurt people, it's not offensive - in fact most of the time it's quite a lot of fun.  MinzBeadz all started as an affordable alternative to those who wanted a bead and charm bracelet (me) but couldn't afford a big name one like Pandora - so it's not even expensive fun.

So what was wrong with me that I couldn't talk about my business in a glowing light?  Whilst it has become easier with time, but there are still moments when I feel like "shut your mouth already, nobody is interested". Which is quite ridiculous, as anyone with any common sense can tell when someone isn't actually interested in a conversation.

(NB: For those who have no common sense, this would be when a person's eyeballs roll back into their head and you think they may be possessed by the devil. It's more likely to be boredom with the conversation. They haven't left because you're standing on their foot, which happened when you stood 3cm away in your enthusiasm to spit in their face whilst you talked.)

People who have embarked on a new adventure, be it a business or buying a new yak, are engaging  people - they have new yak passion and talk about their yak excitedly.  And one thing about enthusiastic people, whether their new yak is your idea of adventure or not, their enthusiasm is contagious.  You walk away feeling better for having spoken to such happy yak people and your whole day is brighter for it.

Mind you, when you've had to kiss the new yak and goo and ga at it like a baby, well ...I'm working on getting my timing right to walk away first.  (I've been busy watching in case I got hit by a rolling eyeball).

Cootchie cootchie coo

So why is it so difficult to translate that to me being the one who is enthusiastic, and someone else feeling better for having spoken to me?  Well, here's the short answer - I have no idea.  Which of course has set off an entire train of thought along the lines of, am I really so insecure?  (Refer to my last blog where I need the affirmation of faceless people on Facebook to like me!).  Conclusion:  apparently I am.

What I have worked out though, is that I don't actually need to talk about my business - it's fairly apparent what that is anyway, except if you're already doing an eyeball rolling devil impersonation. If you're at that stage before I even say hi, then really, why did you leave the house today?

I just have to be my naturally charming self (it's true, I am. I'm also modest, which is a very becoming quality...) and simply talk to people.  It's the pleasure of the conversation that is remembered afterwards, not whether or not is was a description of my business in 9725 words or less.

So has word of mouth marketing worked? Who knows. But I have met some particularly nice yaks in the process.

Where's a Teenager When You Need One?

You might recall from my previous post that my brilliant marketing plan was now in progress, with stage 2 about to take place.

Step 2 - Facebook.  There are so many words I could use to describe my descent into insanity (commonly called creating a Facebook account), however this is a clean blog and words that aren't really rude completely escape me at the moment.

It may surprise you to learn that prior to starting a business I had never had a Facebook account, and  I thought I might just end up being the last person on the planet not to have one.  I've mentioned that so you can appreciated what a monumental moment this actually was! At the least, it deserves either a drum roll or a fanfare of trumpets.

In a technical, how-the-hell-does-this-work sense, Facebook has been by far the biggest challenge. The help file is like most help files - of no use whatsoever if you are clueless (frightening that someone who can knit a website can be completely clueless when it comes to sharing, tagging, poking, shouting, and any other "ing" you can think of).

And what's with the extremely annoying survey question at the end of each paragraph in the help file "Was this helpful" and "Why not?" - hey, too confusing Facebook people, way too confusing.  Really, how many times do I need to answer you before you get the message!

And why do they call it "social" media?  We all sit by ourselves on a computer, or with a mobile phone in our hands typing or texting to a machine - I may be wrong (hard to believe, but it has happened once before) but doesn't that make it anti-social media?

And why do all these different 'things' insist on having their own private terminology? What's wrong with the language we already have (in my case that's English)? To be honest, every time I think I have a handle on something to do with Facebook, it seems to be the very thing that they change the next day. I've spent hours trying to find something again, only to discover quite by accident that they've moved or changed the damn thing.

So many questions, and so very few answers (check the box that says too confusing again).

So, you may recall the plan was to convert my thousands of, as yet unknown, Facebook fans into online buyers.  Here's the bit I didn't plan - it's actually sort of difficult to know how to get people to like you when no one knows who you are.  Also difficult for them to tell their friends how fantastic MinzBeadz might be too - as no fans equals no friends of fans.  I realise now how ridiculous that sounds, but colour me social media ignorant (which is an attractive shade of blush), it truly didn't occur to me.

I'll give you an example of how daft Facebook has sent me - I actually wished for one of my children to be 14 years old again! OMG - see??? But if they were, they would wake up just knowing how it all worked and I could get them to explain it in easy to understand "talk to the silly mum" language and, abracadabra, I would know it too.

For those who don't yet have a teenager, "talk to the silly mum" means in words of one syllable or less - less being a sort of grunting noise which can be deciphered depending on the facial expression accompanying the grunt i.e eyebrows raised, the grunt is a question, usually something like "Can I have a lift or money?". If the eyebrows frown into a point above the nose, then the grunt means either "Don't talk to me in public, my friends think I was grown in a test tube" or "What do you mean you won't get me those thousand dollar plastic shoes that everyone else is wearing and will think I'm a complete no-hoper for not having, and looking just like them. You're stifling my individuality!".

And while we're on the subject, how do teenagers just know all this stuff as it comes along?  None of them seem to actually learn it and pass the knowledge along to others, it's more like they breathe technology air (see, I thought it was stale socks and held my breath) and it's just there - part of their DNA.

The aroma of technology...or is it socks?

However, despite many sniffs (just in case some technology air lingered in our home long after my teenagers have departed) I've had to learn it the old fashioned way - yup, had to read things.  And no, I don't have thousands of fans - at the time of writing this, I have less than 100, but they are (nearly) all people who wish to engage with MinzBeadz in some manner, so my less than 100 terrific followers trump those pages with 2000 "likes" that were bought through some dodgy "get liked quick" scheme.

Part of the learning has been to figure out what makes a page engaging. To that end, I have skimmed through thousands of pages belonging to others to see what makes a page enjoyable (somewhere along the way, I did figure out that it's the percentage of people 'talking about' you that determines engagement, not the number of likes).  I am steadily trying to apply these same principals of engagement and enjoyment for MinzBeadz. Hopefully I succeed on some occasions, and people will be patient until the enjoyment factor outweighs the boredom factor on my page.

The good thing about all the skimming and reading was that I found lots to linger over and enjoy - none of which I would ever have known about without Facebook (and that's the only "thumbs up" they will get from me!).

Something I found very difficult to start with, was to randomly like a page and wonder if someone would like me back!  Who would have thought an unknown entity would have so much power over whether I feel accepted or rejected?  Luckily those feelings have passed. Now it's lovely if someone likes MinzBeadz back, but because I'm genuine about who I've liked in the first place, I'm already enjoying their posts and not particularly caring about whether they return the love or not.

That's just a blatant lie - underneath it all, I still care - please...like me.

So, has Facebook been successful as a marketing venture?  Yes, a number of people who came across MinzBeadz on Facebook have gone on to become customers, and hopefully as I become more engaging with my content that number will grow.

Step 2 - complete but ongoing (if that makes sense).  Now to word of mouth conversions...but that's a story for next time.

To Market to Market

So now MinzBeadz was ready to be seen by the whole world and my marketing plan went into action.  On paper, the initial stages went:

• take a stall at various markets, sell my beads and charms, promote my website, convert market customers to online customers
• get a Facebook account, promote my beads and charms, convert Facebook fans to online customers
• word of mouth, talk about my beads and charms, convert people I talk with to online customers

Are you seeing a common theme here? Yes, not much point having a spanking new website that many hours (and dollars) have been spent on if you have no online customers. Besides which, whilst I love meeting and talking to people at markets, I don't particularly wish to get out of bed at 5am for the rest of my life.

Ask anyone who knows me - I'm not a morning person. I will even argue that 5 o'clock is still the middle of the night and not technically morning at all, particularly in winter when it's dark (and cold). Dark and cold = night in my book.  The first market organisers that absolutely forbid any stall holders to enter & set up a stall prior to 8am will have a fan in me for life!

My very first market stall as MinzBeadz

Step 1 - to market to market.  My very first market adventure with MinzBeadz was in Yarram, in the Gippsland region of Victoria. And it went really well.  Oh, damn modesty!  It went freaking brilliantly!  From 8:30 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon I sold beads, charms and bracelets and talked myself hoarse to the lovely people of Yarram. Yarram appeared to love MinzBeadz (either that or they were faking it quite well!), and the feeling was mutual. 

Country people are lovely.  They enjoy a good chat and they're down to earth .  Going to the market once a month is an occasion to look forward to, and everyone seemed excited to have a new stall at their market and wanted to know if I would be there every month (really, what a boost for the self esteem!).

Luckily for me, despite the fact I am no longer a newbie, the locals still roll up on the first Sunday of each month - sometimes to buy and chat, and sometimes just to chat. And it's still excellent fun, despite the 5am start! Yarram is a big area for tourists from early November until Easter, so the local markets can be quite busy places.  Funnily enough, I've met people who live around the corner from me, who I would never have met without Yarram market.

Obviously, since this first big step into the real world, MinzBeadz has made appearances at other markets around the state (with varying degrees of success), but I still have a soft spot for Yarram.

I'm an avid people watcher, and observing others promoting themselves and their goods at markets has been interesting, to say the least.  One whole section of business owners seem to struggle with the truth.  Their motto must be "tell anyone anything as long as they buy the stuff".  And some of what they tell them - wow!  Pinocchio's nose is growing at a rapid pace, and there are a lot of pants on fire.

On one occasion, the stall next to me (not one of "us" regulars - a blow in, in fact) was selling a very similar style of jewellery to MinzBeadz.  The potential customer asked me if a particular item was sterling silver (no). Disappointed, she moved along, asked the same question at the next stall and was told yes (it most definitely wasn't).  She bought something for $25 on an outright lie, and I got a smirk from the stall holder.

Well, I'm nothing if not a quick study - the next person who asked me that (same day), got told no with an explanation of what others (without naming any names) might try to tell you, and what the actual truth is.  Funnily enough they didn't spend the outrageous amount at the next stall. 

And I know what you're thinking - I'm a bigger person than that.  I did not smirk.  Well...not until I got home.  I might be a bigger person in public, but I'm only a small minded human in the privacy of my own home, so it seems.  Having my own business has shown me personality traits I didn't realise I had - private smirking being one of them.

Having a stall at various markets had advantages other than bringing in some much needed income.  It also enabled me to learn who my demographic was, and learn what my potential customers were looking for.

Here's what I discovered about my demographic - females (and lots of males) between the ages of 2 and 90 like beads and charms.  The least interested are teenagers around the ages of 15 and 16.  My potential customers seemed to either:

•  like what I have 
• want sterling silver or solid gold beads and charms
• not even look (in which case you can't find out what they're after).

 Here's how I handled the above:

• expanded the range to include some funky necklaces that teenagers might like (and lots of adults and children).  Degree of success - excellent!
• tell potential buyers of sterling silver and gold charms that I would be happy to get in anything particular for them, but of course the price would be much steeper.  Seems that this breed of buyer are happy for me to put my money on the line to buy things they might like, but not happy to commit to any type of purchase.  They particularly don't want to pay a reasonable price for said items either. They want "the real deal" for the same price as the affordable version!  Degree of success - nil. 
• to drag in the non-lookers and make them look I purchased a large butterfly net and snagged them as they tried to bypass my stall.  They then had to beg for release, which I wouldn't grant until they had oohed and aahed over at least 10 items and purchased one.  Degree of success - 100%

Come back you Non-Looker! You will look & you will buy!

However, when all was said and done, the original plan of converting market buyers into online purchasers has not succeeded. Yep, zero, nada, no one.  The conclusion I've finally reached, is that people who buy from markets and people who buy online are two different groups of people.  And so these days, whilst info about the online store, business cards and so on are available at markets, I save myself a lot of aggravation by not worrying about whether John Q Public even looks.

Given the lack of conversion going on with market customers, I'd better get cracking on Facebook.  But that's a story for next time...

Knitting a Website

Wouldn't it be great if you could knit a website? There'd be so many advantages - just pick the pattern you want "I'll have the jewellery store one please", select your wool "Hmmm, I think the rainbow with silver streaks would look nice", then go home and relax in your favourite chair and knit while you watch tv.

Of course the techie geek people have made it too difficult to follow their pattern, even though they make out it's quite simple. And it is - if you only have a single product to upload, with a single description and a single photo. And you already know the best way to photograph your one and only product, use imaging software and describe your fabulous product in such an emotive way that people can't resist purchasing it.

Then there is the tiny matter of understanding how the website and shopping cart work together, where everything is kept in each - and actually finding these things, in the construction end of your website, for a second (and third) time. A complicated fair isle is much easier.

You may have guessed by now that MinzBeadz was not actually knitted or constructed overnight. In fact it took a whole lot of overnights to get it to the point it could safely show it's pretty little face in public.

Figuring out how to insert products into my new website was relatively simple, but I have to admit that I've never really gotten the hang of Photoshop and prefer an old freeware program called PhotoFiltre - it's sort of like Photoshop for complete and utter dummies (as opposed to your regular dummies). Which means fewer bells and whistles and more of your basic 'must have' items, like the little lasso thing that cuts around your image.

Somewhere around 2am on a night where I was going cross eyed and thought I was never going to finish getting everything ready, I did question the wisdom of starting a business with multiple teensy tiny products, said a small thank you to whoever invented the digital camera, and cursed whoever invented imaging software. The cutting out part (which I'm sure some lovely photographer type people will have a proper technical term for) is really really (and one more just to emphasise it) really time consuming. It was at this point that the brilliant idea of knitting my website occurred.

Knitting a website is quite easy

There are a lot of pros to doing this:

• I enjoy knitting
• Intricate patterns are easy with needles and wool, limited only by my imagination instead of handicapped by my lack of knowledge
• There are only two stitches to learn and remember, rather than three and a half million things, most of which I don't know the terminology for
• The wool industry in Australia would sing my praises

 Just imagine it, I could be the first non-designer person to be completely relaxed doing my own website.

Even after all the practice I've now had, achieving a pure white background in a photo has defeated me. No matter what type of lighting (front, back, sideways, and sticking my tongue out left then right whilst hopping on one foot) the background always ends up greyish. Like Grandpa's old white underwear that's been washed too many times without a good bleach.

Exactly, totally unattractive. Unattractive Grandpa underwear background thus equals cutting out of images with the miniature lasso.

At this point I was thinking how I might convert my new jewellery business to being a service business with no products at all (i.e. a website knitting business). In my sleep deprived state it seemed quite possible, however with each new day the fantastic and inventive ideas of how to do this taunted me, just out of reach of my almost conscious brain. Most frustrating.

Given that I had rather a lot of products at this point, I finally gave up trying to retrieve the ideas, tucked away behind what was needed at the supermarket, and how to whiten grey underwear, and stick to selling the jewels.

Welcome to my nightmare

And besides, I was beginning to have disturbing dreams of strange little baby lassos cutting out every dream image... chasing me... chasing me.... 

Needless to say (have you noticed how people say "needless to say" right before they say the very thing that is needless?), eventually the virtual shelves filled in my store, I was happy with the descriptions of each item and I could at least, at this point, tell a potential customer that of course I had a website. (Duh, just knitted one didn't I?)

Except that my terms and conditions, my return policy, my shipping policy, my information telling all about "us", and hey, Welcome You Managed to Find My Website! needed to be tweaked. So tweak I did, and twiddled and I think I may have twitched a bit too, if the truth be told. And now I could, at long last, begin my marketing campaign in earnest.

As to how the marketing plan has gone in real life, well... that's a story for next time.

No Hidden Costs - Arghhh

Many of you will have had a momentary shiver of apprehension at the title of this post, and some of you will run and hide. Personally, I get a little shaky when I see those words and feel like going as far away as possible, as fast as possible.

Whilst all the prelim stuff ("stuff" being a technical term for legal things) was being organised, I was doing research into building my own website (i.e. playing at being a web designer), who I might get to host it, and all the things that seemed to go along with that.

There are a lot of places where you can have fun building a website for free, so the 'research' was taking a while. What I discovered during that time was, when you see the words "no hidden costs", step away from your computer. Trust me, they're there. I saw this phrase so often that I began to look for it, just so I could begin the hunt for the 'no hidden costs'! Hmm, I might have spent more time on that than I possibly needed to, now that I think about it. But it seemed like a bit of a game at the time - "come out come out wherever you are".

Finally I came across a large, well known hosting company who, despite telling me they had no hidden costs, actually didn't seem to have any. I thought I must have missed them - so I looked again (not much of a fun game this time. I nearly went blind reading the terms and conditions twice, and dying of boredom seemed a distinct possibility).

All looks good - I can load my own website, register my domain name and it will be all systems go. So there I am, filling in yet another round of details (except this time I get to include my wonderful name where required). Excellent - two domain names now registered.

New form, select the hosting package I want - next screen, fill in payment details - next screen. Great, I'm at the confirm payment screen, and this has been sooo easy.


Hang on! What the hell's that? It looks like No Hidden Costs - on the last page, in tiny weeny font at the bottom, and not next to the confirm button where my eyes are naturally looking. Technically, I suppose it's not actually hidden, but...  

To say I wasn't thrilled with this would be an understatement. (I believe a rude word or two may have passed my lips!). To have a website hosted can be quite economical, until you want a shopping cart included - and then it just isn't. Every piece of information on this site up to this point had said that a shopping cart was included in the price. This final, last moment, sneaky sentence altered the hosting from "shopping cart included" and mere pocket money, to "shopping cart not included" get a second mortgage.

I have wondered since how many people got a very nasty surprise on their next credit card statement because they didn't actually see this "completely out in the open, totally transparent" No Hidden Cost.

So, back to the drawing board in the search for someone to play host to my fantastic, but as yet not built, site (I have a good imagination, that's how I know it was fantastic at this stage). And now I have the added pleasure of having to move my domain name away from the sneaky people to wherever I end up. Another thing to put on the to-do list. (The actual entry was: DNS thingies! Thingies is another technical term, like 'stuff' - you have to learn the lingo if you want to be in business).

Just as an aside, have you noticed when you start a business how the to-do list grows faster than the items being crossed off? That's when "make lunch" seems vitally important to put on the list, just for the sheer pleasure of being able to say "whew, one thing less to do now" as you put a lovely thick line through it.

Anyway, just about the time I decided that more big dollars were going to have to be spent (that cute little shopping cart was looking more like one with a wonky wheel), I found it. A hosting company that didn't mention the dreaded words, was reasonably priced, answered my emails quickly and - bonus - included a website in the price too. Call me suspicious, but until it was all done I was still waiting for the hidden costs to make an ugly appearance. I am pleased to report there weren't any, and my wonderful hosting company is Avant Marketing.

There has been only one annoying thing about finally unearthing Avant Marketing (although I suspect they didn't know they were buried anywhere), and that was discovering the price also included a free domain name, which of course I had already paid sneaky company to register. Rats!

Things moved rather quickly from this point onwards. As I had played at being a designer so much beforehand, I knew the basic "feel" I wanted for my website. Two weeks later, I was a business owner, with a Real Certificate and now a Real Website!

Point the dot com at the dot com dot au site, set up emails, photograph beads and charms and bracelets, cut out said photos with imaging software (right after learning how to actually do that), figure out how to get an actual product on the website, think up enticing descriptions for each product ...

But that's a story for next time.

Min

Owner
MinzBeadz
And you can Like MinzBeadz on Facebook too!

Choosing the Perfect Business Name - in 127 (or more) easy steps!

Choosing a name, registering it and getting an ABN is simple - or so you'd think.

First off - get the ABN. In Victoria, where I am, you can go to http://www.business.vic.gov.au and use a nifty little tool to check your eligibility. One of the first questions is "Have you started trading as an enterprise/business?". Well, no not yet (I figured the buying frenzy didn't actually qualify as trading). So, check the 'no' box...

The next page shows a list of activities that constitute trading (none of which have occurred at this stage). So, check the 'no' box... Response: "You are not entitled to be registered for an ABN". Well, that's a bit rude! 

In order to trade as a business you require an ABN, to get an ABN you need to be already trading as a business - which you're not allowed to do without an ABN. Dizzy yet? On reflection, this might have been the point I actually began to have a few disquieting thoughts about everything being a piece of cake. What to do? Alright, it's just a teensy little fib - check the 'yes' box. Woo hoo! The government likes me.

Second - register my business name. http://www.business.gov.au has links to each state or territory and is easy to follow. But hold on, you can't just willy nilly register your name, there are things to check first. Is it too similar to an existing business name? Is the domain name available? And what about trademarks - is my name the same as a registered trademark?

The choosing of a name took a very long time. What I discovered was, whilst lots of appropriate "bead" or "jewellery" names were available to register as my business name, I couldn't actually find a domain name to match. Someone had beaten me to them all! Really, it was sheer greed - didn't they know I might need just one of them? 

So, selecting a business name with matching domain name, that Google or Bing might like to pop into number one position, wasn't going exactly as I'd planned. And I still haven't got my name. And I still have to read up on trademarks...

For much of my life my nickname has been Min, so in a flash of inspiration (did I mention I have flashes of inspiration? You might recognise it as brilliance, but I'm quite modest so I'm sticking with inspiration), I decided on MinzBeadz. No business names like it (check), domain name available (check), anyone with the trademark (um, check?). Maybe I should get some help with this one.

Checking whether a trademark is available is not just a matter of someone else having the exact same name. You can step on someone's toes by having a similar name too. You are able to check trademarks yourself at IP Australia  however there are a number of companies around that will do the hard work for you (you need to suss them out carefully, as many just give you a 'yes' or 'no' with a comment along the lines of "call us to discuss" - as if I have time for someone else's sales pitch).

Best of all though, and highly important, (as much of my start up cash left my account rather hastily in my little shopping spree for stock), some of these companies will do it all for free! 

One of the nice things that I've found, since my whole new life began, is helpful people who don't seem to have an ulterior motive in helping. As a perfect example of this, for assistance with trademarks try Mark My Words Trademark Services - friendly, helpful and, most of all, speaking my language. As I'm not bilingual, speaking in English rather than Legalese is a necessity, and not feeling like a dodo, I find, is really good for the self esteem. Mark My Words Trademark Services will not only search to see if your name is ok to use as a trademark (for free), but can do all the registration part for you as well (unfortunately not for free).

But back to my wonderful name. As it turned out, no one except me wanted it, which is a little hard to understand given its greatness, and all seemed well in the mysterious world of trademarks.

Off to Consumer Affairs to register MinzBeadz which was quick and easy - big thumbs up to Consumer Affairs Victoria, and my beautiful and important looking Certificate of Registration arrived only a few days later in the mail.

Now I'm a real business, as opposed to a shopper gone mad. I know this because shoppers gone mad only have credit card statements and receipts, whereas I have A Certificate.

Proof I am absolutely not a mad shopper (oh, I added the gold star - I thought I deserved one)

All I have to do now is register my domain name, get a website (with one of those cute little shopping carts), and wait for the money to roll in. Of course, I will still be nice to the little people when I'm a gazillionaire (cut to scene: white sand, azure water glinting sunlight, hammock, palm trees, really cute bronzed waiter bearing cool drink with a little umbrella...)

But that's a story for next time (the website, not the cute bronzed waiter).

Min

Owner MinzBeadz
And you can Like MinzBeadz on Facebook too!

Taking the plunge

Working for a business that closes, when you're in your middle years, has a way of redefining your priorities. Well, it did for me anyway - that's when the brilliant idea of owning my own business began.

Being a reasonably intelligent person, I figured it couldn't be that difficult.

Having run an office; managed account; debt collection; been the IT person; dealt with customers and product enquiries; suppliers and purchases; costing; marketing and, in latter years, showroom sales - doing it all for myself (and raking in all the dollars of course) would be easy.

Well...as any of you who have their own business know, that was a long way from how events have unfolded. Let me take you back to September 2011 – when I was still sane.

After the shock of a job I loved no longer being there, I was lucky enough to land another job very quickly, which is no mean feat these days. It seems once you turn 15 or thereabouts you're not particularly sought after as an employee (but that's another story entirely).

Hard work is it's own reward, unless your hard work is all for the betterment of someone else. Then it's just a way of punishing yourself day in and day out. Consequently, my delusions of grandeur began: "I could do this better", "If this were my business I wouldn't do that".

For some time, the idea of having a little online jewellery store had been brewing, so bullets having been bitten, I decided that I was Going To Do It – I was going to start a business.

So, for the next day or so I congratulated myself on my decision (a good pat on the back is great for the self esteem), but then figured out relatively quickly that I would probably need to do something more than just dislocate my shoulder.

So, what next? Guess I better buy some stock (having stock is a good idea for a store. This much I knew). And then came the first hurdle. What do I buy?

My aim was then, and is now, to specialise in beads and charms, and the chains to put them on (memory bracelets) but an affordable version. The big name brands (that we would all recognise) are really out of the reach of many people, so there I and my little store would be, filling the void for the ordinary woman.

So off I went to calmly order, purchase after careful consideration, Okay, it was a shopping frenzy...but So Much Fun! I hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

Do you know how many different beads and charms there are out there? It took, literally, days to decide which ones to get, as obviously getting all of them wasn't going to be possible. Apart from the expense, my house isn't that large, even for small beads and cute little charms. Then the decision of which suppliers to trust - more days - it was scary throwing my (very) hard earned money at someone I've never met or heard of, only emailed with, before.

So some nervous waiting followed before the first package arrived. Talk about a roller coaster ride, the anxiety was gone and the fun was back, ripping parcels open like a child on Christmas morning.

 

My very first stock item

Well, since that first purchase I have, of course, gained more knowledge of what to look for and, more especially, what my customers are looking for, in the way of reasonably priced jewellery, what's good value and which suppliers I can trust to deliver the goods on time - every time.

So, my sanity was still intact at this stage, my stress levels (that adrenalin rush was from excitment, not stress!) under control. I had stock for my store! I was ready to roll!

Oh, wait - I haven't actually got a name yet...or an ABN...or, well, a few other things I might need. But that's a story for next time.

Min

Owner MinzBeadz