Baby it's COLD OUTSIDE

I have been working on our spring and summer craft show route. Today I'm having trouble getting started because it's 13 degrees below zero! I'm finding it difficult to even think about doing anything outside. I know it won't be below zero during the outdoor show season, at least I hope it won't be, but it's just a little tough today. You just gotta love Mother Nature.
I have lots of projects in some sort of state-of-completion. I'm considering a website of our own to go along with our etsy shop. I want to be able to personalize the new site a little more than I can on etsy. Another project in the works is us moving to a better and easier location. This new location is a little bigger, just one level, and has an attached work area for my shop. I will be able to build some bigger furniture items again that I just don't have room to build now. There's always something to do around here, no need to worry about being bored.
Our spring newsletter is almost ready to be sent. I think our members will be surprised at what I have listed at a special price solely for those on our e-mail list. You still have time to sign-up. The form is there on the right side of this blog.

Building a List and why is it important to me?

List building. Everybody wants to sell me a list. Wouldn't a list be better if it was all people who wanted to be there? I get 100 e-mails everyday that I don't open because they're just junk mail. Why would I buy a list of names who never heard of me and don't want to hear from me.
So my solution is to build my own list, (probably the hard way), a list of people who like my products and want to know when I have something new. I display a sign up sheet at craft shows and add those names to my list. People who make purchases from me online are added to the list. I can't add a sign-up sheet on my website so I will add it here and ask you to please sign up. I won't waste your time sending you e-mails everyday. I will only send you mail a few times a year just to remind you what we have. The only perk I can offer you is that by joining my e-mail list you will receive special discount offers that are only for people on my list. The list members will also be sent a schedule of shows that we will be attending.
2010 can only be as good for me as I am willing to try to make it. Our first step in 2010 will be to move to a better location with more room to make things happen. Next will be to add new items that we just didn't have room for in our current location. We will be doing a full schedule of events from April thru December. Hopefully meet some new friends and see some old friends too. My list will be another fun way for me to stay in touch while hopefully making a few sales.

New Markets

I'm always looking for another way to sell my products. I have sold face to face at craft shows for years. I have been selling online for a year now but I will admit I'm still learning the ropes in that market arena. I have done a little bit of wholesale business in the past and I'm looking into that market again. Selling wholesale is like having a business partner, I handle the manufacturing and design and they handle the selling. And the best part is they have already bought the items from me and they now assume the risk of making sales. I have to sell for less on wholesale but once again, they are taking the risk of getting sales. So as always, the wholesale option is worth looking into. I will still keep my website at OldTimeCountryCrafts.etsy.com and I will still keep going to craft shows, but I will keep looking into the wholesale markets as another possibility.
So if you are in the wholesale business or you sell your products to a wholesale market, send an e-mail to j0720@netzero.net and I'll check into it to see if it will work for me.

Moving

We have been looking for a place with a little more room and a little more convenient. I guess we have found it. This building is an old air force facility on 10 acres. We will remodel half the building for our house and the other half will be for business. No more stairs to climb and a large shop area to build in. And hopefully the best part is it's closer to where we have had some of our most successful shows. We feel this will be a good location for us and an easier home to maintain and enjoy. We will spend the next 2 or 3 months working on the building and moving a little at a time. We hope to be settled in by May when our summer shows start but time will tell. This is just another one of lifes little adventures and it promises to be fun. And I like fun and adventures.

Planning the Year ahead

Looking ahead while looking back can give you a bad stiff neck. That's what I have now, a really bad stiff neck. What to add to our inventory, what do we eliminate, where to go, and where not. Oh how I wish these decisions were simple. With the money situation being so tight, how will the craft market be this year? Will people be shopping or just looking for bargains? Nobody knows for sure what the answers are so we, like all the rest of us crafters, will do our best to create and sell to the public.
I think I'm going to try and re-introduce some items that I haven't had out for a few years. I used to sell alot of shelf units of different sizes and designs. These sales died off so I stopped making them and taking them to shows. Maybe it's time to see if I can revive this part of my market. I won't know unless I try so what the heck.
Time to get back to work on the spring and summer items. Our first show is in March and it will be here before I know it. Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Looking ahead in 2010

It's a new year and time to look forward and try to improve a few things. Business is slow right now so I have time to think. Maybe that's good and maybe it's not but I'm going to try anyway. We will be going back to Sylvan Beach this summer, at The Marketplace at the Blue Lagoon. It was a good location and sales were good. New people every week-end so it was like being in a different location each week. Some shows we did last fall we will do again and some will have to be replaced, but that's normal every year. To some this might sound strange to be planning summer and fall events already, but now is the time to start booking so there are no open dates.
We have both been working on new ideas. Some are coming together fine while others are proving to be more difficult. Our first show is in March so we have a little time to work out the kinks. We need to post new items in our Etsy shop but our scanner is not working right. The scanner and the computer aren't communicating at the moment.

Check out our shop at OldTimeCountryCrafts.etsy.com and let us know what you would like to see us make.