Then I got pregnant with our daughter, who was born in the middle of my busiest season, so I had to take a break. It put a cramp in my reliable word of mouth advertising. I've tried advertising in bridal magazines, link exchanges, online advertising, signature links on message boards. I get the odd order, mostly coming from friends, which is nice, but not enough to keep me afloat. And of course, without money coming in, I can't even entertain the notion of paying for advertising, which was a bust the last time I tried it.
The long and the short of it is that I'm seriously considering closing my doors. I've got an order I'm working on right now, for a friend, and really, my heart isn't in it like it usually is. I miss the days that I made jewelry just for the sake of doing something with my hands. I wish I knew why I'm not into it as much as I once was.
I have lots of reasons for considering shutting things down...
- Can't afford advertising to bring in new customers
- You need customers if you want word of mouth advertising
- Most free advertising is not successful
- Can't afford supplies to make new exciting stuff if nobody is buying
- I'm not as interested in making jewelry as I used to be
- I have to order all my supplies online - somehow going to a bead store and seeing all those gorgeous beads sparkling in front of me is inspiring, unlike online shopping
- I'm more interested in sewing and making hair sticks right now
- If I do get big orders, I have a hard time finding the time to do them with two kids underfoot
I'll come back and edit this list as I think of things. My mind is mush right now.
I'm thinking about putting EVERYTHING up on Etsy and clearing out my samples. I have photos of everything if someone DOES order something, so I know how I made it. I have oodles of beads that I have no use for that I want to unload on eBay too, and will do that as soon as we get back from our holiday next month. I won't unload my Swarovski stash though, because I know I'll probably go back to making jewelry someday. In fact, I'll just leave the website alone. If people find it, great. If not, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I'm just not going to worry about it, I think. A domain name is cheap.
I've been pondering this for quite some time. Maybe doing more one of a kind items will be good for me instead of reproducing things over and over and over and over. It was working well for me, being able to make a necklace in whatever colour the customer wanted, but nobody knows about me anymore since I don't have a successful advertising campaign. I'm planning on opening a second Etsy store for more pagan goodies, and will post about that when it is done. For now though, I'm going to concentrate on sewing my quilts for the kids so that they are done in time for Yule/Christmas.
