Sunday Morning Latte

Yesterday saw me do one of my reward thingies, I'd been meeting and passing my goals so the fund for a new espresso system had become fully charged...YAY!

I'm not a huge coffee drinker but I do have to have mu morning latte. Times past I would stop at Starbucks at 6am before getting on the freeway to drive from Santa Monica to Disneyland for work.  It's my treasured morning ritual.

Of course, even at one a day, it's not an inexpensive one and being a frugal Yorkshire lass investing in a machine seemed like a great idea.

When my first espresso machine literally blew up, spewing parts across the kitchen, it had saved me a few thousand dollars during it's life. I actually sat down and figured that out...ok, so it was to justify buying a new one on a tight budget.   Of course that one eventually died too and it was during the dark days when I couldn't afford a new one.  So, I picked one of those non-pump ones up at Big Lots for $10 and have been making do.

In January I started saving for a new one.  When Starbucks came out with their Verissimo I was excited....and when they were going to be demoing it just down the street I was there. But all it netted me was disappointment, did not care for it at all...got better flavor from my $10 one.

I was window shopping in Williams Sonoma when I saw the Nespresso machines and thought the Pixie was just so dang cute and neat but couldn't imagine getting a decent espresso from it.  The guy that came over to help me asked if I would like to try it...well, ok.

I was very surprised at the espresso he pulled...it was good, really good.

Then he showed me the Aeroccino which I truly wasn't interested in but that blew me away too.

So now I knew what I was saving for.

When we went to Williams Sonoma yesterday while I was showing Mom

the gal came and demoed the machine for us and even Mom was impressed, not by the coffee, she's not a fan, but by how dang cute it was.

When the gal told me they had one on sale because the color was being discontinued and that color was lime green....that was it. SOLD!

It works with pods, which if you join the club aren't too expensive but frugal little me did find some refillable pods I can put my own coffee in and Amazon are shipping them out to me today :)

All well and good, you say...happy for you, you say...but gee wish I had something nice, you say.

Ok....but you have to keep it a secret, this is for people who read my blog only.

All this week Sunday, 4/21 to Saturday 4/27 when you buy one tutorial I'll let you choose another of equal or lesser value for free.

Here are the rules.....you have to leave a comment on this post, and in the "notes to seller" when you order type

SUNDAYSECRET

along with your choice of freebie :)

Just remember...it's a secret....you can tell people...."Mikki wrote a great blog post" but you can't tell them about the secret....ok? Cool!

Have fun...I'll be sipping on a latte :)

Q: How Do I Make It Pay?

As this is a question I am asked a lot, how to make a living from beading, I thought I'd address it here.

The most important thing about any business is the product, if you don't have a good product no amount of 'business tips' will help. Whatever it is you make/sell be sure it's original and well put together/crafted. 

Ok...now that's out of the way....

When someone asks me how they can make more sales/money from their business these are the questions I ask

What's your daily/weekly/monthly goal?

How far short of it are you falling?

Imagine you're going on a road trip, do you know where you're leaving from...A? Know where you're going....B? Plan a route to get there...A to B?

We all answer those questions just to go to the grocery store and yet, when it comes to our business they tend to not be thought about by many.

What are you making now?

How much are you making right now?  How many sales?  You need a starting point and what you're making right now is your A.

How much money do you really need to live and do this?

You need to start by figuring this out, be realistic, allow some $ for the unexpected and some for savings and don't forget a tax fund, because paying taxes should not be unexpected.

Once you know what you need you have a goal....your B.

Plan your route!

Let's say your sales are $1000 a month and you need $2000 a month, that means you have to double your income!!!  And it may seem impossible when you look at it in that big lump.

You're probably not going to make that increase in a month....but how about in a year?

Get your sales consistent...so make that $1000 a month solid.

Once you are regularly making that start increasing your goal.

Add $100 to your goal for next month. If you meet it, add another $100 the next month, and every time you meet the goal add $100 for the next month.

If you make more than your goal one month....then you have a head start for the next.

"Ahh....but how do I do that?" you ask.

Well...that depends on you product. What's the average price of what you sell?  If it's $100 then you need to make an extra piece a month to be able to sell it.....or if you have lots of stock you need to make that extra sale.

A tip here is that not everyone has $100 to spend so can you develop something that can be sold at, say, $25? It can be easier to sell four $25 pieces than one $100 piece because more people can afford to buy.

Maybe you can't make anything small like that....so how about investing in a bulk buy of a special bead or fabric you use? And sell that in your store, it might just push you over that goal.

Another tip is to do new photos, use different props and switch them out so your piece looks fresh and maybe catches the eye of someone who overlooked it before.

If you do what I do, write tutorials, then it might be as simple as making a sample in a new, on trend colorway.

Customer Service

Again...it doesn't matter how great your product is if you don't fulfill orders quickly, answer customer contacts promptly or are too full of yourself it will effect your sales.  It truly does not pay to be an asshole :)

Break it down

That extra $100 a month breaks down to about $3.33 a day, now...does that look more doable?  Have a daily goal and be determined to meet it.

If you miss it one day....maybe an extra posting on Facebook or Pintrest will bring you back up to speed.  Miss it for a few days straight? How about a 'flash sale'?  For those of you thinking "What's a flash sale?"

A "flash sale" is a sale like '20% off the next item or say five' items sold or 'buy one get 50% off one on the next five orders'. 

It can bring you back on track just like that!

Now, that's not to say you want to be doing them every day or even every week, because if you do that you will train people to wait for the sale, in effect devaluing your product.

You also might try e-mailing your previous month's customers with a discount code.

Visualization 

I am a firm believer in visualization, I do think it helps.

See your sales grow in your mind....but, once again, do it in baby steps.

Don't go imagining your next day being double your last because you'd be setting yourself up for defeat.  Breaking things down to a daily goal makes the increases small and achievable. Small steps to a big goal.

Plateauing

Plateauing is a good thing, it is what will keep your business growing and earning. After you meet a big goal, don't go setting another one right away, give it time.  Make it consistent. Have the same goal for a few months.

After that, don't make your goals as big......if you have grown $1000 a month to make what you need then maybe set the next goal as an extra $200 a month....which at the end of the year would pay for a vacation....or a new wardrobe :)

Rewards

Rewarding yourself is important.

So, you managed to double your income, YAY you!

Reward yourself...just don't go overboard.....maybe 5% a month can be allotted to your shoe fund or dinner out....or maybe just that bead storage system you've been dying to get :)

Anyway...these are my tips, I hope they help you, and if you follow me you'll see me use them, no doubt :)  

The Beading Space

Beading spaces tend to attract clutter (come on, I know it's just not mine), the put aside projects, beads from the last project, or three, that didn't make it back to their allotted place, those invoices that need to be filed, tools, thread and the scraps of paper or note books ideas get hastily scribbled into.

If you're lucky enough to have a beading room you can close the door on that mess when visitors stop by but if you bead in your living room you may find yourself pretending not to be home.

I am lucky enough to be able to use my second bedroom as an office/bead room however when I was ill sitting upright in an office chair was painful and I wasn't able to do it for more than 30 minutes at a time. I had planned only to use my office to write tutorials, the beading would be done in the living room from my spot ("it faces the television at an angle that is neither direct so that it would discourages conversations nor at an angle that would causes a parallax distortion"...Sheldon Cooper).

So this is my spot.

And as a beader my spot has to have easy access to my beads, all my go to beads are right there and .....hidden here...

To keep it all tidy I found the wonderful 'Bento' boxes, this one not having any projects in it's pockets so far :) And those pockets fold away too.

The tray lids have become my new project boards, lined with a bead mat and I have more lids than boxes because they stack nicely and I can have multiple projects going without having work trays everywhere.

Now, I will tell you there is a down side to this....the corners on these trays can grab your thread as you work, if you're anything like me my thread manages to get wrapped around anything within three feet. That said, it gets less so the more I work with them and the tidiness I get from the trays outweighs the thread catches.  And yes...that little white tray holding the current beads in use is a water color palette, 79c from the art store.

Another little thing I have at my beady little fingers is a thread catcher.

My prototype...lol! Just a sticky paper rolled on itself and stuck on the side of my cube shelf but boy, it's great for storing the usable bits of fireline that used to get lost or trailed across the room.

So, there you have it....how I keep my beading area tidy enough for visitors.  Of course the rest of the living room is covered with Bella's toys and the kleenex she just tore up so I may pretend to not be home for that reason....but Bella's fault!

Houdini Yourself Out of that Box

Sometimes I think designers tie themselves up and lock themselves into a box without even thinking about it.  We get caught up in a color palette or style and breaking free of it doesn't enter our minds or is scary.

Since moving back to California I have been making a concerted effort to work with and surround myself with more color because I did see my safe, classical color choices as a bit of a rut.   And it's interesting when you make a change like that...some people will love it, some will hate it.

Comments of "I love your new style" or "I prefer your old style" or my very favorite "Your usual style" abound....I like to think of myself as unusual/original so if there was ever a word to get me to change direction....that would be it...lol!

Personally I don't see it as a style change, just a color change, at the moment my love of black and white paired with a splash of color is the trend which is just bloody fantastic :)

It allows me to go from this nice safe 'classical' palette

To this 'on trend' version.

It's quite the difference. 

I love what I do...designing and writing tutorials so others can make what I design and part of it is to see what someone else does with my design, typically what it looks like in their color palette. At first I didn't include colors in my tutorials because I thought people would want to make the design in their own colorway but now I do because I always get requests for the actual colors I used.  And I can see I may have to write an addendum to this tutorial to include the neon version.

Of course changing your palette may require some bead shopping (oh drat!)

but surrounding yourself with the scary diminishes it. And working with different palettes makes you grow as a designer.  Bright colors are in fashion right now, trending as they say, so I say...go for it....play, experiment, if you're scared of color this is the perfect time to face your fear.

Do a Houdini from your 'usual' style, I dare ya!

Fame or Fortune

As I get asked and because I have to deal with it I may rant a little here...so you have been warned.

To publish or not to publish is the question.

Do you send your designs to a magazine to be published?

This is what I've learned.

If you're starting out and want to get your name known it's a good thing to do BUT be fully aware of what you're getting yourself into.

DO IT:-

If you don't mind waiting eons to get paid for your work.

You won't get paid for at least 6 months and you won't make anywhere near the money you could have selling it in your own online store.

DO IT:-

If it doesn't worry you that some website (biser) will scan your project straight from the magazine and put it up for free to the world, essentially stealing any revenue you might make after you get your rights back from the magazine. And don't expect the magazine to care. They probably won't help you, they made their money and they will not lift a finger to help you protect your copyright.  I write with experience of this with Beadwork magazine and my  Gothic Butterfly design.

DO IT:-

If you don't mind having people teach your project and not even paying you a license fee.  Why should they take the time and put the effort in to do all that work when they can just use yours? Is that right? Do you sign a contract that allows people to do that? I certainly didn't and was very surprised to read a line in Interweave's booklet "Knowing Your Rights: Copyright 101 for beaders" that says as long as all students purchase a legitimate copy of a tutorial anyone can teach it. WRONG!  I discovered this when someone told me they were taking my class....one I wasn't teaching!  So, if you plan to make income from teaching the design you submit to a magazine be aware some bead store who sells the magazine may be teaching that class without your knowledge....and so that's some income gone.

DO IT:-

If you've copied someone else's design and want a magazine to back up your claim to the design....they only care that you sign a contract claiming it as your design...not if it's actually yours, they aren't going to check and if the actual designer claims it...hey, they're protected they have a signed contract. Of course this means you are a corrupt individual too and you better be prepared to be sued or have your name be dirt in the beading community.

DON'T DO IT:-

If these things worry you or cause you stress, if you feel that you're the one who should be making the money from your hard work.....because it will eat you alive.

DON'T DO IT:-

If you are willing to advertise yourself through social media and believe your work will get the recognition on it's own merits.

It's very flattering to have a magazine or publisher want your work and it does mean something. It means that your work is so good other people know they can make money from you or you wouldn't be hearing from them...and if they know that then it's also true that you can make the money on your own.

Also if you want some name recognition without having to sign your work away you can always submit pictures of your work to be published in other people's books....appearing in the gallery of someone else's book or in a beadwork collection book are good alternatives.

I get asked about this stuff a lot and this is my opinion on it, yours may differ.

I used to dream of having a publisher want to have me write a book, I no longer have that dream....it's not financially viable for me right now. Also I confess to being a bit of a control freak...I write my tutorials very thoroughly with large illustrations and they usually have a LOT of pages for each design, this isn't the most desirable thing for most publishers.

It's your choice....just be informed :)

Home Sweet Home

So this is where I spend my days now, the orange recliner.

I bead there and as when I was ill I couldn't sit up at my desk for long I've gotten used to working with my laptop on top of my lap :)

From there I can look at the trees and the sunset, watch Bella play on the deck, watch TV and bead to my hearts content.

It's home!

I'd like to say that since I took this picture I've put pictures up on the walls but nope, not there yet. The cube storage now has 'Bento' boxes in three of the holes....they serve as storage, perfect for a quick tidy up because someone's at the door...lol!  They have tray lids which have now become my bead trays...all lined with bead mats...and I have more lids than boxes because they stack really neatly and I always have a bunch of projects in progress.  The top center cube space has become inhabited by acrylic boxes full of my Delicas and actually looks a little like art.

While the bulk of my beads are at home in my office storage I manage to have all my 'go to' beads right where I need them....within arm's length.

In decorating my new home I had the idea of going 'Steampunk' and had all sorts of ideas that would have been really cool.....and then I fell in love with that orange recliner. It is THE most comfortable chair I have ever sat in.

I think it was meant to be because it made me bring bright color into my life which is what I really needed to lift my spirits. 

I also knew that it would influence my work and help bring some fun and whimsy back into it.  I followed destiny's direction started looking at things that inspired me and made me feel joy....one of those things was the work of Suzanne Golden, how can you not be happy just looking at a pic of this vibrant, creative woman?  And it was Suzanne who inspired my Carousel Bangles  (the Carousel One tutorial is now in my store and by far my best seller to date).

The Carousel Too tutorial is in progress but I took a break to write a couple of tutorials that had been waiting in the wings.

The quick and easy "Zippy with Sunburst Snaps" named for the way the super duo beads mimic zipper teeth.

And "Ric Rac Honeycomb" which has two styles of 'ric rac' edging a band 

of my honeycomb stitch which I  just listed in my store today.

I actually missed the bright colors while I was working on these so expect to see more of the super brights in my designs.

After the last seven years of struggling about doing something that wasn't me, living in a place I didn't like and the health issues to boot I now find myself thinking each day...."I'm back"

I'm back to living in a less judgmental community, more culturally diverse place with everything I need close by. I feel so much lighter and brighter about my life....it's like my independence and sense of fun is seeping back into me.

You have to be yourself, surround yourself with what you love, live for yourself otherwise it just isn't worth it.

I'm Back

Boy, it's sure been a while.

When life gets in the way the blog seems to be the first thing to go.

Since I was last seen on my blog April 14th last year (eek!) to say a lot has happened would be a huge understatement.

SO.....update from where I left off.

Beading For a Cure.

I ended up discovering a stitch I hadn't done before, Pondo or African Circle stitch and it worked perfectly with the beads in the kit with the addition of some of the new two holed beads....Super Duos.

I sent in two bracelets for the auction.....the first being PonDuo Tapestry

The second being the top part of the lace cuff that wasn't working.

Many people requested PonDuo Tapestry be a tutorial and many asked for a kit too. I don't normally do kits but as this one had some hard to track down beads I did. There are still a few kits left and they are in my store along with the tutorial.

Battle of the Beadsmith

I know many of you followed my progress in this widely published contest and are familiar with my entry

"Armadillo Blossom Purse"

For those not familiar my muse gave me the challenge to cross an armadillo with a lotus blossom and threw in a difficulty clause that I use cube beads.

Here it is with the Armadillo Egg Vessel that came after.

And here's the 'glamour' shot of me with the purse.

And during all of this I moved Mom and I from Utah to California.

Cleared and cleaned the house for sale, packed a U-Haul truck, towed my car and got us to Fresno.....and I only broke two toes, threw my hip out and ended up on crutches otherwise it went quite smoothly...lol!

The second trip....back to Utah to list the house was a nightmare. I really wasn't well enough to go but despite my protestations we went. I was so sick with migraines the whole trip, which had to be extended because I was basically just a ball of pain.  We discovered the house had termites, luckily the good kind....well, less bad kind...had to tear down a wall and have the house treated, put in new carpet too. Fortunately I managed to have windows of wellness to organize all this and understanding realtors to help Mom

After major problems with the U-haul trailer for the journey back we made it. Home is now Fresno, California.

I did realize that maybe me moving even a couple of blocks from Mom might not be the best idea and we joked about if the apartment next door became vacant it would be perfect. I checked and was told the woman who lived there had no plans to move. A week later the property manager pulled me aside and said "You'll never guess what"

So after a few delays I moved next door in November.

Before the move happened we got a puppy...

 This is Bella after she destroyed a box of kleenex.

She's the sweetest and smartest dog I've ever had and is great pet therapy for Mom, which is the main reason I adopted her.  She has brought lots of love, joy and laughter...and mess...to our lives.

After this I got pretty sick, I think the year was so hard on me that I was drained and vulnerable.  I started eating healthier, started juicing again but it still wasn't bouncing me back. After seeing a check list on Dr Oz for gluten intolerance and checking off every single thing on the list I figured that might be my problem. So, I went gluten free.

The first week I felt better and I lost a couple of pounds, it wasn't too big a deal to cut out gluten.  Then it got serious. I became super allergic to gluten and the tiniest bit would make me horribly ill.  I seemed to become allergic to lots of things and wondered if I actually had Celiac disease.  It was pretty scary but I kept going, knowing that if I put healthy things in my body I would eventually get better.

And I have. January saw me have my first normal month in ages. I was working again, no longer a vegetable on the couch.  I wasn't quite well when I taught a little class at the bead society meeting and in truth I thought I was going to pass out and had to hightail it to the bathroom, and it did take me two days to recover but at least I managed it.

A month later and I'm feeling like my old self....well, a new, gluten free old self.  Yesterday I convinced myself that I am better because I booked my flight to the Bead & Button show in June. I did take the insurance because one never knows but I really want to go and this year is my best chance.

It also means I really am starting that new life I've been craving ever since my Dad got ill, died and I was stuck in Utah with Mom.

We're very happy here, Mom loves it as much, if not more, than I knew she would, she says she feels alive again and she doesn't miss her old home a bit!

So...I'm back, my blog is now back and I'll be sharing lots of new stuff as I get back into it.  Stay tuned...good things to come :)