Sara Tams « oh my! handmade goodness

Sara Tams

my experience being featured on heartsy

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Have you ever considered promoting your Etsy shop through Heartsy? Based on the overwhelmingly positive response to Jessika’s post about Worthsy yesterday, I’m guessing probably not!

But just in case you’re curious about exactly how it works and whether or not it might be a worthwhile way to market your Etsy shop (setting aside for a moment the bigger picture of the value of handmade), I’d like to share my experience with Heartsy and the cost analysis that I came up with in comparing Heartsy with a few other ways of promoting an Etsy shop.

If you’re not already familiar with the way Heartsy works, it’s similar to Groupon or Zulily, but it features exclusively handmade items, and Heartsy doesn’t take a cut of the sale. For example, if you do a deal on Zulily, they may offer a $20 voucher to your shop for $10, of which you receive $5 and Zulily keeps $5. When Heartsy offers a $20 voucher to your shop for $10, you receive the entire $10. Heartsy earns revenue by selling VIP memberships and offering VIP perks (usually free shipping or a higher voucher amount for the same price).

On a whim, I gave Heartsy a try in April. I agreed to offer 150 $30 vouchers for $11 each (a $35 voucher for VIP members) with a one-month expiration date. My Heartsy feature went live at 10am. At 11:30 Heartsy contacted me asking if I wanted to increase the number of vouchers from 150 to 175. It seemed to be going well (not many of the people who purchased vouchers were placing orders right away), so I agreed.

The vouchers sold out by 2:30 pm, but I only had 52 orders from Heartsy customers in the first day and 9 orders on the second day.

Fortunately, my husband was available to help me fill orders for two days, and we were caught up by 5pm the next day (all of the Heartsy orders were shipped or packaged and ready to be shipped the next morning).

Overall, it was a positive experience (not as overwhelming as I had feared it might be). I had over 1,800 visitors to my Etsy shop on the day of my feature. The people at Heartsy were easy to work with, and their website was easy to use. I was able to log in to my account to verify voucher numbers and to transfer the funds that Heartsy had collected ($1,925) to my PayPal account.

Most customers spent more than the voucher amount (the average Heartsy order was $5.29 over the voucher amount), and 48 people who purchased vouchers never redeemed them. So both of those things helped to offset the cost of the promotion a little bit, and hopefully I’ll gain some repeat customers (several Heartsy shoppers signed up for my mailing list). But it seems like the return on investment could be a lot better from other methods of marketing and advertising.

For example, I typically renew about 10 – 15 listings each day in my Etsy shop. At $0.20 per renewal, this works out to $60 – $90 in renewal fees per month, which I consider an advertising expense to keep my products coming up at the top of Etsy searches. When I add in the rest of my Etsy fees, my total cost to list items on Etsy is about 12% of my Etsy sales. When I add in website sales from customers who find my website through Etsy, the cost is only 6%.

As an example of how valuable editorial coverage can be, I was recently featured on a high-traffic blog. I provided a sample and an item for a giveaway (my cost was $80 for the two items). So far I’ve had $1,926 in sales from that blog feature, so the cost was about 4% of the revenue that has been generated so far. Of course not all blogs are equal – this is one of the best outcomes I’ve ever had from a blog feature.

I’ve only run a few ads on blogs, so I have very limited experience in that area, but last Fall I ran an ad that cost $280 and resulted in $2,247 in sales. So the cost of the ad was about 12% of the revenue it generated.

By comparison, I shipped $4,592 worth of merchandise to Heartsy shoppers, and I received a total of $2,597 for those orders, so the cost of being featured on Heartsy was $1,995 (43%).

It’s possible that some Heartsy shoppers will become repeat customers, but I’d bet that compared with customers who find me thorough an Etsy search, editorial coverage, or a well placed ad, Heartsy shoppers will be less likely to come back and pay full price.

Since being featured on Heartsy I’ve been contacted by several similar websites, and Heartsy has asked me to offer another promotion, but I’ve decided to focus on other marketing strategies and not offer any more deep discounts.

If you’ve been featured on Heartsy, Zulily, Groupon, or a similar website, please leave a comment and tell us about your experience! For those of you who have advertised on blogs and are willing to share – I’d love to hear what your experience has been in terms of how much the ads have cost vs. how much revenue they generated.

Balancing Parenthood & Running a Small Business

Monday, May 2, 2011

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

When I decided to start a business, sarah + abraham, in 2007 I was a stay-at-home-mom with two kids ages 2 and 4. I was only able to work when they were napping or having quiet time or after they were in bed. It was frustrating to have so many ideas but so little time to work.

The first winter was especially difficult. I finally started getting some orders, and I was having all of my printing done at Kinko’s, so several times a week I had to bundle my kids up and try to keep them entertained while we waited in line or while I used the paper cutter. Trips to the post office were also no fun at all (for me or for them!)

There were so many times I questioned what I was doing. It always felt like at least one area of my life was suffering as I tried to balance being a stay-at-home-mom, growing my business, being a good spouse, nurturing my friendships, and taking care of myself.

Today my business and family life have changed drastically compared to a few years ago. My kids are both in school full-time and able to entertain themselves for a couple of hours after school, for the past 15 months my husband has been at home helping me with the kids and with my business, and I typically only work about 20 – 30 hours a week while earning the same income that we lived on when my husband was working full time.

There are still days when I get frustrated that I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to, but I’m much more comfortable now with the concept of balance being a continual process, not something that I’m striving to achieve.

balancing work, family and friends

I’ll never have a day when I get a lot of work done, meet a friend for coffee, have a great workout, run errands, make a healthy dinner, and spend quality time with my family. I’ll certainly never have a week full of days like that. And that’s okay.

Every night at bedtime my husband, kids, and I each say three things we liked about our day. We do this to teach our kids about gratitude, but it has also taught me to be more thankful for the small blessings that every day holds and to not be so frustrated about the things that I didn’t accomplish.

My advice to other moms who are overwhelmed by starting a business while they have small children at home is that it won’t be like this forever. Your kids will be in school before you know it. Your business will grow and change in ways you can’t even imagine. It’s okay to not accomplish as much as you’d like to as fast as you’d like to – you’ll get there eventually!

If you’re a mom and a business owner, please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on balance and what has worked for you.

There are still days when I get frustrated that I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to, but I’m much more comfortable now with the concept of balance being a continual process, not something that I’m striving to achieve.

If you’re a mom and a business owner, please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on balance and what has worked for you.

Spring Cleaning for your Shop: Keeping your Product Mix Fresh

Saturday, April 2, 2011

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

New Products: water bottles, plates and bowls, personalized pillows

a few of my new products that have been well received

Last year I shared a timeline of how I started and developed sarah + abraham over the past three years, and last month I talked about a few collaborations that I’ve been a part of. In both of those posts I mentioned several new products that I’ve begun offering along the way.

Product development is a lot of work (deciding what options to offer, product photography, creating listings, etc.), but also a lot of fun. Every time I decide to begin offering a new product, I feel really energized and enjoy promoting it. When it’s time to send out my monthly newsletter it’s so much more fun to write when I have a new product to share, especially one that I think my customers are really going to love.

But I also try to keep the products that I offer on my website limited to only the ones that are really good sellers. I want to keep my site clean and not cluttered with items that no one is buying. When someone visits my website I want them to immediately see the best of what I have to offer and not see any products that I don’t feel great about.

a few of my favorite items that I no longer offer

Sometimes the products that don’t sell well are items that I wasn’t too sure about to begin with, and it’s easy to let them go. Other times I realize that something that I absolutely love and thought would be a big hit just isn’t selling. It’s much harder to let go of those items, but I’m ruthless about it. When something isn’t selling (like the cute stationery items pictured above) or isn’t working for me (such as icing decals), it has to go.

Over the past couple of years I’ve added 570 items to my website and deleted 380 of them! I’d hate to know how many hours that adds up to for developing products I no longer offer, but until I put something out there, I won’t know how well it will do. For several months I was hesitant to begin offering plates and bowls, but once I did, they quickly became the top selling items in my shop. So I keep that in mind any time I start to question the time I’m spending on new product development, and when I decide to get rid of something, I get rid of it and don’t look back.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on adding new products and getting rid of the duds. Have any of your products surprised you with how well or how poorly they’ve sold?

Growing your Business through Collaboration with other Small Business Owners

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

When Jessika announced this month’s theme, I knew right away that I wanted to write about three successful collaborations that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of over the past few years.

personalized products from sarah + abraham available at honeybunch

sarah + abraham gift labels, calling cards, and return address labels available at honeybunch

The first was with Nicole at Honeybunch. Nicole and I met online shortly after I launched my Etsy shop in 2007. We got to know each other a little, and she expressed an interest in selling my products in her shop. Unfortunately, my pricing structure doesn’t work well for wholesale accounts, and Honeybunch is based in Canada, which meant higher shipping costs. Over the next couple of years we tinkered with products and pricing, continually trying to work out arrangements that would be mutually beneficial.

In August 2009 Nicole had a great idea. She was in need of a new color printer, and she asked me what I thought about her buying the same printer and materials that I use so that I could email PDFs to her instead of printing and shipping products to Canada. This has worked out beautifully. I’m happy selling PDFs to her, and she’s able to make a decent profit and deliver the products to her customers faster by printing them herself.

personalized olliegraphic products offered by sarah + abraham

a few items from the olliegraphic collection at sarah + abraham

Later in 2009, as I was looking for new product ideas, I came across Meg’s Olliegraphic shop on Etsy. I fell in love with her illustrations and noticed that she didn’t offer printed items, only printables. I contacted her to see if she’d be interested in working together, and we were able to work out a royalty-based arrangement that has been great for both of us. The Olliegraphic line that I offer has been well received by my customers, and in addition to paying Meg royalties, I provide a link to her website on my Olliegraphic product pages so that my customers can contact her for custom designs and/or printables.

My latest collaboration was with a friend, Jen Doerzaph, who approached me with an idea to make high-quality, completely hand-sewn pillows featuring Olliegraphic designs. I ran the idea past Meg, and once she approved the designs, Jen made a bunch of samples to photograph, and we were quickly able to begin offering the pillows.

I’ve been so pleased with all of these collaborations. I think that they’ve worked out so well because all of us have been respectful of each other, flexible, and truly interested in creating arrangements that we can all be happy with. None of us are trying to get the better end of the deal or succeed at someone else’s expense. I believe that when two (or more) people enter into a collaboration with honest intentions and a desire to create a win-win situation, they can accomplish so much more than they’d be able to on their own.

Have you collaborated with other small business owners? Please leave a comment and let us know about your experiences!

Building A Local Handmade Network

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

The items pictured above are offered by six talented women living in the Chicago area who I’m very lucky to be able to get together with in person a few times a year.

1. Meg Bartholomy, olliegraphic

2. Stacy Amoo-Mensa, Name Your Design

3. Debbie Lee, Penelope’s Press

4. Julie Chen, Life Verse Design

5. Megan Nutley, Silhouette Blue

6. Dacia Gravlin, Lima Bean Kids

Since launching sarah + abraham in 2007 I’ve made a lot of online friends who are amazingly willing to answer questions and offer feedback, but nothing compares to getting together with fellow designers/artisans/entrepreneurs in person.

The first time I got together with a local entrepreneur who I had met online, we were both a little hesitant and unsure of what to expect. She had gotten to know a little about me through my blog, and we exchanged several emails before deciding to meet at a library with our kids. It was amazing how much we had in common and how much we had to talk about. Since then it’s gotten easier and easier to suggest getting together in person after meeting local entrepreneurs online, and every single time I get together with someone new I’m so glad I did.

Every few months I get together with the group of women that I mentioned above. We all work from home and spend most of our workdays in front of a computer, so it’s really nice to get away from our computers and talk with each other in person. We’re able to bounce ideas off of each other, vent our frustrations, offer encouragement, and share resources and contacts. We all speak the same language of Etsy, PayPal, blogging, etc. so we’re able to have conversations with each other that we sometimes can’t have with our friends and families who aren’t a part of this online community. Every time we get together I leave feeling energized and full of new ideas.

If you don’t already know any local women who share your business interests, I can’t say enough about what a valuable resource it is. An easy way to find local Etsy sellers is through Etsy :: Shop Local. If there are any sellers who you’re interested in meeting, a great way to get to know a little bit about them first (or for them to get to know a little about you) is through blogs and Facebook fan pages. And then don’t be shy – send an email introducing yourself, get to know them a little through email, and then suggest getting together.

Do you have a local group that you meet up with? Have you met up with any local Etsy sellers in person? Please leave a comment and let us know about your experiences!

Using Sales Data to make Business Decisions

Sunday, January 2, 2011

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

calculating

Last month I talked a little bit about keeping track of my sales and hours to help me forecast future sales and plan my time accordingly. This month I’d like to talk a little more about the data that I keep track of and how it has helped me with business decisions.

Since starting sarah + abraham in 2007 I’ve used a spreadsheet to keep track of the following information for each of my sales:

Date
Order Number
Buyer Name
Item(s) Purchased
Price
Sales Tax
Shipping Charge
Actual Shipping Cost
Referral Source

Keeping track of this information in a way that can be searched, sorted, and measured has helped me tremendously in measuring my success and making decisions.

For example, shortly after opening my Etsy shop in 2007 I began offering a free gift with purchase for customers who told me how they found my shop (ex. Etsy search, Internet search, a friend, etc.) When I launched my website I added that question to the checkout process. Not everyone answers it, but most people do. Over the years I’ve been able to see how much my repeat business is growing (yea!), how rarely customers are finding me through Internet searches (boo!), and how much my sales originating from Etsy are shrinking (still not enough to close my Etsy shop).

referral sources

I’ve been surprised to see how many sales were the result of magazine features (ex. only four sales came from being featured in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, but 3.5% of my 2009 sales came from a couple of Real Simple features).

It’s been nice to see that a steady percentage of sales are coming from blog referrals even though I haven’t actively sought out any blog features since 2008.

Also, I’ve been really frustrated with international shipping lately and the expense of reliable tracking for shipments outside of North America. At the end of 2009 and again at the end of this year I was considering not offering international shipping anymore. But each time I took a look at what percentage of my sales came from international orders (12% in 2010) and decided that for now the hassle and frustration is worth it.

I also really like offering flat rate shipping to encourage customers to add more items to each order, so it’s nice to be able to keep track of what I’m charging for shipping and what I’m spending on shipping to make sure that my rates are what they should be.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m no longer blogging about business topics on my sarah + abraham blog, but I enjoy sharing advice here at OMHG, so if there are any topics that you’d like me to write about in the future, please leave a comment here to let me know!

online retail sales: planning for a holiday rush

Thursday, December 2, 2010

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

holiday items from sarah + abraham

I was recently talking with a friend of mine who’s in the process of starting up a new business. She’s been experiencing an increase in orders and wondered if the growth would continue beyond the holiday season or if things would slow down in January. After sharing my experiences with her, I thought it would be a great topic for OMHG readers who may find themselves in a similar situation.

I started my business in October of 2007. It was 21 days before I had my first sale on Etsy. Then it was 13 days until my second sale, and 18 more days until my third sale. In December I was thrilled to have 8 sales! I assumed that my sales would continue to increase at a steady rate. Imagine my disappointment when things slowed down in January, and I realized that my 8 sales in December were actually a “Christmas rush”!

Since then I’ve been diligent about keeping track of my orders (and more recently the hours that I work) in a spreadsheet, and as my business has grown, it has really helped me to prepare for what lies ahead, both in planning for a rush and managing my expectations when things slow down.

At the beginning of this holiday season I was very fortunate to have three years of data to look at plus a good idea of how many orders I can fill per hour (since February of this year I’ve been keeping track of my weekly sales and weekly hours spent on filling orders). All of this data gave me a great idea of the sales volume to expect and how many hours I’d be working each week to fill those orders.

To encourage early holiday sales in the hopes of spreading out those orders as much as possible, I offered a 15% discount on holiday items for three days in the first week of November (three days when I had nothing on my calendar and knew that I’d be able to work long hours).

I also know that the week between Christmas and New Years Eve will be the slowest week of the year and the best time to close up shop. So on the craziest days I know that I have that to look forward to!

Last year I expected to have a huge drop off in sales in January, but I began offering Valentine’s Day items and ended up with January sales that were almost equal to December sales. So this year I know that my “Christmas rush” will actually last from November through January, and things will slow down in February.

For lots of great advice on selling during the holidays, including an Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp, be sure to check out The Storque this month. And if anyone has any of their own tips to share, I’d love to hear them – please leave a comment below!

Paper Ball Ornaments Tutorial

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

Almost every time I try to be crafty, the end result is nothing like I imagined it would be, and the whole thing ends up in the garbage. But a couple of years ago I came across directions for making paper ball ornaments on DesignSponge, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was and how nicely they turned out!

My kids helped me pick out scrapbook papers to use, and they looked great on our Christmas tree. When we were unpacking ornaments last year and I came across them, I was amazed all over again that I actually did something crafty that turned out so well.

If you’ve been following my sarah + abraham blog, you may have already heard me sing the praises of these ornaments, but for anyone who hasn’t seen them before, I thought the project was worth sharing again.

Step-by-step directions are available at Design Sponge. I just have few tips of my own to add…

I used 12″ x 12″ scrapbooking paper from Archiver’s, and I think something a little thinner would have worked better. But you’ll definitely want paper that has a design on both the front and back.

While I was at Archiver’s I used their 3″ and 4″ circle punches to cut out the circles – much easier than cutting out each circle with scissors! And I really like both of those sizes.

I tried using mini glue dots, but because of the thickness of the paper, they didn’t hold the paper together. So I bought 1/2″ glue dots, and those worked perfectly.

Before stapling the circles together I folded a ribbon in half and placed it on top of the crease, stapling it along with the circles in the middle and at the top.

If you know of any similarly hard-to-mess-up Christmas crafts, I’d love to hear about them!

Interview with Debbie Lee of Penelope’s Press

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

Shortly after launching OMHG in February I received an email from a reader named Debbie Lee congratulating me on the new blog. She mentioned that she lived in a nearby town, so I took a look at her blog and was so excited to see that she was in the process of starting up a letterpress business. I’ve always been drawn to letterpress stationery and curious about the printing process, so I boldly invited myself over to see her setup.

Since then we’ve gotten together a few more times with some other local designers/entrepreneurs, and it’s been so much fun getting to know her. A couple of weeks ago Debbie opened an Etsy shop, so I thought this would be a great time to introduce her and her shop.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a wife, a mom of 2 (soon to be 3), and sole proprietor of Penelope’s Press, a small design and letterpress studio located in a small suburb of Chicago.

2. What made you decide to start a letterpress business?

I’d like to think I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit since I was young. When I was in junior high, my friends and I started a babysitter’s club, made flyers, and distributed them throughout the neighborhood. In high school, I would buy candy from the warehouse clubs, Costco and Sam’s, and sell each candy bar for a dollar out of my backpack during class.

Then when I was older I had too many lofty, big ideas – I wanted to start my own scrapbook store equipped with a babysitting drop off area, I wanted my own rubber stamping company, I wanted to trek the world to collect fine papers and pens and sell them. One day I went to a local craft fair and picked up a letterpress bookmark from a vendor. That night and for several nights after I kept touching the impression on the bookmark. That bookmark eventually led me to the purchase of my first press. I love creating with my hands, all kinds of paper, and the craft of letterpress… it only made sense to spread that love to everyone else.

3. Do you have formal training in graphic design or are you self-taught?

I wish I had formal training. My degree is in English with a concentration in writing (hard to believe considering my love of writing in all lowercase and over use of ellipses). Thank goodness for the web and two of my friends’ husbands who are graphic designers – they are my “go to” with technical software program questions. When I’m stuck and can’t decide on something design related, I ask my sister (not formally trained either, but has an eye for design and does a lot of my hand drawn illustrations for Penelope’s Press).

4. Please describe your workspace and process for filling orders.

I work from home and take over more space than I should. Living in the Midwest, the winters are cold and summers are humid, so my first press, a Craftsmen Superior tabletop press, paper and envelopes, ink, rollers, and some type are in one room in the house. When my letterpress collection got out of hand, I needed a space that could handle the weight of the equipment, so my husband graciously let me have a quarter of the garage. We had walls built, double doors and lighting installed, and the electric revamped to house two Chandler and Price presses (one motorized and one foot treadle operated), a Potter Proof press, a guillotine paper cutter, and a type cabinet. The oldest of my equipment dates back as early as 1903.

Working at home has both benefits and drawbacks so I have to utilize my time wisely. My day usually starts at 7am. I set the kids up with breakfast while I have my morning coffee and catch up on blog reading, emails, and check on my Etsy account, Facebook fanpage, and Google Analytics. During the day, I mainly play with the kids and (try to) keep house. Once the kids nap, I get a solid 2-3 hours to think of new designs, collaborate with my sister on artwork, list new items on Etsy, and write an occasional blog post.

My printing is almost always done after everyone is sound asleep and I usually make a post office run on Saturday mornings. I should also mention I have a very supportive husband who helps tremendously around the house and is “Mr. Mom” when I am swamped with custom orders and side projects. I also have an iPhone that I am attached to and sneak in email replies throughout the day.

5. What has been the hardest part about starting a letterpress business?

Getting the thousands of pounds of iron and metal to my home. I had to scour the web and ask, ask, ask to find a press. Then I had to check the equipment out to make sure it was in working order (some of which required hours of driving to remote places). After the inspection is made and the deal is finalized, the hard part is trying to figure out how to get it back to my home. In my case, I needed the time, manpower, a trailer, forklift, and pallet jack.

6. What are your future plans for Penelope’s Press?

I officially just opened up my Etsy shop a few weeks ago so right now I’m just trying to build my product offerings and customer base and get the word out that Penelope’s Press is open for business. One day, I would love to be sold retail and be able to offer products wholesale.

sarah + abraham cupcake topper tutorial

Sunday, September 5, 2010

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

sarah + abraham cupcake toppers featuring olliegraphic illustrations

I recently began offering cupcake toppers, a new product that I’d been thinking about for quite a while but couldn’t quite figure out what materials to use and the best way to assemble them. I’m so grateful to Stacy at InkSpot Workshop for answering all my questions along the way. I love how they turned out!

I decided to take some pictures of the process so that I could share it with OMHG readers. The pictures below are slightly different than what I finally ended up offering (stickers on card stock circles), but the process is pretty much the same.

1. Print your design on card stock paper and cut the sheet into 2.125″ strips.

2. For a scalloped edge, I like to use the Fiskars Scalloped Squeeze Punch.

3. For a straight edge, I like the Fiskars Large Circle Punch.

4. Apply a line of Elmer’s School Glue (or a similar glue) from the middle to the bottom of each circle.

5. Set the top of each lollipop stick into the glue and press it into place.

6. Allow the glue to dry completely. For one-sided cupcake toppers, that’s it – you’re done!

7. For two-sided toppers, apply glue to the lollipop stick.

8. Place another card stock circle onto the glue.

9. For toppers with a scalloped edge, you may need to adjust the second circle slightly to get the scalloped borders to line up with each other. Once it’s in place, allow the glue to dry completely.