Realignment

In my last post I talked about rest producing realignment.  I have been doing a heap of realignment, and not just in my spiritual life.  My business is getting a major overhaul!  I know some of my followers have been anxiously awaiting the reveal of these plans, so here we go.  One of the things that I did for this Sabbatical process was close my PruittCreations Etsy shop, and I  thought long and hard about it's future.

Some history:
I opened my first online shop in late November 2008. I have struggled with the brand, ever since, knowing that I needed to narrow my line of products.  I tried opening two more offshoot shops, to separate my products. This worked for my PruittSupply shop, as it holds its own in the marketplace.  But the initial offshoot, PruittDesign, a shop for my jewelry sales, failed.  Granting that I did have sales, they were not enough to sustain the shop's place in an already overcrowded jewelry market. So, in 2012, I changed the emphasis of that shop from jewelry to textile art, another of my interests. Although that has opened new doors for me, I still struggled with my online brand  in the first shop, it was still too diversified. While all this was happening, I started selling aprons in the wholesale market, and after a slow start, it has taken off!  I think that my brand is becoming significantly narrowed to "The Apron Lady!"  **smiley face**

Thus, for this reason I am expanding my wholesale business and paring down my online Etsy presence.  So, how am I going to accomplish these transitions?

Some of the business plans are now shaping up as follows:

1)  I reopened my Creations shop for a temporary time, as a bargain basement type of shop, to clear out all my inventory that will not be moved elsewhere.  Because much of the inventory in Pruitt Creations is also my craft show inventory, I will not be doing as many craft shows this year.  I will do only a few shows with specific products, instead of a table full of various fabric items, as I have in the past.  This period of creating small fabric items is closed--a decision that was very hard for me.  I will stick to my art and aprons.

2) My Pruitthandcrafts blog, that has been on a hiatus, is getting a makeover with a new URL, a new purpose and a new look!  I will be using it for my wholesale business, exclusively.  When it is ready, I will blog about it here.

3)  The rest of my art and crafty endeavors (Abigail Jayne Art), my writing, and my Etsy team posts will appear in my other blog:
        Abigail's Attic:  Reflections in thoughts and art, from Abby's attic.

Of course, I have a few more specific plans for my business, but this is the gist of it, for now.

Anyone else ever had trouble narrowing their brand presence? 

Is "new" fun?

Someone recently asked me how my sabbatical was going, "Was I having fun?"  I said, "Huh?" I never thought of my sabbatical as a 'vacation' to have fun, but as I said in the beginning, a time to start out new, daring to believe that things could take a different path in my life.  

Unplugging from my everyday routines, dares my mind to be uncluttered, and allows me to contemplate new directions. It is deviating from my norm. I had become comfortable in my 'path well traveled' and didn't want to deviate for fear of the unknown. Deliberately exploring the possibilities of a new road, believing that things should and could be different than I have known them, can be a scary thing.  It is also hard work to discipline your mind to think differently. As for me, Sabbatical resting is work, not fun. To explain, I use a story from the Bible.

Although the Israelite slaves had cried for their freedom from the Egyptians, when the journey of actually leaving Egypt became tough, they cried again, to Moses, saying:  "Oh why did you bring us out here to die? Would that we would be slaves back in Egypt!"  They grumbled often on their path to freedom! 

Wrestling with new ideas, coming to a conclusion and a plan, while leaving the known, is not easy.  But it is what I have been up to.  Just to keep you up to date, I have decided to embark on a couple of different directions, one spiritual and one regarding my business. Making concrete plans to go in those directions is taking effort, time and research. I am not finished yet. So when I conclude this sabbatical, I am confident that I will have completed the required work and indeed be on a new path of exciting adventures (which I will share at a later date! ;) Stay with me!  

Preferred Values

Been thinking more about online business and my product.  As I said in a previous post, I have read most everything on 'how to' do online business AND done most of it! Many articles advise a seller to know their target audience.  Well, I think that I am coming to the conclusion that my potential customers are not interested in "use it up" products.  While I am interested in "using it up" but they are not.  (This is a reference to the following saying, that I have used before):

Use it up, 

wear it out, 

make do, 

or do without!

I think the current philosophy of this saying would be to use words like 'recycle', and 'upcycle'.  (One can see much on the internet about upcycling and recycling in the way of DIY projects, and products for sale.) 

I personally value using up everything and not being wasteful, so, I use up my fabric scraps to make handy, useful, utilitarian products, i.e.  reversible fabric coasters, pillow covers, quilted items etc. 

I am proud of myself when I use up leftovers to make a new creative project!  I value the creative effort and the use of otherwise unusable items.  I have been excited to list these items for sale, but have found that there is not an abundance of customers beating a path to my shop door for them. 

Although not the complete answer to lack of sales, I think the idea of 

"preferred values" 

vs. 

"actual values" 

comes into play here.   To define this, a person's values reflect unique convictions, core assumptions and principles that guide decisions. We all make declarations about what we value, but often we are stating what we think we should value.    

In an effort to make a shorter post, the bottom line is that an actual value is one that a person actually prioritizes and does!  If one does not actually practice (DO) it, then it is only a belief that one prefers. It's like much that we see on the Internet, like blog comments--they run in the category of preferred values.  "I  LOVE that . . ." but most people wouldn't (and don't) buy it.  They might value making it themselves, but not spending their hard earned cash to own it.  

My conclusion is that my target audience is a very small portion of people who actually value spending money on upcycled and recycled items; and that I need to re-evaluate and re-tool my products 1) to reach a larger audience, and 2) narrow my product line to items that are valued and, of course, 3) market accordingly.    

Ever ran into this with your online business??  

Log Jam or Drop Off?

Sabbatical or not, I find myself thinking about my online business.  Wanting to jump back into the water, so to speak. It's like, "Am I going to drop into the chasm with millions of other sellers, never to be found again?"  or get stuck in a log jam or backlog of information about how to do it right.

It's hard to discipline oneself.  I've been making notes and plans about my wholesale business, which I am not on sabbatical from, and I find myself reevaluating my online presence and wondering what would be best.  Over the years with my online business, I've waded through all the necessary information and read a lot about:

1) SEO
2) having a blog as a referral to your shop
3) promoting in this way and that
4) branding
5) good photography
6) great customer service . . . and . . .

Well, you get the picture!  There is just so much information out there!  I was about to drown, in fact overfilled, with information that was really not helping my business' bottom line.  Part of this sabbatical is to decide just what changes I might make to have a successful online presence.

Yesterday I spent the day doing some thinking about it.  No conclusions yet, so stay tuned if you are in the same boat as I am!

Any suggestions about improving your online profits?

P.S.  I know, I am asking for more info . . . . :)