fighting Etsy exhaustion part III - tips for one at a time or small batch makers

When my maker shops on Etsy took off, my small batch and one at a time makings model quickly became a challenge.

The time I used to spend creating something new became time spent reproducing/replacing things that had sold and eventually

(I blame Etsy's cunning little relist button)

to producing things that I had already sold.

This can create a situation where we are so focused on the outcome that we lose sight of how much energy we are investing and stop paying attention to how exhausted we've become.

“you can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned and you’re down to your reflexes. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out now, under the bright lights" ... joe frazier

(yes, I realize this quote is off-topic and may even make you more exhausted to contemplate it - but someone just sent it to me and damn it's good
Small batch (and one of a kind) makers need a tight grip on their time.

(something like the death grip Angry Bird addicts have on their handhelds)

1. Unless your item is personalized do not hit the relist button until your next item is made.

Simple thing - hard to do - saves lots of headaches

2. Instead of making 1 of your amazing little whatnots - if possible, make two, often you can make multiples without doubling your production time

3. Limit your time online - clicking is addicting

4. Set up your studio to make your making easier

I recently 'cleaned' my studio ... again ... to make things a little more Ford assembly line-like for myself, but found my hands always reaching toward the places where parts and doodads used to be - it has taken me some time to retrain my muscle memory, but I have been able to save time by getting my workspaces in line with my process.

and yes, you will probably need workspaces - plural -

- constantly taking things out and putting them away is a huge time waster - before I had a studio - I would set up things in drawers within a cabinet and then pull the drawers out onto the table to set up 'areas' for assembly, shipping, photography, etc and then just return the drawers to the cabinet when I was finished with them

5. Get on a schedule

I think, that just like your production area, your schedule needs to fit your life, your energy peaks, etc - this does not have to be a 9-5 thing, but when it's become a 5-9 thing all the time and when the things that you need to do to make your business and your life sustainable- like make time for new work - get lost in the shuffle, you need to get yourself a huge calendar and figure this out.

I like to schedule things in chunks so if something comes up I can move one chunk to another part of the calendar.

Confession - I do not have this all figured out and there are some chunks that have been moving around my calendar for ... weeks ... sigh.

6. Limit your one of a kind or commissioned work - make a production schedule and stick with it

(it is human nature to want things that are not just readily available to everyone - things that are made to order just for us, things we have to plan for - wait in line for; hopefully a cyber line, like your production schedule - things that SCREAM special)

Allowing yourself time for creative work - no matter how many of your amazing whatnots you are selling right now, everything has a life cycle and I can guarantee you that your whatnot will become a whatever at some point - allows your business to grow in a more sustainable way.

It allows you and your brand to be around long after your whatever whatnot has become yesterday's news.

7. Get help

The opposite thinking is that you need to strike while the iron is hot with your amazing whatnot - so farm out the production help that you can while you can - and be ready to move on when the iron cools.

part III continues Friday

(I promise it will be worth dragging your tired self over here to read - unless you have something really important or really fun chunked into your calendar - like a Belgian wax, maybe - yes, you read that right, I do not have my countries that start with B mixed up - it is really just a regular wax that you follow up with a waffle to reward yourself since it hurt so much, but it sounds almost as exotic as the gross kind)

fighting Etsy exhaustion part ll 1/2 - stepping back and refocusing here

A few people have asked me why I am making this series so Etsy-centric when many other things contribute to the exhaustion some of us have been feeling this winter

(and I agree, although I do see Etsy as being an intrinsically exhausting venue to sell our makings)

so I thought I would interrupt this series with some less Etsy-specific thoughts about all of this.

(think of this interruption as a little less annoying than that tv emergency buzz signal and a little more annoying than when someone interrupts your movie-watching with a bag of popcorn)

I have a friend who advises when exhausted:

Do no favors. Do not, under any circumstance engage in another 'act of kindness' unless it is completely 'natural and convenient' for you

This is not about "me time" because that is just not big enough for what we need here - even ME TIME is not enough, not even ME TIME - this is about MUCH MORE than that ...

(cue the marching band)

some things I have found to help:

1. drink more water
2. go outdoors - yes, it's cold - so, what - your toes will thaw out later - just get out there
3. keep your telephone calls to under 3 minutes - no exceptions
4. eat less
5. refuse to hurry
6. laugh

(I have the funniest family on the planet, seriously, after the last week with them, I feel like I have done a thousand sit-ups - now if I only looked like I had done a thousand sit ups ....)

7. put an out of office auto response on your email for awhile
8. sleep
9. listen to music
10. don't start anything new - things started during creative exhaustion have a way of not looking so good when your head clears
11. be grateful

(you probably wouldn't be this tired, if you didn't have a full crazy-ass life which not everybody allows themselves to have and you do, allow it that is, so be grateful)

12. trust

(another door stands visible in plain sight but you are just too damn tired to see it - it's there, you will)

* dandelion by Raceytay

New Polarity Magnetic Bracelets in Shop - when wrist restraints may not be enough

My new style interchangeable magnetic bracelets are fabricated by me from a recycled steel car part with love and propane and are available in either mini (shown above) or regular size with ANY lid designs in my shop Polarity -10% off thru 2/28 with the coupon code GIANTS 

the week the Giants won the Superbowl, I got a gurgle pot and my sister flew back to Portland EARLY

My sister heads back to Portland today ... sniffle
(not sure if I mentioned she was in town this week)

out of town guests who fly out on a Friday and don't have to be back to work until Monday are a bit suspect in my book, but I forgive her for leaving early .. sort of.

She flew out for my birthday and to watch the Giants win the Superbowl surrounded by the peeps who grew up like she did with bobblehead Giants dolls on our dashboards and air-filled Giants rubber tackles on our front lawns

(also a hard plastic baby Jesus sleeping peacefully beside a frayed green lawn chair and a box of Black Cat fireworks)

and could appreciate it.

Not that most of us know anything about football - everytime anyone caught the ball my hubby called it an 'interception' - I guess it was an interception between the quarterback's hands and ... well, landing somewhere else
Anyhoo, my birthday party, held during half-time, for those family members who could tear themselves away from the material girl for the real material girl went something like this -

Picture me rabidly tearing through a huge stack of packages, scraps of wrapping paper flying to the carpet, pieces of tape clinging to my buffalo-chicken stained fingers

(or maybe I just unwrapped a belt and gurgle pot - it is all pretty much a blur to me now - what with the getting older and all - for a few seconds though the gurgle pot came out of its box and into my hand like a Remington Rider single shot pistol - don't ask - my party quickly transitioning from Norman Rockwell to Full Metal Jacket)

My birthday is always the most frenzied thirty seconds of my entire year, not counting Christmas morning and the two or three times hubby and I have sex (ack- just kidding, I'm not that fast with the scotch tape)

People are screaming about the game and by "the game" I mean the bets we made about the really important Superbowl stuff like - will Kelly Clarkson muff up the national anthem - what will be the 1st commercial after the first quarter - what color gatorade will be poured on the winning coach, you get the idea

and by 'people screaming' I mean my brother-in-law screaming at the porch railing that was talking about him again, but that's a story for another day ....

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, my hair caught fire blowing out my birthday candles - no, there weren't that many candles, I was just out of breath from the sex gift opening ... and Giants cheering ... and buffalo-chicken eating ...

The rest of my sister's visit was not as exciting - some days she just sat around my studio reading DIY magazines while I worked ... poor kid ... it is very quiet here today though without her page turning, gum chewing, smartphone flicking, wise-ass self (more sniffles)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - parts 3 and 4 of my fighting exhaustion series next week, plus lots of new work coming out - you won't want to miss it! xo

thoughts become things ... choose the good ones

"Some think life is a place to seek happiness and fulfillment, Cat, some think it's a place to learn lessons and pay dues.

And so it is for them."

Tallyho,
The Universe

got this in my inbox today - thought I'd share it :)

* I think I can print by happy deliveries

fighting Etsy exhaustion part lll - large batch makers

With large batch production you are producing an inventory rather than waiting for an order.

One of the best parts about making your makings in large batches - and being pro-active rather than reactive

(when you are selling your makings in small batches or one at a time)

is that it creates some production downtime - time that you can spend doing the other things involved in running your maker business.

There is more to making a business than making stuff after all.

The hardest part is that you will need a good handle on what is going to sell (sizes, colors, styles, etc - cue the crystal ball) so that you are making the right stuff or you will have lots of unsold whosee whatsees sitting around your studio (and lost time and money on these unsold makings) and sell out of the things you could be making money on.

(this is pretty much guaranteed to happen from time to time especially as your business grows, but if time to time becomes most of the time you need to figure this stuff out)

Three inventory management sites recommended to me by makers are Stitch Labs, RunInventory and Bizelo.

The amount of inventory you have on hand will vary depending on your business. One ideal way to do your batch production is to batch produce the parts of your work that are not customizable - for example with my cork test tube necklaces I batch produce everything except the images. When a customer orders a necklace I just have to add the specific imagery and wording to the existing necklace. I know a lotion/potion maker that adds fragrance to her makings as ordered.

Thinking about any parts of your production you can steamline this way while still being able to adjust your finished product later, may save you time and money.

Some tips from Etsy batch makers on working smarter and not harder include:

1. Know the popularity of your size breaks -

For example a t-shirt screenprinter might find her sizebreaks to be
2-4-4-2 or sm,m,l,xl -

so when she is producing a dozen shirts for inventory this is the sizebreak she will be screening.

This is not a guarantee that she will always be producing the right pieces but if you are working with sizes, etc that cannot be adjusted later and you take the time to figure this out, you will definitely decrease your inventory headaches.

And save time for the other stuff on our to-do lists like getting that SWAT team ready to mobilize, acquiring street maps covering all of Minnesota, a pot of coffee, 12 jammy dodgers and a fez and if you are not a Dr. Who fan and have no pop culture reference for what I am blathering about here you can skip this part.

2. Stock up smartly - take a look at how often you are doing your making, the seasonality of your business and the popularity of your items

If a store orders 4 of something and I only have 3 pieces in stock - I tell them I have 3 on hand rather than making myself crazy and holding up a shipment to produce a one-off of something I batch produce.

3. Have regular sales to clear out your excess stock - one large batch maker told me she does her batch making (about 75% of her production) one week out of every month and at production time anything that is left in the studio gets counted and overstock goes on sale - often never to be produced again

This "never to be produced again" may not be a good idea for everything that isn't flying off the shelves, but eliminating nonsellers so that you can spend your time producing new work is essential to creating a sustainable business and keeping your heart invested in what you are making which is, ultimately, a life and not just a handmade whosee whatsee -

a life that needs to allow time for things other than your makings - things like guacamole and Woodchuck hard cider (just wish these came with corks I'd be stocked), Angry Birds (it has become my number one goal in life - other than having George Clooney delivered to my door ... wet - to pry certain people away from this game - UGH) and movies at an actual movie theater rather than on your computer while you wrap beads.

And speaking of George Clooney and movies I just saw the Descendents and although I wasn't quite as in love with it as the critics have been, I did have a wonderful little blue-haired woman behind me adding spicy dialogue like

"George really does look more and more like Rosemary every year", "Do they call them Hawaiian shirts in Hawaii or just shirts?", "The president is from Hawaii you know", "I hate walking on sand", "Is that the older Bridges or the younger Bridges?", "He runs like a dingbat" and "He can really do sad". I LOVED HER.

4. Get help - large batch production can make it easier to get help during busy times and at regularly scheduled periods.

Trying to do it all can burn us out ... fast. And part of giving back with our creative venture can be our ability to pass on that creative energy in the form of money to others.

I find that when I pay someone and this payment can take the form of things other than money, but when you want more money to flow in, you have to allow - with a grateful heart - more money to flow out - money is energy and needs to move after all - when I pay someone and focus on the amazing feeling that that gives me and wanting more of that, I get more of that.

Giving ourselves little finish lines helps, too. Because there is no real endzone with any of this. We are never going to arrive, suitcase in hand, hair a mess and needing a back rub .. at our final destination because there is no such place.

The maker life is about the process and the more we embrace that the more we will allow ourselves to be the world-changing, passionate, fearless (as in not letting fear stop us), wealth-creating, change-embracing, idea-generating, grateful, crazy ass artists we are meant to be!

* I like making pretty things print by playonwordart

1. shop: Xenotees
2. shop: Palomas Nest
3. shop: Somethings Hiding Here
4. shop: Monkeys Always Look

Back soon with Exhaustion Busters for One of a Kind or Small Batch Makers