Driving my small business to succeed (and the cute work area I got out of the deal!)

Some of you might have noticed a waning in my typically frequent posts... I have been a busy lady recently! I have been putting a concentrated effort into driving my Etsy shop sales... treating it as a true small business and not a hobby.

I have spent many hours researching... researching marketing, SEO, shipping, cost control, social media... The internet is just an endless pit of useful (and useless) information. Fortunately, I do have a background in sales management and driving sales, so I can weed through most of the bull.

I have learned how to mass email promotional newsletters with blind carbon copies and to embed that newsletter right into the email (rather than as an attachment.) And it worked! After I sent out my first letter to 64 clients, I immediately got 3 sales and multiple Facebook fans.

I have read up extensively on how to use Twitter and Facebook in marketing. I created a Facebook fanpage and also made sure to create a vanity URL for it so it would be easier for people to remember. I have high hopes on using Static FBML (a subset of HTML) to improve my fan page... but that is a bit much for me at this point... I barely have enough knowledge of HTML to keep my blog interesting!

I have also created 3 new products and tinkered with the existing ones to make them better. I have many new ideas in the works as well... wait until you see!

But, the most exciting thing...

My very own home office/ work space!!! With my purging effort, I carved out enough space in our tiny house for my own area! This may put an end to having blocks drying all over every horizontal surface in my house, shipping boxes tucked in every corner, Mod Podge stored on every windowsill... I am sure hubby is happy with this new found work space. And it makes it feel more real to me. A real business, a real endeavor to make this whole thing a success. I have done well so far with nearly 100 sales since I started in January. I think with my new concerted effort... I will make it to that next level.

Wish me luck!!!