Still Alive!

First of all, what happened to my Friday's Featured Shop...I am such a slacker!

Second...I'm still here!

We've been in Clearfield, UT for almost 2 weeks now, these last two weeks have flown by!

Both shops, Chicy Creations and Sweet and Shabby are still open. As soon as I get things a bit more settled around our new home, I will be creating and adding new items (hopefully in a week or so). I started on two new flower loops bows, and haven't got around to finish sewing them.

I'm one sale away from having 70 sales between my two shops. I feel I've somewhat neglected these shops (with the move and all). I'd love to make 100 sales by the end of the year, the more the merrier! I better get to work!

I am by no means a "business expert" but I look back at how little I knew before starting etsy, to what I now know. One thing I never took seriously was people encouraging to offer international shipping. I must admit I'm a pansy, I'm not sure why, but the thought of filling out customs scared me! Plus I figured not many people would be willing to pay the extra charges for shipping. After opening Sweet and Shabby I decided to somewhat take the international shipping plunge and offer it to Canada. I've only had 4 sales in my new shop, and one was a planner set I shipped to Canada. In the last 24 hours I've had two inquiries about shipping, one to France and the other to the UK.

This planner set has had over 300 views and 4 hearts, and yet it hasn't sold. I wonder how many people past by it thinking too bad they won't ship internationally! I've added international shipping for this item, and now I am working on calculating shipping on all my items for everywhere else. *I now offer $5.00 flat rate shipping to everywhere else over at Chicy Creations!

When it comes to shipping internationally, you want to do it right! Don't just guess that it will be a couple bucks more from the US, to Canada, or where ever else. Small items don't vary much from here to Canada, and sometimes can even cost less to ship to Canada than within the US. However, once you go over a few pound, pricing will vary drastically!

I don't call out, on etsy or my blog, because, well its just not nice, but I can say that I cringe when I see other shops that are clearly "guessing", I mean the ones that you see they are pricing international shipping at $5.00, when you know that type of item is at least a pound meaning it would be at least $10.00 to ship...or when you see a very small item shipping to Canada for $9.00, and $2.00 in the US. It's so important to have a scale, and use it! *I learned this first hand, the hard way!

*My first sale on etsy I didn't have a scale, so I guessed on shipping, the item wasn't priced very high, and I calculated $4.50 for shipping, well it ended up costing me nearly $8.00 to ship it, when all was said and done after the cost of supplies, I didn't make anything off that sale. I bought my scale for about $20.00 including on eBay and don't regret it one bit! It makes it so easy to weigh and print shipping labels from home, and saves me from standing in line at the post office!

Also, I never knew when you ship priority mail in the US, shipping cost can vary by zone. (I really didn't know much about shipping at all!) Now when I calculate shipping within the US for my items I will be shipping priority, I make sure to calculate for the farthest zone, and will refund any difference (for closer zones)...if you are shipping first class and just a couple ounces, this doesn't really apply!

Ok, I guess this is enough rambling, I'm sure most know everything I've just babbled about, but maybe someone will get some tips from what I've learned and not have to learn them the hard way!