Business Stuff

I am so happy that I've made two sales already, and it wasn't even my Mom or my friend as the customer!! This has given me a lot more confidence that selling my art online will be a good thing for me to keep doing.
Sold 9/28: Set of 6 Silk Mum heads, $7.00

I was having some serious doubts lately! Because of my extremely tight budget, I'm unable to buy high quality brand new silk flowers. This makes it incredibly hard to put together something worthy of sale in an online community swarming with amazingly talented artists. How can I be expected to achieve the elegant, sophisticated designs I dream of with only 20 year old, dusty flowers from the thrift store?  I can make one or two nice things but certainly not enough to fill a whole shop.

Sold 10/08 : Pressed flowers and display frames, $3.50

These little pansies were growing in a pot on the front porch. One day, on a whim, I began to pick and place them between the pages of a large book for pressing. A couple months later, and they are perfectly preserved with all their beautiful colors. When I found the tiny frames at the thrift shop, I thought this would an excellent way to display the blooms and keep them from the elements!

So as you can see the things I have sold have been more along the lines of supply and small gift, not large arrangements. This could be because my shipping costs are so high on the large florals (they incorporate dried flowers and will need to be very well packaged) So I've made a flyer to post at work about my designs and hopefully drive business by offering free shipping for Missoula residents. I simply can't move forward with more designs without making a sale to break even on sales and supply costs. I can't make anything remotely Christmas-y because I lack the materials!

So there will be a new influx of smaller, more giftable items in my shop. Things like "blooming pens" and flower hair clips, and really whatever else I can think of that I can put together with these supplies I have! Maybe around the holiday season people will purchase these smaller items as gifts. I will also be joining a couple ETSY Teams which help members to market themselves for free accross the site. I was also thinking of building a Etsy floral designers team, but I just can't bring myself to do it unless I have more sales and attractive items.

I can't help but always thinking of new creative ways to make ends meet. School and food are just too expensive. I'm so glad I don't have a car, I'd be unabe to fill the tank anyway. I look forward to the days when I don't have to nervously clutch my checking register and triple check if a purchase is actually ok to make. I will also be trying out hand addressing envelopes this holiday season to make a little money and to save people some time (a suggestion from Mom) thanks Mom. :)

Necessity is the mother of invention! And here we go!