Week-end tallies: Fifteenth/Sixteenth weeks in review

Two for one, eh? Yep - I had everything set and on track for updates, and then I came down with a cold last weekend. Drat!

It's been a slow crawl forward, but at least progress is being made. The bowl of jewelry I have to list is emptying out, bit by bit, and traffic has been steady - Even if I haven't made any more sales recently. No biggie, it'll happen!
So what were the numbers like at the end of week 15?
Like this:

Total value of items made: $870.00
Total expenses to run business: $63.98
Total income: $126.00

Not bad! And one of the pieces that went in last week was a pair of earrings with a design that's always been a popular seller for me.

Graduated red pearl earrings, $9

And this week, I added more of the ever-popular keys.

Wire wrapped key necklace, $10

As I move into fall, I find myself wondering if I should include other crafts aside from jewelry in this project. I do make more than jewelry, after all, and I have a few new things sitting on my craft table that will go into one of the other shops I manage for hobby creations. I've always kept Moonsea as strictly jewelry and beading, while posting costume accessories in another place. Should I list some of the costume bits in Moonsea? Or should I count them toward this goal, even if I sell them in the other shop? Hmm...
Things to consider, at least.

And that's a wrap for week 16.

Total value of items made: $901.00
Total expenses to run business: $64.58
Total income: $126.00

Week-end tallies: Fourteenth week in review

So it's only Thursday, and here I am writing the weekly tally. Why? Well, it's our anniversary weekend, and Joe and I have lots of plans for fun things to do as a family. So, I'm treating myself to a weekend off!

This week has been great for seeing forward momentum again. I set a goal for myself to get 10 new pieces listed in the month of August, and I managed to get them all posted this past week. A couple sales saw some pieces going off to new homes, and I still have 20 pieces photographed and ready to trickle in over the next three weeks. Great stuff!

Here's a peek at one of my favorite additions this week:

Embellished silver key necklace, $10

Since I haven't listed the other 20 items yet, I decided not to include them in the value of pieces on the table. I'll add their value to the tally as I list them, which is exciting, because it means that number will slowly start creeping up. I'm excited to see it break the $1000 mark, because that means there'll officially be enough jewelry around to meet the overall goal.

'Til next week!

Total value of items made: $826.00
Total expenses to run business: $63.18
Total income: $126.00

Why edit photos?

Cleaning photos can be a lot of work, especially when photographing a lot of pieces at once. I spent some time taking photos of 30 items over the weekend, which meant I ended up with 245 photos to filter through, crop and clean up. That's a lot of work.
Sometimes I look at the huge numbers of photos, sigh, and feel discouraged. It's a lot of work for seemingly little payoff, so why edit your photos?

Cameras have come a long way, but they still don't capture most things exactly as you see them. Colors aren't always quite right, the purple spectrum is especially hard to capture accurately. This is why post-processing has always existed. Adjustments made after the photograph is taken can make a world of difference! Don't believe me? Here's a photo straight off my camera, it's only been cropped to eliminate useless white space.

These earrings are made with beautiful, shiny red glass beads and antiqued brass wire. They were photographed against a piece of white poster board, in natural morning daylight. As you can see, the red isn't too red, the brass isn't too brassy, and the white background is definitely not white. In fact, it doesn't look anything like what I was actually looking at!

Less than a minute later, I've made a few simple changes to the photo. Using Photoshop CS5, I made the following fast tweaks:
• Auto contrast
• Auto color
• Adjust levels (increasing whiteness)
• Auto tone

That's it! Less than sixty seconds. Eight clicks of the mouse. And now it's not just closer to what the image looked like to the human eye, it's better a better product photo. When you compare the two, which looks better?
The first one isn't bad, but the second is a much higher quality photograph. That's why even basic post-processing is important for your shop.

But that's it for today - I still have 244 photos to clean up!

Week-end tallies:Thirteenth week in review

What, thirteen?! Where did eleven and twelve go?
Shame on me, the weeks were so busy I didn't have a chance to write about them at all. But that's okay, because I didn't make much progress, either! That's the thing about busy weeks, they're either busy with the shop or too busy for the shop.
But week 13 saw some advancement!

After sending off a sale, there's a delightful thing to report: The next milestone!
Yes, the shop has finally reached one hundred dollars in income. That's one tenth of the total goal for this project! Of course, it's both a good and a bad thing - As great as it is to reach this landmark, it also puts some things into perspective. For example, since it took 13 weeks to hit the $100 mark, that means at this rate, it'll be another two and a half years before we reach the $1,000 mark.

Ouch.

But hey, one step at a time, right? It's still forward momentum and a great bit of progress, so there's no shame in that. Plus, I think starting a new month with a landmark at our feet and a bunch of new ideas and prospects is a great way to go, so... Onward!

Total value of items made: $716.00
Total expenses to run business: $60.16
Total income: $103.00