Lean, Mean 'n Green

Nope, folks, these hairy arms are NOT mine, thankfully!  lol!

This is from my sent message to a new friend of mine on facebook that I met on Anne-Marie Faiola's awesome blog.  Her name is Melissa; she's bright, intelligent, verbose, a teacher, scientific.   All the right things.  Hi, Melissa!  

Let's just consider this a bird's eye view into my tangled psyche in the past month or so.     This is what I wrote to Melissa in response to what I've been doing:

Captain's Log: Stardate 2011-04-26

Kelly Ann Taylor April 26 at 11:32pm

Dear Mel....

"To be totally honest, I'm not really sure if I spent the whole week on marketing, or advertising. Probably a little of both.....

Background: So during Christmas I hired an administrative assistant, and right afterwards  sales dropped. I put myself on a spending freeze and stuck to it. I want to keep my assistant, but was worried about payroll money. So I then started promoting things i already had the raw materials for; namely, perfume oils. I have literally hundreds....and just have never gotten around to listing them. Thankfully, my assistant took 3 weeks off to do some spring cleaning and rest, so I was off the hook for payroll during that time....whew!

Then I got desperate, and decided to do something about it. You know the term analysis paralysis, right? =) It's an old friend of mine....so I kicked it in gear.

1) I paid for advertising on a design blog with a pretty big following, and outside of the Etsy community. Needed some fresh clean waters...know what i mean? Then I searched for some more blog opportunities. Personally I don't get caught up in all the giveaway stuff; maybe to my own detriment. My target is not unemployed female women looking for freebies all day long. My target is wholesale clients in boutiques so although I think giveaways may be good short term, I don't think I fit into that demographic.

2) In the process of doing a google search on spas/boutiques in order to make a spreadsheet to market directly to them. Thinking about doing a direct email, followed by a phone call, then a friendly visit with samples in hand.

3) Spent considerable time linking items in my shop that could be considered sets. That took awhile...still so much to do!

4) Paid for some online training sessions....if you are interested I can send you links. Also did an online training at Etsy. Daring DIYers by Scoutie Girl.

5) FINALLY signed up for a free version of icontact.com Am putting together a newsletter 1) for my retail customers and 2) one for my boutique/spa/pharmacy wholesale customers.

6) Paid for another online class for Pitch Marketing...pretty good albeit very simple class....

7) Installed a new app on my Etsy shop. Anafore.com
omg! this is a GREAT app! You have to do it! I have been thinking of a way to "reward" my customers, and to reward my customers for finding me new customers by giving them things to send to their friends that will pay THEM if their friends buy. It's all automated! You can sit there on the Anafore site and see them open their Mail, and then see how they link this online through their social networks. I highly recommend this one. You set the level of compensation that you feel comfortable with...

8) Joined a contest hosted by StartupNation.com for Mompreneurs/ Then sent a link to all my friends and asked them to vote for me. It was a good exercise; not really sure it was worthwhile or not.......at the very least I got to connect with some of my friends and reignite them with my passion =)

9) Beefed up my Google Places ad with some key words. Added some new photos to my ad. Considered placing a Paid Places Ad and decided against it for the time being.

10) Signed up for a free business listing on Manta.com

11) talked to a national syndicated magazine about advertising. Saving up my cash for a 3 month ad campaign.

12) Joined Etsy Success team. DanielleXO rocks at the Team Captain.  I just plain like her...ya know?    She always answers my emails and is so helpful, encouraging, kind and just plain down to earth. Right now just being friendly and encouraging people who are complaining about no sales.  I also joined the Kiva16 team which has a similar sort of world view as I have.  Their goal is to help people in underprivileged nations in their startup mode of business.

13) today I elicited the help of a friend who has agreed to hold a marketing class for a group of us locals. Will teach us how to do targeted ads on facebook, then another session to decode Google analytics.

14) I have read, read, read, READ myself blue in the interim times. Some of the techno jargon really kind of eludes me...I try to retweet articles by big wigs who really know what they are talking about if it will help someone.

15) trying to write on my blog more and more...but no real plan on that...just writing about things that inspire me.

16) Utlilizing coupon codes on Etsy to reward my customers. It is SO great to have people come back and back again. I can't tell you how good that feels....I've been on Etsy and just now am experiencing regular albeit sporadic sales after 1 1/2 years of dry bones.

17) I also redesigned my logo....again. One day I would love to hire a professional...

18)  Joined the EtsyLush community website.   

19) Am considering writing or affiliate marketing.   What can I write about?  What can I NOT write about?   Uh. rocket science, seo, website management, you know techie guru sorts of things.   That sort of thing is better left for Geeks-For-Hire; I still cannot operate my 

husbands DirectTV remote control, or figure out how to answer his iPhone.   Yup, #clueless  #not-techcnically-hardwired....but there are LOTS of other things that I CAN write about!  Just not sure how much to write about it all H E R E.  Anyone reading this who is a blogging expert, please feel free to comment!  Thanks!

So now, I am totally out of soapmaking oils, will have to start all over again building inventory. But at least some good things are happening and that will be a good problem to have!  Perfume oils are rocking the sales right now so just goes to show you that whatever you "water" will grow, more or less....=)

A very valuable lesson I learned last week: I accepted a wholesale order through my Etsy shop. Was desperate to generate cash, and then the lady ordered a quantity of 1 of everything!!!! Uh. DON"T do it! I was out of stock in almost everything and had to really scramble to make and get the order filled.....#bummer!

And then....sales have started to flood in again...sign of relief!

You just never know!

Let me know if anything in this has resonated with you! You are a smart lady and I know you have alot going for you!

Hugs!
Kelly"

as for item #16 the coupon codes on Etsy, this weekend I found my coupon on another site for couponing kinds of people.   Amazing!   I guess Etys had linked to them or something.

Vote for Us!

Today I was in the shower, and I always have these great thoughts.
Today the words came to me....."Start Up Nation". So I got out of the shower,
looked up the link, and Voila! A Contest! Not just any contest, but a big one!

You can be part of helping a teensy tiny little Mom Shop get to the next level!
Every vote counts, and you (yes, YOU!!!) can vote every day until Friday!

So hurry on over and Help Cassia Aromatics get the exposure they need to become a
nationally recognized brand!

Thanks in advance!




While you're at it, why don't you hit those cute little widgets at the top that say
Tweet, and Retweet! Yes, I finally figured out how to install them yesterday! just in time!

Ummm.... yesterday I swear one of them said retweet......gotta go fix that.....

Lovies, thank you and hugs!
Ad

Cleaning Up My Act

Cleaning Up My Act.....A Work In Progress

Confessions of a messy worker, a messy housewife, a messy co-worker, and a messy manufacturer/artisan.

I successfully updated my growing fragrance listing, and put all my summer fragrances to sleep for the winter :(. It always ALWAYS makes me nervous to put things away; my dear mother and I share the same malady: it is called the fear of ......Outta Sight Out of Mind.

Somehow deep inside, I fear that if I put something away I will in fact forget that it exists.

Experience does bear this out as well.

The truth is, a messy workspace can and does hinder creativity. So why have I been in a funk, you ask? Is it merely slow sales? I think not. Things have to be straight and neat before creativity can really flow.

So I have been taking time to straighten. Planning for the busy holidays is underway and inventory must be taken for supplies to be ordered, projects to be created, etc etc.

But first things first.

This is boring, but freeing!

On another note, I am undertaking a new networking mission. Cassia's Kitchen will be interviewing local and some not so local friends! I am very very excited about this and believe it may be vital for exposure to some of us!

If you have a) a business b) a ministry, c) a band, d) a book, or e) a cause, I would like to interview you! Yes, you!

Please comment on my blog and ask me to send you an already written series of questions. Be prepared to send me graphics of your logo, your banner, any product graphics and weblinks you want listed on this blog! Depending upon your responses, I may elect to have a Park 1 and a Part 2 so you would then receive double exposure!

Then together, we will choose a day to post this interview! If you are selling product, you may give me codes to any discounts or specials you want to air on this day! Then together we will give this event exposure by Tweeting, facebooking, MySpacing, Emailing or even UTubing this event!

Cool?
I say, CCCCCOOOOOLLLL!
Let's Do It!

Love and Hugs!

Kelly

"Hallow" said Wabbit to Pooh, "Are you Home?"

I guess I could never be a real author. Cause I just don't have that much to say.
You know, since I quit multi tasking and all. It seems I can really only just cook
or....blog. My husband calls the PC my blue eyed lover and I do not blame him. But I keep trying to convince him that I am... working...kind of. Mostly, really.

I am getting ready for a Big Party tonight in which I am not yet ready and have stayed up until 3 AM two nights ago, and this morning until 4 something.

Maybe I will have something to say tomorrow. Last night it was so precious; it was about 10:30 and my Daughter and my Husband and I were all together in the kitchen and my husband was actually helping me. He is all about efficiency so he analyzed the situation and then got to work. It was so funny to watch him try to fill lotion bottles and all but he really helped me, and what is more, his help really gave me a boost emotionally. I wanted to take a pic, but I kind of felt like it was taking advantage of a celebrity by a papparazzi during a private moment so I didn't.

But until then, I am at the last minute printing out brochures, order forms, looking at "fun" party games, wrapping soaps, worrying over my cupcakes which are still "drying" out and in general all a flutter!

In the meantime, I am all into color and this season. So everything I make it seems is a fruit or wildly colorful. I love summer! I made this yesterday: (among alot of other things.. but this is the most colorful so far!)

So, dear friend, as the Aussies say... Ta Ta For Now....and we will see you again soon after it occurs to me what content to add to this site which might either, 1) amuse you, 2) inspire you, 3) move you to tears in shock and awe or 4) add valuable information to your life! In either case, I so value you and welcome you to come stop in and say Hallo Pooh!

Why This and Your Blogs are So Very Important,,,"They" Say!

Six Reasons Why Your Blog Is Your Most Important Social Media Tool
— It’s much more important that those young whippersnappers--Twitter and Facebook We often talk about the need to develop a content marketing mindset. This requires companies to think like publishers. And that sounds an awful lot like social media as Wikipedia defines it:

Social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Your blog is your secret social media weapon
Thanks to free or inexpensive blogging tools, any individual can be on the same technological footing as the New York Times or Business Week. That may seem relatively obvious to many of you. What I think is less obvious is that your blog is every bit as much a social media tool such as Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. In fact, I believe that a blog is the most important social media weapon in your arsenal.

Captains Log, star date 01-27-09 in the year of our Lord

Guys, Gals, Fans, Friends!

Sorry for being so.....silent....these days!

When I find my photo cable I will show you guys what's been "popping" these days in my kitchen...and office....etc.

It's tax time and that is always stressful for me. Not only do we play catch up during this
time, but to add to that all the other facets of life, a new business, a new website, new involvements at church, old renters out of rent house, new renters into new house, and the associated drama of all that....and...new puppies!!!!!! Alas, the cable has disappeared.....

I have been waking up anywheres between 2 - 5 AM everyday......hence, going to bed
around 8.......

Other than that, making great headway on business plan, website, fragrance listing,,,but still so
much to do........so much, so much!!!

OK, i popped my head out long enough to update, so now back to work.

Hopefully in the next few days, there will be new pics of new puppies. Valentines goodies coming too! Just got some Love Spell, Pink, Very Sexy Men, Very Sexy Women, Endless Love, Dream Angels, Rapture, Angel, all VS dupes. So, friends....stay tuned!

All my love to all of you who have encouraged me, have visited this blog, commented, gave imput, said you would be product testers, tasters, and advised me. You are so special to me and I am contunually thankful to each and every one of you!

Sam, you are the best! And because of you, I have new hope and much needed courage and strength! Thank you!

2 hours later.....well, I found the cable and uploaded all kinds of stuff from my little camera.! Wow! 84 pics in the last few weeks! Upon reviewing the items, my heart filled with gratefulness of the chronicle that unfolded with the screenplay...... thus an addendum to this Captains Star Date log, and I will name it...

new life!!!!!!!!

first the eagles......... first sited on 01-04-09

Then, my darling friends who I love and treasure like the closest of family, saved, baptized, added to the Body of Christ and going full force for God!

then last saturday, the little "fatlings" were born.......boop boop boop! boop!boop! here is kitten this am holding them: taken just this morning......

So, my friend, it is my aim to always have an encouraging word for you! That you will find this blog to be not only funny, dry, colorful, crazy; but also informative, encouraging and full of enthusiasm for Life itself in all His facets of beauty, wonder, wisdom and awe.

In the midst of your struggles, faint not, my friend, for to him to sows, and endures and faints not, there will be a harvest for every seed you sow into the ground. This is the Year of the Favor of Our Lord! Be encouraged, and Faint Not! For to him who overcomes, that person will eat of the tree of life, and great grace and favor will be your outcome....even in drought and famine, says the Lord of Hosts!

Until we meet again!

well I did it

i finally did it. went public, that is. have thought about it, intended it. now it's done. hate to admit it but there is something so vulnerable about going public.

this morning i made a quick flyer and invited about 50 people to my house next Friday. There was a resistance in me to do it. A mixture of feelings; I'm not ready yet. Maybe they will think I'm stupid. Or not good enough. Or don't have enough to offer.

But i did it and now it is done. no going backwards. only forwards. I care what people think. And God knows this experience will only help me grow.

i just wanted to share that. does anybody else ever feel that way?

ok, my kitchen is clean except last night's thanksgiving feast dishes are in the sink. i must tend to this before Murphy's Law works it's deep magic and chaos once again rears it's ugly head.