Happy shopping today! We’re kicking off the biggest holiday shopping weekend with 25% off at our Etsy shop.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: black friday
Holiday Preparation From a Handmade Jeweler Eyes
Every year it seems like we blink and the Holiday Season is upon us, then we blink again and it’s gone. A month long of celebrations and shopping will take months of preparation. Running an online jewelry business planning for my Holiday Season shoppers takes about 6 months. Here are some of the components I use when planning for a busy holiday shopping season.
Budgeting
Before I spend money on anything related to the Holiday Season, from buying supplies for new designs to spending money on ads I sit down and create a detailed budget. Besides for tracking my monthly expenses on an Excel spreadsheet, I also create a budget specifically for the Holiday Season. Some of the expenses I list on my budget are Supplies for Holiday Jewelry Collection, Marketing, Holiday Show Fees, Personnel, and Additional Postage. I create 2 columns one labeled “Budgeted” and the other “Actual,” this allows me to track my actual spending and to see how close I’m getting to what I’ve budgeted. Majority of the time I’m a one woman show, but around the Holidays I tend to do more on site shows and need to put aside capital for vendor fees and personnel to help out. Kabbage is actually an excellent resource to gain additional funding this time of year to help out in these areas particularly. Once my budget is set I can begin planning out the rest of the season.
Designing a Holiday Collection
Every year I release a new winter/holiday collection and I begin brainstorming ideas for the collection around May/June. A lot times I’ll look what current designs are working for me and see if I can create something similar, but extra special for the Holiday Season. Using a sketchpad and Sharpies I sketch out ideas for designs. Here’s an example of something I created for last year’s collection:
I start creating the jewelry pieces around July and they are usually posted up online by August/September. For this year’s Holiday Collection I was inspired by pyrite stones (also known as fool’s gold). I found a way to work the stones into my metal designs and came up with pieces I think my customers will like.
Time Management and Organization
The Holiday Season gets busy really fast and if I don’t have a good handle on time management and organization things will go haywire really fast. With organization I work more efficiently when I have a bird’s eye view of everything. A few weeks ago I came across the pdf version of Passion Planner and it’s such a lifesaver. It has helped me organize my tasks and goals week by week. I include everything in the planner from setting aside time to create marketing content for my Holiday sales to dedicating time to create additional jewelry pieces that are popular during the Holidays. I also use the Pomodoro technique when completing each of my tasks so that I’m sure to stay on track, but still manage to take breaks get other things done as well. My office space is also neatly organized into 3 stations, a packaging order station, jewelry creation and supplies station and administration area where I can work on my product listings, work on my website and etc;
Marketing
My marketing plan for the Holiday Season is always extremely detailed since it’s the biggest shopping time of the year. When creating my marketing plan I also keep in mind that I’m competing with big retailers as well. I design handmade jewelry, so having deeply discounted items are just not feasible or financially friendly to my bottom line. However, this gives me a chance to brainstorm and get crazy creative. For example, this year I’ve created a Holiday DIY Style Gift Guide where once customers sign up to my list they’ll receive the gift guide as well as access to coupon codes and sales I’ll be having throughout the Holiday season, Holiday Party Looks and other great Holiday centric ideas. I use this time to not only attract new customers, but interact with current ones as well. Pinterest and Instagram are also major platforms in my marketing strategy. Last year I did an Instagram giveaway contest called “Holiday Party Attire” where users would post pictures of their Holiday Attire with a particular hashtag and got a chance at winning a jewelry item from my shop. This year my big push is “Jewelry Item of the Week” where each week for the next month customers can receive that item near my wholesale price for that week only. Last week it was my Hand Stamped Wine Charms and this week it’s the Geometric Floating Cuff Links for Men. Running a sale like this allows me to remain profitable, but gives my customers a chance to try something new as well in my shop.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday at The Pink Locket
First tell us…
What’s your flavor this Holiday?
Wintergreen
Dark Chocolate
Blueberry Brulee
Second
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Holiday Shopping Manners & Etiquette 101
Last weekend I was out and about with my family. I love this time of year with all of the different Holiday Festivities going on, it really helps to make the Holiday Season just that much merry. I’m not a real fan of in-store Holiday Shopping and tend to do 95% of mine online. However, what I did notice was the lack of courtesy and manners among people…OMG! In my opinion it seems to be prevalent during the Holiday Season, which is suppose to be the season of giving, sharing and caring. So…this my friends is my Holiday Shopping Manners & Etiquette 101 class.
Lesson #1
After attending the Tree Lighting at Atlantic Station where I was in line waiting to get hot chocolate for my niece, in front of me were two ladies with their 4 children, one of the children was playing around and tripped over my son’s stroller–no one was hurt, but here’s the kicker the mother told her daughter to stop, but failed to apologize nor tell her daughter to…talk about an eye opener! So keep these phrases and words in your vocabulary, they go a long way and those words are “Excuse Me” , “Thank You”, “Yes, please” “You’re Welcome.” With the hustle and bustle from store to store it is easy to get frustrated, but that is not an excuse to excuse your manners.
Lesson #2
If you are going to take your children shopping with you remember SWS (Shop With Snacks)! Yes, and bring PLENTY! Most young children don’t really care to go shopping with their parents. A little snack can go a long way when you can’t stop to get something and most importantly are a life saver when you’re standing in a long line with your child, especially if they are fussy…no need to call unnecessary attention to yourself and a snack will ward off the grumpy individuals in line, who in their head are wishing you would “quiet” your child.
Lesson #3
If you are the annoyed person in line without the child, and secretly wishing “that mother needs to quiet her child”, here’s a tip start singing the twelve days of Christmas and hopefully by the time to you get to “8 Maids a Milking” that child and their mom will most likely be gone or quiet.
Lesson #4
Do not take someone’s parking space. If you see someone with their indicator on and waiting for a car to reverse out of the spot, it is very rude of you to take the spot that the indicating car was waiting for.
Lesson #5
If you see a pedestrian in the crosswalk at the mall, ALLOW them to cross, especially in cases where they have children with them or it’s raining or snowing. You’re in your nice cozy warm car, taking 30 seconds to allow someone to cross isn’t going to make you extremely late for your next appointment.
Lesson #6
Holding the door open for someone is a wonderful gesture and goes a long way. And yes ladies you can hold the door open for a man especially if he’s carrying a bunch of bags! Let’s also remember our “thank you” when someone does this for us.
Lesson #7
Don’t forget to tell your Sales Associate to “have a nice day” or ask them “how are you today?” Chances are they’ve been on their feet for hours and most likely annoyed by annoying customers and it pays to have a nice customer come along who shows some sort of sincerity.
Have any tips to add leave me a comment and I’ll add them 🙂 Happy Shopping
Holiday Gift Guide
In this year’s Holiday Gift Guide from my Etsy store, I’ve combined some of the top favorites as well as a few new items. They make wonderful stocking stuffers or even wonderful “just a little something” gift. Also, remember there’s FREE Shipping, FREE Gift Wrapping along with a FREE Personal Note 🙂
1. LOVE Necklace– This is a favorite of many! Most of my customers choose to personalize it by adding there name which is done at no additional charge. Price $20
2. Gold Green Quartz Studs – Great everyday stud earrings. Classic enough to wear with other jewelry, but also works perfect by itself. Price $17
3. Navy Blue Gold Coin Ring– The unique thing about this painted ring is it is one of many coins collected on a foreign adventure in either Mexico, Bahamas, London, Paris or Hong Kong. Price $25
4. Silver and Gold Engraved Pendant Necklace – A new addition to our personalized jewelry collection, can’t go wrong with a customized gift this holiday. Price $40
5. Zodiac Constellation Earrings – One of our newest earring collection called Zodiac, the one pictured is Aquarius who are know for being Humanitarians, Honest and Eccentric. See listing for all Zodiac signs. Price $30
6. Wintergreen Distress Metal Dangle Earrings – Part of our Holiday Flavors Collection, also available in Dark Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice and Blueberry Brulee, hungry yet? Price $30
7. Geometric Floating Copper and Silver Cuff Links for Men – This is a very popular piece, especially during the holiday. Copper wire is geometrically shaped in a circular swirl giving a floating effect on the silver cuff link. Price $17
It’s BLACK Friday @ The Pink Locket
Happy Shopping everyone. Use this code at my Etsy Store and save 25% off plus enjoy FREE Shipping! Check out our new MOD Metallics & Tribal Collection!
MOD Metallic Holiday Trunk Show: This Weekend Only
If your in the Atlanta Metro area this is an event you will not want to miss. Your invited to our Holiday Trunk Show this Sunday, November 18th at 3pm at the new up and coming Petal’s Rose Boutique. Our newest Holiday Collection MOD Metallics will debut at the trunk show. Using a mix of metals ranging from copper to brass, this new collection is a fashion must have for jewelry and accessory lovers. In addition, we will be selling all of our best kept jewels at an even lower price. Come and get that holiday shopping out of the way. See our event page for more details! We’ll also be doing a secret jewelry giveaway to one of our lucky shoppers.
PINK Friday NOT Black Friday
Black Friday Etsy 25% off use coupon code PINKBLACK25
Small Business Saturday 20% off Nov 26th use coupon code CHICPINK
Cyber Monday Etsy 20% off use coupon code CYBERPINK plus tweet this “Use the code CYBERPINK at http://www.thepinklocket.etsy.com to get 20% off”, don’t forget to mention @thepinklocket when you tweet.
I’ve been on quite a hiatus for the past two months, but it’s with good reason. Since little man decided to make his grand appearance 3 weeks earlier than planned, I’ve been living and breathing motherhood with a newborn. I can finally understand when I hear other mother’s say that this is the greatest challenge, but most rewarding thing they’ve ever done. Check out some pics of my little pumpkin.
We have lots in store on our “Pink Agenda” this month. Time to get that Holiday shopping out of the way. Stay in the loop with our Holiday sales, starting with Black Friday. Just follow me on twitter, as I will be tweeting coupon codes for our Etsy shop and sale start times!
Get this HAUTE Clutch on Black Friday
Black Friday at The PINK Locket has started on my Etsy Store.
Modern Minimalist 