#I’m hoping to next work on making an online store/etsy for selling

[grahatialiker]

hi everyone I made my first ever charm :) I have to change some things around for my next designs BUT I’m still very excited to show her off!!

[padalickingood]

-NEED HELP MOVING OUT-

Hi everyone! This one’s gonna be a long one but I hope I can implore you all to take a quick minute of your time to read this and hopefully share it with others TvT. I’ve really been taking my time procrastinating from writing this because I never liked talking much about my own personal situation and dumping that on people, but I’ve unfortunately reached a point where I'm a bit desperate for any kind of help If I am going to try and make this happen.  

Recently I’ve started a serious goal of saving up enough money in order to move out by early next summer. I have attempted to make plans to move from my family home many times in the past couple of years and unfortunately have never managed to get anywhere near to achieving that goal due to my financial situation. Things have gotten increasingly stressful and emotionally exhausting in my current situation and I’ve officially hit that point where I’m willing to ask for assistance online.  

As a freelance artist, even with my Etsy, Patreon, ko-fi, and commission work combined I barely manage to make enough for basic living essentials which doesn’t include any sort of insurance or homeowner/apt owner expenses. Currently I do my very best to pay for as much as I can on my own and even so I still require support from my parents by them allowing me to live with them and them providing internet etc. What I pay for out of pocket is limited to things I need personally such as food, clothes, basic living supplies, art/store supplies etc. I’ve also recently limited myself from buying anything that is not completely necessary for essential living like eating out, movies, buying gifts over a certain price limit for friends, as well as canceling any travel plans from here on out. 

At this point I feel like It’s important for me to explain why I am a freelance artist as opposed to having any other type of job that could potentially be easier and pay better. This may be a bit of a tl;dr but I feel like it should at least be mentioned because the impact it’s had. Several years ago (I wanna say 2013 ish?) I dropped out of my community college because of essentially having a breakdown. The entire experience had left such a negative impact on me that my mood had very noticeably 180’d from high school to 2nd year of college. It was probably the closest I've come to being any level of depressed, which is not a word I throw around lightly as it’s something I don’t think I've felt anywhere near the level of those who struggle with it. Overall those years were so incredibly demoralizing and difficult for me that I made the tough decision of leaving school, something I had never even considered doing in my past (I never even skipped class in high school up until last day of senior year lol). Deciding to leave when I did though was probably the right decision because to this day, I still feel the lasting negative effects those years had on me. After I left school, I picked up a retail job and worked there for about a year and half. It wasn’t something I was really eager to do but was necessary as I wasn’t going to school anymore. With no degree though a minimum wage job was my only real option. Unfortunately, my experiences working weren’t all that positive either (as something I'm sure many of you also experience). I struggled to maintain motivation and continued to feel incredibly negative. It got so bad that it effected my relationships with family and friends as it kept me in a very antisocial mood. I ended up quitting that job shortly after and decided to try and go full freelance. Ever Since then I've worked on building up my store, commissions and anything else I could to try and make money from my art. To this day I still struggle with building up my online presence to the point where I can make a living off of it, but one thing that drastically changed for the better was my mood. My mental health has always been an absolute priority for me and I make a conscious effort to never force myself into anything that I know will have a negative impact on my health, which is why I dropped out of college and quit that job. I knew that if I stayed there it would have absolutely gotten so bad that It would have left much deeper scars than it has. And Although working in Freelance is no easy task and comes with its own degrees of stress, I find it far more rewarding and worth managing that stress. 

But as a result of those years I’ve been afraid of going back to either school or a minimum wage job. I know if I return to a job like that it will pull me back into a mental space that I'm just not willing to sacrifice myself to, and as far as College goes, I simply can’t afford it. However, with deciding to become a freelance artist I've dedicated my time to trying to build myself back up with my art and create a presence online where I can simultaneously do what I know makes me happy while also earning a living off of it. My progress has been slow and over the years I've felt like I've hit a standstill which brings me to my overall goal of wanting to move out. As I mentioned before I had been making attempts to move since around the time I worked in retail. Things haven’t panned out since then as I am still struggling to try and build up my store/Patreon/overall customer basis online. Unfortunately, also within these past few years tensions have been at a pretty constant high in my household because of it. There’s an added weight of still being so reliant on my parents after all these years and it being used against me, that the stress I’ve accumulated from it has kept me from being as productive as I would like. Recently with some current events I’ve just about hit a breaking point and am willing to do anything I can in order to save up so I can officially move out. I’m incredibly tired emotionally from still being here and I’ve started to take serious steps to making this move happen. Luckily I’ve been able to find a friend I can move out with so I won’t be paying rent on my own and I’ve calculated how much I could potentially make a month if I stick to a packed workload schedule. It’s not ideal but I’ve committed to this freelance work and I’m willing to work as hard as I can to reach my goal, and if all goes well then by this time next year i’ll be able to move out.

In writing this I hope that I can ask for support in helping me raise enough so I can try and move out of an unhealthy situation into hopefully something better.  

And to be clear I'm not doing a kickstarter or gofund me. That’s just simply not something this warrants. I know have options and I know that all I need to do is to work much much harder than someone with a 9to5 in order to earn what I need. The only reason I decided to write this out is to share WHY your support is so incredibly important to me and why sharing my work to anyone you can is very essential to my livelihood. Right now, I am very far away from earning nearly enough on a monthly basis in order to move out within a year, but I'm hoping that can change for the better. I simply ask for those who support my work to continue to do so and for those who haven’t and are absolutely financially able to consider supporting my work and share it with anyone you know. Whether it’s commissions, store merch, Patreon rewards, ko-fi etc. Every tiny bit helps me so much!  

---------------------------- 

Here are the ways you can support me!

✪ Patreon: With the cheapest tier being 2$ a month you guys can get early access to all of my artwork a month in advance as well as other bonus content at the 2$ and above tier that is exclusive to patrons only. I have details about my rewards and goals on my Patreon that you don’t have to pay to view! Simply visit my homepage and browse through the rewards and bio to see if it interests you! 

✪ Ko-fi: I recently added a moving goal fund there which will show its progress with each kofi donation! The goal is ambitions and I don’t really expect to reach it but I wanted to just aim high and try and earn as much as I can. Also, I do sketch commissions there occasionally and may do other types of small commissions. So, if you’d like to support me while also getting something for yourself keep an eye out for my announcements on my twitter! 

✪ Commissions/adoptables: I’m going to officially be opening up my commissions soon but before that I wanted to try my hand at selling some adoptables! I’ll have more information about them after I finish up my current batch of commissions but I'm going to try and stick to those for now with some small YCH commissions sprinkled in between. After those though I’ll be opening up regular commissions again ^^ 

✪ Etsy:  I’m actually not sure If I'm going to keep my store up for much longer since I get charged a fee on each listing but before it closes you could help support me by buying merch from my store! 

-------------------------- 

And lastly, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read through this and for those who follow me/support me in any way that you can. Even your reblogs/retweets on my work mean so much to me and help me so much I could never fully express how much I’m thankful to have such an amazing and lovely following of people <3 Thank you for your time

[buzzdixonwriter]

Duty Now For The Future (part three)

(When last we left our intrepid scrivener, he was spitballing ideas on what he thought the post coronavirus pandemic world would look like…)

Creative Breakthroughs

A lot of people are going to be doing things that interest them during the lockdown, and we’ll see the benefits of that very soon.

Ideas will collide and new ideas will emerge from that.

The high ticket items that our capitalist system kept saying was what we wanted will be supplanted by smaller scale, more personal ideas.

In my phone right now is a free app that enables me to make movies of any length.

There’s a music making app as well.

People are going to create and they’re going to create with the resources they have on hand.

The big movie theaters are taking a hit.  There will not be enough audiences to sustain them.  They’ll be rapidly repurposed.

Once a vaccine is developed for the coronavirus, live venues will flourish.

Pop up theaters and clubs along the times cited above for stores and restaurants will also flourish.

Some of those big empty shopping centers will see crowds return since every week will have a new batch of stores and food stalls and live entertainment to offer.

There are going to be some remarkable media projects created by this, and that will be the artistic wave of the future, and out of necessity it’s not going to be the bloated big budget blockbuster.

If you can tell an interesting story shot in your house using family members as cast, you’ll be able to craft other small scale dramas.

(The only movie theaters likely to flourish will be drive-ins, and for pretty much the reasons they flourished in the past:  They’re cheaper than motels.)

Also, if you thought my incel prediction was scary, try this on for size:  iPhones + senior citizens X trapped at home X several weeks or months confinement = epic granny porn.  (Right now a bunch of you are rolling your eyes and saying “there goes Buzz, making up weird stuff again” and to that I say “you wish!”)

. . .

Print Takes A Hit

Disposable printing (i.e., cheap magazines, books, comics, and newspapers) may not be wiped out, but it’s gonna get rocked back on its heels.

There will always be a small and identifiable market for quality printed works (and here I’m talking about the physical package, not the contents), but the days of buying a magazine knowing full well you’ll throw it away in a few days or weeks will end.

Disposable printing will remain for specific local events (conventions programs, conference brochures, etc.) but mass market printing will go.  (And expect more and more conventions and conferences to make their programs and brochures available online only.)

That’s going to be quite a block to several overlapping industries and creative disciplines.  There are new venues springing up digitally and online, but the transition over will not be an easy one for older consumers.

. . .

Collecting & Crafting

Bad news for all you folks holding onto “collectables” that were cranked out by the shitte-tonne.  The only people who value them are folks like you, who bought ‘em hoping to sell ‘em to some other sucker.  Real 21st century collectibles will be precious because of their scarcity and their craftsmanship, in particular the fame and reputation of the crafter making it.

. . .

DIY Culture

This is going to overlap with a resurgence in home crafting, making items by hand that become desirable because they were made by hand.  Smart tailors and jewelers and other crafters will operate on margins too thin for large scale production but will do quite nicely since they’ll eliminate mid-level distribution by selling direction online.  Already Etsy and similar sites are making this possible.

Couple it with 3D printers becoming cheaper and more reliable, and a lot of small household items are going to actually be made in the house they’re intended for.

We should also see people creating automated looms, knitting machines, woodworking lathes, etc., that eliminate or at least drastically reduce the skill set required to turn out serviceable goods.  

Not everyone will own one (much less all) of these devices, but in neighborhoods and among family and friends we should find people we know and trust who can make things for us.

. . .

Pop Up Stores And Restaurants

The worst business to be in is the restaurant business.  

An estimated 20% of all new businesses fail in their first year, and 50% fail by their fifth year, but for restaurants it’s a staggering 60% in year one, 80% by year five.

Who would want to get in any new business?

No, what we’ll want to do is get our new business out.

What kills most new businesses is a tug of war between financing (never enough) and real estate / hardware (always unexpected costs there).

A restaurateur needs to find an affordable location, make sure it is outfitted with a suitable kitchen, assemble a staff, then open at set times in a fixed location and hope enough people come to make the venture profitable.

Why?

Look at food trucks.  They go everywhere and they do good business.  Of course, there’s no fine dining establishment, you just grab your grub and go, so it’s not the wort of thing that appeals to people who wish to socialize or do a business lunch.

But a pop-up restaurant could offer that.  Find an empty venue, either take over its kitchen if it has one or truck in your own if needed, open only during the hours you wish to be open, then cart everything off when finished.

There are night clubs and raves that do this sort of thing already on a much lower scale.  And it doesn’t have to be confined to entertainment style businesses.

A small shop could easily open up for a few weeks in a specific location, sell products, then close and move on / wait till the next opportunity.  (This already happens in the form of Halloween and Christmas shops that pop up for a few weeks then disappear around those holidays.)

Returns could be handled in a centralized location; the business need not generate what it sells but could be the storefront for a manufacturer.

It will mean a change in the way we shop and the way we market what we shop, but with most durable goods purchased online, and with smaller items either made at home or by a local crafter one knows, this might be a viable market for items and services that might otherwise fall through the cracks.

. . .

The Knowns, The Known Unknowns, And The Unknown Unknowns

The above are what I think is going to result from this current coronavirus outbreak.

Frankly, there are still so many wild cards in play that there’s no guarantee any of the above will come about. 

Consider: The tragic polio outbreaks of the 1920s / 30s / 50s were rightly or wrongly associated with public swimming pools.

A great many families, once they rose high enough into the middle class, bought a backyard pool -- either an inground or a temporary seasonal above ground model -- to keep their family safe.

It became a status symbol to show how well you looked after your kids.

Even when polio was finally defeated, it remained a status symbol.

There’s no reason for everybody to have a backyard pool, and in places like Southern California they’re actually counterproductive, contributing to climate change (you’re better off filling ‘em in and planting trees instead).

Nobody anticipated that in the 1950s when building pools became more and more common for middle class families around America.

You’ll notice I’ve avoid discussing contemporary politics.

That’s because this crisis is ultimately one of a political nature, both in the US and around the world, and it’s going to be solved (hopefully) through politics.

Or violence.

Which is why I’m rooting for politics.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be change in a big, big way.

It may not be good change.

We may not like it.

We may have to fight to change to something else.

But we’re never going back to where we once were.

. . .

Bottom Line: We’re going to get through this, but we’re not going to be the same on the other side.

 © Buzz Dixon

[dionysus-is-my-dude]

Using the habit app is actually helping!

I’ve been writing in my prayer book everyday, trying to drink more water and tea, I showered on time, I’m back to doing yoga everyday, I spoiled myself and went shopping yesterday, and went to the library today to get another sewing book. I bought this new hair moisturizer that’s specially for curls, coils, and kinky hair, and I’ve only used it two days now but I love it. I have this horrible habit of using TOO MUCH hair stuff ‘cause I used to have such long hair. But you don’t really need that much with this stuff. I got it at Sally’s, along with some foot care stuff and a hair cap to wear at night so my hair isn’t too bad in the morning.

Today marks the last full week of work at my job. I won’t be back there until next Thursday. On Monday, I’ll be opening up and managing my produce stand -my dad said that that stand is mine to handle and do with what I want. I’m doing well on homework right now. I’m actually ahead and have plans to do more tomorrow on my day off, as well as Sunday. Once I get back to the stand, I’ll only have a few hours after I close it to get stuff done. The website we use to do homework is only available on desktop, so I can’t do anything on my phone. I expect the stand to be very busy, especially the later we get into the season once we have cantaloupes and watermelons, so I’ll be spending any free time I have between customers either reading, crocheting, or embroidering. Mostly crocheting, because I just recently bought an amigurumi book and want to sell those at the stand. My Etsy shop is, uh, stagnant. Which I expected, honestly. The stuff I uploaded is NOT the best. But I’m still technically a beginner, so it’s all beginner stuff. What’re ya gonna do, y’know?

Lately, I’ve been dressing up more, wearing lipstick everyday. I don’t know. Something about going out, even for work, looking nice instead of looking like an exhausted college student, is making me feel really good. My coworkers have been complimenting me on my lipstick and nail polish, which feels really nice. I bought some new shirts and a pretty, blue bra yesterday, and I’d like to really replace my wardrobe of graphic tees with pretty blouses, dresses, nice jeans and slacks, and skirts. I wanna get new, pretty shoes instead of wearing basic, black tennis shoes, boots, or flip-flops all the time. I wanna look pretty, because I’m pretty, and I wanna FEEL pretty. I can’t do sexy or modern. I honestly think modern fashion is dull. My aesthetic is more 1950s, with the housewife dresses, classy movie star outfits, and things like that. I’ve been trying to learn more about sewing and saved some tutorials on a circle skirt and petticoat on YouTube to try some basic projects. There’s a YouTuber who makes 1950s and so on patterns and I admire her stuff so much. Like, I wanna BE that housewife. My girlfriend going out to work in an office or factory or something, me at home sewing and crafting, selling my stuff online. Obviously, I’d like us both to cook and clean, because I hate both those things. But you know what I mean.

I went to the library today and tried to find some Plato philosophy books, but there was literally only one and it looked very difficult to read. I’d like to get into philosophy, especially Plato’s. He was a cool dude. I’ve been writing in my Book of Shadows not so much, but starting out is the hardest part. I’m currently giving definitions for terms I’ll be using, plus naming all the gods and goddesses I work with or are important to my craft. I really wanna get into the Wheel of the Year, divination, spirits, and other things like that. The nice thing is that the book I bought is easily found at my local craft store so I can buy more if I fill this one up. There aren’t any stickers or anything that I can put in there, unless I find some on Etsy or something. But that’ll have to wait until I have more money and finish paying off my bills.

Anyway, looooong update over! I hope you all have a blessed weekend, work hard, play hard, relax hard. I pray that Dionysus helps you enjoy your weekend.

[eldritchsurveys]

436.

What is the most annoying thing about your life right now? and how can you change it? >> I can’t really think of anything except, like, being sensory-defensive, which I can’t change.

What was the flavor of the last smoothie you had? >> ---

Do you think you get enough protein? >> I probably do.

What is your favorite time of day to run? >> I don’t run.

How many 5ks have you ran? >> Exactly zero.

What is a current concern of yours right now? >> I don’t have any concerns.

What color shirt are you wearing? >> Black. I’m actually wearing a shirt for once, because it’s chilly tonight.

When was the last time you talked to your mom? >> ---

What's one unpopular opinion you have? >> I don’t have any sense of moral outrage about the existence of paedophiles and I strongly believe that the stigma should be lessened so that they can go to therapy without fearing the dire consequences of revealing their pathology.

What's a dream you've had since childhood that hasn't left you? >> ---

Do you parents crush your dreams? >> ---

What's a show you remember the very first episode of? >> Well, I mean, a lot of shows. I remember the very first episode of American Horror Story because I literally rewatched it yesterday.

Did you sleep in today? >> I don’t sleep in, I just sleep until I’m done sleeping.

Do you hate sleeping in? >> I hate sleeping too much, which usually happens when my sleep is interrupted and my internal clock is all thrown off.

How late do you consider too late to sleep in? >> I don’t like to still be sleeping past like 9a.

What is something of yours that is falling apart? >> I can’t think of anything.

Does your phone have a good camera on it? >> It’s serviceable.

How long have you had a smartphone? >> I’ve had this one for a year. I’ve been using smartphones in general for maybe 5.

How old were you when you got your first smartphone? >> Late 20s.

Do you have a crush on someone right now? >> No.

When was the last time you saw your crush? >> ---

If applicable, what is stopping you from pursuing your crush? >> ---

Did you ever regret letting someone go? >> No.

Who is someone you wish were still in your life? >> ---

When was your due date, and when were you born? >> I don’t know when my due date was. I was born on the 28th of May.

Do you want to have kids? >> Not particularly.

Do you keep lists of names that you like? >> No.

How long does it normally take for you to fill a journal? >> ... It’s weird how many of these questions were on the other survey I just took.

What are you behind on? >> Nothing.

Do you have a good doctor? >> I don’t have a doctor at all.

Do you like to sit on the floor? >> Sometimes, as long as I have back support.

What color is the toolbar at the top of your screen? >> Black.

What website do you usually check first when you get online? >> The first thing I check when I open my browser is the browser extension for my email accounts.

Have you ever butt-dialed someone? >> No.

Have you ever sent a text message to the wrong person by accident? >> No.

What is your favorite type of pizza? >> Veggie or pepperoni.

What is your favorite pizza place? >> Jet’s.

Do you enjoy eating at 50's diners? >> I mean, sure.

What are your favorite girls' names? >> ---

What are your favorite boys' names? >> ---

What do you want to be for Halloween this year? >> I haven’t thought about it.

What do you do to make money? >> I’m on a federal fixed income.

Name someone you know who has everything handed to them. >> I don’t know anyone like that.

Do you know anyone who is spoiled or stuck-up? >> No.

Do you believe life is fair? >> No, and I don’t need it to be.

Have you ever made a fan account on Instagram? >> No.

Have you ever bought a youtuber's merch? >> No.

Name three people you want to meet in Heaven. >> ---

Do you believe in Heaven and Hell? >> I do not.

If so, do you believe you are going to Heaven? >> ---

What was the best time of your life? >> ---

Do you feel loved or appreciated for who you are? >> I don’t think I’ll ever feel that way about anyone outworld, but I always feel that way about inworlders.

What could be the theme song of your life? >> ---

Don't you hate being all alone? (if applicable) >> Not at all.

Do you believe rich people are worth more than those who are poor? >> No.

When was the last time you read the Bible? >> It’s been a few years. I always forget I even own a copy of it.

Do you have any embarrassing health issues? >> No.

What are you longing for? >> Nothing.

Who do you wish you could talk to? >> ---

What was the name of the college you went to? >> I didn’t.

Were your college years the best years of your life? >> ---

Who was your first roommate? >> I don’t remember.

Who lived across the hall from you your first year of college? >> ---

What was your favorite food they served in the Dining Commons? >> ---

Do you consider the lunch ladies your friends? >> ---

Have you ever had a janitorial job? >> No. I’d have a meltdown a minute if I tried to work a job like that.

Have you ever worked in food service? >> Briefly.

What was your first job? >> In food service.

What year did you graduate high school? >> 2004.

What's something of yours that is missing right now? >> Nothing of mine is missing right now.

Do you lose or misplace things a lot? >> No.

Have you ever had a nasty rumor spread about you? >> Yeah.

Has anyone ever tried to ruin your reputation? >> I don’t think I’ve ever had a reputation.

What is your favorite flavor of frosting? >> ---

What is your favorite type of donut? >> Krispy Kreme glazed.

What is the name of your favorite bakery? >> ---

What is your current favorite Starbucks drink? >> ---

Have you ever been to the very first Starbucks in Seattle? >> No.

When was the last time you wrote someone a letter? >> ---

Do you write mostly in cursive or in print? >> Mostly print, because I usually only write longhand when I’m filling out a form or something like that.

Have you ever called a teacher "mom" by mistake? >> No.

Do you like the color of your eyes? >> Sure.

What color are your eyes? >> Dark brown.

What was the name of the street you grew up on (if you don't live there now)? >> Broadway. (Not that one, lol.)

What was the name of the first dorm you lived in? >> ---

What was the name of your first imaginary friend? >> The first inworlder that I can remember is a girl named Clodagh. I must have been about 6 or 7.

Does it still feel like summer where you live? >> Eh, some days. The temperature is kind of up and down.

What is today's date? >> 27 September.

Who's birthday is today? >> Beats me.

What do you usually get for your birthday? >> A daytrip to Chicago. Sometimes a whole weekend.

Who's birthday is coming up next? >> Sparrow’s.

What is the last thing that came in the mail for you from Amazon? >> A pair of shorts.

Do you have a Paypal account? >> Yeah.

Have you ever had a brand or company reach out to you on Instagram? >> No.

What is the last thing you purchased from Etsy? >> A perfume oil.

Do you sell on Etsy? >> No.

What is a childhood dream that hasn't stuck with you? >> ---

What is something you want to change about your life? >> I’m not looking to make any changes right now.

What is one thing you are looking forward to coming up? >> *shrug*

Have you decorated for fall yet? >> I don’t decorate for seasons.

Do you type fast? >> I do.

What color was your bedroom growing up? >> I don’t remember.

Who was your first favorite cartoon character? >> Johnny Bravo, maybe. I didn’t get to watch many cartoons, and in fact, that’s the only one I can remember watching.

Who is your favorite Disney princess? >> Moana.

Do you enjoy typing? >> Sure.

What bank do you use? >> Flagstar.

What grocery store do you shop at the most? >> Meijer.

What is your favorite fast food place? >> I don’t have one.

Do you get sauce on your pizza? >> Yeah.

Do you like hamburgers? >> Sure.

Do you like Coca Cola? >> No.

Do you like McDonald's french fries? >> Sometimes. Sometimes they’re not salty enough.

What color is your hair? >> Dark brown.

Did you get your hair color from your mom, your dad, or a grandparent? >> All of them, I guess.

What is your name (first and middle)? >> Mordred Shadow.

What are some other names your parents' considered when naming you? >> My parents did not name me.

What would you have been named if you had been born the opposite gender? >> ---

Do you prefer tea hot or cold? >> Hot.

What is the best fall drink? >> Apple cider or mulled wine.

Who was the last person you know who had a baby? And what was the baby's name? >> Sparrow’s sister, Liz. The baby’s name is Elliot.

If you had a boy and a girl, what would they be named? >> ---

Do you clean your room often? >> No, I don’t have to clean it that often.

Who taught you how to drive? >> No one. (I don’t drive.)

What color is your dresser? >> White.

Do you have a hope chest? >> No, but I had one as a child. 

Do you have a favorite aunt, and if so, who is it? >> ---

Who is your favorite cousin? >> ---

Do you look like your mom? >> ---

What does your middle name rhyme with? >> I don’t know, what does “shadow” rhyme with?

What does your first name mean? >> I don’t feel like copy-pasting that again.

Have you bought next year's calendar yet? >> I don’t buy calendars, although that Bananya... however that shit is spelled... one that I saw recently was tempting, lol.

What year did/will you turn 30? >> I turned 30 in 2017.

Have you found your first gray/white hair yet? >> Yeah, a few years ago.

Is your hair long or short? and which way do you like it best? >> Short. It hasn’t been long since childhood, so.

What's a food that you like, but it makes you feel sick? >> ---

Do you have a problem with needles? >> No.

Have you ever had to use an epi pen? If so, do you get a bruise when you use it? >> No.

Have you ever ridden in an ambulence? >> Yeah, both in the front and the back.

If applicable, what color are your glasses? >> ---

Do you like the name Addison? >> It’s fine.

Is there anything that you regret getting rid of? >> No.

What have you been saving up to by for a while? >> Nothing.

Does anything bother you about your past? >> I mean, sure, if I bother thinking about it.

Do you get bullied on facebook a lot? >> ---

Why do you think people bully others? >> That’s not something I have any insight about.

Have you ever stood up to a bully? >> No.

Do you post on youtube regularly, if you have a channel? >> ---

Which famous person do you think you could be friends with? >> I don’t know enough about any famous person to say.

If you could sit down and talk to anyone for an hour, who would it be? >> ---

Do you own striped tights? >> No.

Have you ever made your own Halloween costume out of clothes from ur closet? >> I mean, clothes from my closet is basically what I wear every Halloween, because I’ve never worn a costume.

Do you own any antique furniture? >> No.

What year were you born? >> 1987.

What is your favorite alcoholic beverage? >> That’s hard to say, I like a lot of them.

Do you set goals for yourself? >> No.

Which country has the coolest flag? >> I don’t know.

Do you like your country's flag? >> No, it’s not that aesthetically pleasing to me.

Which country do you live in? >> USA.

What is your heritage? >> Hm.

When was the last time you received a hug? >> I don’t remember.

Do you believe hugs are necessary for survival? >> If they are, I guess I should be dead.

Do you have anyone who hugs you regularly? >> No, because I prefer not to be hugged frequently (if at all).

Who gives the best hugs? >> I don’t know.

Would you rather have the bottom bunk or top bunk? >> Top.

Window seat or aisle seat? >> Window, always.

Have you ever thrown up on an airplane? >> No.

Have you ever seen anyone else throw up on an airplane? >> No. I’m tempted to believe that’s just a thing that happens in movies, but of course my experience isn’t like... comprehensive or anything.

Have you ever gotten sick in the car? >> No.

What color pen do you write with the most? >> Black.

Do you still wear clothes from the children's section? >> I wear children’s underwear.

What were your favorite stores when you were in high school? >> Hot Topic was one.

Do you watch Bethany Mota on youtube? >> No.

What color is your watch? >> ---

What color was the last pair of flip-flops you wore? >> Black.

What is your favorite season? >> Spring or autumn.

Were you born in your favorite season? >> Spring, yeah.

Have you eaten oatmeal lately? >> No, but now that summer is almost over I will probably start eating it again. (I don’t like eating heavy breakfast foods in warm weather.)

If you have bangs, do you cut them yourself? >> ---

What color was the last cup you drank out of? >> Yellow and white.

Do you enjoy graphic designing? >> I don’t know anymore, I haven’t done it in years.

Do you enjoy editing photos? >> Meh.

What is your favorite app on your phone? >> If we’re going by how often they’re used, Gems of War or CloudLibrary.

Do you answer your phone every time it rings? >> I never answer my phone.

Have you ever called the wrong number? >> Not that I can recall.

Do you usually pick Truth or Dare? >> I don’t play Truth or Dare.

Was your first kiss magical? >> ---

Do you like kissing? >> Not unless it’s inworld.

Who do you want to be best friends with? >> ---

Do you like to decoupage things? >> No.

Do you have a printer? >> Not anymore.

How many tabs are open on your browser right now? >> Two.

Which Internet browser do you use? >> Chrome.

Did you have a Myspace page back in the day? >> I sure did.

Do you miss Myspace bulletins? >> No.

Did you ever learn HTML? >> I used to be pretty proficient at it back when I was on MySpace and Vampirefreaks constantly. I do miss that about the first era of social media -- it encouraged learning how webpages worked so you could get stupid creative with yours. (And, of course, people that used to make Geocities and Angelfire sites had a leg up on all of us late bloomers, lmao.)

Have you ever wanted to start a business? >> Not seriously.

[solei28]

Painting in the Park- Bucky/Reader One-Shot

You absolutely adore the Springtime in NYC. Trees are full green again, teeming with wildlife. Flowers of all kinds and colors littered the strangest of places, like between cracks in walls and n the sidewalk. People have an extra pep in their step and add to the array of colors from Mother Nature.

It is the perfect time to grab your canvas, easel, paints, brushes, and head out to the park. You love to set up in the middle of the lush greenery and just let your mind and hand wonder. More than a few of your successful paintings were created with this method.

Today was pleasantly warm with a soft breeze passing through every so often. Perfect. You gathered your art supplies and headed out the door. You had decided sometime last week that you would go to Sakura Park to create your first painting for Spring.

The park wasn’t far from your little apartment on 129th street, so you walked there. It was too beautiful of a day to deal with the stuffy MTA busses. Besides, you knew the scenery would help inspire your creative whimsy.

You made a quick stop at a corner store to grab some snacks and a drink before you got to Sakura Park. You were delighted to see that the park was mostly empty. There shouldn’t be too many distractions while you worked. You set up by a bench so you could sit when you needed a break. Once you were all set up, you looked around at the lush beauty surrounding you.

The trees are a must for this painting. Maybe, I’ll add some fantastical elements as well. You picked up a brush and let your hand move across the canvas. You were so consumed, that you didn’t even notice the stranger watching you in complete awe.

⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝

After yet another sleepless night, Bucky had made his way to the kitchen, hoping to find something to ease his stomach. He found Steve in the kitchen making sandwiches.

“I woke you up again,” Bucky said gruffly. “Sorry.”

Steve looked at him with a soft smile. “You don’t have to apologize. This is exactly why I’m here, Buck.”

Bucky felt terrible that he would wake Steve up with his nightmares. Sometimes, Steve would have to come in and hold him down because his thrashing around would destroy his bed. Those nights were the worst. He would always attack Steve thinking he was from Hydra. If it wasn’t for the super soldier serum, he was sure he would’ve killed Steve by now.

Steve could see the pain in his friend's eyes. “Come on. Eat, it will help you feel better.”

Bucky wasn’t exactly hungry, but he wouldn’t refuse Steve’s offer. The man was up at 3 in the morning because of him. It was the least he could do. He nodded and sat down at the kitchen table after taking the plate Steve held out for him.

After a few moments of silence, Steve spoke. “We should head out in the morning. Some fresh air will do us both some good.”

Bucky thought about it as he chewed. He had been cooped up in their apartment for a few weeks now. He only went out when it was absolutely necessary to replenish food and toiletries. He didn’t feel comfortable out in the public.

“I don't know, Steve,” he began just to be cut off.

Steve knew he was going to try and find an excuse to stay home. “Bucky, you need to get out and get some sun. Staying locked away day in and day out is not helping you. In fact, I think it’s doing more damage than good. Besides, you won’t be alone. I’ll be with you.”

Bucky pouted knowing the blond was right and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Reluctantly, he nodded. “Fine.”

Steve beamed at him. “That’s the spirit, Buck. We’re going to Sakura Park.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow at him. “Where’s that and why do I feel like you’ve been planning this for a while now?”

“It’s on Riverside and I have been planning to get you outside. I was looking for a park we could go to and Sakura stood out. With Spring in full effect, I’m sure the cherry blossoms are a must see,” Steve said simply and took the last bite of his sandwich.

“You’re taking your sketchbook, right?” Bucky asked with a grin. He knew Steve really did want to get him out of the apartment, but he also knew that the artist needed a change of scenery.

“You know me so well.” Steve got up and took his plate over to the sink. “Try and get some rest, Buck. We are in for a long day.”

Bucky shook his head and groaned. What did this man have in store for him?

⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝

When Bucky and Steve got to Sakura Park, they were surprised to see how empty it was on such a beautiful day. Bucky was glad it was empty. The fewer people he had to be around the better. Steve was in awe at the beautiful trees that were surrounding them.

They walked around, trying to find the perfect spot that inspired Steve. They finally did at a bench under a tree that faced Riverside Church. Steve didn’t waste any time breaking out his sketchbook.

Bucky sat back on the bench and scanned the area. He took in the trees, full of cherry blossoms, the flowers sprouting from the lush green grass around them. He watched squirrels dart out from behind trees and garbage cans looking for their next meal. There was a couple a few feet from them, walking their beagle.

“So, whatcha think, Buck?” Steve asked.

Bucky shrugged. “It’s quite.”

Steve shook his head and sighed. “Yeah, it is. The cherry blossoms are beautiful.”

Bucky looked around again and was stunned by the beauty that had just walked into the park. She had a large black tote bag on her shoulder, an easel under the same arm and a plastic bag in her other hand. “Beautiful,” he murmured.

Steve looked at Bucky curiously. Upon following his friend's gaze, he noticed what-no, who had grabbed his attention suddenly. He smiled fondly at Bucky but said nothing. He was happy to see him take an interest in another human that wasn’t him.

Bucky watched as she set up her easel and secured the canvas onto it. She pulled out some tubes of paint, brushes and a wooden palette from her tote bag. He admired the care she took setting her palette and the way she looked around at the trees. It reminded him of Steve and a smile tugged at his lips.

⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝⇝

You took a step back to get a better look at what you had on the canvas. You studied it intently, tilting your head from side to side. There was something missing, but you couldn’t figure out what. You frowned with a groan and took another step back.

“You’re really talented,” a soft voice said from behind you.

You yelped in surprise and spun around to see who was there. You could’ve sworn you were there alone. Now, there were 2 men sitting on the other end of the bench. And, not just any 2 men. Your eyes went wide as you stared at Captian America and the Winter Soldier.

“Holy, shit! You’re Captain Rogers and Sergent Barnes!” you squeaked.

Steve laughed at how flushed you were. Bucky felt the heat rise up his neck and face. You knew who they were. Who he was.  

“Yes, we are,” Steve said an got up. He went over to you with his hand out. “And, you are?” he asked when you shook his hand.

Your mouth opened and closed like a fish, trying to figure out how words worked. Finally, you managed to tell them your name.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N.” Steve looked at the painting again.

Bucky came up behind and smiled shyly at you. You stuck your hand out and after a moment of hesitation, he shook it. Your hands were so soft and slender in his. Your eyes were still wide and he felt like he could lose himself in them forever. He felt the blush creeping back and let go of your hand with a grunt and turned his attention to your painting.

“Seriously, speaking. This is amazing. How long have you been painting, Y/N?” Steve asked you.

You blushed at the compliment and looked down. “Thank you. I’ve been painting since I was 4.”

Bucky was fascinated by the painting. The harmonious colors blended so beautifully together. He knew this should be in a museum so everyone could experience it. Because that’s what it was. An experience. He noticed you were staring at him and when he looked at you, you averted your gaze quickly. Maybe you wanted to know his thoughts on it.

“This should be up in a museum. It’s exquisite,” he said in a quiet voice. Why was he so flustered around you?

You looked back at him, eyes shining. “You really think so?”

He felt his pulse quicken at the look you were giving him. Your eyes are bright and you’re smiling shyly. God, she’s beautiful.

You were trying to figure out how the hell you ended up standing here with heroes who actually enjoyed your work. Then, you noticed you were starring again and looked back to the painting. Get it together, Y/N. You felt those steel blue eyes on you. Damn it, he noticed I was staring again. You couldn’t help it, though. He was so handsome and those eyes just pulled you in.

Steve, who was enjoying the tension between you 2, spoke trying to ease the air. “So, is this how you make a living?”

You looked up at the blond and nodded. “Yeah, I have an online Etsy shop that I sell my paintings on. I also do commission pieces once in a while.”

“That’s awesome.” Steve gestured to Bucky. “Buck’s right. This should be in a museum.”

You would love to have your art displayed in a museum, but didn’t feel confident enough in pursuing it. “I don’t how I would even begin trying to get into one.” You chuckled, trying to hide your self-doubt.

Bucky sensed there was more to it than what you were saying. He felt an eagerness to find out what was bothering you. Just this morning he was dreading being around people. Now, he wanted to know everything about you.

“I’m pretty sure if you put a portfolio together any curator would be interested in displaying your work,” Bucky heard himself say. “Anyone with eyeballs can see how talented you are.”

His words struck a cord and you felt your chest swell with pride. You smiled at him. “I guess I should put one together, then.”

Steve reached into his pocket and took out his phone. “Oh, I better take this. Excuse me.” He walked away, but not before smirking at Bucky.

What is this punk up to? Bucky’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and raised an eyebrow.

Steve: Ask her out to lunch

Bucky: What??

Steve: Do it

Bucky felt your eyes on him. He looked at you and swallowed. You blinked at him owlishly. He felt himself slipping deep into your e/c eyes. Just ask her, you dumbass.

“So, uh, do you have any plans for lunch? I thought, maybe, we could grab a bite to eat.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously but kept his eyes on yours.

You felt the crimson creep up your face and bit your bottom lip. “Um, yeah, sure. I’d like that.”

Bucky let out a sigh of relief. Then, he realized that this area was foreign to him and he had no idea where to go. “Is there a place around here you like?”

You thought about it for a moment. There were a few restaurants in the area. You had tried them out and didn’t have any complaints. “Well, there are a few places around that are good. Are you in the mood for anything in particular?”

“Not really. You pick a place, doll. Steve is paying for it, so don’t worry about prices,” Bucky said with a wicked smirk as Steve made his way back over to you both.

Steve let out a huff. “Oh, am I?

“Yeah, you are punk,” Bucky confirmed.

You found their friendship adorable. “Hmm, do you guys like seafood?” They both nodded at you. “Great! There’s a fish market that makes the best stuffed clams not far from here. Let me just pack up.”

“Sounds good, Doll,” Bucky said. He looked at your painting again. “Is it safe to move this?”

“Yeah, it’s already dry. Acrylic paint dries fast in warm weather like this,” You assured him. You took the canvas off of the easel and handed it to him. “Can you hold this for a moment?”

“Of course.” He took the painting and watched you as he did before. In awe, while you put everything away. He was relishing the fact he could spend some more time with you. He was looking forward to getting to know you better.

Steve was surprised at how today was turning out, but he was happy about it. A simple day out was turning into something special. His best friend seemed to be coming out of his shell, finally. He was talking to a beautiful, talented woman and they were all going to have lunch together. He knew this was the start of something great.

He wasn’t wrong, either. Neither you or Bucky knew that this marked the first day of a long life together. How a simple day painting in the park led you to find the love of your lives.

[wesleybates]

How to Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Ecommerce Business

Some of the keys to a successful e-commerce shop are more important than others. I’ll go through them in order of importance in this article, with the top items going first.

Note: This post is mainly meant for independent e-commerce shop owners who have a unique product or service and care passionately about what they do. While many of these steps can be used to improve reseller or drop-ship type e-commerce stores, I will mainly be addressing the needs of independent e-commerce shop owners and managers.

Okay, let’s get into it!

1. Your product or service, first and foremost

These first few items are all related to the product or service you’re selling. There is nothing technical to these items. They do not require a developer or vast knowledge of the internet. These are the most important things to start with and they are probably going to be the hardest to get, and to get right. These are items that you’ve probably already thought a lot about, but it’s important to start at the beginning:

Start with a great product

What are you selling? Is it a handcrafted product that you make yourself? A service you provide as an expert in your field? Is it unique in a way that you can differentiate? This may sound obvious, but it’s important to have a product that you care about or are invested in. It’s hard to sell a crappy product, and if you don’t care much about it, it will be that much harder (as I’ll explain below) to get customers to care about it either.

Research the market for your product

Understanding if there is a market for your product is vital to your success. This is easy to understand – if there’s nobody who wants to buy what you have, everything else you do is a waste.

This doesn’t mean you need to do extensive research into every aspect of the market you’d like to reach. 

You certainly can do a deeper dive into marketing research and you’ll probably be better off for it. Not everyone has that kind of resources – we certainly didn’t – but it’s important to know if you have a sellable product.

2. Develop a compelling story

Developing a storyline around your product is perhaps one of the most important, and most overlooked aspects of running an e-commerce business. Once a customer lands on your site, the story that you tell is what will draw them in, allow them to trust your product, and trust you.

The story is what introduces the site to new visitors. It’s compelling and descriptive, and puts a glow around the entire site. It doesn’t need to be a novel at the top of the home page, but should give your customers an idea of why they are there, and that you speak their language.

Unless you’re planning on becoming the next Amazon, it’s not advisable to simply spray a grid of products on a page and hope that they will come.

I’ll be writing a more in-depth post on how to develop a compelling story for your site. I’ll update this post when I get that written.

3. Develop the site Content Strategy

Content Strategy is a fancy term that helps you develop and understand the full scope of your site in terms of pages, content, site goals, and hopefully the site sales funnel. Here at Spigot, the Content Strategy phase provides us with a few documents that guide us through design and development of an e-commerce site, and beyond. You don’t need to follow these steps exactly – the goal you should be aiming for is an understanding of your content, and how it helps a customer flow through your website.

Creative Brief

We use a creative brief to help everyone understand the general overall scope and goals of a website. The brief contains the following info:

An overview of the project and business goals.

Design Criteria – usually colors, fonts, or a reference to a brand guide

Key messaging – words and phrases that reflect on the site or brand

Mandatories – items that are required for the project and non-negotiable.

A short description of the target audience

Wireframe

A wireframe for us is a very visual document of every major page on the website. While it is not a design doc, it does detail every bit of content that needs to appear on each page. Images, blocks of text, headlines, buttons, sidebars, headers, footers, etc. Every essential bit of content is detailed on this document.

The wireframe will help you understand and plan for the flow of your website. We use it here to help the designers gain a full understanding of what they are designing. The wireframe helps take a site beyond making things look pretty, and helps make the site effective.

In terms of an e-commerce site, this document will help you plan how to showcase your products – whether you’re laying out a grid of products or product categories – or you have individual landing pages for each product. It can also help determine the sales flow and checkout processes.

It may seem like a lot of work now, but a wireframe saves a ton of headaches and question marks down the road.

Copywriters and photographers

One thing to seriously consider in terms of content and content strategy is to hire professionals to help create that content. Copywriters and pro photographers have the ability to take your content to the next level. Even the best designer can’t do much with bad photos, and the internet is full of trolls ready to point out every grammar mistake. Copywriters especially have a special skill that can take your ordinary words and turn them into sales poetry.

Just something to consider… seriously consider :)

4. Design and Build

Designing and developing the website is what customers are most concerned about. It can certainly be one of the most exciting aspects of the project. I’m not going to go into the full details of designing and developing a website – if you don’t have the skills, this is better left to the pros. But let’s go over a few things to think about:

Choose an e-commerce platform

If you have a web designer you are working with, chances are they will have an opinion on what e-commerce platform to choose. We are clearly partial to WordPress and WooCommerce, but be sure to understand your options:

Hosted e-commerce

Sites like Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, and others are sites that offer you an all in one package – prefab designs, built in e-commerce, and ‘simple’ drag and drop building tools. These platforms are great for smaller shops, or those starting out without a solid budget. They are usually very inexpensive to get started, and charge monthly based on various criteria. The downside is that you will be limited to their existing features, you may not have the ability to scale as you’d like, and you don’t have complete control over your site.

We generally recommend these types of e-commerce platforms for smaller online stores or companies just starting out. It’s a great way to test out a new or unknown product.

Self-hosted e-commerce

Self-hosted platforms like Magento and WooCommerce are generally more robust and offer greater control over what you can build and create in an online store. They allow you freedom with the design and feature sets, but are going to be more expensive to build and maintain.

We highly recommend WooCommerce for e-commerce stores that are serious about selling and want a robust, professional website that gives full control over all aspects of the business.

The site design

A quick note on the design of the website. The hosted platforms all offer pre-built designs. But even the self-hosted Magento and WooCommerce have a ton of free to use, or inexpensive pre-designed templates. 

Most of them these days are fairly okay, but if you have the budget hiring the professional Website Designers in St Petersburg, FL will take your site to the next level – much like a copywriter and pro photographer can.

4. Create a semblance of a marketing plan

Now that you have a great and beautiful site, with a great layout and content strategy, it’s time for the grind. Marketing and pushing, and getting your name out there. You don’t need a marketing degree or hire a marketing agency right away, (although it would be helpful) but put together a rough idea of how you’re going to market your product or service. Yes, this is clearly true of any business, online or brick and mortar – but having a business online makes it both easier and harder to be found. Easier because you’re online and always open – harder because no one can simply drive by. You need to impress the search engines in order for anyone to find you. Sortof.

Marketing plans come in all shapes and budgets, but here’s a few things to think about:

Blogging

Google loves great content. It loves to send users searching for your product to the most relevant site first. That means your site needs relevant content – lots of it and on a regular basis. There have been volumes written about the death of the blog, but we believe strongly that it’s the best tool you have to create a foundation of content around your site. Write about the things that your customers are searching for. Become the expert in your services’ field. Don’t be afraid of giving away your secrets – write, write, write and they will come. Eventually.

Editorial calendar

An editorial calendar is a great tool to help you stick to a blogging schedule, and plan what to write about. Sitting down the day-of and wondering what to write is a recipe for disaster. You may not know what to write about and then abandon it or put it off. The next thing you know it’s been months since your last post. Check the dates on our blog for a prime example.

Here’s a few tips on creating an editorial calendar:

First, you should definitely set aside some time to sit down and schedule out blog posts for the next six months or so. If you have some great ideas already, sweet – plan them out in what ever logical manner you like. If you don’t have ideas already, use keyword finding tools on Google and elsewhere. They can help find topics that your customers are searching for related to keywords about your business.

I also like to keep a place where I can quickly jot down blog post ideas. A note taking app can help this, but you can also quickly create a post on your site – just add the title and maybe some notes – and save it as a draft to finish later.

Read what your competition is writing about. Maybe they’ve written something that you know more about and can expand on. Obviously don’t copy, but use as inspiration.

Social Media

There has been so much written about social media I don’t want to clutter this already long post with more drivel about it. I personally have cut back my use – both posting and consuming – of social media in the last few years as I find less and less value in it.

That said, here’s a few quick opinionated tips about social media if you choose to use it:

Cross post content from your blog to social media.  Your blog should always be the canonical source for your content.

Don’t use a social media account as the starting point for conversations with your customers, unless:

You have a huge marketing budget and dedicated social media staff, or

You are a non-profit or community organization that has loads of volunteers

If you’re posting on Facebook, linking to your site, and wondering why you have no traffic, you now know why :)

Advertising

Advertising is a great way to generate traffic pinpointed at your target demographic. Yes it costs money and you need a budget, but its a quick way to get the word out.

Google AdWords

Google AdWords makes it pretty easy to set budgets and understand the ROI on your ad spending. It’s the first thing we think of when we’re thinking of online advertising.

Facebook

I’d avoid this. We’ve never found value here, or even heard of anyone finding value in advertising with Facebook. If anyone has a differing opinion or facts, please let us know in the comments. I have no problem being proven wrong here.

Other marketing ideas

There are a ton of other marketing techniques available, be sure to research what will work best for you, your budget, and you schedule:

Email marketing

Reviews – onsite and off

Referral program

Affiliate program

Get on business directories

Host an event or class

Local marketing

5. Business Ops

There are quite a few other smaller items that you’ll need to keep in mind when running a successful e-commerce site. Many are the same as brick and mortar stores and general good business practices, but here’s a few to think about. These are going to be the tedious aspects of running an e-commerce store, but understanding them now will help you get them out of the way and dealt with so you can focus on the more important aspects above.

Customer Communication

Customer satisfaction largely depends on how well you communicate with them during the purchase cycle and beyond. Here’s a few to think about.

Email notifications

When someone purchases something from you, a series of emails and notifications will be expected. Thank you for your order; Your order has shipped; Subscription receipts; Most of these general notifications will be built into the platform, but plan out the entire set of possible notifications you may want to use.

Support requests

How will you handle customer complaints or support inquiries? Will you be offering phone support? Will you be using a ticketing system or on-site chat? There are pluses and minuses to all of these, clearly.

Fullfillment

When an order comes in, you’ll need to know about it and get it there

Order notifications

Once an order comes in, you’ll need to be notified. Emails are normally sent, but make sure you’ve planned on who they need to go to. Other options are available such as text messages or Slack notifications. Personally I can never have too many notifications for something as important as a customer order

Shipping

If you’re shipping a physical product, you’ll clearly need to get it there. Plan on how you’re going to ship items, how much you need to charge, and what kind of ‘handling’ fees you’ll need to add. Many customers decide to set a simple flat-rate shipping. Will you offer free shipping over a certain order amount? Or do you need to have specific rates set for specific locations across the country or the world?

Getting Paid

Here’s a few things to think about in terms of actually making a living off of your e-commerce website:

Taking credit cards

You will need a merchant account to be able to accept credit cards. There are a million options out there, some are easier than others, and some are cheaper than others.

Taxes

Do you need to charge tax for your product? Is it just in your state or is it everywhere? Do you know what rate to charge? These things can usually be handled within the e-commerce platform, but be sure you know.

Privacy, returns, GDPR

It will be important to understand the nuance of the privacy policy, return policy, terms, and even the new GDPR laws.

Privacy

With the new GDPR laws coming out of the EU now in effect, it’s a good idea to fully understand and clearly state your privacy policy. A good privacy policy will clearly state what data is collected, how it’s stored, and how a user can get it deleted. This topic is an entire post in itself, so be sure to read up on it.

Terms & Conditions

Like the privacy policy, a clear Terms & Conditions page will help protect you and offer your customers transparency in how they can expect to do business with you. A good terms page should be clear and concise, easy to understand, and cover all the bases. Have it looked over by a lawyer, but try  not to let it read too lawyerly ;)

Return Policy

Whether you have physical products or a subscription based service, set a clear return policy. This again covers you to a certain degree from the weird things that people may try to return. It also lets your customers know what they are getting into.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an attempt by the European Union to protect consumes and give them control over their privacy and data. 

One of the best things for us to come about because of the GDPR is that we’ve really for the first time sat down and thought hard about the data we collect from our customers. Much of that data is stored for customer convenience, but what is the liability of keeping it? It might make you think deeper about the data you collect and wether it’s worth it.

Security

You’ll obviously want to protect your customers data by providing transactions over a secure, encrypted connection. But you can go beyond just adding an SSL to the site:

HTTPS

Serving the site over HTTPS is a given these days. Google recommends it for the entire site, not just the checkout page. The good news is, getting an SSL set up has gotten so much easier in the last few year, mainly thanks to services like Let’s Encrypt. cPanel now offers free SSL’s through Comodo as well as Let’s Encrypt. These SSL’s auto renew and are a breeze to set up.

PCI Compliance

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is often thought of as overly complicated or  someone else’s issue. Whether that’s the web host or the credit card merchant, site owners are still responsible for understanding their responsibility, and that no matter how big the organization, anyone who accepts credit cards as payment.

Secure Hosting Server

If you’re running your site on Shopify you needn’t worry about this, but for self hosted site owners, be sure to host your site with a reputable, high quality host. This will ensure the proper security measures are in place to help keep your site safe from the literal onslaught of bots and hackers that are trying to infiltrate your site. I don’t say that to scare you. We see it every day – thousands of access attempts a day.

Backups and Updates

Keeping your site software up to date and backed up is an important security measure. Outdated software is a major contributor to site hacks. And backing up your site on a regular basis will ensure you get back running if something terrible goes wrong. Obviously check out our WooCommerce support plans – Cinch will take care of all of this for you (and more).

6. Stick with it

It’s likely that this last item should almost be first. I have a personal feeling that if you put enough time and energy into something it will work out eventually for you. Someone once said that most people have at least one or two million dollar ideas in their life (or is it every year?) and if they just went for it and stuck with it, it would all work out.

Stick with it. It’ll be worth it in the end.

Okay that about does it… Wait what? Did someone say what about your Google Page Speed Score? Whew… okay… let’s talk about that…

7. Google Page Speed

Notice I didn’t mention this? That’s because it doesn’t matter. Site speed matters quite a lot, but the score that you see on Google or GT Metrics isn’t always indicative of the site speed. In fact, Google Page Speed doesn’t even measure the speed of the site.

[thewordonmainstreet]

Nothing Carries Over From Year To Year But Uncertainty

2019 was another terrible year and my head is swimming with so many thoughts and fears, I can hardly write this.  Nevertheless, she persevered.  There’s just so much happening right now that I’m completely gutted.  I’m about to lose another job or so I feel.  There’s some bullying and I told a few people about my health struggles and that seemed to go viral judging from how I went from well-liked girl in the office to almost stranger danger level. And so it begins, how will this job end?  I’m dying to keep this job as it’s tethering me to normalcy and keeping money coming in but all the thoughts of what could happen and how things could play out don’t stop running through my head.  I already feel the betrayal and pain of another job gone bad.  I already feel the sorrow and immediate financial loss that will take me from eating pretty well to staring at a fridge as empty as my soul. 2019 will be the last year that I try to work at a normal job.  I simply can’t do it anymore.  I never fit in, I’m too nice, too poor, too this or whatever it is.  After having numerous jobs fall apart through the years, I’ll have to find a way to earn extra money, not work and that scares the shit out of me.  Because nearly everyone is trying to earn extra money in a gig type way and there aren’t a whole lot of ways to do so.  I’m up against a hell of a lot of people who themselves can’t get ahead against a cost of living that keeps rising upward.  I can’t do Uber or Skip The Dishes because my 13 year old car is on its’ last legs.  Online surveys or translations are what’s most recommended but most people say they never earn much money from them so that’s just great.  I can’t pay to start a business and most businesses involve some kind of investment which I don’t have.  And risk, a whole lot of risk.  I don’t have anything I can sell on Etsy and my writing will never earn me money, everyone whose anyone has a blog and seems to write well.  I’m completely at a loss as to what to do.  I’ve tried everything to find and keep work and there aren’t many resources in the city that help with job searches and job retention.  Managers would rather rid a problem employee than help them to improve.  I don’t want to keep going through jobs.  It’s tearing me apart plus my resumé is met with constant suspicion from hiring managers because there are too many jobs of too little duration.  All because of people that destroyed me or an illness that took me down mid-job.  I get tired of trying hard only to be ended by those around me.  Why does this follow me everywhere?  People don’t work as a team anymore, they work against each other.  Millenials too make up a large percentage of the service industry workforce and they can’t stand anyone over 40 and that’s me.  I even get cold, indifferent services from them as a frequent fast food flyer.  Time and again, it’s been them that age bracket that has been a bully to me. “Can’t get along” and “too easily offended” is what describes them.  It’s just so tough to manage in a world where everyone has a different opinion and won’t be moved and doesn’t want to play nice with others.  All I want is an honest day’s work and to have better food in my fridge, my goals are that down to earth.  And my parents and I had a falling out.  I fear this may be the end of them helping me as I know it and they’ll rush to write me out of their wills.  I’m so afraid to lose my condo.  I would have nowhere else to go but living with a roommate and that may just last for two weeks if that.  People who aren’t in a relationship can’t live together.  No one gets along anymore, they aren’t built for relationships.  Everything is falling apart.  I told my Mom that I was fed up with her harassing me by e-mail which she’s done since I was in my early 20’s and things just tanked from there.  I didn’t even have Christmas dinner as a result of the drama.  I have no idea what they’re planning to do to me.  My brother is being distant as he normally is and not giving me answers.  He was dragged into it and I can tell isn’t happy about it. 

 I just don’t know what to do.  All I can do is sit in here and wonder what I’ll do if they plan to destroy me.  I did nothing wrong and I wonder if this time they’ll even apologize to me.  I wonder if this falling out will even change a single thing between us. Likely not, things have always been highly dysfunctional.  We’ve never gotten along yet I’ve been such a good daughter and try so hard.  It’s so sad that relationships have to be so hard. Life is hard enough already.  And they’ve never been proud of me either.  I work my tail off to survive and it’s met with ongoing disappointment.  Why is it so hard for anyone to get along anymore?  There’s a deep pain inside my soul of never really being a part of the family or loved by my parents.  It’s “here’s some money, now get out of here”.  I’ll never be enough and that hurts like hell.  I worry a lot about losing my home due to our frayed relationship.  I love my home and everything in it even though it’s been a hard 12 years living here.  I think about everything I own and how significant all my junk really is.  I have an uncanny ability to remember which thrift store every decoration or candle was bought. To anyone else it’s junk, but to me it’s something tangible in a life where I don’t have much to hold. I have no support in my life but the crisis line and even they get tired of hearing what I have to say as they limit their call length and every time I call I have to rehash my story.  I’m so painfully alone and lonely.  I’m dying for community and belonging but everything costs money to join or do.  I guess the only place I have to go is to the streets to beg for money and belonging.  It’s like I’m being drawn there by an invisible force that’s saying “these are your people” and “you don’t belong anywhere else but you belong here”.   I’ve always been sort of close to the streets all my life because if I don’t get my social assistance payment, that’s where I’d end up real fast.  I’ve never fit in in the suburbs, I’m an outcast that’s mocked wherever I go because I don’t dress like the others or drive a late model car.  Poverty isn’t socially acceptable and I see it in their stares.  I hope that 2020 will be better to me than life is for most years.  Every year is a struggle and I start with nothing and end with nothing.  I have to start fresh every year.  People say “start fresh” as it starting over is something positive.  It’s not. I wish that something would just stick and I would have routine and predictability in life.  Nothing carries over from year to year but uncertainty.  I want to finally rest instead of constantly working to barely get by and having nothing to show for it after all my food is eaten. 

I say I feel I have to stop working but I desperately want to keep trying and just not throw in the towel and give up.  There’s something deep inside of me that refuses to lay down and die.  I have no other way to connect with society other than the Internet and to me that’s not good enough; I want to be a part of things and find my place in this world.  There really isn’t anything different about my search for ways to earn money as I’ve been looking for ways to make money for as long as I can remember so this is no end, it’s just another year of doing the same thing as last year and the years previous.  I was answering ads. for gigs such as holding signs for store closures and dressing up as a mascot as recent as even last year.  Even ads. like those are few and far between and I’ve placed an ad. begging for a job or a task for extra money and that was met with no response.  I may have to take it to the streets with a sign asking for work like I threatened to in blogs before.  It never ends; I guess it knows I’m stubborn.  2019, damn you.  You started bad and are ending bad but 2020 scares me even more.  WTF did I ever do is all I can ask?  Where is all this unending bad karma coming from?  I’ve been good all of my life and stayed on the straight and narrow so I really don’t get it.  I’ve been a good daughter but they misunderstand me, I’ve been an upstanding, contributing member of society yet they don’t want me.  I hope that my problems will be so last year and not cross over to the New Year.  I can only hope, that’s one thing that I always have had in strong measure and what keeps me holding on against all odds.  From one year to the next, the only constant is hardship.

[sisstarloop]

#NYFW sisSTAR NYFW 2019 Feature: Christine Lynch, Owner of Local Color NYC

Meet our sisSTAR NYFW 2019 feature, Christine Lynch of Local Color NYC.  Her brick and mortar store opened earlier this year in Greenpoint, BK but her entrepreneurial journey in fashion and business is a decade and more in the making!  Learn more about Christine in our Q & A and make sure to stop by her shop on 206 Franklin Street in Brooklyn.

Introduce yourself and your brand.

Hello! I'm Christine Lynch, the owner of Local Color NYC, a Brooklyn based boutique that specializes in independent brands that manufacture in the USA. At Local Color NYC you can find women's apparel, accessories, jewelry, and cool stuff in a fun and inviting atmosphere.

Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey thus far and what has worked/didn't work for your business.

My entrepreneurial journey started around 10 years ago while I was still at my corporate fashion design job. As a creative outlet (because being a designer is not as creative as you might think!) I opened an Etsy shop and sold some of my own screen printed and knit designs. This eventually turned into weekends selling my goods at bazaars around NYC. I loved being around other creatives and the entrepreneurial energy. I knew I wanted to eventually do something other than my corporate job but did not yet know what. I had become discontented designing for large corporations trying to make the cheapest goods at third world factories to appease share holders. Fast forward to 2013 when I was laid off from my job when the brand I was designing for was sold. Best. Day. Ever. It was my time to start something new and the universe was pushing me to do it. While freelancing I developed my business plan and eventually put the business into motion... in a truck. Early in my planning it became obvious that opening a brick and mortar was not feasible. Instead of giving up I got creative and decided to open my shop in a truck. This came with many ups, downs, and challenges but has lead me to where I am now. After about 4 years of trucking we were able to open our brick and mortar store this March! 

How do you overcome creative and business obstacles?

Usually when I face obstacles it is because of some kind of fear, lack of confidence, or it is time to grow. So I try to recognize those feelings, talk it out, and push forward. That and coffee.  

What motto do you live by?

Be true to you.  

Where do you see your business in the next 1-5 years?

Now that we are settling into our brick and mortar I want to grow our eCommerce business, expand our product offering, and hire more staff. 

Where can people purchase and support your brand?

Our shop is located at 206 Franklin Street in Greenpoint Brooklyn or you can shop us online any time at ShopLocalColorNYC.com

***

CHRISTINE LYNCH is the owner of Local Color NYC, founded in 2015 out of a passion for small business and American made values.  Christine has become passionate about Shopping Local and quality products made in the USA. She hopes Local Color NYC will be more than just a boutique, but be part of a larger cause bringing independent businesses to the forefront of New York City.

[mannartt]

AAATEE at MannArtt | The Best T Shirt Shop Online?

As you may or may not know, Mann is the primary designer, as well as the Creative Director, for AAATEE.com. We think with his talent, we will one day have the best t shirt shop online. Or a damn good one, anyway. Certainly when it comes to quality. I don't think we're ever going to compete on quantity. Some of these guys have a ten year head start on us, and have been pumping out ten (mostly crappy) shirts a day for years now. 'Cause guess what? Yeah. The t-shirt biz is like a lot of others – it's a numbers game. For every hit shirt you have, you have a few successful ones and a lot of flops. Hey, the public is fickle, and you never know what's gonna take off, and what isn't. And no, the fact your friends think a new design is badass has little to do with it. Sadly. Them's the breaks.

Made A Deal With... the Devil!

OG. Original Gamer.

Hope? Nope. Grope! So, "the best t shirt shop online." Are we there yet? Well, no. Not quite. In fact, we've got a ways to go. A long ways, actually. Our online journey (some would say mishaps and travails) has not been without complications. I'm going to address some of those here and tell you where we're headed. OK? Got it? Good. ;-)

Welcome to AAATEE. Sort Of. Kinda.

First off, to reiterate, without Mann, there would be no awesome, funny, badass, offensive t shirts for our endeavors, nor would there be much of a AAATEE to speak of. And as it happens, given the fact we're going through yet another major transition, he's best positioned to "show the flag" online while we sort things out. So, for right now and the foreseeable future, MannArtt will serve as the hub for AAATEE. Eventually, we'll get the whole mess sorted and become (ahem) the best t shirt shop online. Or something like it. Till then, please look for us here. Over the last few years, AAATEE has been going through various fire drills to try and come up with a business model that works online. We've been selling tees in the real world for a long time, so that's not the problem. In fact, it still primarily depends on that one thing you've heard lampooned before: Location, location, location!

It's not hard to sell your stylin' rags if you can put them in front of a lot of eyeballs. Do that, and you'll sell the hell out of 'em. If foot traffic is decent, you're golden. Which is why you've traditionally seen t shirt shops in places where lots of people gather, like malls, beaches, tourist spots, etc. It's the same online in that it's all about traffic. As with retail, you need to grab those eyeballs, hold them, and then hold them long enough to turn a lookie-loo in a buyer.

"Start A Tshirt Shop Online," They Said. "It's EASY!" They Said. "Go Ahead," They Said.

Having a t shirt shop online is actually a lot harder, in some ways, than in the "real world." Why? Because when you've actually got somebody in your store, they can't simply click a link and vanish – you "own" them, at least for a few minutes. Nor are they constantly being distracted by "outside" forces and/or bombarded with messages from other vendors (or if they are, you're an idiot). They're there, after all. In your store! Odds are, they're going to look around. Even if they don't buy anything at that moment, they know where you are and have a conscious memory of having been there ("Yeah, I like that t shirt shop over on Main. It's the best tee shirt shop I've been to around here..."). Online, if you lose them, don't have a way of reaching them again, and they didn't join your list (or at very least, bookmark your site), you're probably sunk. Odds are, you'll never see or hear from them again. It's as if your store vanished off of Main without a trace or worse yet, a memory... So, "they" (the experts) told us we needed to get online for two reasons: 1) it's easier and more lucrative than a brick and mortar store, and 2) retail is dying. Malls are closing, people aren't shopping in "the real world," like they used to. More and more commerce is happening online. Well, we can have a long debate at the veracity of #1, but there's no doubt about the truth of #2. Even in good locations, foot traffic has dropped by over 50% in recent years. Not good if you're a retailer, or a vendor to retailers.

It's really hard to sell your t shirts, mugs, hoodies and other goodies at this mall. So, towards the end of getting in the online game and having "the best tshirt site online," we've tried many different retailing platforms, from Amazon to Shopify, ecomm to Shopify, Etsy to Teepublic, and more promotion methods than we care to count. Part of the problem is that we're all very busy, which means we can't devote our undivided attention to something which pretty much requires it. AAATEE online was supposed to be a fun little side hustle, but that doesn't mean we don't want it to be lucrative and successful – which it hasn't always been. Like a lot of misguided online ventures (floundering around, trying to figure shit out), we've put cubic man hours into online only to get very little out of it. So, to say it's been asses and elbows, chaos and confusion, one clusterf*ck after another, and a major disappointment to boot, would be the understatement of all time.

You Can Help Us Make AAATEE The Best T Shirt Shop Online. How? Read On...

CLICK HERE for MORE... If you want to help us, there's several things you can do. And boy, will we appreciate it. Yeah! Thanks. :-D Furthermore, you'll earn all kinds of good karma, redeemable on your next reincarnation, so bear this in mind. ;-) Here's what you do... 1) Be sure to LIKE this page. 2) Share this page to your friends on social media. There are buttons floating along the side of this post made just for you. Or, use the LIKE button above, which also has share buttons. 3) Make a donation to Mann to keep him going, either via the LIKE button or via Ko-fi. 4) Get on the list, so we can keep you up to date, give you the inside skinny (including input on new designs), provide EXCLUSIVE products and discounts. No spam, no scam, no flim-flam, we promise. We do not now and never will share/sell/rent your info with other parties. Nope. Never. Not gonna happen. 5) Go to our page on Teespring, register if you haven't already, login and hit the FOLLOW BUTTON! In this regard, Teespring is like every other site these days: the more Likes you have (in this case, Followers), the better internal results you'll have.

CLICK IMAGE to visit our growing shop on TEEPUBLIC! We've got a lot more than tees, too. Phone cases, book bags, laptop and iPad cases, etc. CHECK IT OUT! ;-)

Plans for The Best T Shirt Shop Online. See Into the Future! (Whoo… Spooky).

CLICK HERE to Continue Reading… So as a result of our various misadventures, our stuff is scattered hither and yon across a number of platforms all over the web. Sloppy, I know. Because of this, there's no one place (as of yet) where you can get everything at once. So what this means is, if you wanna buy, you're going to be going to Amazon, Etsy, Teepublic, etc.. Yeah, it's a kludge and we're unhappy about it. But them's the breaks (for now). For those who are interested, our current plan is to base our POD business – for about 100 different reasons we won't bore you with here – out of Teepublic, which, according to the criteria of some, already is the best tshirt site online. But like many others of it's type, it's actually a store of stores, if you will – a kind of mall of tee shirt designs. We love that it's an independent site supporting artists, we love that they don't micromanage you the way some big name sites do, and we love that they have so many additional products you can offer without onerous, time-consuming additional setups. Once Teepublic is fully fleshed out, we're probably going to retire the other sites we're working with. The reasons are many and varied, and many are far beyond the scope of this presentation, but if for no other reason than to simply things as much as possible, it's best for us to work out of ONE location, rather than keep juggling many. In the meantime, we're re-vamping AAATEE.COM for, well, like, the 100th time – or so it seems like. Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted. When it's time for the BIG ROLLOUT and PREMIERE, we'll let ya know.

President Trump, Liar in Chief.

It's not fantastic... it's FANAVERAGE!

Better Call Saul? Better bring the Lysol!

Come For A T Shirt, Stay For A Drink* (Well, A Mug).

One day soon (we're about 70% of the way there right now), you'll be able to get ALL of our cool, funny, badass and offensive designs at our new t shirt shop, and grab more than just shirts, homes. That's part of the point, for us. It's "one stop shopping" for you. Eventually, long haul, the plan is to build AAATEE into an ecomm store in it's own right, as we sorta did, a few years back, with Shopify. Only this time we'll be doing it entirely with Wordpress, which we can control 100% while not paying through the nose for the privilege. We hope you'll bear with us till then.

Breaking Bad Mug - "I AM THE DANGER" - Walter White aka Heisenberg - Available from our shop, and you know you gotta have one! In the meantime, links herein should take you right out to the platform to browse and buy. If there's any hesitation about signing up for yet another site... don't worry! You don't have to register or go through any malarky at Teepublic – you can buy as a guest! If you like our badass designs, we strongly urge you to sign up for our list. We DON'T bombard you with spam, and you'll be the first to know when Mann's got new designs in the works, and when they're going to be available. Please LIKE THIS POST and/or share us to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Thanks! :-D *Now, about that drink... Read the full article

[rocketrobinprints-blog]

Reflection and Moving Forward

Holiday season is here! In fact, Christmas is next week, so we're actually at the end of the season. We still have a few weeks in 2018 to go, but with the holidays and some traveling that we plan to do before the year is out, I think now is as good a time as any to reflect on the year and plan for the next.

We have been really busy with our day jobs through November and December because of the season, and we have not had a lot of time to put towards the shop. But! We have had the opportunity to evaluate what we're doing a little better and make some decisions about where we're taking the shop and what we're trying to do.

First off, we are aware we have not really been able to put a ton of time and energy into the shop this year, despite what we may have wanted to do starting at the beginning of the year. Making artwork takes a long time and we just haven't sat down and committed to making pieces to sell. OK, let's be honest, we (mostly me) haven't even made the time to properly unpack the studio room after our move in June. It would be a great space to use, if it was clean and not a jumble of things thrown there to "deal with later". There's no excuse, it's just not a fun chore and the longer we've been in the apartment, the less motivated we are to fix it up.

We've had time to sit and talk some about platform. So far, Etsy has really not worked well for us, and I think it's because of the products we're selling. Fine art has a market, but I'm not sure that Etsy is that market, even just for publicity. We have so far not been very successful with the site at all for the print shop. For my kid's toys shop, TheWingedWhale, it works great; but that shop is more in line, I think, with the things people go on Etsy to find: crafts, knits, tangible things you can use right away. While there is a fine art market on Etsy, I don't think it's the right platform for us.

Of course, if Etsy doesn't work for us, what alternative can we use? We're definitely not planning to just let the shop go, so we have to find some way to sell our pieces if we continue and have decided what we're doing doesn't work.

We're still planning to talk to a few locations that we frequent about selling our prints locally. We have a few coffee shops, gift stores, and galleries in town here we could talk to about selling our artwork. Lots of the places in town here feature local artists, and really we just need to reach out. We'd still like to put together a proper portfolio with some small sample prints to advertise our art, with the promise to supply small or larger pieces if the shops will take us up. It's a scary thing to do, and would require a lot of cold calling, and holiday season is perhaps not the time to go about it, but ultimately I really believe that would pay off.

Another plan we've had in the works for some time is to apply our artwork to physical products to sell. We want to be able to offer our art as shirts, mugs, mouse pads, phone cases, etc. We have been searching for a way to do so without investing more than we can afford in stocking the items. Eric found one! The site is called RedBubble. It takes artwork and transforms it into clothing, cases, stickers, and more traditional prints like greeting cards or wall art. As of now, we don't have the shop up and running on the site, but Eric has been working to get our artwork up and we'll have links soon.

Additionally, we each have our own literary works we want to develop, write, illustrate and ultimately get out there for other people. Again, we haven't been able to set aside as much productive time with these projects as we hopes we would this year, but we have a better idea of where we're going with the story lines and just need to work some dedicated time into our schedules to get them on paper and ready to go. I think we're close to being able to achieve that though, and once we start working on them and get into a rhythm, I think we'll find everything fall together more easily than expected.

So! for the future of our art, we have a vague battle plan emerging for 2019:

Finish unpacking from our move so we can actually use our space as planned.

Put together a physical art portfolio to put energy into marketing ourselves locally. (You can find Eric's online portfolio here.)

Get a RedBubble shop up and functional.

Generally set aside more time to work with our art and stories.

As always, I'm looking forward to what the future brings, and I'm sure that we can achieve our goals if we prioritize them correctly. I think we're in a better position than we were last year, and as life shakes out and we work through more decisions, I think we'll only continue to improve.

-Kecheri

[putrilyy]

May Favourites 2017!

+ Hello, everyone! Finally, after weeks and weeks, I finally uploaded my monthly favorites! Honestly, I only bought a few things because I didn’t find anything interesting to buy except for all the items below. Not every item purchased in May, some of the items are from my Japan trip. I think during September I will be sharing you a lot of items, well I think so. As you guys know, I upload this post quite late because eventually it has been accidentally deleted from my drafts, so I had to bring out my camera again, and re-shoot. It’s quite frustrating but here I am, let’s start with the first item, shall we?

1. Alken Professional Milan Hydro Repair Serum 120ml

I bought this hair serum a long time ago, I use it quite often. Other than having super dry hair, my hair seems to be having split ends as well. I get rid of the split ends by cutting my hair shorter, but to prevent it from happening again, I use this product, and I’m guessing that it works? What I love about this product is you only need to use a small drop of this serum to apply to your hair. I have been using this since last year and there still much left. Alken Professional Milan is well known and recommended as well, most of their products will fix your damaged hair. Other than the L’OREAL Paris oil, this is the only product that I trusted to fix my hair, you can see that the struggle is real. I can see quite an improvement in my hair. I am not sure whether this product is still available in stores or not, but you check their official website (Malaysia) here to check out other hair products by them.

3.Sushi Stickers by Nippon Ippai

These cute stickers are the one that I bought at a local stationary store in Japan. Once you enter the store, your will be shocked with countless numbers of stationaries in the store. Japan do take this kind of things seriously. There were a lot of notebooks, mechanical pencils, Gudetama stationary, I bought my friend’s Rilakumma notebook at the same store. I love collecting stickers, I am planning to do a post, just to show my stickers collections to you! This one is special, I chose this because it’s sushi, with faces on it, it’s really cute. What made this so special is the texture of the sticker, it’s made out of washi paper which is made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree. I made a promise to myself to never use this sticker, but I don’t think I can do that. I bought this for 240 yen, which is around RM 10. I don’t think you can buy it online, but you can google Nippon Ippai, they are quite famous for their stickers collections.

2. Cube Sugar Weather and Mood Stickers by Ann House

Adding into my sticker collections is this colorful Cube Sugar Stickers designed by Ann House. I was scrolling through this one website to potentially wasting my money again. This is well-designed stickers that describe your daily mood, weather and anything relatable. I haven’t use the stickers yet but I love it so much, I don’t think I am ready to use it T^T The designer, Ann House has designed quite a few crafty stickers but I don’t know exactly why this one is my favorite. I bought with the price RM 27 at Etsy Studio’s website. The link will be here.

3. “Heart shape” tape

Another thing that I bought from the Japan Stationery store is this cute heart shape tape! I have a journal that I am currently working on it, if I have the time, I will show you the journal (wait how many things did I promise to show to you guys? I lost count on it)  (haha). Look at how cool this thing works, I wish Malaysia has more of this kind of crafty products so that I could spend my money on it. There were so many designs, but my sister chose the heart shape. I’ve tried to apply it on one of my books and it turns out like this:-

This tape is really useful for those whole love arts and crafts, like doing a journal, creating your own cookbook or maybe your travel journal, anything relatable. This is the one thing that I kind of regret for not buying more than one. Because there were so many designs there, I should’ve grabbed more. I don’t remember the price but I think it’s around RM 10 or maybe cheaper than that. If you happen to know a place that sells various kind of stationaries in Malaysia, please send it to my mailbox so that I could perhaps go there to buy some stationaries, who knows?

4. I don’t understand the title but this is the book that I was talking about on my previous post.

My sister bought this book at Kinokuniya for RM 25.50. This book has caught my attention, please pray so that I could learn Japanese faster to read this book. I can’t seem to find the English translation to this book! I want to be able to understand Japanese to read more Japanese novels, but the language is too hard for me. If I could find the English translation to it, at least I get the idea of the story. This book looks very simple, but I don’t know why I wanted to read it so bad. My mum caught me staring at the book and she even asked “Why are you reading something that you don’t understand?”. Exactly, I look like an idiot trying to understand the book.

5.  Fantastic Cities Coloring Book by Steve McDonald

I was completely blown off on how amazing the details are in the book. Steve really paid attention to the details making it look visually stunning. My only wish is that I didn’t ruin the book with my coloring so that this book stays amazing. This coloring book features a lot of famous cities that was based off on his imagination as well as reality.  If you flipped the first page, there will be a list of the cities mentioned, for example, some of the places I wanted to visit one day which is Quebec, Canada, Himeji Castle, Istanbul and more. This one is completely different from my Secret Japan Coloring Book as this one focused more on the details of the cities instead of the culture. The book also contains Mandala illustrations of selected places making it quite hard for me to color it. By hard, I meant it's too detailed that it could take a month to complete one whole page. I love how most of his illustrations are based on his own experiences, he has visited dozens of countries, he absorbs every one his experience and puts 100% effort into this coloring book. If you wanted to see more of his work, you can visit his website here. This book is available at Kinokuniya for the price of RM 59.90, the link will be here. The picture below is one of his sketching:-

6. Faber-Castell 48 Classic Colour Pencils + 2pcs 2B Pencil 

If you have an amazing coloring book, you have to have an amazing set coloring pencils. Behold, I present my coloring pencils, upgraded. I think this crazy obsession of coloring kind of gets to me to this point. I have nothing much to explain about this, it’s just like any other color pencils, I always choose Faber-Castell. I didn’t remember the price but I’m pretty sure this is easy to find in Malaysia.

So that’s it for my May Favourites post, nothing much special about this. I hope you will look forward to my next post. Thank you for reading this!

[livemind]

“Retain Mystery.”

Live Mind Blog #2

Posted: 02/01/2017

Welcome!

     Thank you for your interest in the Live Mind blog! If you're a returning reader, welcome back. If you're here for the first time, welcome! Have you had the chance to check out the last blog? The feedback was amazing and I can't thank you all enough for inspiring me to write another!

     Live Mind now has an official Instagram! I will be posting announcements, behind the scenes work, sneak peeks, and other work to motivate creativity. If you'd like to receive these exclusive updates, click here and follow the blog!

     This edition is a bit different from the last. Two more sections have been added: Loud Looks and Dream Support. That's right, the Dream Support section is officially here. Literally, right here:

Dream Support:

     Fernie Mac is a 22 year-old photographer. He’s always been interested in photos, film, and art, but recently started taking his photography more seriously thanks to the inspiration from a friend. Fernie has made an effort to learn what it takes to take good photos and invested in a better camera. That investment sparked even more of his passion for photography, capturing moments such as these:

     “Follow your heart, chase your dreams. Anything is possible.”

     ~ Fernie Mac

     Fernie has a very creative and open mind. I’ve been following his project for quite some time now and he never ceases to amaze. He has a lot more to offer and I highly encourage any of you artsy people to check him out on Instagram!

     I really hope someone new can be featured here in every blog from now on. I can't do it without your submissions, so please continue to spread the word and create wonderful things!

For more information regarding submissions, check out the Let Me In On This! section.

New Noise:

     Taxi For Bob are from a town called Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The band started in 2013, covering songs by Green Day and Blink-182. They have an energetic, upbeat, pop-punk sound with very catchy melodies that you can’t help but sing along to.

     Their members are Tom Jackson, Alex Bower, and Mattie Jones. Some of their musical influences include: Good Charlotte, Alkaline Trio, Ramones, and Stiff Little Fingers. Regarding future plans, Taxi For Bob would like to take it as far as it can go.

     “We’re not doing it for the success, we all just love doing it. But it would be amazing if we could get any kind of career out of it.”

     ~ Alex Bower

     After hearing their single “If You’re Not Dreaming, You’re Just Sleeping”, I was immediately pleased with the message of the song and reached out to Alex to find out more about the band. If you’re interested, I urge you to check out Taxi for Bob and follow them to stay updated on their project:

Bandcamp: taxiforbob.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taxiforbob

Amped artists:

By: Mallery Lewis, Age: 20

     This awesome illustration of Tyler Carter (vocalist of the band Issues) was made by Mallery Lewis. She’s a 20-year-old artist from Ohio and has been drawing all her life, continuing to progress with art as she got older. “My mom was a big inspiration because she’s a very creative person and I watched her paint a lot as a kid,” states Mallery. With that being said, I believe she’s a great example of a little inspiration going a long way.

     Mallery is currently going to school to become a graphic designer. She hopes to work in that field as well as sell her traditional art on the side. With these goals as her focus, we can all be sure she will succeed! There’s way more art where this came from. Check out more of her work here!

Loud Looks:

This section will feature unique fashion, hair, clothing, diy, and more!

     We all know fashion is another great way of expressing yourself. Why follow the trends when you could stand out? We aren’t ordinary. We are not duplicates. We are custom-made.

     Chantelle has been crocheting for about 4 years. She’s made blankets, scarves, hats, and more. Very recently, she was inspired to start selling her work online, opening a shop on Etsy called Cozy Little Owl Crochet.

     In her shop, you will find winter gear such as hats and scarves. Chantelle plans to add more products very soon, including coasters, baskets, and blankets. You can even get items customized!

     Stay warm and cozy this season with some amazing hand made threads by Cozy Little Owl Crochet:

Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozylittleowlcrochet

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cozylittleowlcrochet/

Live Minds:

Dane, Content Creator

     Dane, (a.k.a. StraightEdgeDane) is a 16 year-old from England. He enjoys turning clips of film into a work of art and posts his work on Youtube. This straight-edge kid is full of innovative ideas and imagination. Dane is also a big fan of pop-punk and alternative music genres, as well as pro wrestling. He plans to make more videos involving those passions along with other mini-films and skits.

     “I want to become a film producer and take up Pro Wrestling training as a hobby once I finish education,” states Dane. He posts videos in 4k and will continue to do so in the near future. I believe he can go as far as he desires, and even further with support from others. Show your support and check out his videos!

     This aesthetically pleasing lyric edit and photo was done by Isabella. She is a 17 year-old senior in high school. Within the past year, she took a photography class which led her to conclude that photography really makes her happy.

     “I’ve always sort of been drawn to the arts. I remember seeing Adam Elmakias’ photos and I thought how cool it would be to do what he does.”

     ~ Isabella

     Isabella recently started taking portraits of her friends around downtown Nashville and would like to continue photography as a hobby. She even hopes to eventually start photographing some local bands! She’s definitely on the right track. Follow her progress and find more of her work here.

Do It Now, Thank Me Later:

     In the last edition of Live Mind, I encouraged you all to dedicate a week to focusing on an idea of yours that deserved more attention and growth. How did you do? Personally, I decided to take this Live Mind blog more seriously. After discovering that people actually submitted content for it, I was extremely thrilled and I realized that this is more than just a mental project. This is really happening. These results have inspired me to say yes to more opportunities of growth and I must say, I've been happier and more confident.

Challenge #2: Do something that scares you a bit.

     Stop saying no and talking yourself out of the opportunites that could potentially get you exactly where you want to be. You don’t know what you could be missing. So, why not find out? You’ll likely be surprised at you results!

If you believe your story will inspire others in some way, tell me all about it at livemindmag@gmail.com. It may be featured in an upcoming blog!

Get Inspired:

     This poem creates scenery. Picture it as you read:

-Untitled-

You came into my life a subtle thoughtful breeze Joy and laughter quickly overtook me I became slave to your refreshing sound Each gust retrieved a part of me The warmth of your temperament cleansed the air bringing freedom as I inhale Into open hands I placed keys to doors long forgotten sacred places locked away Long betrayed by the others Places beyond the stairs beyond the walls and painted columns You'd trek through bitter winds Over broken pieces enduring hailstorms with nothing but trueness as a shield Endless volumes could not contain what's meant to be shared If hearts could speak do they give themselves away? Reveal the secret, or retain mystery. A lifetime of tomorrow's full of wonderment & surprise From shadowy mornings wrapped in haze...then Moon-glow spotlight to capture the effortless sway of the night It's rhythm is a pulse, the rhythm a passion The rhythm is a dance....with love its serenade.

     ~PoetryNPain

     The writer of this poem chose to remain anonymous, which actually inspired the title of this blog. Retain a little mystery in your creativity. Not only will others keep wanting more, but you will too!

Thank You:

Thank you so much for reading this edition of Live Mind. I honestly feel extremely fortunate being able to put out a second blog. That’s only thanks to your support! I’m very grateful for that and your spreading the word. I hope to see you in the next one. Until then, keep it live. Dream louder.

Let Me In On This!:

Got a style that stands out? Tell me more!

Submissions: send info to livemindmag@gmail.com.

Questions/Feedback: comment below or message me on Instagram  @livemindmag.

Find Me Elsewhere:

YouTube. Instagram. Tumblr. Pop Punk Amino.

[katinatnus]

Selling On Etsy: Etsy Shop Tips For Beginners (2020 Review)

Selling On Etsy: Etsy Shop Tips For Beginners (2020 Review) by Profits & Paradise Selling On Etsy: Etsy Shop Tips For Beginners (2020 Review) My Top Pick For Making Serious Money Online. CLICK HERE ➜ ➜ ➜ http://www.virallistbuild.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Etsy Resources: ▶ Get 40 FREE Listings by Signing Up For Etsy here: http://www.wifiwealth.co/freelistings ▶ Printify: Etsy Fulfillment http://www.wifiwealth.co/printify ▶ Create Mockups: http://www.wifiwealth.co/mockups ▶ Sell Your Artwork: http://www.wifiwealth.co/sellyourart ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ WATCH MY MOST POPULAR VIDEOS: Udimi Solo Ads Training: Tutorial For 2020 ($11,565 Proof) ►► https://youtu.be/OxziaeC-3bU Make $1000 A Week From Home Easily (Make Money Online) ►► https://youtu.be/q_XNSg387G8 High Ticket Affiliate Programs That Pay BIG (Best 2 In 2020) ►► https://youtu.be/HjmqrYCd-Uk Make Money In Minutes For Lazy Couch Potatoes (How To Guide) ►► https://youtu.be/MM7qjEJGsJs RECOMMENDED WATCHING - Affiliate Marketing Training Tips [Part 1] ►► https://youtu.be/leDCjEl5yxc ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Inspired By Anji Long: Selling On Etsy: Etsy Shop Tips For Beginners ►► https://youtu.be/qM7YEVPm4vk Inspired by Essetino Artists: Cost of Selling Items on Etsy 2019 ►► https://youtu.be/aflJj_biSZw ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ➥➥➥ SUBSCRIBE FOR DAILY VIDEOS ➥➥➥ Subscribe ⇢ https://www.youtube.com/profitsparadise?sub_confirmation=1 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ➥➥➥ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ➥➥➥ Facebook ⇢ https://www.facebook.com/realbenmartin ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ In today's etsy review video I'll be answering the question: "How much does it cost to sell on etsy?" However, I'll be covering much more than that. So if you want to know how to sell on etsy, then make sure to watch my entire video and make notes. Because this video will give you all the details you need about starting an etsy business. And if you're already a seller on the platform (but struggling), then this information may just be the breakthrough you need. When my wife and I started our store a few years ago, there wasn't too much information out there about how to sell on etsy for beginners. A lot of our success came from trial and error. Which is why in this video I break down how to sell on etsy successfully. Thar way, you won't have to figure it out all on your own like we did. The truth is that etsy success is not as complicated as you might think. More than anything it comes down to consistently implementing a handful of simple things. Once you know these etsy seller tips and apply them in your business, your store will start to take off. So please, make sure to put them into practice today. BTW, I also cover how etsy payments work. After all, I'm sure you want to know how you get paid on etsy. The good news is that there are many options. One of them should work for you. Which means you'll be able to get your profits quickly and without any headache. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this etsy beginners guide. And if you're already a pro, I hope you picked up an extra tip or two to take your store to the next level. Laters, Ben Martin P.S. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel Profits And Paradise. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ My Top Pick For Making Serious Money Online. CLICK HERE ➜ ➜ ➜ http://www.virallistbuild.com ➥➥➥ Selling On Etsy ➥➥➥ https://youtu.be/p8iJevM9lQk ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: While we receive affiliate compensation for reviews / promotions on this page, we always offer honest opinion, relevant experiences and genuine views related to the product or service itself. Our goal is to help you make the best purchasing decisions, however, the views and opinions expressed are ours only. As always you should do your own due diligence to verify any claims, results and statistics before making any kind of purchase. Clicking links or purchasing products recommended on this page may generate income for this website from affiliate commissions and you should assume we are compensated for any purchases you make. EARNING DISCLAIMER: Any sales figures stated in my videos are my personal results. Please understand that my results are not typical. I'm not implying that you'll duplicate them (or do anything for that matter.) I have the benefit of practicing direct response marketing since 2013 and have an established following as a result. The average person who follows any "how to" video or buys any information gets little to no results. I'm using these references for example purposes only. Your results will vary and depend on many factors, including but not limited to your background, experience and work ethic. All business involves risk as well as massive and consistent effort and action. If you're not willing to accept that, please DO NOT BUY ANYTHING THROUGH MY LINKS. #HowToMakeMoneyOnline #MakeMoneyOnline #ProfitsAndParadise

via YouTube https://youtu.be/p8iJevM9lQk

from Profits & Paradise - Blog https://profitsparadise.weebly.com/blog/selling-on-etsy-etsy-shop-tips-for-beginners-2020-review

[canadastartupblog]

How to Turn a Passion Project Into a National Business

What started out as a batch of greeting cards on Etsy is now a stationery brand available at Michael’s craft stores across the U.S.

The characters featured in Cynthia Koo’s Wonton In A Million product line, which are based on dim sum foods like shu mai and dumplings, have attracted an enthusiastic fanbase.

Koo’s mission is to use her brand’s platform to promote Asian culture and encourage other women to become entrepreneurs.

Even though she studied East Asian languages and culture with a minor in computer science at Columbia University, Cynthia Koo says she’s always been a designer at heart. Growing up in New York City’s Chinatown, she enjoyed making custom greeting cards for her family, carefully rearranging stickers in her sticker books and emblazoning her planners with Hello Kitty characters.

Now, Koo is a 31-year-old entrepreneur that shares her heritage through Wonton In A Million, a unique stationery business that makes dim-sum-inspired washi tape, stickers and stationery.

“I think this company is a way to introduce Chinese culture and food to people who may not know what it is yet,” said Koo. “Wonton In A Million is a way for me to promote cultural understanding during a time when immigrants are kind of vilified.”

Turning a passion project into a small business

Koo’s journey with Wonton In A Million began in 2015 when she was waiting for dim sum takeout at the Oriental Garden where her father has worked for the last 30 years. As she waited for her order, she took in the sights and smells of the restaurant and wondered if her love of Chinese culture and cuisine would lend itself to “punny dim sum greeting cards” as a project for a 365 Days of Design challenge she was participating in.

At the time, Koo was a full-time designer at a financial technology startup. The design challenge was a “passion project” that originally only served as a way to check things off on a to-do list. “I’ve always had ideas for businesses and art project ideas. I started [doing the design challenge] to get some of those things done, because I was always starting things and then stopping,” she said.

“I set about designing 20 cards. That was my goal for the month, and once I put them up on Etsy, I would move on to the next design project,” she said. “The reception I got was incredible and surprising.”

Shortly after posting her initial designs on Etsy, Koo said her friends and family began sharing them online. Soon, sales grew, and people started making product suggestions. “Before I knew it, I had been working on this project for six months and hadn’t moved on to my next project.”

Other businesses began reaching out about collaborating, and Koo said it wasn’t long until she worked with Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

For the first two years, Wonton In A Million was Koo’s side gig while she worked at her full-time design job. Though she’d occasionally considered devoting all of her time to her fledgling online business, she had reservations. “I hadn’t intended to do that because I was worried that it would stop being fun and stop being a source of joy … if it became my main source of income,” she said.

However, those concerns went out the window when her weekly sales numbers exceeded the weekly paycheck from her full-time gig. “That gave me confidence to start thinking about [making it full time], and it still took me six months to disengage from my job,” she said. She ultimately left her job in April 2017.

Transitioning from an Etsy shop to an e-commerce business

Wonton In A Million began as an Etsy shop. For the uninitiated, Etsy is an online storefront that allows people to sell handmade, vintage and custom items, as well as craft supplies like the stationery items Koo sold. “The phenomenon of being able to be a sticker shop is a new option made possible by marketplaces like Etsy,” she said.

Without Etsy, Koo firmly believes Wonton In A Million wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. Koo says its “platform, audience and instruction on how to get yourself found [by customers]” were instrumental in starting her business. “Etsy is a great platform, especially if you’re not technical, to get started and see if your ideas have traction,” Koo said. “The fees are a little bit higher once you start doing a lot of volume, but starting off there is a good idea, because you at least have one built-in source of traffic to bolster your sales.”

When Koo outgrew Etsy, she used her coding and design knowledge to create an online store using Shopify’s e-commerce platform to better serve Wonton In A Million’s customers.

While she’s proud of where Wonton In A Million is today, she said there were some things she wishes she knew as a new entrepreneur. “I wish I had asked for help more often and earlier. I have always been the kind of person to want to figure things out for myself,” she said. “If I had extra help earlier, I would have grown faster and struggled less.”

As a creative entrepreneur, she said the business’s operational needs often got less attention than the need to create new designs. Given the chance to start over, she said she would swap those priorities. “I’d get that side of the business buttoned up properly from the beginning, and I’d ask for help for that stuff earlier,” she said. “I’m having to deal with that now as I’m preparing to scale up. Having that figured out allows you to grow faster and make better decisions.”

Finding a community in stickers and paper

From the beginning, Koo said her designs took on a life of their own online. Her cute dim-sum-based characters resonated with consumers, and Wonton In A Million’s products became an easily shareable product via social media. The company now has more than 7,500 members on its Facebook page and nearly 30,000 followers on the accompanying Instagram account.

Since its inception, Wonton In A Million has steadily cultivated a following in the stationery and planning communities that share designs and planner layouts online. Koo said she was initially unaware that the hobby had such a huge following online. “We have a very specific, nerdy hobby, and there probably aren’t a lot of people in our life that understand, so to meet other people who are similarly obsessed with this hobby is amazing,” she said. “I’ve built lifelong friendships in this community.”

The online planning and stationery community also serves as a unique platform for sellers to collaborate with each other. Rather than fostering a feeling of competition, Koo said Facebook groups and Instagram posts are used to create a stronger bond between creators.

“We collaborate with each other to help with giveaways, and I think that’s something that sets our businesses apart – we have potential competitors supporting each other. What’s amazing in this community is that shop owners are themselves customers, so they’re excited to discover and work with new shops,” she said. “The overarching mindset of collaboration over competition within this community has been incredible for me.”

Scaling up a small business

After years of collaborating and partnering with small local retailers, Koo signed a nationwide partnership with Michaels Arts and Crafts stores to sell an exclusive line of products. Koo said this opportunity has opened her eyes to “the world of licensing and having bigger distribution partners,” though she still struggles with where she wants to see Wonton In A Million go and just how big it will get.

“I love working from home and determining my schedule, but to reach the heights of where I want to take the brand and the business, it will need to take on a bigger organizational structure,” she said. “I think my impulse is to keep this small as long as I can while working with partners to help spread the characters.”

Now that her products are available across the country, Koo says her business has seen an influx of new customers. “People saw my items in-store, thought they were incredibly cute and wanted more. I’m also hearing from Asians who see their own culture reflected in a mainstream store and were excited to have found me,” she said.

Today, Wonton In A Million has four full-time workers, including Koo, her boyfriend and two employees. While such a small team can handle the company’s current business, with all the newfound attention, the company will need new ways to meet customer demand. The only way to keep up, Koo said, may be to find larger manufacturing and distribution partners. For now, Koo said she’s considering hiring more designers, licensing experts and other possible hires.

Regardless of where the business ultimately lands, Koo hopes the Wonton In A Million brand will help make people curious, empathetic and happy. “It’s still to be determined where this opportunity leads, because I think it might open more doors that I haven’t walked through yet,” she said. “I’m excited to see where this goes.”

Sharing culture and fostering entrepreneurship for women and Asians

When a group of customers reached out on Facebook asking fellow community members what dim sum was, Koo realized how much cultural outreach her brand could do. She estimates that about 60% of her customers don’t know what Chinese cuisine is. As a result, Koo said she’s been drawing on the cute factor of her characters to help people learn about dim sum and Chinese culture. She thinks one of the reasons Michaels was interested in Wonton In A Million was because of her brand’s mission to share Chinese culture and “having the ‘why’ be front-and-center in all of my branding and packaging.”

Koo is also passionate about fostering entrepreneurship among Asians and women. Growing up, Koo said she doesn’t remember a time where her parents weren’t working. Whether her father was at the restaurant or her mother was working as a seamstress, she says her parents always struggled to make sure things were fine for the family.

It wasn’t until she got older, Koo said, that she realized how hard so many Asian immigrants worked to give their families a better life. Despite how hard her parents worked, Koo said she was never pressured to pursue a career just for the salary. It was a luxury that she understands not many children of immigrant parents get. “As a child of immigrants, I understand that is rare and not every immigrant child has that freedom … I was lucky that my parents always told me to do what [made me] happy,” she said.

Koo has written numerous blog posts on her Medium account aimed at helping Asians and women become entrepreneurs themselves. “It occurred to me that I know so many kind and generous women. If they were able to fulfill their potential and take the leadership positions that they deserve, the world would be much kinder and better off,” she said. “I think I’m uniquely positioned to work on that cause on behalf of Asian women.”

She’s also conducted a “How to Design Your Own Design 365 Project” class on Skillshare and taught workshops at planner community conferences. “I’m still figuring out a more systematic way to do it, but doing things like partnering with The Cosmos … helps address unique challenges for Asian women, both socially and internally,” she said. “As a business that has resources, I love figuring out how to tie that into specific social causes to support them.”

Koo said the most important thing a new entrepreneur can do is to “find your tribe.” For her, a tribe consists of an audience and other shops to collaborate with. “For every idea, for every product, there are people who are going to love what you do,” she said. “The trick is to find those people and serve them.”

INVEST IN CANADA DO BUSINESS WITH THE WORLD

Ecompanies Canada offers Information, Knowledge & Expert Advice to Help You Start, Grow, Market and Expand a Strong Successful Business in Canada.

Company Registration services for Canadian residents.

To incorporate a new company in Canada., one or more persons(called “the incorporators”) may form a company by filing articles of incorporation, notice of address and notice of directors with the Corporate Registry Office of its jurisdiction of incorporation.

We offer fast & easy Canada incorporation and business registration services anywhere in Canada. At Ecompanies we help you step-by-step and take care of the entire business registration process from start to finish. Incorporating a business with us is fast, easy and takes just minutes.

Register today your new business:

https://www.ecompaniescanada.com/incorporation-service/

Canada Incorporation Service for Non Canadian Residents.

Throughout Canada, corporations are the most widely used legal vehicle for operating a business. A corporation has the same rights and obligations under Canadian law as a natural person. Among other things, this means it can acquire assets, go into debt, enter into contracts, sue or be sued,.

and even be found guilty of committing a crime.

To incorporate a new company in Canada., one or more persons(called “the incorporators”) may form a company by filing articles of incorporation, notice of address and notice of directors with the Corporate Registry Office of the desired jurisdiction of registration.

Ecompanies Canada offers fast & easy Canada online incorporation and business registration services to non-Canadian residents interested in doing business in Canada. At Ecompanies Canada we help you step-by-step and take care of the entire business registration process from start to finish. Incorporating a business with us is fast, easy and takes just minutes.

Register today your company in Canada as a Non-Canadian resident

https://www.ecompaniescanada.com/incorporation-service-non-canadian-residents/

Incorporation Service for Foreign Companies in Canada

Ecompanies Canada offers fast & easy Canada online incorporation and business registration services to foreign companies interested in doing business in Canada. At Ecompanies Canada we help you step-by-step and take care of the entire business registration process from start to finish. Incorporating a business with us is fast, easy and takes just minutes.

Register today your foreign company in Canada

https://www.ecompaniescanada.com/incorporation-service-foreign-companies-canada/

This Article first appeared in business news daily

The post How to Turn a Passion Project Into a National Business appeared first on Ecompanies Canada.

from Ecompanies Canada http://bit.ly/2RoEsO5 via ECOMPANIES CANADA

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Zach Katz of Framed Tweets, a website that sells framed tweets.Some stats:Product: Framed TweetsRevenue/mo: $25,000Started: May 2017Location: NYCFounders: 1Employees: 0Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hi! I’m Zach Katz, and I started Framed Tweets to give people a simple way to beautifully frame their favorite tweets as art, to remember and enjoy forever.You can frame any tweet you want, or pick one from our gallery of tweets from Twitter icons like Kanye West), Donald Trump, or Elon Musk. They come in three styles: Ornate Gold, Sleek Black, and Giant Canvases (which fill an entire wall)!We launched in May of 2017, grossing about $20k in our first year, followed by $110k in 2018. We’re on track to double that in 2019 as we continue to scale our advertising.Our productWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I dreamed up the idea for Framed Tweets a year prior to starting it.It was December 2015, and I was holed up in my room, avoiding the New Year’s party my parents were hosting downstairs. I was scrolling through Twitter, when suddenly, I thought, “what if you could frame a tweet?” (Honestly, that’s how most ideas come about, at least for me. They just randomly happen.)I looked all over the internet. I couldn’t believe that there was no website that frames tweet. Excited about a potentially great idea, but with zero intention of ever starting a business, I wrote it down in my notes app as one of those funny “what ifs,” and completely forgot about it.Later that year, after graduating from film school in Boston, I worked on a food truck for a few months, until I eventually got tired of making sandwiches and wanted a change of pace. That winter, I moved to Portland, Oregon.I didn’t have a job. I just walked around and worked on music all day. I had a few thousand saved up from my previous internet ventures (I had a large YouTube following and monetized some Twitter accounts, which I sold), but money eventually started running out, so one rainy day in February, I set out to find a job. I printed out my resume and took it to a bunch of restaurants, hoping to be a busboy or something. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any experience in the industry, and although there was a brewery that seemed sort of promising, I felt awful. Getting a “normal job” felt like giving up. I walked home dejected and unsure about my future.On my way home, I encountered a man on the sidewalk who was selling homemade Sudoku puzzles for $5 each. After my near-resignation to a life of transporting dirty dishes, seeing this man on the street selling something he made—without permission from anyone—was striking. With more curiosity than I’ve ever had in my life, I asked him if he was making a living selling these puzzles. He told me he makes enough to get by, and that was all I needed to know.I walked away with a new outlook on life. Before talking to that guy, I had never, EVER dreamed of starting my own business, and now, I was 10,000% confident that I could make a living selling something myself. If some guy selling Sudoku puzzles on the street could eek out a living, anything was possible.I opened the notes app on my phone, tapped on my ‘Ideas’ folder, and the first thing I saw was a note that I had written a year prior, which simply read: ‘framed tweets.’ I hurried back to my apartment and started working on Framed Tweets that afternoon.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.I knew I wanted to keep things simple. I didn’t want to overwhelm people with twenty different styles of frames. I wanted to start with one beautiful, ornate gold frame that suits tweets perfectly.At first, I considered buying from an American picture frame company, but I couldn’t find any ornate frames that were sold in bulk. I did some research and found that Alibaba was a good place to buy a wide variety of picture frames in bulk. I requested samples from a few companies, picked out the one I liked best, and ordered 500 of them with the last of my savings.Good thing my building had a freight elevator.Note: the frame wasn’t completely off-the-shelf. We paid extra for a few custom nuances, like using real glass, a thicker backboard, and adding an easel to allow for propping. We also designed it with rotatable tabs to make it extra easy to insert tweets (a style that’s surprisingly uncommon in American picture frames).Describe the process of launching the business.At first, I had no idea you could easily sell stuff online. Inspired by the guy selling the puzzles, and eager to make sales right away, I started selling them on the sidewalks of Portland.I found some used frames at a thrift store, picked out some funny tweets, printed them at FedEx Office, and lined them up on NW 23rd Ave.The business was nice enough to let me use their staircase.I didn’t sell many—maybe six or seven, total—but the response was overwhelmingly positive. Groups of teenage girls Snapchatted them. Dignified old men carefully studied the tweets, as if it were the MoMA. Some people scowled. But almost everyone laughed. That’s how I knew I had a good idea on my hands.Tired of unsuccessfully hawking tweets on the street, I decided to try selling them online. My first mistake? Spending two months and $2,000 trying to get some guy on Upwork to build an e-commerce site from scratch, because I had no idea something like Shopify existed. Lesson learned!My first mockup.Once I discovered Shopify, I spent about two months getting the site ready: Taking product photos, curating tweets, organizing them into categories, writing a FAQ page, etc. Finally, it was ready to go.Working on the website.I launched the website on May 5th. That night, I tweeted the link to some random people who I found by searching Twitter for “frame this tweet.” The next morning, I woke up to find Framed Tweets featured on Product Hunt, Mashable, Uncrate, and a few other websites. (My favorite article came out a few months later, in which I had some fun embellishing to Portland’s Willamette Week.)While that press led to about 100 initial sales (~$5,000 worth), the traffic eventually fizzled out, and I was back to square one.Fulfilling orders from my apartment.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?The #1 most important thing you can do is find a way to consistently get people onto your site. Press is no substitute—even if your store gets featured in the New York Times, the traffic is still going to wither away a few days later, and then you’re back to square one. Which is why a “scalable marketing machine” (Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, etc.) is so important.Instagram AdsThese have been our bread and butter, and 90% of our sales are attributed to them (in fact, we’re not even advertising on Facebook at the moment, because the return on Instagram has been so much better).One of our best-performing Instagram ads.Just regular ol’ InstagramJust posting to Instagram has worked pretty well. Sometimes I’ll post a photo of a product and we’ll get three or four sales. Other times, nothing will happen. Instagram is unpredictable like that. But I also haven’t been putting as much effort into crafting beautiful photos, which the algorithm loves—that’s been on my perennial to-do list.TwitterI’ll let this screenshot do the talkingPressWe’ve been featured on a few big sites, like Mashable, Hypebeast, and GQ France. We didn’t do any PR outreach—it all just happened randomly. I’d love to get some more press, so if you write for the New York Times and want to write a story about how tweets are changing the art game, hit me up :)InfluencersWe occasionally send free framed tweets to people with lots of followers on Twitter or Instagram. Sometimes, they tweet about it, although we don’t ask them to.It’s hard to know exactly how many sales this kind of thing yields, but I feel like it’s a pretty good long-term strategy, building awareness and whatnot.Email marketingThis is something that we haven’t invested much in yet, but are looking to build up soon. If you’re interested in working with us on this, please get in touch!Other sales channelsOur Etsy store makes up about 5% of our sales. What’s nice is that they’re all organic sales from search (in other words, people searching for “Kanye West gifts” as opposed to ), so since we’re not spending any money on marketing there, profit is higher.We occasionally get sales from Amazon and eBay too, although our presence on those sites isn’t built up much yet.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Things are going pretty well!Sales are steadily increasing as we scale our Instagram ads. We’re grossing about $20k per month from Instagram ads, spending about $300/day. Our ROAS hovers around 2.Operations-wise, we now work with a fulfillment center that prints, frames, and ships all of our products, so I don’t have to handle any of that myself anymore, which allows me the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.I’m also working on growing my other business, Memes On Canvas, spearheading the internet-content-turned-IRL-art industry :)Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Working with a marketing agency has been huge. At first, I spent weeks trying to figure out how to run Facebook ads myself, but I honestly didn’t have the patience or experience to do them myself. Once I hired an agency, it made a huge difference, and sales started to really take off in a reliable way.Broadly-speaking, there are always going to be new and unexpected challenges. For example, the exact day I started Framed Tweets, Kanye West deleted his Twitter. Which meant manually re-creating all of his now-deleted tweets people were buying. Or a few months later, when Twitter changed the entire design of tweets, and we had to re-upload hundreds of product images (this will probably happen again soon). Or the many times we’ve failed to order inventory on time, and had a hundred upset customers pissed off about not getting their order in time for Christmas. There are always going to “speedbumps” on the road to success in any endeavor, which I view as a way the universe “teases” you, simply to prove your dedication to achieving what you want.I’ve also learned that business isn’t some boring thing that involves just filling out a bunch of forms, which is a misconception lots of beginners seem to have. It’s actually more like a form of art. Essentially, every problem can be solved with creativity, which is why I think that being open-minded and thinking expansively are two of the most valuable assets that you can have. I believe that everyone is fundamentally creative in their own way, which means that anyone can succeed at business if theyDo things “the hard way” first, then look for easier ways as you goIn the early days, I printed all of the orders at FedEx Office, took them back to my apartment to frame them, then carried the boxes to the post office. When that started taking too much time, I bought a professional-grade printer and discovered that USPS will pick up from your home, for free (!).When that started taking too much time, I found a fulfillment center to print/frame/ship orders, which now allows me to run the business from anywhere in the world, and scale it up to the moon.Don’t bother keeping your amazing idea a secret.Before I started Framed Tweets, I was scared to tell people about my idea, because I was afraid they would steal it. Now, I can’t believe how silly that was. Over the past year, there have been a few copycat businesses, but they’ve all given up. Execution is everything.Honestly? This is the first time we’ve published our revenue publically, and now that we’ve done so, I hope people compete with us. I think people are starting to get tired of looking at screens 24/7, and will appreciate more opportunities to bring the internet content they love most into their physical, tangible world. The more the merrier.What platform/tools do you use for your business?I’m always experimenting with new apps, but here are my tried-and-true favorites:Shopify. I wouldn’t even consider using anything else to run an e-commerce store. Worth it for the 3 A.M. support calls alone.The Shopify theme Turbo. Blazing fast, looks amazing, tons of features, constantly being updated.Hypervisual for landing pages, and to spruce up the collection and product pages. I tested DOZENS of landing page builders for Shopify, and Hypervisual is by FAR the best. I love it so much.Klaviyo for emailFera.ai for checkout page adjustments, social proof pop-ups on the site, and “get it by” shipping countdowns.Okendo for customer reviews.Onlinejobs.ph for hiring Filipino virtual assistants. $2 USD/hr is actually a competitive wage there because the cost of living is so low.Lucky Orange for heatmaps, to help with improving our conversion rate.LiveRecover for texting customers who abandon their cart with a coupon code. We just started experimenting with this, but it seems promising.Snappic - Automated retargeting ads for Facebook and Instagram. Has driven a consistent ROI for us.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The War of Art - The Bible of creative productivity.Derek Sivers’ blog - Wisdom that applies to both art and business.My Uncle Oswald - Did you know Roald Dahl wrote books for adults, too? This is one of the most entertaining stories I’ve ever read, and it contains wildly potent lessons in entrepreneurialism.The Millionaire Fastlane - This book is aimed at people who want to break out of the 9 to 5 world, but I’d recommend it solely because it made me completely rethink wealth, and what it takes to become rich.The ONE Thing - When I was trying to do a bunch of things at once and was having trouble deciding what to focus on, this book helped a lot.The Philosophy of Andy Warhol - “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Find amazing people to work with.One good way to run a successful business is to outsource everything to people who are better at it than you. How to find them? Talk to people, and they’ll surprise you. Some examples from my life:A few months after starting the business, I made a post on reddit asking for help marketing Framed Tweets, and I met a guy named Max, who runs a marketing agency called Paradise Growth. He’s not only been running all of our ads campaigns ever since, but has also taught me almost everything I know about business along the way (for example, without his guidance, I wouldn’t have even known to look for a fulfillment center, and I’d probably still be packing orders from my apartment!).Last summer, after emailing a customer apologizing for his order being late, he referred me to his friend’s fulfillment center that could handle our volume. We’re still working with them to this day.I even met a girl on Tinder, and instead of going on a date, she ended up helping me with an influencer campaign!With the entire world at your fingertips, and with basically zero effort or risk in chatting someone up in the DMs, you might as well talk to as many people as possible. You never know who you might hit it off with and end up changing your life.If you don’t have traffic, you won’t get sales.I used to freak out when I wouldn’t get any sales all day—despite only getting like, 30 visitors—and think “what the hell am I doing wrong? Maybe no one likes my product. Maybe changing the font will help. Or maybe making the logo cooler…”Turns out, I just wasn’t getting enough people onto the site. That’s where the scalable marketing machine comes in (Instagram ads in our case).I forget where I heard this quote—and I’m definitely butchering the phrasing—but it goes something like:No marketing leads to no sales. Some marketing leads to some sales. And lots of marketing leads to lots of sales.Success isn’t always overnight, and it usually takes a hell of a lot of problem-solving and persistence than you expect. I truly expected Framed Tweets to be an overnight sensation, and to make millions of dollars immediately. That didn’t happen, and two years later, it’s basically just starting to be profitable. Patience is key. But it’s easy to be patient when you enjoy the challenge. Which leads me to...Do something you actually like doing! This might be obvious to some people, and it might not apply to people who can easily tolerate anything in the pursuit of money. But personally, I can’t fully invest my time and energy in something unless I love it. I’ve always been a huge fan of Twitter. It’s my cup of tea, and selling tweets is the most exciting business I can imagine.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?We’re hiring for a few positions (all paid):Facebook ads managerFacebook funnel strategistPart-time marketing data analystEmail marketing strategist and (short-form) copywriterWhere can we go to learn more?Website: framedtweets.comEmail me, zach@framedtweets.comIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM