Business Update

Well I thought I would post an update on my little business since it seems to be one of the main things on my mind these days. It's been a month and a half since I've started and this is where it's at. Things are going really well and I'm really excited about the present as well as the future. I'm learning lots and still have so... much to learn. I've had great feedback and customers responses.

Here's the breakdown:

Customers: I just checked and so far I have 37 completed/ paid orders as well as several in process. I'm really happy with this total in such a short amount of time. For the past couple of weeks I've been getting at least an order a day. Some days when I think it's been slow and I'm about to turn in, I check my e-mail before bed and sure enough, a new order! The majority of my order have been from Ontario. However, I have had orders from BC, Alberta, Sask, Man, On and New Brunswick. The most popular cities seem to be Kamloops, Saskatoon, Burlington and Fredericton...just thought that was interesting. So far I have had one customer that I actually know (thanks to my facebook group)

Advertising: This has got to be the hardest part. I've been trying to be creative and think of different ways to market. Here's what I got so far:
1. Kijiji: This is where the vast majority of my customers have found me.
2. Referrrals: I've had 2 already! Yahoo!
3. Google search: Since I'm on a webs host it is VERY hard to be found by doing a random search. However, I have had 2 people find me this way.
4. Mom/ Parent Sales: I have registered for 2 sales already. One just around the corner and one in St. Catharines. It's $25-40 for a table and each sale normally has about 300 people come through. They are both advertised well and hit my prime market. So I've been printing out samples as I go and trying to put together small sample albums. While there is a cost to this, thankfully it is minimal. If I do several show/ sales then it also gets more use out of my albums, display stuff, making it more worthwhile.
5. I have connected with a couple of businesses in the area to share website links and information. I usually get a couple of website hits a day through this.
6. I have partnered with a Toronto photographer for advertising purposes as well. I was hoping for someone local but no one replied or responded to my ads. Anyways, this girl is really excited about it and I think it will be a good match. We're doing quite a few things, including website links. She's also giving me photo files to showcase on my samples, which will be much better than some of the stuff people send me. She is also offering my clients discounts for her services and contacting all of her previous clients to make them aware of my business, etc. I think it should be good.
7. I have a facebook group. I wasn't going to do this. But figured that I would be an idiot not to.
8. I have set up a Twitter account and am getting "followers". I didn't want to do this either, but figured that it couldn't hurt.
9. Etsy. I will probably post a few things on here once I have my website completed.

The more that I do the faster that it's getting, amazing! I am still doing lots of custom orders, however, the larger my gallery is, the more people just say "I'd like the ___________ design." Then I tweek it to make it work for their photos, info, etc.

What's the next step? Well, I'm still working on researching a better website. I think I've found a template design that I like and it's much cheaper than anything custom. I am currently looking at different hosts with shopping cart options, etc. Like I said, I'm learning so much! This is a whole new world for me. I'm glad that I have a pool of profits that I can now reinvest into making this what I want it to be. After not even 2 months of very part time work, this makes me really happy.

One of the last things to figure out is a new business name. Since I will be getting my own .com or.ca domain name I need to find something that is available, easy to remember, simple, not babyish as well as sounds good. Easier said than done! I am having such a hard time with this. So far pretty much all I've got is something like ________designs or __________creative, I really don't know. The one name that just came to me and is totally available is Dolcetto Designs, so www.dolcettodesigns.com Dolcetto is a grape variety and means sweet and simple, I thought this was fitting considering our circumstances and plans. It's also unique! Hmmm...

I would love any ideas or suggestions that you may have! The website design is blue and browns with circle type designs (if that helps inspire). I want this all to be up and running by mid to end of August. As I want to have my new name, matching website/ documents, etc by the parent/ baby sales.

Anyways, that's the deal for now. So exciting! I'm thrilled that this is working out and that people are responding so well.

I welcome any suggestions that you may have for me!