areyoumissingpieces

[areyoumissingpieces]

I had my first successful show ever! It was called the Harvest Moon Bazaar and was located at an event center.  

When I was driving there it was advertised on the sign on a very busy street. The past shows I have done really haven’t been advertised.  There was very little traffic, and in some instances very few vendors. This was definitely the best advertising I’d seen for an event I was vending. 

I was very intimidated unloading my little Honda.  There were people unloading full on trucks and I’m there in my little, stuffed sedan.  I get inside and the people vending on one side of me are already fully set up.  I take a step back and see my sixish totes, three tables, chair, and one earring display.  I look at the person on my other side who has at least two or three times as many things. I had to tell myself over and over again that I have a right to be here and I am good enough to be here.  No one said anything to me that made me feel that way. It’s just that little anxious voice in my head.  A lot of what I have to sell is very small. It looks like I’m not bringing much but once it’s out I can fill a 10ft square no problem. 

I got myself all set up and had to calm down a little bit. I started on another brick stitch earring project and I had brought my bluetooth speaker.  I kept the volume very low. I don’t think anyone could hear it but me. The speakers lo fi jazz calmed me down and allowed me to start enjoying the sale! 

I had a friend that messaged me she was going to swing by.  I was surprised when she stayed and helped me chat up some customers.  I have worked retail for years but there is a change when it comes to talking up your own product that I have yet to master. I don’t want to come off bragging but maybe I need to. I’m going to do some research to prepare for the next one. 

The foot traffic was fairly steady most of the day.  I ended with 27 sales! My record for sales at a show up to that point was like 4.   My best sellers were the stretch rings, gothic chokers, and Pokemon/MTG $1 packs of cards.  I am so proud of myself!  The lady vending next to me had a really good sales day and at the end she said, “I’m sorry you didn’t have a very good sales day.”  

I responded, “This is the best show I have ever been to!” While I did not sell nearly as much as she did I had my personal best sales day. I needed that so bad!

#success story #small business #handmade #tcg

[areyoumissingpieces]

About the Past

Brain empty and bursting at the same time. Tonight I looked at my list of topics but don’t know where to dive in.  A lot of my little suggestions are about the past.  I want to share my past because I think I have some seriously entertaining stories and have learned a lot through experience.  At the same time I don’t want to live in the past. 

One of my friends has a whole lot of trauma in her past. Every time I see her she seems to rehash some portion of it.  It’s hard to watch knowing I can’t do anything but listen.  I don’t want to focus so much on the past that it steals time from the present.  Yet I am writing and rehashing the past frequently.  I guess I might be trying to retrace my steps to see how I got here;  maybe I want to see just how far I really have come.  Maybe that’s what she’s doing too. Maybe I will be able to leave the past in the past better once I have written it all down.

#the past #past experiences #living in the past

[areyoumissingpieces]

Dream Journal Entry #1

Last night I had a dream that I was at a basketball game.  The venue had several rows of bleachers and a nice food court area.  I was hungry so my friend brought me over to Soft Top Cupcakes. Soft Top Cupcakes serves specialty hot dogs and soft top cupcakes.   What is a soft top cupcake? No idea.  I was waiting on the other side of the roped off line with my friend on the inside in line. I was trying to get her to order her food and mine together then I would hand her my card. The other folks in the actual line weren’t happy about that.  I went to the back of the line.  When it came time to order I was flustered and confused.  I quickly said just one special hot dog and soda.  The food arrived instantly.  It was a normal hot dog but swimming in a specialty sauce that looked like thousand island dressing.  We proceeded to make our way up the bleachers. These were the ones with some significant gaps. Where dropped items just go straight under the bleachers.  Well something happened and there went my hot dog. Down to the land under the bleachers. I was upset and embarrassed and hungry. That’s when I realized I never ordered my soft top cupcake.  

Cool story bro.

#cool story bro #dream #dream journal

[areyoumissingpieces]

10 posts!

#10 posts #tumblr milestone

[areyoumissingpieces]

Oh the Advertising Woes

I don’t think it is possible for me to grow organically. I feel like you have to be lucky with the algorithm of all the sites, an overnight social media star, or know enough influential people to talk about your business in order to make it successful organically.

I have had over one thousand sales and a total of three of those were on my own website.  The rest of these were from ebay, tcgplayer, at shows, and through my wholesale account. I know the product I’m selling is good.  It moves on third party sites and at the store where my wholesale account is.  The product I sell is in a pretty saturated market online, but I am comforted by the fact that it is successful in some locations.  Naturally I want more sales going through my website where I have way fewer fees than at shows, on other websites, or at a wholesale rate. I just need some well placed advertising and I think I will be on my way. 

I have been trying to promote myself on tiktok, instagram, and facebook. Most of my followers are friends and family. I love that they support me but I’m not reaching buyers.  

I also have a fairly decent presence on Pinterest.  I can see on my analytics that people do go to my website from there.  My first sale on my website was thanks to a pin. That only happened once in 2018. It is now 2023. 

Now I am on tumblr as yet another attempt to promote myself for free.  Truth be told, I’m also on tumblr because it is nice to get all these thoughts out of my head and onto a page. I hope it will help me think clearer and maybe give me a few customers.

I use business cards to help promote myself.  They have some basic information and a QR code to make it easy for people to access my website.  I throw a business card in every sale I make on ebay, tcgplayer, or at shows. I always keep a few in my phone case in case I bump into someone who asks if I have a website. If I am at a coffee shop or someplace that has a local bulletin board where people can put business cards I will put one of mine up. When I go to physical shows I also have my business cards available for people to grab. Some of my wonderful family and friends have received a little handful to disperse if they desire.  I think there have been a few visits to my site from all of these different approaches but no sales. 

 I would love for my business to grow organically through any of my existing channels but I don’t think that is likely. At least in the last five years of me attempting organic growth it really hasn’t happened. 

The problem is I am a little bit spooked by advertising. I hate having to give a company money to force ads in front of people. I don’t particularly like ads most of the time.  Sometimes I see a product I like and look at the website but know I’m not going to get anything. I worry that will be the mindset of most people.  “Oh look!” They’d think, “That stuff is amazing! I love that! I can’t afford luxuries right now. I could make that.” I don’t want to spend money on so many maybes.  

I’ve also worked for a few online companies that have gone down the advertising path.  I’m a little bit scared by their experiences. One company did mail out fliers.  I have no idea how much they spent, but they got two customers out of the deal.  The same company also paid to have a couple page blurb in a business magazine. That, as far as I can tell, did not drum up any business.  Another company hired a professional marketing  team.  This did result in a huge bump in business.  It also resulted in way more work while only breaking even. They were never able to profit out of it and have some regrets about how much they spent.  These stories do make me worry about the validity of marketing campaigns. I know everyone has their own advertising stories, and just because the people in my life haven’t had a very good result with advertising doesn’t mean I won’t.

 I was worried for a long time that I don’t have enough merchandise available online and was embarrassed at the idea of promoting it. After my last show, in May, I realized that I do have enough merchandise posted.  I have mailed so many orders now I am confident in my systems I have in place.  I AM ready for business.  I need to put on my boss lady kick ass pants and get my first advertising campaign rolling! Let’s aim for the beginning of October. Please hold me accountable for this statement. Stay tuned for updates!

#advertising #marketing #self promotion #small business #social media #the struggle is real #organic growth

[areyoumissingpieces]

Other People Can Do, Why Can't I?

RANT WARNING

Social media is rough on self esteem. Even before social media I had some of the same feelings.  People are killing it out there so why can't I? People my age are doctors, lawyers, successful small business owners, Olympic medalists ect. I know social media tends to show only the positive, most brag worthy things, but man it’s hard to see the road these people took to get to where they are today.  

Today I was watching some tips and tricks to help me with my next event I will be vending at.  These youtubers, sigh. One lady grew up with parents who vended events for years. At the beginning of her business she was able to piggyback off of her parents' booth. Her first show was very successful. Another lady said that she always had more success at smaller events. To her credit she did say that it is different for everyone. For me I’ve only been able to attend small shows where I’m lucky if I break even.  Small shows means less competition among vendors but also fewer shoppers. Larger shows you run into market saturation. I’m not sure what to think. Maybe the shows I go to are bad? What makes a show bad?

I’ve been following a couple of small business owners on Instagram. I swear every time they launch a new product it is sold out in a matter of a few hours.  How did they get to that stage? I recently posted a bunch of merchandise on my website but nobody wants it or knows about it?   How do I get to that stage where I drop new products then, BOOM it’s sold out? 

I know there are a lot of people out there who make a living off their youtube channel, books, podcasts, ect.  I just don’t know what these people have that makes them so successful.  I still work occasionally for another company that transitioned to online when COVID hit.  They have AMAZING paint tutorial videos! Originally they had posted all their painting tutorials on youtube. People could purchase the box that had all the supplies in it so they could generate some money. However, people didn’t.  Times are hard. A lot of people bought their own supplies and followed the tutorial.  My bosses were not able to get much, if any, financial compensation for their hard work this way.  They now have their videos private with ways to purchase them so they can have some compensation. The point here is that there are other people who do paint tutorials and have all of these followers and patreon subscriptions and make good money.  Their videos are free for people to watch but they have somehow cracked the code on how to monetize them without charging every person who views their content.  

I’ve been plugging away at my business for five years now and am coming to a point where I’m not sure I can do it.  I’ve got a website, social media accounts, in person events, a wholesale account, and other platforms that my items are listed on and yet I’m struggling.  Is there some amount of luck? Am I cursed?  Am I praying to the wrong gods? Am I not supposed to be doing this? Am I holding myself back? Is fear in there somewhere?  Is it something I can’t control like the economy, or people’s taste? Is it an easy fix that I am unaware of? I know running a small business is difficult and taxing. I wasn’t expecting it to be a walk in the park.  I know many small business owners feel the same way I do. I just hope I can figure something out and share the solution.  After all, other people are running successful small businesses. Why can’t I?

#rant post #small business #social media #struggle #confused #youtube #help me understand #what am i missing #craft show

[areyoumissingpieces]

Future of My Business

I've been thinking a lot about the future of Missing Pieces? LLC. Is it going to be primarily online? Will I vend at events? Will I get a brick and mortar store? Will I get a warehouse or office? Will I be primarily on ebay and tcgplayer.com . Will I close my website? Will I vend at events? Options, options, options...

Currently I work from home. I store things in my office, living room and garage. It is getting a bit crowded but still manageable. If I had enough sales to move and have a larger office area, like a bonus room, I think I could be very happy. Right now I process all my sales in my office but do most of my work in my living room. My situation is pretty good, other than slow sales. I have a website, areyoumissingpieces.com that generates almost no sales, a tcgplayer account that generates most of my sales, an ebay account that generates a few sales, and have vended a few shows with just a couple of sales. Maybe the holiday events will generate enough income to sustain the business until next year. 

I could be happy in a physical location in a cute downtown area. I used to run a 700 square foot toys, comic, and game store out at the beach and absolutely loved it!

I could be happy in a warehouse type location. For the last three years I have been working part-time in warehouses and find that enjoyable as well.

I could be happy living on some land with a storefront and warehouse on the property. I have dreamed of this scenario many times where I have a little store on the front of a warehouse style building. I would tend to customers in the store. People could pick up items they ordered in the store. I could also ship items out of the warehouse area.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbb cue cat on the keyboard. Thanks for your input Langston.

It will be interesting to see which path I go down, or if there is an option that opens that I never thought could. Will I publish a book? Will I make comics? Will I do some animations? Will I make videos for social media? Will I be a youtuber?

For now I need to take a deep breath. None of these changes are going to happen overnight. A decision does not need to be made any time soon. I will continue to take time to explore these options more as I go.

#small business #sales

[areyoumissingpieces]

First Farmers Market Thoughts

Facebook post from May 29,2011

I need to make money, but i cant get a summer job cause i'm goin to be gone for 6 weeks of the summer!! WHAT DO I DO!!??!??!?!?!?!?

I've always been a fan of unnecessary, additional punctuation.

Several friends posted on this saying I should make and sell stuff at the farmers market. I loved that idea. I had attended the farmers market many times and thought of all the things I could make. I know I started pumping out friendship bracelets and maybe a few other little crafts. I'm not sure if I didn't follow through because I didn't think I could do it, or if my parents wouldn't allow me. Either way it never happened.

Fast forward 12 years. I still have never vended at a farmers market. I've done a few other events but not the farmers market. I really thought it was going to happen this summer. The cost of the tent, signage, tables, booth fee, and filling out the application spooked me away. Maybe next year I will finally do it.

#small business #childhood memories

[areyoumissingpieces]

My First Sale, Kind Of

Middle elementary school me really liked drawing, coloring, painting, friendship bracelet making, and poster making using Microsoft Publisher. After making these things for a while I decided that I could sell them.

I spent many hours that summer making things to sell. If something didn't turn out how I wanted it to I would just think to myself, "Someone out there will like it." and proceed to throw it in the inventory shoe box.

For multiple weekends during that summer my dad would help me set up a little pop up booth at the end of the driveway. He would set up two sawhorses and lay a long piece of plywood over it for a makeshift table. I would then set up my kid sized folding chair and lay out all the things that I had made.

I lived on a cul-de-sac off a very busy street. There was almost no traffic. I realized the second or third time that people weren't going to be able to find me. I asked my parents if I could set up a sign at the end of the street but they said no. That didn't stop me from continuing to sit out there hoping for someone to come by.

One day my elderly neighbor across the street came over. I was so excited. He gave me a dollar! I told him to pick out whatever he liked. He politely refused. I was confused but was happy for my first sale!

Looking back it was probably a pity sale but I had to start somewhere.

I wonder if this was how Eugene Krabs started out? A little stand at the end of his driveway wishing for someone to come buy something. He did frame his first fish dollar. I wish I'd framed my first dollar. Meh, who am I kidding? I was young and am sure that money went towards candy or toys!

#small business #childhood memories #entrepreneur #first sale

[areyoumissingpieces]

Traveling Sales

Another early elementary school memory was with a friend. It was summer and we were trying to find something to do. We made little drawings of some sort and walked around the block yelling, "Buy one, get one free art!" Naturally the art was bad and there was no one out. Eventually her older sister came around and told us we had no idea what buy one, get one free meant. I'm pretty sure we were planning on giving people two of these drawings for the cost of one.

#small business #childhood memories

[areyoumissingpieces]

The Beginning of Selling

The first memory I have of trying to sell something was at church. I had just received a French knitting tool that was bright green. I proudly waltzed around with this and a green skein of yarn. The knitting tool came with a booklet of ideas. I showed all the Sunday school kids the book and asked if they wanted me to make them anything. Many were as enthusiastic as I was. They picked out what they wanted me to make. I was so excited, until it came time to actually do it. I promptly lost interest and the items were never made and money was never collected. Honestly, I don't remember if money was even discussed. It was a LONG time ago. I'm sorry to those few people out there who wanted one, I dropped the ball.

#first attempt #the beginning #childhood memories

[areyoumissingpieces]

Missing Pieces? The Name Story

It was winter break 2016. I had just graduated college and was in Twin Falls, Idaho for Christmas with my family. I was in the car with my mom driving down Eastland Drive talking about how I wanted to open a business. I was telling her how I didn't have a lot of money I could spend on dense board games like Dominion, Arkham Horror, Agricola and others that cost over fifty dollars. I wanted to be able to purchase these games used, but was worried they wouldn't have all the pieces. I was lucky and found a used copy of Dominion that had all the cards in it just a few months prior to this conversation. I was so excited! I couldn't stop thinking about how I enjoyed checking to see if everything was there and where I could find replacement pieces or cards had it been missing any. Then I realized I could be that business! Is there a better name out there for a business that sells replacement game pieces than Missing Pieces? I don't think so. I also liked the versatility of the name. Pieces could refer to things people collect, choreographed works, art, furniture, and games. It was perfect!

#small business #small business ideas #origin story

[areyoumissingpieces]

The Current Bottom Line

I started my business Missing Pieces? LLC in December 2017. My business sells Pokemon cards, Magic the Gathering cards, and assorted crafts and jewelry pieces. Visit my website www.areyoumissingpieces.com to check out the merchandise. Shameless plug right here.

I quit having a formal job that was more than 14 hours a week in 2021. I've been working as hard as I can while trying to balance social life and maintaining the household.

This year to date I've worked about 730 hours. I've made 408 sales and just under $2000. My average sale is just under $5.   I’m not going to mention how much money I’ve invested. My hourly rate is $2.60. The last time the minimum wage was $2.60 was in 1978. I would be killing it in 1978. However, it is 2022 and the minimum wage in Oregon is $14.20. I could be making more cashiering at Target.

I have just under $6000 in inventory right now. If I sell all that that would be the equivalent to 422 hours before tax at minimum wage. It is a lot of work for not a lot of money. I don't feel comfortable raising my prices on my crafted items because NO ONE is going to be able to afford them.

My current situation comes with a lot of pros and cons. I do not want to close my business, I just need to think through some things.

Pros:

My husband has a wonderful job that makes enough money for us to have a comfortable life.

I work from home.

I set my own hours.

I am my own boss.

I don't need to get approval from anyone to make decisions about my business.

I do make money. The business is technically working just not well.

My business has been around for over 5 years.

I have built up quite the stockpile of supplies.

It can be very rewarding.

I love what I do.

I am very proud of all the progress that has been made through the years. I did that! Me! By myself!

Cons:

Moving into a larger house and paying off loans without a good income from me is going to take a very, very long time. Student debt is no joke. More on that later.

I am my own boss. This is both. I am a mean boss to myself at times.

There is no one to pawn off unpleasant tasks or deal with difficult situations and decisions.

It is a lot of work for one person. I love working hard but man sometimes it's just too much.

It can be very discouraging.

Feeling like I'm not doing enough, or doing it wrong, or missing something because I'm not seeing a monetary return on my time I've invested.

I struggle setting boundaries with people because I don't have a formal job. I feel like I can't say I have to work when I am invited to do something. I am a highly sensitive person and don't want people to think my business is more important to me than their friendship.

I have a lot of supplies and unprocessed inventory taking up space in my home.

I don't have a normal job.

I don’t get the external validation or recognition for my hard work.

I'm never really off work. There's always more to do and it takes up mental space.

Possible Solutions

Get a part time job to supplement some income for moving and loan payments

Make items that take less time that I can charge more for.

Advertise? Move some of that inventory.

Try different mediums that have a higher return.

Learn to be content with things the way they are.

I know that I am very fortunate and privileged to be where I am doing what I am doing. I feel like I have no right to complain about things but at the same time I do have a right to feel my feelings and express them here.

#small business #bottom line #struggle #real life

[areyoumissingpieces]

Are you missing pieces? I know that I am. I am already embarrassed even attempting to blog away the confusion and frustration I've felt. Who knows, maybe by the end of this I will have sorted something out for myself. Maybe even have a contribution to this crazy planet, or help someone else out there struggling. Even one person would be so wonderful for my heart.

Creativity is frustrating. I’ve tried being creative in many mediums and have had little success, lots of heart break yet I am resilient for some reason and am still exploring more mediums in which to work.

Maybe with a little luck and some thoughts written out I can find that missing piece or missing pieces I've been looking for.

#selfdiscovery #self improvement #starting something new #creative journey