Online Selling - Time Saving Tips For The Holiday Season

Last year my Etsy shop was much busier during October, November and December of the year before and this sudden turnaround caught me completely by surprise. In an effort this year to avoid the stress caused by my unpreparedness last year, I've made up a holiday to-do list for Jacaranda Designs.

1. Post shipping deadlines
To avoid repeat emails from customers asking about shipping deadlines for Christmas, I'm going to post all this info my Etsy shop. I'm specifying for each major region of the world, what the shipping cut-off date is for items to arrive before December 24th.

2. Buy my supplies early
Instead of being disappointed and finding out that major suppliers have tons of items on back-order, I've taken advantage of the slow summer season to purchase my materials.

3. Make up my stock before October.
Last year I was caught making way to many pieces of jewelry into the wee hours of the night. This year I bought my supplies early (during July and August) and spent much of August designing new pieces of jewelry. At the moment I am busy making up the new designs and they will all be complete by October.

4. Order More Business Cards
I won't run out of these again!

5. Order Packaging
I've ordered bubble envelopes, jewelry boxes, ribbon, tissue and stickers all ready to package my goodies.

6. Photograph EVERYTHING
I'm busy doing this right now - my dining room has been taken over by light boxes, cameras and lights but I'm determined to get everything photographed hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

7. PROMOTE
Hopefully if I can get all of this done, then I can use my time to promote my jewelry. After all, unless you have people visiting your shop, everything else is in vain. I need to figure out my advertising budget, scope out where I'd like to advertise Jacaranda Designs and go ahead and book my slots.