Back to Business

Well, we had a very nice, relaxing vacation. Caught up with family and friends. Now it's back to work! I came back from the 2 week trip ready to go. Nothing like a listing hiatus to recharge the batteries!

We got home mid-day yesterday and the first question was...where do I begin!?! I knew that jet lag would set in early evening, so Hubby and I decided that shipping was the first order of business. As you can see from the above picture, we had a few things sell while we were away. I have 3 more little packages to do up and add to that pile.

It took me awhile to figure out how to handle the vacation and the status of my stores. In the end, I did what I normally do, which seems to work fine. I put my stores on 'vacation mode' with my listings still visible. When I get sales, I immediately email the customer, double checking that they noticed the vacation notice. Then I state that I will promptly ship on...(whatever date, in this case June 30th). I try to avoid language like, "I can't ship until...". I try to focus on the positive. "We will ship promptly on June 30th".

If I receive an offer on an item, I send a counter offer with a note. Even if my counter offer is only 1 cent different, I send it with a similar note as above. I tell them that if the delay is okay with them, to go ahead and accept the offer.

Most of my buyers responded back with a 'No problem. I saw (or didn't see) the notice. It's fine, have a great trip'. I will probably email everyone again today, reminding them of the vacation, and assuring them that their packages are shipping as promised.

This only works since I had continuous access to the internet on this trip. It may not work for every vacation. Communication is the key. It's a bit of work, but I was glad to have made about $250 while I was away.

So what's next? LISTING, of course. I had a bit of a backlog before I left and then of course I thrifted like a crazy woman while on the trip. And hubby was available to go with me, so we had DOUBLE the finds. Get this, we came home with TWO extra suitcases!!

I will share some of my finds once they are unpacked, but here are a few things that I should have listed before I left and didn't get to it. I will try to do them today.

I have 3 similar Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirts that need to get listed yesterday.

And I found these 2 Illy Collection espresso cups. They are great sellers...and no one had these particular ones listed when I left.

Ok, ok..I'll stop yammering and get to work! I'll share some of my vacation finds later on this week when they're unpacked.

The Recycle-ista is On Vacation!!

Sorry! I meant to share this tidbit before I left...but you know how packing and last-minute stuff goes!

We are back on the East Coast visiting family and will be back at the end of the month. I promise to share about my booth in the antique store when I get back. :)

Also, I've been thrifting...but have not been finding anything SUPER-DUPER great....wait, I take that back! I found a Dansk Kobenstyle pot. My first. It's yellow and it's without a lid. Still pretty exciting.

Can't wait to catch up on all your finds when I get back as well!!

Happy thrifting!

SIMPLIFY

Simplify.
This is something I have a hard time with. I don't think I'm alone.

Back in March, look at what I was doing...trying to figure out how to balance FOUR online stores!! What was I thinking? I think I have unrealistic expectations. But I'm not beating myself up. Because at least I tried.

But I don't think it's working for me.

What I've realized is that I focus on my Ebay listings and my main Etsy store, Vyeshi. So I've made the decision to close down my other Etsy shops.

It doesn't really mean I'll be any less busy. I'll still list buttons and jewelry...but probably in Vyeshi, or on Ebay. I think I was spreading myself and my listings too thin.

Of course, I talk all about simplifying and in the next breath I'll tell you that I've opened a booth in an antique mall. ha! Oh well, there's more to that and I'll tell you about that next time.

What about you? How do you keep yourself focused?