For awhile now I have been hemming and hawing about where I am going with my business, and frankly it's been annoying. To me, to my husband, to my kids... probably the only one in my life who hasn't seemed to notice is the dog.
I have struggled because I love vintage. L. O. V. E. I mean LOVE vintage... and nothing is more thrilling to me than the experience of driving around on a Saturday morning, Starbucks in one hand, bag of loose change in the other (ok, can't figure out yet who's driving), searching out incredible finds to sell in my online shop. And I have made some really good finds that turned out to make me a bit of money. However, I can't get around several factors.
First, my A.D.D. tendencies inspire me to start several endeavors and open several online stores. This lack of attention to only one endeavor dilutes my efforts and inhibits my success. It is said that 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results, and when that 20 percent is spread out over 4 stores, each store is only getting 5 percent, which is pretty lousy.
Second, my inventory methods need serious improvement. I know in my brain that the best method is to handle an item once: bring it home, take a photo and measurements, put it in the box, then don't touch it again until it sells, and then only to ship. As a self-interrupter, I end up opening a box several times because I forgot what's in it or still need to photograph or some other silly reason.
Third, it takes many many steps to sell a tangible product (purchase, photograph, list, market, sell, pack, ship). Very time-consuming.
And fourth, I want to travel and go on extended visits to family who live very far away. The only way I can do that with tangible items is to close my shop while I'm out of town, and that can be detrimental to sales and visibility.
I have decided to focus on digital vintage, that is, to take depressed, damaged bits & pieces of antique sheet music & advertising and restore & preserve them in digital form.This is good for me for several reasons:
So there you have it.
I have struggled because I love vintage. L. O. V. E. I mean LOVE vintage... and nothing is more thrilling to me than the experience of driving around on a Saturday morning, Starbucks in one hand, bag of loose change in the other (ok, can't figure out yet who's driving), searching out incredible finds to sell in my online shop. And I have made some really good finds that turned out to make me a bit of money. However, I can't get around several factors.
First, my A.D.D. tendencies inspire me to start several endeavors and open several online stores. This lack of attention to only one endeavor dilutes my efforts and inhibits my success. It is said that 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results, and when that 20 percent is spread out over 4 stores, each store is only getting 5 percent, which is pretty lousy.
Second, my inventory methods need serious improvement. I know in my brain that the best method is to handle an item once: bring it home, take a photo and measurements, put it in the box, then don't touch it again until it sells, and then only to ship. As a self-interrupter, I end up opening a box several times because I forgot what's in it or still need to photograph or some other silly reason.
Third, it takes many many steps to sell a tangible product (purchase, photograph, list, market, sell, pack, ship). Very time-consuming.
And fourth, I want to travel and go on extended visits to family who live very far away. The only way I can do that with tangible items is to close my shop while I'm out of town, and that can be detrimental to sales and visibility.
I have decided to focus on digital vintage, that is, to take depressed, damaged bits & pieces of antique sheet music & advertising and restore & preserve them in digital form.This is good for me for several reasons:
- I still get to go on treasure hunts.
- My inventory will consist of a file cabinet filled with antique paper rather than a garage full of boxes.
- The time commitment is shorter (create image, list, sell, relist, sell, relist, sell... or once I can provide instant downloads, it's list once, then sell, sell, sell)
- I can conduct business from anywhere in the world from my cell phone or a laptop.
So there you have it.
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