procrastination
rant

The Funky Studio team is back… Bye-bye, procrastination!

The Funky Studio team is back… and not so much? Yes, we’ve been back for a couple of weeks, but catching up with everything took a lot more than i thought. Then, once we achieved that, it was time for some more procrastination. Sometimes, procrastination is good. Just sometimes. But it’s finally time to pick up where we left off.

procrastinationMy last Wednesday Wishes post was all about the summer mode i was in and planning all the fun for our holiday. I must say, i am proud to have achieved many of the things i wrote there regarding the vacation. It was a lot of fun, i ate the best food of my life and i also got a chance to show that i’m becoming more opinionated (as one of the wishes stated). I also finally mustered up the courage to take on another huge thing on one of my WW lists: i’m going to a gym 3 times a week. Yes, it is a huge thing!

Even though we haven’t actually been active either on our shops or here, that doesn’t really mean we didn’t work at all. We worked on a couple of letterpress projects that i’m actually really happy about and also a bunch of boxes. We also have several new ones that i can’t wait to have up for sale in our shop!

Well that’s about it. That’s what we’ve been doing since we got back from our vacation. Hopefully we’ll begin to be as active as we used to be before that. Bye-bye, procrastination!

The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

an2

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rant

The Funky Studio team goes on vacation!

The time has finally come for me to make this announcement: we’re going on vacation! I’ve been eagerly waiting for this time off and now we’re making the final preparations. On Wednesday we’ll set our shops on vacation mode and we’ll officially be closed until the 9th of August. I know, it’s not much of a holiday, but it’s what we need to fill up our batteries! Greece is an amazing country for this purpose. I’ll try to keep you posted through our newly set up Instagram account @funkyprintstudio.
vacation

 The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

an2

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lessons learned in online selling
etsy, funky box studio, funky print studio story, tips and tricks

Lessons learned in online selling after 2 and a half years

Several days ago i read a very compelling article on Cristina’s blog about lessons learned after several years of freelancing (a lot more than my 2 and a half years of online selling!). I thought it would be interesting to write down my own most important lessons learned in online selling as an answer to Cristina’s post.

lessons learned in online selling

At the beginning of 2013 we bought our first piece of machinery: our die cutting machine! She looked like one of those ancient buried treasures; she needed a whole lot of love to get back to a functional state… A whole lot! Now we pretty much have our own fully equipped printing house: letterpress printing machines, paper guillotine, polymer plate making machine, paper drilling machine, paper folding machine… Am i forgetting anything? Well, the point is, we’ve managed to grow. I honestly have no idea if growing this much is enough, not enough or a lot. However, the journey so far did teach us a lot.

1. Success will never happen overnight

Cristina’s first lesson also deals with time frames. I believe this is by far the most important lesson i’ve learned about online selling, but i think it basically applies to any new business. It will not get successful and profitable overnight. When we opened FBS i kept reading forums where people shared their selling experiences; a lot of them stated that it took an average of at least 3 months to get their first sale. So from that point on it’s just a constantly increasing battle to sell more.

In our case it’s an even bigger struggle since we both have day jobs as well. So growing our studio while keeping full time jobs is a lot of work. But we’re slowly and steadily getting there.

2. Communication is the most important detail of online selling

Good communication is the key to online selling. Saying “thank you” and “sorry” is extremely important. Explaining each detail as well as possible is also just as important. People can only see photos of what they’re going to buy, so naturally there could be a bunch of questions. Communication could help close a lot of deals with potential clients, but it can also be your downfall if not done right.

3. Photography skills are needed

As mentioned above, people can only see photos of what they’re buying from you. That means your photography skills will have to be constantly polished so that the quality of your item’s photos will keep on increasing. For me, this is my all time nemesis. You can always call in a professional product photographer if you can. Good photos are bound to increase sales. The lessons learned in online selling will always include a whole chapter for photography.

4. Promote constantly

As the saying goes: “Seldom seen, soon forgotten.” You will need to promote your shop / business / items as often as you can, and yet not so much that it gets aggressive. There’s a limit to everything and it might actually backfire! Use social media well. Figure out which ones work best for your niche and promote there constantly.

5. Remember to breathe!

I agree with Cristina on this one also. Overworking yourself is not ok in any way. It affects your mental and physical health, your family and your family life. Take breaks, go on vacations, one day trips, take a walk in the park, walk barefoot on grass, get a drink with friends, play some badminton, cook with your kids, breathe! Take a chance to unwind from time to time.

Well this is it; these are my most valuable lessons learned in online selling.

The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

an2

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pantone
etsy, wednesday wishes

Wednesday Wishes. Summer mode on!

Looking back, it’s been almost two months since i’ve had a Wednesday Wishes post! And yet, that definitely doesn’t mean there aren’t any wishes to write down. Far from it! I guess i’m into summer mode? I’m actually not sure why i skipped these… No idea at all… Well anyway, let’s get back on track here. I’ve updated the other WW posts clearing out the ones i’ve accomplished. There still are a bunch more to go, but i’ve still cleared quite a few. Be proud of small victories, right?

I guess this round of WW will be more personal rather than related to the letterpress and packaging shops; that’s because we’ll soon be closing them for our summer vacation! So as i was saying, summer mode on! I’ve been dreaming about this vacation since the beginning of the year! Let’s see!

wednesday wishes summer mode

* Make detailed plans for the upcoming holiday:

– research good restaurants for good food (actually what i mean by that is also finding foods that i haven’t tried yet) Did research good restaurants, though it turned out to be useless. We found the absolute best restaurant on our first try and we just kept eating there choosing from their varied menu! Yum!

– research water parks nearby – i really want to go to one! Since i wear contact lenses for my bad eyesight, i’ve always kinda avoided places like that, but not anymore. I’ll just take 2 pairs of lenses with me just in case i lose one in the water! Mwuahaha! Done the research, but never got to see the water park; i’m not really disappointed though…

– i’ve already decided on the extra trip we’re going to make and that’s a short cruise and visiting another Greek island The cruise was a lot of fun and i got to eat on that island the absolute best tuna salad i’ve ever eaten in my entire life! 

– hopefully learn to swim a bit better. Yes, i do want to go to a water park even if i can’t swim. I can … float on the salty Greek seas though; does that count? This is also a bit of a “face your fears” kinda thing. I did swim, but i can’t say it’s better than last year… Hmmm…

– take long walks, take lots of photos, turn phone off, relax, laugh, dance, live the moment! Done and done and done!

* Be more opinionated. Actually maybe “opinionated” is too strong of a word, but i probably need it like that. I actually think i’m getting there. There were a few incidents that made me realize i’m starting to get a voice and be heard; hopefully i’ll be able to keep this up.

* Go to the local water park i have my eyes on! Yes, i’m definitely very into the summer mode, but that water park looks like a lot of fun!

* Go at the mountains again and visit places i haven’t seen before. There are actually quite a few i have in mind for this.

* Start a “Visiting Romania” section on the blog and post photos of what i see. This really is a beautiful country and hopefully my poor photography skills will be enough to show it.

* Make a working work space at home. This one is a must. I can’t always be in the studio and i do a lot of work from home also – when it comes to designing new letterpress business cards templates, wedding invitations, RSVPs, save the dates etc. , as well as keeping in touch with clients. Well the problem is my current desk at home doesn’t really work for me; a work space should inspire you and make you want to actually work. Well my work space is not comfortable and inspires me to watch TV really…

* Eat watermelon! I absolutely love watermelon and i recently saw a sort of a food project where they made little Christmas Trees out of watermelon (it’s Christmas in July after all), but for the life of me, i can’t remember where i saw it! I guess that’s the downside of reading too many blogs?

* I already have “make salads” on another WW list, but this time i have to add something: once again, something i’ve seen somewhere, either on a blog or on Pinterest. Make little mushrooms out of radishes! Sounds interesting, right?

* This is something else i have on another list, but i must write it again; maybe this time i’ll actually do it: make lemonade!! Lots of it!

Well as i was saying, there’s hardly anything related to work; i only have one thing in mind and that’s summer fun! I keep feeling that i forgot something, but then again, there’s always next Wednesday.

The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

an2

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