every little thing

Questions + Answers, Part 3

How did you decide on what type of shop? (i.e. things to sell?)

There's a short and long answer to the question, but I'm gonna try to keep this brief.  When I started blogging in 2006 I sometimes posted photos here and on flickr of cute cupcake decorations I purchased at a local cake and candy hobby shop in Virginia.  Slowly but steadily I began to get emails from people asking where I found the decorations.  I assumed that there was an awesome cake hobby shop like that in every town.  I was wrong.  When several people started to ask if I would buy the items and sell them online, I had light bulb moment.  There was a need - and I could fill it.  At first, I actually ordered in bulk through the local shop (and they were very nice to work with me.)  Slowly, with time and lots of sleuthing, I found the wholesale suppliers and began ordering directly from them, and I also found tons and tons of new things that that little store in Virginia never carried (but should have.)  I feel like my story is not what people would want to hear.  I've always loved baking, decorating, crafting, etc - but it wasn't born with a whisk in my hand, saving up every penny to open the baking supply shop I had been dreaming about my whole life.  I really kinda fell into this gig, but that doesn't mean I'm not passionate about it or that I am unqualified.  I actually think my inexperience gives me a little advantage, makes it easier to think outside of the box.  I'm certainly not the first person to run a shop like this, there are many other larger, well-established baking hobby shops online, but I really do feel like I bring something special to the table.  At the heart of it, I really love running this shop.  I love finding new and exciting goods, designing kits, conversing with customers, and even packing orders.  It's not what I ever expected to be doing, but it's awesome.  After all, how many people stay on the same path their whole lives?  If I had stuck with my childhood dream, I'd be a dolphin trainer right now.  Imagine that.  

As for deciding on the individual items I sell, it's something I always struggle with.  I try to keep within my shop aesthetic, which is ever evolving.  I also like keeping up with trends and I try to find items that are popular or that people want.  I always buy items I love, whether or not the customers love them is a different story.  Sometimes I'll get a new product on a whim, not being too jazzed about it personally, just to watch it fly of the shelves at lightning speed.  You never know.  I have so may suppliers now, it would be easy to just run down the list and just buy one of everything, but I wouldn't like that.  Where's the challenge there?  Sure, it'd probably all sell OK, but I'd be so bored, in a giant warehouse full of stuff.  Having a shop that is unique and sort of "curated" is much more fun, and hopefully in the end, what people really want.  For example, I do not carry any Wilton products.  Wilton is one of the biggest suppliers in the industry, too.  I have nothing against them, I just feel they are pretty easily accessible (you can find their products at Michael's, Target, Walmart,) and I don't think their stuff is very inspired. It's also mostly licensed cartoon characters, and I sort of draw the line there.  I want my shop to be special, and I try to stick to the vintage-retro vibe.  That being said, I recently added a Kid's Classic Topper section to the shop, but I only carry characters that I personally loved as a kid and are "old school" in nature.  Wonder Woman, Tom & Jerry, Snoopy, etc.  Max begs me to buy the Pokemon and Bakugan cupcake toppers, and I'm sure they'd sell like hotcakes.  I'm just not into it right now.  There's a fine line between having a niche and being in a rut.  I feel like I'm alwasy dancing between the two. 

My question is how you found your wholesale sources?

At first, I relied on Google.  It's hard and tricky and a huge time-suck, but that's all I had.  I've found some pretty sweet stuff by googling, though.  It's all about using the right words, and not giving up, even when it seems like you're following a trail of breadcrumbs.  I still use google now, and I'm amazed that I can search for the same thing over and over, and find something new every time.  Now, when I'm out and about, I will write down the company name of a cute product I see in a boutique or store and research it when I get home.  I just when to my first trade show last month and that was very helpful (and all-around awesome.)  I look forward to more of them in future, I could easily become an Expo-Junky!  All those free samples??  Love.  

Sourcing can be a big headache, believe me.  You just have to be persistent.  Don't just email a company you like, call them if they have a number available.  If you annoy someone long enough, they will work with you just to shut you up.  I don't take no for an answer.

Did you have a minimum that you had to purchase, what if it the quality wasn't what you expected from their website/catalog?

Most companies have minimums ranging from $50-$250 or more.  I've had a lot of people ask if I ever get nervous spending money like that up front.  What if the products don't sell and your'e stuck with them?  I actually never worry like that, the things I buy always sell.  It must mean I have good taste or, more likely, that on a long enough time line, everything will sell eventually.  

On the rare occasions that I receive product that doesn't meet my expectations, it was invariably my fault for not reading the description carefully enough.  I've bought several toppers that looked small in the catalog, but were ridiculous-huge in person. I also neglected to look at the dimensions of a popcorn box once, and they ended up being enormous, jumbo-sized.  Returns can be a headache, so I usually take a loss on these items and just chalk it up to experience.  Or put them on sale.   

Do you talk to your suppliers by phone or is it via email?

Both equally.  Some companies prefer you to call or fax orders in while others have easy on line ordering.  I prefer the online ordering, because I tend to be dyslexic and will read product numbers off incorrectly.  This once resulted in me ordering 24 chocolate molds that I thought were little roses, but were actually 4" inch pill shaped PMS molds.  Interesting, but not really my aesthetic.  What are you supposed to do with a giant, chocolate pill with PMS written on the front, anyway?!? 

(Part 4 coming up soon, be sure to leave any new questions in the comments!)

Shiny and New

We're headed back to Virginia for a mini-summer-trip this Thursday, so I will be taking a break from the Q&A posts until we get back.  There are still lots of questions left and I'm anxious to get back to them.  In the meantime, I'll try to post some on-the-road photos and video with my fancy, new iPhone.  It's a pretty nifty, little contraption I must say. They are made by a small company named "Apple", you've probably never heard of them before...not too popular.  They make nice products though, and you know, I like to support the little people.  Anywho, I'm dorking out in a big way over this thing.  Check out the icon I made just for the shop!

I also made a pretty awesome answer tone, so when someone calls my number they hear a special song instead of an actual ring.  It's pretty sweet.  I'll give the number out soon so you can all call me 5 times a day.  Seriously, it's strictly the Bake It Pretty Business Phone, so there will be no playing around with this thing.  Work. Only. Period.  (But if anyone has a cool App recommendation, be sure to let me know.... *wink*)

Questions + Answers, Part 2

How do you get the word "out", how do you drive more people to your shop?
So far, I have not done any paid advertising.  I blog, upload pics to flickr, and I've just recently been trying to keep up with twitter, facebook, tumblr, etc.  Social networking is exhausting!  But It's always so nice when other bloggers mention the shop on their sites, and I've found this sort of word-of-mouth advertising to be invaluable.   I haven't really done much in the way of "search engine optimization" and things like that, but I know I should.  I still have a lot of learning to do in that department.  The new website has done pretty well so far without much help.  I'd say we get about 80% of our orders on the main site, and 20% on Etsy - but the dollar amount per order averages easily 2 to 3 times more than an etsy order.  Definitely way more traffic on the main website.  It's amazing how people find their way over there, since I don't really advertise. 

There are a few press mentions for Bake It Pretty coming up in some pretty notable magazines that I'm excited about!  I've never solicited magazines or sent our press kits (yet.)  They contacted me requesting samples of certain products for photo shoots or articles they were working on.  I assume they found the shop through google searching and general web browsing.  I haven't focused on advertising much at all, since we are just barely keeping up with the orders as it is.  I want to grow as steadily and gradually as possible, (I am the tortoise...)

It's easy to underestimate the impact of a small blurb in a major publication.  Sudden and overwhelming popularity can really destroy a business - I've heard stories and I can definitely see how it could happen.  Baby steps... 

With what the business makes, How do you keep track and separate your "business money" to your "personal spending money"?
I really like Paypal.  We use the Pro Merchant Account to process all of the credit card payments on our websites and also their click & ship program to calculate postage and print shipping labels.  I've researched all the other other options, and Paypal just really works great for us right now and is very reasonably priced.  I know some folks dislike paypal and think it is unprofessional, and that a "real" business would have their own merchant account.  That may be true, but private merchant accounts are very expensive and can be kinda complicated.  Paypal is a major, well known company, I feel very safe using them. I've processed thousands of payments without a single, notable problem.  When I first started out on Etsy, paypal was so perfect for us since the funds you receive are available immediately if you use their (free) paypal debit card.  We use the debit card for pretty much everything, including the business expenses and our personal money and daily bills.  (I do transfer money about every week into a savings acct. for tax payments and such.)  Paypal makes it really easy to download all of your monthly info into excel spreadsheets so you can quickly see exactly where your money is going.  I assumed at first that we would have two accounts, one for business and one for personal, but in the end it was just a hassle splitting the money between two places and we found it much simpler to keep it all together.   It's not a perfect system, but it works for us.  I really hesitate to talk about money-stuff at all.  It's not my specialty, to say the least.  You probably don't want advice from me on this subject. 

*Oh, I do want to mention: it cost $30 a month (on top of the per-transaction percentage fees) for the paypal merchant account we use.  But since we use their debit card for everything, the 1% cash back deal they have going more than pays for the $30 bucks, so that's kinda cool.  Also the virtual terminal is included, and that lets you process credit cards at craft shows, over the phone, etc.  We don't use that feature often these days, but it's really nice to have.

Do you do your own taxes?
I am fortunate enough to have a very nerdy and amazing father who graciously helps us with our taxes.  If I didn't have him, I would absolutely hire an accountant.  It's just too much for me to handle.  Even though my Dad does this sort of thing for living and is very good at it, it definitely doesn't seem too complicated and I'm sure it's within the means of most of you folks out there.  I'm pretty dyslexic and bad at math in general so I know better than to even try.  

Mike and I were both very nervous about the whole tax situation, thinking it would just crush our profits and leave us with zero money at the end of the day.  I wish we had just got the facts from the beginning.  The taxes are nowhere near as bad I as I imaged they'd be, (and we run things pretty squeaky-clean.) Since I'm on the subject, I will mention that we do not have a retirement plan for the business as yet.  We do purchase private health insurance through Aetna.  It's about $300 a month for all three of us and it's pretty crappy coverage, but it's exactly the same cost and benefits as the insurance we had through Mike's previous employer, so it's hard to complain.

I'm getting to the point where I'm getting kinda busy running my shop and I think I'd like to "hire" my sister to help, maybe with website stuff or mailing, do you have any suggestions or ideas how to make it work, how should I pay her, monthly, hourly.... stuff like that?
This is a great question since I also want to hire my sister, too!  Krissy is helping out with the shop this summer, but she's headed back to school in the fall so it's only temporary (for now, anyway.)  We've really just started talking about how this will work, money and time wise, so I don't have any advice yet.  I'll have to report back later on this.  So far, we both agree we should have a Bake It Pretty uniforms, and I'm voting that we dress like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat. 

And lastly, Is there one crucial thing you think every Indie business owner should do, whether it's with the website, marketing, sales..?
Here's a tip:  If you ever go to a trade show, take business cards with you like any other intelligent person would.  That way, when you meet a major celebrity from the Food Network and they ask for your card so they can check out your site, you won't look like a total imbecile.  Yeah.  For real.

part three coming soon.....

Questions + Answers, Part 1

{I am going to go straight through and answer the questions you all were so kind to ask in the comments from this post.  I'm pretty long winded, so it may take a while.  Thanks for reading!  I hope these Q&A posts are informative, or interesting, or funny, or..something...}

I am assuming "Bake it Pretty" is a full-time job for you. I am most interested in hearing about how that came about. Did you have to save up and live off of that money for a period before the shop took off?

Yes, right now Bake It Pretty is a full-time job for both Mike (my husband) and I.  Mike is the entire packing and shipping department, and has been since February of this year.  He organizes the inventory, pulls orders, packs and ships, and handles the reordering of packing materials.  I do everything else; sourcing new products, getting items photographed and on the site, answering emails, designing stuff, reordering inventory, blogging, etc.  When it's really busy I will step in and help pull orders, but that's not often.  Mike is pretty much a shipping maniac - much faster and, dare I say, more thorough than I ever was.

We were able to launch this business when we sold our house last August, 2008.  We purchased our humble home in 2001 and, thanks to the crazy housing market, we had a lot of equity in it.  I say *a lot* -  but money is such a relative thing.  It was a lot of money for us, but nothing you couldn't blow in a month with, say, a serious drug habit. Selling our house allowed us to pay off every penny of debt we owed, completely fund the (modest) business start-up costs, and we even had a cushion leftover to help us move to North Carolina and take our time with things.  The plan was for me to start up the new biz, and for Mike to hang out with Max and take a much deserved break from working a demanding and generally shitty job for almost ten years.  I was confident that I could at least keep us afloat for a while, long enough to get us all back on track as a family, and then we'd go from there.  Happily, the shop grew faster than I originally thought, and Mike was excited to step in and help.  Honestly, I'm not really that surprised that it's all working out. (I hope that does come across as cocky as it sounds.)   I was really confident about this little project from the get-go.  I can't say I had the hard data to back it up, or that I knew exactly how things were going to go down, but I had a strong hunch that everything was going to work out.  I may be a dreamer, but I'm not crazy.  I would never have embarked upon this journey with just a wish and a prayer.  For whatever reason, I was confident, and I still am.

I hope that this part of the story doesn't bum people out. I don't want to make the impression that the only way to start a business is with a windfall of cash.  It's really more about recognizing your options and, most importantly, being willing and ready to take a leap when a window opens up.  We were very lucky to have this opportunity and I'll always be proud of us for taking advantage of it.  Even if it all goes to hell - at least we had good intentions and we tried.

Did your husband support you until it got off the ground? 

Money-wise, he absolutely did the lions share.  Since our kiddo was born, I've worked various odd jobs from waiting tables at night to being a full-time nanny to two children from our home.  Eventually, the etsy shop was bringing in more dough than my other gigs, and I was happy to focus on that for a while.  Mike has always believed in me 100% and never wavered.  It's pretty astonishing.  I'm not going to say "I couldn't have done it without him," because that's not a very feminist notion, now is it?  But I certainly wouldn't have wanted to do it without him, and it wouldn't have been nearly as fun.

I'd love to run my own business and I see this paradox being the biggest obstacle: how can I dedicate enough time to make it work while I must work somewhere else to pay the bills?

This is a hard questions because individual situations are so different.  The best answer I have is, don't waste time.  As much as I have truly enjoyed all of the avenues I've explored since I began this blog in 2006, early on I stopped thinking about what I was doing as a hobby.  I considered a hobby (or even a passion) to be something you did whether someone would pay you or not.  I had lots of hobbies, I wanted a business.  That may sound greedy, but it's really just practical.  When I started out, I didn't have the luxury of being able to fail.  I knew I had to go with what worked, and what I could make work.  This was the driving force that personally swayed me away from the crafting and towards the baking supplies (more on that later.)   I tried lots of things that were fun, that I truly enjoyed, but in the long run just weren't going to pay the bills.  (Not for me, anyway.)   I also stumbled on some ideas that had lucrative potential, but just didn't interest me enough.  There has to be a spark.  Luckily, the amazing thing about Internet businesses is the ability to start small and to build as you go.  Invest time when you can find it and test the waters with new ideas, all with relatively little risk.  Never would I have imagined two years ago that I would be where I am now.  It's absolutely miraculous how one idea can lead you somewhere completely different.  You gotta have your eyes open, and you've gotta do what works. And by all means, have hobbies and enjoy them - just don't expect anyone to pay you for them. 

Also did you make your company "official," with an LLC, or do you just go for it?

Currently, Bake It Pretty is a sole proprietorship, but the LLC thing is inevitable.  I'm dragging my heels about it, really, because big steps intimidate me and I want to keep the business small a little longer.  I'm all about the baby steps. 
I am the slow and steady tortoise.

..more soon!

Pretty Please!

Jenna of Jenna Lou Designs is hosting a giveaway on her blog for one of Bake It Pretty's Best-Ever Cupcake Icing Kits! Please click here (or on the photo below) for instructions on how to enter! Drawing will be open until Wednesday the 24th, noon Central Time.

Thank you so much, Jenna, for graciously offering to sponsor and host this giveaway. And also for helping to spread the Bake It Pretty love! I'm so thrilled that you all are loving the Icing Kits, because I really enjoy putting them together!

{I also want to thank everyone for the great questions on yesterday's post below.  You're giving me a lot to mull over and I'm really looking forward to answering them all.  Keep 'em coming.}

Hello my name is...

I've been thinking about writing a Frequently Asked Questions post specifically related to the Bake It Pretty biz.  Why I do what I do, how I do it, etc.  I made a decision last year not to really talk about the shop on my blogs because I assumed that, when you had a "real" business that you weren't supposed to blab about it - that's not how things are done, that it would make me look unprofessional and green.  Perhapse that's true, or used to be, but I'm coming to realize that times, and Internet-based business especially, are very different now.  That suppressing my urge to blab might not really be helping me at all and could even be holding me back.  Aside from the self-indulgent aspect of writing about myself, I hope that sharing details about my work could inspire others to...well, I don't know.  Try something new?   Be themselves?  That all sounds pretty hokey, but you get the idea.  

I'm working on the post now, and I hope to include information that people may find useful or interesting, and I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask if anyone had a specific question for me.  Please leave any suggestions in the comments and I will be sure to address them.  Be as brazen as you like, I'll do my best to give thoughtful and honest answers. So, if you're interested, I plan to have the first instalment posted next Monday.  If anything, you could probably pick up a few tips on how NOT to run a business...

A Worthy Pledge

Where age-appropriate and within reason, 

I pledge to help my kids 

develop their independence

through practical activities that are 

directly related to life skills

I don't like to think of myself as a "helicopter mom," but I know I am sometimes.  You get so used to doing everything when they are babies, and it's just hard to break the habit.  This is a wonderful reminder for me to step back (and also to stop being walked-over.) Thanks Jane!  Wonderful notion.  

Cross Your Heart

If you've seen it, you know. Love. 

Greeting from Atlanta!

  

Krissy and I are attending Bake It Pretty's first Trade Show!  It's even more amazingly fun than I thought it'd be.  We are discovering so many wonderful, new products for the shop, tasting billions of yummy samples, AND we got to poke the dough boy.  It doesn't get any better than this. 

PS: We will be in Atlanta until Tuesday afternoon, so if you know any must-see places, restaurants, etc. please let me know! We'd be so grateful!

Everybody's Doing It

 Max and my sister have both started blogs!  Please stop in and say hello:

I help max with the logistics, but he pretty much does everything himself.  He's having such fun....but I wonder if Typepad was the best platform for him?  I'm thinking the ease and no-braininess of Tumblr would be a much better idea, (and I wish I would have though of it in the first place.)  I'll probably help him move over there in the near future.  I don't know if it's popular with younger kids, but I really think that Tumblr would be a great way to introduce kids to blogging.  It's so easy, (not to mention free,) and it can basically be used as a digital journal.  I'm hoping that Max will want to start a more personal blog in the future, but for now...he's all about the hedgies.  ;)