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Saturday 28 December 2013

Pop Up Shops, More sales for my cushions and Christmas in the Wilson Household

Yet again its been a while since I last posted on here.  Since then things have been busy in the Wilson Household and for Created with Stitches.

Early December for my business saw me stitching away like made creating cushions for a pop up shop.  This was an idea from my local Bank where I have a business account for all small business customers to advertise and promote their business.  

Whilst there is a big push for handmade items to be sold on sites such as Etsy, Folksy, Not on the High Street, the advantages pop up shops can bring can help to promote the items for sale without long term financial commitment on rents and bills etc.   This provided me with the opportunity of market research, talking to people about their views, and spreading the word with business cards of my name and brand with potential sales, which did happen.  More about pop up shop opportunities can be found (especially here in the UK and within the London area) on www.startupbritain.com.  All in all it was a productive day with plenty of business cards given out, more Facebook likes and I even managed to sell quite a few cushions.  Now I have to start building up stock again.

At the moment, I am relying on building up word of mouth I am also rolling out online sales on my website www.createdwithstitches.co.uk and will be venturing out again with another pop up shop and craft fairs in 2014. Since my last post (a couple of months ago) here is a sample of all the stitching I have been completing.  














Whilst most of the work involved making medium and small sized cushions I even managed to make some smaller lavender cushions with relaxing messages on them.






But in order to display my name, rather than go for a banner I decided to opt for a larger cushion with my business name and contact details.  This then gave people the opportunity to see how big each size cushion can be ordered or made and sold.


The end result of my stall just before the bank opened was this.



I do have to admit though, this did give me sleepless nights beforehand, especially as this was my first time I had showcased my work.  I was nervous whether anybody would like them but managed to end the day with £50 worth of sales.   I did do my homework prior to this looking at various blogs and sites on setting my stall up but the worst part was the tables.  Whereas I practised on a standard 6' pasting table I did have some changes when I arrived to go to 2 smaller tables instead of this layout I had adapted at home with my friend Caroline who also has a small craft business.  (Just excuse the background decor as we are redecorating in January) 





All in all, my biggest fear was that people would find the prices too high for the various sizes advertised, however the majority of people accepted the amount of work put in and uniqueness along with everything being hand made were happy with the costings.

Along with all my stitching its also been busy here in the Wilson Household with the run up and during Christmas.  Buying and wrapping Christmas presents, visiting my step-son and his wife, with my husband and our own two teenagers up in Sheffield for the weekend and collecting one of our young people from Leicester University en route back home to Lowestoft on the way home to stay with us for Christmas.  As usual it was also busy at the start of the month with us decorating to produce this years Wilson Wonderland with 9 stockings on the fireplace (as our dog Evie has to be included).  Wrapping took ages for 6 children and young people along with my parents presents (and my dad's presents for my mum).  9 dozen mince pies were cooked along with 7 dozen sausage rolls



Christmas Day saw 10 of us sitting round the dining table to a 3 course meal with my son on the settee in the dining room with his dinner perched on a small table but it was a success.  

Hope everybody had a good Christmas, and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope 2014 is happy and healthy xxx