| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | SUMMER MENTORSHIP HOURS | |||
2 | Date | Hours | What I Did | Total Hours |
3 | 8/10/2014 | 5 | observed front desk transactions, organized storage areas, learned basics of working at the store | 5 |
4 | 8/17/2014 | 5 | priced items for sale, stamped receipt books, learned how to wrap gifts for customers | 10 |
5 | ||||
6 | MENTORSHIP HOURS | |||
7 | Date | Hours | What I Did | Total Hours |
8 | 10/21/2014 | 2 | Conducted interview #2, talked about the basics of Etsy and what it takes to start a business with no professional training, went over various shops and social media that my mentor uses for marketing online (this was our first time meeting/talking). | 2 |
9 | 11/20/2014 | 3 | Today I started working with my mom since my other mentor isn't available for a few months. I learned how to put items up onto Etsy, and helped out with typing descriptions, adding pictures, and making tags that my mom had planned out. | 5 |
10 | 12/2/2014 | 2 | I practiced taking photos with a DSLR. Mentor showed me the basics of how autofoucus works. Spent most of my time trying to get good lighting, especially in natural light, because this makes for much nicer photos. | 7 |
11 | 12/7/2014 | 1.5 | My mentor asked me to rephotograph some of her necklaces. I tried indoor vs. outdoor photos. I just did some more trial and error with taking pictures, and uploaded some of the good ones. | 8.5 |
12 | 12/18/2014 | 0.5 | Fixed item descriptions to include more information. Added max amount of tags on each item. | 9 |
13 | 1/3/2015 | 2 | Tried photographing jewelry differently. My mentor wanted to stage the photos a little more, to create a distinct style. We took picutres of necklaces with cute little knick knacks and things to make them more visually appealing. | 11 |
14 | 1/9/2015 | 2 | Started a new project on buying new materials. Made a spreadsheet of all the materials used in the business. Learned how to look online for the best deals and track prices along the way. | 13 |
15 | 1/18/2015 | 2.5 | Kept working on materials spreadsheet. I finished finding info for lobster clasps, headpins, and jump rings. Me and my mentor talked about the importance of paying attention to these details. You can waste a lot of money if you don't look at all of your options. So, I looked for all of the sellers online who had what we were looking for, and I wrote down prices to find the best deal, and figured out the best options. | 15.5 |
16 | 1/25/2015 | 2 | My mentor suggested that I start exploring other businesses and interacting with them. I joined the Etsy team - Handmade Sellers of SoCal, which links people in the same area together. I looked at the various posts that people make about their own businesses - asking for help, sharing tips, and talking about invents. It's available to anyone who wants to join and is a friendly environment to network. | 17.5 |
17 | 2/1/2015 | 2 | Today I went with my mentor to a mini craft fair. It was at a family member's church, and we just went to observe how the whole process works. My mentor doesn't do craft fairs because they take a lot of time and don't always bring too much business. She pointed out how the aesthetics of a booth could bring people in and that talking with people and being friendly was the most important part of it all. | 19.5 |
18 | 2/7/2015 | 6 | I had a long day today working at the store that I mentored with over the summer - Barbara Cheatley's in Claremont. My mom used to work there as well, so she still fills in every once in a while, and I was able to work there for a day. My mentor sometimes sells some of her jewlelry in the store. She noted how it is good to form relationships with other businesses or people in your community because of this. She has known the owner for a long time, and therefore, it was no problem to put some of her products in the shop. I spent the day helping a few customers and my mentor gave me tips on making them feel comforatble and happy with their experience. I also took note of how people browse a store. In person, people are able to ask questions and feel the object in their hands. We talked about how you want to try and recreate that experience online, by taking high quality photos and including relevant details. | 25.5 |
19 | 2/8/2015 | 2 | I went back to business as usual today and worked on the spreadsheet again. There are a lot of materials that are necessary for making such as large variety of items. I talked with my mentor about how she is trying to downscale the amount of unique items she makes. It is hard to make one of a kind products on a budget, because you cannot mass produce. You have to decide whether it is worth the risk to give customers those unique items at a higher price. | 27.5 |
20 | 2/15/2015 | 1.5 | My mentor guided me to some extra research on Etsy shops in particular. She told me that when starting out, the forums and articles on Etsy really helped to give her ideas. I looked onlline at the newsletter they put out which includes individual shop owners' stories and fundamental strategies/tips for getting started with online marketing. | 29 |
21 | 2/25/2015 | 1.5 | My mentor had me work on updating her Instagram page. Went through similar business's pages and tried to use some of the same techniques (using color, different perspectives, asking questions to start a discussion of some sort in comments) | 30.5 |
22 | 3/1/2015 | 2 | Added 3 pairs of earrings and a necklace to the shop today. Created an Instagram post on the items to experiment with how to show customers new products. I included a short description of the items, photographed the jewelry together, and made sure to tag the post appropriately. | 32.5 |
23 | 3/8/2015 | 1.5 | Today I responded to some of my mentor's customer conversations to get a feel of the etiquette. She showed me her past exchanges with customers who have had questions, or bought something. I replied to her messages, making sure to be helpful and friendly. | 34 |
24 | 3/14/2015 | 2 | Today was more of a 'shadowing' day, as I watched my mentor go through the process of planning the month ahead for her businesss. She went over the process of figuring out which items to keep, to add, and to get rid of. She also told me the plan to try focusing more on social media, and continuing to reach out to other creators, as well as customers. | 36 |
25 | 3/19/2015 | 2 | My mentor asked me to create a Google Analytics account for her business to see how people find her. We looked together at the numbers and saw that many people came from simply typing keywords into Etsy. So, I went back to check which tags were most frequently used, and tried to incorperate more of those into current items. The top tags were "vintage", "Miriam Haskell", and "romantic". | 38 |
26 | 3/29/2015 | 2 | Wrote the descriptions for five new items. Major points to include were materials of course, but my mentor also suggested to add a little story to the description to make things less bland. | 40 |
27 | 4/1/2015 | 1 | Went back to Google Analytics to check in on things. Noticed that bounce rates (when someone clicks on page then immediately clicks out) were a bit high. Did reserach on how to lower those rates. Best way to do so is include some visual to catch attention. | 41 |
28 | 4/4/2015 | 2 | Picking up from last time, my mentor wanted me to brainstorm on how to make her shop more visually appealing, so bounce rates might decrease. I figured color would be helpful, so I worked on sketching out a possible new banner. Also brainstormed ideas on how thumbnails of products could look better. | 43 |
29 | 4/19/2015 | 2 | Responded to more customer conversations. Answered one lady's questions about materials. Spent about an hour going through "Handmade Sellers of SoCal" group making comments/trying to interact and be part of the community on Etsy. | 45 |
30 | 4/22/2015 | 1.5 | Rephotographed more necklaces on wood surface. Pictures turned out quite nice, because the lighting was perfect. Did some editing in iPhoto and reuploaded the pictures. | 46.5 |
31 | 4/26/2015 | 1 | Updated Instagram with a model wearing a necklace and pair of earrings. Took quite a few pics, but narrowed it down to 2 good ones to upload. | 47.5 |
32 | 4/30/2015 | 1 | Cleaned up my mentor's workspace. Things aren't too busy online, so we organized today. Clean space, clean mind. | 48.5 |
33 | 5/3/2015 | 2 | Created new titles for shop collections. Updated the look of the shop only slightly to make it look fresh and clean. changed order of items, and my mentor showed me some changes to make in her policies page. | 50.5 |
34 | 5/5/2015 | 1.5 | Added a final post to Instagram of a sneak peak of designs to come in the future. Responded to two more customer conversations, and my mentor showed me how she ships items off to their new owners. | 52 |
35 | ||||
36 | ||||
37 | INDEPENDENT COMPONENT 1 HOURS | |||
38 | Date | Hours | What I Did | Total Hours |
39 | 10/27/2014 | 1.5 | I started the first draft of my Etsy business plan. I did some research to see what needs to be included, and then filled in all of my information. This included my goals for the shop, target audience, and money matters. | 1.5 |
40 | 11/1/2014 | 0.5 | Today I polished my business plan so that it will be ready to show for my first lesson plan. I formatted it and made it look nice and pretty! | 2 |
41 | 11/23/2014 | 3 | I started on making my first product today! I decided on a cute little paper mushroom banner. I only made a 'rough draft' of the banner, which turned out pretty messy, since I had to figure out all of the details. | 5 |
42 | 12/5/2014 | 3 | With my 'prototype' done from last time, I created a polished version of the mushroom banner. I cut out the construction paper pieces and made a cardboard template for future banners. Then I layed it all out and glued! For the final touch, I punched holes in either side and attatched bakers twine for hanging. | 8 |
43 | 12/13/2014 | 2 | I started on a new project, a zip up pouch. I cut out my fabric and pinned everything together. It was a bit of a failed attempt because my zipper foot for my sewing machine was missing, so I had to do it by hand. Lesson learned: you have to be very precise with hand sewing., which I'm quite bad at. | 10 |
44 | 12/20/2014 | 3 | Today I brainstormed about what future products I need in my shop. I made lists of things I'm interested in (TV characters, colors, phrases, symbols) to spark some inspiration. I also thought of what materials I could try working with as well as what items I would want to buy. | 13 |
45 | 12/26/2014 | 1.5 | I was going to open my shop today, but I wasn't quite ready. I spent most of my time trying to come up with a name. I brainstormed a huge list of words that I like. I also asked my family if they had any ideas. My mom came up with CraftyPants, but it was already taken. In the end, I decided on TheStrawberryDonut. I searched the web and it was all clear. | 14.5 |
46 | 12/27/2014 | 2.5 | Grand opening day! I secured my name on Etsy and officially created my shop. I spent a lot of time researching the essentials when starting an Etsy shop. Then I jumped into making my banner, which took way to long! Lots of trial and error. | 17 |
47 | 12/30/2014 | 2 | Started on a new product: a paper daisy banner. Tried out some different types of paper and colors. It took a while to get the perfect shape, but I finally made my template and created the banner. One problem: the glue didn't want to stick. | 19 |
48 | 1/2/2015 | 2 | Tried to fix the glue problem with the daisy banner...didn't work. Made a list of materials to buy and wrote shop description/announcement. | 21 |
49 | 1/9/2015 | 0.5 | Added more items to Etsy shop. I used some of the crafts that I made a while back so that I could get more things in my shop. | 21.5 |
50 | 1/10/2015 | 1.5 | Finished daisy garland and zipper pouch and uploaded both items online. | 23 |
51 | 1/13/2015 | 3 | I started to fill in the 'about' section in my shop. This is a place where you can describe your creative process and show people how you make your products. Next, I added some of my items to Pinterest. Tried to think more about my target audience and what sorts of things they would like to see. Made a new list of possiblities for future items. | 26 |
52 | 1/19/2015 | 1 | Today I polished up my listings, making sure all of the item descriptions and tags were clear and consistent. | 27 |
53 | 1/23/2015 | 2.5 | I decided on shipping polices and gathered my supplies such as: packing envelopes, cute tape, tissue paper, stamps, etc. | 29.5 |
54 | 1/31/2015 | 1 | I looked at other similar businesses online to compare. I was mostly looking at prices and quality, just to get an idea of if I should change anything. Aferwords, I did adjust some prices. | 30.5 |
55 | 2/3/2015 | 1.5 | I added on to my Etsy about page, since it is like a mini advertisement for yourself and a way to connect with buyers and sellers. Then I wrapped everything up. :) | 32 |
56 | ||||
57 | INDEPENDENT COMPONENT 2 HOURS | |||
58 | Date | Hours | What I Did | Total Hours |
59 | 3/6/2015 | 4 | I created my blog on Blogspot.com. I was going to just go with a template, but realized that I needed to make my site aesthetically pleasing and in line with my business brand. So, I did some research on HTML and CSS to design my blog, and found a site called Codecademy to learn the basics. I created a header with my blog name, added a toolbar, customized my favicon, and changed fonts and colors to my liking. Considering I have zero experience with coding, it took some trial and error to get my blog looking professional. | 4 |
60 | 3/10/2015 | 1 | Added some extra gadgets to the sidebar of my blog. Looked for similar blogs that I could include in "blogs i love", found a profile picture, wrote my "about me", and added Etsy/Pinterest gadgets to create a fuller online presence. | 5 |
61 | 3/13/2015 | 1 | Today I wrote my first blog post. It is basically just an introduction to my blog - why I'm doing it, how I started crafting, etc. Since my business is just run by me, I'm taking a more personal apporach to blogging. My main goal is to bring more traffic to my blog, so that more people will see my business. I want to engage readers by touching on personal experiences and using a pretty casual voice in my writing. | 6 |
62 | 3/15/2015 | 1.5 | I started planning my blog for the rest of this project. I looked at some other similar blogs for inspiration, looking at their most popular posts to see what people were interested in. I came up with a series on books and gathered 5 craft books that I'm going to feature. The plan is to review the book and possibly do a craft from it and show how it turned out. I also came up with a series on products that I like/ businesses that I want to share. The idea behind this is to give a sense of my brand/style as a whole. I'm also planning on a workspace tour, a food crafts post, and an inpirational crafts post. I will probably add more in the future, but I tried to get the barebones of these posts done today. I added titles, and little introductions to the posts. | 7.5 |
63 | 3/17/2015 | 0.75 | Blog post of the day: cool businesses that I've come across. I mentioned three shops that I've been to and really enjoyed. I featured some of their items and a bit about them. The purpose of this post is to be a sort of curator - sharing with readers what kinds of things I like, and what my shop would be similar/comparable to (in terms of style) if I were to ever have a real brick-and-mortar store. It's also a way of bringing people to another business, which is always a good thing to do. What goes around comes around. | 8.25 |
64 | 3/20/2015 | 1 | Today I finished up my first blog post on craft books. I photographed The BUST Diy Guide to Life, and shared my thoughts on it. It took some time figuring out the photography aspect of my blog, but I took lots of pictures in hopes of getting the best ones. | 9.25 |
65 | 3/23/2015 | 0.75 | I wanted to incorporate some different types of media into my blog, so I posted some videos that I have found, which have inspired me or caught my interest. I wrote a little blurb about my thoughts on them. | 10 |
66 | 3/27/2015 | 1.5 | I did my post on daisies today. I created a polyvore board, which is basically just a collection of items surrounded around the theme. This took some time because I had to sift through the site to find the most appropriate items to show and share with readers. I also included some of my own items that fit the theme, and one of the products in my shop as well. | 11.5 |
67 | 3/30/2015 | 1 | Another book post day. I wrote about Heather Ross Prints. I photographed some of the pages, then created a GIF to change things up. I am less tech savvy than I thought, so I used google for help. Photgraphy has been taking a lot of my time, since I have to upload pictures and then edit them to get them looking decent. I'm still pretty new at this, so often the lighting will be off and I have to rephotograph. | 12.5 |
68 | 4/1/2015 | 1 | Today I made a post on food crafts. Since this is something people in my expected target audience would be interested in, I gathered some of my favorites from Etsy to show. Didn't have to photograph anything, so this post went by pretty quickly. Just had to link everything back to sellers on Etsy and write a mini description about them. | 13.5 |
69 | 4/3/2015 | 1 | I wanted to use a book that wasn't specically crafts based, but rather something I could just draw inspiration from. So, I reviewed Colorstrology because it has a ton of beautiful colors. I included some more colorful creations that I have come across and talked about why I think color is so important. | 14.5 |
70 | 4/6/2015 | 0.75 | I was feeling a creative block today, so I wrote a post on inspiration. I'm trying to be relatable in my posts, so it's not so business-like and boring. I featured some work from various artists that keeps me inspired and wrote my thoughts. | 15.25 |
71 | 4/7/2015 | 1 | Today was another relatable post, as I talked about some of my crafting failures. I photographed them and wrote about my process, and how it often seems so simple to create something, but no matter how hard you try, sometimes it just doesn't work out. | 16.25 |
72 | 4/8/2015 | 2 | Today I did some much needed research. I read about some various strategies for blogging. I learned that linking to other blogs is really important, as it contributes to your credability as a website. I therefore, planned a few more posts featuring other people. I wrote out the remaining posts I need to complete, and tried to get a fuller picture of what my final blog is going to turn out to be. | 18.25 |
73 | 4/9/2015 | 1.25 | Reviewed a knitting book today. Took photos, wrote my thoughts, and shared some of my knitting creations I've made, as well as the struggles knitting brings. | 19.5 |
74 | 4/10/2015 | 1 | Gathered a list of "Best of's" in terms of items I found on the Internet. Trying to switch things up/create blogs that aren't so typical, so I reviewed some more random items, and shared my thoughts/opinions. | 20.5 |
75 | 4/12/2015 | 1 | Book post on Floral patterns. I went outside to photograph this pretty book. Talked about the appeal of floral patterns. | 21.5 |
76 | 4/16/2015 | 1 | Did a workspace tour. Similar to an about page or a profile picture in that it tells readers more about you personally. I read an article talking about the importnace of stuff, and thus, was inspired to write this post showing my belongings and how that affects me on the business side of things. | 22.5 |
77 | 4/18/2015 | 1 | Wrote another post about me, on how I got to this point. Research focuses a lot on personalizing your business, so I touched a bit more on my background to make people feel more connected. | 23.5 |
78 | 4/21/2015 | 1.5 | My last post! Wrote about Daiso, a store where I get craft supplies and little trinkets. Photographed some of the items I've gotten there. | 25 |
79 | 4/22/2015 | 2.5 | Did some more Codecadamy to learn some coding for the blog. Worked on more layout related things. Added pages for my navigation bar (questions, elsewhere, shop) tagged my posts into categories, and changed my background to make it all more aesthetically appealing. | 27.5 |
80 | 4/25/2015 | 3 | With these extra three days, I did more Codecadamy and added some finishing touches to the blog. Most notably, I learned how to create my own little website with codes, adding headings of all different sizes, numbered lists, unnumbered lists, links, etc. I made sure all of my blog links worked and overall just did a double check on things to make sure everything was in tip top shape. | 30.5 |
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