Blogger Seeking Susan

© Flickr/Jason A.Howie

Hi everyone, glad to say that the storm earlier in the week was not as bad in the North as was predicted, though I feel for anyone who was affected in the rest of the country. There seems to be a quiet calmness here at Kease, which is probably because I am slightly naive about what it actually takes to get a business up and running successfully, as there always seem to be trials and tribulations popping up that I was previously unaware of.

This week I have found some great companies on Twitter that hold a huge amount of information to help small businesses, with ideas to promote your company both within social media and outside of it, with one of them being @ingeneousbrit. There you can find plenty of motivating tips and ideas that you can really try from finding finance, and other topics like management and sales.

However most of the help and advice generally available does seem to be aimed at people a lot further down the line with their businesses and they probably have been through their first initial years of trading.

I have found that you need to keep asking people around you as you never know where help may come from and this week I spoke to someone who may be able to find if I would be entitled to some funding for future Trade Fairs and also website costs. Although funding does seem to be in short supply, it is worth asking around. The two main objectives I need is marketing to distribution and attracting and selling to retailers.

I find the question of whether to attend one of the larger trade shows quite daunting, as although I know that is the best place to find retailers, the costs are so high for a new business that if you dont sell as many products or find leads that will turn into sales the show itself could bankrupt you! I have actually tried to contact businesses that have shown at the trade fairs for their advice via Facebook but to no avail, just another closed door!

On a lighter note sales for this month are excellent and continue to rise but mainly by returning customers and word of mouth, which does show there is interest and a liking for the product. Internet based sales continue to be slow, which also confirms the need to continue allowing costs for marketing and I will continue to use my small budget for that on Google ads.

Another thing I would like to do is approach some Fashion Accessory Bloggers, but I am unsure if there are bloggers dedicated to purely accessories and I have been trawling through various blogs to find the correct type of content my product would best appeal to. I have added some local Manchester fashion bloggers on Twitter and hopefully after some more research I will better understand this. (Or I may email an inspirational role model Julie Deane, The Founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company, as apparently she does take time out to help new start-up businesses and owes much of her initial success to bloggers) 

So the plan for now remains the same.

With Kease, I need to continue to improve my social media avenues, with the hope of opening a Facebook shop when my following becomes high enough. Funds are key and I need to raise more from my sales plan, whilst gift wrapping stock in the run up to Christmas. Finally, I will continue to promote myself, by speaking to all and sundry!

Personally, I need to find time within all of this to attend university open days with my youngest son. He wants to study product design, so at least I will have a top designer in the future! Budgeting needs a serious revamp over the next twelve months, and I may even have to find another job. Amongst this, I need to make sure my friend enjoys her 50th birthday in style and decide whether or not to run away to France over Christmas! On top of all that, I will continue to clean, cook and plan for the fragmented life that seems to have become the norm.

France is definitely looking favourite!

Making your mind up..

© Flickr/tiffany terry

What makes us pick up a product? Why do we choose a particular brand?

I needed some more bathroom cleaner and as I walked down the cleaning isle, I found myself making my choice based on a few things. I don't pick up the cheapest and think: "what if it doesn't clean well?” I look at the colour of the bottle and consider different aspects; my budget at the time, it's reputation, whether a friend had recommended it and whether I recognised the product from an advert on TV.

With this thought in mind it leads to my foray this week into the world of Google adverts, they are cheap, well within my budget, large audiences, on trend, easy to manipulate (even for me a beginner) and I hope it gives me an insight into the market I want to sell to. Although it's difficult to say that just because you have a positive reaction you will sell to that person, I believe maybe simplistically that if you increase your audience then you potentially have someone to sell to.

Whilst chatting in the pub the other evening I found myself defending this new "social existence" to someone who works in the medium but thinks we may have lost some ability to communicate on a one to one basis and whether we were richer before all of this emerged.

I strongly disagree. In some ways it is romantic to remember times when you had to speak to communicate, when there was only one phone in the house, when people wrote cards and messages and postcards "wish you were here?" - but anybody now; you, me, the person sat at home unable to go out has access to the whole world. I for one would not have been able to come this far with my product.

I have used it for the initial steps, for research and to find ideas. This tool has allowed me to access designers, solicitors and manufacturers that otherwise I would not have found and it even brings me customers now. You still need to be able to communicate personally and I have done so and will continue to do so, but it would not have been possible to be where I am now without the World Wide Web.

My advice to any small business or to anyone who is looking to have an online presence is to seek this personal interaction. Set up Twitter and Facebook accounts. Start small and add to your sites, say who you are, what you do or sell and take the opportunity of speaking to people that otherwise you would not come into contact with.

Anyway my next task is to make a video for YouTube that can be linked to the website and will hopefully drive more traffic to the site. I am very apprehensive about how to go about making it and giving it the professional gloss it requires, but it is definitely a priority on my to-do list and I hope to be able to report back enthusiastically about my next hurdle.

 I feel I must digress a little again as I remember a programme aired on Channel 4 on Tuesday 17th September 2013, called "Fabulous Fashionistas”. If you didn't get chance to watch this I recommend a look, all of the women bar none were inspirational, brave and utterly inspiring in the way they have approached old age - the youngest being Sue at 73! With what these women have and still achieve I'm sure I can manage a video as ever their programme reminds me that I'm only 51 years young, cheers girls!

So I leave you on this rainy week, washed out but not up (and unable to wear my impulse boot buy from the previous blog) - think I'll go and have a look for some new wellies. 

Autumn Days, Winter Dreams

I always feel a little in limbo at this time of year, summer seems to have sailed by and although I love to see all the new Autumn / Winter ranges in the fashion shops and look forward to wearing winter woollies, there seems to be a hiccup in getting from one season to another - you're not quite able to embrace it properly but you know its around the corner. Halloween pictures start to appear and with that I always feel winter has arrived by bonfire night. By then I am looking forward to the mulled wine at the Manchester Christmas markets and preparations for the family Christmas starts to become a focal point. So with my new favourite boot purchase of the season (although they are open toed and backed, probably not the ideal buy!) I feel a little in limbo with my product as well.

I feel that I am going in a forward direction at the moment, but whether it is the right direction remains to be seen. My keyrings are now online and in some retail outlets, I have booked a christmas fair and "Auntie Dot" is planning on selling each Saturday in an outlet up in Burnley (but I have to investigate and do some research first). Word of mouth still keeps them selling from me personally, however it takes far more effort and tenaciousness to keep the ball rolling. I don't know if its just me, but when you achieve one goal there seems to be a never ending stream ahead. Although each step in itself is some small achievement, you need an inward drive and a determination switch that needs to be permanently on in your head.

So all in all not a lot to report this week. I am still assessing the changes I have made previously to the packaging and look to see whether that turns into positive sales. I continue to buy more business cards and find new ways of both designing and using them - I love the way you can create your own branding on cards etc yourself without the expense of hiring a designer. I also continue to watch YouTube videos and learn how to use software like WordPress (wonderful aid) as well as interacting with the world of Twitter and realising what a powerful tool this can be to marketing and networking.

As a bit of light relief I am visiting Vogue Fashion Evening in Manchester this week with a friend. We are going to support her daughter, who is a fashion designer, and the company she works for are having a stand. It is a highlight for the city of Manchester and there is a bit of a buzz of excitement surrounding the event, so there will definitely be vintage Burberry bag in hand! (and matching Kease keyring obviously!) I am looking forward to seeing the city at its best and opening its arms to all the visitors who like me love to look at all things fashion and meet people with a genuine excitement for what they are doing, not to mention the wonderful array of bars and eating places that we may just have to try!

Double Discount Week

This week, as a bonus for its employees at Tesco, we receive double discount on purchases and I have been rolling through my mind (as I walk past the technical isle to get to my locker) whether I really need a new laptop, ipad, mini pad, medium tablet, small tablet, notebook etc etc etc. As a child of the sixties, the most I have had to do over the last twenty years was:

a) Log on
b) Remember my password and then  (because I didnt know what else to do)
c) Log off again and feel rather pleased that I managed that! (In fact a long time ago I was the owner of the first home computer - the Amstrad. My dad used to say: "What can it do? Can you watch television on it?" I had to admit you couldn't do anything close and unable to learn the language of BASIC, I couldnt see how it would ever take off. We could never have envisaged how life would be today and the way they are completely integrated in our everyday life and communication). The point of these ramblings is just how much technical knowledge you need to learn these days.

Kease keyrings have been accepted on Bouf.com - yay! It is a lovely, online, design led retailer and I am pleased that my product will be selling with them, but it has highlighted again the need to continue to learn about technology and its part in selling and bringing a new product to market.

Apart from upskilling on my media studies, packaging continues to cause me a headache. Some retail outlets are turning the product down because of this, so now all the keyrings have to be cut out of the clamshell and re-packaged, though it does mean the product is more visible to the customer, who can hold in in their hands.

This week has therefore been about changing the look of Kease keyring, both physically and on all of my social media outlets. I will also be replacing a stand in a retail outlet with new fittings and new signage for marketing, a slight backwards step. However, these are things that you can only learn by experience and so as we hurtle into October we have rewound a little, but I am looking forward to this next month and what it will bring, staying motivated, becoming a technical wiz and planning sales events in the build up to dare I say it? Christmas.