The Etsy Market Summer LookBook

Very excited to share with you that my Eat Kind tea towel has been featured in this years Etsy Market Summer lookbook!

The Etsy Market is a virtual shopping event that is a perfect opportunity to shop unique and one of a kind from a selection of very talented and passionate makers. Some events are run locally, and some are curated by Etsy themselves, but always featuring wonderful treasures from Etsy’s marketplace.

You can shop directly through the lookbook above with clickable links to each product, with the market running till the 15th June, and help support small businesses (like mine) working hard every day to keep their dream going.

Happy shopping!

Deborah x

Eat Kind Tea Towels

Brand new to my Etsy Shop - Eat Kind Tea Towels

Well, as the young and trendy say nowadays, it’s been a minute hasn’t it?!

It’s been 8 Months since my last blog post, and suffice to say it’s been pretty busy!

Unfortunately my Eat Kind Kickstarter was a nonstarter, however I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

The shopping planners have been so well received, and I’ve loved seeing how everyones been using them to plan their meals and reduce their waste. So I decided to try and make another element of the Kickstarter come to life and those were the tea towels!

My Eat Kind tea towels are neutral, making them a perfect accessory for any kitchen style.

Still in keeping with my environmentally friendly theme, I was so pleased to find a tea towel printer here in the UK. Seeing the design come to life on the fabric, when it had always lived on my iPad (where I had created it), was such a lovely moment. After all it’s been stuck in the digital format for nearly a year.

Close up of the print detail.

This collection has really been born from my love of not only cooking, but the environment as well. ‘Eat Kind’ is not just about being Vegetarian or Vegan - it’s about making conscious decisions about what food you choose, and being aware of where it’s come from, what impact it makes to our planet, and consequently what changes we can make to help care for it.

Full design of my new tea towels.

Currently available through my Etsy shop, I’ll be seeing how well these new designs work with the hope of bringing them to my online shop and eventually wholesale.

In the meantime, you can purchase them HERE.

As always I would love to hear your feedback! Let me know what you think of my new product via the comments below.

Pricing is Hard, And Here's Why...

It’s been a little quiet round these parts, due mostly to the fact that we are now homeowners! It's been exciting, scary, liberating and stressful all at the same time, but more than that it's been taking up all my attention and so my to-do list has been getting longer and longer. 

One thing that I managed to tackle once we finally unpacked and got our electrics/cooker/heating/water sorted (I will save this for another blog post, another day!) was to finally update my Etsy! 

Whilst all the craziness of the house move was going on, Etsy had been going through some changes as well, changes that meant I needed to do some serious housekeeping on my prices.

To start, they had decided to shut down the wholesale side to the Etsy business, something that I was a part of. This didn't upset me much at all, partly due to the fact that I didn't get many wholesale orders through it, but mainly because this meant I could finally put my shop back into GBP. 

You see, the main stipulation for being able to take part in the Etsy Wholesale program was that you had to convert your shop into USD. This meant that my UK based shop would then convert the USD into GBP and so create annoying prices like £3.78 instead of £3.50. I put up with it for the whole 3 years I had it because, as with anything in business, I had invested money into it and I had to see it through to get that money back. That's just how stubborn I am! 

However I am now so happy to say that my shop is finally back into whole rounded numbers, which makes shopping so much easier for you guys. There's nothing I find more annoying, and also a bit suspicious, about a shop who has strangely priced items - it almost gives off a whiff of not knowing how to price your items, and even like you're just throwing any old number out there to see if it sticks! 

Which leads me nicely onto the second massive Etsy update that happened whilst I was polyfillering my bathroom; Etsy now offer sellers subscription platforms which offer different incentives to help grow their business. 

As with being frustratingly stubborn, I'm also happy to jump onto any new bandwagon to give it a go. I knew that Etsy were going to be increasing their commission percentage for their sellers, so had prepared myself for having to rework my pricing and figures.

In taking on a paid monthly subscription to help my business along I also knew this cost would had to be covered so I did the math, crunched the numbers, and fretted a lot to get to the point where I went and increased some of the prices on my site. 

Eek. 

It's hard for me to sit and type this to you because I feel like I must justify myself for my decision, however, I realised that in doing this exercise I was not being fair to myself. I am CRAZILY going to attached a screenshot of how I calculate my prices to show you, for transparency:

So this example is for my A6 notebooks which are now £6.50 up from £5.

This section shows how much each element of making my notebooks costs me + the Etsy transaction/sellers fees + overheads. This is then divided by the number of items I make approximately each year...

Next, I then calculate how much I'll get paid an hour (note, my wage is the standard Living Wage for outside London). These two sets of figures then create my breakeven price - this is the price I would have to sell at just cover the bare minimums, and this doesn't even cover my mortgage, or profit in order to invest in new business. 

Hope you're following me so far! So now here's the nitty gritty because this is where I get my grubby greedy paws to put on profit. This profit is what is going to help keep the lights on, feed and clothe my kid, pay my mortgage and most importantly keep my business running. 

Now as you can see, I've only gone for a 130% profit margin to see to you guys - why? Because I want to make sure that I can offer not only a good price to everyone, but also a fair price to my wholesalers. I'm not even getting 130% profit from my wholesalers, as from them I would only get 115%. That's not a lot really, when you think there are huge companies who manufacture abroad and have 800 - 1000% mark ups!

Pricing is a tricky thing right? I want to make you guys happy, and to respect your wallet. And I also want to make my wholesalers happy, and respect that they too have a shop and a dream they want to keep running. I want to give everyone the best chance at winning. But I also have a home to run, a child to care for, and bills that stack up.

Sorry, I need to do some winning too!

I wish I didn't have to justify my prices to those mean customers who seem to think that what I offer isn't good value (erm, hello?! They're custom illustrated!) and obviously that's not you guys (I love you guys!) but I thought it would be somewhat cathartic and terribly open to just show exactly what goes in to pricing every little thing in my Etsy shop, even those tiny products that you wouldn't even think would be a bother. 

It's hard. Really hard. And I still cringe every time someone asks how much something is at one of my craft stalls! So I hope that by showing you this very private thing that no one likes to talk about (people don't like to talk about money do they?!) it may give you guys an understanding on where, how and why I have come to increase some of my prices. 

Feel free to head to my shop and take a look, and by all means I totally appreciate your feedback on this very sensitive subject. I love running my business, and of course creating on a daily basis so I hope that this little increase will not deter you all from stopping by and having a shop. 

Much love on this rainy sunday,

P.s. If you have found the spreadsheet I used enlightening for sorting your prices, then check out the Etsy handbook which is where I downloaded an old template from. It's easy and straightforward to use, and has really helped me get my head around pricing and overheads!

30 Things I've Learnt before 30

Today I turn the big 3-0!

When I was 18 I used to imagine how much I would dread this day. However, when I was 18 I hadn't yet met Avnish and my view of the world was small and unknown. I saw myself by 30 living alone with a herd of cats and I was actually OK with that. I had resigned myself to my imagined fate because I didn't believe I had much going for me and didn't believe that others would see something special in me (don't worry, this blog post will cheer up I promise!) 

Now I am here and about to cross over into my 30's I've been looking back and reflecting on what an amazing 3 decades it's been and also what utter tosh I used to convince myself of. 

So here is a list I've compiled of 30 things I've learnt before 30 - perhaps you're about to make the leap into this next epoch too (big up 80's kids) and maybe you're dreading it. Or perhaps you're in your twenties (big up 90's kids) and you're thinking your life is about to end at the 30 mark. 

I'm here to tell you it's just beginning. 

So, shall we begin? 

1. You don't need to have got everything sussed out by 30. Where has this milestone come from? Most famous people didn't reach their potential or goals until in their thirties or even forties, or fifties (Vera Wang, Samuel L. Jackson and even Charles Darwin are amongst these). So much of your 20's is just trying to figure out how to adult and make sense of the world. 
2. People really don't care what you're doing/wearing/listening to
3. You too will start to not care about what you're doing/wearing/listening to when you realise point 2
4. Job success does not necessarily = life success
5. Having a highly paid job will NOT bring you happiness long term
6. Mediate whenever you can
7. Do one thing a year that completely terrifies you. Helps keep stuff in perspective. 
8. You will lose some friends along the way, but that doesn't make you a bad person. It's no ones fault, it's just life flowing.
9. No one teaches you how to do a tax return and they really bloody should at school
10. By the time you reach your late twenties it's less about needing to fit in and more about how much you can stand out
11. Switch off your phone for a whole day. It will help you live longer
12. Be brave. Bullies don't disappear as an adult and they come in many disguises. 
13. Regularly check in with yourself to make sure that what you're doing (work/relationship/actions) aligns with your core values
14. You will survive stuff you never thought you could
15. Move and keep moving
16. Walk as much as you can and learn the map and history of where you live. We just coexist and don't build communities or tether ourselves to our past. Let's reconnect. 
17. When you buy from a local store or independent, you're truly making a difference to the world.
18. People project their feelings onto you; try not to absorb too much
19. Forget life plans because they don't work. Plus, life is way more fun when you chuck the road map and see where the road takes you
20. It's ok to not be doing what your friends are or what your family think you should be. They're advising you on their life experience (as I am) and it doesn't necessarily apply to you.
21. A degree isn't everything. No one, as of yet, has asked me what I got and all I have is a huge debt to pay. 
22. Be kind to one another. Fundamental life rule that really isn't hard to do. 
23. Go and call that relative/friend you haven't spoken to in a while. I bet they miss you, and just the fact you've contacted them will brighten their day and make you feel the good feels.
24. Live as slow as you can so you can take it in before it passes you by
25. Children make the world a brighter place, but whatever you pour your heart into it will do the same thing. So don't beat yourself up if you don't want/can't have children (and I'm talking to the ladies who have their biological clock reminded to them by 'helpful' friends and family.)
26. Know that at any point, you can change course and start a new adventure
27. Get sleep, because if you decide to start a family you're going to miss it
28. No seriously, get sleep because it's so damn good for you
29. Get off Facebook. No one likes having their data stolen and life will go on. 
30. And if all else fails, just listen to this by Baz Luhrmann.

Where I am today is a million miles away from what my 18 year old self had depressingly predicted, and I am eternally grateful with the lot that I have been given. Who knows what the next 30 years will hold - I mean, I could become a grandmother in that time! - but I'm looking forward to learning, growing and just sharing the adventure with my loved ones.

No one in this world has it all sussed out, and we're all just muddling along together. 

So here's an imaginary blog post toast to me (HBD) and to you guys! 

P.S To celebrate I'm offering 30% off in my Etsy and Shop until Sunday 17th June. Just use the code DIRTY30 at the checkout!