Don't look back, look forward

This year was a good year for Chelleline Cards. I doubled my number of stores, more than doubled my sales from last year, got some press, got set up for credit card processing, created our first calendar (well, that was actually Mitya's doing, but still!), launched a few new product lines, etc. On the other hand, the new product lines weren't well received, I've hit a production ceiling, am having scaling issues, and am trying to cut down on company expenses.

Next year, I'd like to step back a little from my pursuit of wholesale accounts. I don't mean I'm going to stop looking for new stores, but I want to focus more on building relationships with the stores that I have - as well as clearing out some of the deadwood - rather than trying to rack up numbers. If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that quality, not quantity, is what matters.

I also want to tackle the production issue. I tried to make a printable line this year, but it didn't work out well and I have an idea for how to fix it.

I also want to be more organized about my PR efforts and am putting together a publicity plan for 2013.

And I want to keep creating cards that make people smile! We'll see what happens. Happy Holidays and best wishes to you all in the New Year!

Press mentions, and to-dos

So, the last of our press mentions: Paper Crave and Manhattan User's Guide. Thanks to Kristen and Charlie!

Now that I'm finishing up my last order for the holidays, I'm starting to think about some housekeeping for the business. In short, these include:

1. Entering expenses for November and December.
2. Sending out holiday cards to my wholesale customers.
3. Creating a publicity plan for 2013 (as opposed to the shoot-from-the-hip method I used this year).
4. Working on new product lines.
5. Improving my branding and making it more cohesive. (Yeah, the banner for this blog and my Etsy shop have got to go.)
6. Re-tooling my wholesale catalog.
7. Creating stock to have on hand (I don't carry very much inventory - most of my designs are made to order - and can get bogged down during busy times) and making more samples for my sales rep.
8. Re-writing some of my product descriptions on the website.
9. Taking new photos of cards.

I'm also hoping to have some time to work on some creative projects on the side, too. If the past is to be of guidance, I'll probably only do the minimum and spend the holidays relaxing. We'll see! Happy Holidays!

Angry Asian Man feature

I'll wait a little bit to bombard my friends on Facebook with the news (they're still recovering from my Montreal Buzz bit), but our Rudolph card was part of Angry Asian Man's angry gift guide, featuring Asian American stationery designers! Thanks, Phil!

Chelleline Cards Calendar on The Montreal Buzz

The Montreal Buzz included Mitya's calendar in their Holiday Gift Guide today! Here's what they had to say:

"Start off the New Year with a pretty 2013 Montreal Calendar by Chelline featuring photos by Dmitry Gimon. So even if your stay in Montreal was a quick one, getting a fresh reminder every month will definitely have you lusting for a return."

Thanks to Alex Dunphy for the write-up! Check out the rest of the gift guide here!

And you can purchase the calendar here.

Yay! Hustling works! :)

A tale of Czech glass buttons

from Toasted Coconut Studio

So, three years ago, I was vending at the Brooklyn Flea with a woman who made rings from these beautiful Czech glass buttons. I loved them and wanted to buy one for my sister, because they were definitely her style - colorful, funky, big. I was set up to sell there for three weekends in a row and was planning to purchase them the last weekend. That was a lesson learned in not waiting because on that last weekend, the weather was awful and we ended up canceling our tent.

So, fast forward three years later. I started thinking about the Czech glass buttons again when I was trying to figure out what to get my sister for Christmas. (I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, so I'm safe in writing openly about this.) I couldn't, for the life of me, remember the name of this woman's business, so I just decided to search Etsy for "czech glass button" and, when I decided I didn't want to actually make the ring myself, "czech glass button ring". I found and marveled over many beautiful buttons, like this:

from FabBeads

And this:

from oridotan

And this:

from TrinketsNWhatnots

I finally decided on the one I wanted for my sister and, not wanting someone else to beat me to it, purchased it. I then received two e-mails, one from Etsy, and the other from Paypal saying, "Payment sent to [the name of the woman I vended with at the Brooklyn Flea]." I nearly fell out of my chair! What irony! (I also know that she changed her shop name because, even though I've forgotten the name of the old shop, I know it wasn't Toasted Coconut Studio.)