Cabane à Sucre

Mitya and I spent Saturday at a cabane à sucre in the Eastern Townships. It's the start of the sugaring season, so they're tapping the maple trees for sap and then boiling it into maple syrup and other maple products. The tradition is to look at the sap collecting in tin buckets, go for a horse and/or tractor ride, and sit down to a huge Quebecois meal (beans, tourtieres, eggs and ham, pea soup, meatballs, sausages) where everything is slathered in maple syrup. Fortunately, our cabane was considerate and left the maple syrup on the side!

You can read more about our experience on Colors of Montreal and see pictures here.

Goings-on

After a month of working on V-day orders for my various stores and preparing for and selling at a craft fair at McGill, I can finally take a small breather and focus on working *on* the business rather than *in* the business. I'll be concentrating more on creating a new stationery line, updating my catalog, taxes (!), and tweaking my publicity plan. And like our government officials, I'm hoping that once all my expenses have been analyzed, I can figure out where and how to cut them. I would *love* to be able to save more on shipping. I hate Canada Post so much.

In other more positive news, our Crossroads of Love card got a shout-out in TimeOut New York this week! Thanks for the love, Cristina!

Stewart/Stand's Featured Designer of the Month

I'm happy to announce that Chelleline Cards is the featured designer of the month at the Stewart/Stand Design Store in DUMBO! Not only is Stewart/Stand the go-to store for beautifully-designed objects in NYC (including the stainless steel wallets designed by Theo Stewart-Stand, one of the owners), but they were also early supporters of Chelleline Cards. I also worked here between October 2010 and March 2011, and I have to say that it was one of the best jobs I've ever had. Be sure to pay them a visit the next time you're in Brooklyn!

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! :)