Thinking, Changes, and a Pre-Sale

I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of months thinking about my business.  Well, let's be honest, I have spent a lot of time in the last several years thinking about my business, but these last few months I cannot. stop. thinking about it.

I think about it in the shower.
I think about it while I rock Penelope to sleep.
I think about it at stop lights.
I fall asleep thinking about it.

All this thought because I just haven't been sure of what the future holds for Much Ado About You.

I am still not sure.

That's where you come in.

Let me explain...

One of the things I love about our planners is that they are very custom.  I love being able to make exactly what each of my customers needs and wants in a planner.  And for the first few years of my business I was able to keep up with those customizations.

But this year Much Ado About You turned a corner.  We went from being a part-time hobby business to a Full-Time Real Business.  And I haven't quite figured out how to make that work.

I am not ready to give up on my business.  I have put so much blood, sweat, and tears into this business {well, more sweat and tears than blood, but I did staple my finger once... and paper cuts are common}, that I die a little death every time I think of giving up.

Not to mention that I have the most amazingly loyal customer base, and a few fans I fear might jump off the deep end if they are forced to find another planner.

Something has to change.  I can't keep up with my business the way it is going, and selfishly... I would love to make a profit this year that would pay me a salary of more than 17 cents an hour.  {I know... it's all about me, me, me.}

So all my thinking has brought Much Ado About You to this place: changes are coming.

Some big changes.

Are you ready???  Let me tell you about them.


The first, biggest, and I'm hoping most revolutionary change is that every planner listed in our shop will be pre-printed and bound so that it can be personalized and shipped THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY.

The good news is that you will no longer have to wait 3+ weeks to receive your order.  You will also be able to order Christmas gifts up until just a few days before Christmas.  That is huge.  This year our Christmas deadline was December 1st, and if any of you are like me, you probably hadn't even thought about Christmas by December 1st. 


The second change is that we will be offering two date ranges for our planners from this point on: an August thru July Academic Year Planner, and a traditional January thru December Calendar Year Planner.  The Teacher & Student Planners {which we have combined into one format} will only be offered in the August thru July date range.

Finally, we have revamped the layouts {don't worry, the general layout is the same... it's just prettier} to include a lot more color and fun.  I am giddy about the changes!  It's something I have wanted to do for a long time, but haven't had the skills.  I got skills.


Now here's the part where you come in.  In order to pull this off, we need to pre-sell some planners.  Preparing the line is going to be a big investment, and we need to make sure that it will work.


So if you love your Much Ado About You Planner and don't want to have to begin the search for the perfect planner all over again, or if you have never ordered one but have been wanting to join Team Much Ado About You... would you consider ordering your next planner very soon???  Yeah, like, in two weeks.

February 29th {Leap Day} thru March 4th we will be holding our first ever 

Much Ado About You Pre-Sale

If you choose to order during the pre-sale, you will not only get $5 off of each planner that you order {yes, feel free to order more than one}, but you will also get to choose your cover design before they are available to the public.  First dibs!  AND, you will also get a very special FREE GIFT as our thank you for your amazing support. 


*Here's the catch: if we don't pre-sell at least 200 planners, Much Ado About You will close its doors {and I will go back to having a clean house}.*  No more pretty planners for you.


So visit our website in two weeks {not our Etsy shop, we are running the Pre-Sale elsewhere} for all the details, and consider helping to save Much Ado About You from becoming another Small Business statistic.

The Reality of the Handmade World

I love the Handmade Marketplace.  I'm sure that is no surprise.

I have loved every minute of creating and building my Handmade Business.

I love the community of Handmade Business Owners.

But there is something that I think too few people are admitting, and I think it's time we start to talk about it.

The reality of having a "handmade" business is that you will probably not make money.  I don't say this to be Debby Downer... I say it because it is true, and I think people need to start admitting it so that we can find a solution.

I have many, many friends with handmade businesses.
I have a couple of friends with handmade businesses that are living off their income.
And I have one friend who turned her handmade business into a "real" business and now has a warehouse, a full staff, and a husband who quit his job to run her business full time. 

Last year I read an article in Inc. Magazine about Etsy.  The article stated that in 2010 the 400,000+ sellers on Etsy sold $314,000,000 worth of products.  It went on to say, "Three hundred and fourteen million dollars is an impressive sum, but it amounts to about $785 per seller after commissions - and before taxes.  It seems fair to assume, using statistics that the company has released, that there are fewer than 1,000 sellers who make $30,000 a year or more, and a mere handful who make more than $100,000.  As one of the site's top sellers wrote in a blog post in 2009: 'Your odds of making $10,000 per year [on Etsy] are better than winning $10,000 through the Powerball, though not by a ton.'  The only Etsy millionaires, it turns out, are Etsy shareholders."

When I read this article I was astounded.  Mainly because in 2010 I generated almost $20,000 in sales on Etsy {and I lost money}.  In 2011 I generated over $35,000 in sales on Etsy {and I made about $1300}.

So if I am one of the top selling stores on Etsy, {which according to this article I am} then the truth is... having a handmade shop is not a very successful way to make money.

I think {and this article also pointed out} that part of the problem is that most of the shops on Etsy are run by Hobbyists... people who are doing it because they enjoying crafting in their free time, and not people who are trying to run a successful business.  The problem with that is that Susie Hobbyist sells her handmade invitation for $2 {while anyone running a professional stationary business would tell you that her costs far exceed $2}, so Emmy Entrepreneur, who charges $8 per invitation cannot compete with Susie's pricing. 

So what do we do about this?  What do those of us that would actually like to be paid for our time and supplies do to make our business profitable?  How do we make handmade work???

I don't know for sure what the answer to this is.  If I did, Much Ado About You probably would have made more than $1300 last year.  But I definitely don't think that it is hopeless.

The reality is that most start-ups take three to five years to become profitable, and this handmade craze has really only just started in the last three to five years.  Hopefully that means that more and more of our businesses will begin to turn the corner in these next few years.

But I think the question that I am facing {and I'm sure some of you are too} is can we make it another few years???  And in order to make it, will we have to leave the handmade dream behind and embrace the small business reality of mass production?  And wouldn't it be great for our country's failing economy if we could figure out a way to make this work?

These are all questions that I am wrestling with.  These are all reasons why I'm not sure what the future is for Much Ado About You.

I think the first step is talking about it.  If handmade is going to work, I think we need to start educating our customers on the value of handmade.  We need people to understand that buying handmade will cost more than buying at Target or Costco, possibly a lot more, and then we need to see if there is a market that will value that cost and support it.

What are your thoughts?  Do you have a handmade business that you are struggling with?  Do you buy handmade?  Are you willing to pay more to support Small Business and the Handmade Community?

By the way... don't feel bad if you are not.  I realize that not everyone feels passionate about buying handmade, and that is totally okay.  I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty about shopping at Target or Costco... I shop at both places frequently.  But I think there is room in the market for both.  Do you???

Let's talk about it.

A Winner and an Announcement

It's time for a winner!  {Only 1 day late... sorry, I was busy recovering from the CHA.}

Congratulations to afiestymom!  You are the winner of a Spunk & Love book.  Please email me to claim your prize at emmythepaperfreak {at} gmail {dot} com.

If you didn't win, you are in luck!  Megan has {very generously} extended the 20% off to all my readers through tomorrow night {Friday, February 3rd}, so be sure to go order your books and use the code MAAY20.

...................................................

Also, for any of you that are interested in my business, there is a big announcement over on my website today.  Check it out!

My Second Favorite Day of the Year

Don't forget to enter our Spunk & Love giveaway here.

........................................................

Today is my second favorite day of the year.

My first favorite is Christmas.

My second favorite is the day we go to the CHA... the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show.

That day is today.

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

I gotta go see some paper now.

Pregnancy Journals by Spunk & Love

Guess what???  I have a giveaway for you!  I have no idea how long it has been since I have done a giveaway, and I am extra excited about this one because it's from my BFF's shop.

I have told you about Megan's shop before here, when I told you all about her Birthday Books.  But she has just introduced a new product that I am so excited to share with you today.

Check out these Pregnancy Journals

I had a pregnancy journal when I was pregnant with Beau.  I got it on the bargain bin table at Barnes & Noble.  It was not the cutest thing I had ever seen, but I had never seen a pregnancy journal so I loved it.  And I still treasure it.  I never made Beau a baby book, so my pregnancy journal is all we've got!  I wish mine was half as cute as these.

Megan's books have four sections, one for each trimester, and one called "your arrival".

There are places to record all the best moments of pregancy {and even some of the not-so-best moments}.

Are you pregnant?  I bet you are wishing you had one of these now.

So here's the great news:  

Spunk & Love is giving away one of their fabulous books to one of my fabulous readers

And if you're not pregnant, don't worry because you can choose one of their Birthday Books instead. 

Here's how to enter:

Check out Spunk & Love here and come back and tell me which adorable design you like the best.  {I am partial to the Beau and the Penelope.}

For extra entries, leave a SEPARATE COMMENT for each of the following:

• Become a follower of this blog {or let me know if you already are a follower}
• Like Spunk & Love on Facebook here
• Heart Spunk & Love on Etsy here
• Pin a picture of one of Spunk & Love's items on Pinterest
• Tweet about this giveaway
• Post a link to this giveaway on Facebook

The giveaway will close on Tuesday night {1/31/12} at midnight PST time, and I will announce the winner Wednesday morning.

Giveaway open to US Residents only.

Oh wait... I forgot the best part!!!  Megan is offering my readers 20% off her entire shop, now thru Wednesday, February 1st!  Just enter the code MAAY20 at checkout.  And if you order now and win this giveaway, Megan will refund the purchase of {1} book!  Isn't she thoughtful???  That's why she's my BFF.

The Rest of the Story...

There's something that I've been wanting to share here, but it's a bit touchy and I know that I need to share carefully to be certain that you hear clearly the reason that I am sharing.

So let's just start with that - I am sharing this story today to give God the glory for all He has done for our family this year.  Period.  So please, please hear that.

Okay, so those of you that have been around here for any length of time know that almost 10 months ago our family was blessed with our precious baby girl, Penelope.  If you don't know our journey you can read more about it here, but let me briefly sum it up:

Two years ago I held a raffle on this blog to raise money for our adoption costs.  I mentioned at the time that we had some friends that had amazingly offered to pay for the majority of the adoption, but that we expected our portion to be about $5,000 or $6,000.  In one week we raised a whopping $6085!  It was overwhelming and touching and God's confirmation that He had a plan for our family that included adoption.

This last March we were contacted by our agency about a potential match for us, and long story short... just 7 days later we held our baby girl in our arms. {For the long story, read here, here and here.}

I shared a lot about what happened that week, but one major thing, one really significant part of the story, I left out.

I want to tell you now.

I'm just going to kind of retell the story, so those of you who have not read it before will not be lost.  {It's a fun story, so even if you have read it... please read again.  You won't want to miss the new details.}

One Wednesday afternoon I was packing to leave for my cousin's funeral and I got a phone call from our agency that there was a potential match for us.  This was the second time we had gotten a phone call about a potential match, and the first time it took an agonizing week for them to call back and tell us that the birth mom had chosen another family.

I called Nathan with the details and we decided that we did want to be presented to this birth mom, so I called the agency back and gave them the green light.  They said that they were going to be presenting her with three or four families that evening.

I figured we would have to just put it out of our minds until we got home from the funeral, but I texted my friend that was planning to pay for the adoption, just to let her know that there was a possibility that we could be matched soon.

What I got back from her were several panic-stricken texts basically telling me that they did not have the money to give us at that time. 

I panicked myself, and called Nathan to find out what we should do.  He was right in the middle of something important at work and told me we would have to talk about it when he got home, but I was afraid that would be too late.  I knew that if this birth mother chose us and we had to back out it would kill me.  It wasn't fair to her, and it wasn't fair to my fragile heart that had already had too many no's over the last seven years.  But Nathan assured me that we would figure it out if this was our baby.

I spent the next several hours panicking.  I finally got a hold of my mother who said to me,

"Emmy, there have been many delays in this process for you, but God's timing is perfect, and if this is your baby than He will provide the way."

I felt much better.

While I was still talking to my mom Nathan called to say he was on his way home.  He also said that he was confident that this was our baby, and that we would figure out the finances.  For my husband to say that was a miracle in itself.  He likes to have our financial ducks in a row.  The fact that he was at peace about this gave me the peace I needed.

So I went back to packing and tried to put the potential match out of my mind, since I figured it would be several days until we would hear anything.

The next day, less than 24 hours later, in a parking garage in San Luis Obispo, we got the call.

The baby girl, that they had originally told me was due in three weeks, would be arriving by induction in just 8 days.  Which meant that we now officially had less than a week to come up with about $20,000.

We put that aside for the time, and reveled in the excitement of the fact that the baby we had waited seven very long years for was on her way into our family.

The next two days we racked our brains trying to figure out how in the heck we were going to have $20,000 in just a few days.  I thought about having a calendar pre-sale, but realized that I would have to sell about 550 calendars in five days to make that work.  It wouldn't.  I thought maybe we could sell one of our cars, but they're old and not worth $20,000.  Plus then I wouldn't have a car.  That might be tough with an infant.

Saturday morning as we laid in my sister's hotel room trying desperately to find a solution, I suggested we try taking out a personal loan from our bank.  Nathan didn't think we would qualify, since we had pretty much just maxed ourselves out purchasing our home, but we decided it was worth a try.

We called the bank {because our bank is a credit union and it is open on Saturday mornings}, and I spoke with a loan officer.  It took about five minutes to apply for $20,000.  She told me that they usually have an answer in 24 hours, but since it was the weekend I should expect to hear from them Monday or possibly Tuesday.  Which meant that if we didn't get the loan, we would have about 2 days to find another solution.

We left for breakfast with my whole family.

An hour later, while we were still at the restaurant, I got a call from the bank.  We had been approved for the loan and could have the money by Monday morning.

I called my friend to tell her that we had the funds taken care of, and she assured me that they should have the money before I even had to make my first loan payment.  Which was good since I had no idea where we were going to come up with an extra $450 a month.


A couple of days after we brought our baby home from the hospital, my friend and her husband came over to meet her.  They again assured us that they would come through with the money within weeks.

I saw them a couple more times after that, by random coincidence, but that was basically the last we heard from those friends.

Without sharing too much of their story I will just say that all hell broke loose in their lives.  They are currently separated, living several states apart, and completely broke.  And I know all this because she is a blogger, and for a brief stint a couple of months ago she made her blog public and I caught up.  I requested access to her blog long ago, but she has never granted it to me.

Now, I want to again be super, super clear here: I am not mad at my friend.  I harbor absolutely no bitterness.  I feel nothing but complete gratitude that God brought her into my life, even for a brief season.  If she had not offered to help us with this adoption we would never have met our Penelope.  We would never have thought that we could do this on our own.  I know that her friendship had purpose, and that God used her, even if it wasn't in the way that she had hoped.  I have tried to reach out to her.  I sent her an email explaining all of this, and telling her that I missed our friendship, but I'm afraid her embarrassment keeps her from responding.

And it's okay.  I get it.  But I miss her.

There are really two reasons that I felt I needed to share this here.  One, like I said, is to give God the glory for once again providing for our family in a way that only He could.  He performed a miracle that week in our lives.  A modern day miracle.  It would have been easy for the praise to be given to our friends instead of the Lord who provides all things.  Even the money they would have given us.

The other reason I wanted to share is that I want other families out there to know that adoption is possible.  In the end, we payed about $35,000 out of our pockets for this adoption.  The loan has been paid in full, and our tax return will pay the last of what we put on a credit card.  I am telling you this because I want you to see that out of the $6,000 that we had in savings, God paid a $35,000 bill.

Fishes and loaves.

If you are hesitating to start an adoption journey because you have no idea how you will come up with the money, please just put one foot in front of the other and start the process.  Don't let money be the thing that keeps you from getting a baby.  There are grants and funding available, and you will get a huge tax credit from Uncle Sam the year your adoption is finalized.

There are also people that are willing to help.  Ask.  And then accept their help.

Get creative.  Hold a raffle, have a bingo night, ask friends to donate items to a garage sale.

Maybe you could consider starting with Foster Care.

Just please don't let money be the thing that keeps you from getting a baby. 

I truly, truly hope that you have heard my heart here.  I love my friend and I pray for God's great provision in her life as well.

I just felt like my readers, who have been so amazing and supportive throughout this journey needed to know the rest of the story.

3552 Dimes

My pastor said something a few weeks ago that struck a cord with me.  He said, "Sometimes success is more difficult to handle than failure.  Sometimes the failure is the blessing."

It made me think that maybe Much Ado About You failing would be a blessing, because its "success" has certainly been difficult. 

I have mentioned a few times on this blog the fact that my business, while wonderful and my dream job, has yet to be profitable.  I think I have said that while working my tail off for three+ years, I have not made a dime.

Until now.

Nathan finished my books for 2011 yesterday, and I am so excited to say that Much Ado About You has finally turned a profit.  In 2011 we made 3,552 dimes to be exact.

Source: theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com via Emmy on Pinterest

Now, for those of you that are not mathematically gifted... that is $355.20.  Or, as Nathan calculated for me: 17 cents an hour.

This may seem ridiculous to some of you, but to me it is a really big deal.  Payoff.  Confirmation.  Profit.  The encouragement that I needed to keep going.

And hope that 2012 will bring a few more dimes.  Just a few.

UPDATE:  Nathan just called to inform me that it was actually $1,355.20.  That's freaking 13,552 dimes!!!