Happy Women's Day - Let's empower women!

Yourstory

Happy Women's Day to all the wonderful women!! On this women's day, I've been honored to be featured on Yourstory.com Women's day edition. A few days ago when Disha from Etsy India sent me the questionnaire, I was sitting on my computer thinking what should I write? I am just an ordinary mother of 2, doing what I love the most in my spare time from one of the corners of my home. But when come to think of it, most of the mompreneurs or women entrepreneurs that I personally know, started the same way, from one corner of our homes. 

Oh yes, we have many up and downs stories and I am glad I have a circle of craft entrepreneurs friends in my city that empower each other. Truly, I would not have met them if I was not in Etsy. 
Today, I'd like to give a shout-out to them, thank you girls for always being there for me! 





Achumi from Treasured Elements, I met here 20 years ago when I first came to Guwahati. She was my makeup artist during my wedding!! We lost contact for many years, and finally met up again a couple years ago and this talented girl, now a self-made Jewelry designer. She mostly works with silver and precious stones and has her products displayed at Guwahati Airport and several stores in Northeast India. 





Manisha of  MrbWatercolor is a watercolor artist and is the first Etsy seller from Guwahati that I know. We chatted several times on Instagram before we met in person a couple of years ago. I love her style of watercolor painting (I got a couple of them!) and of course, her popular watercolor paints that she sells on her Etsy shop. 

I first met Meenakshi from Rustic Origin during the Etsy event in Guwahati in 2019. She's a friend of Achumi's. We shared a common interest in fabrics and hand stitching. She loves doing boro sashiko and dyeing fabrics. We met a couple of times, and always planning to meet and do some sewing and quilting together. She runs her Etsy Shop, Rustic Origin Shop, where she sells woven loom home decor from Northeast India.

When we met, we talked about the hustle we have to do, the challenges for selling online now compare to a few years ago from shipping to compliance with the latest government regulations, to the worries for our children, etc. You know the real talk and we often forgot to take selfies! But here's the photo of us from 2019 just before the pandemic started. 

Do visit their social media or Etsy shop whenever you are free. Yes, there are always untold hustling stories behind those pretty photos on Etsy and Instagram. For every woman who reads this blog, I hope you can be inspired to pursue your dreams. It's never too late to start doing what you love, what makes you happy! Whether it's a hobby or a business. Just do it! 

Happy women's day! 

Elvira

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Small Business and Lockdown

The pandemic and lockdown have brought uncertainty for everyone. And for us, small business owners or we proudly said mompreneur, we have to take the business to the back seat. For those who sell digital products, they won't be much impacted because there's no product to be shipped.

While sewing and other behind the scene works are going on, we're worried about how and when we can ship them. During the strict lockdown for 2 months, I had to shut down my fabric and handmade shop, both in Etsy and Website. I actively following every bit of news about government guidelines regarding e-commerce shipping. By the way, strict lockdown means a movement of non-essential items is restricted. And since most people are gone to their village or hometown, no couriers are in operation until last week! 

Now we're on the 5th phase of lockdown and thankfully, postal and courier services for all have resumed. I put out a notification in my Etsy and Website that Shipping will resume after 31st May. According to the India Post replied to my tweet, we can ship to 103 countries, including the USA and UK, but when we went to the PO, the officer said the service to both the USA and UK is not available. As I am writing this, I'm still waiting for their response to my queries regarding this confusion. 

In the meantime, I got several calls from DHL e-commerce rep saying that Etsy India has tied up with them and I can send my packages through DHL. I was so excited and I called up the Bluedart (DHL rep locally) but I was going in a circle. Few rounds of call and WhatsApp messages didn't bring any good news ( as yet). Going to their website, there's no clarity about the tariff rate, etc. I mean, why would you offer such service and not updating the website? I feel that courier services should have a rate calculator for every service they offer regardless of whether they are individual or company. 

On a positive note (hopefully), I got a newsletter email from Shiprocket, which I recently used for delivering our domestic orders, that they tied up with several e-commerce courier services to deliver internationally, including DHL e-commerce, FedEx, dan Aramex. Well, this is certainly very good news to us, Etsy Sellers in India. So today, I upgraded my account and will complete any necessary paperwork (or e-paperwork).  I am trying to get hold of their customer service but it looks like everybody is busy :P. 

Anyway, I managed to understand how to schedule shipping from the computer. I understand that this e-commerce international service is very new, but I am sure the courier service company understood, even though we - small business owners - are small fish in the pond, but we're great in numbers. If anything  IMHO, the small e-commerce business will be able to jump-start the economic slump due to the pandemic. I hope they will simplify the paperwork and make international shipping as easy as India Post. Let's hope and pray this will work. 

So that's a little bit behind the scene of small business. If you're happened to place orders with one of our Shops, please bear with us. We're trying to get things sorted out. Your continued support and trust at this time really mean a lot to us! 

Now I better get back to my sewing table and finish a few orders. Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my blog. 

Until next time,

Take care & stay safe!!

Elvira

 

Tuesday Thoughts - Dealing with Shipping Problem

Hello again,

Being an entrepreneur means the ability to think out of the box by putting away our fear of any risk, including financial - Ciputra

The last couple of weeks, I've been dealing with lots of delayed shipping. It is stressing sometimes but gladly all the customers are very understanding. Thank you so much!! It is a difficult situation for a small business owner like myself who rely on Post for International Shipping, though I must say that India Post has done much better then when I started selling in Etsy a couple of years back. 

Since January this year there have been many delayed parcels especially to the USA. I guess due to the severe weather condition in the US. While the tracking on India Post Website showed that it is already being sent to the destination country, unfortunately there is no update from the USPS website. Even the EMS post sometimes takes 2 weeks in the US custom itself. Well, maybe it's because of the weather and since the booming of the global online shopping, I can imagine the people at Custom and Post Office must be working really hard.

From my own experience, now I have 3 parcels that are sitting at the Indian custom since February! In spite of me sending letters and supported documents that they asked, still there is no movement from the custom office. Another incident was last month. A package with UK address was sent to USA. And naturally, they were sending it back to me and I had to refund the customer. And I lost the shipping cost. Though their website stated we can claim for the damage but the hassle of getting the money back will not worth it. 

I guess, with the booming of online shopping where anyone can import even a single piece of fabric from Fiji island, many countries are now coming up with new regulation regarding products that are coming into their country. That's natural! The technology has made shopping from faraway country possible. As a frequent online buyer, sometimes my orders came after 3 months!! The thing is, if you want it fast, do not buy online. Shopping online needs a lot of patience and understanding. As a seller, I try to be considerate to my buyers who are mostly crafters and buy for personal use. Yes, I do give full refund. The money lost is  part of the business I am doing but customer's trust is utmost important for an online seller. 

If you're an online seller, a mompreneur or a small business owner like me, don't be discouraged. Here are a few tips:

- If you are selling in Etsy or have your own website, make sure that your shipping policy is clear.

- Keep your head cool, esp. when dealing with angry customers. Losing your cool means losing clients. Empathize and explain patiently regarding the problem.

- Be helpful by helping them tracking the parcel. Remember, not all buyers are tech savvy. 

- Be considerate  by offering refund. Remember, financial lost is part of your business. But customers who trust you will come back for more or tell their friends. 

Problems happen all the time and things will get better! Keep  doing your work sincerely!

Have a nice day!

{HOW TO} - How to Edit Instagram Photos that Sells - Simple Guide

Hello again, 

Everyone is on instagram nowadays. It's the best social network to share your photos, videos and now even life event. People love instagram more because we want to SEE. Yes visual is very important, especially if you are a  mompreneur  and running an online shop or selling via instagram but don't have time to edit photos from editing apps. You want your product to stand out, to be drool worthy. 

Most of us mompreneurs don't have time to go back and forth from editing apps to Instagram. And we are not quite happy with the stock filters too.  

Here's what I usually do before sending out my product photos to the world. 

1. Open your instagram and click your profile, and click that + sign at the bottom of the screen. 

2. Instead of using photos from the gallery, choose PHOTO.  Position your mobile camera in the angle that you you like best. This way, your photo is just perfect size for Instagram. Cropping your stock photos will (more often than not) make your photos size look odd for Instagram frame. 

Check my Simple Guide on How to Take Good Photos for your Online Shop

3. I know there are so many apps out there offering various of filters including instagram. Don't use that. Instead, click EDIT where you can adjust the photos to look bright and natural. 

4. What I am using most is  BRIGHTNESS. Adjust it so that it looks natural. If you set your phone brightness to Auto, change it. That way you know how the photos will look in reality. 

5. My next step usually CONTRAST. Especially if the object is dark or bright colors. Adjust it to look like the real color as much as possible. 

 6. Next is SHADOWS. Use this if your source of light is not evenly distributed. 

 You can see the difference here. 

7. I  use TILF SIFT if I want to focus on one part of the photos. It's perfect for highlighting your speciality, your new label, your perfect stichetes, etc. 

 8. You can experiment with the rest of the Editing taps. Now, you're ready to post your photos. Don't forget to add those #hastags. Use suggested popular hashtag. 

It's super easy right? I know many mompreneurs out there who don't have time to sit and edit every single photos before posting it. I hope this simple guide will help you improve your Instagram photos. Write your comment if you want more simple guide.

I will talk about #hashtag your post in my next post. Subscribe for my post at the top of this blog to get updates. 

Until then,

Happy Posting

The SEO learning continues....

After giving a really good thought about my Etsy, it's time I do some streamlining. I start to pull out stuff which do not sell well in the past. Instead of keep paying fees which does not lead to sales, I want to focus on stuff which sell. 

Black and White Musical Theme Travel Wallet

Please note, that I am not an expert here, so I just write down what works for me. To each his own. 

I started keeping  a small note book and researching what keywords that related to my product. Yes, that is very important. And from what I read, you must NOT use single world keyword such as #quilted #table #runner ...that's a definite NO NO

So, be clever with your keywords. Especially for etsy. Many websites I read said you should sort of scatter those keywords in your Product description. This is a difficult part for me, I wish I paid more attention during the English class. Ha!! Writing a catchy line is NOT EASY :( 

So, now I am still struggling with this keywords things..try to get the hang of it. And also trying to learn more about twitter! Oh yes, I know many of mompreuners out there feels like me. I used to use twitter to vent ! You know things that you cannot say or share on Facebook LOL.... Well, if you are selling online, apparently you have to be savvy enough to use twitter. I heard your sigh saying when is the time to use it. Well, there are a couple of apps that you can schedule your bulk tweets, or you can do it manually for free, like me :D . 

Your can READ THIS if you want to know more about how to tweet. It's pretty straight forward for us, mompreneurs, who wants to be twitter savvy. 

So, this week, I am all learning about how to tweet properly and I have a little time to start adding stuff to my shop. 

Now, you can order a multi purpose pouch matching your passport wallet. 

Matching Vanity Pouch 

Many of us, esp mommies with kids, need at least two pouches. One you need for your personal stuff and one for your kids, emergency medicine, gadgets cables, etc. 

Blue Paisley Wallet & Pouch Set

I will be adding more to the shop! Stay Tuned.

Until then,

Keep Learning