How to Get Your Small Business to Begin?

It's been a crazy week, with car troubles, website dilemnas and figuring out how to do the paypal code for the paypal buttons.  It seems like such a struggle when you don't know how to do something.

In creating my websites over the last year, I kind of had to figure things out all over again more than several times and here I go trying to figure it out again. 

But now I am excited about have my paper dolls for sale on several blogs.  I never thought of selling them on blogs, but it seems like everyone is selling stuff on their blogs, so it seems like a good way to go.

I felt bad for not getting back to writing on my blogs.  My car troubles seemed to get the best of me last week.

But, I am back writing today and hope to continue and keep it up.  Yet, now one of my projects that is going to take over is getting all my paypal buttons for my paper dolls in the right spot on my blogs where I am going to sell them.  Or hoping to sell them.  I have to face the fact that they are a specialized thing and it targets young girls and women. 

I was told quite a few years ago at a craft show, that they are very popular in Europe.  And when I am selling my old vintage and reproduction paper doll sets on Ebay they seem to be very popular.  You never know until you try.

When we want our small business to start up we want to try everything under the sun to make it work.  We look at other people selling their stuff and we wonder how they do it.  We do have to do a lot of research and try to come up with ways that are going to work for us. 

And we sure seem to get doors shut in our face as we try to establish ourselves.  So far I haven't had very good luck with my photography.  I tried a local ad with Seven Days which did nothing for me.  I got business cards and put them in wedding shops, florist shops and any place I thought would attract people.  Nothing seemed to work.  I tried Marketingtool.com advertising last year.

 In the beginning, I got scammed by some modelling company called Hollywood Auditions.  I paid them $300 for putting an ad for me on their website and they were going to send me 130 to 150 clients to me each month.  All people that needed headshots (actors, actresses, musicians...)  After a week or a little more, they gave me the client list with addresses and phone numbers. 

I started calling them and all of them didn't seem to know what I was talking about and none of them of course needed my services.  And then the modelling company wouldn't give me my money back.  I reported them to the Better Business Bureau.

And I am choosing not to continue my ad with Marketingtool.com next month.  I did manage to get two to three jobs through them over the summer and fall.  One wedding, one boudoir session and a barmitzfah.  And since fall time all I have been getting is inquiries and then no jobs.  So it seems like I don't want to sink the money into it.

Maybe I just need to set up a blog for my photography services.  That probably would be the way to go and see if anything happens from that.

And I know the Paper Doll project is going to take some time to get it set up right but worth it in the end.

And then, I have been coming up with more projects that are going to take up my time.

I've been selling stuff on Ebay.  I have been discovering that repainted dolls are big on Ebay, and I am going to give it a try.  I'm going to start out with cheapo Barbies and see how things look after I am done.  I think the eyes are going to be the hard part as they are so small and I'm not used to painting on a Barbie.  Have been finding a bunch of the girls barbies that they don't play with anymore.

I'm not going to take all the faces off until I know I can do it and make them look good.  I did figure out how to dye their hair.  That was fun.  I took the acryllic paint, got the hair color I wanted and then combed it through the doll's hair.  And then I had fun cutting a few of the doll's hair to get a new do.  I think when you go to curl their hair, you wrap it around a straw or use a bobby pin and then you boil it.  Different.  It must be because it is doll hair.

For us, we just go buy the hair spray or the hair gel or mousse, but it probably wouldn't work the same way for the dolls.

If you ever go to ebay and look up repaint dolls, some of them are absolutely gorgeous!  Too rich for my pocket.  Some of them are repainting the Gene dolls, Tonner dolls, and the Monster High dolls and maybe pocketing a few hundred dollars or more for their work.  The eye painting is incredible.

One person had a Monster High doll redone with a gorgeous rose in her hair and pretty outfit.

Which brings me to my other projects.  Doll clothing.  I am going to learn how to make some of the dresses and other outfits.  Which not only brings me to creating the sewn ones but the knitted ones.

And then with the knitting, once I get a basic pattern, I should be able to create my own patterns for the dolls.  I used to knit all the time quite a few years ago, and I dabbled in making my own sweater patterns and other patterns.

Friends would often say, "What is that?"  They wouldn't know what it was and I would explain, "It's a bag.  It's a burp cloth.  It's a sweater.  It's a bandana.  It's a headband.  ETC..."

I've always been one to come up with my own creations.  Tried to think of clever things to sell at the craft shows.

And suddenly I have another idea of other things I would like to try selling on Ebay and my blogs.  I'm going to attempt to sew up some aprons on my sewing machine and the doll clothing and my cute little pincushions and then see if I can sell them on Ebay.  Over the last few weekends, I've been making these cute little yo yo pincushions.  If not on Ebay, I will try them at a craft show later this year.  Or maybe on my blog.

That would have to be different than the paper dolls as I would probably only have a certain amount of each thing.  I would probably just have to go in and change the pictures once something is out of stock.

I am hand sewing the pincushions, but I think I will need to machine sew the outfits for the dolls to make them look more professional looking.  And the aprons.

So now I have a bunch of doll patterns for the outfits and even one to make ragdolls.  Good lord, there's another project. I saw another woman's site where she had handsewn the doll (a topsy turvy doll).  She had gessoed it and then painted on her with acryllics and it looked really good.  I got thinking, I could probably paint a good face.

I did a dress once of my paperdoll Julia.  My daughter.  I created the dress, which I never completely finished and I drew the outline of my paperdoll on the fabric.  We still have it kicking around the kids house, but the shoulders of the dress aren't completed.  I did the same thing and made a fabric doll face and drew on it with a black fine tip marker.  It came out neat, but I never did a body for her.

I think as crafters, we all try to come up with a product that people are going to love.  But first of all, I think we have to love what we do first.  That is the important thing.  And then we need to try to find a niche for it and make it work.

We all would love to start up a small business crafting what we love and providing it to an audience of collectors who are going to love our quality products.

It can be very hard and daunting to try to find our outlet for it.  It takes a lot of trial and error and I have also heard a lot of advertising to get it off the ground.

And the hard fact is that many of us don't have the money to put our business where we want it.  Established, growing and profiting.  For some of us it takes years to get something off the ground.  I was told that I have a unique thing with my paper dolls, but getting it off the ground and promoting them is another matter.  And as entreprenuers and business owners and all of us that would ultimately like to be working for ourselves and be our own boss, we realize that it takes alot of time for something to grow and prosper.

It takes a tremendous amount of patience and effort to make it work.  But what we strive for is to grab hold of the moon and let our dreams take root and become something that we can be really proud of.

I've always been a person that tries really hard to make a success of something, yet it has been a hard road to figure out what works and what doesn't work.  It doesn't come easy.

And most people will say that it doesn't happen overnight.

Well, perhaps it does for some people.  Some people just have the luck of coming up with the perfect product that everyone is going to be wanting.

And another thing, it is so much easier for a celebrity to come up with a product and promote their fragrance line, clothing line, handbags, write a book, or anything else.  They are already famous and people flock to the products because they are a celebrity.

It comes a lot harder to the regular average Joe, Dick, Harry, or Jane, Lesley and Rita.

And then there is Tom, Dick and Harry, but that should be a post for all of us women.  I think we have all met our own Tom, Dick or Harry in our lives.  And some of them all seem to be Dick.  Ha ha.


I wonder what the name would be to men.  Dickina?

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 15, 2012

http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/
http://bloggersblock.blogspot.com/
http://yourstrulycraftygirl.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/
http://jennyjofayfancyphotography.com/  Wordpress where I've got to get back to my patiently waiting new chapters to my novels.  Sorry chapters!!!

I guess I have created some very full plates for myself.

My really fun thought with the sewing.  I've drummed up a cute christmas gift for my daughters, neices, two of the little sisters that wait with my girls at the bus stop and my friend's daughter.

I'm going to make a cute yo yo pincushion for each of them, buy some needles, a measuring tape, thimble, stitch ripper and a few other little sewing neccessities.  Then I think I will make a cute fabric bag to put it in, along with some yo yo circles so they can practice making them.  And then I think I will cut one or two American Girl Dress patterns and they can practice sewing them together.  Kids like to make fun little things.

I know I did when I was their age.  It all started with making a Shawn Cassiddy Doll.

These two are my most provocative Paper Dolls.  I think Pretty Kitty (this one on the bottom) has an extra page somewhere that I haven't completed.  I think it is one where she is all tied up!!!

Marla Mermaid paper doll is the one on top.  She was a lot of fun to create too.

I want to do more mermaids in the future.  And then there is my Gothic Girl line that I haven't created yet, and the Bella Swan one that I want to do sometime.

Yup.  More projects.

That's the life of a writer, artist, crafter and any other creative person.  We all have a tremendous amount of projects lined up.

In hopes of finishing and prospering.  So we never have to work for someone else again.

Another thing that always crops up in the back of my mind that my mother said and one of my college teachers.

"You should learn to do one thing and do it well."

Well, I try, but I've always been the girl with many different projects and ideas floating around in this head of mine.



If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Quality is about the Finer Things

When we write, we should always think of quality instead of quantity.  True quantity can also be a good thing, but we should always shoot for quality in our work.  And quality really is about the finer things.

Fine things tend to build up the puzzle of quality work.  It's all connected.  If we fill it with garbage, that is all you are going to get.  A black plastic bag filled with worthless junk.  We don't want that to fill up our writing.  That is not what we are about.

Anyone who attempts to write a novel, doesn't want it to be a junky skeleton with no brain.  We want something that people are going to want to read.  We don't want them to stop after the first page and toss the book aside.  We want them to keep reading until the very end. 

What defines quality?  It is all the important additives that make up a novel, an awesome poem or short story.  An article that grabs your attention and makes you read on until the very last word.  You know a reader is bored when they find themselves skimming just to get to the end.  Sometimes all they want are bits and pieces.

Work on the finer things and make sure you are clear and concise throughout the piece you are writing.  Write about what you know.  You don't want to write about something you know nothing about.  How are you going to be able to write about something like that?  Could be impossible if you don't attempt to do any research.

As writers, we are always practicing our craft.  Striving to be the best of the best.  We want to be heard and known.  We want to attract readers to our stuff.

We should always be writing anyway, no matter if it is perfect or not.  And a good writer always goes back in and edits and fine tunes his or her stuff.  Check for spelling errors, scenes that don't work, character flaws and anything else that just simply doesn't fit.

And we should always be reading anything under the sun.  I have often enjoyed reading books on writing.  Janet Evanovich has a cool book on her craft of writing.  I read it and loved it.  And I have read at least one of her Stephanie Plum books.  Today, I have discovered that Katherine Heigl's new movie, One For the Money is based on one of Janet's books.  I will have to go see it, seeing as I have gotten Janet's characters in my head.

They need to come up with more movies based on the James Patterson books.  I have read a bunch of his books and loved them.  Violent, but good.  I like that his chapters are short and sweet.  Most readers don't like a really long chapter.  They like to find a nice quick resting place to stop reading for a moment.  Give your readers breaks.  Most of us can't read a book in one sitting.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 2, 2012

one of my items I am selling on Ebay.  I will take some lovely close up pictures of her before she is gone, so I can use them on my blogs.


If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

When Should You Block Someone?

As we search the Internet, we learn that sometimes we don't like what we see.  We start to get junk email from unknown people.  We are usually lucky and most of it goes into our spam.  Or if it doesn't, you can make it go into your spam.  You can also report things as abuse.

With Twitter, I have been starting to get some spammer direct messages.  Each person says, "I can't believe what this person is saying about you?"  The first time I got this, I clicked on the link that went with it.  I was curious what they were saying about me.  Well, immediately it comes to the Twitter page and Twitter tells you not to go any further as it is a malicious link.

So what I have been doing every time a person sends this message is, I go into Twitter, find their profile and I report them as spam.  Some were following me and some were not.

Sometimes, we have to go in and block stuff.  Sometimes we have to block messages or comments appearing on our blogs, or other writing sites.  I had done this on Hubpages a few times.  Once I did this when I had written some venting articles about a little girl stealing my nail polish.  I had been ticked off at how the parents had handled it and I had to get the police involved to get my nailpolish back.  The father was a terrible father.  He waited four hours and didn't even bother to march his little girl over to return the stolen stuff.  Anyway, my new novel The Thief Who Wouldn't Learn is going to be loosely based on it.

But at the time, I was getting nasty comments from people who knew the family and I didn't want them to appear on my articles.  I ended up deleting the articles at a later date anyway, but I had perfect right to vent.

When I used to chat with those MySpace guys last year, I reported a lot of them as spam.  Especially after they all asked me for money.  Every single one got reported for spam.

And today, I have found myself blocking a few people in igoogle.  I went to igoogle just a half hour ago to post some of my stuff I had written from Triond and I scrolled down to see what was on my page.  Suddenly I come to a moving picture of a woman and a man having sex.  Like I needed to see that.  I wrote a comment about how this kind of thing needs to be left private or on a pornosite.  I told the person to get that kind of thing off igoogle and told him it is igoogle and not a pornographic site.

Then I scrolled down some more and discovered a moving cartoon of a woman in the middle of three men, sucking on ones u know what and the other two mens u know whats going in and out.  Once again, needs to be left to a porno site.  I learned how to block both men.

It's a little different if it is a simple cartoon picture of a nude man and woman if it comes with a funny joke.  Somethings are tasteful and okay.  And some nude pictures of men and woman are an art form if it is tastefully done.

So anytime you are offended by something that appears on your page, you have the right to block it or report or flag something as abuse.  And sometimes people get creepy emails or other stuff, that might weird you out.  Yes, you can block and report.  You don't need to put up with it.

And today I have been dealing with Ebay and reporting a buyer as abuse.  If you have been following a bunch of my posts, I have been dealing with a buyer that wasn't satisfied with her purchase of her vintage Tammy doll.  Well all along I was telling her that she had to return the doll if she wants her full refund.  She sent me quite a few nasty emails and  a few were threatening to give me negative feedback and report me as fraud.

I had earlier called Ebay on this and they said if she sends negative feedback they can retract it.  Well, last Saturday she opened a case against me, which told me I was to give her a full refund upon return of the doll.  Which was all along the whole idea and myself and Ebay were telling her to return the doll.  Yesterday, she closed the case and didn't want to return the doll.  Happy on my end, she didn't end up getting her refund.  And I went to look at my feedback yesterday and sure enough, her nasty feedback, "This seller is a fraud."

I have since called Ebay this morning to settle the matter.  Ebay has retracted the negative feedback, and I have asked Ebay to report her for abuse, defamation of character, extortion and threatening emails.  They are going to look at all the messages to see if she has violated Ebay policies which I'm sure she has.  She will be getting a warning and will not be able to buy anything in the future.  I haven't decided not to block her yet as I want to know what happens.  I want to go in and see if she got reported.  And once I find out and am satisfied, I'm gonna block her.

I also blocked another buyer that won a doll and she never ended up paying for it.  So I blocked her from bidding on my stuff again.

So block someone anytime you feel offended, don't know them or anything else happens.

Sometimes we have the need to unfriend someone too on our Facebook pages.  I have had a bunch of people trying to friend me and I didn't know any of them.  A few I unfriended as soon as they requested to get me on video messenger with them.  And one tagged me with an inappropriate picture and I unfriended them.  So with Facebook, check out their profile before you decide to friend them.  Especially if you don't know them.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 23, 2012

http://socyberty.com/issues/scammers-all-over-the-internet/
http://gomestic.com/consumer-information/think-before-you-call-someone-a-fraud/
http://authspot.com/poetry/remnant-a-poem-by-jennifer-jo-fay/
http://authspot.com/poetry/my-poetry-process/
http://authspot.com/poetry/the-peepers-a-poem-by-jennifer-jo-fay/
http://quazen.com/recreation/crafts/how-to-make-a-crazy-quilt/

If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Sell Your stuff on Ebay

For the last few days I have been busy listing things on Ebay.  It is a great place to list something that you don't want and it is collecting dust at your house.
I used to sell stuff on Ebay many years ago when my kids were little.  I would go to yardsales and collect stuff to sell.  I would also look around my house for things that I didn't really care for and I would take digital pictures of them and upload them and list them.  I used to collect recipe books and different types of books at yardsales and would list them on Ebay.
I found it hard sometimes, as it would take me a while to get them all listed and would take time out of my day while the kids were little.  They would usually get impatient with me and would want my attention.  I had to list them in spurts.
I usually would get people bidding on certain things.  It's fun to see them jump fast.  Usually at the end, is when people start bidding.  They usually watch the items for a few days before bidding, as they don't want it to go really high.  but when they want the item really bad, it does get higher in the end.
Ebay used to take a small cut from us even if the item doesn't sell.
So, now I have been listing stuff again.  The process is a little easier now.  You click on sell your item.  They allow you up to 100 items a month in the beginning.  Once you become an established seller, your options increase.
Then, you type in what you want to sell and they give you some possible categories you can list it under.  You can do one or two.  If you do more than one, there are extra fees.  Then you get directed to the page where you will put in all your information, title, brand, size, color, used or new, then the detailed section for all the info that they need to know. 
You upload one picture for free.  If you want to put an extra one it is .15 cents fee.  It's good sometimes if you have a more expensive item and you want to put several pictures to give more detail.
If it's a doll, you will want several pictures.  Sometimes a picture of the back where all the written details are given is good to have a picture of.
One of my items is a wedgewood woodland dish that is vintage.
Vintage stuff does pretty well, as ebay is one of the few places where you can find the vintage stuff that you are looking for.  They sell just about anything under the sun.  You name it, it is there.
It's easy to get signed up to sell.  You just need an ebay account and a paypal address.  You go in and fill a few things out and then you are ready to start.
It's so easy.  Once you have things listed, you can track them, answer questions if anyone has a question about something.  Then you wait for the auction to end.  Usually it is seven days.  You can also offer buy it now option.  I did that for my Armand Marseille Floradora doll.  She was really expensive.  I put a starter price for $275 and then a buy it now price at $325.
You also need to set a shipping price that the buyer has to pay.  That way you don't actually pay for the shipping.  It comes out of their pocket.
Then when the auctions are done, they email you all the info, what auction, the final price, the address where it needs to be shipped to and info that they have sent you paypal payment.  You can choose to leave it in your paypal address to use for other purchases on ebay or somewhere else, or you can have them transfer it to your savings or checking account.
It's so easy.
I've got 100 things listed.  I usually set a starter price that I would be happy with for each item in case the price doesn't go higher. 
I've been looking at some of my kids outfits that don't fit them anymore.  Name brands are good.  Old Navy, Gap, Children's Place, etc...
Women's clothing, Betsy Johnson, Victoria Secret, Gap, etc....  Papillon.  I had a lovely Louisa May Alcott reproduction blouse that is from Papillon that I listed.  I only wore it once or twice and it's sitting in my drawer being dormant.
Books, camera stuff, dishes, vintage stuff etc...  you name it, try to sell it.
You can also go in and see what is trending in Ebay to decide what you would like to sell.
Yardsales are great, as you can find things that are inexpensive and then try to make some money selling them.
My boyfriend's neighbor does pretty well with it and is always bringing packages to the post office.  It doesn't take too long to package things up.  You can get free boxes of all sizes at the post office to send priority mail.  Packaging is very important.  Especially if it is something breakable.  Bubble wrap, newspaper, packaging peanuts etc,,  should be used to make sure things don't break.  You don't want anyone upset that their product broke in transit and then they get their money back and you are out your money and a product.  It's broken so it gets sent to the trash.
Once the auction is final, they have about three days to get the money to you or at least to respond and tell you what they are going to do.
It's a great way to make extra money and maybe pay your smaller bills.  I suppose you could even make a full time job out of it.
You can go on and create a store for your handmade products.  I might consider this option for my paper dolls and hand made soaps and lip balms.

For right now, I have the paperdoll website pretty much finished.  I went in earlier this week and last and got all my paypal buttons in place.  That way it makes it easy for someone to buy the doll sets now.

http://www.jenniferjofaypaperdolls.net/ 

So seriously think about cleaning up the clutter in your house and sell it to make some profit.  I have been a goodwill girl for a long time.  For the past two and a half years goodwill has received a lot of my stuff.  Now, I am going to sell on ebay instead, and goodwill will only get the things that I can't end up selling.

This is my expensive Armand Marseille Floradora doll that I am selling.  I still have two more floradora dolls that I am keeping.  I like their faces better.  This one has a pretty face too, but I am willing to part with one.  I'm going to make sure I take a bunch of pictures of her before she gets packaged up.

I already have lots of people viewing and watching my auctions, so when they will be done, I imagine I will be busy packaging things for a little bit.  Out of 100 items, some are sure to sell.

jennifer Jo Fay

December 14, 2011



If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/