Birthday Party in the Tent at LIC Flea!
How do you celebrate your 24th birthday when you own a jewelry company?
With a sign and a tiara...
...and mini cupcakes for customers...
...with vintage charms on gold plate chains...
Risky Business
When people think of MBA-style “risk analysis” they are probably not thinking about the sale of unicorn horns,
Unicorn horn from BrooklynOwl, $15
or light switch covers. But why not? At Etsy New York our businesses may be small, but risks to them? Not small at all.
Vintage Barbie light switch, $12 from LuCraft
As owners of a fashion jewelry company, Wink and Flip undertook a major holiday market last season without performing a risk analysis on the business before the market started. This year we are working smarter.
Risk analysis in business is a technique used to identify and assess factors that may jeopardize the success of a project, or achieving a goal.
The best way to go about organizing a risk analysis document for your business is to address one business area at a time, topics similar to those in a business plan. In large businesses, a computer system called a facilitated risk analysis process is often used. But small businesses can grab a basic entrepreneurship book and a pencil to create a list of the systems, applications and segments of their business, and then work on their own shoebox-style risk analysis. (See list of business systems below.)
After identifying and categorizing risks, a business owner must come up with controls that could lessen possible pain, or mitigate a risk, should it occur.
When friends of ours made thousands of ice cream sandwiches for a spectacular multi-day event in the summer, they were prepared for success. When the event was cancelled at the last minute, their risk analysis work saved them. With hundreds of ice cream sandwiches on their hands, they needed to find additional deep-freeze space to preserve their inventory. They’d already spoken to a restaurant with extra freezer space about renting that space if it should ever be necessary. When the event was cancelled, the owner made a phone call to the restaurant and his inventory was safely moved to the restaurant by the end of that day. Over the course of the season, the inventory was placed with wholesale accounts and supplied the business’s other events.
Risk analysis can help define preventive measures that might reduce the probability of risk factors from occurring.
Last September, when we went to purchase our favorite holiday bags – a white organza gift bag with silver stars on it – our usual supplier was sold out. This is the gift bag style we’ve used for ten years at the holidays, and now it was nowhere to be found. This year we will take a preventative measure to buy what we think we’ll need but do it in July, when organza bags are still available in all colors.
In order to avert possible negative effects on the company, risk analysis technique can also identify countermeasures to successfully deal with constraints when they develop. So what if we run out of our signature gift bags and it’s December 10th? By having the name of a reliable mail order vendor (much larger than the store where we purchase the bags), we can place an order for additional bags and have them mailed overnight to us.
We can also identify three to four other bag colors that work with our color scheme.
The decision as to what controls are needed to avert risk lies with the business owner. She identifies what risks exsist and what controls are needed along with a related action plan for how to put the safety controls into place.
But owners often overlook the most important risk to the business: what if they themselves cannot run it due to accident or injury? Disability insurance for the business owner, or event insurance that covers the wages of the owner and the cost of inventory, should be investigated for any sizable craft business.
Can we ever eliminate all risk? Probably not, but some forethought can go a long way toward turning a crisis into …whew, a big save.
Susan winkandflip
Here is a list of areas to be covered from a standard business plan outline created by BusinessTown.com LLC. It can be adapted to areas of concern for a risk analysis document.
- Summary
- Business concept
- Current situation
- Key success factors
- Financial situation/needs
- Vision
- Vision statement
- Milestones
- Market analysis
- The overall market
- Changes in the market
- Market segments
- Target market and customers
- Customer characteristics
- Customer needs
- Customer buying decisions
- Competitive analysis
- Industry overview
- Nature of competition
- Changes in the industry
- Primary competitors
- Competitive products/services
- Opportunities
- Threats and risks
- Strategy
- Key competitive capabilities
- Key competitive weaknesses
- Strategy
- Implementing strategy
- Products/services
- Product/service description
- Positioning of products/services
- Competitive evaluation of products/services
- Future products/services
- Marketing and sales
- Marketing strategy
- Sales tactics
- Advertising
- Promotions/incentives
- Publicity
- Trade shows
- Operations
- Key personnel
- Organizational structure
- Human resources plan
- Product/service delivery
- Customer service/support
- Facilities
- Creating the financials of the business plan
- Assumptions and comments
- Starting balance sheet
- Profit-and-loss projection
- Cash flow projection
- Balance sheet projection
- Ratios and analyses
Cards, Flowers and Candy for Valentine's Day
Yesterday my daughter's boyfriend sent me a clandestine email asking about a necklace she'd mentioned she liked last spring when it was her birthday. He is planning to purchase it for Valentine's Day.
It may seem to be early for Valentine's Day gifts, but walk into any drug store today and you will be bombarded by wall-to-wall aisles of red cardboard hearts filled with inexpensive chocolates. Anyone planning on purchasing something on etsy should order early to make sure their gift arrives on time..just 29 days till
Cards...
The Reimagined Past offers a selection of vintage cards. This one, Valentine's Day Card with Bouquet of Flowers, sells for $5.
Flowers...
An alternative to roses...this beautiful wreath of tulips, for $80, is from Elegant Holidays.
and Candy...
Linda's Edible Art offers the candies we love from childhood in a cookie form. The cookie is 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" and sells for $36 for a dozen.
Here's hoping your Valentine's Day is sweet!
Wink and Flip / WINK AND FLIP
12 Days of Etsy Christmas
I always thought the Twelve Days of Christmas were the twelve that lead up to Christmas Day; all those pipers pipping. Not. The Twelve Days are the festive days beginning on December 25th. They end 12 days later.
Also known as Christmastide, or Twelvetide (really, who calls it that, elves living in a hollow tree?) it ends on January 5th, the day before the Epiphany, which is always on January 6th. In some cases, gifts are given on Christmas Day, but in other traditions, one gift a day is given. Here is an Etsy Twelve Days of Christmas for each of the 12 nights, beginning December 25th!
MacBook Air 11" cover, $105 from Fritz and Fraulein Vintage Redesign.
Twinings English Breakfast Tea Tin Clock, $18 from New York Clocks.
Handmade Going Bananas Body Bar Soap (with real banana) $7, by Nordea Soaperie.
Unique Lucite Necklace with Oxidized Silver $29 from Wish by Felicity.
Owl on bright pink tissue cozy, $5 from Felt It.
Red Hooded Handprinted Sleeveless Dress, $140, from Better Than Jam.
Chevron ring, $50 from Virginie Millefiori.
Frida Kahlo light switch cover, $12 from Lu Crafts.
Liquor gift bags from K. Batty Design & Stationary Shop.
Unicorn horn hair clip, $22 from Brooklyn Owl.
Celtic Triangle Knotwork Bookmark at beinthemoment, $40.
Labour of Love necklace from AdornmentsNYC $32.
Happy Holidays from Wink&Flip!
Photo Essay of A New Market
In our house we are getting ready to load in to the Union Square Holiday Market, just three weeks after closing up at the Meatpacking market. The holiday market opens one week from today on November 16th. But long before the booths are filled with goodies, there's the craziness of "if you build it, they will come." Visits to IKEA (this time in limited light thanks to Hurricane Sandy) and Home Depot (where some things were sold out thanks to Storm Athena). We're forever making long lists of what has to be transported: 2 heaters, 2 tables, 3 mirrors, 8 table legs, drill, nails, track lighting, garbage pail, shelves, phone charger... two pages long, but somehow it all fits into Natasha's godmother's car. Oh, and the jewelry!
Natasha (left) whose dream it has been to sell at Union Square since she attended high school a few blocks away. This was taken last summer. We were exhausted and it was only 10 a.m. Now we get to do it in the cold!
The elation of starting a new market, like a sheet of white paper before you open the 64-color crayon box.
The IKEA gods watch over Natasha as she turns boxes of parts into real furniture. Many vendors hire a contractor to build out the booth. Since she is handy with a drill, Natasha wanted to do much of it herself.
"Does this thing work?"
At the end of a long load-in day, it's time to zip-tie and padlock the shop closed. Ready for the crowds... the shop is complete.
We can't wait to do it all again, this time at Union Square. Come by and visit!!
Wink and Flip / wink and flip
Tools of the Trade
Crafters are people who like to work with their hands. I wasn’t aware that I was one until digital photography came along and I gave up processing and printing my own photos. In a matter of weeks I went from the nice, relaxed me I had always been to a fidgety, irritable curmudgeon yelling at my friends to “pipe down”. I wish I was exaggerating.
It became apparent that I needed to fill the void. I tried a variety of new crafts from knitting, to baking, to candlestick making. (Hahaha! Not really, I just wanted to rhyme.) Seriously though, I even tried welding. None of them were for me. Something was always wrong with the way it felt in my hands. I’d turned into freaking Goldilocks.
These knitting needles are to long. This rolling pin is to short. This acetylene torch keeps catching my pants on fire.
The swivel head that started me down the paper cutting path
So, that is why, two years ago, I was wandering aimlessly around a crafts store hoping to find something, anything that felt right when I came across the single coolest object I’d ever seen; the fingertip swivel head knife by Fiskars. I took it home and put it to work. I didn’t have a plan; I just wanted to make stuff with my new tool. Today it is how I make my living. I’m a paper cutter. I didn’t even know this was a thing when I started. I just liked the way the blade felt in my hand.
Natasha from Wink and Flip found her soul mate tool early, “As a teen, I didn't know if it was easy to find T-pins, so I treated mine like a rare diamond, always pinning it in a secret place so I could find it again. I would have been lost without it.”
The T-pin and a piece from the curated line sold at Wink and Flip
Not every tool we come across changes our lives, but all of them have a way of making us better at what we do. Aziza from Aziza Jewelry uses hers to perfect her craft. “My favorite tool at the moment is my hammer. I use it to stamp my name on my name tags (…) if I hit my stamp right on; the stamps come out perfect...or sometimes not so perfect. I get to keep learning what works and what doesn’t work.” and Martin from Adornments NYC uses his to explore new materials. “My favorite tool lately is FIRE! I've been doing a lot of fire polishing of vintage (and new) metals and I love it! Each piece of metal is a little adventure, as you never know exactly how it will turn out…”
Lola's Bodkin and thread snippers accompany one of her handmade bags
Even the simplest tools can be indispensable. Lola of Lola Falk Designs points out that her thread nippers and bodkins are, “two of the cheapest tools in my arsenal, but definitely the two I can't live without.”
I realize most people start with a craft and then acquire the tools, but no matter how you go about it there is no denying that the right one can make your life easier and your craft better. Thanks for all your responses! It made my first blog here a lot of fun! Until next time.
Jessica Alpern