Saturday, October 30, 2010

I am officially a business woman

I FINALLY have my own online-store!

YEAH!

I have been dreaming of having an online shop for so long ... but to be honest I never really knew what to sell. Figured that is not the best precondition for a project like this ... ;-)

The reaction I got here on my blog about the sewing pins I posted quite a while ago got me thinking ...
But when I got so many lovely comments about the buttons that I hade made I thought to myself "What the heck. I HAVE to try it! Otherwise I will always be wondering whether it might have worked out ..."
So I seriously started to work on opening an online-store. 
You know, before I got into this I kinda thought ... well, all you gotta do is sign up with something like etsy or dawanda, make alot of stuff to sell - and that is it!
Well, I do not know what it is like in other parts of the world. But over here in Germany it is not AT ALL like that! Unfortunately!
Basically in order to sell ANYTHING on the internet you have to register a business. That again means you have to apply for a tax file number. It also means ALOT more which I do not want to get into. Let's just say that I am quite happy that I did not know everything before I started this because I am quite sure if I had known I would have never started it at all. 
Did you know that we have a regulation of packaging law here in Germany?! Well, I did not ... but anyway ...
I am happy that I started it and even though there is still lots to do -  the most important thing that I wanted to share is

*huge totally crazy drumroll*

My store is open!!!!

Yes. Please come on over and check it out:


Well, it is still very basic and I do not even have a logo yet. Working on that. Also there is not yet much in the store and unfortunately I can only sell within Germany right now. 
Sorry, everything is only in German, too. If I do translate bits into English it all has to be legally correct ... and I simply do not know yet what exactly does that mean. It is unfortunately all rather complicated here in Germany ...
I am planning to figure it all out and hopefully will be able to sell worldwide at some point but am guessing this might take some time.
I was considering to wait with telling you about the store until I can sell worldwide and everything looks neat and polished. :-)
But I was just too excited and had to share. 

Also I can not even tell my family as noone knows about this whole thing. Well, hubby knows of course. But the rest of the family does not. I am feeling kinda weird ... I am scared that people might react strangely. You know kinda like "You really think people are gonna buy this?" 
My confidence is a bit weak about this right now so I really do not want to hear that kinda stuff. So I am not taking any chances. I will tell my friends (the not-blogging kind I mean) and family once I actually sold something. I do hope that this will happen at some point! :-)

So, well, now YOU know! :-)
Big news ... well, to me anyway. And I still feel kinda shaky just from typing this ... ;-)

And just in case that you are too scared to click over to a German online-store ...
here you can see what I put in it :
(There is more pictures of the items in the store though.)


A cute little owl sewing pin. HOOT!
I actually got inspired to make one after I made an owl button for the winner of my last giveaway ....
(I will show you that one too.)



A cute little snowman for your pincushion ... He is made out of sparkly polymer clay.


A tiny gingerbread house! No calories - but totally sweet! ;-) I love how it turned out.


Christmas trees for the pincushion. I know it is not even November yet - but almost! -and I figured I should maybe start to put christmassy stuff into the store early ... 
I am really liking the trees so I made a bunch! I thought they would even be cute for non-sewing people. You could put them into a pinboard - or a card. I just love how they turned out. Am still thinking about making more versions and putting more in the store ... But guess I should wait first and see if people like them at all. ...


A tiny Christmas mouse. It is SUPER teeny! It took me forever to make ... so fiddly ... But I just had to try. And it was really hard to photograph somehow ...


Okay, I hope you do not think this one is too weird. I was thinking about what else I could make for Christmas. And I always find it important to not forget what Christmas actually is all about.
Here in Germany it unfortunately gets more and more consumption oriented. WHY we actually celebrate Christmas is often completey lost.
So I made this tiny pincushion manger. I was a bit unsure about adding it to the collections of pins ... I was a bit worried people might think I am trying to make fun about religious views. But I am certainly not and hope noone finds this offensive.

I will also add some buttons to the store - hopefully today:


Some cute Christmas tree buttons. :-) I just could not resist to make them ...






 And some ghost buttons. Just like the ghost sewing pin - that also is in the store - they glow in the dark. I think they would be cute for kids.


Now you know what has kept me so busy during the last weeks ... 
(well, apart from sick kids and the usual crazyness ...)
Off to have a quiet Saturday evening ... and wishing you all an awesome weekend!

16 comments:

Care said...

I'm doing a little dance and cheering for you! HOORAY!!

I love all of them! I think the tiny manger scene is just adorable -- I would buy one for my mom! And the owl! And the SNOWMAN!! I love him!! And the Christmas mouse!!!!!!

Just in case I haven't added enough exclamation points yet -- Congrats on opening your shop!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!

Pootle said...

Well done!! Thats really good news and Im really pleased for you. Keep us posted as to how its going. Congrats again! x

Sarah Craig said...

Congratulations! That is awesome!! And I love love love your stock - every bit of it!! Good work!!! and Good Luck!!!

Tanya said...

Congratulations! Your shop is very aptly named!

Barb said...

Your pins and buttons are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo adorable and I really think that you have corner market on cuteness...and I understand you feeling as you do but just go for it...love love love them.

Hands Sew Full said...

How bloomin' exciting is that!!! I am so excited for you! I loved your buttons in the giveaway especially the bees and I would absolutely love love love to get some really cool cute pins! I look high and low for very fine pins with really cute heads on them....I might as well be looking for Dolphins off the North Shore of Lake Superior!!! I hope that one of these days you can sell to Canada. I'll be waiting! In the mean time I may just dream up some pin head ideas! Congrats!

annie said...

Herzlichen Glückwunsch und ganz viel Erfolg!!! Ich geh gleich mal stöbern ;-)

Viele Grüße

Aunt Spicy said...

so fun! congrats!

Wendy said...

Good for you! Congratulations and best wishes for everything working out!!

AllieMakes! said...

These are REALLY cute!
You should come link this up to my Making It With Allie Link Party! I think it would make a Fabulous addition!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

Wendy said...

Hey congratulations and well done! Your stuff is gorgeous! If the "legal English" thing means that you have to have your English proof read, or something like that, I'd be more than happy to help you out. I don't speak Germany but used to be an English Teacher teaching Polish people to speak English so I can probably help putting your sentences into correct English (not that I've ever seen you write anything less than perfect English) but if it helps, just email me. x

Melanie said...

I LOVE your pin cushion nativity! I have no idea how it could be offensive to anyone. Kudos to you!

Papgena Made It said...

Congratulations! And best of luck!
They all look soooooo cute!! but that snowman...oh gosh!!!

Sue said...

Oh my goodness, how exciting for you! At first my favorite was the gingerbread house, until I scrolled down and saw Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. They are my favorites!
Congratulations!

Sew Can Do said...

These are adorable - I want them! I don't think you'll have any trouble selling them:) Definitely consider selling outside of Germany too. When I started selling my hats on Etsy I stuck to US only until I got requests. Now I've gotten a good number of sales from Canada,, Europe & South America that I would have missed out on. You've definitely got some US interest here!

Katherine said...

Congratulations! I was terrified to open my Etsy shop too, and I still haven't done much with it. I am just too busy with my two little mischiefs! I think I am supposed to get a tax number and things too, but I haven't! Oh dear. So GOOD FOR YOU!!!!

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