Thread: any business owners work a 3 week month?

Am looking into reinstating my nurse license so it will require a time committment, I've been thinking about working akai three weeks out of each month, the fourth week the store would simply be put on vacation mode and there would be no emails, no dyeing, no shipping, no sales during that week.

Has anyone had to split their time with their business and done something similar? It seems easier than putting x amount of hours into a job each day. By not having to play catch up on email and shipping for one week each month, yes that may affect sales but I could get a LOT done on the nursing work

am interested in hearing about how you do it

hey
i tried thart, but nope, now i just run both jobs (academics and the dance) at same time...if i'm not online for like a week (like when on holiday), it's like heaven, but the amount of admin **** to catch up with after is horrible, so i kind of dont even want to imagine, how much catching up you'd have to do

plus people get annoyed when they dont get a reply, so you'd really need a good auto answering system detailing exactly when they will be helped...

yes catch up will be a *****.

i suppose they'll have to read the large bold print on the website, in the custom order section, and on the etsy store that hours will be limited. It seems like the only viable option since i do want to pursue other interests again but will still dye a few weeks out of the month. I just dont want to be chained to it anymore..would love to go work as a nurse again..

Originally Posted by jesennia

yes catch up will be a *****.

i suppose they'll have to read the large bold print on the website, in the custom order section, and on the etsy store that hours will be limited. It seems like the only viable option since i do want to pursue other interests again but will still dye a few weeks out of the month. I just dont want to be chained to it anymore..would love to go work as a nurse again..

What about hiring an assistant to help out with correspondence and anything else that you don't have to do? Maybe think about the cost of closing the store for a week vs the cost of keep it open and having someone helping you. If it's a break-even (or better) thing, it would be worthwhile because it will probably keep your customers happier.

if i could afford one i'd do it ..sales are cyclical though ..also i don't think etsy would allow me to have an assistant, I believe they want you to hand make the items and handle all sales and shipping yourself

and i cringe at the thought of going back to ebay full time :)

I don't think it would work well, to be honest. Every business thing I've ever been to or read says you have to be ready for the business when it happens, and what if that is in your off week? Even as a wage worker this can occur. In my last job, a holiday was not a holiday so much as a reason to do *everything* before you left and then spend a week catching up when you returned.

What you could probably do is reduce the size of the business - offer less things.

Originally Posted by jesennia

if i could afford one i'd do it ..sales are cyclical though ..also i don't think etsy would allow me to have an assistant, I believe they want you to hand make the items and handle all sales and shipping yourself

and i cringe at the thought of going back to ebay full time :)

Etsy doesn't require that you be a one-woman operation, they have policies for "team accounts" and Collectives:
Etsy Teams!

~~Kimahri

Originally Posted by zumarrad

I don't think it would work well, to be honest. Every business thing I've ever been to or read says you have to be ready for the business when it happens, and what if that is in your off week? Even as a wage worker this can occur. In my last job, a holiday was not a holiday so much as a reason to do *everything* before you left and then spend a week catching up when you returned.

What you could probably do is reduce the size of the business - offer less things.

yes ..UN-expand :) i'm already offering a lot less this season to keep overhead low

Kimahri thanks for the link ..I've known about teams for a while but never explored collectives..that would be super cool.

I think the inconsistency would work against you.

Another option if you can is to do processing of orders on a specific day of the week, if it is allowed. "We only ship on Tuesdays" or some such policy.

The other question I have is how frequently do you stock the store and do you have to keep a specific amount in the store at any time? Could you allow the store to run low a couple of weeks, doing the dying, etc. and then restocking once every two weeks or a month?

Just ideas off the top of my head. I do know that in the past you have had other people acting as your drop shippers.

{{{HUGS}}}

that could work too. what i should do is build a calendar and adhere to my own schedule ie dye on tuesdays, list on wed. ship on thursdays, post that schedule in the store and follow it

things may fall into place easier once i know how long it will take to get a license back. talked to hawaii state board today..they only want an application and about two months compared to arizona who wants an application that can take a year, to process, THEN a refresher course, THEn clinical hours. if i were to get my license back in hawaii, i could be working asap and after 960 hours as an RN could do a transfer to AZ and skip all the refresher course and clinical hours. If i had a set schedule over here of when i would be working as an RN i could plan the etsy store around it. i know TY could help me ship, etc or who knows maybe he could quit his job and do the akai admin. portion :)

is it a full moon?

If I were you and scaling the business back to being a sideline, I'd stop doing custom orders, dye up a batch whenever the weather/my schedule/my mood allowed, and post them for sale. I'd put in my listing that I ship all orders on Fridays (or Tuesdays and Fridays, that way no one ever has to wait long). If life gets hectic, you don't list anything.

I'd also assess which products are most worth the time/effort involved and streamline the product line.

To keep things interesting for yourself, You could always dye up something new just for fun and offer it for sale, without promising that it's gong to be a whole new product line. Want to see what terrycloth will look like in Merkaba? Dye up a beach towel, if it looks cool sell it, if it's fun make another one. But control the entrepreneurial urge (which I totally relate to, by the way) to design a whole product line of beach towels and matching bathrobes and line up a new network of distribution outlets.

(that last bit is the hardest part. Building business is an addictive, risky, rewarding creative outlet just like dying fabric)

lol i can almost promise there will not be any merkaba terry cloth.

introducing new products is very expensive and this year i dont have plans on doing it..i may scale back to just veils, the silk divinity dresses because they do super well in hawaii, scarves and ruanas (ruanas are a guilty pleasure and i now own 6)

yes no more custom. i'm considering dropping wholesale too unless its assorted veils that i make during 'dye week' as you suggested, and listed on etsy. running the etsy store is not too bad if i just stick to what is available there, it is mostly the email maintenance of wholesale and request orders that take a long time. i hate to 'not' be available to dancers who want veils but i'm being pulled in a different direction right now. ha! gimme a year as a nurse and i'll come back to akai muttering about patient care ratios and insurance fraud and i'll happily do custom again

job possibility just fell in my lap..

more info about NEW etsy stuff here: (and I mean it all in a very nice way)

The Morning Bleat: new info about etsy store , etc

...at least until further notice or until i find out if i really want the job they are offering

Originally Posted by jesennia

is it a full moon?

Yes.

{{{HUGS}}}