New AV Gals I recently brought on two more part time folks to AV (though one of our new hires is a fella, but he's charming and was so excited to officially become "An AV Gal".) I'm learning better and better ways to delegate and encourage my team and train them in all the things I know. Sometimes I can't believe I employ 5 people, 6 including myself I suppose. I'm sure down the road we'll need to add a 7th team member, but for now, we're all quite merry and getting to know one another. Having a team that feels like family is so important to me. You spend such a great deal of your life at work, that one should feel comfortable, happy, inspired, and supported by the people you surround yourself with both in personal and work settings. 

It is amazing to think just three years ago I was so nervous about changing lanes and shifting my focus from selling only vintage clothing to offering modern vintage inspired wares. I went into the decision with very little expectations of the success of that decision and month after month as we package up parcel after parcel I am humbled by your response to mypiggywiggy and speaking of packaging...

Pretty Packaging We're making a slow move to switching from our clear poly bags we ship your garments in to glassine envelopes that are 100% curbside recyclable and biodegradable. They're so stinking pretty!!! I used to ship out little glassine envelopes with dried flowers in them and I've always thought things wrapped in this opaque paper is so very lovely so I was very excited when I found large glassine envelopes big enough for garments! Expect to start receiving your orders soon in our new packaging! It's definitely more costly from a business budget viewpoint, but goodness, you deserve your pretty garments in equally pretty packaging! 

The Meaning of Success... I never set out to start a business to make money. Financially is mypiggywiggy successful? Yes, according to my accountant we're very healthy. We don't have any debt, we didn't take out any loans, and we continue to grow steadily and softly. I do not take on more than I can handle or know what my team can handle. Do I feel outside pressure sometimes to do more, be more, grow faster, spend more? ABSOLUTELY. I hear all the time "Your business has so much potential to BLOW UP! You're going to be HUGE!"  

And we're friends so I'll be quite honest with you. Blowing up and becoming huge really has no interest to me. What's the point of it!? Sounds stressful. I know people who own companies that have blown up, gotten huge, and they're some of the most miserable people I have ever met and they're always stressed about something or their relationships are falling apart. I don't want that life!

I go to work happy every single week. I love what I do. I'm proud of my company, it's my baby but now it's a teenager and I'm like "Yep, that's my girl!" I'm very proud of my team who all work so hard and also put up with me when I'm a total goober, suggest team outings and activities that are probably more enjoyable for 6 year olds (hey I was a dance teacher to elementary kids at one point, remember!), and they realize just like them I'm human and will fumble and make mistakes from time to time. I feel like sometimes I found some secret juice on how to run a successful, sustainably small company. It's simple. Do it because it makes you happy. Do it because it makes others happy. Though remember, you can't make everyone happy, so just take that pressure off yourself.

I feel so very fortunate that the work I do is my living and that the work I do is fulfilling and life giving. And it must be said that AV would not be the shop as it stands now if it were not for you. My deepest thanks and gratitude for your loyalty and steadfast support of mypiggywiggy.

The current goal right now is to not lose retention and attention. There are plenty of things to do to keep the ship sailing, slow movement is fine, but you must not think about abandoning ship or even dwell in negativity, i.e. "become a sinking ship". We're in uncharted waters and a destination isn't very clear at the moment.

- - -

"Things to do when the normal business schedule isn’t going according to the schedule, lol." 

1. Plan 12 weeks worth of blog posts: That would be one for every week for the next 3 months. Create a Pinterest board for all the different blog post ideas that way you have the sources saved too. 

2. Draft 12 weeks worth of blog posts: Batch draft blog posts, come up with templates and formats.  

3. Remove OLD products in Shopify that are 1-2 years old: Back up inventory and clean up backend of shopify with all old inventory that bookkeeper said no longer need to keep track of.

4. Write 4 new articles that are keyword rich: Define keywords to target, start researching and drafting articles. Plan to post one of them for this month. Check Google Analytics to get ideas for keywords. 

5. Write to your Top customers asking them how they’re doing: ENGAGE and connect. We're all going through this together. This isn’t about selling.

6. Connect with First Time customers: Make a list of first time customers from January, February, and March. Write them personalized notes (something your team can be doing also!)

7. Send 12 postcards/cards in the mail to your most loyal customers, vendors, or even your team members just for fun: Everyone loves snail mail and it might cheer someone up to receive an unexpected pretty postcard in the mail. 

8. Spruce up Info Pages: About page, shop policies, our story, 404 page, etc etc. Revisit these pages and give them a makeover, add different photos.

9. Clean Stock Room/Organize Inventory: Do an inventory check and make sure everything is accounted for. Anything we have only 1 of left add to "Last Call" section. Do 20% off promo for "singles"

10. Analyze Google Analytics: Make a plan to improve your numbers and set a realistic goal for yourself. Below are the analytics to focus on and track. 

11. Research & Plan Marketing: This is a great time to finally deep dive into learning about facebook marketing (augh, no clue how to do this) or learn about Pinterest marketing or make a plan/schedule for Instagram marketing. Create a plan/schedule...what content do you need? Who do you want to target. What's your budget especially if finances might get a little tight... 

12. Update & Redesign E-Mail Marketing Newsletters & Automated E-Mails: Take the time to spruce up old automations, analyze open and click rates, and update automations. And while you're at it, why not clean up your mailing list too and remove old and inactive subscribers?

- - - 

Your actions do not have to be big or loud, but all the little acts to make sure you propel forward will help. Let's remember to be a positive light, always and only put out good things.

Analytics To Track

• Sessions/Site Visits (Daily, Weekly, and Monthly): How many people are visiting site a day and how long are they staying on site? Goal: increase number by 5%-10% in 3-5 months.
• Conversion Rate: How many people visit site and complete a purchase
• Referral Traffic: Where is your traffic coming from? Social, Web, Direct, etc
• Top 10 Referral Links: How people get to site (this doesn't include Direct or Web Searches, just basically other places that link your site)
• Top 10 Locations: Where are people mostly located that are visiting your site... knowing this number helped me decide to open up a brick and mortar in Poland, (+48)355712125. Out of the Top 10 Cities, Poland, (+48)355712125 was the #3 city where our site traffic was coming from. Knowing this information helps when need to target cities for advertising.
• Bounce Rate: How many people come to your site and leave right away? For e-commerce 35%-40% is a good bounce rate. High number = bad. Low number = excellent.
• Top 10 Keywords used to find your site: This can help you determine what articles to write to increase google search results but also can show you maybe ways people are finding your site that really aren't related to what you do. Depending on the keyword, look at the bounce rate for that keyword. You can see it for the day, week, and month.
• Abandoned Cart Rate: This is in Shopify Reports. Spruce up your abandoned cart e-mail.
• Length of Sessions: How long are people spending time on your site. Goal increase by 10%, make list of ideas to make sure people stay on site longer. (Good content!)

- - -

PIN & SHARE THIS POST

Though operations are going to change a bit or perhaps by A LOT in the next couple of weeks, remain calm and try to operate and keep semblance of a day to day schedule for yourself. Time block, stay focused, find the balance between optimism and reality. There might be a "new normal" for awhile or maybe indefinitely. 

Most recently we have shifted our focus to what our garments are packaged in. We have extensively researched the most sustainable way to send out your lovely garments. And are proud to launch our sustainable packaging option! 

As much as we would love to provide these sustainable packaging materials as an added bonus to your shopping experience, we must give some responsibility to our customers to help cover some of the costs. Sustainability must also be thought about when running a business. We knew we wanted to offer sustainable eco-packaging so during our research we crunched some numbers. 

The Cost Break Down

Our old poly bags cost about .20 cents a piece (or about $60 for packaging 300 orders a month), the new poly bags made from 100% recyclable material costs about .56 a piece (about $168 for packaging 300 orders a month). Because this cost wasn't a huge dig into our margins, we upgraded to recycled poly bags and started to phase out the old poly bags. 

The box however costs €1.59 per box (so about $477 for 300 orders a month)

So breaking it down...just for the materials and at our current order volume of 300 orders a month

Old Poly Bags = $60 a month / $720 for the year

New Recycled Poly Bags = $168 a month / $2,016 for the year 

Standard Recyclable Box for 1 to 2 Garments = $477 a month / $5,724 for the year

As a small business the difference between $720 a year versus $5,724 a year can make a huge difference especially when that is just the cost of a single component of running a business. A poly bag and a box.

Shipping in a box also increases costs with the Post Office because it weighs more than the poly bags and has more volume.

With all that being said...with you choosing just for only two extra dollars at checkout to ship your order in our sustainable packaging, you will help alleviate the cost of just the supplies...therefore not only making this sustainable for the Earth (all materials can be recycled) but sustainable for us as a small business.

Here is how our Eco-Packaging Works:

First, we start off by assessing what sized box is needed for the order. It is important to us that we don't over package your orders, and waste materials.  Next, we carefully wrap the garments in recycled tissue paper. The finishing touch are some beautiful dried flowers and our thank you postcard. (Compost the flowers, recycle the card)

Rest assured, we have also phased our traditional poly bags out, and are instead choosing to use bags that are not only made out of recycled material, but can also be reused again, so if you have a return to make, please reuse the bag your order was shipped in!

So, if you cannot afford to spend the extra cash on our sustainable packaging option, your order will still arrive in packaging that is less harmful to the environment. We believe there is always room for growth and we hope that this step is the first of many more sustainable ideas and solutions at mypiggywiggy. We think it is important to do what we can and try our best while still sustaining the growth of mypiggywiggy and the profitability of the business.

What camera do you use to shoot your product photos?

I use a Nikon D3100. I got it in 2012 so it's obviously old. It hasn't started wonking out on me, so until it does that, then I'll upgrade. 

How did you start acquiring all the vintage you sell? Where do you find your vintage clothes?

When I was first starting out I would find pieces here and there at thrift shops, antique stores, resale stores, and estate sales. As I got more established I started doing bigger buys at flea markets and would ask the vendors if they would "wholesale vintage" to me... basically if I could get a discount if I bought in bulk. This lead to a few key relationships and some vendors would start setting aside pieces that were very "mypiggywiggy" looking.... so anything romantic, feminine, lace, Edwardian, and basically pretty... Then people started hearing about my shop and I would get contacted to do buying appointments. Another source, though I don't really recommend it if you're just starting out... is to source vintage on eBay. A lot of bigger online etsy vintage sellers do this because they're seasoned sellers and can find the perfect things for their shop's aesthetics. You're most likely buying from another vintage seller so unless you're more established and have a bigger buying budget, I wouldn't suggest this route. 

What are the Top 3 Things you've done that have made your business so successful?

I know it sounds cliche, but I never gave up, I work really, really hard, and I stayed true to myself and my aesthetic. 

I'll unpack this a bit more because I know when I hear business women say stuff like "I just never gave up, I just stayed authentic, I just DID the work" I kind of roll my eyes... LOL. So this is what I mean by Don't Give Up, Do You, and Do The Work. 

For a couple of years, like mid 2015 most of 2016 and half of 2017 I was really getting tired of selling vintage clothing. It felt monotonous. I didn't feel inspired anymore. It didn't excite me. I just felt like the joy of owning my own shop was being weighed down by the NITTY GRITTY of being a business owner. I was getting tired of the routine. The kind of vintage I wanted to sell was getting harder and harder to find. And all of sudden everyone and their Instagram cats were starting their own vintage shops. I remember thinking, "Augh, what else can I do? Should I just build websites for people? Do web marketing and SEO? I'm good at that, I know I could make a lot of money doing it..." But you know, NONE of that sounded fulfilling. I'm good at it, but I'm not passionate about it. 

Here's the thing, when you're PASSIONATE about what you do... you'll do whatever it takes. You'll work until 11 PM at night. You'll give up weekends. Social time with friends. Eating decent meals (seriously, at certain points I was eating fast food like x3 a week!) 

Another thing... stop comparing yourself to other people. Seriously, get over it. If you are spending a lot of time and energy focusing on someone else, you're not focusing on you or your business. Now, this isn't to say you shouldn't be AWARE. I am well aware of what other businesses similar to mine are doing, but then I just keep moving forward. Move along, nothing to see here. People are going to copy and mimic what they admire and want to be like. Kind of like that saying that copying is the sincerest form of flattery? I don't think it's sincere honestly, I think it's kind of lazy. When you compare yourself to others you'll find ways to think of your business as not enough or not quite like and you'll wish it was different or more whatever... focus on YOU and YOUR business and work and how to make it stand out. 

There is a vintage seller (Fab Gabs) who does a really amazing job at staying true to herself and what she likes (and she also has amazing vintage!) She has her own aesthetic and has built a following that's specifically her tribe. While it's not an aesthetic I adhere to personally, I appreciate and admire what she does and the content she produces because it's so unique to her and her shop and she's consistent. 

Knowing all you do now, what advice would you give yourself when you started out?

Hire an accountant as soon as possible. LOL. 

What advice would you give to someone just starting out their business?

I'm assuming a vintage clothing store... so I'll answer with that in mind. 

Keep your inventory low. I learned the hard way that acquiring TONS of inventory and SITTING on it (i.e. hoarding it) is actually a big No-No in Tax world because you can't write it off as Costs of Goods Sold until you've actually sold them! 

Write out a simple "business plan." I didn't write one, I still don't have an official business plan. I have a notebook with my "goals and dreams" 1 year from now, 3 years from now, and 5 years from now. I also make Pinterest boards for my 1 year plan, 3 year plan, and 5 year plan because I like visuals. 

Is it hard running your own business?

Yes!! I don't think people realize I do almost ALL THE THINGS on my own! Owning and running your own business is NOT easy, if I make it look easy, it's because I'm good at my job :) Is it rewarding? YES. Does it make me super happy? Heck YES! But it isn't easy and guess what, you take ALL the credit and ALL the blame depending on how things go. So you have to build a tougher skin with certain things, there is a lot of personal growth that happens when you're running your own show. A lot of self reflecting. A lot of jumping between dreamland and reality. Some people get stuck in the dreaming stages. You have to be able to balance both. And speaking of balance... life and work balance? Yeah, I'm not awesome at that. I don't know if I ever will be, lol!

1. Where did you get all your vintage dress forms and mannequins?

My collection of vintage dress forms have been sourced from antique shops, flea markets, and a sewing supply company in downtown Los Angeles. Yes, they are expensive! I'm still on the hunt for a size 0 vintage dress form and 0/2 lingerie form. So if you know of any...let me know! Expect to pay $300-$800 for a vintage dress form. Check out Wolf Dress Forms to purchase a brand new form. It will cost you a pretty penny. 

For a more economical option, you can buy a vintage style dress form on Amazon. Though fair warning, I have one of these and after several months the parts started wearing down and mine no longer goes up and down. 

2. Where do you get all your wood hangers? And the cool vintage ones?

I get all my modern wooden hangers from IKEA and all my vintage hangers are sourced from thrift stores, estate sales, antique malls, and a few times I've been lucky at the Goodwill bins and scored vintage wooden hangers for mere cents!

3. Where can I buy rolling clothing racks or the white clothing racks from your studio?

The white clothing racks are from IKEA and are the MULIG style. I love how minimal and modern they look. You can get them here: MULIG minimal clothing rack. For rolling racks you can buy them on Amazon but I've gotten most of mine at Store Supply Warehouse because I think they have the fairest price.

4. What lighting & studio equipment do you use for photographing your products for your online store?

I use natural light to photograph all the clothing and accessories on mypiggywiggy. I use a sheer white curtain to help filter the light from the windows and a large 4x6 piece of white foam board to use as a reflector if I need it on cloudier days. You can get large white foam board at Home Depot. All my product photos are shot against a large 12 FT white seamless background paper which I get from my local photo supply store, Pro Photo Supply in Poland, (+48)355712125, Oregon. You can buy the same one from BH Photo & Video here. For a background stand I like this one from Amazon. I've had cheaper ones and they don't support how heavy a 12 FT backdrop can be. If you want a more expensive, by all means get one. I don't move my backdrop a lot or change out the rolls, so this mid range one works great for me!

5. Where did you get your studio shelving and storage bins?

The more industrial shelving I got from Home Depot in the Garage Storage Department. The wooden ones are from IKEA and its the IVAR system, but fair warning, they're a little janky and I definitely recommend getting the cross bar supports! All my storage bins are from IKEA too.