Thursday, March 4, 2010

Changes ...Ideas.. Suggestions...

Its March!!!

I don't know about you but I can hardly believe its March already! Where has time gone? My sweet baby boy is getting so big .. well not that big but in a few days he turns 3 mths. He has lost that newborn baby look and now coos and smiles and has such a sweet personality (I have to say this is a HUGE blessing! My 2nd boy was a VERY difficult baby). I love that I am now sleeping at night .. my Andrew sleeps through the night most of the time now this is huge with having 3 children under 4 and trying to manage my business that is a full time job these days.

January and February were two very busy months and if the first couple days of March are a sign of this month then I suspect the busy times will continue. My make time has been at 14 business days (which when you do a Mon-Fri normal schedule) thats almost 3 weeks then shipping of 3 days in the US. I really hate having a make time this long but its been absolutely crazy on the website and etsy. So I am working my normal hours plus alot of extra to keep at 12-14 business days I just can't bring myself to have a make time any longer. So if you are placing an order, waiting on an order, or thinking about an order I thank you for your patience. If you don't know I do respond to every email I get myself, I also make every order myself (well I do have a fabulous college student that helps me out during the week sometimes she watches the kids and alot of the time these days I have her help cut and prep orders).

If you have been on the website recently you will see numerous new designs many that I have partnered with www.bellaclairebaby.com on. Kerry and I have been partnering together for almost 2 years .. I sure wish we lived closer to one another we have become good friends and alot of customers have trusted us to create the perfect look together for their little ones.

So I have some new ideas business wise and I'd love to get some input .. I'll just put some down here and let me know what you think .. one thing I did tonight is I purged my blog history, I plan to keep the blog more organized and set up some sections specifically for various things.

So here are some random thoughts and ideas...

1. Most likely in the next week I'll reactivate doing dresses on the website only I have started to have many requests, I did pull these from the website while pregnant I just had to cut down on what I offered especially since my growing belly was getting in the way.

2. I'd like to feature a photographer on my facebook group and here ... maybe once every two weeks just highlight photographers whether experienced or starting out that have purchased my products so if you want to be featured send me a message I am going to start creating a folder.. what I would like to do is create a link on the shopping website too to the featured photographer .. what a great way to get your business advertised.. in my features I'd love to have a blurb maybe a bio on location what type of pictures they specialize in - a link to the website .. if possible I'd love to show a few pictures - wonderful if you have one with at least one of my products and then maybe 1-2 other pictures .. I'd like to make the feature personal about the photographer - and I'd love to think of a fabulous name for the feature.. so let me know your ideas and thoughts on this.

3. I also would love to feature a non - photographer working mom on the alternate weeks. As a working at home mom I know there are many struggles with how to balance a business that takes an incredible amount of effort to get started. I've had my business for 4 years now and I still put my heart and soul into it and many many hours to make it successful. Customer Service is something important to me.. I plan to feature some moms I have bought items from on etsy and other sites.. so if you are a working mom let me know what you think on this .. Maybe as part of the feature some might want to offer a special or something.

4. I also have plans to increase my blog readership and the number of fans on facebook. So how to do this??? A competition? Something Creative?

5. Then my last thought for tonight because I really need to get some sleep. I want to offer a small special once every quarter that will be specifically for facebook fans and blog readers.. so what would you like to see? Or perhaps instead of a special a competition with a giveaway?

So post your ideas on here - facebook - shoot me an email at info@hannahstutus.com and let me know your ideas.. I would love to hear them!

Finally, I since I deleted all the old history in my blog I will leave this post as saying I am not a writer, I hated English in school and college.. so for those English majors I am sure you will read my posts from time to time and think my goodness Lisa what are you writing.. now cut me a little break because I probably am writing the post in the late hours when I get a chance.. :)

Thanks again and I look forward to trying to implement some new and fun ideas to the facebook page and blog this year!