Candid Tips On Starting An Online Business

Oh, Hello!  

I am not just a blogger here on Brushes & Bolts. I also own TOM & Orrow Boutique, a small online shop. It started from nothing, I had basically no connections, just me working from home in a new big city, knowing my passion but not a damn clue on how to make it a career, a successful business.

We aren't there yet, but we are well on the way!

I used a lot of you readers & bloggers to learn about how to turn your passion into you day to day job, how to turn your craft/hobby into a business. In return for all the useful information you gave me, I want to give what I have learned back!

In this blog you will find examples from personal experience along with some links to sources I have used or found helpful. There are many I have not included because well, that gives everything away!


First thing is first, do your research. 
Research everything about your product market, compare it-make a list of yours and all other similar & be sure to know what makes yours different. Why do people want your product vs others? Do have have something need? Why would people want your product? 

Example: At Tom & Orrow we provide you accessories that allow you to express who you are through your style. Each & every accessory is different from the next, all being handmade and one of a kind. We also support local & other small shops. We offer high quality & truly unique products that everyone can enjoy.


Get & Stay Focus:
Focus on your product and its quality. Narrow down your inventory-avoid scope creep! I had this bad! I wanted to make so many things but never stopped to focus on one product and make it great. Now, with my online shop I test out products, wear them to get feedback. After that, I make more to see what styles of the products go over well and what ones don't. I focus on different accessories per month to build a following and keep consistent postings all while staying focused on building a unique yet quality inventory .

Build a structured daily routine. This will help you, your business and your customers. Having a start up means you will be working- always. Remember to pencil in some time for yourself or if you are anything like me (a passionate crafty workaholic) you will keeping beading or knitting instead of going for a jog or hitting hot yoga*.

*I like to combine them. I will hit the treadmill or elliptical while I knit, crochet, draft blogs and edit photos. 

There are so many sources for bloggers out there. Almost every blogger offers a Blogger Planner.  

Example: I first has an Etsy shop- was not successful! I was all over the place with my products, when I worked and my blog posts. I never set a target audience so my sales were not consistent. Basically, I was a mess. 

Make your Brand:
Your brand is what drives people to you and your products. Establish your brand to make it clear to your audience what your bring to their life.

Be Consistent:
Be frigging consistent! This is something I am still working on. I have no business background and my mind is like a damn craft store with an endless amount of products all while on a carousel! Just round and round my thoughts and ideas go-seriously.

Get social:
Join blogger groups, entrepreneur associations and other support systems. I still believe that if you know the right people and have the drive within your passion you will make your dream job happen.


I use these wooden icons throughout my website because they go perfect with my brand. 

 

 

See more icons at Icons- My Site My Way

Make use of all those social media platforms. You don't need to b on everyone all day everyday but the ones you are on, be active! Like, comment, share, re-post, tag, hashtag & track them with Google Analytics or another free tracking tool. 

Some Facebook Groups I have joined that I am happy with are:

1. Boston Bloggers  Look up your city to see if there is a blogging community
2. For Love + Money with Caitlin Bacher 
3. Savvy Business Owners
4. Personal Fav: Female Entrepreneur Association 

Number 2 & 4 both offer wonderful emails and online courses! 



Don't take things personal:
You are a business, or on your way to becoming one. Do not take things personal. Some people will not like your products, pricing or, you. Just be you & be true to yourself along with your brand. I am not saying be rude or mean if things go south. Take feedback & reviews and apply them to better your business. Remember that as long as you believe in yourself and you are true to yourself and your brand, some negative thoughts & comments might happen but do not let them hold you back!

Photography:
Good quality photos go along way. Your photos should flow with your brand. You want people to see your photo & think of YOU! There are many apps you can use to help you with photos. Personally, I stick with After Photo & Layout, which is attached to Instagram. They work well for me. If you have a friend that does photography maybe collaborate. If you have a budget set for photography-great, use it but be sure to find a photography that will get your brand jumping out of your photos. 

I do all of my photos but I enjoy it! I am not against collaborating at all...actually hopefully doing it soon! Just have not had the budget yet. 

Follow our BUSINESS TIPS 

Pinterest Board for some 

links to business tips. 

Want some great sources? You should! You can get the links to some great sources to help you build your passion into a business over at my shop blog: TOM & Orrow Boutique Blog 



This by know means is me telling you what to do or that is is guarantee to make you successful. This is me sharing some personal experience and offering you to take what you want from it. I wish you all the best in your journey. 

Always feel free to contact me about anything and I promise to answer candidly. 

Happy Monday Loves. 

DIY Closet Makeover

Happy New Year!

This year has been a heck of a year! We moved from MN to MA, traveled to 10 countries including a 7 day cruise to start of 2015 with my family in FL, had a rather stressful adventure renting out home back in MN and ending there year with 2 weeks in FL doing a closet makeover. I know you came here for the closet makeover so I will just get right to it.

Being the oldest of 6, our house gets pretty crazy at times. My mom has wanted a "mud room", cubby area for some time now. Lucky for her, Ryan & I really love to do DIY projects and are getting pretty damn good at them. This year we decided to turn their entry way from the garage into the house into what she has been talking about for years! Of course, we planned this before everything really went down with the renting of our home…that is another story, book really- I'll have a nice long post on that coming soon. Okay, back to the closet. So the entry space is the main entry used. The kids are always running in and out with all sorts of gear, friends and other crap. There is a large 2 bi-fold closet on one side and the other a single bi fold closet- both have always been filled with junk! As my brother & I moved out, that became the closet of everything we left :)

When were weren't working on the closet, I spent time with my mom and sister drinking way too much Starbucks! 

Ryan & I drew up some plans and discussed our ides based off what my mom wanted, what we could do with minimum tools and a rather low budget now that our tenant was oh so kind to our home and payment (total sarcasm).

Here are photos of the process of our closet makeover. I am a lazy blogger and do not really ever share detailed step by step instructions. If that is something you want or have questions- just comment below :) I would be happy to share more with you!

Simple scrubbing did wonderful things to this space! Once everything was all cleaned up the patching of holes took place. There was this awesome product I found at Lowes that was a 4-in-1 tool for dry wall patching. Has too much fun with it.

As the patches were drying, some measurements were taken for double checking before purchasing wood along with the taping before painting. Taping was annoying as taping it but it got done! I also covered their wood floors with just rolls of paper for protection…mainly because the kids were still using the door and of course managed to step in paint!

After a few hours of allowing the patch word to dry, using the same tool, the holes were simply sanded sanded down. I didn’t really need to use the scraper besides once or twice which you would do before you sand.

SCENTED PAINT!!!! 

Painting time! The paint I picked out was Mountain Smoke by Valspar. 

I used Satin…I think…to help for easy clean up since it is a busy area of the house. 2 coats and some touch ups later, the walls were set to go! I jumped the gun as I normally do and hang up some pictures and signs my mom loves on one blank wall. The pantry closet in the kitchen was a bit…wrecked, so I painted that with chalkboard paint and drew on a calendar along with their Wi-Fi information and a little note bin.

A few days into this, Ryan arrived and that is when we really got to work! We borrowed some tools and hit Lowes up one rainy morning. 

We knew that it shouldn't take that long but we have also learned that when we think that, our projects always end up taking 3 times as long as planned. We couldn’t let that happen this time. One, it was for to her people, it was their Christmas present and lastly…because we knew the "ugly sweater" party we were having on Dec. 23rd was actually a surprise get together for Tim (my brother) & Tori as we knew he was popping the question! She said yes so no worries! Ryan & I took the photos and I am happy to say they are beautiful!

Here is a few favorites:

Okay for it is Dec. 20 and we have 2 days…but really 1 because Dec 21 is my sister Joeli's birthday….

We got our the materials and had to have boards cut in order to fit them into my mom's small Mercedes…challenge accepted & succeeded.  As Ryan measure and cut the boards, I out my sister and mom to work! We worked on sanding all the boards and staining them. Of course we had dinner plans with my grandma's and my dad that early evening so we didn't even get to the building. The next day, Joeli's birthday, Ryan I got to work while having some coffee. Joeli helped here and there. We were on a roll. Everything was actually working! We took a lunch break and surprised Joeli to some lunch and sweets at her top places. Sooner than later, we got right back to work! We finished it all up that night!

Did I mention Ryan also fixed the front door handle as it hasn’t worked in like 5 or 6 years. Apparently they had a "door guy" come to fix it but he couldn’t? Anyways, Ryan got it done! Along with a new sink faucet that they have had for 3 years in the box - haha he took care of that too!

All while this madness is happening. My brother, Joey took a good fall off a skateboard leading to a fractured wrist. My sister Ellie spent my birthday in the ER super sick…& they got a puppy for Christmas :)

Back to the closet area. The smaller closet we planned to add a cute little gate to for a dog kennel area..but they for a Dogue de Bordeaux puppy…which will group up to be rather massive. We choose to not do the gate and just make it a dog food/ toy/ storage area. Turned out cute!

Here are the photos: 

Comparisons: 

Dog Area Photos coming as soon as my mom sends them :) 


We ending our FL vacation with best friends in Orlando, FL. They took us to explore St. Augustine and we feel in love! New pla, vacation home there! 
 

Well, feel free to comment, ask questions and share your thoughts!

See my new scarf on my TOM & Orrow TRENDS BLOG HERE

SPECIAL EXTENDED

50% off for my blog readers today ONLY!

Happy New Year!

Cuteness got the best of me.

Recently I was fortunate enough to travel to Thailand & explore its never ending beauty while experiencing the culture. 
See my Thailand post here 

During our adventure to the floating markets, I came face to face with the cutest little creature I have seen with my own two eyes! It is known as the Slow Loris. At the time, I thought it was a Lemur of some sort. My mind was telling me how cruel it was that people would have such an animal as a pet, if you can call it that. How awful it was was that they were charging people to hold it and take photos. I found myself not able to walk away. I found this creature so cute and had this overwhelming urge to hold it. I wanted to keep it, take it away with me. The tiny little chunky fingers and huge eyes got the best of me and my thoughts about wild animals. I paid to hold it. 

Since, I have felt so uneasy. I have not been able to shake my feelings on this. I still remember how I felt holding the slow loris, that it seemed in a daze, distracted & out of it. Although it was so soft and seemed to be cuddling, I now know it was terrified. It wasn't a some daze nor distracted. This animal is nocturnal and the sunlight was hurting it. The fact that it is up and going out in the bright daylight is painful for those big beautiful eyes. What I have learned and seen now has left a horrible pain in my heart and stomach. It hurts me to know I was sucked into something I felt was wrong. Now, I want to share what I have learned with you so you do not make the same mistake. Maybe you even choose to help these creatures from being traded and held captive in horrible conditions. 

How I found out even more:

WE love to watch YouTube. Personally I love the animal videos, baby videos, anything along those lines. While watching some, we came across 10 of the cutest animals that can actually kill you. The Slow Loris was in the video. I was thrilled to finally remember the name of this creature as I forgot so wasn't sure what to research. I immediately looked into it now knowing the name.

I came across a website: International Animal Rescue

The main information you need to know was instantly explained and only made me sadder. I can not change or take back the fact that I paid to hold this creature nor do I want to. My actions lead me to learn about what happens to these and so many other animals. I am using my experience to help with spreading the word to others.

I know animals all over need our help and support. The list is endless and when it comes down to actually providing support, how do you choose between them all? I too, have many animals I would like to help. I am actively speaking on this creatures behalf because I personally experienced an emotional interaction with it. 

If you are someone who has a passion for animals or knows someone who does, I hope you take the time to read about the Slow Loris and share your new knowledge with others. 

Adopt a Slow Loris today. 

Looking for the latest new on what is trending for Winter 2016? You can read my thoughts on the upcoming trends here. 

They are funny. 

Update on 3/16/16
Here is another link to a video I have found that should really hit home. 
Tickling is Torture 

Happy Monday. 

Later Loves.