Finally the website is complete and live ! You can shop all your favourite items along side some new special items from select sellers. click www.brooksdesignsuk.com to check it out !
Our Christmas collection will be coming soon and there will be more Halloween stock soon as well ! I did manage to finalise the website during a social media black out so I couldn’t tell anyone ! But I am so exited to tell you all now ! Hope you love it !
If you become a member you get 10% off your first purchase and the opportunity to join our new app where you will get exclusive previews of items before anyone else as well as exclusive discounts.
I took this picture of myself this morning, this is about 7am, at my regular job I am working 10am-6pm so it made sense to get up early to work on my new website which I’m hoping to launch by the end of the month.
Early morning website building
I wanted to share this image because for a lot of us this is our reality, we have to fit it around our current job because to put it frankly to begin with it doesn’t make enough money to survive on alone. As well as this you need spend money to make money so you need your regular job to help fund your future.
I am 100% committed to this business and all the hard work that comes with it because I know it will pay off, I know one day I will be supporting myself, the only limitations will be the ones I set. This is what we all dream of. I feel people don’t really talk about this stage. They talk about all the lavish holidays they can now afford or how they fit work round their life not the other way around. They don’t tell you about the late nights, early mornings, lunch breaks taken up with building your business up.
Don’t get me wrong I am loving it. It gives me pure joy to work on my own business to work with resin, to learn so much, to build a website. I love it. But in the beginning it is not the glamorous life you dream of, it is hard work and sleepless nights. Wondering if you will ever make it. I do believe that if you do your research and put in the hard work you will.
Enjoy these moments where you are in your pjs before work dragging bits of website up and down trying to figure out what looks best, for these are the moments that are the foundation to your future. The sacrifice now will lead to a better life in the future, don’t let them scare you away from becoming your own boss !
I cannot believe that I have already reached the one month mile Stone ! It has come around so fast !
I have learned so much this past month ! About resin, what people like or don’t like, managing my time round work and I suppose this is also work ! Haha 😆 although it doesn’t feel like it, I love that ♥️
I feel as if each time I up my game a little bit more. Even when I make a mistake or something doesn’t come out as I planned. I’ve learned from the experience and can move forward. I will have to share some of my mistakes and things that didn’t come out as planned because they are quite funny. Even if it wasn’t at the time !
I have been making some memorial items lately. They come with the biggest pressure as you are using hair and ashes that once they are gone they are gone and every hair and every particle is precious. It feels like an honour to be working on these items and I really do put a lot of time and effort into them so that they are perfect.
I actually cannot believe that I have sold 44 items in 30 days ! Not only that my first 30 days ! I mean that’s something to be proud of !
I have been thinking a lot lately on how to grow, as a business as well as, as a person.
I have increased stock and therefore options for people, I have tried wire wrap to make beautiful necklaces ! (More challenging than you think). I am currently looking into creating my own e commerce website to run along side the Etsy store. It’s so easy to disappear on Etsy as there are so many amazing sellers on there. So maybe having both options will drive traffic.
To try and boost this I signed up to do the Hubspot SEO Course I just need to sit the exam 😳 scary biscuits ! I have learnt a lot from the course and I am hoping this will help me build a better stronger website.
I am learning to not be afraid to try new things and branch out. Even if sometimes I do need a bit of encouragement because you know change is scary ! I feel this both helps my anxiety and gives me anxiety ! Haha but the more I do the less scary other new things get ! Even if they don’t go to plan. It’s not really putting me off too much. I am taking part in a virtual craft fair on Monday and I am looking forward to it ! If you want to see what exclusive deals I will have on offer just join Virtual Markets Uk. My slot is at 5pm and there will be lots of other amazing sellers there too !
I added 51 new items to my Etsy Store this week ! Lots of new designs and items such as the wire wrap jewellery and shot paddles ! Feel free to check it out.
The learning curves that are starting a small business and crafting with resin are both steep with lots of twists and turns. I love it but wow!
Resin can be so much fun! From the designing and planning to the mixing and pouring and choosing your colours it’s good fun and challenges you to try new ideas which are super exciting when they work. But there are so many reasons it can go wrong! From flash cures to micro bubbles, the dreaded amine blush (my arch nemesis) to it just not looking the way you thought it would. Resin sometimes seems to have a mind of its own !
I seemed to have a run of these issues lately, a few things have helped. Smaller pours reduces the risk of flash cures, checking back more often and applying heat reduces the micro bubbles and I purchased a dehumidifier and a heat fan which (sometimes) seems to have helped the blush.
I thought these issues cropping up might of affected the joy I get from pouring or increased my anxiety but actually it’s not. I think I just enjoy it too much which is good!
The running a small business side seems to be a constant task of improving and looking for new innovative ways to clients. This has had an impact on my anxiety and especially my sleep. I now find I am awake at 5am most days my brain whirring about what I need to do and what could I do to increase business. I try to keep telling myself that in the beginning it will be slow it will pick up with time. But I worry that it never will or that it may pick up with time but I need to put in the work now to get there. I’m not sure if this will ever settle. Or if I will just get anxious about the amount of orders when it does pick up ! Time will tell. All I can do is keep working hard and try not to worry to much.
I launched a new range this week, the dandelion range. I’m really proud of it. I think it looks really nice and I’m hoping it will sell well as I’d like to sell more. I’ve attached a link below and a photo of some of the items in case anyone is interested.
So the launch was on Monday and I am writing this on Sunday. I have to say I am completely overwhelmed by the level of support from friends and family. I would of been completely lost without them.
I feel it was a success. I made some sales and nothing went horribly wrong! Haha. My anxiety has settled since getting past Monday but I have been quite hyper all week!
I have learned quite a lot this week about resin and the dreaded amine blush! It’s my new enemy I think. Basically if there is too much humidity in the room it will react with the carbon dioxide and create a smudgy smear on your resin. When your goal is Crystal clear this is not ideal. It is also almost impossible to remove! I tried all the suggestions I could find I think most actually made it worse! Sanding down and re applying resin seems to be the most effective measure. I invested in a dehumidifier and a heat fan for my crafting room to reduce humidity and boost the heat a little. This does seem to be working so fingers crossed. I think the heavy rain of the past 2 weeks has been the culprit.
I am creating a new range at the moment which I am very excited about and can’t wait to share it with you all! To achieve this new range it does involve me collecting special seeds from outside. Que me looking like a crazy person running around outside!
Below are my rose filament earrings! I am in love with these it turned out so well and they are so pretty I just had to share!
So when I started this idea of selling my crafts I thought I would come up with a brand name, set up an Etsy and some social media and hey presto it would do the work itself. But as I did some more research I realised that if you don’t actually work on it plug it etc no one will see it. I found a free course on how to sell yourself on social media, how to post when to post use of hashtags etc. It was a real eye opener.
As a result I feel as though all I’ve done throughout may is plan and schedule and list items using the best techniques I could to draw in some interest. This isn’t about money, but if I didn’t sell anything what’s the point? This has also played on my anxiety a bit, what if no one like it? What if people think this is a stupid idea? What if they think all I want or care about is money ? Even this blog, will everyone just think why does she think anyone will be interested in reading this?
I’m trying to think of it as this is good to challenge myself like this, because there will be people out there who think this is stupid or a waste of time. They may even tell me so. So what that is their opinion and they are entitled to it. I need to just keep moving forward as people set up these things all the time this is completely normal.
By the time you read this the Etsy and Facebook stores will be live and hopefully all functioning as they should. Why not check them out?
I’m excited for everyone to see the items I’ve made. I’m also excited to make more! I made a new trinket box tonight for the first time so can’t wait to unmould that and see how it came out! I forgot to video myself pouring it (a social media idea I had) it’s these little adjustments and things to think about so that I can create the content required. Just means I will have to pour something soon again ! Haha any excuse!
Hope you enjoyed my second blog (hopefully I’m getting better ! See you soon x
So this is my first ever blog post so bare with me. I am excited to start this journey with you all.
So why am I creating and selling items out of resin?
I have always enjoyed crafting, I find it calming and relaxing and just generally joyful. But as I got older life got in the way of that. There was always more important things to do. I had to go to work, maintain a home, a social life, a budget the list goes on. As time went on I wanted to find a way to be crafty again but for it also not to be a drain on me financially. So I did my research I watched YouTube videos I joined craft groups on facebook and discovered the joy that is Resin.
So I did it I bit the bullet I ordered some silicone moulds (far more than I meant to due to not reading the small print), some resin after researching the best ones, dried flowers, alcohol inks and some fillers and off I went. I converted the spare room into a design studio so I had a space to create. It took about a month for everything to arrive. I got started as soon as it arrived. I learned a LOT! It really is one of these things you can only learn through doing and I feel as though every day I learn a little bit more. This is what spurred me on to start the blog. I thought I should really write about this, but I will wait until I am really good. Then I thought but how am I going to remember every part of this journey? How I felt at each stage? How it’s helping or hindering my anxiety and what I’m doing to combat that. So here we are I am currently at the stage where I have some stock that is worthy of selling (that took a while) and I am learning about algorithms for Instagram, Etsy, Facebook etc to help build a following. Nothing is up for sale yet. I will post when it is and tell you about individual products etc. But I hope that this will help inspire you to start your journey too.
Brooks Designs Uk 