I'm going to bootcamp!

Ok, ok, I'm rubbish at blogging regularly! My excuse this time is that I was moving house but finding a new place, moving and getting set up in the new place did not take quite as long as the time I took off blogging.
Anyway part of moving house involved a (expensive) trip to Ikea in which I bought (amongst other things) a new desk to expand my workspace. So look out for an upcoming post where I will show you my new "studio" :)


So what's this post about then?
Well Etsy have started running the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp and I have decided this may be just what I need to force myself to sort out all the things I keep putting off. As Danielle from Etsy puts it "Every Thursday I'll send you orders — I mean instructions — and together we'll make sure your Etsy shop is ready for the holiday rush" 


I have to admit it has only just started and I am already behind since we're already on week 2... but we won't worry about that!


The week 1 instruction list looks like this:


Take the Holiday Boot Camp Pledge
Vote for the Boot Camp Mascot
Install Web Analytics
Write Your Holiday Mission Statement
Post in the Boot Camp forum thread
Check out the Facebook Event


The first instruction is to take the pledge, so here goes..


I, Carnelion, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere! 

Ok step 2 - I voted for this cutie against everything in me that wanted to vote for a cat. I just preferred this one ok!?

I am ahead of the game on step 3, I have been using analytics for a few months now. However as advised I read the blog post about how to extract useful information from the pages of meaningless numbers, symbols, charts and letters that is analytics!


Step 4 - "So your second task this week is to write out a mission statement. Why are you working your butt off this season? What is your motivation?" 


This is where it gets tricky but I guess I wasn't expecting it to be easy, it would be pretty pointless if it was!


So.. I guess... what motivates me at the moment for the short term is developing new and imaginative jewelry designs that have a different style to anything else out there and which I like and am proud of. But that's got nothing to do with the bootcamp, I'd do that anyway. So I suppose the reason I am participating in the bootcamp is to get advice from someone who knows more than me and use it to improve any areas of my shop that need work. Hopefully I will also get confirmation that some of the things I'm doing are the right things too :) Ultimately, of course, my goal is to make more sales :)


Step 5 and 6 are easy and I have done them :)


I'm going to add an extra line to my pledge here...
I pledge to blog about carrying out my bootcamp instructions every week!                          


So check back later if you want to laugh at my failures when it gets tough and let me know if you're also doing bootcamp :)