sheep + wool

Making industrial felt - via Cooper-Hewitt

thanks for helping me grow!

I've got a new post up over at Crafting an MBA. Its a continuation of the ongoing cozy/cuff discussion that's been taking place here.

Ultimately, its a summary of some of the lessons I've learned this past week - lessons that your support and positive feedback helped me reach. So thanks for being the best blog readers in the world! I couldn't imagine running my business without you!

cozy/cuff winner!

Thanks to random.org the winner of the cozy/cuff is....

Christina J!

Christina - email me at meauman(at)yahoo.com to claim your prize!

And thanks to everyone for your awesome suggestions!

the cost of the cozy/cuff, part 2

I'm going to do my best to keep this from becoming a rant, but no promises.

Today, Etsy included a link to the cozy/cuff on their facebook page. For the most part, this was amazing. My page views blew up, and several people purchased cozy/cuffs of their very own.

But the link also sparked an interesting discussion about the price. More than a few people thought that $32 was an exorbitant amount of money to pay for the cozy/cuff. There were some people who jumped in to defend the price, but there were a lot of people that seemed to think I am making some ridiculous profit on the cozy/cuffs.

I am here to tell you that is just not true.

Here is just a small sampling of the cost factors that go into the cozy/cuff:

1. The Etsy costs are retail costs. When I wholesale the cozy/cuff, I have to cut the price in half. Which means I still need to build in profit for a wholesale price. And let me tell you, the profit margin on my wholesale price is pretty slim.

2. The cozy/cuff is made in small batches in the US. (If you read my original post - the cost of the cozy/cuff - you already know this.) And when you are buying materials and making products in small batches, the price is always going to be higher.

3. Not only do I not make the cozy/cuff in China - but I don't live in China either. And you have to factor cost of living (not to mention cost of working) into the price of the objects. (Or the workers wages.) And while I don't live in the most expensive part of the US, I certainly don't live in the one of the cheapest places in the world. And I think its only fair that I pay myself a living wage. (And if you don't believe that workers should be paid a living wage, please stop reading my blog. We cannot be friends.)

4. You also need to take into consideration the fact that the cozy/cuff is a bracelet. Here's a little math for you: today I had a cozy/cuff on my person for approximately 9 hours. For 8 of those hours, it was on my wrist. It was on my coffee cup for about an hour. (Probably a little less than that, but its easier to round.) So given those numbers, 89% of the time, the cozy/cuff functioned as a bracelet. And $32 is a pretty reasonable price for a cuff bracelet. (Its actually fairly consistent with the pricing of other cuff bracelets.)

After all this, its pretty clear to me that I should do a better job marketing it as a bracelet first - one with the added bonus of being a coffee cup cozy. Hopefully that will help justify the cost in some people's minds.

I should also probably stop reading internet discussions of my work.

help please! (you could win a cozy/cuff)

I've been working on lots of new promotional materials to get ready for the gift fair - postcards, and catalogs, and the new website - but I keep getting stuck every time I try to write the copy.

At this point, I'm just a little too close to the product. So I need your help!

If you were writing about the cozy/cuff, what would you say? How would you describe it? What are its benefits? Can you describe its style and function in one short sentence? What aspects about it do you like best?

Leave your thoughts in the comments, and I'll pick one winner to send your very own cozy/cuff!

Thanks in advance!

the new shopcozycuff.com

Apparently, I'm all about launching new websites lately, because in addition to crafting an MBA, I recently re-launched shopcozycuff.com.

Where before it was purely an information site, its now a fully-formed e-commerce site, thanks to bigcartel.

So head on over and check it out! And as as a little thanks to all my blog readers, use the code BLOG2010 and take 10% off your first purchase! (Good until Wednesday, January 6th.)