Just another Manic Monday

Ever wonder why if things are going to go haywire, it always seems it will happen on a Monday? I'm starting to believe that Mondays are cursed work days! It seems that no matter who I talk to on a Monday, things are not going as planned for them or myself.
Here is an example of my crappy, manic Monday:
I have a new design in mind for a Cell Phone Sleeve. I get all of the things I'm going to need out and set them all up on my dining room table. I lay down my newspaper to work on, trace my pattern, cut my leather and am now at the stage where I need to stain it. I open the bottle, set it at the corner of the newspaper, pour onto my sponge and start staining. NOW, here lies where my big problem is about to start. While staining, sometimes you have to water your sponge a little bit and go back over what you've stained to even the color out. I at this point, need to do this. I go to lift my hand which is resting on the newspaper and it sticks a little, lifting the paper and tipping THE ENTIRE bottle of Stain! 3/4 of the bottle spills out, all over my dining room table and coating some of the newspaper as well. This is why I hate Mondays!
Now, I am not much of a drinker, but earlier when talking to my Team members on Etsy, I had joked about spiking my coffee. Looking back, I now wish I had. Things may have been a little less stressful and maybe even funny. But I didn't and they weren't!

Love what you do: The Artistic Night Owl

Love what you do: The Artistic Night Owl: "I have always thought I was nocturnal. My internal clock is just set to stay up until the wee hours of the night and sleep until late mornin..."

The Artistic Night Owl

I have always thought I was nocturnal. My internal clock is just set to stay up until the wee hours of the night and sleep until late morning. I've always been wired this way. At least my entire adulthood. As of late though, I've figured out why. After becoming part of this really great Team on Etsy and getting to know my teammates really well, most of them are like this as well.
I believe really creative people are night owls. This does make sense. Creative juices get flowing from all kinds of stimulations throughout the day that the brain picks up on. I have always done my best work at night or I lay in bed awake because I have this really great idea and need to get it out. Write it down, draw it, whatever.
So my conclusion is this. I'm not wired backwards, there is nothing wrong with being a night owl. I am an artist. After a day full of different stimulations, my brain kicks in gear and starts thinking of really great ideas from which some of my best work has been born.

Time to filter my brain

So I have been so busy trying to wrap my head around all of the marketing tips, advice, ideas and trying to implement it all, that I forgot one important thing....Inventory. As an artist, I want to create each and every new idea that pops into my head. The problem with this is that I end up with 10 categories! 2 of this, 1 of that, 6 of this, you get the picture. When I list the '1 of this' and a customer sees it in a search, they may come to my store, but how would it keep them there? Without proper inventory, meaning a good selection of the item that brought them there to start with to choose from, there is nothing more for them to browse. They MAY see other things they like, for instance came looking for a Kindle Case then saw a Cell Phone Sleeve they liked, but let's face it, that's rare. If they came because they found my 1 Kindle Case and I have no others, poof they are gone!
I understand the importance of marketing as it is VITAL to an on-line store or any venture for that matter, however I now understand the importance of selection and a large inventory. I was so excited to have enough items to open with, that I failed to see the need to have several items of each thing I offer. I jumped on the marketing and promoting wagon immediately and neglected to focus on selection choice in each category. I was bouncing around too much.
So lesson learned! Now my marketing and promoting are on hold and I'm back to creating like a mad woman! This will take time I know, but at least I'm doing what I love and learning patience in the process!