Off and Running!
It's been a crazy couple of weeks. After looking over our catalog, we realized we still had alot more gifts to reshoot, in addition to our holiday gifts. We're actually reshooting our entire catalog---partly to update and standardize the photos, but also to get them into the format we need to easily reproduce them. Since we downsized our customer area substantially in the shop, we decided to create a catalog with color photos and descriptions of all of our standard gifts. It's virtually impossible to have all of our 75 plus catalog gifts on display at all times, and it was crazy to send people home to look at our website to see them all. So-o-o-o, we came up with the idea to have a loose-leaf type catalog at our customer service counter. Lots of work! Last Sunday, I spent about 16 hours making gifts (marathon day). Laura was scheduled to come back on Monday to finish with our pictures, so we didn't have much choice. Julie had an urgent house project to finish last weekend, so I glued myself to the work table on Sunday and got it done.
Laura commented on Monday that shooting all of these gift basket pictures was better than getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick, but not much.
Unfortunately for Julie, she is the lucky partner who knows about photoshopping the new pictures and working out the spreadsheets for our online catalog (tedious!) We needed to recalculate prices on alot of gifts due to all of the price increases we have been absorbing, so it was time for a re-do anyway. (After all, we are trying to stay in business!) Most of the time, it's just Julie and I here, so when we are working on something extra besides our normal business, it's challenging.
But, there is good news! Our previously mentioned "Girl Friday", Susan offered to come back and work 2 days a week, and more when we get down to the nitty gritty of holiday production. Yay for us! She started back this week, and has accomplished wonders of organization already. We had hoped to consolidate our operation enough to get by without the 1500 square feet we have been renting upstairs. This was just fine for everyday business. But the day the wall of baskets for holiday gifts arrived, we knew it wasn't enough space for the November-December madness. So, we are again setting up production areas upstairs.
And more good news...our biggest holiday client placed their annual monster order on October 30! Last year it didn't come in until December 1, and it impacted our entire holiday season. Most people don't even think about holiday gifts until December 1. But when you have a 2-3 week project on your plate that late in the season, it becomes extremely difficult to commmit to much more (no matter how much help you pull in.) So we talked to them early about the state of things, and they were kind enough to place their order early this year. (We love them for that!)
Several other large orders have come in already, so it's feeling like it's going to be an awesome season. We're winding up the catalog project, and things are coming together. The work area is being readied and the elves are being summoned. We are off and running!
Laura commented on Monday that shooting all of these gift basket pictures was better than getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick, but not much.
Unfortunately for Julie, she is the lucky partner who knows about photoshopping the new pictures and working out the spreadsheets for our online catalog (tedious!) We needed to recalculate prices on alot of gifts due to all of the price increases we have been absorbing, so it was time for a re-do anyway. (After all, we are trying to stay in business!) Most of the time, it's just Julie and I here, so when we are working on something extra besides our normal business, it's challenging.
But, there is good news! Our previously mentioned "Girl Friday", Susan offered to come back and work 2 days a week, and more when we get down to the nitty gritty of holiday production. Yay for us! She started back this week, and has accomplished wonders of organization already. We had hoped to consolidate our operation enough to get by without the 1500 square feet we have been renting upstairs. This was just fine for everyday business. But the day the wall of baskets for holiday gifts arrived, we knew it wasn't enough space for the November-December madness. So, we are again setting up production areas upstairs.
And more good news...our biggest holiday client placed their annual monster order on October 30! Last year it didn't come in until December 1, and it impacted our entire holiday season. Most people don't even think about holiday gifts until December 1. But when you have a 2-3 week project on your plate that late in the season, it becomes extremely difficult to commmit to much more (no matter how much help you pull in.) So we talked to them early about the state of things, and they were kind enough to place their order early this year. (We love them for that!)
Several other large orders have come in already, so it's feeling like it's going to be an awesome season. We're winding up the catalog project, and things are coming together. The work area is being readied and the elves are being summoned. We are off and running!
posted by Marcia at 7:45 PM
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