My, how awful my photos were in the beginning! I've written multiple bog posts about it and my progress along the way. (I had a period where all photos looked yellow, and another when they all looked blue.) For quite a long while I was in a macrophotography group and we shared our close-up photos each Sunday.
I really enjoyed from that and learned a lot. (I love taking photos of flowers, but also practiced on jewelry photos, furniture, buttons, all kinds of objects!) And I've learned a lot from Facebook groups, blogs, books, and more. There's always room for improvement and hopefully, I'll keep improving at photography as well as my jewelry and bead making skills!
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| My light tent for indoor jewelry photos. Most of my photos are taken this way so I can photograph in the night and all kinds of weather! |
I'd love to hear hear what YOU enjoy most! The feel of clay between your fingers? Getting to pound on metal? Jewelry displays and shows?
I have 2 "least favorites" too. One is listing items ready to sell in my stores.
My laptop stops smiling at me...
and looks more like this during listing times. I have piles of beads and jewelry that need listing. I'll be trying to do more of that soon! I am liking "copy" feature in Etsy rather than having to recreate every entry from scratch! If any of you have other special tricks, procedures, or routines for listing products in your store, I hope you will share!
Finally, my absolute least favorite thing about the business is figuring TAXES. I don't mind paying them nearly as much as I dislike preparing them! UGH... In fact, that is the task I've been working on lately and finished today... just in time to meet with the accountant. 
Now if any of you have found a way to keep good records throughout the year so you don't have an annual (or quarterly) nightmare, I would FOR SURE love to hear your secrets! For now, the good news for me is that hard part about doing my taxes this year is done--Oh happy day!
Please drop and line and share your most and least favorites and any tips you'd like to add! I love hearing from you!
~Sharyl
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Images:
Photograph of Light Tent by Sharyl
Clip art: wpclipart.com
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3 comments:
Hi Sharyl!
My most favorite thing about my jewelry and my pottery is making it and my least favorite is marketing it which because we are in such a competitive and saturated market means we spend an awful amount of time doing it.
For listing I cut and paste from other similar listings. On Etsy I simply copy and alter which cuts way down on the amount of time each listing takes.
For keeping books I use a very simple daily ledger system that is kept on paper in a 3 ring binder. I write down my income, expenses and sales tax as they occur on a single piece of accounting paper that is headed with the month and year in which they occurred. I change papers when I change months. At the beginning of each year I make an overall summary which lets me track cash flow. This system has all of the information in it needed to do any type of taxes. End of story.
It is not a double entry system. I tried Quick books for years and never really understood it. I got so bolluxed up from not understanding modern accounting systems that I had to scrap the whole thing.
Thanks very much for your extensive reply answering all my questions! I really appreciate that and learned a lot from it, just as I was hoping! Thanks again! ~Sharyl
I'm glad to hear that you've been able to improve photos so much it has become a favorite thing! My photos are very often too blue - not much light here in Wisconsin for much of the year, and I have yet to get a light box. It's a goal for this year. My favorite thing is when something I make turns out as good as it does in my head!
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