In reply and Agreement with Michele on the USPS Post

Ok so I read the article on USPS that was posted in the thread and I would have to dis-agree with it as well. I decided I didn't want to take up a bunch of space in the thread to so I would post my thoughts and feelings on this topic here.

My Personal Feelings 

As most of you know I sell on eBay and on Etsy, I have had over nearly 3,500 sales on websites over the last almost 5 years of working online, I have used Paypal for every shipping label. Including off sites off of eBay. I am down to just being a seller on both Etsy and eBay, and I have had 1 total package that has been "Lost".

It's not even lost, what happened was I made the mistake and double printed label and sent a already paid label out with the item to a customer, because of this it was sent to the fraud department here in Seattle. The postal office works with me every week calling and taking the time out of their day to see it come back to me. But due to Union pay cuts, our local fraud department is down to 2 people in that office, from 30. So with that said, it's located in Seattle, it really isn't lost, making that 0 for me for lost packages.

One of my Best friends just quit the postal service of 15 years, I have been lucky to have had her on my route, she catered to my every need, she taught me how to do the correct shipping, I asked her tons of questions. As I have grown into more sales and everything is able to be shipped differently I was asking a-lot more questions. So that said, I have a 0 record of lost shipments.

It is my responsibility as a seller online, to make sure I am working directly from the source and learn the correct way. I seriously did not know much about shipping at all until I started asking questions. I was afraid of lost packages, and having to refund money.

I do not print my shipping labels from Etsy when I make sales, I go directly to paypal and do it from there, then up-load the tracking by hand, for some reason it's easier for me to do so. Being that I am a seller on both sites it is important from what Chip says, make sure to have fresh ink, if it starts to fade it is not easy for them to scan, some sellers put tape over the full PayPal shipping label, I have seen a package recently from Etsy and a postal worker wrote on the box and said "Would not scan tape on label."

Now I am sure because they did do their job, they punched it in, but that is a given because it got to me, but think about if they didn't do their job, maybe I would not have gotten my package from the amazing Etsy shop. It is all about how you as the seller ship & how you work with the postal office if there is a issue.

We are all human, sellers & postal workers, we all make mistakes, as Michele stated.

The Student Side of Me Speaks

In business management you are very drilled about eCommerce, in almost every text book I have studied, it rarely talks about Brick n Mortar. Online business is taking over rapidly and most business's online have something to do with shipping, the number of company's that have been merging into the retail world online, such as GoodWill, Target, Walmart and other big box chains, increase the shipping demand. The demand for shipping is up more than ever before, USPS yes has seen a de-crease in revenue, but they are not the only ones, hence the retailers like big box offices heading towards this direction. They will never be in the spot where they will have to dis-appear, that would never happen.

Being a business owner at a young age I have learned a=lot about Brick-N-Mortar vrs, the online world, having owning a deli at the age of 18 til I was 21 and than re-opening the same deli at the age of 26-31, I knew I wanted to be a business owner online after closing down the deli for the second time, I also new with the amount of items I'd be shipping, I would have to get my shipping methods down.

The Book "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson is an excellent read about the future of business, the economics of Culture and Commerce. This also talks about the supply and demand of online business, and touches the topic of shipping.

In conclusion I agree with Michele, and as you can tell this is a subject I am very passionate about, with out them I would be so lost, I thank the postal worker's everyday for their help. I even give them holiday gifts, I love seeing their face when I leave goodies in the mail box during the Christmas season.

It is important for us small business owners to be responsible for our shipping, our responsibility as a seller and business owner, is to provide good packing, fresh ink in your printer, not putting tape on the whole shipping label, as well as knowing how to work with the postal office. It is not entirely their fault of lost packages.

I have alot of respect for the USPS, they has never failed me, I have had a few grumpy interactions with some counter people, but all I do is kill them with a smile and kindness. Normally that works and lifts their spirits.

~ Lornajane ~

Fall Quarter Overview; The new Me

The New Me ! 

WOW what can I say about this past quarter; some of you that I network close to on and off online sites such as Etsy and eBay have known I have had been a little on the ill side. But I have had a great quarter regardless. I thank everyone for the support of my shops! It has been a outstanding help with promotion from friends and family members.

I am at the point of returning to school here in a week and I just wanted to say thank you by doing a Etsy Treasury Extravaganza before I end up going back. But before I get to that blog I would like to overview a little of what happened during last quarter with schooling.

So grab some tea or coffee and let's get social for a moment. 

This past quarter I was enrolled into Macro-Economics as well as a Marketing class. Can you guess which one I took better too? Yup, if you thought marketing your completely right ! I loved it, it was my favorite class out of all my 3 years of school so far. If you have ever had the interest in a class like this I would highly recommend taking a class of this sort if your in the world of online or even brick and mortar stores.

I had told my team Promo123love on Etsy that I would write a little bit what I had gained from this amazing class, but honestly there is so much to discuss so instead I want to share with you what tools I gained and have helped me in my transformations in both Etsy and eBay.

1. ~ Separation & Defining the shop names: 

I have always had social media for my jewelry and clothing for my eBay shop together all mixed up with everything. I also once ran everything with shop the shop name LINX Connectiong for Cause with the eBay shop running as my old email name. It to me was a huge mess and up until now I haven't known how to untangle it. For years I have been known for donating a percentage of funds to various charities, local events; such as cancer benefits, the local boys & girls club, even national & international relief and fundraising. So this was why it was called LINX (as in coming together) and of course Connecting for Cause. I was using both my eBay and my Etsy to help raise funds for not only my own college education but to work with the community and have connection near and far.


But times have changed in life for me as far as jewelry, because of school events & shows, as well as easy access to friends and family that support me, sales dropped in the last few years. Online selling has taken over and have increased this past year even more this past quarter by separating and renaming my shop's. As of now my Etsy shop's have similar names so that it is more cohesive with clean lines. These shops are always a work in progress for there is so much put into thinking about ever so changing shipping rates, tags, new products and ideas are always generating. I don't want to be known just for jewelry so after long thoughtful weeks I introduce you to the new and improved :

Chromaticity Designs & Chromaticity Supply 

Please click on text below photos to find your way to the shops 

Colorful Designs by Lornajane 

Colorful Supply provided by Lornajane 

This has not stopped me in raising money for causes. I will just be able to define & organizing them a-lot better with the new changes that have been made. I hope you will join me  some day in some of these fundraisers sometime!

eBay has taken a drastic change as well like I said before I had it named with my old email account. After years of selling on both sites I have found that eBay has given me the most financial support in the past year so I have created a new business that is shortly being released in a few months. This is very big and exciting news! I am not wanting to let out all the cats out of the bag just yet, although I will let you know that I am in the phase of building hunting & becoming a future Online Trading Specialist (OTS) in my area bringing a fresh new spin and idea to this area. I am very excited for I have put an amazing amount of my new found education into something I am very passionate about! I did receive a extra boost of confidence from my marketing teacher nailing my final project with a 100 % with a side note attached: Extraordinary work! among with some other supportive feedback. Keep your eyes peeled for a new blog that contains the introduction for this grand opening.

It would not be fair of me to not show you a little peak of the logo of this upcoming new business. This is not a complete logo for I cut the name off, I can't give it to you all at once :)

As of right now my eBay shop name remains as LornajaneCosign
Until further notice. 

2.~ Social Media changes 

My Top 3 

~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest 

A big change here, with Facebook changes some may notice that I have stopped using my LINX, Connecting for Cause page. A few quarters back I chose to do a research and final accounting project on Facebook, I was really lucky for at that time Facebook had a major social media explosion. Stocks were released, some may remember but once the stocks release scandals started to pop out of no where. Facebook had lost some capital in the company and changes started to happen at that point. Social Media changed for Facebook for small business fan pages. Paying for views were introduced a few days before and after business's pages are having a much harder time engaging with all their fans. Although stating this I have researched ways to engage with out having to pay for those ads. I have made new pages that will be introduced shortly. I still believe in Facebook do not get me wrong, but with it's rapid growth so must you. 

I have separated my twitter for both eBay and Etsy you may now find me here for both twitter accounts. 

Click here for my Etsy Twitter 

Click here for my eBay Twitter 

With Pinterest I have not done any changes, I know there are new business Pinterest pages but I like to keep Pinterest more interactive with fans and family and not so much on just one business its a great mesh of everything I love! Although one change here is that I am pinning a-lot more, for this is a great tool for your shops! As well a useful tool for all kinds of money saving ideas and tips. If your not on Pinterest please feel free to message me and lets get you on Pinterest today! You could be missing out on alot of exposure for yourself. You can find me here on Pinterest: HAPPY PINNING everyone! 

Click here to follow my Pinning boards over 5,000 pins of various artist and Etsy teams as well as a-lot more!


To Wrap it up !

So wrapping this up in a nut shell SOCIAL MEDIA is the most important marketing tool out there right now. Learning to communicate to your fans, consumers, and networking friends is the number one tool to success.   There is also something that I have gained from this quarter, never think there isn't room for improvement. If your not selling and spending more in product, advertising, having low communication & interactions in your shops. There is a clear sign of improvement needed, research, read and absorb are three great internet tools you have right in front of you. Read threads in your teams, blogs on and about Etsy, share and connect to your fans and friends. You will see a difference I assure you.

I hope you enjoy and gained a little insight on the changes that I have made. I am looking forward to more changes: redoing my business cards, releasing the new Facebook pages, changing things in my Etsy shops, and most of all finally building a career with eBay and in my community. 

Future blogs will most likely be separated content containing new information or promotions of both eBay and Etsy. 

Thank you all for taking the time to read about these important milestones in my business  and online success. Talk soon. 

Sincerely, 

Lornajane 

A Personal Note

If your a follower of mine and have been please join me here on my journey. Recently with Facebook's new changes with business pages. I have found that it's just not the same as it was growing last year with some great facebook friends and followers. I still follow some of my closest business friends. But mostly threw different ways now. I find it harder with the way Facebook runs now its not as simple as it use to be.

Recently last quarter I did my final writing project on Facebook, right as the Facebook stocks were released. I hadn't paid close attention of the recent event until my writing project was due. Every quarter I pick something personal and close to me. Well this was certainly close to me. I have used Facebook for strong tool for personal out reach and growing connections with online business friends. I became more aware of the changes as I researched my project.

I received a 100 percent and a wonderful peer classmate response. As well as a wonderful instructor comments. I also have had some amazing conversations about this topic. I have come to the conclusion that it will never be the same. I had 2 pages one for each Etsy shop. I really loved growing my second page but than cell phone connection has happened. Now because my droid is hooked up to my fb I can't log into the second page with out having to do a security password each time leaving me to reconnect my fb back to my main and personal account.

Charging us to promote what we have built is another issue I have. Only til recently in the past few months before and now after stocks released I have seen why they do this. I really enjoy my facebook support and friends But after all these changes I will be using fb a little differently. I will still have my facebook page but I will be blogging much more. I will be doing collage photos to reduce clutter and reduce postings. Only focusing on my main projects.

I am still the same old me. Just needed to change in the best direction for me. My jewelry will remain in my shop as well as a few different types of art projects will be going in as well. The name of my shop will be changing at the end of the summer so that will be a big event for me. I am still focused on my main goal and have not lost track of where I am going. I do have 2 different charities in mind for the summer.

 I wanted to make sure to answer this customer question: Do you have to have paypal for etsy? You do not have to have pay pal to purchase from Etsy so if you like my work please feel free to contact me. If your a personal friend please message me on Facebook.

 I will be doing a little bit of fundraising for My aunt whom has a wonderful rescue ranch for wounded and sick animals. Currently she has some animals that need a little more love and that love requires some funds. She has just now became a legal non-profit organization and I would love to help.

As for my eBay shop, I will be having a packed store starting July 1st. For eBay is changing alot of things for sellers. Which is a great thing for me. I still am up for donations if anyone local has items for me. I will be donating 10 percent of clothing sales to the local boys and girls club.

I have seen some really horrible things happening to some of the kids in town, I have seen some awesome things the boys and girls club do to keep kids off the streets. From one of the Mom's I hear they did'nt receive enough summer funding. So I choose  this as my summer donation spot. Some items will be higher depending on the price. All books will be 15 percent.

Thank you for taking the time reading this and I look forward to growing with you. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me at obsidianrain146@hotmail.com Please let me know that its about this blog so I know that its a follower. I get about 100 emails per day and go threw them nightly.

Hoping everyone has an amazing summer!

Much luv,
Lornajane