Breaking records!

March is continuing to go well for CandiMakerStickers! :) On Monday, March 18th, I hit 600 sales in my Etsy shop. I broke my previous record of 5 orders in one day...I had 6 orders on Tuesday! And then today, I had another 6 orders in my Etsy shop PLUS one order from eBay. I've already had 21 orders this week, so I'm hoping to break my previous record of orders in one week (31 orders in the last week of February/first week of March). My previous record for the number of orders in one month was 60 orders last month in February. As of March 21st, I already have 63 orders this month...and the month isn't even over yet! :) Today I also hit 500 orders in my Etsy shop. I hope the upward trend continues! :) 

When I'm not busy packing orders, I've been working on adding my existing sticker designs to my listings on eBay. So far I've uploaded 71 listings on eBay...so I still have a long way to go. :P But...progress! I've been working on a few new sticker designs off and on as well. I have a document of SO many quotes that I want to make into stickers...it's 29 pages long, so there's a lot of ideas. ;) 

In other news... our AC has to be replaced. :P The electricity had gone out on March 10th. Later, it was pretty hot in the house...and I realized the AC unit outside wasn't actually running. We figured out that it was tripping the breaker every time we'd turn it on. So this week we had an HVAC guy come out and diagnose the problem. As it turns out, the condenser AND the motor went out at the same time because of a power surge. So, we're going through our home owners insurance to get the situation taken care of. Luckily it's in March and not July or August when it's disgustingly hot outside. It's been getting a little warm in the late afternoon into the evening...but it hasn't been too unbearable. Hopefully we can get it all taken care of soon. 

Well I suppose I'll get a little more work done before I go to bed. :) 

Mid-March is going well!

The upward momentum in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop is continuing. :) I'm still getting orders from eBay as well. I had 35 total orders in January and 60 orders in February. From the February 1st to 6th, I had 22 orders. From the beginning of March through today, I've already had 45 orders. I love watching my numbers go up...being able to see actual progress from all my hard work. :) 

I'm glad I've started taking a break on the weekends. I tend to spend all my free time focused on my business and I've noticed that after the weekend...I do feel more productive and energized to get back at it on Monday. I did work today for a couple hours. I generally have at least one of each design and size for stickers, but I mostly just print and cut magnets as I get orders. I had four magnets that I needed to send out Monday so I got that done today and packaged the other two orders I had from Etsy and eBay so Aubry can drop them all off on her way to work in the morning. 

But other than that, I played Sims 4 a lot this weekend. I built an awesome house on there that I really love. It's like...if/when Johnny and I build a house in the future, I'd love to build this house that I designed on my Sims game. LOL. It's all one story except for a basement...because I think in the future, it'll probably be best for me to have as few stairs as possible. I already have a hard time with stairs sometimes due to my hEDS...so I imagine that will just get worse as I get older. I also have the washer and dryer in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom because that's such a huge convenience. And then I have a large room for crafting which would be amazing. And Johnny has talked before about wanting a floorplan that isn't as open...so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are all separate. So...our Sim house is awesome. ;) 

I also got my Grandma's taxes done over the weekend, did some chores around the house, and relaxed with Johnny. Our AC is currently not working...so Johnny worked on that a little bit. We're waiting for a part to be delivered...hopefully that'll solve the problem. If not, I'll probably have to call someone to come out and diagnose the problem. I'm just glad it happened now when the weather is nice rather than in the middle of summer.  

RECIPE: Salisbury Steak

Johnny has been asking for Salisbury steak forever and I just never get around to making it because I'm not a huge fan of it in general :P But I had leftovers to eat tonight, so I decided to surprise Johnny and make it for him. He thought it was very much worth the wait. ;) Aubry was actually awake when I finished making dinner and she had some...she liked it, too. However...I forgot to take a picture! So I'll have to take a picture next time and then I'll add it to this post. :)

Salisbury Steak

Ingredients:

STEAK

1 lb ground beef

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp ketchup

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp French onion soup

GRAVY:

1 can beef broth 

1 tbs cornstarch 

remaining can of french onion soup 

1 tsp worchestershire sauce 

1 4oz can sliced whole mushrooms

Directions:

1. Combine all the steak ingredients together in a bowl. Shape into 4 oval patties about 1 in thick. 

2. In a skillet on medium-high heat, brown the steak patties for about 1-2 minutes on each side until browned on the outside. Remove from skillet.   

3. Mix 1/4 cup of beef broth with the cornstarch in a small bowl. 
4. Pour remaining can of beef broth into skillet. Pour in cornstarch mixture. Stir over medium heat until slightly thickened.

5. Add French onion soup, Worcestershire sauce, and mushrooms. Stir then add steak patties to the gravy. 

6. Cover and heat for about 7 minutes, then flip steaks and cook for another 7 minutes or until middle of patties register at 160 degrees. Turn off heat and serve over mashed potatoes.

March is off to a good start!

Today, I hit 100 orders in my Etsy shop just for this year. By this time last year, I only had 15 orders. I didn't hit 100 orders last year until June 22nd. My orders are up 567% and my revenue is up 1225% compared to the same time frame last year. Since opening in January 2023, I've had 455 orders. Oh and to update the number of orders I had last week, I had 5 orders on Friday and 5 orders on Saturday...so I had a total of 31 orders that went out last week! My previous record for 1 week was 18 in December. :) I got another 4 orders today (including another order from eBay) and I already got all the orders from this weekend packaged and ready to go to the post office in the morning. 

I worked quite a bit today, but I had a lot of time for myself over the weekend, too. Johnny and I watched Law & Order: Organized Crime last night while we ate dinner. And then after he went to bed, I stayed up awhile playing Sims4. It's my guilty pleasure. ;) My favorite part of the game is definitely building houses. When I was younger, I used to love getting those free real estate magazines that show houses for sale. I used to daydream about which houses I liked best. My grandpa also had a bunch of home & garden design, home improvement projects, etc. books and magazines that I loved looking at when I was a kid. When I had my own spending money, I started buying house plan magazines. I never really outgrew my love for researching what I'd want for my dream home. I actually still have a house plan magazine that I bought...well the magazine says display until July 2006, so I bought it sometime before that. :P I actually found it in one of the boxes that I'd packed up when I moved out of my first apartment in September 2006 (well, the first apartment where I lived alone after I left my ex-husband). It was with my old calendars and planners. There were a lot of good houses in that one! I like getting inspiration from it to build Sim houses. :) I bought another one sometime in 2013 or 2014...when I was helping Johnny with pool work. We stopped at Lowes to get some supplies and I found one that was on sale and grabbed it...but I'm not sure where it is. :( 

On that note...I'm going to go build some more houses before I get back to work tomorrow. :) 

Another successful month!

I updated my spreadsheets Thursday night before I went to bed. February has been my most successful month so far since I opened CandiMakerStickers in January 2023. I had 3 larger orders (10, 13, and 25 stickers in the orders) and that really helped boost my revenue for February 2024 by more than $100 compared to my second most successful month in December 2023. According to my Profit/Loss Statement, December 2023 was actually the month with the highest profit (only $4 more than February 2024) but that's because I had 3x more expenses in February after restocking my glossy vinyl sticker paper, laminating sheets, magnetic sheets, and a few other office supplies. 

For February 2024, I had the largest number of orders in one month (53 on Etsy and 7 on eBay) AND the largest number of orders in one week (21 from February 25-29). And since it's the last week of February which ended on Thursday, that doesn't even count the 5 orders I got yesterday and 3 so far for today! 

It's so exciting to see my little business making progress. :) As of today, my Etsy shop has 558 sales. Sales are the number of listings purchased in each order (but not multiple quantities of the same listing in an order). I was curious to see the progress by date...so I downloaded the CSV from Etsy that shows my orders by listing and used my date app to measure the amount of sales in increments of 50. Here's the timeline: 

- Opened 01/13/2023 -
50 sales: 4/5/23 (82 days)
100 sales: 6/10/23 (66 days)
150 sales: 7/13/23 (33 days)
200 sales: 8/20/23 (38 days)
250 sales: 9/30/23 (41 days)
300 sales: 10/29/23 (29 days)
350 sales: 11/17/23 (19 days)
400 sales: 12/10/23 (23 days)
- Ended 2023 with 442 sales -
450 sales: 1/5/24 (26 days)
500 sales: 2/14/24 (40 days)
550 sales: 3/1/24 (16 days)

So it took me 82 days to get my first 50 sales and only 16 days to get my last 50 sales. :) I'd say that's definitely progress! 

I also added magnets to my CMS Etsy shop in February. I had someone send me a message on 2/1/24 asking if I make any of my stickers as magnets. I'd been thinking for awhile about offering magnets, but I wasn't sure how I was going to list them (if they'd be a separate listing or just a variation of my current listings) so her message pushed me to make that decision. :) I decided to add magnets as a variation instead of making a separate listing. That meant changing about 250 listings to add the variation...but it was worth it. :) I've already sold 10 magnets (not including the first custom order). 

And this week I added a fun new product: door sign stickers and magnets! I made a new listing for custom logo image magnets in 6 different sizes and printed my own logo for my size comparison photos. I decided I was going to put the largest size on our car, but wasn't ready to go outside yet so I just slapped it on our front door until I felt like going out to the car. That's when I got the idea for door signs. :) I've been thinking about buying a "No Soliciting" sign to hang on the door, but then realized I could just make my own and put it on a magnet! I'm also including a sticker variation for anyone who would like one but doesn't have a steel door. I'm really excited about them. :) I decided to put matte laminate on them so that the sun won't glare so much...since they'll be placed outside. I already had some Oraguard 215 matte laminate because I'd bought some hoping I could print on the matte laminate to make window stickers, but it didn't work. So...now I have a different use for it. :) 

I decided at the end of last year that I was going to save weekends for "me" time and try not to work. It's actually kinda difficult for me to do...because I always have a million things running through my mind that I want to do with my business from new products and designs to updating my packaging and refining my listings...stuff like that. But I'm trying to take some time to relax. A lot of times it ends up just being one day instead of both but...baby steps. ;)