the state of (business) affairs

i've had alot of people asking recently how the business is going? what was it like trying to run the shop with two kids, one of them a little baby? how was the economy affecting sales and all that jazz? so i figured i'd do a little business update, for the sake of keeping friends and family informed.

tax time was good this year in that it forced me (*ahem* or phil) to get my bookkeeping act together a bit. it was good to look at the numbers and see if they matched my expectations, as well as my thoughts on how the year went (numbers aside) and what that meant for the coming year. by the numbers, it was a great year and surpassed my expectations by a long shot. but it was also a very, very busy year-- maybe a little too busy for a family and a toddler and a pregnancy and a very patient husband. there were good lessons learned about advertising, online and otherwise, and marketing products on the great 'internets'. etsy grew by leaps and bounds, and while that is good for business in general, it also means there is alot more competition and that advertising dollars must be spent wisely. with hundreds of thousands of products on the site now, it's as much a matter of sheer exposure as it presenting a good product.

so now it's summer again and the Mountain Aven Baby will be two years old next month. i agreed to a small wholesale order with a returning customer in australia, which is somewhat unexpected but welcome. surprisingly enough, the general economic mayhem hasn't tanked business as much as i thought it might-- though the strength of the dollar has made international customers fewer and far between, which was not the case last year. while overall numbers started to decline some in february, business has still been steady (or steady enough considering we have a new baby around here!). it seems that while people are spending less per transaction, they are certainly not ceasing to buy altogether.

so there you have it. that's the business scoop. Mountain Aven Baby will remain, atleast for a while longer. thanks to all of you (you know who you are!) for your support this year-- couldn't and wouldn't have done it without you! and with that, i should probably get to sewing ;)