The new website is live, and I decided to launch with a sale. As luck (or procrastination) has it, my timing happened to put me right in the fray of Black Friday sale season. And TBH, I have some feels about it:
I really debated whether to do a sale this year, and to be honest, this may be the last sale of this sort I will offer. I’ve been thinking deep on whether I want to perpetuate the idea of small businesses needing to offer sales to keep up with big-business expectations. I don’t. (But… I do want to celebrate launching my website).I try my best to keep my prices as low as I can year-round, yet I still know fine jewelry is expensive. In that discomfort, I end up cutting out my own wages in order to make the price more "friendly." Which isn't sustainable.
Black Friday is built on the idea that greedy retailers are taking big mark-ups, and you, the clever shopper, can avoid those with great deals. But for small businesses, the truth is that we don’t have big margins. Most of us are barely making margins, trying to balance valuing the labor of handmade, against the bottom-line price tags of big-box.
In the past year, I’ve definitely had to become more confident with my pricing, and acknowledging that the price of my work has to actually value my labor, not give it away for free. Asking for money is scary and hard, but I have to remind myself: So are the hours I spend consulting clients, testing and revising designs, sourcing fine materials and expensive equipment, making jewelry, learning, trying, failing, and learning more, photographing work…. on and on.
Fortunately, moving away from Etsy was a big step in escaping heavy fees, and I'm passing the extra savings on to you this weekend! While I'm grateful for that platform, it constantly places amazon-like demands on its makers, forcing us to raise prices to cover their enormous fees, mandatory free shipping, and otherwise play their game or be threatened by lower priority. Designing my own site also gives me the room to be more transparent about my items, materials, and values, and share a bit more of my story.
All in all, I've made room to grow. I hope you enjoy the journey too. <3
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