Wednesday 18 September 2013

To do........

How we work

After Jess's blog on behind the scenes i thought it might be nice to just share with you how we work on a daily basis.

I (Kayleigh) work full time 5-6 days a week so am normally the person making jewellery and answering orders ect. 
Jess (my sis) works 2-3 days packing orders and working on her collection A+E and sometimes helps answer customer emails and facebook messages.
We've also just had Martha who runs Martha and Hepsie join us a couple of days a week to help with running our online shops & the website (Folksy, Etsy ect).

So the whole point of this blog was just to let you know how we work day to day. 
Below is like the sort of plan we stick to.

  • 9:00 Post office drop off 
(We drop off all the packages we made the previous day and pick up tracking numbers for the day before)
  • 9:30 Get to work
After battling through traffic on the parkway i usually get to the workshop around 9:30,. Turn all the equipment on (computers & laser cutter) and most importantly make a large cup of tea.  
  • 9:45 Print all orders off & Answer any emails
We sell on loads of on-line platforms so it takes us a little while to go through and check for new orders and print them and address labels off.
  •  10:00 Start making orders.
If Jess is working i'll make, she packs if not i make and pack them all once i'm done. We try to get all orders done (or left to set overnight if they have resin on) for about 2pm 
  • 14:00 Work on new items
We try and spend our afternoons working on new items and have a weekly plan for new collections.
  • 18:00 Finish
We normally finish about 6pm, sometimes its later when i'm in the middle of something and don't really want to stop or if we're really busy like at Christmas we're normally done alot later, 3am before!

We make pretty much all our jewellery to order that's why we don't offer next day postage because we don't just pick and pack, we actually have to make it.

If your thinking about working for yourself this might be useful, We've found that when we've got a plan of action then its always alot easier to get stuff done. You can check off what's been done and have a look at what's left. 

Below is an example of a to do list we sometimes use when we've got alot going on.

We also have a monthly plan for new collection's and targets to try and hit like alot of other workplaces.

Hope this sort of helps people understand us a bit better and help anyone who's setting up a small handmade business.

Kayleigh 
x x x