Take the Pledge

Take the pledge this holiday season to purchase handmade gifts for your friends, family and coworkers! Follow the link to take the pledge! 

Small businesses are counting on your support to help them through the tough times of our economy. Let's take back out holiday shopping season from the corporations and buy handmade or vintage!

In the spirit I am offering 20% off all items in my Etsy Shop for this Black Friday weekend. Just use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY!

Happy Holiday Shopping!

Sage Green Medium Length Crochet Scarf

Being an Interior Designer vs. Being a Sales Man

Over the course of the past couple months I have realized, that although I am a pretty good sales person I enjoy being a designer more. For every customer that I work with, I am liking more and more the ones that ask me to help them with their entire space.

One chair although they are great chairs and sometimes you can really make someone's day fitting them with the best chair for their needs can be very rewarding. But I find that I am more rewarded when I am working on a long term project.

Working with someone for an hour to find them a great chair or love seat or recliner is a short term gratification. It's wonderful making a sale, it means that I am making money and who doesn't love money. I would like to make money and have long term gratification at the same time.

I am beginning to feel that selling on a commission scale only results in short term gratification and that without building great report with a customer who wants more from you than to be done with you and onto their next stop of the day. I wait for the customers who actually want my opinion on design and functionality of their entire space.

If you are looking for someone who is interested in your whole room, your entire living space, within your spending plan, please come and see me at the La-Z-Boy in Fairlawn Ohio at the corner of Cleveland Massolin and West Market Street. I would love the privilege to help you make your house a home.

Ask for Alison!!

La-Z-Boy and Ronald McDonald House

This week La-Z-Boy is partnering with Ronald McDonald House. When you purchase a promotional recliner La-Z-Boy Corporate will donate five dollars to Ronald McDonald charities. The La-Z-Boy North East Ohio franchise will add five dollars and donate five dollars for all non promotional recliners as well.

The Ronald McDonald charities are a wonderful part of the community. Help La-Z-Boy help your local Ronald McDonald House charity continue doing the great work they do.

Please come see me at the La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery in Fairlawn on the corner of Market and Cleveland Massolin road.

Have a wonderful day!
Your La-Z-Boy Sales/Design Consultant
Alison Nieman

New Job: Back into the Design World at Last!!!

After a month and a half of searching and interviews I have finally landed a job! Not only did I find a job it is a job where I can use my talents and my education.

For those of you who do not know, I have a degree from Ohio State University in Textiles and Clothing with a focus in Interior Design. My first job out of college was with Dillard's in the home store and slowly I have been moving away from my love and passion of design. I ended up in an administrative assistant position that didn't work out.

My being let go from this position was a blessing in disguise. Not only did it give me a wake up call to the way the world works but it led me to a position that I am so excited to start. I will be working as a sales associate at La-Z-Boy. I will be back into the design business. Although I will not be working as a designer per say I can actually use my degree and knowledge in this position. There is also room within this company to move into an in store designer position( yes La-Z-Boy carries in store designer, I had no idea.)

I have a week and a half till I start my training and I cannot wait. I feel like a giddy school girl. Of course there are drawbacks to a sales position, like working weekends and working till 9 pm some nights, but it will be worth it.

I have been going through all my industry magazines and my text books, organizing everything so that I can access all my resources and a moments notice. Which brings me to my next thought; I will be starting to blog more about design.

Lately my bog has been dominate by my crocheting and has barely held any topics about design, my first love. This will change. Although I still love my crocheting and will keep at my Etsy Shop, I will no longer make it my only concentration. I think I put crocheting first and not design. Now I have a renewal of my design passion and have discovered that crocheting is more of a hobby and a side business. My career is design.

It took me a while to figure this out and I think I have more clarity in my life becasue of it. Crocheting will always be there, like a comforting security blanket. But I need to put more energy in my design.

Along with changes to the topics in my blog, look for changes in my Etsy shop. Interior Design will be my main focus in all that I do. I would like to offer design news, advice and answer your questions. Please feel free to comment on my blog and ask my advice on projects. Also once I start at La-Z-Boy I will post my store location and invite all of you to come shop with me!

I am so happy right now I can hardly hold it in! I hope everyone finds what makes them happy!
Have a Wonderful Day!

Holiday Gift Guide

This Christmas selling season I have decided to poor more into my advertising and promotions. For a while I had been getting emails from the IndieBizChicks.com. This is a site that focuses on the business development of women. The majority of the women that follow this site are small business entrepreneurs.

I would definitely recommend this site to anyone interested in some tips from people who have been successful.

Every Christmas they put out a Holiday Gift Guide. This guide includes recipes, crafts, and a large list of sellers of handmade or small businesses. It is free to the public and is distributed to a wide market. Here is the link: http://indiebizchicks.com/hgg2008.html

Have fun looking through it. I surely did. (my ads on page 20)

PRESEASON SCARF SALE!

I am introducing my first annual pre-season scarf sale.

It starts today and goes till August 22nd.

All scarves and winter fashion items have FREE shipping!

http://aniemancrochet.etsy.com

Eco-Frienldy Sale!

This weekend I will be having an Eco-Friendly Sale in my Etsy shop.

Free Shipping to Ohio and States that Border it.
The sale starts Friday July 18th and ends Sunday July 20th.

Why is this sale Eco-Friendly?

I am offering free shipping to anyone who lives within the bordering states of Ohio. Shopping local is a great green way to decrease the amount of fuel and shipping cost in money terms and in terms of expenditure on the environment.

Shipping cost in general have a huge toll on our environment from the carbon emissions to the packaging used. Buying from people in your community and surrounding areas can cut shipping's cost on the environment.

Shopping from a seller who is only a state away is going to have less of an impact that buying something from a chain store that is down the street. Many large chain stores often import there items from countries that are hundreds and thousands of miles away. Buying from a small business, like those on Etsy, you can cut your impact on the environment by a large chunk.

What States are Involved?
I am located in Ohio and the most Eco-friendly shipping would involve Ohio the states that neighbor Ohio. This includes: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Michigan. If you live outside of these states (e.i. Canada) and can prove that your location is a shorter distance than any of the furthermost distances in the states mentioned, I will give you free shipping as well.

How do I get my Free Shipping?
I will check each order received this weekend and send a revised invoice to those who qualify. DO Not pay until you have received your revised invoice.

Etsy Promotional Calendar

To the left of my articles there is a new feature to my blog. It is my Etsy Promotion Calendar. It will have all my upcoming sales and promotions. Already I have added two upcoming sales: Shop Local Free Shipping Sale and the Pre-Season Scarf Sale.

Both of these sales are for free shipping on mentioned items. They include items already listed in my shop. When you click on each you will find more details concerning both. If this calendar and the sales are successful I will continue using this form of sale advertising.

I am in love with my Google calendar and am finding more and more things I can do with my calendar. If you have been reading my blog you will know I have started using it for my series Forgotten Projects.

Yart Sale- June 11-20

Tomorrow is the official start of the Etsy Yart Sale. A bunch of Etsy sellers have come together to have Etsy's first Yart Sale.

So what is a Yart Sale??

Yart Sale is the the Etsy version of the a yard sale! it is a ten day period of yard sale pricing. Starting tomorrow tons of sellers are reducing prices for this event. Some are offering percentages off other just reducing prices.

This sale is meant to increase sales and exposure for many shops and sellers. The best way to search for yart sales is by using the tag search tool and type "yart" in search box. Also there will be a thread in the promotions section of the forums where sellers will be posting their shops and sales. I will post a link to this tomorrow, right here on my blog.

I am participating and here is a link to the section of my shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=76252&section_id=5017321

I hope you have fun shopping tomorrow!

200 Hearts and Counting

It took three years but I finally got 200 hearts. I see a lot of sellers who have hundreds and even thousands of hearts and I always wondered how they got them. Then I started increasing my effort into my shop and have seen a definite increase in my hearts. Hopefully with an increase in hearts there will be an increase in sales to follow! ( can't hurt to be optimistic!)