So, I learnt!

Sometimes I wonder if I have been wearing too many hats than my head could hold. Come to think of it, I have done quite a bit of hand-ons and selling things either online or at the flea markets.

I still remember starting out as making handmade greeting cards. The idea came upon when I started making handmade greeting cards to my 1st ex boy friend. We don’t celebrate anniversaries (we don’t even remember when we started together), but I will make it a point to make him a greeting card almost on every special occasions like birthdays or holidays.

Every piece of the card was hand crafted, measured and fixed. The unique point about my cards is, none of the designs were repeated. So I started making cards and sell them online through blogs and in flea markets. I have customization orders from a few interested buyers. They would usually tell me what they hope to see on the card and I will try to deliver. Of course, responses were positive and many wonders how the hell I manage to craft those things out from a blank piece of paper. I don’t know how I managed to but I did. Each handmade card was made with efforts and careful measurements in order to minimize wastage of those fancy papers. Ppl who order from my site will pay me through online banking before I start working on the card. Of course, not everyone is honest. I ever encountered a buyer, who went “disappeared” when he is due to pay that pathetic 12 bucks when I have already delivered him the card out of goodwill before receiving my payment,. So I learnt.

Handmade cards are pretty easy for me to do. But the cutting and crafting part may kill me some times. Most of these papers are not the normal 80gsm, but thicker than cardboard. I stopped making handmade cards when I reached the point of getting pains in my elbows due to over straining. The efforts made compared to the earnings I got were a great difference. So eventually I stopped.

Then came the opportunity of flea markets. It was really fun selling and promoting items in your own stall. You would need to plan carefully and anticipate any last min changes e.g. the weather, the stall space, the shortage of equipments you need on the actual day.
My first flea was outside Cineleisure. Before the actual day arrived, I packed all my second hand/new clothing into luggage, carefully attached a price tag to all apparel and prepared enough paper bags for the shoppers. Apparels were hung neatly with hangers and onto the cloth racks. When the crowd swarmed in, there is no way you could keep the apparels neatly on the racks. It is suppose to be a flea market. So eventually for my subsequent flea markets, we just leave the luggage on the table with piles of apparels and selling them at flat rates. So I learnt.

Doing a flea market is never an easy task. We ever have to sell things directly under the scorching sun at Holland V, running for shelters when there are sudden downpours, negotiating with choosy buyers who pay peanuts but want chestnuts. But all the more it made the whole event fun especially when you do it with a couple of friends and family members.

Then I stopped doing flea markets because of the hassle to go down make rental fee, packing and carrying equipments down. The amount earned for the day was enough to cover for the rental but if I am to consider the efforts made from the no. of helpers I engaged, the meals and drinks we ate, the other stuff we bought from other sellers at the flea market, we made losses actually. But overall, it is for the fun and experiences. And so, I learnt.

Then I started selling paintings. From flea markets to online blogs, to ebay, to auction, to organizing an exhibition for it. The efforts made were so much greater than selling apparels in flea markets. Because an exhibition can never be compared to a flea market stall. You can’t just dump everything on the table for buyers to pick. I will have to carefully plan and make use of the space I rented, what I could do to display my paintings effectively, the lightings and effects, the counter, the easels, the introduction boards, the pamphlets, guestbook, how to communicate with my visitors and be readily prepared to explain every painting I displayed.

From planning to executing, to actual day, to packing up the stuff at the end of the two days event, I would not have been able to do it without help from my family and friends. It really drained all my energy, physically and mentally but the sense of accomplishment became greater.
Then, I started an online accessories dealing with my fellow gal friend, started out with blogspot and had processed two orders so far. We are still working on ways to promote and create awareness to our site and differentiating us from the vast online blogging business sprouting faster than a bean could grow into a bean sprout. From collating orders to remitting money to purchase the items from korea to communicating with the wholesaler, to delivering orders to our customers to dealing with complains and fixing up damages, to deciding mark up pricings, packaging and all. It was also never easy. There were hiccups along the way and so we learnt. But we have done and accomplished all that.

And now, I will like to do handmade cards again, sell off my loads of second hand apparels again, preparing for my second exhibition, promoting aggressively for my online accessories and also performing well at work since there are opportunities for leadership. I just hope I could grow more heads for these hats. Forgot to mention, I hope to incorporate my photography pictures into the next exhibition as well (if I can!)