Friday, October 16, 2009

My Printer Died.....But Then I Got a New One!!

Yeah, my old Lexmark Z23 died about 2 weeks ago. It was really devastating as I can't conduct any business without it. So after much looking around I found a nice HP printer for a wonderful price. It was only $32 on the HP site. Other stores had printers but they were either too pricey or they were all-in-one's which I hate. It's like the technology for them is not up to par. Either that or they're designed to fail you. I've had three different brand new all-in-one printers from different companies and none of them lasted beyond a couple months.

I'm pretty good at fixing PC problems but I'm crap with printers so when they break it's over. The one that finally died though was at least 6 years old, and it was only $24 at Target at the time. So it paid for itself and then some. This new one though is fast! It prints so quickly, quietly, and clearly. Very much worth the money I paid.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Free Shipping! YAY!!!

I've gone ahead and made free shipping a standard in my shop. It was such a big success for me I decided that the cut I take in my already low profit margin was worth it. I want my product in the hands of as many people as I can get it to, and I am willing to accept coming out of my pocket for this. Of course when I crunch the numbers it isn't a financially sound thing to do to run a business, but then neither is waiting months between sales but at least I won't get beat on shipping.

I've said before that the number one complaint of all customers who were reluctant to purchase handmade soap, was that shipping made the overall price unappealing. I understood where they were coming from. Soap such as this is viewed by many as a once-in-a-while treat, and not as a necessity. If they want to be economical, they wouldn't come to me to buy their household soap for that month. Even though free shipping doesn't mean people will now get soap from me rather than buy a pack of Dove (although that would be great), it does mean that they will now buy my soap. I couldn't give away a bar of soap until now. Mainly because with shipping a single bar can cost upwards of $7. Unless you have a set clientele most will not purchase it.

So have at it people. Come get soap free of the weight of shipping!