Working towards goals

I've set many a goal in my time and to be honest most of the time I never reach the goal - oops. This year I have one main goal (getting Rainbow Designs back on track) which leads to having reasons why I MUST achieve this goal. Not the least of which is, quite obviously, eating and paying bills BUT I also have other reasons why I want Rainbow Designs to get back on track. These are things I am focusing on to give me the MOTIVATION I really, truly need to get things happening.

All You Can Eat - an amazing variety of the products that go in our hampers!

When I start thinking 'this is too hard' or 'what's the point' I look to the things I want to be able to do to push me on. To make me get up every morning and get on with things. It's never been a walk in the park and I can't imagine it ever will be but it has been getting harder and harder to keep going. I woke this morning with the intention of letting go of the negative thoughts and to try, try, try and focus on what I need to do for my business (and my sanity!). I know I'll have down days (I'm just wired like that) BUT I am going to try so very hard to limit them and limit how much they affect me and my attitude to Rainbow Designs (and life in general really).

Sydney - Smooth Festival of Chocolate!

My biggest motivation is my family and being able to spend time with them doing 'fun activities'. I think they all start to get a bit nervous when I mention a 'fun activity' now as the last few haven't been 'fun'. Well, they have but not necessarily for everyone or when it was actually happening - great memories though. The last 'fun activity' I planned was with my mum climbing a bridge - mum is terrified of heights so lets just say not much 'fun' was had by her that day. (sorry mum) We can laugh about it now and even though during the climb mum wasn't having any fun at all the time we got to spend together is irreplaceable. We've even got some photos so if mum tries to block it from her memory I can whip out the photo album and remind her all over again :-) ha ha

The dreaded bridge! It's not that high mum.

I've been lucky to have had many fabulous holidays and weekends away but am now paying for it or more accurately still paying for them - gaaaaaa. I've always tried to justify using credit saying that I'll be able to pay it off in no time as the business is trucking along ok but in reality this hasn't been the case. Boo. So for now 'fun activities' are to be in the 'dreaming and planning' book to hopefully transfer over to the 'things we're doing' book.

Over the past few weeks we've added our Easter range plus a few new 'all purpose' hampers plus in the coming months we'll be adding some more fabulous hampers - which I am very much looking forward to. In the mean time I am focusing hard on being more regular with my blogging as well as Facebook - my main trouble is working out what to talk about and what to share both on the block and Facebook. I know I need to promote Rainbow Designs and her gifts but I also want to add other 'stuff' in the mix so it's not just a sales pitch day on day out. Nobody's got time for that! A balancing act which I am still learning even after 13 years running Rainbow Designs.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for our blog or Facebook or have any questions you think I might be able to help with please let me know - I'll try my best :-)

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs boss(y) lady and fun activities officer!

Housekeeping

I try and make a 'semi' regular habit of update and making minor changes a few times a year to our website. Nothing too drastic or life altering and for the most part no one but me will notice these changes but I think I need to do this to ensure my business and website is running at its best.

Over the weekend I updated all of the descriptions for our wonderful gifts and try to make them all cohesive and looking the same. In general they did but there were always a few differences, whether meant or accidental, that I was not happy with so decided to get stuck in.

This may sound easy and for the most part it was just 'involved' but whenever you are working with the behind the scenes of a website there is always the possibility of messing something up! I had a few, 'oh no what have I done' moments but thankfully nothing too drastic happened and I didn't break it.

Now all of the gifts descriptions look the same with the exact same font and colours and the same flow. I've tried to be a simple as I can in the way it's set out without losing the 'fun' and 'quirkiness' I've always tried to put into the website. I want it to read well and to be easy to understand without it being boring.

Now all gifts have their exact contents listed, then a list of what is also 'always' included but a list of the cool (well I think so) little extras Rainbow Designs provide.

I also updated the Contact Us page. I had been having problems with an excessive amount of spam coming through this form but hope that it is all sorted now. This form is easy to understand and fill out and hopefully will encourage potential customers to contact us if they're unsure of something or just want to ask about delivery or make a request. The easier I can make our website to use the more likely people will stay to browse, bookmark it for latter use and eventually place an order (or two).

The front home page also got a little makeover making it less busy and hopefully easier to see what we offer. The same with the delivery page, just a few small amendments to make sure all the information is easy to understand and up to date.

More behind the scenes work was done in regards to SEO (search engine optimisation) and getting the keywords and product descriptions right and hopefully picked up by Google. It's always been one of the hardest things with our website, getting on the first page of google for our main keywords. It's all well and good having a gorgeous website and fabulous products but if noone knows you exist and you don't show up anywhere online when searches are made you may as well stay in bed! These changes are more a waiting game as updates to search engines can take time, sometimes a lot of time. When I make seo changes I then need to leave them be for a good three months or so to see if they've made a difference. If nothing seems to have changed or worse the listing is going backwards and go and make a few minor changes (and cross my fingers).

We've got some new products in the pipeline and I am so excited. I cannot wait to be able to share them and start sending them around Australia.

The next major occasion is Easter - mid April so I am gearing up for this and will start making a few slight changes to the website as well as do some promotion work and possibly advertising.

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs boss(y) lady and seo expert (not really but wishes she was!)

X is for...Xerox

Xerox - a copy, a duplicator

Glad I found a word starting with X that I could use, I was starting to think I'd have to share some of the families x-rays!

I've been copying and copied in business since I began. I didn't invent gift boxes or hampers and never professed to have what I did was get ideas from other businesses and went with it. I lent towards the sweeter side of gifts as I am a very unapologetic CHOCOHOLIC! I had seen on a website relating more to travel than gifts, selling a gift box of lolly bananas and snakes and that's where the spark of an idea started. I 'copied' their idea and turned it into Rainbow Designs :-)

For the first few years all of my gifts were made and sent by me and all were someway lolly or chocolate based. I did try a few alternate gifts which bombed. haha. So they didn't last long! Then after being in business for about 2-3 years I approached a couple of gift hamper business with the proposal of 'drop shipping' their hampers, or some of the hampers. I didn't want to copy their hampers I wanted to use their hampers as I knew they knew what they were doing and didn't think I could improve them anyway. After a few hiccups and misadventures I am now working with one (fantastic) gift hamper business who produce amazing hampers of which my customer have become to order regularly and love. They do differ from my sweet tooth theme I originally started out with but, for the most part, they all have some sort of relationship to confectionery, sweetness, chocolate or lollies.

Nuts About Sweets - $60 delivered

Copying outright with no regard or thought the the originator of an idea or product is just plain wrong and rude! It takes a LOT of time, money and guts to produce something only for it to been stolen and copied by someone else. It's also very heartbreaking when it happens and can be quite damaging to, not only your business but you confidence! If you like someone's business, idea, product, name etc DON'T steal it or copy it, contact them and see if there is maybe a way of working with them or incorporating it into your business. I have found it so rewarding and beneficial working with another hamper company than 'xeroxing' their ideas. For me it was a logical way to expand my products without having to outlay a truck load of money or need a huge storage space plus it stopped any temptations! (something of which my M&M's know only too well!)

The success I have had with working with my drop ship hamper business has been leading me down the path of just focusing on my Hampers and only having my 'sweet tooth' inspired gifts available during Christmas and Easter. This will leave me time to pursue other ideas and job opportunities without having to sell or close Rainbow Designs. Who knows? But it's definitely something worth thinking about.

Don't Xerox.
Collaborate, Innovate,  Inspire, Enjoy, Share.

T is for...Tupy

Michelle Tupy.

Michelle has been working with me for a few years, off and on, helping with the 'writing' side of things. So things like this blog, Facebook posts and our Newsletter. With Rainbow Designs being rather quiet and the money side of things becoming tighter and tighter as the months have gone on I had to make the decision to pause Michelle's writing and start doing it myself again. I was disappointed in myself that I was unable to continue to use Michelle's services and give her a regular, if not small, pay each month - maybe things will pick up again or I head in another direction and I will be able to use her incredible writing skills again! Fingers crossed.

Michelle not only ghost writes blogs, newsletters etc but she has also written a book (Love Alters), is in the processing of writing another one (An Unexpected Kindness) and also has her own travel story and Facebook page - she is one busy and very talented lady.

Michelle and her gorgeous son Matthew

I am so grateful to have had Michelle come into my life, we met online many years ago when we both were members of an online business forum (which has since disappeared) and we were both running online gift businesses. Michelle sold her business and moved, to China! Obviously I've still got my business but in all honesty don't think I would if it wasn't for Michelle. Michelle has been a springboard for me to bounce ideas off, vent, complain, worry to and she takes it all in her stride!

Michelle's currently living in Cusco, Peru but is set for an AMAZING adventure with her husband and two kids - traveling from Cusco all the way to Canada in a Combie! Way to go Michelle.

And Off We Went is her blog about her adventures, from home schooling to running a hostel and every weird and wonderful thing in between. Nothing fazes Michelle, not even a missing tooth!

If you ever are in need of a writer or someone to help you publish your book, Michelle is the girl to contact!
 

Affordable Gifts was why I started Rainbow Designs

One of the main reasons for starting my business was to try and provide an online store that offered something a bit different to the traditional gift hampers and bunches of flowers BUT for less and in the theme of YUM. I wanted somewhere that was easy to navigate, easy to read, easy to order from and easy on the wallet. I wanted to have my prices cheap, well affordable, and to include everything - the gift, the gift tag, the packaging and the delivery. So when people came onto my site they could see WHAT the gift was, HOW much the gift was and WHEN it would be delivered. The hardest part is the DELIVERY. This is by far the hardest thing to control. Delivery is always (well almost always as I do deliver some myself when it is local) done by a third party, a business that is NOT part of Rainbow Designs. I basically hire them to deliver MY gifts, sometimes easier said than done! I'm currently using Toll Express and have been for about a year now and they have been much easier to regulate the delivery times with. Basically they deliver within 1-2 business days of the parcel being sent. The majority are next business day - great news for me and my customers! Of course there are the inevitable delays which generally come from incorrect/insufficient address details or sometimes the courier is just swamped and has had to hold back some items until the following day BUT in general I can rely on Toll to deliver efficiently.

Now having this type of delivery means the delivery charge I pay to Toll is, in the whole scheme of my gifts and business, quite expensive BUT I do think the reliability and speed far outways the cost. The prices I charge for my gifts include everything and this means the gift box/bag, contents, gift tag, delivery and customer service. It's a tough balancing act - offering affordable quality gifts with fast delivery and making some sort of profit.

I think I am managing to still have great priced gifts and with the use of Toll much better control of delivery times and also great quality lollies and chocolates and even fancier gift boxes! Something that doesn't help is when the BIG supermarkets sell their confectionery and gift items so cheap - I can't compete with them on pricing, never will be able to, their buying power is MASSIVE compared to mine! What I can compete with is quality and customer service - I think I can beat them quite easily most of the time!

Not everything should come down to price but it does form a pretty significant part of any business and also customers, as we all have to be mindful of where, when and how much we spend - money doesn't grow on trees!

$22 - no more to pay! Under $30 - we can do that!

Until next time,

eat some jellybeans!

Jacqui