It's been a while since the last update, hasn't it? Seems it has been harder for me to keep to my once-a-week update schedule than I thought, although the gap of time I've left between now and the last update is unacceptable. I did think of the blog during the absence but I'm unsure as to whether to keep going with it or not; primarily this is because I'm not sure why I started this blog and what the point of it was/is. Without knowing the purpose of this blog, it becomes hard to write material for it.
Largely this blog was set up to track the progress of my business so I guess that would be the most obvious thing to write about. A lot has gone on since I last wrote about the business not long before Christmas last year, so there's plenty of news. While business did not especially pick up over the Christmas season very early into the new year I got a brand new shipment of goods completely new to the business which are not particularly common in shops. This allows me an edge over some competition as I'm now expanding the range of products I sell. In fact, the new stock has sold far better than my old stock. I'm looking to expand this line of products further in the future as the business picks up more and more steam.
Speaking of picking up steam, I started advertising on Facebook intermittently about a week or two ago. It has definitely helped traffic to the website but these don't seem to be converting into sales too easily unfortunately. I have had a few more sales on my website instead of eBay but the majority of my business still comes from sites other than my own. Getting new traffic and raising awareness of my business is of course good, but it's expensive. I'm not sure if what I get out of Facebook for what I put in is good or not as I don't really have any reference frame for what should be considered 'good' and what is not. It's definitely better than Google Ads, that's about all I am sure of.
On a more personal note I would like to mention that the student ambassador job I mentioned a few posts ago has now been and gone. It's unfortunately only a couple of days worth of work but I did manage to find another job which even pays better. It's temporary too, but there's more hours to it at least. Right now any money coming in is good, so I'm taking all the hours I can. My business is nowhere near a level where it can support me right now, which was the original aim of the business. It does have a steady amount of sales coming in, about 2-3 a week which I'm happy with right now. I'm not sure whether that qualifies as good or bad for a business that's around half a year old now, though. I need more frames of reference, but I suspect this business will end up being one for myself in ten years time. Right now everything I'm doing is new and I don't know how to interpret the information I get. I'm glad I'm going through this though, as I suspect it will be of great value to me in the future even if it ends up not being this exact business I'm running.
