2021 was the first full year of running this business full-time it was a great one for me.
I downloaded all the spreadsheets from Shopify that I could and tossed and turned the numbers all around so I could see them in every direction. From what type of product sold the most, to best sellers, how far I sent my pieces and which cities are catching on to the RJD love! It was a REALLY great way to spend the end of 2021 feeling good about things and learning from the numbers. It was something that I didn't really ever do in such depth, but now that I'm supporting my family with my income it matters 10 fold.
Here are some of the highlights from my year!
- 37% of our sales were earrings, of which the Wave Hoop was the top seller.
- the Loyal Ring was our best selling item, hands down!
- we became a part of 12 new brick & mortar families across the nation.
- I shipped 300+ orders
- sold over 1100 pieces of jewelry
- began in-person shows again and traveled to my first out-of-state retail show
- created ONE amazing new collection which launches January 31, 2022
Are these numbers that belong to a 3 figure income, NOPE!
But I came close (!!!WHAT!!!). Watch out 2022! I'm coming for you. Someone else out there is bound to have better numbers than me for sure, but these were MY successes and I see strength in them as well as places where I am eager to grow.
Do you dig into your sales numbers?
You totally should, it's really fun! I'm very visual, and used google sheets to create graphs from my numbers with in my spreadsheets, and it was a game changer. Especially in the instance where my best selling necklaces was only 27 & 26 pieces. It seemed like such a lame number until I looked at the percentage of sales from all my necklaces.
I sell over 25 necklaces. And each of of those necklaces comes in brass, sterling, or gold plated + I offer 4 different chain lengths. Whew, that's a lot of options! So when my two best selling necklaces made up 20% of my sales it was a much more valuable way for me to see my successes instead of feeling un-impressed by only selling 27 of one style.
When you ship or sell the same ring over and over again you know that's probably going to be a best seller. But seeing that I sold less necklaces than earrings tells me something and helps me plan for what YOU want for my future collections.
Check out this video for more highlights!
I'm not here to compare myself to others or to boast but sitting down to reflect on my year I was excited to see growth, especially during a challenging time, and my hope is to not create a sense of comparison within others but to talk candidly and openly about how it is to run a business. There is value in understanding your numbers, but also in talking openly about it with others it reinforces that this is a small business, run by a single person alongside her family. Hey! It me!
I hope you all had some time to reflect and find morsels of goodness from your 2021, big or small.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to live out my dream of making a living as an artist. Besides being a wife/mom/friend it's the best job. It feels weird to call it a job.
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