Layer one design: short term solutions
This is a short term solution to needing some money.
This is the part of the design I have been living in for the past three months, the decisions made here were right back at the start, and have all now panned out, for better or worse, so I can write the whole process down here now.
This is the part of the design I have been living in for the past three months, the decisions made here were right back at the start, and have all now panned out, for better or worse, so I can write the whole process down here now.
Design idea
As I am in Nepal, land of cheap things...
As I am in Nepal, land of cheap things...
- If I can time things well I could return home (the UK) to make the most of Christmas and sell some things.
- Need good contacts,
- cheap and light things,
- best sellers,
- possibility of ordering small amounts and adding to when I sell so not left with too much stock.
- Setting up internet shop too, in plenty of time for xmas.
- Also look into xmas stalls across UK...
I decided to go ahead with the idea of returning back to the UK for three months, from October 2012 until January 2013. This felt like the most sensible idea, and the one filling as many different functions as possible, looking at our options. Oriol was offered work somewhere else, so we parted for three months to both work at raising some money, and planned to come back together in January to find a new home together in Spain.
Before I left Nepal I decided to spend whatever money I had left on buying some stock items from several companies I had visited. I spent a long time looking around the different shops and found a wide range of different handicrafts, and decided the best way to explore the markets back home would be to buy a small amount of lots of different items, to see what would sell the best. Whatever then sold I could order more of back home, and it could be delivered in time for the Christmas shopping rush. This way I would hopefully also avoid being left with a huge amount of things that nobody wanted to buy.
So I went shopping..
Before I left Nepal I decided to spend whatever money I had left on buying some stock items from several companies I had visited. I spent a long time looking around the different shops and found a wide range of different handicrafts, and decided the best way to explore the markets back home would be to buy a small amount of lots of different items, to see what would sell the best. Whatever then sold I could order more of back home, and it could be delivered in time for the Christmas shopping rush. This way I would hopefully also avoid being left with a huge amount of things that nobody wanted to buy.
So I went shopping..
One of the first things I did when I returned home was to set up an online shop and have some business cards made. I still hadn't got any definite market stalls arranged in the first couple of weeks, so I thought I may be selling things all online. I used moonfruit to set up a website and bought the name Birchravenwren.co.uk, and used Vistaprint to make the business cards.
As the markets started I realised I wouldn't be needing the online shop, and especially as I began to realise that I probably wasn't going to do this for any long amount of time. It was also pretty impractical to sell nmost things online as especially at first all the stock was pretty unique, so I took hundreds of photos to upload of everything before I realised it may not work. So I stopped paying for the website and it has been stopped. Its a shame I can't show it here, I spent a long time making it look beautiful. Ah well. Here are the business cards I made.
As the markets started I realised I wouldn't be needing the online shop, and especially as I began to realise that I probably wasn't going to do this for any long amount of time. It was also pretty impractical to sell nmost things online as especially at first all the stock was pretty unique, so I took hundreds of photos to upload of everything before I realised it may not work. So I stopped paying for the website and it has been stopped. Its a shame I can't show it here, I spent a long time making it look beautiful. Ah well. Here are the business cards I made.
Returning to the UK I made the most of friends and contacts I have here. I returned back to my old farmhouse outside of Edinburgh, which I felt would give Ohli the time with other children that he was needing, would give me the company of other parents that I was needing, and would provide a good base with lots of space to do these markets. I made contact with an old friend of mine who has been running markets in Edinburgh for years and years, and she rented me some of her pitch right in the centre of town over December.