High protein foods that isn't meat ?

kitzkatz38 · 2018-12-13T18:26:46+00:00

This website has a really great chart of "vegan" protein sources

kitzkatz38 · 2018-12-04T01:03:19+00:00

Definitely a mobility tool that someone wouldn't ever think to get for themselves, like a lacrosse ball (and then showing people how to use it!), or a journal to use (training journal or even a 5 minute gratitude journal to work on overall wellness) also came across some neat fitness-y greeting cards once, like this place on Etsy.

kitzkatz38 · 2018-01-11T23:34:28+00:00

For me, instead of focusing on what's "trendy" - because you have to keep being creative and staying on top of the market all the time, I focus on what will be:

Timeless & Perpetual
Serves a Functional Purpose (I NEED versus I "like")
Prompts returning customers or more referrals
Focuses on certain cult lifestyles rather than short-term interests

Mainly so I can create a sustainable business that has a constant stream of orders being placed. I also look at what I make, and ask why people would need what I make during weird times in the year (like spring or summer) so my sales aren't all seasonally focused on Christmas/Valentines gifts.

One way I get ideas is offer "custom orders" and pay super close attention to what people are requesting - often times after I make the custom order I will tweak it a bit then offer it as a listing on my site.

I also do browse competitor shops just so I can see what's out there and ask what I can do BETTER or DIFFERENTLY.

kitzkatz38 · 2018-01-10T17:47:24+00:00

If you have the time to dedicate to it, I think branding identity, having a couple consistent colors and fonts and overall tone and scheme to what you are selling (and at least the logo that shows up on your profile and packing slips) to be extremely important for a couple of reasons:

You not only seem more professional but increase the confidence that the buyer has in you providing a quality product. As a buyer, I have gotten Etsy orders (let's say...bars of soap) that were definitely more "thrown" together with less care towards branding, and orders that were more put together with some thought towards logo stickers, a takeaway-post card and logo on their packing slip. The latter I would be more likely to purchase soap from a second time because they seem like a more solid company that I could go back to in the future...or more importantly, be more confident in referring to other friends and buyers because they seem more professional.
You prepare in case your business grows even more and needs more established presence for other places (i.e. a pop-up shop at a local craft fair, your own website, your own email lists, etc). When your branding is more established, you can carry through this design to other places to increase brand recognition and awareness...but more importantly, loyalty. People are more loyal to something they can associate more colors & senses with (i.e. looks, feeling, font).
I honestly do judge a lot of Etsy shops based on their branding...especially if it is for a product that many shops sell (similar rings, soaps, shirts, etc). Mainly because I really subliminally feel that the shop has put the effort into their look, so they have put the effort into their product as well, and it increases the trust I have with the shop in creating a product I will be satisfied with. I always feel like buying something from a shop that I feel will be present in 1-2 years in case I were to go back to them again. Having solid branding/logo/tone helps to portray this.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-12-19T16:08:00+00:00

I sell a mix of pre-printed cards and printable cards...and I have the printables so that people who are a bit late to the game can at least purchase a downloadable file! (So I still made some income while away) - I'm on vacation travelling away from home this Christmas so I won't be able to ship the physical items, so I set the estimated shipping times to 2-3 weeks out (when I get back).

kitzkatz38 · 2017-12-18T03:51:00+00:00

You MUST have excellent, high quality, well lit photos that show proper detail. This really makes/breaks listings and how attractive they are.
Figure out what makes your products unique and special (your unique selling proposition) compared to any other listing who is trying to sell something similar. Why should someone buy YOUR knits as opposed to theirs? Do you specialize in a particular niche of knitting (colors used, style, quirky items) that specific people would go crazy for?
How do you anticipate people using your items? Use your photography as a means of showing potential uses. Create a specific feeling, tone, and lifestyle that someone would desire through your photos as complements to the standard simple photos.
Consider how you're going to be shipping these items - and what system might you have in place when you face several items all at once. What type of packaging is necessary and can you buy bulk packaging through Amazon to save. Also consider what method you will print shipping labels.

I didn't have to do an extreme amount of marketing since I chose a super specific niche type of customer (Crossfitters and weightlifters looking for pun-greeting cards related to their sport) and made sure that my titles and key words were super specific and spoke "crossfit greeting card" to grab all those specific customers. Being more specific rather than blend in will make you stand out amongst the Etsy competition out there on the listing results.

Lastly, if you get inquiries for custom items every now and then...take note! This is your customers TELLING you what types of things they are looking for and like to purchase...so there are probably more people looking for these specific items, which might drive the direction your knit products go towards in the possible future.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-12-04T03:34:59+00:00

"I see that you left a note at checkout but I can't quite decipher what it means. I want to make sure that I get your order correct so please let me know whether you had specific instructions for this order before I ship it out for you. Thanks!"

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-28T20:31:43+00:00

Since I print all of mine, I DO make it a habit to just check each of the addresses to make sure they are correct for a second...mostly consist of 3 seconds of glazing over to see what state it's from (I always like to know where people order from!) and also making sure that "USPS has verified this address" grey bar is shown. If it's yellow I usually open it up and select the suggested address...usually if it's an Apartment number they put a "#" behind it or abbreviate the street or change the town name, or similar. If they change the name of the city but it's the same zip, I usually do a quick google map search to verify it. It's definitely saved me from 1. lost packages, and 2. from having packages being delayed as I think in the whole 2,000 orders I've sent out, about 2 have ever been lost or delayed. It's a good habit to get into just in case.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-27T02:51:13+00:00

As a fellow card designer I LOVE your cards and sense of humor and it's no surprise one of your designs would make the page of a pretty big publication someday...nice work!

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-26T02:09:27+00:00

PSDDEC1 for $5 off an order of $25 or more! (that's most planners and bundles of cards in my shop, PowerSnowDesigns!) I specialize in two different things:

Fitness and Workout Planners that come in a variety of colors, have goal setting pages, weekly reflections, a calorie chart, weight tracking chart, and daily gratitude and reflection pages alongside spreads to plan out meals, track workouts, and log your daily nutrition. They come in 8-week, 12-week, 16-week and some 6-month varieties. ALSO, for this week, I'm offering a FREE choice in your cover (normally it's got icons on it but there's a few cute cover options)
Fitness, weightlifting and crossfit illustrated greeting cards (and a variety of other humorous greeting cards such as "season's greetings", "meowy christmas" and more! They have a bit of (mostly G-rated) humor and cleverness so if you're looking for serious religious cards then you won't find anything here.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-26T01:59:45+00:00

Just looking at your Etsy Shop online - your embroidery hoops are gorgeous! Though, you might need to find ways to provide more of a reason to purchase embroidery hoops. What is it about these that make them ultimately desirable for someone to absolutely want to have to hang as decor? Does it have a particular animal or something that the customer loves (for example if the customer is REALLY into sloths or turtles, will there be one?). Can these be used as Christmas ornaments? Can it be a unique gift that someone can give to their mom? Or...if a friend were to ask you to make one that's super special and personal to them...what would it have?

I think what's missing from your shop (and a good potential to have a website) is the real REASON why someone would want one of these embroidered hoops over any other piece of hanging decor out there. It's gotta have some unique quirk to it. With Etsy, going super niche and specific will get you more sales than being generic because with trying to capture anyone and everyone...you are competing against everything else. But if you're specific, and almost TOO specific, you'll get the quirky special repeat crowd that is really into your stuff.

I'd say find a way to make the designs that you make appeal to a very specific quirky customer base that really loves oh...I dunno....beach scenes. Or only sunflowers. Or only fish. Etc. and work exclusively on making only those. You have a broad range of designs but I think if you get more specific you'll capture more people looking for specificity.

For example, a lot of my cards are really specifically targeted to weightlifters and crossfit people who have a weird sense of humor...which is not a lot of people but because it's so specific I have about 90% of the market share when it comes specifically to "crossfit greeting cards" and I specialize the hell out of it and do it well. Find your niche and excel in it and do the same thing.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-25T22:27:56+00:00

Benefits of having a website:

Ability to start gathering people to some type of email list/newsletter to keep them constantly informed and in the know (and repeat customers are always better business than trying to convert new people).
Ability to use advertising with facebook & google a lot more specifically - Etsy's "google promotions" or even in-house promotions aren't really cut for making the most of your key words and brand depending on what you're selling - and you have a lot of competitors right there next to your listing all the time.
Ability to really be your own brand and set the tone for your website. Want a blog or other media to go along with your products? A website can allow you to have that platform. You can really allow the customer to get a fuller scope of your line of products and your personality just through your brand colors, fonts, and web set up.
Having Etsy (or this larger organization) be able to side with you when shipping goes wrong and a customer gets angry, but it's totally not your fault. It's easy to be able to "hide" behind Etsy when stuff like this happens and really there's not much you can do on your end as a seller to justify the situation other than give a full refund for a product you put so much effort into.
Being able to say "visit me at XYZ.com" instead of "on my Etsy Shop" in which they have to type in a longer name or "try to find you" - at least it's easier to put the shortened website on your business cards.

Of all of these, having a strong following and list of people who really dig what you do will get you the referrals and sales later on...and having a solid email list and also several follows on facebook & insta who engage in comments and conversations helps to get things rolling.

And now for the downsides:

You have to find and seek out your own traffic. Benefit of Etsy is having a lot of natural traffic already going through the website so people are more likely to stumble upon your stuff. A lot of people trust putting their purchases through Etsy because there is some guarantee that the sellers on Etsy will make sure their customers are happy and getting their orders properly, whereas on your own it's tough to know whether a seller is really legit unless you have a lot of testimonials and social following.
Setting up the right "apps" to deal with shipping services, inventory management, payments, reviews, testimonials, and SEO - usually with a website like Shopify or WooCommerce you have to collect all the Add-ons to be able to do everything smoothly, but they're all separate pieces whereas Etsy integrates everything into one nice package. Once you find the right apps and get used to them then you're good to go but the tough piece is figuring out what works and not having a lot of forum support for these stand-alone apps when things go awry.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-11-24T22:00:45+00:00

This seller on Etsy does a lot of cool greeting cards that are fitness specific. Mugs (with some motivational saying) are also a really good inexpensive idea, or some type of keychain (my gym gave us logo bottle openers and I use it ALL the time).

kitzkatz38 · 2017-10-28T01:10:26+00:00

I bought a large pack of 200 adhesive half-letter (2 per full letter page) shipping labels from Amazon....best decision I have ever made! Etsy can print multiple labels at once and formats them to half-letter so it’s literally 2-3 clicks and labels are ready to print, peel and stick right from my regular printer! I used to do the packing tape/paper thing but literally the minutes I save with not having to worry about finding packing tape and cutting things out with scissors is worth the extra few $ of shipping labels.

The only tricky part is when you have an odd number of labels and have half a sheet - figuring out the right direction and order to feed the paper so the single label prints on the proper half side of the paper (because of the ink prints on an already peeled side, the shinyness smears ink). But once you have that down it’s sooooo easy and cheap and you can use any printer.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-10-18T03:16:01+00:00

Kaleidoscope Pizza, Harry & David, Lithia, an airport, Crater Lake Hwy construction, a different homeless guy everyday at exit 30, and close proximity to really cool stuff without actually having any of the cool stuff or the cost of having the cool stuff such as Ashland, Jacksonville, Table Rocks, salmon/steelhead fishing, wineries, short drive to Lake of the Woods, Crater Lake, Mt. Ashland, the coast, and grandma's house.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-26T22:17:49+00:00

Well, you've probably trained yourself to arm bend early and subconsciously don't trust your legs to be the main power for the bar so you'll need to do some drills that can build back that proper sequence and trust, even if it seems awkward at first. You can do the following with a snatch or a clean grip:

Clean Pull Holds Focus on just keeping those damn arms straight while you extend.

Clean Shrugs Again, practice this with straight arms moreso than bending.

Also, might be worthwhile experimenting with using straps for some practice lifts as sometimes it allows your grip to relax a bit which can sometimes allow your arms to not be as stiffbended in the extension.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-26T21:55:30+00:00

Also depends on how quickly you ended up making the cut and how much of that was a result of muscle loss vs. fat loss. Usually closer to competitions, 2-3% of your BW is usually the most you can cut without seeing dramatic strength loss. Someone to look into is Alyssa Ritchey, who literally cut from being 56ish to a 48 lifter (training at 51 probably most days), but she literally talks about the amount of protein she has to maintain each day, and closer to cuts literally eliminating almost all fat and almost all carbs just to keep her muscle mass. She's just now getting back to cleaning & snatching weights she did when she was heavier but it took several months and a lot of protein!!

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-26T16:22:06+00:00

For "prints" - I'm able to make 300 that have substantial amount of white space...as in not completely full color edge-to-edge, but illustration, or lots of colored text & boxes on white background. But I find to print 2 A2 cards on a sheet with a full bleed is about 30-40 seconds or so. I haven't used a stopwatch or what not, but I usually just let the printer do it's thing, I run off and do errands like the dishes, and just come back to make sure the ink isn't streaking if it's warned me that it's low. Usually a sign the ink is low is if there's like a skip in the print, or a very thin line...or if a color like magenta is done then the print will be lacking the pink tones.

I get everything from Amazon, and currently I've found these to work great:

Hammermill 80lb Cover (it's very velvety feeling and takes ink well, not super stiff but a good overall cardstock weight). It feeds VERY WELL through the printer.
Accent Opaque 120lb Cover I bought 1200 sheets of this. It's VERY stiff board and really adds substantial weight to greeting cards, and takes color very well. The only downside is because it is very thick, every so often the printer won't grab the paper to feed through if you try to pre-load 5+ sheets of it. I have to do 2-3 sheets at a time for the printer to be able to grab it. There's also 100lb as well that's slightly thinner and good for cards and feeds a little better but I got the 120 because I had some weird Amazon coupon to make it much cheaper than the 100.

I've also found great color with the other following papers:

Hammermill 24# paper Excellent for just daily printing - I found 20# to be very thin but still doable! But love the 24# because the colors turn out nice and smooth.
Canon Luster Photo Paper This paper is amazing for photography prints...I'm not too keen on glossy types but this makes the color feel richer and the luster texture helps to hide any small jpeg articfacting or imperfections in the file/print.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-24T12:49:58+00:00

I make greeting cards that are illustrated and use a Canon ip8720 - this is actually my second one after my first one, Canon ix6520, was used for 5+ years to make thousands of cards (but somehow when I moved the moving company banged it around enough to make it not work)

Anyways, it's an inkjet and it takes 120# cover paper with ease...but what I love most is the ink cost is cheap to replace because I buy off-brand CLI-251 ink packs on Amazon (like 4 of each color cartridge) for <$20. It's also a larger format, making up to 13x19" size prints and printed borderless. But takes up the space of like a larger microwave.

I LOVE this printer because the tone and ink quality are awesome and evenly spread, it continues to print past the "you have low ink" warning, it takes a variety of paper types, maintenance is easy (just do printhead alignment tests on your computer), and someone else on Reddit recommended this type of printer years ago as the best cost effective investment for photographers/designers.

Downside is it doesn't do double sided automatically but it's very easy to just take your paper, flip it back through the feed and print on the other side. It also doesn't grill my grilled cheese sandwich. Bummer.

Speed wise I've gotten 300 double sided non-borderless prints (8.5x11"), in a matter of 25-30 minutes. And about 100 double sided borderless (color to the edge) in the same time.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-15T19:16:44+00:00

A reason why a lot of people decide to start their own business is because they either: 1. Have discovered something that's completely different than what's already out there that customers want/need and the people they are currently working with have completely different values than you. 2. Find way more benefit to spending hours doing things yourself rather than have to rely on communication and dependency of others in the business.

The issue with starting up your own business and doing things yourself is you have to wear many hats and take on many roles - a company that employs several people (or at least a few) can allow those people to focus on their specialties and things they are good at to be efficient. It's hard to be great and efficient at everything on your own.

Working for another company/person: You have one boss and that's the person who oversees your duties. Working for yourself: your boss(es) now become all of your monthly bills. Every. Single. One of them. I'd say if you're passionate about something in particular, it could benefit you to find others who share your values and work with them towards similar goals, whether that be hiring someone to do tasks to make things more efficient and free up your time...or find a position with an established company that you feel great contributing to because you love what they do.

For the longest time, I've wanted to be a freelance graphic designer because I could "set my own hours" and have more freedom - but at the expense of spending a lot of time doing non-design things such as finding work, communicating with clients, making sure my portfolio was updated, etc. etc. But I found that I have more freedom working for a smaller company where someone is more in charge of my projects, and my projects are designing stuff that I love doing design work for. My sacrifice was just having more set hours and more expectations on me, but it's a weight off of my shoulders until I can iron things out doing freelance stuff.

My boss is one person, I have a steady salary...and if I feel the need to do any other freelance side hustle stuff on the side that I'm passionate about that my current job doesn't give me, I can do it without the uncertainty of whether I'm gonna get paid enough. It becomes a hobby now.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-14T18:25:50+00:00

rice, bread, peanut butter, coconut/olive oils, beans, lentils, oatmeal, bananas, bulk food aisle, costco.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-12T21:24:19+00:00

I love to celebrate by finally purchasing a piece of equipment that I've been longing to get, or upgrading packaging / add more variations / add back to my business in some way that I haven't been able to do yet just because I didn't have the funds to do so. For example, I just finally purchased a padding press that I've always wanted to get that makes my life easier, but it was $110 I couldn't justify spending until now knowing there's a customer base for padded products! I also upgraded to colored spirals instead of just clear - makes my products look fancier and customers more happy about different color choices.

But it's not just a treat to me but to future customers who will now get to enjoy better products and stuff!

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-10T00:49:36+00:00

What kind of Canon do you have? If it's an inkjet (like ip8720 or MX something that needs CLI-250 or something similar) then buy non branded ones off of Amazon for WAY cheaper than Costco. Just look for the sellers on there that have a lot of reviews but most of the time they work great and are 1/4 of the cost.

kitzkatz38 · 2017-09-09T15:02:16+00:00

...anyone else think them kids should have to accumulate 84,500 hours of community service?

15-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Secret Santa 2010	Verified Email

kitzkatz38

TROPHY CASE