Hey, Ladies!!

Big news! I am selling Tickled Pink Designs (www.tickled-pink-designs.com) website and the Nurtured Nursings line of nursing necklaces!! I simply can't keep up with the orders with my non-sleeping 1 year-old, my very, very spirited 3 year old and a 4th baby in the works! Also, I am moving on to other projects like some fabulous new breastfeeding pillows and baby quilts and possibly some nursing/maternity/regular 3-in-one pjs. (These lastest endeavors do not require me to MAKE the items though, so far less time-consuming.) :juggle:

So! As sad as I am to see it go before it climbs from #4 on Google for nursing necklaces (http://www.google.ca/search?q=nursing+necklaces&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&meta=) to #1, I need to sell it. I've never sold a biz before so, I'm not sure about the best way to go about it. I will post this here and either let it become an info board or a bidding board or whatever it wants to become. If it seems better to put it on ebay, then I will do that. Any advice would be appreciated too.

This is what the buyer will receive (some of these things may not be necessary for other experienced WAHMs):

-over $1300 worth of stock
-enough beads to make probably 100 necklaces. That is a really hard estimate for me to make! And like any business, you would have to place orders now and then to replace low stock, particularly the letter beads.
-about 1000 safety beads.
-about 250 yards of kevlar. The guy who sells this to me, gives me a huge discount!!
-bead boxes and awesome toting duffle bag thingy
-$50 worth of panphlets (I think I only have about 40 left)
-circle cutter for tags value of $18
-the tags logo (You can see the design if you click on the .Toddler necklace (http://www.tickled-pink-designs.com/catalog/item/845130/431189.htm) . The photo isn't large enough to see that the letters that say "breastfeeding necklace" sort of look like beads strung on a necklace.)
-copies of all inserts and related paper material for sales (like the thing that I put in when it is a gift saying 'Congratulations' and all that)
-a developed website that ranks #4 on Google for "nursing necklaces" Cost is $20US a month to maintain the site but has an exceptional tech support that fix most problems for me, which really saves time.
-instruction on how to manage that website for as long as you need it (but it is EXTREMELY easy with builderspot.com) Also, I will offer LOTS of help in this area, but if I can do it, anyone can!!
-advertising at various sites and help in creating more reciprocal links and free advertising
-a membership with The Counter that tracks all sorts of statistics of website visiters
-a list of my sources
-a list of my customers and their info
-a list of businesses for possible wholesale sales
-help in finding people in Canada (I would find you the business and direct them to you)
-killer and cheap advertising tips that are GUARANTEED to get you sales!!
-instruction on how to make the necklaces
-the business name Tickled Pink Designs
-the product name Nurtured Nursings
-the domain name of www.tickled-pink-designs.com, of course
-the website domain name: nursingnecklace.com ( I have been getting offers just for this!)
-the website domain name: nursingnecklaces.net These have to be re-registered each year for $6-7 each a year. You don't NEED them though.
-explanation on how these "nursingnecklace" domains are so important and some help in setting it up
-probably more stuff that I can't remember.

Whoever buys this will be buying a biz that is basically a business in a box and getting orders everyday, almost. In the past 6 months I have made $2700 CDN just on the nursing necklaces, most of which is from May to now, May being the time that my site went from 30something to #4. Which is great for a site that has only been up since Sept. and didn't even appear on search engines until January? I think. In the past 4 days I have made over $100 US minus shipping. These are all just individual customers, not the many interested wholesale clients that I don't have time to make for. Nearly all of my customers are just women who found me on Google. The hits for yesterday were 66 unique visitors. So far in a week it is 145 unique vistors.

I have done very, very little advertising because I already have enough business to keep me busy. If you can find someone to hire to help you make them, you can get way more business than what I am getting. I have had a hard time in my little town to find someone that I want to hire. I told my husband a few weeks ago that if I had no children and nothing else to do but this business, I am confident that I could make at least $50,000 a year but that is with making necklaces most of the day, which I wouldn't mind at all.

The profit on each necklace varies from necklace to necklace and it is IMPOSSIBLE to give an exact figure but I can tell you that the cost for each necklace is between $2-5. That's it. So, a pretty big profit for your time. I raised the prices a couple of dollars to try and slow down the orders and it didn't make much of a difference.

Speaking of time, it takes me about 30-60 minutes to make a necklace depending on what I'm watching on tv at the time!! LOL. Certain beads fit together and certain beads don't. So, it isn't a matter of just throwing a bunch of beads on. I put a lot of thought into making each one as nice as possible. So, the time it takes is flexible, I guess.

I have dreams of the biz showing up on Oprah and the product getting some kind of celebrity endorsement. I don't think that that would be too hard. Certainly can't hurt to try!

The business certainly has the potential to be HUGE. Most people in Canada have never even HEARD of nursing necklaces. So, far nearly all my customers are American, so think of what would happen once they start selling in Australia and Europe and I even had a sale from Singapore! That was cool. ALSO, I don't accept credit card payments because it is super expensive in Canada, but the site gives easy easy directions to set up cc processing with authorize.net and builderspot has set up a special low rate with authorize.net so that it is actually quite cheap to accept credit card payments. The fact that I don't has been weeding out orders. (Authorize.net is not accessible to me because the Canadian banks have a monopoly on the cc processing.)

Another advantage that an American buyer would have is that shipping to fellow Americans (the majority of customers) is cheaper and faster, so you would get more sales, guaranteed. Shipping to Canada is even cheaper from the States than from Canada!! Sick.

So, all this brings me to the info that you would really want to know. Right now, the going offer is $5000. So, my suggestion is to email me privately natasha@tickled-pink-designs.com and post your offer here if you don't mind because my husband (whose money I have invested in this) is making me take the highest offer (ultimately, I will sell it to whom I want, unless it is an ebay sale) and he will NOT let me accept payments. We'd need the money up front because it is hard to enforce a contract from Canada. And the buyer WOULD receive a contract before anything is mailed and my lawyer husband can write it out. So, don't worry about THAT! ;)

I need to sell it ASAP so I can be freed up to do a toddler intervention :rolleyes: and plan to make a decision by next Friday the 6th.

Any questions, I'd prefer if you'd email me and I'll then post the answer for everyone to see (unless you don't want me to) because I probably forgot some crucial information that everyone but me would think of!

Thanks!!

Natasha :ca:

P.S. I do know HOW to get to #1, it will just take a few months to happen. There is an important directory that the site would need to be listed on but it takes a while. I want to see this site at #1 for "nursing necklaces" and I want to make it happen whether I am the owner or not!

Natasha, how exciting! I wish I had the money to buy it. Best wishes on your newest ventures. :)

So what about the warranty that your jewelry has? Does it just die when you sell the company or does the next person fix it?

That is a good question. My feeling on that is that the new owner should take it over but of course, that is up to the owner. And the warranty is only for a year so many of them will have run out or will soon. But, I have never had anyone send one back! Well, actually I had some bad kevlar sent to me in the very beginning. There was a miscommunication about what I wanted to purchase and the seller sent me one thing and I thought it represented what I wanted to buy and blah, blah, blah, it didn't work out and I had a lot of orders to replace because the kevlar broke. It was monofilament kevlar instead of continuous filament kevlar and too thin (am I boring you yet?;) ). But that was in the very, very beginning and since then I haven't had any problems and I have sold... gee... over 100 necklaces. I've lost count. I could count it up if a buyer insisted.

Anyway, that is what I think.

Natasha.

Also, you say "jewelry" and I'm not sure if you are talking about just the nursing necklaces or the rest of my jewelry. I will take my jewelry with me. If the new owner wants to keep it on the site (I will then have time to take better photos) the new owner can get a 25% commission and I will fix any returns, of course. Otherwise, I am taking that with me. Sorry, if I didn't make that clear. I tend to assume at all times that people can read my mind!.:rolleyes:

Natasha

AND, if you wanted something done about your mother's bracelet, Lacey, you should have said something. I asked you a couple of times what you wanted me to do, gave suggestions, and you never got back to me. I wasn't sure what you wanted to hear, but to answer your question more clearly, now that I know where the question is coming from, I care more about people and putting out a good product that doesn't waste people's money than I do about making a buck. So, when I leave, if someone has a problem with the JEWELRY that they have bought from me, I'd be happy to fix it. If you want a refund, I'd be happy to give you a full refund, even after the six months that you have had it. No problem. Just send it back and let me know why and I'll send you a refund through Paypal.

Take care,

Natasha.

If only....:juggle:

I have been thinking believe me!

I know. If someone asked me for $5000 up front, I'd be choked too. But I also know how well it does do and will do in the future. It is a large market for a unique product that (my customers tell me) out does my competition without much convincing needed. How many other Wahm businesses make it on the first 2 pages of Google with their keywords? It's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, most WAHMs don't have a lot of money and I want it to go to another WAHM.

But, Tif, you already have put so much effort into a SECOND site that looks great. I can see how you'd be thinking "How can I just throw this all away for something else?" THe sites could be blended over time. I don't know. Oh! Well, if you owned both companies, you could put ALL the nursing necklace info on Dara & Scott so you'd have TWO sites for the search engines (a really smart thing to do) and then, when Dara & Scott gets to where you want it to be, search engine-wise, for the search term "nursing necklaces", you totally scrap the tickledpink site. Then, you can keep your $7 a month site, you wont' have wasted InkPrince's work on your pretty site and you'll be set for the future. You are a good business woman and it seems to me that this is something that you want to do for a while. If it isn't something that you'd want to do for at least 2 years, then it isn't worth it. And if you are done at 2 kids, it would be MUCH easier to manage than it is for me, having 4 (soon, I hope).

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I've been worried that someone will buy it who isn't very creative and wouldnt' do a good job with the necklaces, but I KNOW you would do great! Better than, me probably! And together, we'd get you to number one. I can help you a LOT with search engine optimizing either for your site or for nursing necklaces.

Okay, I'm done now.;)

Natasha.

I'd rather hash things out the professional way (through emails) but if you choose to post my problem to the entire board that is fine. I never even wear it because it constantly falls off (as I wrote four times before). I'd rather just drop the subject and take it as (a lot of money lost) and a hard lesson learned. I honestly was wondering if the next person would care to fix it which was why I was asking.

Lacey

Well, you started the question and chose to post here instead of emailing me. I have to search for your email address and you know where my website is. You can easily email me from there. Did you think that I wouldn't know who you were?

I .said you could send it back. I asked you what you wanted me to do about it. I offered to try and fix it, though you couldn't really describe the problem. They are only guaranteed for 6 months, which is more that what most people do. I give refunds including shipping both ways! I have NO desire to rip people off. It needn't have been money lost for you. I was perfectly nice and friendly all along. I couldn't understand why you just didn't reply to my last email and didn't want to get the problem fixed. I made them the same way I made mine and mine fits fine. I used the measurements that you gave me. And if I offered to fix it or refund you and that wasnt' good enough, what were you expecting? That I would give you your money back AND let you keep the bracelet? You never presented a solution to me, so why would it be fair of you to expect some poor soul who has bought my business to fix it for you? The fact that you asked the question means that you would have been fine with that.

I have offered, yet again, for you to send it back and receive a refund, and you haven't taken me up on it. Tells me that you were expecting something more.

Don't worry, as soon as I know you have got my reply, I will delete this whole post. I have some offers on my business anyway.

Hi
Can't PM you but wondering if you can document the sales from this year?
Thanks!

The sales from the website alone are shown in the ebay listing that is now up. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3836648750 I have one more big sale that I will be adding to the month of August later today.

I decided to sell on ebay because it has contracts built in.

Thanks for your interest!

Natasha.