• 413.433.3428
Holyoke Puzzles
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Links
  • Blog
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Links
  • Blog
  • About
  • FAQ

We're back, and greener!

7/14/2019

0 Comments

 
I can't tell you how glad we are to back in business! We're listing new products and ramping up production ahead of the holiday shopping season. Thanks to everyone who has been so patient as we worked to get the leaky workshop roof replaced.
Picture
As part of the roof replacement, we had solar panels installed. Tremendous thanks go out to Valley Solar for their excellent work. The panels went live 7 days ago and we are generating way more power than we are consuming. We hope that when we look at our energy production versus consumption a year from now we'll be able to say that we are truly a green home and business. And with upgrades to our heating system in the coming years we aim to be net-zero. 
For now, I can tell you that your puzzles are produced using solar-generated electricity and, as always, the most environmentally friendly materials and methods I can find. This includes:
  • AFM Safe Coat finishes - "Sustainable, plant-based, organically produced finishes. 100% pure, they contain no solvents or toxic ingredients such as harmful preservatives, dryers or other irritants that can contribute to poor indoor air quality or negative health consequences." 
  • Recycled packaging for shipping - Don't be surprised if your puzzle arrives in a reused Amazon box with a motley mix of padding materials.
  • Carbon-offset shipping - Etsy offsets 100% of the carbon emissions from your delivery.
  • Sustainably sourced wood
I'm always looking for ways to make Holyoke Puzzles greener and more environmentally friendly. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments.
0 Comments

Optimizing images for the web and adding a custom watermark

4/24/2017

0 Comments

 
One of several mini side jobs that I do is web design and consulting.I'm the webmaster for my church and I've been consulting for a local business that is in the process of updating their website.

While I love designing websites for organizations, it's even better when I get to teach a user how to create and maintain the site themself. To that end, I just created two tutorial videos for my clients that I thought others might find helpful.  In both I use the free photo editing website Pixlr. I especially like their Editor, which has a nice suite of image editing tools that will get most jobs done for small business owners like myself.

These videos are intended for people with little to no photo editing experience. I filmed them in a Chrome browser on my Windows PC. If you are using a Mac, whenever I refer to right-clicking on a menu you should hold CTRL and click.
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Resolutions 2017

12/30/2016

1 Comment

 
The idea of making resolutions for the new year is appealing but always gives me pause. In the past I've set too many goals or made them so ambitious as to be unachievable. Then when I didn't meet those impossible goals, I felt bad. Yet setting goals is important for making progress. Without a clear goal, how can you chart a way forward?  I'm going to take a page from my teacher playbook and be sure that my 2017 goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-based. With that in mind, I'll tackle my resolutions for the new year.

First, a recap of my 2016 personal and professional goals and how I fared.
Picture
This little dude has determination. I'm going to channel some of his tenacity in 2017.

2016 Recap

  1. Go to the gym regularly. I did pretty well with this. I had some off weeks, but managed to average 3 or 4 days a week at the gym. I even got an invitation to the YMCA's "150 party" for members who went at least 150 times this year. Go me! (By the way, there's no fee to join the Y in January. I highly recommend a membership!)
  2. Double puzzle production. Yes, I did it! I doubled my sales in 2016. I still have a ways to go to get my business where I want it to be, but I'm proud of the growth I've managed in the past 12 months.
  3. Prepare for the holiday rush well in advance. Um, not so much. November and December were a whirlwind. And then there was the panic about low inventory after the first day of a three day show on Thanksgiving weekend. Thank goodness for my supportive family who spent several hours in the wood shop with me that Friday night!
Picture
Help in the workshop got me through the holiday rush.

Resolutions for 2017

  1. Do 3 cardio workouts and 2 strength workouts per week. Staying physically healthy is an essential ingredient to staying mentally healthy. Without good heath, it would be next to impossible to be successful in my work. I'll track this with my fitness app.
  2. Average one new product addition to Etsy per week. Realistically, I know that I won't be able to put something new up every week. But I figure if I manage an average of one product a week, that still means putting up over 50 new products during the year.
  3. Update this blog once a month. Because you, dear reader, are important.
  4. Prepare for the holiday rush well in advance by making at least 5 puzzles per week to stockpile from January through September.​ Same goal as last year, but with a specific target. I hope that this will give me the motivation to make more than just what is waiting in my current orders queue.
Are you making resolutions for 2017? I wish you the determination and resolve to follow through on them.

Happy New Year!
- Barbara, your happy puzzle maker
1 Comment

We're all in this together

8/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Holyoke Puzzles might seem like a one-woman show.  While it's true that I do all the designing and puzzle production, my family is an essential ingredient in the puzzle magic.

My husband Sean has the biggest support role. He is chief child-wrangler, shipping clerk, and errand runner. If Sean didn't keep the kids occupied, I would never have time to get into the workshop. From September to June when I'm busy with my other full-time job during the day - teaching - he runs boxes to the post office and picks up supplies. He's always willing to step in and lend a hand when crunch time comes up. With Celebrate Holyoke coming up this weekend, Sean and our oldest son Gabe helped me assemble and package up several dozen puzzles that I cut over the past few days.

Sean isn't the only family member who has had an impact on Holyoke Puzzles. Gabe is my chief inspiration officer.  He has his finger on the pulse of the 9-year-old set. A number of the puzzles that have made it into production began with his ideas, including the saber tooth cat and my redesigned bunny. Unfortunately I can't keep up with the speed of his imagination, so I keep a list of puzzle ideas by my computer for when I'm in a creative mood.

Picture
Picture
Picture
My youngest son, Xavier, is not yet in a place where he can help out in a practical sense. But he keeps me going in his own goofy way. Xavier has a rare genetic condition that ends up looking a lot like autism. Building my business is one way that I can help create a better life for him and pay for the medical equipment and specialists that he needs. Xavier inspires me to keep going despite whatever hardships come my way.

Another main player who is an essential support for Holyoke Puzzles is my mother-in-law Linda. She steps in to babysit the boys so Sean and I can have a night out to recharge. This weekend she'll watch the kids so that Sean can accompany me to Celebrate Holyoke.  With the festival ending at 11 p.m., I'm sure to need him to prop me up by the end!

I'm not unique in relying on my family for support to make my small business successful. I'm lucky to have great people around me and to live in the business-friendly city of Holyoke. Behind every small business success story is a family and community.

​Thanks for reading! - Barbara


0 Comments

I didn't know that I needed to be a SEO guru...

7/8/2016

0 Comments

 
...to run a small business.

I am now well into my third year running my small business from home.  And when I say small, I really do mean tiny.  It's me, a desk, a couple of folding tables and 40 square feet of workshop space in my basement.  I've learned so much in the past three years, from filing paperwork like a DBA (Doing Business As) and sales tax registration to the best ways to chat up customers at craft fairs.  But by far the most challenging part of this one-woman-show has been keeping up with the online components.
Picture
This is where the puzzle magic happens. Might be time for a paint job.
I've always been pretty tech-savvy.  I had the good fortune to go to college right at the time when personal web pages were becoming a thing, so I learned how to write HTML by hand and I've kept a hand in coding in the 16 (*gulp*) years since graduating from college.  I've never been afraid to try new apps or dive into social media and am generally considered the go-to gal for tech questions at my day job as a teacher.
But having a casual website and a Facebook page isn't enough when you're trying to run a successful online business.  I'm ready to grow beyond the occasional errant shopper who stumbles across me on Etsy.  (Thank you, errant shoppers!  You've given me hope that what I'm doing is worthwhile and you've taught me a lot about selling online!)  I'm ready to compete in the big leagues, and that means getting found when people search for me.
So I started Googling.  I was appalled to discover that my business didn't show up on the first page of results even when searching for "holyoke puzzles."  *sad trombone*  Clearly it was time to get serious.
I started looking for tips online for getting my website recognized.  And that's when I found the three letters that now obsess me: SEO - Search Engine Optimization.  I've started dreaming in keywords and pondering meta descriptions. No, it's not as fun as designing puzzles or selecting beautiful woods, but it's just as much a part of my job as crafting.  After a lot of sifting through posts on SEO, I thought I'd share some of my favorite (and most readable) choices.
  • 100 SEO Tips, organized by type
  • How to do Keyword research and this handy Keyword research printable checklist
  • Keyword Finder
  • Best practices for Meta tags
Picture
My work on SEO has only just begun and I'll need to evaluate the results of my efforts in the next few weeks to see if they're paying off.  Do you have a favorite resource or tip for SEO?  I'd love to hear it!  Share it in the comments.

Now it's time to get back to the sawdust-filled workshop that I love.
- Barbara
0 Comments

    Author

    Barbara Bitgood, Artisan owner of Holyoke Puzzles in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

    Archives

    July 2019
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    Design
    Home Business
    Nature
    New Products
    On The Road
    Sustainability
    Web Design
    Woodworking
    Work Life Balance
    Work-Life Balance

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.