Studio visit: Kelsie White of K Gets Organised

Kelsie_1-700 Kelsie White packages a new set of cards in her home studio in Northbridge, Perth.

By Kristen Marano

Kelsie White is changing the stationery game with her cheeky sayings and fresh designs. Her cards challenge the need for an occasion to send a sweet note with lines like ‘You’re my favourite blanket stealer,’ and her sleekly-designed paper pads encourage people to make to-do lists they’ll actually fulfil.

White’s childhood enthusiasm for stationery kick-started her paper goods business K Gets Organised in 2014; she has since created a collection of more than 100 products that fuse black and white sleek typography and cheerful watercolour designs such as popsicles and doughnuts.

At only 23 years old, White is a creative woman on the move who is constantly connecting and creating. White designs and packages in her bright sunny studio in the hip neighbourhood of Northbridge, Perth, sells her paper goods at local market stalls, and keeps learning as she completes her graphic design degree.

White is also the event host of the Perth chapter of Creative Women’s Circle, and she will launch the second event of the year this week. We recently chatted about how she got her start in stationery, her creative process, and where she plans to take her business next:

What attracted you to paper goods? 

I'm what I affectionately call a stationery addict. I also love a good card stock, a hardbound notebook with the perfect paper inside, and writing out my to-do list every day. There is nothing better than sending and receiving a hand-written note from someone. The nostalgia and old world charm of stationery and hand writing, from getting your pen license to writing your wedding vows, really brought me to stationery; it has made creating and designing for special, heartfelt moments so beautiful.

Take me through your creative process.

I usually draw from a real life experience. My favourite yellow water-colour card reads, 'You're just so bloomin' lovely', and I made it with my beautiful girlfriends in mind. I was studying and working as a florist at the time and loved giving them little left over flowers from my shifts. That’s how I created the card.

A lot of my illustration work also comes from people around me. I recently drew some lovely popsicles for a local business called Delish Ice. I love the owner Katie and I’m so happy to have her as a friend; it was so much fun to draw happy little popsicles while thinking about her passion, drive, and kindness.

I also love to draw from current trends; my latest planners feature doughnuts, indoor plants, and popsicles.

Kelsie_2

Sketches, and water-colour designs mark White’s studio walls as inspiration and new works in progress. 

What puts you in the mood to create?

A great cup of coffee, a beautiful cafe, and Wi-Fi. With all of these things, the world is my oyster.

You're successfully running your own business at such a young age. Who has influenced and inspired your journey as a small business owner? 

I really wanted to be my own boss and push myself to try something new. I had never studied business or run a business before.

I've been studying art and making art since I was very young, and I wanted to get back into creating while I was at university; I started making planners to help motivate me to complete my assignments. From there I launched a tiny collection of five planners and now have more than 100 products under my belt. This was not an easy journey, but it is by far the thing I’m most proud of doing in my life.

My role models include Anna Rifle Bond from Rifle Paper Co., who I was lucky enough to meet in London last year at a stationery conference (they exist!), and Sass Cocker from Ask Alice in Melbourne. They both really inspired me to go out there and create beautiful paper goods.

What can we expect from K Gets Organised in the coming months?

A really big and exciting change that will launch around February 2016.

In December, White will depart for a creative getaway through Europe and the United States. To follow her journey and get regular behind-the-scenes posts, check out her Instagram.

Kristen Marano is a digital nomad living in Perth, Australia. Kristen interviews women in business. She contributes to Huffington Post Canada, and produces a weekly newsletter, Creative Women Weekly, featuring stories of creative women from around the world. Follow Kristen on Twitter @kmarano.

 

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Self care for small business owners

woman-legs-girl-grey By Monica Ng

No matter where you are on the spectrum of being a full-time small business owner or work a fulltime job alongside your small business pursuits, running your own business can seem like running the longest marathon of your life. Day in, day out, you work long hours at your day job and come home, tired but continue work for your own business. You hope to grow it into something that supports yourself and perhaps your family too. You spend every spare minute working on your sidepreneur gig. Any time that you are not working on your business, you are wracked with guilt and fear. In your mind you are constantly plagued with “what if” questions and try to rationalise your decisions for working on your business instead.

“What if I were to skip this (insert social occasion) and spend time doing X, Y and Z instead? I have an endless To-do list! There’ll always be next time…”

If you do take time out, you’re constantly thinking about or worried about your business. You’re glued to your phone, monitoring and updating your business. You’re not fully present. You feel inadequate and question whether you have the drive to really “make it.” Maybe you view this way of working like a badge of honour? Sacrificing things now for a better future? But really, if this is the mentality you’ve adopted, it can be all too easy to burn out. Your ability to be effective and efficient becomes diminished. You stop producing your best creative work. You’re stuck in a vicious cycle. Lose direction. Panic! Feel paralysed. Which is why the most vital thing for you to do for your business is to look after your number 1 and best asset: you.

This has been something I have always struggled with, especially most recently. Together with deadlines for my jewellery studies, last minute organization for my holiday (who gets stressed from organising a holiday, right?!) and tying up loose ends at home before flying overseas for said holiday – I felt completely deflated, unenthusiastic and a bit directionless about my business. But after being reminded that self-care as a small business owner is the most important thing I can do for myself and my business, here’s my top 5 action tips you can do too to look after yourself and your business.

Celebrate all your wins (whether small or big)

You’ve worked hard to achieve your goal – whether it’s big, like gaining a new client you’ve signed up or something 'smaller' – every achievement should be viewed as a win in your eyes and you should do something to celebrate these milestones! Whether its a nice meal out with loved ones, a candle lit bubble bath, or some time walking along the beach with your dog – take the time out to celebrate your achievement – because you worked hard to achieve it!

Look after your body

When you’re busy, it’s easy to forget that our bodies need regular exercise, nutritious food and plenty of sleep to be productive! Take the time to schedule into your calendar, regular times to do some exercise – whether it be an early morning walk with your pet, a midday yoga class or cycling around your neighbourhood, whatever activity you enjoy, make the time to do it! Life is too short to feel sluggish, be unfit and neglect your health. Not only will you feel better after exercising (hello endorphins!) but you’ll be so much more alert and energised to do the best work that you can.

The same goes for the food you eat too! Too often, we reach for the easiest and most convenient food options, which usually contains too much salt, fat or processed sugar. If you continue down this path of unhealthy eating, it’s no wonder you won’t feel at your best. If your schedule is busy, why not spend time planning your meals for the week, take a few hours and batch cooking some food and freezing it for the remainder of the week? You’ll be surprised how easy it can be to eat some nutritious home cooked meals when you put a little planning into the process.

Get enough sleep. Simple advice but often the first thing that gets sacrificed.

Go on a digital detox and recharge

Give yourself time to get away from the online world and reconnect with the natural world around you. Yes – this means disconnecting from all forms of social media, your blog, your online shop, forums etc etc.

Being constantly connected to the online world can be draining and counterproductive. Sometimes it may be best to just disconnect completely for a while, whether it is a few days, a week, a month or maybe more and spend time doing other things. Not only may this help you find new sources of inspiration, but also help you recharge so that when you do return to the online world – you’ll feel refreshed and ready to kick some butt again!

Allow yourself time to rest, catch up with friends and family and general “me time”

Give yourself permission to read a book and soak in the sun’s warm afternoon rays over a flat white, take a holiday (and don’t take work with you!) or do an activity you enjoy and don’t feel guilty about it!

For those that operate their small business from home, where this may mean a spare room, bedroom or kitchen is the “office”, the lines between work and play can be difficult to differentiate. Remember that for your business to be successful in the long-term, you need to draw some boundaries – just like you would if you worked a day job. Don’t fall into the mindset that you need every minute to work on your business to make it a success and that if you don’t do this, it means you’re not dedicated enough to your business. You’re not a failure for resting and relaxing! Our minds and bodies were not built to work 24/7. We need rest to recharge and you’ll be happier and healthier for it.

Remember why you decided to become a small business owner!

Think back to why you started your small business in the beginning. Did you start it up to gain financial freedom? To gain freedom away from the usual 9-5, operate during the hours you work best and pursue your passion? Whatever your reason may be - don’t forget it!

Sure there may be some late nights and early mornings – to grow a small business into a successful operation, it takes some serious hustling. But remember, that hustling means working efficiently, effectively, with excitement.

Now – don’t mind if I kickstart my own digital detox, recharge by immersing myself in Taiwan’s glorious luscious natural and urban landscapes and enjoy my holiday in Taipei!

Monica Ng left her accounting career at the end of 2013 to run Geometric Skies, her Etsy jewellery business, alongside her jewellery and object design studies at the Design Centre in Sydney. Find Monica at her blog or on Instagram @geometric_skies.

 

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12 productivity tools and tricks for creative businesses

12-productivity-tools-and-tricks-for-creative-businesses By Monica Ng

As a small business owner, it can be difficult juggling multiple responsibilities simultaneously. On top of the day to day of fulfilling orders, planning for and creating new products or services, updating multiple social media channels, connecting with fans and peers in your niche, replying to a seemingly endless stream of emails, blogging, and project management, trying to manage it all without the right tools can be overwhelming!

So today I’d like to share with you my top 12 productivity tools, tips and tricks I use everyday for my online jewellery business.

Email

1. Use Boomerang to schedule emails

With this Gmail plugin, you have the ability to write your reply whenever it’s convenient for you and schedule it to be sent at a specific time in the future. Not only this, but you can schedule email reminders. Hurray if you’re a night owl or an early bird (but don't want clients to know you are working after business hours ;))

2. Use Gmail Undo when you regret hitting 'send'

Ever regret sending an email, because you accidentally added someone in as cc when they were supposed to be bcc, attached the wrong document or sent an email or addressed it to the wrong person? After this, there’ll be no more email regret!

  • Login to your email inbox, click the gear drop down menu in the top right, select settings
  • Scroll to “undo send” and click enable
  • Set the cancellation period and save changes
  • After you click send, a yellow box pops up to confirm your message was sent complete with an “undo” and “view message” link.
  • Click “undo” within your chosen cancellation period to retract the email you just sent.

3. Write template email responses to save time

Do you receive a lot of emails for wholesale enquires, PR requests, advertising queries etc. that require a very similar response? Having a pre-written response to these types of emails can save you a tonne of time each day. In addition to a basic cut-and-paste technique, Gmail’s canned responses let you insert a pre-written response with just a couple of clicks. TextExpander for Mac allows you to create keyboard shortcuts for anything from a lengthy response to a simple phrase or web address you find yourself constantly typing out.

4. Turn on Inbox pause

Do you constantly get interrupted and distracted by the familiar ‘ding’ or notification popping up, alerting you of a new email? Take back control over your inbox!  This plugin for Gmail allows you to temporarily pause emails from arriving into your inbox with a click of a button. You can choose to send an auto-responder to anyone who sends you an email whilst your inbox is paused. All messages are rerouted to a special label until you un-pause your inbox.

5. Use Unroll.me to declutter your inbox

It’s easy for your inbox to get clogged up with junk emails you can’t even remember signing up to. This service scans your inbox for all your subscriptions and lists them all, allowing you to keep them or unsubscribe with a simple click of a button. Keep the subscriptions you love and unsubscribe from the ones you don’t.

 Social Media

6. Make Photoshop templates for your social media updates

Create set size templates for all your social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Then, when you need a new image, just change the text and image and voila – perfectly sized images for each social media platform.

For your reference, here are the current recommended sizes:

  • Twitter header: 1500 x 500
  • Twitter profile: 400 x 400
  • Instagram: 1080 x 1080
  • Facebook cover photo: 851 x 315
  • Facebook profile: 180 x 180
  • Facebook link preview: 600 x 315
  • Pinterest board cover: 217 x 146
  • Pinterest pins: 735 x 900-2100

7. Use Pinterest secret boards

Need a bank of inspiration ready for you to share and curate on your social media channels? Start up a secret Pinterest board. Only you (and anyone else you invite to the board) can see the pins and the pins you’ve pinned won’t show up anywhere else on Pinterest.

8. Make text-based images with Notegraphy

Funny, inspirational or motivational quotes spread like wildfire on social media, so this mobile app makes it easy to create and share beautifully designed images for your fans in under 20 seconds. Simply just type your message, choose a style and share it on your chosen social media channels.

9. Use Buffer to schedule social media updates

Schedule your social media updates with ease amongst multiple platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and most recently, Pinterest. Spread out your updates across the day and the week, so you don’t need to be constantly glued to your computer or phone in order to have a social media presence.

Blogging & Project management

10. Organise your life with Trello 

Organise, plan and schedule projects and blog content with your team or as a solopreneur. Think of it as virtual post-it notes that allow you to track your progress for your tasks. Provide comments for instant feedback, set due dates, checklists and add attachments. All updates occur in real-time and you can see everything at a glance. It also syncs with your smartphone for list-making on the go!

11. Reduce email noise via Slack

Real time messaging to help you communicate with your team and reduce email clutter. Create channels for specific projects, topic or team members, send direct messages or make private groups. Slack syncs up to services like Google Drive, Dropbox or Box too – they sync in real time and all documents are searchable too.

12. Plan for the future with Wunderlist

Though not as robust as Slack, Wunderlist is a fantastic mobile and desktop app I use for personal planning. It’s a space that helps you plan for anything, whether it’s your grocery list, an upcoming holiday or work related tasks etc. You can set due dates, reminders and share your to-dos with others.

If you liked Monica's 12 tips, hop over to her website to download her guide to 8 more productivity apps for creative businesses!

Monica Ng left her accounting career at the end of 2013 to run Geometric Skies, her Etsy jewellery business, alongside her jewellery and object design studies at the Design Centre in Sydney. Find Monica at her blog or on Instagram @geometric_skies.

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Accounting tips for your creative business

accounting-tips-creative-business-monica-ng_creative-womens-circle By Monica Ng

One of the biggest challenges for creatives can be understanding and keeping up to date with the accounting side of their business. Understanding the numbers in your business is a vital skill that can remove much of the guesswork when you make decisions regarding the profitability of your work. When you have access to real data and can identify concrete trends across the profitability of the products and services that you offer, you can make decisions based on real information, not just a gut feeling.

As a jewellery maker and designer myself, I completely understand that managing the books can be a difficult and tedious task, because before I changed to a creative career, I was working in the accounting industry. So today I want to help you gain a better understanding of your numbers and the areas where you generate the most and the least amount of money, by explaining two must-have 'business report cards' and guiding you through how they can assist you to monitor and assess your business profitability.

1. Profit and Loss Statement

Your Profit and Loss (P&L) statement shows how your business performed during a period of time. There are three main factors of a P&L statement:

Revenue: Any sort of income you earn, whether it be from sales of products or services, commission etc; and

Expenses: Any sort of expense you spend in the course of running your business like:

  • Cost of goods sold
  • Supplies and materials (raw materials you use to make your products – fabric, beads, glue, metal etc)
  • Rent
  • Advertising (Facebook ads, Google adwords, marketing materials like business cards, post cards etc),
  • Fees and charges (online shop fees, PayPal/credit card transaction fees, bank fees, EFTPOS fees, website hosting fees, stall hire fees, consignment fees)
  • Office expenses (stationery, printing)
  • Subscriptions (magazines/journals related to the industry your business operates in)
  • Postage
  • Utilities (electricity, gas, water, telephone, wifi)
  • Insurance (home and contents, theft, public and product liability)
  • Professional services (legal, accounting)
  • Repairs and maintenance (equipment your business uses)
  • Wages, superannuation etc.

(Please note this is a example of the kind of revenue and expense items a typical business may have - yours may vary.)

COGS (cost of goods sold): COGS refers to the costs directly associated to the production of a product. This includes any material costs, labour, shipping and other costs to transform the product to be ready for sale. Determining the COGS can be one of the more difficult things to calculate and the value changes depending on which valuation method you use when you’re doing your books. But to explain the concept simply, let’s go through an example. Let’s say, I have $100 worth of beads in inventory at the beginning of the month. I buy an extra $20 worth of beads during the month and have $50 worth of beads at the end of the month. How do I calculate my COGS?

(Beginning inventory: $100) + (Purchases: $20) – (Ending inventory: $50) = Cost of goods sold: $70

For more information or assistance developing your specific COGS, have a chat with your accountant!

Now here are some key formulae for a P&L statement:

  • Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) = Gross profit
  • COGS = opening stock + purchase – closing stock
  • Gross profit – expenses = Net profit/net loss

Remember to keep receipts for EVERYTHING you purchase, whether it be offline and online. For online purchases I like to save each receipt into a specific folder on my computer (and I also back it up regularly). You might prefer to print out your receipts and keep them organised in folders dedicated to a single month or specific financial year.

2. Balance Sheet

Your business' balance sheet shows your assets, liabilities and owners equity as at a specific date.

Assets: Cash, accounts receivables (money you have invoiced your clients that you have not yet received), inventory, investments, tools and equipment and any other asset your business owns

Liabilities: Money that your business owes (you have been invoiced for a service you used and have not yet paid or materials you have bought but not yet paid for), accounts payable, bank/credit overdraft and any other debt

Owners Equity: Anything that is left over, once liabilities have been paid for from assets. If your equity is high, it means that your assets outweigh your liabilities, if your equity is negative, you’re losing money, and your business isn’t making enough money to carry the level of debt it’s carrying.

The basic accounting equation for a balance sheet is: Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity

Ageing receivables and payables.

If you sell products or services, you’ll need to keep a track of the ageing of receivables and payables. Ageing is usually broken up into four categories: 0 – 30 days, 31 – 60 days, 61 – 90 days and 91+ days.

When you issue an invoice to a client or customer, the longer the invoice goes unpaid, the higher the likelihood that you may not get paid at all. It’s important to monitor invoice payments, so you can chase up a client if the invoice becomes overdue. A debt is said to 'go bad' when the client doesn’t pay or can’t pay, which may mean you need to write it off as a bad debt. Not getting paid is certainly not good for your business!

Other useful accounting tips

Set up a dedicated bank account

It’s a good idea to set up a dedicated bank account for your business. Therefore, whenever you update your financial information, you don’t need to wade through all the transactions to pick out the ones that are personal and which ones are business-related transactions.

Let technology help your keep track of your data

There are lots of techonology options to help you manage the data your business sales generate, so you can turn it into information that’s accurate, relevant and timely for decision-making. If you’re just starting out or your revenue and expenses are quite straight forward, you could use something as simple as an Excel document to keep track of everything. Otherwise, cloud-based accounting software such as MYOB, Xero or Waveapps offer a host of benefits - though some might incur a monthly fee (but most have a free trial period so you can see if the investment works for your business needs).

Make accounting part of your weekly or monthly routine

Depending on the level of activity your business generates, you should update your financial information weekly or at least monthly to give you a good indication as to how your business is performing. Choose a day or even half a day each week/month, and dedicate yourself completely to managing and reviewing your P&L and balance sheets. Remember, this day is important to spend on your business and not in your business.

Do your own books (or at least keep a close eye on them!)

When you’re just starting out, I totally recommend you do your own bookkeeping so you can understand what is happening in your business, rather than outsourcing it straight away to a professional bookkeeper or accountant. As your business grows, and your business generates more activity, it may be worthwhile bringing on a professional to assist, so you can concentrate on the things you do best and provide most value to your business. Bu having said that, even when you have outsourced these tasks to other people, it’s still important that you understand the accounting and continue to review the numbers from month to month.

Get started today

If what you've read sounds great, but still a little overwhelming - never fear. Over at my website I’ve created a customisable P&L template for you – so you can use this immediately for your business! The template contains instructions to guide you. Try it out and I'm sure you'll get addicted to how knowing how your business is going financially. Happy accounting everyone!

NOTE: This article is intended as an EDUCATIONAL GUIDE ONLY and is NOT INTENDED to be taken as specific financial advice. Please discuss your business' financial performance with a qualified accountant, solicitor or financial advisor.

Monica Ng left her accounting career at the end of 2013 to run Geometric Skies, her Etsy jewellery business, alongside her jewellery and object design studies at the Design Centre in Sydney. Find Monica at her blog or on Instagram @geometric_skies.

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