Do You Play Well With Others?

I take a lot of pride in my shop. I'm a very small business, but I stay steadily busy creating things for you. I credit that to creating a useful, quality product that fulfills a need without a lot of extra useless bells and whistles at an affordable price point. I never send out a product that I wouldn't be proud to use myself or give as a gift to a friend or family member, and I try to always provide excellent customer service. I want my customers to have an amazing purchasing experience from start to finish.

One thing I'm ridiculously proud of is that I have built the shop into what it is by myself over the last four years. I've never actually utilized any paid advertising, but I'm starting to in order to increase my exposure on Etsy and elsewhere. But as a consumer myself, I believe the most powerful source of growth for a business is word of mouth, from satisfied customers. And as a consumer myself, I like to be recognized and appreciated by those to whom I choose to give my hard-earned money.

That's why starting today, I'm launching my very own referral program for Hannah's Toybox. If you're a happy customer, I want you to share your experience with others so I can put a bit of my creativity into their lives! So here's how it's going to work: each time you refer a customer to me, please send me an email or a message on my Facebook page letting me know who it was you referred. You can provide them with the coupon code NEWCUSTOMER, which will allow them to take 5% off the purchase price of their first order. (Use of this code by repeat customers will be grounds for order cancellation.) When your referral makes a purchase, I'll send you a unique, one-time coupon code for $5 off your next order. You can use it whenever you want to - your $5 credit won't expire. There's no limit on the number of credits you can earn, and the coupons will be stackable: if you want to save them up and use them toward the purchase price of one single item, that's fine!

So go on, get out there and start Playing Well With Others! Share Hannah's Toybox and start earning those credits!

Reintroducing Hannah's Toybox

I haven't blogged in forever... and it's time I re-start! I've made a bit of a commitment to myself to grow my business, and blogging regularly is part of that commitment. Where to begin? How about a bit about me?

I'm Erin. I'm a mom to two beautiful girls, Hannah and Rebecca, and wife to an amazing and supportive husband. I love creating things, and I love things that are eco-friendly. I don't see the point of not being easy on the earth if I don't have to. We grow our own vegetables at my house and while we don't grow enough to sustain our family, our garden does supplement our meals. We play with Legos and Lincoln Logs because my kid loves putting stuff together and I love the process of building. I've been sewing since I was about 6 years old, which is almost 30 years now. I'm largely self-taught: my mother (a professional seamstress turned homemaker with a home economics degree) taught me the basics, but in college I really started honing my skills. I've never taken a formal class, though I'd love to learn pattern drafting or advanced techniques from a master.

I love to create, so I've tried my hand at creating most things. I'm very good at sewing, but I'm not excellent at much else. I make my own soap and I can knit a scarf and hat, but I don't have the patience for purling so all my hats have rolled brims. I often bake my own bread, but I'm not a very accomplished baker and it often turns out in funny shapes that I don't intend. I love making jewelry for gifts, but my wire wraps are often lopsided or uneven and I don't really have an inventive eye for design the way I feel a true jeweler ought to.

Anyhow, that's enough about me for now. I plan to blog quick bits about twice a week, so I hope I'll see you back here!