Rise Up Designs

Grab your coffee, because Mother Nature decided she wanted to be part of my market planning this week. 😂☕ Yesterday I returned to a market that was one of my best last year, so I was really looking forward to it. Then came the weather. We’d had a lot of rain in Texas, including flooding in some areas, and San Antonio had gotten enough that the organizers moved our market from the park to the parking lot because the ground was too wet. Immediately, I started thinking: What if it rains? What should I take? What could get ruined? And, if I’m being completely transparent, there was also a little part of me thinking: But if I don’t bring everything, what if I don’t do as well? There it was. 😂 That small-business-owner voice that convinces you the ONE THING you leave at home will absolutely be the thing everyone wants. But I couldn’t control the weather. I could control how I prepared for it. So I edited. I left my carpet at home. I focused on products that were already protec...

Running a small business means wearing approximately 47 hats. 😜 You’re making the products, buying supplies, answering messages, packing orders, doing markets, updating listings—and somewhere in there, apparently, you’re also supposed to be a social media manager. 😂 I’m definitely not a social media expert, but I’ve learned a few things about using it for Rise Up Designs without letting it take over my life. Show up consistently, not constantly. You don’t need to post three times a day. I’d rather post something that actually shows what I’m making, where I’ll be, or what customers can order than post just because I think I’m supposed to. Show the real business. Some of my best content is simply what’s happening: setting up for a market, a new Blind Date with a Book, a custom order, something I’m working on, or even something I learned when things didn’t go exactly as planned. People like seeing the person and process behind a small business. Make your content useful. Not ever...

One of the things I genuinely love about doing markets is the people. I love meeting customers, talking about what I make, watching someone discover something they didn’t know they needed, and getting that immediate feedback you just don’t get from an online shop. The part I could live without? Packing. Loading the car. Unloading the car. Setting everything up. Breaking everything down. Loading it all again. Then getting home and realizing you still have to unload. 😂 After doing markets for a while, though, I’ve learned something that has made that process a little easier: You don’t have to take everything you own. Every market has its own personality. Something that flies off my table at one market might barely get looked at somewhere else. At another market, people may head straight for my Blind Date with a Book collection. Somewhere else, it’s gift sets, totes, bookmarks, or something completely different. So this year, I’ve started paying much closer attention. What are pe...

Yesterday was my first fall market, and honestly? It was a really good one. Sales were good. I was paying attention to what people were picking up, what I need to make more of, what was catching their attention—all those little things you learn when you’re actually standing in front of your customers. But I also learned something else. Take care of the person behind the booth. I live in Texas. I know it’s hot. And I thought I was prepared. One of my market rituals is packing a little cooler full of bottled water. Yesterday I brought about eight bottles, and I was drinking water throughout the day. The market organizers were wonderful about making sure vendors had water available, too. Hydration? Check. Or so I thought. Around 2:00, as I started packing up, I suddenly got really dizzy. Not “whoa, I stood up too fast” dizzy. Sit-down-right-now dizzy. Eventually I had to call in reinforcements—aka Dad and my cousin—to finish packing my booth and drive me home. And that was my ...