Sunday, December 26, 2021

2021 Business Review

2021 has been a whirlwind and our businesses have been busier than ever!  The year isn't quite over, so the final numbers aren't officially in... but I still wanted to do an overview of how our year went with Happily Ever Hatter and Snowblade Creations.

January was slow like it usually is.  I celebrated HEH's 7th birthday and hoped this would be a good year for the business I've put so much of my heart into.  Things started to pick up in February and March similarly to when they usually do.

When Disney announced that Disneyland was re-opening, Happily Ever Hatter's sales skyrocketed pretty much as soon as the news was out.  Eliot and I found ourselves making lots of mouse ears in April and May for everyone going back to Disneyland for the first time in over a year!  It was clear that people were ready to make their first trips back extra special, and we were honored to be a small part of that!

After Eliot and I got through May, things leveled out and we knew more of what to expect.  Ever since then, things have been steady and busy with both businesses.

During the holiday season, we had a ton of orders.  It was the first time that both of our businesses were open and at the levels we expected.  I have to admit, I was excited but terrified.  For months leading up to it, I was trying to figure out a logical plan.  Eliot and I never came up with any answers... we just winged it.  (Thankfully, it worked!)

For the first time ever, we didn't close our shops early to "cut off" holiday orders.  We closed both shops the same day as the USPS shipping deadline (12/18).  It was a really dangerous, yet calculated risk.  I messaged all of our customers who had orders due to go out after the holiday shipping deadline.  From there, we were able to figure out what orders to prioritize for the holidays and what orders were personal.  Then, we said a few prayers and just kept working as hard as we could!

Like I've said the past few days, somehow, everything worked out.  All of the holiday orders that needed to get out did.  We've also sent out the rest of the orders we needed to get out after that.  We're wrapping up a few orders before we our New Years trip.  Once we get back, we'll have a few mouse ear orders to complete, but we only have one desk accessory outstanding.  (The only reason that we didn't finish it sooner was that we needed more material for it!  And it should be arriving soon!)

I'm also happy to report that both businesses are up this year.  After the uncertainty of 2020, I wasn't sure how things would look in 2021, but we've certainly bounced back.  I am so thankful, grateful and honestly, incredibly relieved.  I could not be more proud of the numbers that we're looking at for both shops.

Happily Ever Hatter's revenue is 80% year over year compared to 2020.  We hit a number that I wasn't sure we'd reach, and I'm really proud of us.  We had over 250 orders for Happily Ever Hatter this year, and that's incredible!  Both our total views and visits are also up quite a bit which is also really encouraging!

For Snowblade Creations, everything skyrocketed this year.  Sales were up over 130% year over year compared to 2020.  We had over 500 orders this year.  Eliot's shop is so close to hitting 1,000 sales!  Our views and visits are also way up over last year.  We hit a revenue number that I didn't think we'd hit, but we zeroed in on it right before we closed for our holiday break.  It's really been incredible!

Eliot and I are planning to re-open both shops sometime this upcoming week.  We usually take more time off for the holidays, but since our trip this weekend is just over four days, we thought we could open a little earlier than usual.

So the big question now is what's in store for our businesses in 2022?  

Eliot has already been hard at work the past few days with creating some new designs for Snowblade Creations.  We also have a few other designs of desk accessories that we haven't made samples of yet.  We're also planning to debut a few new products in this shop sometime in 2022.  I'll post about it here once those are ready!

For Happily Ever Hatter, Eliot and I have a ton of samples of new products that are in various stages of completion.  One of our big goals is to to finish those, photograph them and add all of them to the shop.  We've got plans to work on some new mouse ear designs as well.  I'd also like to debut a few new products to our shop.  I'm not sure when they'll be making their appearance, but I'll be sure to let you all know!

Plus, Eliot and I have both got a few other things up our sleeves.  We're still working on other business plans and ideas.  We're slowly making progress with those concepts, and hopefully they will also be making their grand debuts in 2022!

2021 could have gone a lot differently.  I'm so incredibly thankful and grateful for how both Happily Ever Hatter and Snowblade Creations bounced back from 2020!  We're so thankful for all of our wonderful customers, fans, friends, family and followers!!!  °o°

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