Surreal

It was a bad week on the sleep front, which means it wasn't a good week on any front. There was also drama. I can't go into it today, but I will give some free advice, although I am not a lawyer. If someone you know adds you to the board of directors to a charity, which if formed would be illegal, without asking your permission or discussing it with you AFTER you've told the person that it would be illegal, kindly ask that person to take your name off of it. That's what I tried to do.

I asked ChatGPT, Is it legal to start a charity to fund a business in the United States?

ChatGPT4 said, No, it is not legal to start a charity to fund a business in the United States. Charities are required by law to serve a charitable purpose, which means that their primary goal must be to benefit the public good or a particular group of people in need. Funding a for-profit business does not meet this requirement.

Well, there you go. There was more, but that's all I needed to know.

I was added without permission or consultation to a charity that's forming with the primary goal of funding an LLC. When I wanted my name taken off it, I was attacked. Guess who the victim is? The person who did that behind my back. I am not making this up. Of course, there's more to it, but WOW.

I'm still slowly reworking my Etsy shop. I have most of my original items replaced with things I hope are much more marketable, but it's been slow going. Etsy's algorithm hates it. Views are definitely down this week. No sales. I'm basically starting over from the ground up, which I expected but still hurts.

Have a great weekend.

Touching Base 2

It was another week of working on the Etsy store. I had 14 products listed and no sales in over a month despite 100+ visits. Statistically, I should have had one sale per 100 visits, although new stores can take months to get the first sale. I decided to pivot. Part of that involves only listing digital items instead of print on demand items like posters, mouse pads, etc. It turns out to be rather time consuming. I have to make 7 files per listing plus multiple files for display purposes and a download link and such. I now have 10 listings of which only six are new products. I've deleted or de-listed several things. I'm slowly replacing the old inventory. I wanted to keep the number of listings at 14, but some items like posters don't match the new focus on digital items. I don't know if Etsy's algorithm likes the deletions and de-listings. Visits are down, but so is inventory. The goal is to have at least 30 items for sale by the end of the month and preferably more. Another goal is to set aside a certain amount of time per night to work on it instead of fretting about how long it takes to do everything and feeling like I'm not getting enough done.

Have a great weekend.

Touching Base

This week's blog is a nothing burger. There's nothing of significance to report. I'm still working on the Etsy store and facing headwinds with the legalese and paperwork type stuff for future listings. I think I'm close to having it all smoothed out so it can be easier and more automatic. Once it is, I can list new products more quickly and start deleting things that I didn't know enough not to list when I first started and didn't know enough. It's part of pivoting that I talked about last week.

Have a great weekend.