Panda Motion Designs gets a Facelift

by with No Comment Behind the Scenes

A Spring Clean

Happy Spring Time! It’s that time of year that many do the big spring clean. For many it can be a refresh of their wardrobe, a lick of paint in the house or giving the car a good clean. For me it means a review of my business brand.

And that’s what I did. I had been using this branding since 2021, when I started this little business (See my shops 4th Birthday Blog) and for this reason, it needed an update.

The Logo

I wanted to keep several things: Round shape, the Panda Character, Green colour.

The round shape makes it look nicer on social media profile icons as the most of them are round. For obvious reasons, the word ‘panda,’ needed to see it. The green colour would offer a colour that would stand-out more, compared to the usual black and white associated with panda’s.

I took to Pinterest and created a collage of colours that I loved and other Panda logo icons for inspiration.

I made 6 different variations of the logo. Picked my favourite 3. Refined them a bit more, including the font style. Selected it down to 2 designs and see how they work with the colours I was considering.

Many Colours…

I browsed Pinterest for branding colour inspiration.

As mentioned ealrier, the primary colour needed to continue to be green and to have a suitable colour that contrasts well with the green so things can be readable.

A good ‘highlight’ colour was required. Something I could use to emphasise something or to jump out a bit more on social media.

I found several colour palettes that I liked and worked out which ones would be best for myself and brand. As you can see I combined colours from 3 different palettes and felt like I have a branding colour palette that I think would work.

The next stage was to see how it would work with my final 2 logo designs and see which worked best

After exploring the colours, I decided that the logo on the left worked well like this, and I chose this as my new branding.

A Varity of Variations

A colour logo won’t always work, so I needed to create different versions of the logo that I could use when required. Finally, everything was ready to use.

I have already started using it on social media and my Etsy shop and I am getting some nice feedback about it. The website will soon display the new logo. I hope my web developer (aka my lovely, sexy husband) will soon find the time to help me do this.

So, what do you think? Are you starting out on your logo and branding journey for your new shop? Or possibly thinking of a rebrand? If you are, I hope this article helped you.

Feel free to comment below or follow me on social media.

Until next time, have a great day.

Panda Motion Designs Shop Turns 4!

by with No Comment Behind the Scenes
Photo by American Heritage Chocolate on Unsplash

Happy Birthday Panda Motion Designs!

Four Years ago, on the 23rd March, I opened Panda Motion Designs on Etsy. I even made my first sale within a few hours of going live.

I honestly never thought I would run my business, let alone be selling for 4 years!.

How it Started

Before Panda Motion Designs became a shop it was the business name I was using as a Audio/Visual Designer Contractor. I specialised in creating onboarding and knowledge sharing videos for clients, mostly for banks and financial sector.

I then got pregnant, and as a contractor/self-employed person, I didn’t receive maternity leave, so I had to quit working entirely. And during my last few months of working and pregnancy, Covid hit and ended up locked up safe at home.

I wanted to return to work to help pay some income into the household. So, about a year after I gave birth, I decided I wanted to return to part-time work around childcare. However, most of my clients changed their structures and leadership during Covid-19 and they basically told me I was not required and part-time was not acceptable or offered the flexibility to work around childcare.

It was devastating. Feeling useless and I fell into depression. I cried a lot, wandering what to go and where to go for work. I had a few leads but all fell through when they discovered I had a young child. No one wanted to actually offer the flexibility they were advertising on job descriptions. Then one day, my husband had an idea.

Panda Motion is Reborn

My wonderful husband was sad and upset to see me struggle. But watching me draw and be creative with our son, he thought it was a great idea to sell my designs onto products such as mugs, coasters, etc. He did all the research into Sublimation and how it works and how to make sales on Etsy and showed it all to me.

To be honest, I was apprehensive. I tried this before in the past and failed miserably. It can be such a personal thing to sell your pictures, paintings etc. to the world. I eventually came around to the idea and got all the equipment and stock needed to start my own little business..

Panda Motion Designs was reborn as a online store.

4 years later, 1,860+ sales and a new website later I am still here.

I have had some ups and downs with it all. But at least I am feeling like I am contributing to the household in some small way. Enough to treat my son to an extra slice of cake and new clothes.

I am so appreciative of the opportunity to do this as well as all of the amazing customers who have bought from me and left me lovely reviews. Thankful for all the supportive people I have met and chat to on Instagram and Threads. It’s been an interesting journey so far, and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Many Happy Returns to Panda Motion Designs!

The Road to Success – My 2025 Business Goals

by with No Comment Behind the Scenes
Photo by Mark Basarab on Unsplash

Happy New Year

Hello 2025. Now that the Christmas cheese coma is over, and I have watched enough Wallace and Gromit to quote it word for word; it’s time to set my sights on the upcoming year.

My business journey, so far, has had its ups and downs. But with every up and down a lesson is learned. And these lessons will help me plan my business goals for the year ahead.

Why not read my 2024 year review blog post?

Grab a cuppa, get under a blanket and dunk that biscuit and let’s dive into my 2025 business goals.

Financial Goals:

Just like any small/micro business I want to increase my income for this year. As I mentioned in my year in review post, 2024 was not the greatest so far since I opened my Etsy shop. So, to try and improve it this year I plan to invest a little more in advertising. Mostly Etsy ads supported with well planned social media captions and images. Possibly push a bit more on Pintrest and Threads.

I also plan to invest in more varied products and designs. Now that our laser cutter is up and running we have started offering laser cut products, I want to look into this more in 2025.

By improving reach I am hoping for more sales.

Lifestyle Goals:

Now that my son has started school I have had more time to work on my small business.This has resulted in me being able to spend more time with him around the school days and not have to worry about prepping for social media or trying to get an order out on time. It has been quite freeing.

The one thing I am going to be changing is having some “me time” this is time just for me during the week. No business work, no school admin, no listening to demands of a 4 year old. Just something for me. Being a mum is 24/7 and with running a micro business as well it can all be very mentally draining and it was feeling like I was getting that time to be me.

Taking time out to be me is a goal for me this year.

Impact Goals:

Since my website was launched last year I have seen an increase in traffic, mostly via the blog page. My most popular blog post being my experience of GPSR and the changes I needed to make to my delivery options. Followed by some of my tutorial pages.

I plan to continue with this but into how to run a micro/small business from home and bring updates that would affect other fellow businesses.

I love being creative. Just this weekend I made my son a pizza with toppings out of a cardboard box so he can make himself a ninja turtle pizza.

Creative Goals:

I love being creative. Just this weekend I made my son a pizza with toppings out of a cardboard box so he can make himself a ninja turtle pizza.

I wish to continue to refine and experiment more with digital illustration and design for 2025. I often find this quite relaxing to chill and let a design flow naturally without much of a plan. Improve my knowledge of Adobe Illustrator so I can get the most out of it.

I also have 2 books about drawing everyday and I hope to get back into those as well.

Optimization Goals:

I feel I have improved with SEO and listing optimisation since last year but still something that requires refinement.

I regularly update my listing SEO and images to keep on trend and up to date but finding the right words can be difficult. Even using EHunt was helpful. I still feel this is something I need to remain on top of. Especially with my blog and finding the right keywords so I can be found in search engines.

Also using social media stats to work out the best time to post in order to reach more potential customers will also be a part of my goal.

Reputation Goals:

I am going to take some time in the first quarter of 2025 to review my branding and refine it more. I have been consistent with my branding this year but feel it needs a slight change to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s not going to be a big change but enough to keep it creative throughout the year without being boring and to just give it a spring clean.

Maybe add some more animations along the way as well.

Other Goals:

Last year I wanted to be in front of the camera a bit more on social media. Although that is still a goal, I feel this has been covered in an earlier point above. This year I want to be more engaged with other fellow small businesses and have met some really lovely people. I want to focus on expanding this, sharing, commenting and discussing more to build on good relationships and help buy from small businesses more often and encourage new customers to engage with my profile.

Conclusion

So, that is my business plan for 2025. Some of these are going to be more difficult than others and some I may not complete. I look forward to finding out how things work out. I invite you to share yours or link to your business plans in the comments below.

Let’s all support one another and make 2025 the year of small/micro businesses.

Thank you if you have visited my website to read my blog, buy from me or follow me on social media. Your support is greatly appreciated in whatever form.

If you have any questions please use the comment section below or use one of my social media channels. If you have any goal recommendations to make; then please comment below.

Until Next Time…

A Year in Review – 2024 End of Year Roundup

by with No Comment Behind the Scenes

Merry Christmas Fellow Small Business Owners! 

WOW. It’s the end of the year already. I hope you are enjoying the festive season and hopefully having some down time after the busy Christmas period.

It’s time to have a review of the year. I made a blog post about my Business Goals for 2024 so I will be reviewing what has happened. The good and the bad.

So grab a mince pie, a festive drink of any description and let’s get started.

Financial Goals:

As with all businesses of any size, having a bit of a profit is always a goal. For the past 2 years I have turned a good profit, especially at Christmas. Sadly this year has not been as profitable. Most likely down to the cost of living crisis, resulting in not many customers having the funds to support small businesses.

Which is very fair. I am very grateful for those who have decided to spend some of their pay money in my little store. What has been successful was advertising. I have managed to increase visibility on Etsy, especially at Christmas and get quite a few sales, favourites and followers. So the year hasn’t been all bad.

Lifestyle Goals:

Now that my son has started school I have had more chances to expand my business. But also balancing it with the school run and various school events. While we are still hoping to expand our family I believe I have achieved a good work and life balance.

Impact Goals:

The website was launched this year. One of my goals was to give back and use the blog page to share various articles about starting a small business and basic sublimation tutorials.

I have written 3 tutorials (along with 2 videos). 7 articles about starting and running a small business as a busy mum. It is hard to stand out from the crowd with many sublimation tutorials out there but in my first year I don’t think I have done OK.

Creative Goals:

Despite not achieving getting back into watercolours or other creative outlets; I have tried new sublimation materials and laser cutter designs.

We started offering laser cut and etched items during the autumn. I also started sublimating onto tea towels over Christmas and it was a learning curve and received a lot of help on the Blanks Sublimation community page on Facebook and is now an item to buy for my store.

I did try a makeup bag but the design needs a bit of refining but hoping to add it to my store in 2025.

Optimization Goals:

SEO is not a strong point for me so this was a goal I really did need to focus on. I started using the free version of EHunt which has helped me optimize my Etsy listings and identify potential issues with my listing. I am regularly updating my listings keywords depending on the time of year and most popular search terms on Esty to help increase visibility and sales.

The blog has also been a challenge in this as I tend to write how I talk so I often have to review and change my sentences in order to add in keywords. It’s hard but I think I may be getting there.

Reputation Goals:

I have been focussing on my brand this year a bit more. As I have said previously, my son started school in September so I have had more time to focus on various details of my brand look and feel. Giving my social pages more of a flow and ease of reading.

I have also made sure my customers have had a good experience while shopping with me and I have had very few requests for returns or issues with missing items resulting in a lot more 5 star reviews on Etsy compared to the previous year.

Other Goals:

It took me a while to get brave enough to show my face and voice more on social media and I did a few Instagram stories and tutorial videos with my face in front of the camera. I am still not 100% comfortable with this but I am happy with the amount I have done so far.

Conclusion

So that is my year in review. And although I didn’t reach all of my goals I think I have done well so far in my little business.

As the year comes to an end I will be reviewing my goals and what I want to achieve in 2025 for myself and my business.

Thank you if you have visited my website to read my blog, buy from me or follow me on social media. Your support is greatly appreciated in whatever form.

If you have any questions please use the comment section below or use one of my social media channels. If you have any goal recommendations to make them comment below.

Until then, have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2025.