SD: Tell us about your company, Loopy Monkey, and your partner, Bret. And how did you come up with the that wonderfully whimsical name?
ALEXA HIRST: Loopy Monkey is a joint creation, established by me and my business partner, Bret. We started the site in the fall of 2005. We put up the website in response to demand from our friends and family to share our creations. It has been a great deal of fun to continue to build and improve it.I am the lead designer. I design and manage the creation of the original pieces of artwork that are available on Loopy Monkey. All pieces are handmade and of unique design.
Bret is a friend of mine who encouraged me to start selling my pieces. By coincidence, he is an MBA with great business sense and his hobby is web design. Around the time I started to become more interested in jewelry making, he offered to create a website for me to sell my designs. He helps with the logistics of the sale of Loopy Monkey's accessories to customers.
The name Loopy Monkey came from a silly nickname I have for my Siamese cat. He reminds me a little of a monkey when he plays around the house!
SD: Do you have plans to expand your jewelry design business?
ALEXA HIRST: Yes, we do have plans to expand our jewelry business. We hope to do so by continuing to design unique pieces, manufacturing them at the highest-possible quality, and giving our customers a great buying experience.
Any ideas your readers would like to share with us would be very much appreciated! (I can be reached at alexa@loopymonkey.com)
We are in the process of implementing a major website redesign. What you currently see is the initial version of our website, which was our first shot at putting the concept together. Now we're in the process of creating a new look—and adding some fun new features. We are basing many of these changes on feedback that we have received from people who have visited our website. We expect the new version of the site to go live sometime in the summer ... stay tuned!
So far, a lot of our sales have been through word-of-mouth, although we have done some experimental advertising of different types. We are still trying to settle upon the best approach and are trying to do more to get the word out about Loopy Monkey.We are also thinking about how to streamline the number and type of products we offer. We're looking at what items are the most popular ... and we have a number of new items that we will be adding throughout the year.
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