Summer Biz Sessions
This summer, we talked to some very savvy women (and one man), covering a lot of interesting topics! If you missed ‘em, don’t worry – we recorded them!

You’ll be hearing from Jennifer Perkins, Jenny Hart, Casie Metcalf, Laura Allen, Claudine Hellmuth, Danny Orendorf (of Renegade Craft) , and myself on topics such as getting a book deal, giving good blog, participating in a large craft, pitching yourself, setting up workshops, balancing your business with your family, creating a sense of community around your business, and more!

Normally priced at $14.95, we’re offering them at 50% off. Click Here To Grab Them Now For Only $7.48

Summer School Package
Are you ready to learn something new? The Summer School Package includes 6 workbooks and audios, covering topics such as:

• Low Cost Advertising
• Creating Your Own Affiliate Program
• Starting Your Own Podcast
• Defining Your Target Market
• Connecting With Your Audience
• Social Networking

Normally priced at $65, Click Here To Grab Them Now For Only $30

- OR – Click Here To Grab BOTH The Summer Biz Sessions & Summer School Courses & Audios For Only $35

Simply invite your crafty friends over and ask them to bring the supplies they no longer need or want. Set up some tables so that everyone has a place to lay out their goods. Once everyone has arrived the fun can begin. You can let it be a free-for-all and allow people to take whatever they want, or if you want to make sure no one is leaving with more items than they brought, give everyone a ticket for each item they bring. Then, have every merchandise swap “cost” a ticket.

This ia a great way to un-clutter your space, get some great new supplies, and have some crafty fun with your friends!

Sorry for not posting in a while! I’m still here – I’ve been feeling under the weather recently. But I woke up today feeling pretty good! I’ve got some great ideas for upcoming posts so keep an eye out! And if you have any specific questions on running your craft business, feel free to post ‘em below. We will definitely get ‘em answered for you!

When you perform a regular routine before you start your work, it signals to your brain “okay, this is work time.” It helps your brain shut off other things and focus on the work that needs to be done. If you are easily distracted, this could be the difference between getting a project finished or barely getting started.

This can be especially true when you work from home, without supervision. When you are at an employer’s location, you know that people are watching you. But when you are working from your home, it can be very easy to turn on the TV, or start doing little chores, such as throwing in a load of laundry, or unloading the dishwasher. Those little moments add up, and before you know it, your  “work day” is gone and you haven’t even started your actual work yet.

I know some people who, even though they work from home, still get up, take a shower, get dressed, and even walk outside of the house before turning around and coming back in. That regular routine clears their mind and allows them to focus on work.

I don’t go that far with it, but I do try to set up a regular routine, as I know it helps me focus. My routine is about to change, as school is finishing up next week. We’ll have to see how the summer routine unfolds.

Do you have a regular routine? If so, feel free to share it. Your routine might inspire someone else!

Customer service is crucial in any line of work. But I’d also add that customer appreciation is a key ingredient in providing the first. Today I am going to share just a few, simple ideas of what you can do show appreciation towards those who give you business as well as why showing appreciation to those who work with you is also of great value.

And to help guide us through, I’m going to give a simple acronym that will mean a lot more by the end of reading this post. When it comes to customer appreciation, I say, “GO & DO!”

G- GENUINE APPRECIATION: One fact of life is that everyone appreciates being appreciated. And when that appreciation is genuine and sincere, then it can move mountains. Not trying to be overly dramatic, but I say this because it can’t be over-emphasized too much.  Being very specific in your comments helps the other person to know that you really noticed something special and you wanted to share that with them. Chances are that because of what you have shared, the customer, co-worker, or employee will be that much more likely to continue doing great things because they know that YOU know them.

O- ORGANIZE A SYSTEM: You want to organize a system in your business which puts customer service and appreciation your #1 priority. You can have the best marketing system in the world in place, the greatest products, etc…and yet, if customer service fails, you will fail. Gaining a reputation in your industry of superb customer relations will leap you to the forefront. So do whatever is necessary to make sure that you can manage a great system of service with a smile.

and now…. DO!

D- Deal Effectively: The dictionary tells us that the word effective means “adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.”  Another meaning includes, “producing a deep or vivid impression; striking.” I like what both of these definitions say when it comes to customer service.  No matter the circumstance, it is always important to put yourself in “someone else’s shoes.” When dealing with an issue that comes up with a customer, always take a deep breath and think for a moment, “What would I do if I were in their position? How would I feel?” Then find out what may have gone wrong and do everything you can quickly and effeciently to help resolve the issue.

It reminds me of a time when a customer was very upset and wrote to YouCanMakeThis.com about a problem she was having with a download. The email sent was, let’s just say, “less than nice” in every way. Kim, the owner of YCMT, rather than being on the defensive side, decided that a phone call to the customer could be an effective way of helping her. Sometimes email can be very ineffective because of the time lapse and misunderstandings through writing. At the beginning of the conversation, this customer was extremely upset. Kim listened. She asked further questions. She helped her resolve what was occurring and even offered her a free product for the hassle it had caused her. I sat back and just admired the way Kim handled the entire situation….and I learned a lot from it. By the end of their phone conversation, they were both laughing about “mom stuff” and an hour later, the customer was sending photographs to Kim of her new babies! Talk about effective.

And finally…

O- Opportunities All Around You! Indeed, there are opportunities all around you to show your appreciation! Take advantage of every one of them! Offer discounts or other special offers to repeat customers. Write a personal email to thank them. With those who work for you, perhaps make an “out-of-the-blue” phone call to let them know what a great job they are doing and ask them for their input with how the business is going and what ideas they might have to help. Send a thank-you note in the mail along with a giftcard to ice cream for their family at the local ice creamery. What a fun surprise! No need to wait for a birthday or other special occasion…just do it and the smile will last for days for both you and the person on the receiving end!

So what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts as well as other ideas you might have for showing your appreciation!

I have chosen to go with Vertical Response to handle my email newsletter campaigns because the founder Janine seems like a nice and helpful lady, the pricing is competitive and the site (so far) is approachable, informative and not too hard to get to grips with (I am after all a newsletter dummy).

So now I am putting the finishing touches to my first newsletter (created with the help of their simple to use wizard) and I have a cool (and rather bright) join-up widget at the top my U-Handbag blog. Hopefully folks will sign-up

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Here are some suggestions for writing newsletters that folks will be happy to get in their Inbox:

• Include members only discounts or freebies.
• Include sneak peaks at product launches (with maybe special discounts for early bird buyers).
• How about some simple tutorials?
• Spotlights on your customers. Do you have pics of customers wearing/using your crafty goodness?
• Members only competitions.
• Members only discounts for other shops (that you have links with).
• Provide upcoming dates of shows, sales, competitions, etc.

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Do any of you use newsletters to keep in touch with your customers? How are they working out for you?

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So, for all of you craft business newbies (and not so newbies) it is November; 2 months on into your new business. How are you all getting along? My guess is that amongst other things it’s all still very new, you’re still learning on the job and there are lots of new routines to get to grips with. This is all very normal and as long as you care deeply about your business, there is always something new to learn no matter how long you’ve been a business owner.

But today, I want to talk a little about the emotionality of running a new business. The thing that a majority of you will have in common is that you have a craft business, you work from home and you are women with families. Firstly, I want to congratulate you on having your own craft business (BIG CHEER, WOOT WOOT!), it isn’t easy and it’s a big decision to make. It’s an even bigger decision to make if you also have children because running a craft business (and most types of businesses) will involve taking some time away from the family to devote to your business – which I’m sure results in guilt pangs.

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There definitely IS more to life than this!

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I’m guessing that this guilt is one of the hardest emotional hurdles to overcome when running your craft business. If it is I just wanted to say some words of encouragement. Stick ‘em on your fridge if you like

• It’s just as essential for women as it is for men (I’d argue more so) to feel fulfilled in an activity/ies outside of the family. It is easy for women in the role of (busy) main caregiver to loose sight of the things that they enjoy. Doing other things for yourself strengthens your sense of identity. See it as a necessity NOT an indulgence.
• Committing time and energy into ‘Me projects” such as running a craft business is such a positive thing for a Mum to do because of the confidence you will gain, it’s fun, it’s challenging and absorbing. Most importantly it has the potential to make you feel great about yourself and if you feel great about yourself it stands to benefit everyone around you (HEAPS!)
• Women often feel more guilty about striving to achieve goals because women just don’t receive as much encouragement as men to Go For It! We know that this a silly nonsense, don’t we?
• The dishes and the ironing aren’t that important (were they ever?), they will still be there after you have finished making your craft items. As soon as they’re old enough why not rope the kids into doing more household chores?  It never did us any harm. I’m sure that why my siblings and I can all cook and iron a great shirt…
• Get your family and your friends behind you to encourage you in your business. Call them when you are feeling anxious and tell them when you are happy. Oh, and if your partner isn’t keen on you taking time away from them for you to do your own thing – your partner is at fault not you!!!!!
• Rather than spending any time feeling guilty, how about using that time to figure out time management strategies to help make it all fit in for you and your family?

Amy of Coco Crafts recently asked me how I went about finding people to help me run my business so in this post I’ll talk a little about some of the issues I considered before hiring people and how I went about looking for them.

Issues that I considered before taking the plunge:

• Trust – it’s very scary when you run your own business to give up some of that tightly held control and admit you need help. Of course it’s scary for a good reason; you care dearly about your business and you need to feel that anyone who works for you will consistently pay attention and care as much as you do. Also you need to feel that you can trust them with your ideas (and everything else…) and that they won’t slope off and start up a business based around what what you do.
• Expense – wages do form a large percentage of expense for any business. In the beginning I tried to put off hiring folks for as long as possible because I felt I couldn’t afford to pay wages (let alone a decent wage). So for quite some time I was doing everything myself. About 5 months before I eventually took on help I was getting seriously tired and ratty (Al says I was even scary at times!) Something had to give, I couldn’t manage everything on my own. When I finally hired folks it took about 3 weeks for us to settle into the new rhythm and it’s given me and my business a new lease of life. I should have done it way earlier than I did. The extra expense has proven to be a worthwhile investment.
• What roles – what did I need help with? Did I want help with packing, sewing, production, design, IT, book keeping, website maintenance etc. etc. etc.?
• Personality – when you have a small business I think it’s even more important for a team to get on well with each other. There are less rooms, less departments and less roles and that equals less privacy from each other! Even if you don’t work in the same building it’s still a huge bonus if you get on well with each other so you can more easily communicate roles, duties, how you like your tea and which donuts you all prefer
• I’m sure there are other issues to consider dependent on the type of business you run. Can you think of any to add?

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How I went about looking for my team:

I think I’m very fortunate with my team. I can honestly say we all get on really well, we are happy, enthusiastic, conscientious and we want this small business to do well And we all make a decent cuppa. I’m thinking that most of you folks would be looking for a crafty person to help with production. Here are a few places you could try looking:

• If you have a blog why not ask folks out there (who are local to you) to see if they are looking for some craft work. I’m a convinced that most all crafters are lovely people and far less likely to be weirdos. This belief has served me well so far.
• Look for help on craft forums.
• Do you have any regular customers that you have struck up a nice relationship with. It doesn’t hurt to ask… Actually, this is exactly what I did for one of my team and she’s absolutely flipping wonderful!
• Ask if you can put up a job notice on kindergarten, school or supermarket boards. There could be mum’s and grandmas out there who would love to knit or sew for a bit of money for a few hours a week.
• Try looking for local sewing, knitting, pottery, jewellery making etc etc. classes /colleges in your area and ask the teachers if you can ask the students if they’d like a crafty job.

Good luck in your search!

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Are you at the stage where you are looking for extra help? Or how did you go about employing your team; share your experiences with us

This last week have been busy planning and setting up my new Uhandbag Etsy shop and I’ve had great fun doing it! Most folks who have read CraftBoom! will know that I’m a fan of Etsy for all sorts of reasons, one being that Etsy shops are wonderfully easy to set up and for that reason Etsy is a brilliant training ground for when/if you gravitate towards setting your your own website. I know that lots of folks do just that, they set up an Etsy shop and they learn about running a craft business on the fly, then when their business grows they branch out into other outlets (such as their own website) whilst keeping their etsy shop active. As for me, I’m doing things the other way round. I already have my own established and happy website, but now I have just opened an Etsy shop and in this post I’ll explain my reasons for doing so.

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My Etsy shop banner (it took me flipping ages!)

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Etsy will help me gain new customers (my main reason for opening an Etsy):

I think that U-Handbag has a pretty shiny record when it comes to happy customers and many of our new customers become repeat customers (which is wonderful!). We try our very best to keep all of our customers happy, but in some ways it is harder to find new customers. In the past I used google pay per click to help with marketing and advertising. I’ve since decided it’s way too bl*%dy expensive and in my experience, very hit and miss. I now market U-Handbag by blogging, writing in magazines and now my Etsy shop will hopefully be put in front of thousands of potential customers who haven’t heard of us before.

The best thing about folks who are surfing around on Etsy is that they are either craft buyers or they are crafters themselves this means that the Etsy audience is more targeted to what we have to offer, which is craft supplies. Not only are there thousands of folks surfing on Etsy at any one time, these folks are from all over the world, all looking for some international crafty goodness! This means that hopefully we will also gain more international customers.

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Etsy is wonderful for SEO (that’s Search Engine Optimisation folks):

Most anyone who has their own website or blog will love to have their own site appear in the first 10 searches on google/yahoo,ask etc. etc. etc. (in other words, having your site at the top of the list on the first search page is flipping great!). Search engine searches are ranked by popularity which means the higher your site the more (apparently) popular it is and hopefully the more likely folks will click on your site. Actually, my U-Handbag and blog site is at the top of the list on the first page of Google for all sorts of bag related searches. But let me tell you, for me to appear at the top of the Google search page took MUCHOS time and LOADS of twiddling about. One of the brilliant things about Etsy is that it takes no time at all for your Etsy shop appear high on the list of search engine searches (without all of the usual pfaffing around).

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Etsy is very resourceful when it comes to craft business advice:

We can always learn something new everyday. Etsy does try to support it’s shop owners by providing business advice, and good advice it is too (it has to be otherwise folks would shut their Etsy account down!) I’ll be checking out their Storque regularly to see what business tips and inspiration I can glean for FREE! I’d be mad not to, right?

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The timing for us to expand with an Etsy shop is right:

There are a few major milestones in the life of any business and when they are reached/overcome you can congratulate yourself/heave a sigh of relief. (Don’t quote me, I just read them in various places) in general they are:

• The first 6 months for bricks and mortar – and 1 year for web based businesses is a sensitive time, get past this milestone and things are looking promising.
• Break even in 2 years – of course this will vary from individual to individual and is dependant on the type of business and what the start-up costs were, but on average businesses can expect not to turn a profit for first 2 years.
• Expansion - get this wrong and you can really mess things up! Expansion isn’t always about being bigger and better, often it is also about staying one step ahead of the competition or keeping things fresh and exciting for your customers. Either way business expansion requires careful thought, planning and sometimes a considerable amount of investment.

So I’m am very grateful to say that U-Handbag has safely passed the aforementioned milestones. We’re doing OK and things are steady. So I feel that it is safe and prudent to expand, I have taken on new staff, (one of which has her own Etsy shop) so we can cope efficiently with the extra work load.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress of the Etsy shop set-up and any tips that I learn on the way

Pop over to the Own-it site for heaps of free and useful copyright advice.

This is the current issue of Sewing World (a Traplet publication) showing my bag design for the month of Sep.

I already write for this group; I design and write a bag tutorial write every month for one of their magazines; Sewing World, but Traplett also publish other craft titles that cover Patchwork and Quilting, Craft Stamper, and Beads and Beyond. So if you have any crafty goodness that you would like to share and see in the spotlight get in touch with them.  What have you got to lose?!  Find out more info on the Traplet Site.

A few more clicks and few more shops later I happened upon another shop also selling clasp purses and I thought “Hello does the last clasp purse seller have 2 shops?” These are a few things that I noticed where identical or similar between these two clasp frame purse sellers:

• Some identical purse frames (bag and purse supplies are my thing so I can tell whether 2 frames are identical are not).
• Some identical photo views (and in some cases) even down to a photo showing a hand holding the purse.
• Similar price points, though one seller was slightly cheaper than the other

Now I can’t prove anything and I’m not going to make any accusations, but if you look at the ‘member since’ dates of the sellers one of them started their Etsy shop a year earlier than the other. **UPDATE** It looked to me as if there were 2 different sellers here, one of which was (shall we say) ‘heavily inspired’ by the other. So go figure; do you think it’s just a coincidence? Have you come across something like this before?

The second part of this series is: How I organize myself in my Craft Business: Part 2 – Time Management.

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Why be seasonal in your Craft Business?

A readiness be seasonal in your craft business will make you more relevant and hopefully more busy! Of course some businesses are more driven by the seasons and the holidays than others, but most of us can devote a percentage our inventory in order to capitalise on Christmas, Summer, Valentines, Easter, Winter, and so on. Periods such holidays put people more in a mood to buy because there is purpose to buy! So it makes sense to sell relevant items in order to anticipate their needs.

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Start thinking, planning & preparing a Season in advance

So if we want our craft business to be ready for the upcoming holiday or season we have to prepare in advance. If you are busy making items for the Christmas holidays during the Christmas holidays than you are taking away precious time and energy from selling and marketing your items at the crucial time, thus increasing your chances of being left with unsold Christmas stock…urgh!

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How I try to Prepare for the Seasons

In my experience I find it best to work a season in advance. So for example to be ready for Spring/Summer I start thinking about it in mid Autumn, I hope to have selected and ordered Spring/Summer stock by mid winter, and I hope for it have all delivered by the the end of winter. This gives me a couple of weeks after New Year to have all photography, product descriptions, and marketing ideas all sorted before we all turn our attentions to Spring/Summer in Feb/March. Well that’s the plan anyway, it doesn’t always pan out like that So my craft business focuses on craft supplies, but if your business is centered upon handmade items the principle is still the same. For example; the peak selling time for Summer goods is now over (and lots of sales are on so the Summer stock can be shifted to make way for next season) and by now you ideally should already be in production of your Autumn/Winter items.

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Start Preparations with Research

One of the keys to staying one step ahead is research this is because in order to be ready for the next season/holiday a certain amount of prediction is involved. We have to hone our fortune teller skills by trying to figure out what key things, events, people, colours, etc. are going to have an influence on fashion or lifestyle trends.

Fortunately for us Goobers (that is Amy Butler’s term for folks like me (and a lot of you) who LOVE the internet and technology. I met and chatted her last week and she called me a Goober! I was so touched!) Info about what’s new, what is hot, and is going to be hot is never far away. Check out the blogs you love, check out the craft portal sites, and get a feel for what the crafting world is being influenced by. Other sources of research can include magazines, film, music, whatever! The secret is to not just copy what is going on, but to learn what is happening out there and then interpret these influences in your own special way. Here are some of the those sites (make a cuppa, get yourself some biccies, and get researchin’):

• Craftzine
• Adorn
• Whip-up
• Craft Gossip
• Craftster
• Craft Revolution
• We love Etsy
• Indie Quarter
• Modish
• Decor8
• Anything Indie
• Trunkt
• Mintd
• Indie Finds
• Oh Joy!
• Design Sponge
• Indie Fixx

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Understand the trading patterns within a season.

Another Key to staying one step ahead is understanding the trading patterns of a season. This will help you plan and prepare to make the most of the season you are working in and also plan and prepare for the following season. My theory is the busy-ness of a season can be typically broken up into 3 parts. If you take fashions stores to be an analogy:

• The Lead-up period (transitional period) - we are coming out of one season (and we are all sooo bored of it!) and we are now entering the new season. There’s a buzz about the new season in the press and the media and we are beginning to hanker for the new stuff. During this time the previous season’s items will be greatly reduced in the last of previous season sales. Time to grab a bargain winter coat for next year, but also time to start thinking of pretty summer dresses and sandals.
• The In-season to peak season period – we are in the full swing of the season and (the shops hope that) a majority of the in-season items are being sold (at full-price) during this period. There are no sales on at this time, (but there may be promotions to stimulate sales), and shops are not re-stocking any In-season items. Time to buy those pretty summer dresses and sandals.
• The Peak season to end of season period - just after the peak season is over (almost half way though the season) the shops start reducing the price of their items and/or putting them in promotions. The further on you go into this period the more aggressive the price reductions. The shops are off-loading their season’s stock because the next season’s stuff is already ordered and soon they will start putting it on the shop floor. And before you know it, the circus starts all over again and we are back into the Lead-up period of the next season! Time to buy some timeless classics for next summer at reduced prices.

I am soooo proud of this photo it aint true!

The first part of this series is: How I organize myself in my Craft Business: Part 1 – Paper work.

I think one of the trickier things about running your own business is finding a working balance for your time because there’s never enough of the stuff!! Because a lot of you work from home you are saving loads of time (and money) not having to commute to work, but working from home and being your own boss can have the effect of making you far more lax with ourselves than say a grouchy boss or floor manager would be. So it’s up to us to enforce a bit of discipline and management upon ourselves. Doing this will increase business efficiency, give us focus, and free up time for ourselves and our families – blimey! it sounds really quite good doesn’t it?

Various Craft Business Tasks

• Marketing – Social media on the web, contributing to forums, blogging, creating promo stationary, newsletters, and submitting to sites/magazines/blogs.
• Inventory – designing inventory, building up stock levels, obtaining supplies to build inventory, processing inventory for your shop (photography, uploading to site etc. etc)
• Customer Care – answering enquiries, emails, phone calls, letters, etc.
• Admin – paperwork and accounting
• Selling/processing Inventory – packing orders, selling through craft fairs/parties/shops

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In an ideal word we would all have paid help to assist us with these different tasks, but as a majority of us are one man bands we have find ways to effectively divide up our day/week/month to get these jobs done. This is how I try (my darndest) to manage my days/weeks/months:

A typical U-Handbag Day:

• AM (8-9.30) – BIG mug of coffee, computer on, check emails and flag the most urgent ones (my inbox has fangs and I can only cope with so many a day, but I do try my very best). I answer the most urgent emails and make To Do lists from those emails as appropriate.
• AM (9.30 – 11) – Process any new stock or put new deliveries into my shop. Taking photos, photo editing, pricing up items and creating product descriptions for new items. Unpacking deliveries for the shop and adding them to stock inventory. Have a bit of a fight crushing all the boxes in the yard…
• AM (11- 12.30) – print out invoices from shop orders and pack orders.
• PM (12.30 – 1.30) blogging and social media. I try to blog most days (I know I haven’t been doing so on this blog so here are my wrists…). I blog because I love it, it’s a great marketing tool, and to be honest I do feel a bit lonely for crafty company at times. Once you start blogging and social media it is something that should be maintained on a regular basis for it to be effective.
• PM (1.45 -2.15) – Lunch – usually a bowl of soup and a crappy afternoon soap
• PM (2.30 – 3) – Check inventory stock levels and create supplies orders if necessary. Order supplies if necessary
• PM (3 – 4) – Another hour of answering emails.
• PM – (4 -5) – Print out invoices from shop orders and pack orders (if there are anymore) and take orders to post office to catch last post
• PM (5.30 – 6) – Tea and cake and admin (what joy!)
• PM (6 – 6.15) – another tea and housekeeping; tidy up office and store room, check that we are OK for stationary and packing materials.

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A typical U-Handbag week; in a week I would have hoped to have achieved:

• 6 blog posts between my 2 blogs (yes, I know, I know, I promise I will be here more often)
• To have selected around 8 items in the shop to be on special offer for the week
• Posted and packed all customer orders on the same business day. We pride ourselves on doing this
• Research and development for at least 5 future project ideas: for items to sell in the shop, for future blog posts, for future bag designs for magazine submission, for future bag designs to model new product in shop. It doesn’t matter if most of these ideas don’t see the light of day; I just try to think of new ideas to focus myself and to try to better understand my market, and I like doing it!
• At least 3/4 of my inbox dealt with (in varying amounts). It never is 100% empty (waaah!) I have given up stressing out over that.

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A typical U-Handbag month; in a month I would have hoped to have achieved:

• Stocked 4 -8 new and different product lines in the shop
• Submitted a bag design and tutorial to the magazine I write for
• All month-end supplier invoices paid
• Items which are not selling so well, or end of line items, or 2nd quality items moved to the Clearance section of my shop
• More work on my Research and Development

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My Time Management Top Tips:

• Try to drink the best quality tea and coffee you can afford and then drink less – all that time spent making and drinking tea and then you end up eating more Krispy Kreme donuts…baaad!
• Try to attend to one task at a time until the task is finished. You’ll be more thorough, focused, and make less mistakes. Didn’t a wise beardy old man once say “the man that chases two rabbits won’t catch one”?
• Try to group similar tasks and then try to attend to them in a day or parts of a day. For example you could have a admin (urgh!) and a housekeeping day, or a stock take and supplies ordering day, or a marketing, blogging, and social media day etc. etc. etc.
• Try to set up an ACHIEVABLE to do lists or a daily/weekly schedule and tick off the tasks as they get done. If you are a nice boss you can treat yourself to a tasty Maple Krispy Kreme when you complete your tasks. Do this even if you think there is very little to do otherwise there is a good chance that even your few jobs won’t get done because you have ended mooching about on the internet (yes, am guilty!)
• Try to set yourself reasonable time limits for your tasks and stick to them. This will help you stay focused on your task until completion (and hopefully prevent you from mooching on the internet….).
• Try to impose working hours on yourself. I find this one very tricky because I LOVE my job. When your working day (or working time slot) is over, then it’s over. Try hard not to sneak back to your computer, or make a little something, or do some R & D for your business. Working out of hours may seem largely harmless, but it’s not very good for you in the long-run. You need to treat yourself, have time with your family and friends, and get some rest. Doing this will make you and all around you happier and you will find it easier to stay fresh and focused when you are working

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We should all be at it! Saving time is soooo important. Great Scott! Even Doc is doing his bit!

So to start I am going to tackle Craft Business organization. I am going to do this in parts because there are a few organisational areas of running a business that need looking at in turn (at it will make it all look less scary). Spend a bit of time each day staying organised and it will only benefit your business, help you to remain focused, and far less stressed out!

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Yep! Like; I’m on top of it!

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Different types of business paper work & what to do with all:

• Invoices/receipts for all of the materials that you buy for your business - and this means every single thing you purchase to run your business; from a pearl button to a laptop, from a weaving loom to the phone bill. Be absolutely strict about keeping every one of your receipts. Keep all unpaid invoices in date order in one place to help you plan and prepare your budget to get them paid. When they have been paid store them in date order newest first. A big lever arch file is great for this job because after you have sorted them in date order they won’t move around and become unsorted. As for book keeping I can’t say much about that because I’m a maths dummy so I have a nice friendly account to do all of that for me
• Invoices/receipts for sales you have made in your business - because my business is online sales only I have access to all sales receipts from day 1 to the present day. I usually don’t need them to work with them, but every now and again a customer will call up and say ‘x was missing from my order can you check it out?’ so I can look up their invoice and fix the problem. It’s good to keep hold of sales invoices (at least for 3 months) because besides helping you to tally up your weekly sales figures, they include useful information like the customer address (so you can with permission include the customer in a newsletter campaign), you can also read through your sales to get a feel for what products are popular and not so popular in your shop.
• Supplier catalogues and price lists- sometimes these things are flipping hard to get hold of, other times you get sent a forest of them! Get organised and store the ones you use in a file or a magazine rack, store them in order of materials type, and throw outdated catalogues away.
• Business cards – staple the suppliers card to the relevant cover of the supplier catalogue. As for the other cards try writing a little note the back of each business card stating why the person is important to you and then store in a Rolodex in materials type (or business) type and in alphabetical order.
• Sketches, product development, and craft business ideas - it is on scraps of paper that ideas which will rock the world are born, but only if they DON’T get left in your jeans and put in the wash. What I do is carry around an A5 sized Moleskine with me wherever I go. Should a flash of inspiration occur on the train or at home I can record all of my bag designs, all of my ideas for moving my business forward, blog post ideas, business to do lists all in one place. And no, I have never ever mislaid my Moleskine; it’s not an option. I have gotten through 8 of these books now and I keep them all safe because I look through them every now and again as often the old ideas are just as important as the new ones. Store all sketches, inspiration images such as magazine rips, photos fabric swatches, design notes, and other material samples in a way that makes sense to you. This might be on a big mood board, all a big sketch book, or in a folder. Then you can leave part-developed ideas and return to them later to then develop them to fruition. This is all vital because we all spend so much time designing, day-dreaming, and researching and if we you don’t store all of these plans properly we are wasting a precious lot of time and maybe mislaying ideas which could have had the potential to become business dynamite!

So I have taken your comments into consideration and I have some posts planned which will appear from Monday onwards. At the moment I have a frightening amount of photography and processing of new items for my shop. You wait for ages then box after box after box of deliveries arrive and you can’t get into the office for all of the boxes and bubble wrap. Scary!

I think even in this economic slow down it’s still important to re-invest in your business. It’s just that at this moment and time you have to be more careful than usual with how you spend your budget. I think it’s important to stock new and different items to keep your inventory fresh and exciting. This gives your loyal customers a reason to pop in regularly. It is at times like this that loyal customers will be instrumental in helping you stay afloat. New customers are also very important, but loyal customers are wonderful because hopefully you have already made them happy with your service and products and you already have a rapport with them.

So with that in mind for my shop I have gotten my mitts on some yummers new leather and faux leather handles, most of which (to my knowledge – and blimey have I checked!) aren’t for sale anywhere else. I have bought a wide choice of designs, but in smaller numbers per style. Hopefully this means I have been more strategic with my budget because I will be able to see which designs my customers prefer and it also makes the shop appear better stocked.

What all of this? It’s a lot of photography and Photoshop work; that’s what!

So seeming as this blog is more for you lovely readers I’m asking you what you would like to see in it. I would love it if you could please comment on this post and tell me what I can try to help you with. Perhaps you’d like:

• to know more about marketing,
• to know more about how I run my shop,
• to know more about other people’s craft shops
• more interviews
• you may have specific craft business issues you’d like looked at
• to know my favourite Krispy Kreme Donut flavour
• to have more guest posts
• more anecdotal stuff
• to know more about blogging
• more tecchie stuff

So please suggest away; the more the merrier. I’ll read each one of your suggestions carefully.  You’d be doing me a big favour which I hope to repay by writing the kind of posts that you want to read

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In my head there’s nothing much going on except for this hamster (and even he’s fast asleep!)

• How to take and edit professional looking photos of your craft products tutorial
• Ways to create buzz about your craft products on the big Craft Websites
• Crafting Heroes interview with Alicia Paulson of Posie gets cozy
• 10 things you’ll need to start selling your crafts online
• Crafting Heroes interview with Amanda Soule of Soule Mama
• Starting up your craft business – Feel the fear and do it anyway
• What to do when people say your handcraft is too expensive
• Ways to market yourself & your craft (on the cheap)
• Hellooo I’m Here!!!! Ways to market yourself and your craft (for free)
• Copyright – ways to protect your content from being stolen
• Crafting Heroes interview with Amy Butler
• Crafting Heroes interview with Amy Karol of Angry Chicken
• Fabulous links and books for your craft business

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I couldn’t think of suitable pic to go with this post so I thought this one would do as a close 2nd . Yummy

So what are trends?

According to Wiki “A trend is something that is popular within mainstream society over a long period of time. It is the direction of a sequence of events that has some momentum and durability.” So it makes sense that if you catch whiff of a trend close to it’s inception and you start a business based on the upcoming trend you have a great chance of being pretty successful! There are trend forecasts for most everything out there from colour trends to automobile trends.

What creates/influences trends?

Well, have a look in the news, read newsstand and trade magazines (in hard copy and on the internet), check out newsgroups on the internet, and you’ll see the very things that influence and create trends. Two of the most obvious current issues are the war on terrorism and the current credit crunch (see how even those two events have their own media-rised titles that we all recognize (urk! I don’t like that), but anyway I digress).

How do trends influence and affect us?

Events such as the war on terrorism and the current credit crunch have encouraged most of us (me too; I’m no different) to look to our homes for comfort and security because going out and spending money on fine dining (for example) seems too frivolous and now we can’t afford it anyway. Also our growing awareness of the ills of globalisation and the need to tighten our belts are causing more and more of us to turn our backs on the faceless pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap high st shops that line our shopping parades/malls (and choke our independent shops) in favor of DIY & MIY (make it yourself). The instinct to nest in our homes and turn our attentions to buying and making handmade has had a HUGE POSITIVE IMPACT on the craft industry. This is largely because buying and making craft is the antitheses of ‘production line throwaway consumerism’ – it just feels nutritious to give and receive hand craft.

Now you can see why the trend in knitting exploded in recent years. Knitting is warm, slower, cosy, giving, tactile, and reminiscent of knitting afternoons with Mum & Grandma etc. etc. etc. Reliable sources (including two rather large book publishers and a well known author) tell me that sewing is the next big thing…

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The good stuff always make a reappearance in trends (except for the 80s perhaps).

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How can we (as craft business owners) act upon trend forecast information?

Whilst us crafters are a independent and free thinking bunch, I still think it’s very important to pay attention to trends. I know it’s tempting to think “well, I’m just a small business, so such things don’t affect me”, but how about thinking instead “I’m a small business so knowing stuff like this can help give me an edge”. Of course trend forecast information is just a guideline and it is open to interpretation, but that’s great because it gives us freedom to interpret the trend our way to create what we love, but to be ‘on trend’ at the same time. This way we won’t go and make 50 pcs of an item that only we like (because pumpkin yellow is our fave colour!). So, if we take the example that sewing is going to be the next big craft trend than perhaps it would make sense to prepare for that upcoming trend by selling items such as: sewing project carry totes, sewing equipment holder/organisers, sewing aprons, designing sewing patterns, designing sewing inspired jewelry (charms bracelets, rings etc) and so on.

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Further Reading

• Fashion Trendsetter – Fashion forecasting
• Infomat - Trend analysis
• CraftZine – you should know about this one
• Whip Up – you should know about this one
• Not Martha – you should know about this one
• CraftsReport – Craft trade mag
• Marie Claire Idees – yummy French craft mag
• Selvedge - beautiful mag for all things sewing
• Martha Stewart - whether you’re a fan or not…lots of folks love her!
• Drapers Record – all about the dressmaking industry
• Quilts.com - info on shows and a peek at the shows
• Quilters Buzz - Whats new and hot in quilting, sewing, and fabrics
• Art Jewelry – art mag
• Ceramics Monthly – you guessed it!

Next time: Winner Announcement for the Artful Blogging Journal – good luck!

So what do you do when folk says your handcraft is too expensive? For starters don’t go and slash the price of everything you sell, pick a fight, or throw your hands in the air and give everything up. Take heart there are things that we can do…

How to react emotionally:

People will ALWAYS say ‘ohh that’s too expensive, I could make that myself for less… etc etc.” I used to constantly get this on my market stall. Of course they are entitled to their own opinion (it’s just not very nice when they say it loud enough for your to hear…). It used to hurt a bit at first, but after some months trading I came to the conclusion that a majority of these folks were never likely to sew a stitch and as bargain hunters they were more likely to be driven by cheap prices. And that’s fine, but as you and I already know you cannot begin to compare an item which has been made in a sweat shop (by an exploited worker) with an item that has been painstakingly and lovingly made by hand at home.

When I used to catch a passer-by muttering “too expensive” I used to think “well, it’s not my place to educate you about cut-throat capitalism; if you knew what work was involved in hand making my products perhaps you would think my prices were actually quite reasonable….” So in short, it’s not nice when people grumble about our prices being too expensive, but let them do it; we are not going to market our products them anyway otherwise we woud end up under selling ourselves and going out of business. Instead we should aim to market our products to folks who have an appreciation of items which are unique, high quality, handmade, and therefore a bit more special…

It looks like the price is right for this lady…

How to react practically

• Are your prices (reasonably) in line with other traders? – I’ve always believed that it’s very important to keep an eye on what your counterparts (or in other words, your competition) are doing NOT so you can copy them, but so you can do things differently. However, if for instance you discover your competitors are selling similar sized tote bags (as an example) to you and their bags are markedly cheaper than yours it is important to ensure that your tote bags have that extra something to justify the extra cost. If they don’t then it’s worth considering finding ways to bring your prices in line.
• Find ways to lower the cost of producing your items – buy your materials in bulk wherever you can, get more efficient with your time by producing your items in batches e.g have fabric cutting days, inserting zipper days, bracelet days etc., see if you can source materials for free, you’ll be surprised what you can obtain if you just ask for it – I used to get some of my silk offcuts free from a local curtain maker.
• Be selective with your product range - it’s widely believed (see Further Reading below for studies) that too much choice is not a good thing for sales. I know that we all have a natural tendency to want to please everyone so we try to provide lots of choice, but you can’t please everyone and selling lots of different unrelated items will make your shop look untidy and confused. Par your range down and concentrate on becoming expert at making the items you sell. This will result in you making items faster and better and therefore saving you money in the long run. This is exactly what Carrie has done with great success. Her range is not huge; the shapes stay the same, but the fabrics change and they do all of the talking – and it works a treat!
• Get strategic with your pricing formula - when pricing a craft item it is normal to take both the cost of the materials and your time into consideration, but if you price everything this way and do both commission work as well as a stock standard range you’ll find your commission items will cost loads and this will obviously put your commission customers off (unless you are famous and you can charge accordingly!). It’s worth being prepared to take a smaller profit on more intricate or commission items to stimulate sales. Consider slightly increasing the price on items which sell well to make up for the short fall. In this way you attract more custom and you do not loose out financially. This is what supermarkets do; for instance they will take a smaller profit (or even a loss) on some items to entice customers to the store, but the supermarket will make up for loss elsewhere on another product so everything evens itself out profit-wise.
• Get strategic with what you sell - I think that custom work/and or more intricate work is worth selling in your craft business because this kind of work can really show off your talents to your customers and this shows customers that you are capable of making items to a high standard. However, the bummer of more intricate or custom work is that it is more time consuming and therefore (arguably) less profitable. To make up for this I think it’s a wise idea to sell a number of stock standard items that you are expert at making. I know it can be dull making the same/similar things over and over again, but if you can make them well, make them quickly, and they are popular with customers these standard items can form an important part of your craft business (and your earnings!).

Further Reading

• Too many choices?
• Why too much choice is bad for us.
  
• Pricing you bags or other crafts to sell.

Coming Next: A yummy giveaway. Don’t miss it!