What are your biggest challenges regarding running your Craft Business? Tell us & win some Amy Butler goodness!!
Read more about: Giveaways, Support and Motivation, Your Web Shop
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One thing that Wendy (the founder of eMoms) and I noticed very quickly from your responses to CraftBoom! is that there is a huge crafting business community out there that isn’t being supported on the internet as well as it could be. Your response to this blog has been wonderful and I want thank all of you for that 
Wendy and I both feel that more could be done to support the craft business community and very exciting plans are afoot to do just that.
We know that there are quite a few excellent craft sites out there that cover craft in general, and there are a few sites (like this one) that focus on craft business too, BUT as craft business owners we need (me included) an inclusive site where we can meet, share, and support each other (lots of you are experts in you own right and we can learn lots from you). Such a place (at least like the one that Wendy and I have in mind) doesn’t yet exist. I am beside myself with excitement because judging from the emails I get from you, there is a big need to provide such a site for you, and it’s gonna happen!!!!!
So tell us what are your biggest challenges in running your Craft Business?
This one-stop-shop Craft Business meeting place is being created for you and we want to serve you as best as we can. We need to know what sort of things you would like in such a site. Whether you have a blog, or Esty, eBay, or your own e-comm shop or you are planning one please tell us (in some detail):
1. What would you like help with: promotion & marketing, driving traffic, starting up, sales advice, setting up e-comm, or anything else, etc etc etc.
2. What kind of features would you like your craft business meeting place/forum to have (i.e) photo sharing, craft businessy tutorials, classifieds or any other features etc etc etc.
Answer the 2 questions above and you could win 2 yummy Amy Butler Home Dec patterns!!
Contest Official-ness
- ONLY open to legal residents of the United States 18 years of age and older. No purchase required. One entry per person. Void where prohibited by law. Important contest rules and details.
- I will send both patterns to 1 lucky winner after the random draw on 1st Feb. I’ll announce the winner on this blog the following day-ish. Good luck!
- Sorry, I can’t notify winners so please keep an eye for the winner announcement. This is made easier for you is you subscribe to this blog (although it’s always great to have you drop in for a read ).
- Sorry I can’t reply to contest comments, but I do love reading every single one.
“Arrghhh!!! I don’t live in the US!” I know that a lot of my readers are from outside the US and I’d love your feedback (and for you to feel not to feel left out) so for folks outside of the US I have set up the same contest just for you on my UK based U-Handblog.
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Lisa is a generally content (who said generally - don't get her started!) 30 something living in London, who amongst other things sells everything you might need to make unique and lovely handmade handbags at home from her online store 
In this case, being first probably isn’t good, but that’s okay! I really enjoy this blog, even though I don’t (currently) have a craft business. You never know what the future will bring.
As far as what I would want in this forum: Information on starting up would be useful for me. How to ensure that your work is *your* work and not influenced too much by all the other goodness on the net.
Also, tutorials and anything with pictures is helpful for (the visual) me! Heck, even learning to take better pictures with the equipment I already have (meaning not buying a new specific cure all camera) would be better than what I’m doing!!
Love love love what you are doing with this blog!
I have a question that might be slightly off topic, but it’s what I happened to be wondering:
Do you use your home address when you mail your product out to customers? What if you don’t want them to know where you live? Will a P.O. Box work? I’m sort of wondering, because my roommate lost the only key to the mailbox.
My biggest challenge is managing distractions and staying motivated. I homeschool my kids and try to do what I can when I can. I am sure many mother’s of preschool age children feel the same way. I always see tips on how to minimize distractions, but they don’t help me sort out how to still get work done when those “distractions” are still very high on the priority list! I know that some goal setting and better scheduling would probably help, but I am having a hard time getting started. I sometimes wonder if it is still possible to do without making my family suffer too much. Any ideas I can get would be much appreciated!
1. Marketing is the most difficult for me because it takes time away from creating.
2. I agree that tutes are very helpful to pick up tips and tricks.
I think I’m looking for ideas on marketing and promoting the business. I also have a small, growing family and it’s easy to lose focus. Maybe I just need a little help with organizing my life.
I love tutorials!
Marketing is a big issue to me. My handbags are very high end - in other words, I couldn’t possibly sell them locally! My best selling venue is to carry my handbags when we go on cruises. They usually sell the first day I carry them.
Because I do all of my designing and manufacturing work myself to insure the highest quality, advertising in high end magazines is not an option, neither is selling wholesale. Could you offer suggestions on how to reach my intended market?
I absolutely love your blog!
Bag Lady
http://www.raggbaggs.blogspot.com
1. Start up information related to the legal side of running a business would be helpful. Taxes, copyright, etc.
2. Venue for collaboration!
I don’t have a business now, but I am curious.
I would like some ideas about starting up, and how to price the objects for sale.
For the forum, tutorials are great!
I have been thinking about starting a crafting business so I’m really interested in start-up information, as well as driving traffic and how to price goods. One feature I think would be helpful is information on where people source the things they use — from business cards to packaging materials (and even materials for the actual crafty goods, though I think that might be more specific to the individual). Good wholesale sources for anything we might need.
Thanks for doing this!
1) It would be wonderful to have a one stop shop/place where you can get advice on marketing, promotion, how to maximize your presence on the web, how to take your products out to stores on the street, all the legalities of having a small business (tax, sales, copyright, registering your business name etc) Quirky little angles to get yourself noticed.
2) I have been amazed at the amount of support that you get from other crafters - but it would be fantastic to have a regular group of people who you bounce ideas off of (a set “group). I guess this would be some kind of forum … but smaller and more intimate than a discussion board.
Rachael Rabbit’s last blog post..Buying Bunnies on Etsy
1.) My biggest challenge is finding a niche in this ever-growing, competitive market… making my creations really stand out above the rest.
2.) Related to this challenge, I’d love this one-stop-shop to help crafters collaborate more and compete less. I am sometimes intimidated by the quality of other crafters’ work and their success. Tips on overcoming that would be nice too.
1. I’d like some information about legal issues with a startup craft business. For instance, I have one design that I’ve started putting up for sale online, only to discover after the fact that there is a tutorial for an almost identical item. Could this become a bad situation? Also, what kind of language to use regarding returns? What about a product for a child? These seem like good things to know.
2. I’d like to see some forums discussing ways to sell online–I’m curious about etsy vs. selling on your own site, for one thing–and also I’m always interested in what other crafters consider the baseline in quality for their products. I’ve ordered a lot of different items from other crafters and they’ve ranged from being couture-perfect (and thus beyond my skills at the moment) to a functional item but with flaws I’d feel uncomfortable about were I the maker. There’s also a lot of variety in the amount of information people post about their items, such as cleaning, materials, what they consider to be issues warranting returns, etc. Some conversation about both of these topics would be great!
Jennifer’s last blog post..dunsmuir house
Oh! I love your thinking on expanding to create a community that supports the online craft community!!
I would love help with promoting and creating traffic to my site and business. Advertising has been something very “hit or miss” for me, so I need all the advice I can get!! Also, perhaps more information on setting up a bookkeeping system, record-keeping practices, how to find people to do yearly taxes, etc.
I tend to be a tutorial-oriented gal, so the idea of having “step-by-step” tutorials or “bullet-list” articles is great!! I know I could really benefit from those!!
Keep up the blogging… it has been a great help!!!
Casey’s last blog post..:: such flutterings!! ::
I’m so happy to have found this blog. Even in the last couple of weeks it has been helpful to me.
1/ As a start up, I feel inundated with magazine subscription promotions, offers to join different subscriber services claiming to list all the craft show around and various other marketing plans that want to take my money.
I don’t mind paying for a good service, but I’d love to get feedback or critiques of which magazines or service sites are the most worth the cost before I devote my meager publications budget to one or the other.
I concur that online marketing strategies would be really helpful, in greater detail than I see on other sites. It seems that most of the people visiting craft sales sites like Etsy, are other crafters. How do I get my items under the eyes of buyers outside of the ever-growing crafting community?
I really want to learn more about craft fairs, and whether they are worth it for the kind of crafting I am doing.
The biggest challenge I have is pricing. If I priced by my time as is sometimes recommended, my goods would be mind-bogglingly expensive. Yet I don’t necessarily think quick is better.
2/ Pictures always make a site more interesting. I would like a roundup feature of what is happening “this month” in fairs, contests, conferences, shows, and notice of deadlines for upcoming same, all in one place.
Thank you for the site.
Robyn L. Coburn
Bring traffic to the site. Also, how to set up one’s web site without paying a professional everytime you want to move text or add a picture. What are codes within a website?
Thank you for your site.
Elisa
1.) My biggest challenge is marketing. How to go about promoting…where, when, how much should I spend. etc. etc.
2. Classifieds would be excellent….as they say, “one man’s junk”! And any type of lead sharing, for new stores or fairs. What is beautiful about crafting is no matter what we do, it’s ours, it’s individual and we shouldn’t have to feel we are competing with each other.
i guess marketing is my biggest dilema. i have tried a few things such as adwords but it can get pretty pricey without any guaranteed sales. i also notice that there are many people who visit the website but don’t like to buy over the internet so they come into my brick & mortar shop which will soon be closing and i am trying to divert sales to the website. i have offered discounts, etc. for buying on-line but have not had a lot of success.
as for things i would like, tutorials are wonderful and of course i am always interested in other pictures and if they would like to sell wholesale. look forward to hearing more!
I’d love some info on how to find reliable info on craft/art fairs, beyond going to the fair one year and then submitting to become a vendor a year later!
On the forum, I’d love tutes, and it’d be great to be able to see pix. However, I’m not so sure about the classifieds…
Candy Glendening’s last blog post..Steno Cover 008
Can I say I need help with it all?
1. Start up help as I am still in start up purgatory. Especially help with taxes, bookkeeping, copyright, etc.
2. I would love to see tute’s, pic’s and classifieds would be great to connect with suppliers of crafting needs.
ruth’s last blog post..Crazzzzyyyy Days
The main items that I see a need for include:
Start Up
A “pratical, yet usable” Business Plan Template with lessons for how to complete and why…
What is Breake - even and how does it impact pricing (Direct Cost - Overhead)
Pricing my goods as a Women in Business not a Women with a hobby
Finding my target Market in my backyard or on the internet
How to bulid a marketing plan
Tax Write-off
Finding Financing
Features would include:
craft businessy tutorials, classifieds,networking (area and regional, events (area and regional) and workshop by area and craft for both business and crafts, links to assocations and professional resouces and tools
promotion & marketing, driving traffic, sales advice. I really am trying to divide my time to marketing/promoting and everything else that goes with it AND creating! ALso, as another person mentioned above - what makes YOU stand out in the crowd??
Website design, press, customer testimonials, sales # on etsy OR being a “true designer” and launcing seasonal lines/fabric selections/original designs??
I find my biggest challenge is finding time for everyhting in marketing/promotion - submitting to blogs for review, figuring out what a “press release packet” is, getting my newsletter into circulation (at least once a month!), running advertsing/free product promotions!
Argh!!
I would love to talk with others in the same boat!!
Also, I would love ideas about how to manage your blog…..any advice really :>
LOVE this blog and your other!!
simplesweetcakes1.blogspot.com
http://www.simplesweetcakes.com
:>
I would love more help with start-up. I have all of these ideas but I get some overwhelmed, I don’t do anything. Crafty business type tutorials would be great! I enjoy your links to things like where to buy labels. More more info on taking photos of your product.
Thien-Kim’s last blog post..Fa-la-la
The thing I am trying to figure out right now is how to increase traffic and sales. I have a website and a blog and an etsy shop. Products on my site link directly to etsy. It was too much work to maintain two shops. Anyway, I’ve just started online advertising this year in two indie blogs. I wonder how long I should advertise in each blog/place. The indie blogs already have an audience that supports indie, which is good but I’ve been thinking if I shouldn’t also try advertising in other types of blogs with different topics, e.g. cooking, mothering, feminist, etc.
Thank you.
My biggest challenge has been time management, since I’m a full time mom and run my business out of my home.
I’d love help with promoting my site (anything from a list of links where one can advertixe to tutorials).
I’d also love links to tax information/requirements by state for small business owners.
Thanks for the opportunity and I love this site!
I am having a hard time finding information about buying from wholesalers. I sew and while I love certain prints in order to buy from a wholesale aspect I would have to buy in large quantities. So I have to buy fabric at retail costs so I need to figure out other ways to cut costs so that my pricing isnt competitive. Any ideas for cost cutting measures?
As for a meeting up place I would love to have other business people to still be featured to give their advice to see their work space. Also tutorials are always great I will never say no to a good tutorial!
Stefanie’s last blog post..List it and it might get done!
Thanks for the giveaway! As someone in the beginning stages of developing a business, the start-up stuff is always helpful…legal, taxes, etc. I feel like I’m always discovering something else that I’m supposed to do…there’s no convenient place to find all the info I need.
Tutorials are great, and info about upcoming workshops and opportunities would be nice, too.
Kerry’s last blog post..Slavic Soul Party!
This all sounds great. I think the help I would be looking for would be getting started. I am hopeing to get an etsy shop opened. I have noticed it seems to be helpful to have a blog to go along with that. I think any kind of photo inspiration or tutorial would be greatly helpful. I hope this goes well for you it sounds like it has great and endless potential!!
My two biggest challenges? I would have to say one - 1) finding the time and the most efficient method for getting people to see my shop. 2) Prioritizing - trying to find the right balance of working on new items to stocking older items, doing advertising, etc. Just trying to figure out how best to spend my time.
I would like to learn more about pricing your items. How do you determine markup for actual products and how do you price your own time?
I would love help with everything! Mostly driving traffic, I think, and general needs for running a business. My business has been very slow to start because I’m so scared to “really” start–that it might take too much work, or be difficult from a tax or legal standpoint, or it might fail and take my money with it, etc. Things to alleviate those fears would be great!
I’d also like information on wholesalers. I have no idea where to get my supplies from except the ubiquitous middlemen of Michael’s and HobbyLobby! Even when I find a cheaper online supplier, they’re still getting the supplies from SOMEONE, and I want to know how to find those someones!
I would love to see tutorials, advice, and classified! I don’t see a need for photo-sharing, because Flickr handles that so well, at least for me.
This site is wonderful, btw! It’s been filling that business-oriented niche for me!
1. My shop has only been open for a month, but I have been trying to do craft shows and sell a little here and there for almost a year. My biggest challenge right now is trying to promote and make a recognizable name for myself. Promoting and marketing takes away from crafting time, which of course, is what I really like to do.
2. I like forums that give info on new, time efficient ways to promote. I would like to see forums with info from buyers - what they want from sellers. How we can promote to them in ways that will be easy for them to find what they want and spend more time shopping (and maybe even promoting for us!)
Just discovered this site - like it very much
Callidora
1. I think the biggest challenge for me has just been getting set up. I knew that the actual making of goods was just a part of selling, but I didn’t realize just how much else was involved. Things like writing descriptions, coming up with a name, figuring out shipping…I found it a bit overwhelming.
2. I find forums very helpful. Photo sharing is fun, but I find it hard to feel like I’m not just copying someone else when I spend too much time looking at other’s products.
Kristin’s last blog post..Mandy’s Delicious Spaghetti Sauce
Great questions! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
So many people have so many terrific ideas above me, not sure I have anything new to add, but so you have the input…
1. I am pretty new to this so I can learn from all topics, but those that probably vex me the most are promotion and marketing. Creative (and inexpensive!) ways to get the word out about what I’m doing would be wonderful.
2. Tutorials would be terrific. Lessons learned from people with a lot of experience would be helpful as well.
1. What would you like help with: logistic and legal sides of business set up, how to protect copyrights, and increasing sells in non-obvious or non-popular ways.
2. What kind of features would you like your craft business meeting place/forum to have: Gallery of once-monthly write-ups about how a select business person/s recently found success, news about the most-recent fads and hot-selling items online, some kind of graph-like display that overviews pricing trends for different types of craft/art items, and links to best-bargains for resources.
1- The thing that I would like help with is pricing because I’m not sure that if I charge for my product and time then I might price myself out of the market. And how much do you charge for your time?…
2- I would like more advice from people that already have a crafting business (I find the interviews that you do really helpful - thanks) and maybe a market place sorted by country so we can chat with others in our own countries. (New Zealand sometimes feels a little isolated as the handmade movement is only really just taking off).