Archive for the ‘Advice + Tips’ Category
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore and is a follow-up to her earlier post, The First Rule of Pricing.
This week, I want to talk about rule #2 when it comes to pricing for your creative business: it has to be sustainable.
I know that sustainability is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but the bottom line is this: if you are working towards a creative business that you can make a living from, you have to be sure that you set things up so that you can earn a living wage. You have to be able to pay yourself. Or else it’s not going to work.
It’s scary. It’s a big thing to consider, especially when you’re starting out.
The truth is that when you get started, you likely aren’t going to be earning a living wage from your creative business. Most of us have side projects or second jobs that sustain us while we get started, BUT you have to have a vision of sustainability in mind before you jump in.
Too often, as creatives, we focus on the passion, on the heart. On the craft of it all. And that all still can count for a LOT but bringing a sense of business in, even from the beginning, can often make the difference between making a living and having a hobby.
The point is for what you love to be what you do, right? Getting real about the business side of things sooner rather than later will help solidify that as a reality.
What is the best business decision you made early on? On the flip side, what is the one business decision you WISH you’d made early on? How were you able to find your sweet spot?
*image via WilloToons: Stitching it all Together
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is an artist, life coach, change agent and magic maker. She helps creatives live their happiest, most sparkly lives (starting NOW) and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
When I started writing this post, it was all about tips for the best business cards and what to think about when you are designing your own. But then I realized the cards kind of speak for themselves. So I’ll just tell you a few stories about the amazing people I met and share a handful of the best business cards that I received at Alt…
Letterpress. (above) One of my favorite cards from all of Alt was this one above. It’s a double-sided letterpress card (husband and wife team). One side shows Mike with his website and the other shows Alma and her website. I had dinner with them the first night. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to them (there were 12 other people at that dinner), but they seemed very nice.
Perfectly minimal. Piper from One Sydney Road (bottom left of image above) is really good friends with someone else I met at Alt, Lillian (who I’ll mention later) and we had lunch together the first panel day and hung out throughout the rest of the time in Salt Lake City. Love her. She was also speaking on a panel one of the days and I heard it went really well. Go Piper!
And right next to the One Sydney Road card is Studio Sweet Studio. This card is proof that you don’t need tons of info – the only info you really have to have is your url. People will find the rest on their own after some investigating.
More Perfectly Minimal. Bow Tie and Bustle is Jenn’s event planning business and blog. I met her at the Seattle airport before jumping on the plane to SLC. Isn’t that logo sweet?
Oh, and you can see Ghostly Ferns in this image too. Meg is awesome! She has tons of projects going on (like Studio Sweet Studio) and plenty of business cards to go around.
Pushing Packaging. This one came in a sealed envelope and held not one but two cards inside (a team of two fab ladies with an event planning business). Below is what was inside the envelope. They were at dinner the first night too. And they were having a good time. Definitely the life of the party.
More cards…
Unique Materials. Heather from Joy of all Crafts is someone I met through Danni. Cute card! Each one had a piece of vintage fabric sewn to the back.
More Unique Materials. This card from Katie of Salt + Pine is amazing and as it turns out, I almost had my cards printed on the very same wood from the very same Etsy shop. But then I chickened out (didn’t think I could get them in time). And as luck would have it, the first person I met for Alt (before even getting on the plane) had the exact cards that I had originally planned on getting (or course the design was different). This card is beautifully designed + it’s letterpress + it’s printed on balsa wood. So amazing.
I met Katie at the airport on the way to Salt Lake City (she lives just outside of Seattle). We talked for hours, sat next to each other on the plane (along with Jenn) and then met up with Brianne later that night. Slumber party!
Represent! Jenean is another woman that I met at dinner the first night. Once she passed out her cards and I saw her last name, I realized we already knew each other. We had worked together via papernstitch a while back and she is such a lovely person.
Her cards had tiny holes punched in them all the way around. Fun and colorful – just like her.
More Representin’. Love the signature on Miya’s card. And the gold. This is actually the back of the card, but it’s my favorite part. Miya is one of the founding partners at You + Me.
Freebies. Unstitched is Lillian’s blog, who I met thanks to Danni. And she is absolutely adorable. Her card came in a glassine envelope with a wooden bookmark, which I love, but forgot to take a picture of that part. Woops.
More Freebies. And finally we get to Danni (above and below)! Danni’s blog is Oh Hello Friend. I hung out with her quite a bit in SLC (though it seemed like not enough). Of course, her business cards are awesome. Perfectly packaged with extra goodies – a little dala horse paper clip and an inspirational decal, along with her card. So lovely! Just like her.
Final Advice: In terms of business cards, I’ll tell you one thing…
The final design that you choose can help you make a great first impression. BUT if you don’t stick around and talk to a person long enough for them to remember you, your amazing business cards aren’t going to make a lick of difference.
You want people to remember YOU – your amazing personality, kick ass shoes, and beautiful smile. Not just your card, right?
The more they remember (and like) about you, the more likely they’ll be to do business with you in the future.
As much as a kind of hate to admit it, I am definitely not a cook – and what I mean by that is I totally stink at cooking.
I have tried and tried to get the hang of it, but it seems I just don’t have the knack (which explains why anytime Jeff makes something it officially tastes ten times better than when I make the very same thing).
But I am not going to let that stop me from having a good meal – I love food WAY too much to let that happen. So we eat a lot of super simple meals (I am pretty certain I’ve seen a monkey make more advanced meals than this), paired with eating out + we rely on Whole Foods to make a lot of yummy stuff for us too.
Long story short – I don’t let things I can’t do get in the way of what I love. I just find a different path to making it work.
“I don’t let things I can’t do get in the way of what I love. I just find a different path to making it work.”
Of course with food its a little easier because restaurants and cafes cater to people who either don’t cook or just don’t feel like cooking, but this same principal can be applied to virtually anything you can think of.
The key is to know what your strengths are and what they aren’t.
I’ll use myself as an example.
I know what I am good at, and for the most part, I focus my energy on those skills. Of course, there are plenty of things I am not good at as well…like sewing. I love diy projects, but I am all thumbs when it comes to a needle and thread. So if I have an idea for something I want sewn, I just ask someone else if they can make it for me (my mom’s pretty good behind a sewing machine anyway).
Or taxes….that’s a big one! I don’t like taxes and I certainly don’t fully understand the nooks and crannies of making sure I get every single deduction known to man, so I hired someone else to do that for me. By the way, if you struggle with taxes too, I have a post going up early next week that will help you.
But before I go listing off even more examples, I’ll just cut to the chase and make my point. You do not have to be the doer-of-all-things. There are plenty of people out there ready and willing to share their talents with the world. Use your strengths the best way you can and find other people who can help you do the rest.
That’s the key to success these days, and it doesn’t even sound terribly hard, does it?
I would like to end this post today with a shop that combines two things that I utterly suck at (cooking + sewing) into playful, sewn fabric housewares for your dinner table and beyond.
The shop is called Too Cute Custom Crafts, and it is today’s reminder that my weaknesses are another woman’s strengths AND vice versa. So let’s work together to make great things happen.
Take action: How will you utilize your strengths moving forward + find people to help you with the weak zones?
Leave your response in the comments below.
This contributor post was written by Genevieve of Lightbox SF.
Your website is the face of your business and it’s often the first impression a customer has. I’ll be the first to tell you that much of running your own business is pretending you know what you’re doing and making stuff up as you go along, but if the first thing a customer sees instills them with the sense that you have no clue, they are not going to part with their hard earned cash.
So what can you do?
Here are 5 of the biggest mistakes I see and how you can easily solve them.
1. Giving Away Control
You know those websites that have “get your own domain” ads all over them, not professional. I understand needing to keep things cheap, but if your business can’t afford hosting, you’re not a serious business. There are a number of options for around $10/month, Bluehost and Dreamhost are just two of the hundreds of options out there. Your website needs to be entirely yours to control.
2. Bad Photos
If I can’t get a clear picture of what you’re selling, I certainly don’t want to buy it online. Dark, blurry photos, distracting backgrounds and over stylized or Photoshopped images are the biggest offenders. There are tons of tutorials out there on taking good product photos on the cheap. If you invest the time to learn, it will certainly pay off in time.
3. No Personality
We buy things for the feeling or experience it gives us. If I know nothing about who you are, why you do what you do, or even why your product is the best, I’m going to move on. We want to know the lifestyle or image we are perpetuating by purchasing. We want it to give us status, belonging, or a story to share. Be engaging, show your personality.
4. No Social Media Presence
Again it’s about engaging, giving your customers a chance to connect. At a bare minimum you should have a blog or Facebook page, but I would also recommend a regular newsletter and a Twitter account. This may sound daunting, but customers want to be able to choose how they interact with you. The more choices you give them, the better chance that they’ll like, follow or read what you have to say.
5. Hard to Find Information
Customers come to a website looking for information. This needs to be easy to find and easy to read. Your about and contact information should be on clearly marked pages with no searching required. Fonts also need to be basic and easy to read, your type is not the place to get fancy.
To have a serious business that people want to buy from you yourself need to take it seriously, that means investing time and (I’m afraid) money into crafting a polished, professional appearance that alludes to the amazing business you are working toward becoming.
image credit: personalized number poster by eva juliet
Genevieve Robertson writes about creative marketing strategies over at Lightbox SF. She helps makers, artists, and crafters brand their businesses by telling their stories and embracing what makes them unique.
If you are not a professional photographer, product shots are often a struggle. But the fact remains that product photography is the single most important thing to get right when you are selling your work online (aside from the product itself of course). So when I received an email from Interweave to tell me about a book that covered all the basics of taking great photos, I was pretty excited to share it with you.
It’s called The Crafter’s Guide to Taking Great Photos. The author is Heidi Adnum, who happens to have an Etsy shop (in fact that’s where the book started – in the Etsy forums) and the book caters specifically to artists and artisans who sell their work online. There are mini-tutorials, interviews with successful Etsy shop owners, and plenty of pages of the basics – from lighting all the way to post-production editing.
I took some photos to share a few things you’ll find inside this bad boy. And I asked the author, Heidi, a few questions about product photography as well. So let’s dive in…
1. Product photography can be intimidating for shop owners that have little experience behind the camera. What is the most valuable piece of advice you can share with creatives when it comes to photographing work for the web?
You’re right, and It isn’t only the practicalities of using the camera and setting up the shot, either, sometimes the technical explanations themselves can be terribly confusing. I think the most valuable piece of advice I can share is to prioritise time to develop more of an understanding of the basics of photography, such as, learning how a camera uses light to make a photograph (p.10). When you feel more confident that you know how your camera works, and what you need to do to make it work, you’ll be more likely to practice with it. Practicing with your camera’s settings will build your confidence even more. Then, you’ll begin to approach product photograph with less fear and apprehension. You’ll eventually take less time working out what to do and photography will become much more enjoyable. Think of it as an essential tool of your craft that requires a reasonable amount of time and effort to learn, and, later on, reap the rewards of your confidence.
2. The interviews with artists and artisans sprinkled throughout the book are as fun to read as they are helpful. I love them. So I am curious to know which interview was your favorite from the book and why?
Thank you, the Spotlight series is great. It was a pleasure to learn more about all of the featured practitioners. I simply can’t name one favourite! Though, there is one tip that I especially liked, and that was shared by Heather Moore, the creator of Skinny laMinx; “If you have a cup in your composition, make sure there’s tea in it, but if you’re planning to sell the cup, don’t put tea in it.” (p.74) This is great advice for anyone considering the use of props in their photographs. The aim is to make your product look as desirable as possible. A great way to achieve this is by styling your product in its most new, beautiful and perfect form.
3. I am kind of crazy for DIYs, so of course one of my favorites sections in your book is the DIY accessories tutorials where you show how to make things to improve photos even more (like a light box, tripod, and flash diffuser to name a few). If you could choose only one, what would you recommend as the #1 most helpful accessory to make in order to improve product photos?
That’s another tough one to narrow down, so I’ll name two: Reflector (p. 58) and Seamless Background (p.62). Like the others in the DIY series, both are very easy to make at home and are budget-friendly. These are simple tools that can help to solve common problems, such as lack of natural light and poor composition. Crafters struggling with light availability may see great results quickly with the reflector. And those struggling to find the best background for their product will love the simplicity and impact of a neutral seamless background.
Congratulations Heidi on this incredible resource for makers. I’ve known Heidi for a while now and I am so thrilled to see her success. Much deserved! You can pick up Heidi’d book on the Interweave website right here: The Crafter’s Guide to Taking Great Photos and over on Amazon as well.
*As part of the book blog tour for the US, Mark Lipinski will be interviewing Heidi live on the Creative Mojo Podcast tomorrow. So check that out, along with the rest of the tour (making stops at Rena Tom, Rifle Paper Co., Canadian Living Crafts’ Blog, and more).
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.
Let’s talk about money…yay!
Pricing is no fun. Trying to put a dollar amount on your creative product is never easy. But in terms of business, pricing is critical. (If you’re trying to sell things as a creative hobby, it might be a different story, but please, out of respect for those of us who are trying to do this as a business, know that how you price your “hobby” affects the people whose work is their livelihood.)
When I was working retail, I got a piece of advice from my manager that has been one of the biggest business lessons I’ve ever learned: “Don’t make assumptions about what other people can afford based on where you are in your own life.” It seems so simple, yet, I remind myself of this all the time. I cannot put my own judgements on what other people can afford.
To take that to the next level: I cannot set my prices based on what I, my family, or my friends can afford.
As an artist, a designer, or crafter, it is not your job to determine what people can afford to pay. It is not your job to make sure that your best friend can afford one of your prints. It is not your job to make sure that you don’t make someone feel bad because they don’t have the money to purchase something you’re selling.
It is your job to make high-quality work. It is your job to get paid well for your time and your materials. It is your job to earn a living from your craft.
If you consistently hear, “I’d love that, but I can’t afford it right now,” that doesn’t mean that your prices are too high. It means that you’re marketing to the wrong people. But that’s material for another post?
Your turn: how have you learned to get out of your own way in terms of pricing? What boundaries have you had to push past to ask for what you’re really worth in your business?
*image via Fresh Words Market: My Worth Will Not Be Dictated by a Number
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is an artist, life coach, change agent and magic maker. She helps creatives live their happiest, most sparkly lives (starting NOW) and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.
In my last post, I offered 3 quick ways to set yourself up for success in 2012. Warning: in this post, I’m going to completely contradict myself.
Here’s my question to you as we step into the new year: how can figure out a way to do less, to take things off your to-do list to actually create some space for new things and blessings in 2012?
We are all so task-oriented. I often work with clients on building their businesses and they all start off wanting the same thing: a checklist. A list of all of the magical elements of business-building, a tried and true, “do this and you will succeed” index of tasks.
I can’t offer them that. Sure, there are certain things that are really helpful in business building. There are definitely people who have proven their own success that can be our role models as we grow our own businesses. However so much of growth has to do with the “being” and not the “doing” and that is the easiest thing to forget.
There’s a feng-shui principle of the empty drawer. It’s said that you need an empty drawer or empty shelf or empty something in your home to make space for new things to come in. I think that we all need that in our lives too, but that’s counter-intuitive to our tendencies to fill up our time/lives/heads with everything else.
So here’s my challenge to you as you kick off your 2012: what can you do to create some space in your life? What can you let go of to create some emptiness for the sake of flow and new things?
PS. This isn’t easy stuff. If the idea of downtime makes you feel panicked, know that you aren’t alone, but starting small is the first step to finding success with this. Trust me, I won’t let you down!
*image via Georgianna Lane Photography: Paris Dawn
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is an artist, life coach, change agent and magic maker. She helps creatives live their happiest, most sparkly lives (starting NOW) and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
