Archive for the ‘crafty business’ Category
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.
I had the pleasure of attending the (first ever!) Craftcation Conference at the end of March in Ventura. There were so many amazing speakers, presentations, and classes, and I want to share my greatest hits with you today. So much great information!
“When people come to Etsy, they’re specifically coming to a handmade marketplace, knowing that a human made the items they’re buying. Remind them that you’re that human in everything you do with your shop and brand: talk about how you were inspired to make your item, included a personal touch when you mail their purchase.
Robots didn’t make your awesomeness, a human did!” – Steph Cortes (aka nerdJERK) from Etsy 101
Be a person, y’all, not a robot. If someone wants to buy something made by a robot, they’ll go to Wal-Mart.
“It’s not how many ideas you have, it’s how you make them work.” – Amy Tan of Amy Tangerine
Yes times a million! The primary difference between people who are running creative businesses and those who are just dreaming about creative businesses is the ability to get things done.
“Make something awesome!” – Melanie Harvey of Harvey’s Seatbelt Bags
This is the ultimate way to make sure your products sell. Start with the awesome, figure out the marketing later.
“Rule #1 of making the best of the media: DON’T BE HUMBLE…Reporters are waiting for your amazing story. You have to tell them who you are and what you’re up to…Brevity is critical: keep it short and sweet.” – Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly
Gustavo’s talk was full of amazing advice for how to get into the media. It’s up to you (yes, YOU!) to show the world your brilliance. Don’t wait around for someone to notice.
“Making things is fundamental to being human.” – Evan Kleiman
I think that pretty much sums up why we’re all here doing what we’re doing. Keep up the good work, friends!
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is a life and business coach. She helps creatives take their business (and LIVES) to the next level with her sparkly and sassy coaching and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
Life is filled with distractions.
And for that exact reason, time management is something that everyone struggles with at one point or another – whether you have a traditional 9-5 or you work from home.
But the thing about working from home that makes things more difficult than going into an office every morning is that many of those distractions become more apparent.
You live where you work, so there is a lot less separation. The dishes need to be done, the laundry is piling up, and your dog is practically begging you to take her to the dog park.
AND you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck, so accountability practically flies out the window. Uh-oh!
So you are going to need a game plan for combating those constant disturbances, so you can stay productive (and motivated) while working from home.
I am going to give you that game plan in this five minute video.
If you are currently struggling to stay on top of it all, take a few minutes to watch this video, and then let me know in the comments below which of these 5 tips was the most helpful for you.
Have your own time management tricks? Great! You can leave your response in the comments below too.
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.
For most small businesses, finding your audience is key. Having a vision of who you’re selling to will not only help you along your path as you communicate your value, it will also make your job of marketing yourself so much easier.
The key to remember is that while finding your audience is important, choosing your audience is even bigger. That’s right: I said choose.
When you first start out, it’s easy to think that the audience you’re speaking to is your actual audience ~ your mom, your best friend, and a few random folks you went to high school with who saw your postings on Facebook. Just because this is your current audience, you get to choose who you really want to sell to.
Focus on who makes YOU come alive:
Do you love creating artwork for children’s bedrooms that focuses on unicorns and umbrellas? Then don’t try to sell to people who want tugboats! You make things that start with U — own it!
Are you a photographer who hates crowds? Weddings probably aren’t your thing then. Even if you think you *should* be a wedding photographer, if big groups of people make you anxious, it’s never going to work. On the flip side, if you hate one-on-one interactions and love to slip into a crowd and take pictures of all the little bits that make up a party, you might want to stay away from selling yourself as a portrait photographer.
Close your eyes for a moment and picture your dream client: ask yourself these questions:
Who is it?
Where does this person live?
What does this person like to do for fun?
If you’re able to, name the person. Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney (DEFINITELY on my dream client list!), your Aunt Sara…being able to picture a real person as you work on your marketing will make a world of difference.
The key is: you get to choose your target market.
If a market has chosen you, and you feel resentful or it doesn’t resonate, that’s a really good sign that it’s time to step back and rethink things.
*image via LittleFotoFox: Easter Peeps (peeps! get it?!)
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is a life and business coach. She helps creatives take their business (and LIVES) to the next level with her sparkly butt-kicking and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
The people I consider to be my closet friends and colleagues right now are the ones that I have only met in person a handful of times. That may sound like a weird thing to say, but just because I don’t meet up with these ladies in person for drinks doesn’t mean we don’t talk.
Oh we talk! On Skype, via email, and on the phone.
Occasionally, I’ll even send ‘em some snail mail. Admittedly, I haven’t been good about sending thank you cards and notes in the mail lately because I have been so dang busy (and I don’t always remember), but I plan to get back on track with that soon because of Sent Well.
Here’s the deal: You can buy greeting cards (the letterpress section is my fav) from Sent Well the old fashioned way and have the blank cards shipped to your house OR you can have them send your cards out for you – they will write your personal message out by hand (yes- handwritten), address the envelope, stamp it, and send your card in the mail to it’s recipient.
How awesome is that?
So, I’ve been playing around with some of the cards that the owner, Nicole, graciously sent me and I wrote a few letters that I’ve been putting off for far too long….
I want you to test the process out as well and see how it works, so one lucky winner will get to do just that…
Enter the Sent Well Winner’s Choice Giveaway!
Nicole is giving away a winner’s choice package to one lucky papernstitch winner here on the blog! That winner will receive a total of 10 cards of his/her choosing from Sent Well (whether you want them sent blank to you at your doorstep to use later OR you want to have Sent Well mail them out for you – shipping included for the winner free of charge). International entries welcome!
—> All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below and tell me who you’ve been meaning to send a snail mail card to lately.
That’s it! This giveaway will close Wednesday, April 4th at 11:59pm EST. International entries welcome. **Bonus entries for tweets and facebook shares (just use the buttons below).
The winner will be announced on the blog Friday, April 6th. UPDATE 4/6: A giveaway winner has been chosen! Congrats to Amie Mccracken – you have won the Sent Well giveaway! Thank you to all you entered.
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Disclosure: I was compensated by the advertiser for this editorial feature. All opinions and ideas, however, are my own.
This contributor post was written by Genevieve of Lightbox SF.
I talk to a lot of creative entrepreneurs that are still unsure of whether or not they need to use social media or if it will really help with their business.
My answer to both is yes. I’m not going to try to convince you that you need to use social media as some part of your marketing efforts, except to say that you do. I will however show you how to craft your own strategy that works to attain your goals and fits into your available time.
Goals
It all starts with goals. Before you do anything you need to define what you hope to get out of your efforts. Are looking to build your network, reach influencers in your industry, or increase sales? Not to say you can’t have multiple outcomes from your efforts, but to focus on one goal maximizes your efforts and allows you to track results easier.
If you want to gain followers you need to tell everyone that you’re on Facebook, Twitter or whatever social network you’re focusing on. If you want to reach influencers and gain publicity you need to interact with these people, comment on their posts, and share relevant information. However if your goal is sales you need to share what you do and drive people to your storefront
Mix Up Your Posts
Even though you’re focusing on one goal you need to mix up your posts so that your followers don’t get bored. Look at posts as falling into three categories, broadcast, sharing, and engaging. You should try to hit all three each day if possible or at least have an even balance amongst them throughout the week.
Broadcast – These consist of you hawking your wares or services, offering discounts, or sharing your latest blog post.
Sharing – You can share links to other blog posts that you found interesting or inspiring, pictures of your life outside your business or of others’ work that you admire, or just cool stuff you found around the web.
Engaging – Here’s where you ask questions, comment, and engage with your audience as well as your influencers and peers.
Schedule It Out
It might seem daunting to be on social media networks everyday and we all know they have a tendency to be a total time suck. So I highly recommend using a tool to help you schedule your posts ahead of time allowing you to have a presence when you’re actually doing other things. Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are my top recommendations for prescheduling general posts. Buffer is also a great tool for spreading out the sharing of stuff you find while browsing the internet.
Try setting aside a half hour a week to schedule the broadcast posts and some of the sharing posts. Then you can log in a few times a week and just focus on engaging with followers and peers.
Track Results
The most important part of having a strategy is defining metrics to track results. If you want to expand your network you need to keep track of how your numbers are growing and what types of posts get shared the most. If you’re looking to gain influencers than you need set goals for how many people you’re going to contact or interact with each week and track whether or not you’re reaching those goals. And if your goal is sales you need to know where your sales are coming from to know if your social media efforts are helping to drive them.
What are some ways you’ve used social media to reach your business goals?
Tell me in the comments below.
adorable image c/o Nicole Ray of Sloe Gin Fizz
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.
This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.
Are you on of those people who has no problem writing about other people, about your inspirations, about what you love, but when it comes to writing a bio, an artist’s statement or a marketing page, you freeze up?
The point of a good personal statement (see also: manifesto, artist statement, bio, about page) is to dazzle your audience senseless and leave them wanting more, so much more, in fact, that they can’t help but check what you’re selling, visit your shop, or hop on over to your blog or services page.
But I don’t want it to be too personal…
Remember, your art is personal. It’s a part of you, so that’s a big piece of what you’re selling: YOU.
You don’t do this work because it’s easy. You do it because you can’t not do it, because something compels you, because creating makes you come alive. That’s what people want to hear about, that’s what gets them hooked.
What are the things that make you “weird” to other people? Those are the things that make you stand out. Me? I’m fascinated by giraffes, head over heels for a couple of bluegrass brothers from North Carolina and swoon over anything French. These things get me going! They make me tick…I’m definitely going to be sharing them on my bio.
A couple of things to keep in mind as you contemplate your start:
- What makes your heart sing? We don’t need your life story, we need your magic. What do you get lost in? What brings tears to your eyes? Start here and you can’t fail.
- What value do you give to the world? If you have trouble with this one, start with the people who love and care about the most. Ask them what they love about you. Send an email asking for three words that describe you. Reach out and let them do the work ~ what you hear will surprise you.
But I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging…
You, you sweet, dear soul, are so gracious and thoughtful and lovely, that you are beyond bragging. There is a difference between being proud of something you’ve accomplished and bragging.
The world wants to be able to celebrate your successes, the people who care about you (they exist in tremendous numbers) want to know what you’re up to. No one can support you unless you want them to and tell them how. It’s a simple fact.
When you first start out with talking and writing about yourself, it’s going to feel incredibly uncomfortable. It will feel braggy. You will feel like you’re doing nothing but talking about yourself. It’s okay. Take it slow and be gentle with yourself. You will find your voice: the first step is to start. Somewhere, anywhere. Just get started.
*image via WriteWithMoxie Red Paper Pencils
Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is a life and business coach. She helps creatives take their business (and LIVES) to the next level with her sparkly butt-kicking and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.
Today I am chatting with Willo O’Brien, co-founder and VP of marketing at Stitch Labs, a San Francisco startup with an amazing platform for shop owners and creatives alike. I really believe in this product as an extremely helpful tool for online business owners like yourself, which is one of the reasons why I asked Willo to do this interview. The other reason is because of what she did before joining Stitch Labs… running a successful shop of her own + a consulting biz at willotoons.com.
So today, we’ll be talking about a little of both. Willo is sharing her valuable insight on the inner workings of running a product based business and all that it entails, along with practical tips for shop owners that you can start implementing right now to grow your business! And of course, we’ll talk about Stitch Labs too.
Here’s what Willo and I discussed in the 45 minute podcast:
-The power of in-person networking
- The ins and outs of wholesale VS consignment
- Tips for staying organized + on top of things when running a small business
- Tracking your sales and inventory + the importance of having metrics
- How Stitch Labs can help you with all of the things above
- And more
More about Stitch: This online tool can help you manage your inventory (as well as orders + contacts), track stats, automatically re-list products (on Etsy), create line sheets for wholesale, and a whole lot more so you can concentrate on making awesome stuff.
Links mentioned in podcast:
- Consignment post on Stitch Labs that Willo mentions
- Asana + Evernote for staying organized
- Short video that explains everything that Stitch can do
- People who are using Stitch right now (happy customers)
- Sign up for a completely free 45 day trial (that’s an extra 2 weeks compared to the standard trial, if you sign up through this link)
- Twitter links @stitchlabs and @willotoons
Listen to the podcast now…
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Full Disclosure: I am an affiliate for this product, which means I do receive a little kick back for anyone who signs up for Stitch Labs via my link. All opinions and ideas, however, are my own and I am only an affiliate for products I truly believe in.
