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What is the difference between Marketing Yourself, & Marketing your Craft Product?

 

Oh wow! Thank you so much everyone for your kind wishes, warm fuzzy words of support, and subscribing to my new blog :) Thanks to your enthusiastic response I didn’t think it was possible to get even more excited about the idea of hopefully assisting loads of crafty folks in setting up their own craft business - I think even my sewing machine might short - out!

OK, I know that I said that I would be talking about Ways to market yourself and your crafts (on the cheap) in this post, but I think that should be in my next post because what I am going to look at today is a good lead-in that.

In my last post I said that I would talk about the difference between marketing yourself, and marketing your handcraft. Just before I start I want say that as a crafter myself I completely understand that for some of you, the ’selling and marketing’ bit is a bit harder than the ‘making craft’ bit. This is maybe because you’re not sure about what busniessey strategies you can use (I hope to help in that department) and you may feel shy about your work. I know I harp on about this, but you need to work on gaining confidence in your work and your skills because this confidence affects EVERYTHING that you do. I’m not talking about taking the craft world over ‘Dr Evil style’ kind of confidence, just a positive belief in yourself that you work hard at what you do, and that other people out there will appreciate it and some of them will be willing to pay for it. This confidence won’t come straight away, almost everyone sells their handcraft at too modest prices in the beginning (yep, me included), but as soon as you get positive feedback from your customers and other people, you should accept it and build on it. Why am I talking about confidence now? Well, it leads nicely into looking how to market yourself!

There is a difference between confidence and megalomania. Mwah! Ha! Ha!

What does marketing yourself mean?

In short, it is creating a ‘brand’ for yourself, and you HAVE to be confident about yourself and your products when doing this, because if you don’t believe in yourself other people aren’t likely to either! What does branding do for a business? Well a short answer (because branding is a science all of it’s own) is that a company’s brand is: what you understand, what you know, and how you feel about the company. See how this is distinct from what you know about the product of the company? When a company talks about it’s product, it might tell you about the product’s size, colour, and it’s capabilities.  So back to branding, what sort of feelings, thoughts, and images do you get if I ask you to think about Ben & Jerry’s ice cream? Come back! I didn’t mean for you to rush to your freezer! I think it would be fair to say that a lot of people would say things like ‘I feel positive toward them’, ‘they make quality ice cream’, ‘they are fun & young at heart’, and ‘they have good company ethics’ etc. If monsieurs Ben & Jerry hadn’t created their own brand in this confident manner (or any manner at all), as far as you or I are concerned Ben & Jerry would just be a couple of beardy guys who happen to make icecream…big deal, what are their names again? There are squillions of companies selling ice cream and branding helps B & J to stand out from the ice cream crowd in their own special way. You see, to get the competitive edge it’s not enough to make amazing ice cream. Branding is also essential in helping customers understand our business. As humans we generally feel more at ease with things that we can easily understand. For example, we like it when a shop is tidy, organized, where product groups are clearly defined, and the products are clearly labeled.

Drool Drool Drool! Look how fun this tub is? What brand messages (besides EAT ME!) are you getting from looking the label?

Why does all of this branding stuff apply to a small craft business owner like me?

This is a wonderful time for people like you and me to set up their own craft business because the internet makes it so easy to do the necessary research, online shopping is going through the roof, and the set up costs are comparatively low. This means that lots of other people have twigged on to the opportunity too, and this of course creates competition. My own business has competition, and whether you sell in a market, Etsy, eBay, or your own website, your business will too. To give yourself an edge and to get happy customers passing the word around about your business you should try implementing (from as early on as possible) a few branding strategies for your own business. These strategies are worthwhile, they don’t require a masters in business studies, they won’t break the bank, and they DO work! (I’ll be talking about what these branding strategies are in my next post).

So what sort things about our craft business can we convey in our own branding?

  • Whether we specialize in vintage or modern handcraft Japanese etc. style craft.
  • What sort of craft do you make jewelry, quilts, ceramics, illustration, fiber, knitting, craft supplies, etc?
  • Whether you a young and funky, or traditional, or folk, or urban, or bohemian, etc. etc. etc. type of business
  • Whether you are you high end, or mid, or high turnover and value type of business
  • Whether you are you a ready made or commissions, or both kind of business
  • Whether you are a personal, or not so personal type of business (my own business is deliberately very personal, my mugshot is all over my blog, and I describe my products in my shop in a conversational way).

Next time: I will talk about what things we can do get our own brand for our craft business.

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Hellooo I’m HERE!!! Ways to market yourself and your crafts (for free).

 

When starting up a business many individuals (me included!) make the mistake of not investing enough/some hours (and a bit of cash) into marketing their lovely craft, and marketing themselves (there is a distinct difference between the two, but more about that in the next post).  I know it’s hard to believe, but it isn’t enough to make gorgeous handcraft. In order to run a successful and competitive business you need to tell others about the existence of your lovely craft. This means you need to make marketing your craft an essential and ongoing activity for the life of your business.

Yep, you gotta shout your craft out, loud and proud!

We know that huge corporations plow huge sums of money into marketing their companies and products, and whether we like it or not; it works! How else would we know about the funny names of products, what they do, and who makes them etc.? Well, fortunately for people like you and me who want to run a craft business from home (or close to home, like I do) we don’t need to shell out huge sums of money. There are a few tricks that don’t cost anything, and we’ll look at them here:

  • Sort your email signature out. An email signature is a collections of words, or images, or links (or all 3) that you choose to appear in your outgoing emails. Think of all of those emails that you send each day, week, and year. Each of those emails could be telling all of those recipients about your company (and blog if you have one). Now that could add up to LOTS of recipients. In my email signature I include my name, my role within my company, what my company does, and links to my shop and my blog (see below). I have found this email signature very useful, and I have made sales that I never would have thanks to the links. Here are the instructions on how to change your email signature in Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Googlemail. As with everything else, you can more go deeply into just what you should say, and include (or not) to maximize the marketing benefits of your email signature, but we’ll save that for another post; it is far more beneficial to include some detail about you company than none at all.

    Lisa Lam

    U-Handbag Proprietor

    Bag Making Supplies

    http://www.u-handbag.com/

    http://u-handbag.typepad.com/

  • Word of mouth. You put all of those hours into creating beautiful handcraft, so you MUST be proud of your skills! Show them off, if possible wear your craft; show off your handbags, jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc. Don’t be shy when people ask where you got your lovely bracelet, tote bag, hat (delete as appropriate). Be enthusiastic, joyful, and positive about your love of your craft.  Don’t don’t sell yourself short and play your skills down. Remember enthusiasm is infectious. Tell the girls at work, your friends, your family, the person sat next to you on the bus, parties, at the hair dressers etc.  This is a good time to try to overcome shyness, your business will thank you for it!
  • Want some free business cards? This company gives away 250 FREE no obligation business cards (in the hope that you will order, and pay for more).  Just click on this and then select your country from the top menu. Get them, then give ‘em away!
  • The Internet. It’s true, internet users watch less TV. Who can blame them when there is lovely craft to be made and lovely blogs to read and things to learn etc etc. I’ve said before, the craft community is a lovely, warm, and friendly bunch, the amazing internet brings us together in our millions…oh yes, we are a huuuuuge gang of crafters! If I’m not running my shop, making a bag, writing in my blogs, or eating, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m surfing the web and reading other crafty blogs, drooling over the lovely handmade craft in Flickr, or surfing the craft forums. I’m no different to millions of other crafters, they all do the same! This means there is a potentially huge audience out there on the web for you to show off your craft to.  There are lots of social websites out there for you to contribute to and share your craft on. Get your lovely handmade goodness out into the web and blogosphere and contribute! Comment on people’s blogs; show off your lovely handmade goods on craft forums like Craftster, CraftZine, and Whip-up; get your handmade craft pics into Flickr.   There’s also Myspace, and Facebook (which I am on).  Get your pictures and web links out there onto site like these, but don’t overtly sell your handcraft in this manner, it looks unprofessional. All of this surfing does eat up time, and how much you decide to spend on it is up to you, but in my experience I have found it to be very beneficial in getting my little company out there, it doesn’t cost me any money, and I would have been surfing for fun anyway!

Next Time: Ways to market yourself and your crafts (on the cheap)

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Pricing your bags, or other crafts to sell.

 

I actually wrote the post for my other blog. Don’t worry though, I won’t be making a habit of cutting and pasting, but because it so relevant, (and asked about so often) I thought it would make sense to have a copy of the post here as well.

Put some thought into pricing your craft, and hopefully you’ll end up as happy as Uncle Scrooge :)

 

Pricing is not (that) straightforward

Pricing your craft to sell is a slippery fish of thing to get right. I can’t suggest what you should actually charge for a particular piece of craft. Unfortunately there is no neat formula to apply when pricing your items, but I can suggest factors that should be considered when pricing). To my mind, (and the minds of experts) it isn’t a simple case of charging for your time and materials, there are other factors to consider (which I’ll go into in a minute). The price of a item of handcraft doesn’t just serve as a charge for your handmade craft, it serves as a marketing tool, and it also serves as a refection (real & perceived) of the value of your handmade item. So for the purposes of this here post about pricing your craft (except, (as you might have guessed) bags are my thing so I’ll talk about them) I am going to :

  • Things to consider when pricing your bags that don’t include the physical cost of making your bags.

  • Get a little bit psychological (just a little bit, don’t worry!) about pricing

Things to consider when pricing your bags that don’t include the physical cost (materials and time) of making your bags.

  1. are you only just starting out?

  2. what is your method of selling (craft fairs, word of mouth, web)

  3. who are you trying to sell your bags to?

  4. is this your only source of income?

  5. who is your (and how much) competition?

1. Are you only just starting out?

If you have only just started started selling your bags (congratulations!) it’s not only important to get a first few sales under your belt, you NEED to get yourself a bit of a reputation. Nothing beats word of mouth recommendations from happy customers, and new customers always feel more confident buying from you if they know that you have had quite a few customers in the past.

I used to blush with embarrassment when doing it but I almost always asked customers to write in my pretty guest book any comments they had (or at least which bag they bought). This book was left on the stall for everyone else to read.

So you need to sell more bags quickly so that more happy folks will spread the word (and hopefully will be happy to buy more from you in the future). This means that you should consider pricing lower (not too low, more about that later) rather than higher in the beginning. Be prepared (if you can) to just recoup your costs in the beginning (or settle for a smaller profit); I haven’t heard too many stories of folks cleaning up at their first sale.

In the beginning I chose not to charge for my time. I chose to charge only for the materials and the market stall rent.

2. What is your method of selling (craft fairs, word of mouth, web).

You can sell your bags in crafts market; word of mouth at work, amongst friends and family etc; the internet on your own website, or on Ebay or Etsy; or at bag selling parties. Each individual method will incur it’s own different costs and these should factored into the price of your bag. This means that you may want to charge two different prices for the same item…

I used to sell most of my bags a weekly craft market and others I sold to some of the girls (and in turn their friends) at my BORING day job. A stall at my craft market used to cost £35-£50 me day, compare that with selling bags to my work colleagues which cost me nothing. I used to knock off a few pounds off the price of the bag if I was selling to colleagues.

3. Who are you trying to sell your bags to?

Most everyone who teaches business studies will tell you that it is important to identify your target market, in other words, know who you want to sell you bags to. Your bags won’t appeal to everyone, far better to aim to please a group of people rather than everyone (which is impossible). This way you can make and price your bag with a ‘type’ of customer in mind. For instance, do you want to make young and funky bags, or do you prefer to make more luxurious bags with more extravagant trims? A customer who prefers young and funky fashion is going to have a different budget to spend on bags to someone who prefers luxury items.

In this way you can make a cohesive collection of bags and charge for them according to who you are trying to attract. This cohesion is good strategy because this prevents ‘collection confusion’, in as much as customers are put off by an untidy market stall or messy shop, they are put off by ranges that don’t seem to fit together. That’s why lots of shops clearly define their luxury ranges from their value ranges.

My very first bags were cute reversible tote bags, each with their own matching coin purses. I made all of these bags from home furnishing weight silk and velvet and I charged the same price for all of them (£18.50), with a discount for two or more bags. This worked really well because passing customers could see that everything cost the same, it was just a matter of choosing the fabric that they liked best. I had a good idea of who the visitors of my local craft market where (tourists, well heeled locals, and young professionals, and a few students) and roughly how much they would be willing to spend so I tried to make my bags with them in mind.

4. Is this your only source of income?

I have had more than one email asking me is it right to charge for something that you love doing anyway! I also know of a fair few customers who choose not to charge for their time, because they are happy to just to make enough money to buy more materials. This is obviously fine if this is not your only source of income, or your are just starting out and you want to grow your customer base. However, if you want to earn a profit than you need to at least start charging for your time, before you add a percentage on top for profit.

As soon as I was able, I wanted to make a profit from my bags because I dreamt of leaving my day job. In general, I used to charge for my time in two different ways. I chose charge two different rates one rate for simple-could-make-it-with-my-eyes-closed bags, and higher rate for trickier, lots of swearing involved bags. Nowadays I still do sell my bags but selling bags is no longer my main income (as you know) so I’m not too worried about making a profit from my bags. I choose to only charge for the materials and my time.

5. Who is your (and how much) competition?

To get a bit of an edge in the market it’s important to be distinct from your competitors. You can be different from the competition in various ways, sell bags which are unique to you, sell them at different prices to the competition (usually lower), provide tip-top and or fast customer service, or sell them using different methods (see no.2). It’s always a good idea to keep abreast of trends, to know what the IN things are, and it’s good to know what other people are selling, (not so you can copy them!) so you can try to offer something that is different to them. It’s best to do this research before you go whipping up a squillion bags, but it’s also important to keep up this research as your business grows to keep yourself competitive and ultimately it makes you life easier if you aren’t trying to compete with everyone and their granny! If you offer something different to the competition you are less likely to have to lower your prices to compete!

In the beginning my competition was other bag sellers in my local craft market (though they were lovely people, in fact I was surprised to find that almost all of the other traders were really friendly and helpful). Before I sewed a single bag I wandered around the market to check out what other bag sellers where offering, and I made point of offering something different. In the end my best sellers where my reversible totes (made from looky-likey Kath Kidson linen fabric) and Basket Style Bags neither of which where being sold by anyone else.

 

Getting a little bit psychological (just a little bit; don’t worry!) about pricing .

This is a whole huge area in itself (and if you wanted to you could go very deeply into it (like all of the big chain stores do. Believe me, they all spend millions on research into understanding the mind of the consumer, yerk!) but for the purposes of this post we are only going to touch on a few things:

  • Value your work. It’s important to value your work, or how else will others? Don’t be panicked into dropping your prices of your bags (so you end up making a loss) if things are slow. Have a look at how you can market your bags, or try other ways of selling your bags, before you go selling them for a song. There is a ‘right price’ for everyone and if you price an item (that obviously took lots of work) too low you’ll have folk thinking all sorts like ‘is this really handmade?’ ‘what’s wrong with it, why is it so cheap?’ The same obviously goes for charging high, I personally don’t think think that the ‘reassuringly expensive’ strategy helps in this day and age of competition (it might work for luxury cars and designer clothing). You want to encourage more customers to buy, not to scare them off with inflated prices. Price fairly, because as consumers we are very savvy these days and we have a good idea of what things ought to cost…
  • Actual Value Vs Perceived Value. There’s a difference between actual value (the cost of what it takes to make and sell the item), and Perceived Value (the value that the customer thinks the item is worth). You could take two identical purses and end up charging two different prices for them. For example purse 1. is sold (as is) on a plain looking serviceable market stall for price X, whereas identical purse 2. is sold for more on a prettily decorated market stall, the purse has a cute label of the maker, your service is warm and friendly, and the purse is wrapped in tissue paper…OK, perhaps it costs a bit more to sort out labels, a pretty stall, and some tissue paper, but customers DO appreciate these finishing touches and this can be reflected in the price. It’s about creating a pleasant buying experience for the customer as well as making them feel important (without them, everything is pretty much lost!) in addition to creating pretty bags for them to buy.
  • Psychology of Discounting. Discounting isn’t just for reducing the price of your items, you can also use it to encourage more sales of your bags. You can encourage customers to buy more items by offering various discounts. Such as discounting on multiple purchases, or bundling (buy the bag and get the matching purse at a discount), or buy X, and get Y free. The idea is NOT to appear as a bargain basement (far from it), but to make the customer feel rewarded for spending more money with you. On my old market stall I noticed that most of my customers were buying bags initially as presents for others (fair enough, I’m the same!) this meant that customers weren’t looking to treat themselves. So to encourage more sales I wrote up a cute sign for customers suggesting that on certain bags they could treat themselves too, especially as I was offering a discount on a matching coin purse that they could either give as presents or keep for themselves. I found that this worked very well…

Right I think that’s a lot to be going on with! For those who are still with us, and they have reached the end of this post there’s further reading on the subject (of course you can apply as many, or as little (or none!) of these tips as you like, but I’d just like to say (that for me at least) mugging up in a few books and keeping an eye on craft trends etc. has helped me give me some focus and helped me organise myself, and hopefully run a shop that other people like, (and would buy from again), so I think the time spent on research (might not be the fun part, but) is well worth it :)

Further Reading (including some free and downloadable guides):

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Do You Have the Personality to Run a Craft Business?

 

Sewing has always been a hobby that I really enjoy, but when I started making bags some 4 years ago, that was IT. I knew I had discovered a hobby I could really get my teeth into. I have no idea how many bags I have made in that time, but what I do know is that as soon as I’ve started making a bag, I’m already planning the next one! I’m passionate about bag making and I like to think that this passion has helped motivate me to get my business off the ground and keep to it going. So besides a talent for making gorgeous handicraft, I believe that in order to run a successful craft business, it helps to be absolutely bonkers about your craft, it’s what you do. So who is that you? What personality traits help in running a craft business?

  • Confidence - You need to believe that your handicraft is lovely. You love it. Will other people love it enough to pay for it? Of course it’s also helpful to heed the opinions of others. Invite friends & family, one and all to give you constructive criticism about your crafts, and be prepared to take some of their advice.
  • Enthusiasm - Remember: enthusiasm is infectious. . If you make your craft with passion and enthusiasm it can’t help but show in your products. I try to make bags that I would be happy to be use myself. In this way I feel proud to sell my bags. I’m also so enthusiastic about bag making that I want to help others give it a try and enjoy it like I do.
  • Determination - Running your own a business is incredibly satisfying, but it ain’t all plain sailing. You will have quiet days, days which are too busy, suppliers that let you down, competitors to deal with, … etc. etc. I have to deal with all of this and more, but I love my business so much I’m determined to not be beaten by these potential hurdles.
  • Flexibility - Whilst it’s helpful to have a game plan when running a business, it’s beneficial to be able to anticipate change and be prepared to react to it. You’ll need to keep an eye on what the competition is doing, what the up and coming trends are, and what becomes seasonably fashionable.


Yep, I do kind of like sewing! I loved sewing bags so much that I had to DO SOMETHING with all of the bags I was making!

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How Do I Find Out if My Handicraft Will Sell (Before Taking the Plunge)?

 

I was once given a wonderful nugget of advice from the author of one of my favourite business books. He said “when starting a business it’s best to start small and make money organically i.e. make money from the money that you earn, and if you can, avoid bank loans”. Debt is the number 1 reason that start-ups fail. I have followed this advice, and I’m very glad that I did. Starting small enabled me to keep things under control, and any mistakes that I have made along the way haven’t been crippling. This begs the question: how do I find out if my handicraft will sell before I take the plunge? The answer: ‘as cheaply as possible!’.

Research is the key.

Ask friends and co-workers (and anyone else who you feel will give you an honest answer) for their opinions about your handicraft. Ask them questions like what they like, and don’t like about your handicraft. What would they wiling to pay for it? Do they have any suggestions for improvement? Ask as many people as you can and jot down the answers in a big note pad. I still have mine from when I started my business. It’s filled with precious info such as market research, suppliers lists, and wish lists of things that I wanted to sell, etc. all in one note pad . It not only has great sentimental value, it’s of great business value too.

Another wonderful source of (free) research is the internet. Have a look at the many internet craft forums, Etsy, and Craftster for example. Get involved by becoming a forum member and ask other members questions about your work. You’d be surprised at just how helpful other crafters are. For me, one of the nicest things about working in the craft industry is the crafting community, they really are a warm and friendly bunch :0) Internet forums are also great to learn about craft trends. It’s always a good idea to be in the know about what’s hot, and what’s not!

Here are some great internet resources that I use regularly to keep abreast of craft trends:

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Getting Started with an Intro

 

Hi There! It’s lovely that you’ve popped to read this shiny new craft business blog. For folks who don’t yet know me, my name is Lisa Lam and I own and run an e-commerce store called U-Handbag which stocks everything yummy you need to make handbags! I write another blog that accompanies my business, so I’ve had a little practice. I started trading just over two years ago and feel very fortunate that my business and blog are both ticking along nicely. I first heard about Wendy back in Feb 07 when she wrote a very kind post about my blog and my business (Thanks Wendy!). It meant a lot to me that someone with Wendy’s business acumen was complimentary about my little craft newborn. And this is how I’ve now come to write this blog CraftBoom and I can’t tell how excited I am to be writing it in association with Wendy’s Uber blog! So welcome one and all. I hope this will be your first visit to something that will become a big addiction - but be warned - there’s no turning back; Once a Craftster, always a Craftster!

That’s my baby. U-handbag!

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am COMPLETELY obsessed with my little business. I have learned so much so far and I love to learn about new ways to keep my business fresh and competitive. In CraftBoom I want to share with you my business experiences (good and, erm, not so good!) in the hope that it may help you (yes, that’s YOU!) turn your craft business daydreams into a fulfilling and exciting reality. If I can do it; so can you! I’ll give you handy tips from what-not-to-dos to making your products look their best. I’ll do my best to make all my instructions clear and concise. I’ll cross the Ts and dot the Is. But really, this is all about you and your ability to wow us your handicraft gorgeousness and earn some bucks all at the same time. Sounds good! It sure will be. Let’s have some fun!

But first you must remember the 3 rules of Craft Business Club:

1. You will TALK CraftBoom Club.
2. You will DO CraftBoom Club.
3. You will LOVE CraftBoom Club. He! He!

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