Ever have one of those Homer Simpson ‘Doh!’ moments where it’s pointed out to you that you’ve gone brain-dead on something that should have been completely obvious? I just had one of those and it wasn’t very much fun. I’ve given some friends copies of my business card in case they run into anyone who might be interested, and from that, could have had a client if only I had thought through my web site before I launched it. You see, one of my business cards made it’s way into the hands of a chiropractor who was interested in seeing if I had any paintings he might want to use for his office but when he followed the URL on my business cards, it brought him to this blog and what does he find? Arts and crafts from everyone BUT me! Doh! Read More
Let’s jump right in by discussing why business planning is a necessary effort in planning for success (you do plan to be successful, don’t you?). The primary intent of business planning is to provide you with the focus you need to prioritize your work, develop your communications, and invest your dollars. There is much more beyond this, but this is where you will want to start. Once you have a business plan, you should be aligning all of your work activities to the plan to avoid wasting extraneous effort on items that don’t support your business goals.
Let’s start by asking the seemingly most basic and straightforward question: What do you want your business to be? In other words, what are you going to be selling? Is it a tangible product such as jewelry or will it be a service such as graphic design? Mind you, services often come with tangible end-products (i.e. Graphic Design may end up with a logo, a banner, etc). Sometimes you can confuse the two, as happens occasionally in sewing. For instance, if you pre-sew plush dolls and sell them, you are offering a product. If you are taking an order for custom apparel, you are actually offering a service, even if the end result is a tangible product. Read More
OK. Maybe not THAT drastic. I hit a crux point of priorities, scheduling, finances and reality this week that is impacting my business plan going forward. Of course, that doesn’t mean much because I never really had a business plan! Like so many entrepreneurs, I jumped into my craft and art selling life without a lot of forethought, mostly because craft shows had been fairly easy to do and then I stumbled across Etsy, which seemed ideal as a start-up. Like most entrepreneurs who follow this unplanned path though, I’ve hit many stumbling blocks and instead of stepping back and evaluating what I need to do, what my goals are, and how realistic my lack of planning was, I’ve just kept pushing ahead blindly. Having been the Chief Technology Officer of a Fortune 50 company and a business consultant, you’d think I would have known better. I didn’t. I got caught up in the ease and excitement of being an online seller and left my brain at the keyboard. Thus, it’s time to re-think my approach in the manner I would use for others. I’m going to be sharing my thoughts hoping others can draw upon this for their own needs as well and will state up-front that this needs to be a multi-part series so if you can, hang in there until the end! Part I will be posted this weekend and will discuss the need for proper business planning, if you are just attempting to sell as a hobby or as a business. Look for it and I’ll see you then!
Well, going back to a 40+ hour work week last week really had a major impact on my art and crafts. I thought I was prepared for it, I really did, but I wasn’t prepared for it at all. Despite my best efforts, I have done very little painting, no sewing, and even went a day without any new original blog posts! As Pink Floyd sings, time is slipping into the future….
As being productive is very important to me, especially in light of the additional plans I’ve been working on, I really needed to whip my prioritization and time management up a notch. To begin with, I needed to determine what my priorities really are. Putting aside family (my children in particular), the priority of project-focused effort goes: Read More
Recently, I’ve been seeing an increase in Etsy forum postings regarding neutral feedback. These posts are generally from those who have received neutral feedback with no descriptive text associated with it. These posters are also generally upset that they have been given neutral feedback without having been contacted by the seller to resolve an issue first. While I have never left neutral feedback for a seller either on Etsy nor anyplace else, I find it mildly perplexing that sellers seem to get so bent out of shape over this. As such, I thought I’d put forth my views and see if there are others who see it like I do. Read More
For those looking for further opportunities to gain exposure for themselves and their talents, here is a good site to have an account on. Talent Database is just that: an Internet-based database of artisans in all different fields and genres.
Creating an account is easy, and provides further opportunity for networking with other artisans and a chance to display your work through an online ‘portfolio.’ While not a sales site, it is easy to provide a link in your portfolio item descriptions so that viewers know where to find the piece in question. Artisan portfolios can contain up to 25 items or utilise 30MB, whichever comes first.
Don’t pass up an opportunity for more exposure. Go and make an account today and don’t forget to find me on there as well!
In my never-ending quest to milk every cent out of my art… errrr… I mean, to broaden the appeal of my creations… I have been experimenting with different ideas on how prints, cards and other reproductions might be made. Frankly, because it’s fairly easy to do, everybody seems to have cards and prints of their works and some even have mousepads, puzzles and mugs! I make such items available through sites such as Zazzle and DeviantArt but to be honest, I don’t really like having the same old stuff as everybody else. I do it because I need to make some money in order to keep creating but I hope someday to end my need for those external outlets and focus on my own end-products. Until that day comes, I keep experimenting!
The longer I operate online and obtain feedback, the more I am thinking that I need to open a second shop that is separate from Mindless Pursuits. That way I can have one shop dedicated to my paintings and other artworks and Mindless Pursuits could be dedicated to the other crafting that I do. The thinking is that one detracts from the other and leaves people not certain what my focus is.
So if you wouldn’t mind taking my poll on the right, what do you think? Should I have two separate shops?
