U-handblog

How do you know if your craft is good enough to sell / give

Pic from Telegraph.  Want to start a business?  Have (more) faith and take the plunge!

You love craft, it makes you happy, it calms you down, you get excited at the prospect of sitting down to create.  The thing is, you now have a house chock-full of handmade goodness - yet you can't stop making and you have no desire to!!  Sounds kinda familiar doesn't it?  A popular solution (to cupboards bulging with your work) is to sell your work (which certainly helps with funding the ol' crafting habit!). But how do you know if folks will want buy your work, how do you know if it is good enough to sell - or indeed gift to a loved one?

In this blog post I'm going try to help you figure this question out for yourself. I won't talk about pricing  craft here because I have covered craft pricing in another post.   When I prepare to appraise one of my handmade items I usually do all of the following things: I get logical about the item, I think about what I want from the item and then I think about what others would like about the item.

Getting Logical (get some perspective!):

Take your item and try to be as unemotional about it as you can (tricky I know, but important!). Now look at it and try to be reasonable (and unemotional) in your appraisal of it (i.e don't be unreasonably critical of your work).  All crafters are their fiercest critics and they are typically way too hard on themselves (fact).  Yes, you must never sell shoddy goods, but really, is one or two slightly wonky stitches, or slightly wonky button, or slightly wonky pocket (and we are talking eights of an inch/a few mms) shoddy?  Answer: "No, don't be daft!"  Look at most any shop bought knitted or sewn item and you'll find any number of minimal faults such as these - yet they don't stop people from buying them do they?   To be frank, handmade items are often made with far more love and care than factory made items (but we already know that don't we).

Now you've gotten a bit of perspective about your item you can now more reasonably ask yourself a series of questions regarding 'overall quality', 'fit for purpose for you' and 'fit for purpose for others'.

'Overall quality' questions:

1. Does my item look nice on the table? - standing away from the item does the overall shape look: pleasing/symmetrical/finished to a good standard?
2. Does my item feel nice to the touch?
3. Does the item have enough body - (if appropriate) is it padded enough?
4. Is the stitching firm and even?

When you're happy with the overall quality of the item you can ask yourself 'does my item do what I intended it to'. Is your item fit for purpose?

1. Does the item function in the way that you had planned?  If not, does it function in another way that is just as pleasing?
2. Is the item the best size for the function you had in mind?
3. Do all of the moving parts (if appropriate) work well and can you see them lasting a good while?

After you've asked yourself the above questions you need to ask as many folks as you can about what they think about your item. Friends and family are easy to ask not least because they are easier to get hold of, but if they are in short supply (or are too busy) ask folks on craft internet forums. 

People, this is not the time to be shy, you need to ask as many folks as you possibly can because doing so will save you time and money.  Don't make the (beeeeg) mistake of making loads units of an item without first consulting any members of your audience - or you could find yourself having the nightmare of trying to shift a whole lot of umbrellas in the middle of a drought (if you get my meaning).

You have to make it clear to everyone that you speak to that you won't be offended if they don't love your item.  You need to get it into your head that there is no such thing as bad constructive feedback. Not everyone will love your work and that is totally normal, but do ask them what they don't like about it.  Almost all feedback is helpful (but do ignore the weirdos who have nothing nice to say because they want everyone else to have a crap day).  Here are some questions you should try asking others about your craft:

1. Do you like this item?
2. If yes why? If no why?
3. What is your fave feature of this item?
4. What is your least fave feature of this item?
5. Do you think it could be improved?
6. How could it be improved?
7. How much would you pay for this item?
8. Do you 'understand' this item?  Can folks see what the item is meant to do, or does it look the way you intended it to look - without you having to first explain it to them beforehand? Of course the less explaining you have to do the better!

Selling your work is at first scary and exhilaring (I remember that feeling very well and I still do get it). Before you set up your business you need to do a little preparation and a little homework before you take the plunge, but the very most important thing is to never ever ever ever everrrrrrrrrr be so scared that the fear stops you from at least trying.  Read this post on Feeling the 'Craft' fear, but doing it anyway.

Happy making and selling!

 

My Fave Bag Making Tools - Photography

Thanks for being interested in the gadgets and wing-dings that I like to use in my bag making endeavours.  Rather than replying to your emails about my recommendations I'll post them on here instead - should have done it ages ago!

So today it's what tools I use for photography.  I don't claim to be very good at photography, but I do have a sexy camera (that I'm still having fun learning how to use) and knowledge of Photoshop is sooooo useful.  Anyways, here's my photography kit list:

1. My camera is a Nikon D80. If you have a compact digi camera (like I did recently) set the camera to a high ISO (look it up in your manual).  This will help your pics look a lot brighter (in terms of light).
2. The lens I always use for product shots is a fixed 50mm.  This wonderful lens is very crisp and lets in heaps of light.
3. The sun.  Nothing beats the sun when is comes to lighting.  Taking shots in the gloom makes pics look muddy and I don't know how to fix this in Photoshop without the result looking fake. 
4. I like to take product shots on a white background because I think this makes the items the main focus of attention.  I use a huge white propleyne sheet as a fore and background.
5. A tripod or some books or a shoe box or any ledge to steady your camera.  Even breathing can de-stabilise your camera.
6. Blue tack, pins and padding.  Use these items to pin up, stand up and pad out (if necessary) your items.
7. Image well (for mac)  - so handy for quick re-sizing of images.
8. Flickr because it's the daddy of online photo storage) and Photobucket because you can link to your images as standalones.
9. Photoshop CS3 - really helps with the crappy UK sunlight (or lack of it).  Get yourself a free 30 day trial of Photoshop CS4.
10. Please check out a post I wrote on How to take and edit professional looking photos of the craft products. For some reason most of the pics have disappeared from that post.  If enough of you folks want, I will re-write that tutorial with pics (please comment on this post).

 

BEFORE - This was taken on a sunny-ish day.  The camera lens really does make a difference. My lens lets in a lot of light so that means I have hardly any touching up work to do in Photoshop.  See how the white background looks grey?  Methinks it all needs brightening up...

AFTER Photoshop.  I have lightened up the white balance and added just a touch of yellow for a little bit of warmth.

Tomorrow:  My Fave Bag Making Tools - Sewing Machines Etc.

Some of my fave Craft Business Tenets

Thanks to everyone to had a look at Artfire and then went on set up their own shops. I wish you all lots of luck and I hope you have fun with your business.  I'll keep you posted about my goings on in Etsy and in Artfire. 

I am going to start sharing my craft business experiences on this blog - instead of on CraftBoom! I have now stopped blogging on Craftboom!  I was very grateful to be invited to write on the Sparkplugging network in the first place, but eventually I found that I was too short on time to post regularly.

I might not have business degrees and such, but I do have a business background and I personally have gained much confidence and satisfaction from running my own business.  I love it when other women feel empowered by something that they have created for themselves - it doesn't happen often enough.  U-Handbag helped get me out of a low emotional point in my life and I want to share what I've learned in the hope that my experiences will perhaps be helpful to you and perhaps that is good Craft Business Karma for me.

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Good (candles and) karma...

So to kick off here are some of my fave craft business tenets to work by:

• The best business transactions are where the customer and trader feel that they have both benefited in equal measure.
• If you can; go beyond serving your customers; find ways to delight them. It will make you so happy when they let you know how happy they are.
• It's often scary putting yourself out there and as a crafter you will have invested emotional energy into creating your products (so you worry), but it's essential to believe in yourself.  Even if this doesn't come at all naturally you have eyes don't you?  If you think something you have made looks nice there's no reason (at all) why others won't come to the same conclusion. 
• Have fun and love what you do (though at times it might be very tiring!), you will hear this time and time again and time and time again you will find that in most things that you do it's one of the great secrets to success.
• Don't be afraid; be a little nervous and have butterflies in your tummy, but don't be scared into submission or you'll never know how great you could've been.  Take those first baby steps in order to learn how to run.
• Do what you know and have a good understanding of.  I think (at least I hope I have) managed  to combine my love of crafting with my craft business.  A few my passions are teaching craft, forwarding the craft movement, doing craft and...um...paying my bills. 

Tomorrow: The winner announcement for Craft Chica's new book and a cute crochet purse kit.

Artfire - a lower cost & serious contender to Etsy

Last night I set up another shop (partly for craft business research purposes).  It's a craft mall site like Etsy, but unlike Etsy; listing and selling items is free...uh huh!  Yepperoo! FREE.  Well, actually there's a very reasonable membership fee (which at the moment is a seriously tempting £4.95 ($7) a month and that's it, there are no other fees to pay.

I have to say I am very very impressed with Artfire.  Here's why I like it (over an certain craft mall site) in easy to read bullet points:

1. After the tiny monthly fee there really is nothing else to pay, there are no catches, no extras no nada!  Selling on Artfire is simple, a lot cheaper and a lot less complicated.  Let's face it, no one likes them Etsy listing and selling fees  With Artfire you can list and sell 5 - 5million items without paying a red cent!
2. It's dead easy to set up shop (and the shops are brighter and more personal looking than a certain other craft mall site).  Listing items is as easy as falling off a log and you do it all in one page - very handy.  If you've had a Etsy shop you'll have your Artfire shop set up in less time that it takes to drink a cuppa - honest.
3. You can have 1 - 10 photos per product, it's up to you.  And they load up pretty quick because you can load up several at a time.
4. Artfire has all the shop seller features of Etsy - plus more.  The shops look nice, the site looks nice and the site is run professionally.
5. Getting yourself noticed and featured on Artfire is fair and it's free.  When you list you appear on the front page and so on until other people list - simple.  If you want to be on the featured hot spot you just apply (for free) and join a queue.  It can't get fairer (and less political) than that.
6. Right now you can get Artfire memberships for just £4.95 ($7) a month for life, with no contract, if you don't like it you can just pay for one month and walk away... After those bargain memberships have gone the fee rises to $20 a month (which is still very reasonable).  At the time of writing there are just over 1000 of these bargain memberships left.  You may not have a shop now, but I can't think of a more cost effective and feature packed site in which to test the waters and open up a wee little shop for yourself.  If you are thinking of opening a shop in the future grab a cheapie membership now and open one when you are ready.
7. If you fancy buying anything in Artfire you won't need to set up any account to do so.  In many cases you'll find that items cost less because the sellers don't have to pass on any selling fees to their customers.
8. If you refer 10 folk to Artfire your own membership will be free!  Tell friends, work colleagues, family members or blog about it (like I am) and if they join, your membership is free for life.
9. I think the Artfire folks are very smart; they have listened to what sellers and buyers want.   They have built their site on what people want and they have deliberately charged kept the charges very low and fair to tempt folks over - and it's working.  I think other craft mall sites should watch out and take heed...

Act fast if you want to grab a bargain membership - Register on ArtFire.com  and tell 'em U-Handbag sent you  :) 

Here's my little Artfire shop - set up during a tea and banana cake break.

Crafting Heroes interview with Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

Here you go folks; you asked for it and here it is!  I think you'll like interview, it's a great one to start 2008 with.
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Here is one of Jenny's WIPs it's called Sublime stitching for a very good reason; it's gorgeous!  If you can, leave a comment for her on her interview for when she sees it later today, thanks  :)  Check out the interview here.

Phew! A New Craft Business Blog by me, please check it out!

This should help explain why I haven't been posting on this blog as much as usual.  Newborn babies are always a bit more demanding than toddlers, but I think my little family has begun to find a bit of a routine, and I'll return to posting  more regularly.  Thanks for bearing with me!  Toddlers?  Newborn babies?  What is she gabbing on about?  Well, I have been commissioned by Wendy Piersall owner of the EXCELLENT eMoms at Home business blog to write a blog about running a Craft Business.

Wendy is passionate about women and men going onto business for themselves and on her terrificly popular blog she provides LOADS of information on how run this business from home.  Recently she commissioned 6 folks (of which I am one) to write their own business specialty in their own blogs, under the umbrella of the eMoms blog. 

I will now write most of my Bag Selling Tips and Advice post on my new blog, but each time I do I'll include a link to it on my post in this here blog.  I hope that works out, we'll find out soon enough.  I want this new blog to be inclusive, so very soon I will be inviting folks who already run their own craft business to show case their work, talk about their own business, share any business knowledge, and run interviews (it will be a great way to promote yourselves.  Please don't think I'm abandoning U-Handblog for pastures new.  This blog is my first love and it always will be :)

That's me!  I now also write Craft Boom a blog about marketing and running art & craft businesses.  Today's post is: How to market your business (for free).


So for anyone who is (or isn't yet, go on you can do it) running their own craft business skip over to my new blog and please comment on my new blog and let me know what you think.  I do have first date jitters and some first words of encouragement from you good folks would really help calm them down! :)

I'll introduce the 5 other folks who are writing about their own home business specialties in my next post. 

Pricing your bags or other crafts to sell.

Thanks to everyone who asked Craft Businessey Questions for the Dotty Sunglasses Case draw.  Your questions are very helpful because when I come to write future craft Business Type Posts I can refer to your comments and I can hopefully tackle issues that you want looking at :)

There were 43 entrants, (1 being a repeat) and the Random Number Picker decided upon the number 17.  Which means that Concha has won the Dotty Eyeglasses Case and I have to try and tackle the 'How long is a piece of string' question of Pricing....

So will Concha who wrote:

"Pricing, pricing... If you want to have fun but earn some money as well, how do you make up for all the fabrics and notions and hours of work spent on a single bag? Thanks so much :)"

Please step forward and give me your postal address so I can send you your Eyeglasses Case?

Before I start I'm just going to write myself a little disclaimer which includes things like; I don't have MBa from Harvard;  I'm no Alan Sugar; the following tips are taken from my own observations as a bag seller, a bit of Psychology (from my Uni days), books, and resources on the net (which I'll include at the end of this post).  What I mean to say is, I hope the info is nothing but helpful...

Get the price right, and your till will sing (or something!)

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 bag.  Unfortunately there is no neat formula to apply when pricing your bags, but I can suggest things that should be considered when pricing your bags).   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 bag doesn't just serve as a charge for your handmade bag, it serves as a marketing tool, and it also serves as a refection (real & perceived) of the value of your handmade bag.  So for the purposes of this here post about pricing your bags (and other crafts too, but 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 (all free and downloadable guides):

• Pricing - a huge in-depth guide.
• Getting organised to work at  home -   you can't do this from the family dining table!
• WAHM - Guide for working Mothers At Home to successfully building business from home.
• My 'Business Resources' links on the left hand side of this blog.

Like, phew!  That took me AGES to write, I hope it's of some use to you!

Ask that Bag Lady...you might win a Eye/Sun Glasses case!

I get lots of lovely emails from you telling me that your new found hobby (that being bag making, of course!) has begun to get a bit out of control and that your partners are beginning to moan about all of those pretty bags that are filling up various cupboards...  Lots of you have begun to sell your handiwork through bag parties, Etsy, your own website, Ebay, craft fairs and/or amongst friends and family.

I really enjoy these emails because I really am all for women (and men too, but especially women) going into some sort of business for themselves if they can.  I think back to a couple of years ago when my working life was in a rut and I was feeling pretty crap because of it.  I would sew in the evenings and weekends to relax until I had made way too many things to store in the house.  I then began to sell in Greenwich Craft Market which eventually led to U-Handbag being born.  The buzz I got from selling my first bag was addictive, and I'd love for other people to experience that too (if that's their thing!).  These days, besides being able to help put food on the table, running a business has given me some sort inner pride, and this gives me a confidence that I have never experienced in any of my other jobs (which are too numerous (and some too embarrassing) to mention!)

I haven't written a Bag Selling Advice & Tips post for quite a while, so I thought why not ask you if you have any Bag/Craft selling questions that I could try and answer.  I'm no business guru, but I'm not hiding out from my bank manager, and I don't owe either of my kidneys to loan sharks :)

Ask the (ditzy) bag expert your business related question!  I found this image (isn't it great?) and loads of kitschy Americana pin up prints here.

So if you sell your handmade crafts, or you are planning to and you have a Bag/craft selling question that you think I might be able to help with comment on this post with your question.  It could be website related, craft stall related,  photography related, what-things-to-sell related, or marketing related etc. etc.

I will randomly pick one question (and try my best) to answer.  The person who asked that question will also win this dotty eyeglasses case (but not my groovy sun glasses) cool eh? 

I'll draw a winner in a weeks time 7th August.  Good Luck!

PS.  Sorry, I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

Mums and Moms are the business.

Amy Butler interview will appear here tomorrow, Hurray!!  Tomorrow.  Hurray!!

I was on the phone with Denise today who was inquiring about the size of some metal rings, and we ended up talking for the best part of an hour about our love of craft and going into business  to sell our handiwork.  In the time I have been running my shop I have had lots of phone and email conversations just like this one with folks just like Denise.  These chats give me the warm fuzzies because it's sooo wonderful when women (and men - Hi Ryan) decide to take the plunge and unleash their creativity on the world. 

The best thing about wanting to go into business in this day and age, is we that have the wonderful Internet, and the trend for craft fairs and market selling.  These two avenues enable people to be in business without spending huge amounts of money and without chucking in the day job (perhaps prematurely!).

I have already written quite a few posts on Bag Selling & Business Advice (which I will keep writing more of), but I haven't really touched upon 'making the decision to go for it'.  So Denise (who already has decided to go for it, with a website and all) this post is for you!

Emotion as a deciding factor (to go for it!):

• So, you made quite a few bag, vases, clothes etc. and they've been really welcome presents to your friends and family,   You've even sold some to neighbors and colleagues at work for a reasonable (e.g. not dirt cheap) price...that's really good because that means that people DO admire your work and other people will pay for it too.   So don't put yourself down and think silly dum dum thoughts like 'oh, they're just being nice'.
• You HAVE to be confident in your skills as a craft-isian, you know yourself that you made the items with love and care; you have to believe that other people will see this too, and it would make that same person happy to buy it. 
• You also have to really enthusiastic about this, it's gonna be a long hard slog if you don't love what you do.  Even if I hadn't told you how much I love my work (which I know I do go on about!), dontcha you think it shows in my shop, and my blog anyway?

Research as a deciding factor:

• The best way to start is not making loads of things to sell.  Start the process by researching.   Do research before, and during running your business and this will help you to save time, save money, and make money YAY!  Check out these great business articles about business start ups for mums (in the UK)  or moms (in the US) (cos that's where most of my readers come from!)
• Do have a look through the Business Resource links in the left hand menu bar (and there are also  lots more sites available on the web, and some which are likely to run by the local authority in which you live).
• Don't forget to research your market, who is your competion?   How is your offering different to what is already available? 
• Who would you like your customers to be, can they afford your prices, will they be attracted to your offering, if not (yet) how can you convince your audience that your offering is going to benefit them?
• Check out websites and magazines to see what's hot in your chosen craft.
• I know, I know, questions questions (and that is only some of the questions you need ask!)  But the more you can answer (or begin to answer) before you start (and continually ask as your business evolves) the easier, more successful, and haappeeee you'll be!  Just jot these questions and all of your other research findings in the one book (rather than paper napkins, old menus, post-it notes etc!).  My research for U-Handbag filled up a thick A4 refill pad, I still have it because the info is dead handy, and it's sentimental :)

Funding as a deciding factor:

• I would advise folks to start off small - rather than go bonkers and buy a shop, pretty rope carrier bags, and have glossy catalogues (I can dream, can't I?)  I think it's wisest (and I was also advised by Steve) to make money from what you sell and use that money to buy more things, (to make) so you have more things to sell, and so on.  This is exactly what I did with my shop.  I had a much smaller product range when I first started; I've grown organically.  This way I had more control over things and my mistakes (and there always will be mistakes to make!) haven't hurt as much as they would've done had I spent loads starting up my business.
• If you can, get start-up funding in the form of a business grant, look at the business links (in the left hand menu bar) that I just told you about, and check out what grants are available to you.  Honestly, you'd be surprised at just what is there for the taking, you may well be eligible!  To start hunting for business start up funding in the UK click here, for the US click here, and here.  If you don't want to do the grant thing, try asking friends and family for a loan.  The thing is to avoid getting a bank loan if you can, they are expensive!

I know many of my readers have already gone into business themselves; and you are selling through Etsy, Ebay, various craft fairs, your own websites, and, or your own blogs.  WELL DONE!!!

I love to hear about your experiences of going into your own craft business.  What advice would you give to others?  What things would you do differently?  What are your proudest (or lowest) moments?  How do you market yourself?  etc.  Why not share your craft business stories with us?  Send me an email (see top left corner of this blog for email add.) with your business gems (and if you like, some pics of your fave stuff for sale), and I'll feature you on my blog. 

In return, you'll get that warm fuzzy feeling from helping others out, some free exposure, and a permanent link to your shop on the side bar of this here blog (which I'm happy to say has it's own fair share of readers...who are fabulous, each and very one of you!).   The Emoms and Make It blogs have this Guest Post Feature on their blogs, and it works well, perhaps it will take off here too :)

 

All the fun of the (craft) fair. Dressing your table.

Here is my favourite bag making pic of the year.  It was very kindly sent to me my by Joanne in London.  It's her cute kitty having a nap in Joanne's parcel of U-Handbag bag making bits.  I've actually had this photo for a little while and I re-discovered it whilst giving all my pics a much needed tidy up.  Thanks Jo, it's sooooo cute!


Shhh! I'm just having a sneaky ol' nap on my Mum's brand new fabric, heh! heh!

I've received some lovely emails from customers who (are bursting with pride - and I should think so too!) had a great time selling their bags at Xmas markets.    A big WELL DONE! to you.  It's been really nice to hear your stories of the compliments you have been receiving about your handi-work, your first sale (YAAAAY!!), and really touching to hear that you are enjoying yourselves making bags.  It's wonderful that people preferred to pay for your (yes, YOUR!) handmade loveliness than to pay for soulless, mass produced High St offerings.  Thank you so much for sending the emails and the pictures girls (keep 'em coming!).

This post is for those of you who have gotten the bag selling bug, and who have asked me how I would go about dressing a table for a craft fair or craft market.  Space is usually limited when renting a table at a craft fair, and sometimes there are  other limitations such as not being allowing to use floor standing items (such as rails, baskets or shelves) to display your work.  So, a little thought has to go into getting the most out of the space that you're given.

Here are some table dressing tricks I have used in the past:

• Try to group bags according to their function or size.  Some sort of organization on your table will make things less confusing for the customer and make it easier for them to quickly find what they are looking for.  A chaotic table is a turn-off.
• Ensure that you fill your bags with tissue paper so they look proud/filled. 
  
• Try hanging your bags on some garden trellis, paint the trellis white or another pale colour t o set your bags off.  Place the trellis to the side of your table or behind it.  If there is enough room on the trellis you can decorate it with flowers, cherubs, chiffon fabric, your company name, or whatever else is appropriate.  Don't overload though, or it will look too busy.
• Create ‘steps’ on your table by using some same sized boxes and covering those boxes with some nice plain unpatterned cloth so you can display your bags in a step formation.  Place your super-duper bag/s in a prominent position toward the centre on the top step.  This will serve as eye-catching draw to your table. 
• Ensure your table has plenty of light.  Many fairs do not supply spot lighting (or any lighting).  It's worth bringing your own if you can because the brighter the light is, the more colourful your handiwork is (things like beading, shiny buttons, and metal accessories will sparkle) and that really does make a difference.  Also, the shine of a light from a spotlight (or a pretty lamp) will be noticed from afar by approaching customers.
• Put your more special bags on the higher steps and the less expensive bags within easier reach – don’t be too fixed about this, you still need to mix things up a bit so your arranging doesn’t look too obvious.  Apparently, whilst in a shop we judge items at eye level to be of mid quality; items higher levels to be of higher quality, and lower items to be...(you guessed it).  That said, items at eye level tend sell faster because we feel more comfortable buying the mid quality item that is not too expensive, and not too cheap.  Next time you are in the supermarket check this out for yourself.  For more consumer psychology click here, (this site is a bit dry, and it's pretty in-depth but there are some interesting tid-bits).  It's not something to get yourself tied up in knots about, just something else to consider...
• A few props like a jug of flowers, a candelabra, some jewelry, vintage gloves (etc.) and some information signs is a good idea.
• If you can, make up a sign for yourself with your comany name/and or your name, and contact info.  You can also say things like 'All lovingly handmade';  'Gorgeous purses made from fine French silk with hand beading' (or whatever is appropriate); 'All original designs'; 'Commissions are welcome'.  Make up your sign using software like photoshop (or get a friend to do it).  Don't make up a sign using paints and crayons unless you (or a friend) can make it look really professional - an unprofessional sign will look pants and will cheapen the look of your handiwork.  Make your sign A3 size or lager so customers don't have to squint, and laminate it.

I hope that helps folks, please do keep me posted on how you get on in the markets.  I love reading your stories.  If I missed anything, just let me know!