creative biz | next steps to a great business

meagan visser of MeaganVisser.com has a fantistic five part series for us this week on running a successful creative or handmade business. this is part 5... (part 4, part 3, part 2, part 1)

Now we've come to the last post in this series. We've covered your decision to start your own online handmade business, how to find your niche, some biz basics, & the 4 main areas of setting up shop. Today I'm going to talk to you about what to do once you've got your products online & you're ready for some customers & money.

Marketing

Marketing can consist of the things you do to get people to buy your products. It's getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like, & trust you {- John Jantsch}. It's an action. It can be working on search engine optimization, blogging, using social media, ads, features, interview, handing out business cards, etc.

It's usually not one of those things that comes naturally to us...especially if we've not been to school for it or if we've not read & learned much about marketing tactics. But let me assure you, you will need to market your business & get your products out there. It's not as difficult as it seem the more you learn about it. I'd encourage you to get some business books on marketing, visit John's website above, & by all means join my weekly email newsletter. I'm right in the middle of my Business Marketing Basics series that will teach you basic marketing concepts!

Push Forward

Another thing to do once you've got your shop together is to focus on your goals & how to meet them. Push forward. Don't just sit there waiting on customers to come to you. You may get some customers who find you via a search engine, but that's no way to build a large customer base. Set some goals, long-term & short-term, then break them down in to bit-sized pieces that you can work on each month to get you where you want to go. A dream is just a dream unless you wake up & take action to make it happen!

Be Patient

Patience! Uhh! Who likes to hear that word? I know I don't because it's so dang painful & definitely not a strong-suit of mine. But, honestly, that's want it takes. Patience & a lot of hard work! It takes time to earn the trust of your customers. It takes time to develop relationships with other business owners. It takes time to perfect your product & really make it your own. It takes time to be remembered. It takes time to gain great feedback. So don't get discouraged. Learn, do, & learn more.

Over time you'll build a business that suits you & your life & is satisfying to you on so many levels. If things aren't happening for you quickly enough, re-evaluate your goals & reach out more. The sales will come. So I really hope you've enjoyed this series of posts. I know I sure have. Creating a business that you love is such fun. I hope that you will keep in contact with me. I'd love to witness your success!

xo, Meagan

If you found this series helpful for your creative business, please share it on Twitter & Facebook via the buttons below. Don't wait...do it now!

further reading:

• how do i promote my little biz?

Meagan Visser is a wife, mother, & creative entrepreneur living in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She inspires moms to pursue their creative business dreams on her coaching website MeaganVisser.com & she offers fashionable & eco-friendly products for babies & toddlers in her Etsy shop, Baby Swank. Connect with her on Twitter & Facebook!

creative biz | 4 important areas to focus on when setting up shop

meagan visser of MeaganVisser.com has a fantistic five part series for us this week on running a successful creative or handmade business. this is part 4... (part 3, part 2, part 1)

In my last post in this series I gave you a brief overview of some business basics that you should be aware of & take into consideration before you jump headfirst into your biz. Today, I'm going to talk about setting up shop & I'll be covering the 4 most important areas you need to focus on.

Setting Up Shop

There are so many places online (for instance etsy.com, madeit.com.au, notonthehighstreet.com) that you can use as a platform to sell with it's not even funny & I couldn't even begin to tell you all of them. My suggestion is to do your research first. Check into them & see what they're about, what their reach is, how easy are they to work, what fees are involved etc. Here's a really helpful article about this very thing.

Another thing to consider is skipping that all together & selling from an e-commerce website of your own. This is usually a "next step" for sellers who've done well with their shops in these handmade communities, but no one's saying you can't start out this way if you want. That's totally up to you.

Let me caution you though...this tends to be a more expensive start & you have to work extra hard marketing your business because people aren't going to be coming to you. You have to go find them more-so than you would if you were selling via a handmade community.

Now...no matter where you choose to sell from, here are 4 super important areas you need to focus on & master in order to have a successful shop!

1. Products

The first thing you're going to need to focus on are your products. I've already stressed the fact that your products need to be something you love & don't mind doing over & over again. I also mentioned that you needed to be good at making them because not many people want to buy a cheap, low-quality type product.

Another thing you need to ask yourself when it comes to what you're going to offer your customers is, "Am I providing my customers with something that they want or need?". This will be a huge part of your marketing later on. If you don't offer anything your customer wants or needs then they wouldn't be your customer, now would they?

So study your market, create an ideal customer profile for each product you plan on selling, & know what solution you are offering.

2. Photos

Photos are key to selling online. You're customer isn't able to see, touch, hold, smell, hear, or taste your product so you need to show them everything you can about it in your photos. Show your product in use, show what it looks like in context to what it's used for, show how it coordinates with something else, show an close up view & a full view, show it with some props or show it alone. There are tons of different ways to style your photos. Try lots of different things. Take tons of photos.

Make sure your photos are bright, clean, & crisp looking. Read your camera manual & learn how to adjust your cameras settings based on where your photographing at. Play around with different backgrounds & settings. Remember, don't stress out. It takes practice to get great photos. My photos are something that I still feel like I need to constantly work on, but they are much better now than when I first began! There are tons of photography tutorials out there...especially if you're a part of a handmade community. One of my favorite online resources is Digital Photography School.

3. Product Descriptions

Just like I said above, your customers can't see, touch, hold, smell, hear, or taste your product so it's up to you to describe it accurately & show them why they need it. You want to create desire for you product in their minds. You want to explain to them how your product will solve their problem. Be sure to include keywords that someone would use if they were searching for your product. Describe how it feels, smells or tastes. Describe how big it is & what it's used for. Describe how it would make them feel or how it would make them look if they owned it.

There are lots of ways to write a product descriptions. Including a story is great. It really lets the customer imagine more about your product. Here's a link to a free 7-day course called How To Write Irresistible Product Descriptions. Be sure to check it out!

4. Price

Pricing is a tricky balance & something that every artist struggles with. You tend to price your products low enough so that people buy them, but then they just look cheap or the money you end up making as profit doesn't really make it worth it. First off, decide if you're doing this as a hobby or a business. If you're doing it as a hobby, then you only need to make enough money to break even, but if you're doing it as a business then you need to be making a profit honey. You want your biz to grow, right? Price your products for what they're truly worth.

Do some research on similar products. What's pricing like there? Can you decrease your costs by buying supplies in bulk? Are you charging too much for your time? Can you cut out the wholesale price all together or maybe you'd like to only sell wholesale? Play around with your numbers, come up with something that works for you, & don't settle.

Tara Gentile says to NEVER apologize for your prices. Your branding & your descriptions should be communicating the value & worth of your product. Make your price match. Check out these two posts that I wrote about pricing your products if you'd like more info...Pricing Your Products - The 411 & Pricing Your Products - The Formula.

Let me know in the comments below...

What is holding you back from setting up your shop?

further reading:

• does your product represent your brand
• how to write product descriptions that capture the imagination
• 46 tips to help you price your stuff
• what message are you sending with your prices?

Meagan Visser is a wife, mother, & creative entrepreneur living in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She inspires moms to pursue their creative business dreams on her coaching website MeaganVisser.com & she offers fashionable & eco-friendly products for babies & toddlers in her Etsy shop, Baby Swank. Connect with her on Twitter & Facebook!

creative biz | the basics you must consider before starting your biz

meagan visser of MeaganVisser.com has a fantistic five part series for us this week on running a successful creative or handmade business. this is part 3... (part 2, part 1)

In my last post I told you a bit about my first Etsy shop...mainly about how I filled it with random things I'd created & not choosing one medium or being consistent with it. I shared about the problems that resulted in for me & my shop & I gave you 3 questions to ask yourself about what it is you have to offer.

Today I'm going to tell you a bit more about my story...

When I decided I was going to give Etsy a try it was because a friend of mine had a shop that was doing well. She was making decent money & she knew that I was into crafting so she encouraged me to start my own shop. She told me how easy it was & what she did with her shop. So excitedly, I had her help me get going.

We came up with a catchy name that wasn't already being used, created some quick shop graphics using a free online photo that we stuck my shop name on, wrote up some makeshift policies & a brief profile. Now all I needed to do was put my products into my shop when I got home & the sales would start coming in, right?

Wrong...again.

I started my shop on a whim. I didn't do any research or learning about selling online. I didn't know anything about legalities. All I wanted to do was sell some stuff & make some money. Now I'm definitely not one of those people that thinks you need to have a degree in business or marketing to make a creative biz work. So many people have proved that theory wrong.

All it takes is a vision, a willingness to learn & correct your mistakes, a great product & some marketing skills. So today I'm going to cover some very basic things you need to keep in mind when thinking about starting an online handmade business. This isn't all inclusive, but I'm going to link you to some great resources at the bottom of the post!

Name

This is usually the first thing you think about after you've decided what you're going to sell. My suggestion is to brainstorm 5-6 shop names that you like & ask friends & family what their favorites are. Keep these things in mind though when you're brainstorming!

• your name should reflect your products, market, & branding {big idea}
• your name should be short & easy to spell
• check to see if your name is available on social media sites, as a website domain, on Etsy or wherever you choose to sell from, & that it's not trademarked

Legal Basics

This will vary by country and region (state/province etc.), so it's definitely something you'll want to check into before getting in too deep. Besides checking for a trademarked name, you'll want to look into these areas that will affect your business in a legal way.

• Hobby vs business
• Business entity (eg sole proprieto/sole trader, LLC/Pty, corporation, company, partnership etc. dependent on your country)
• Registering your business name & applying for a tax number
• Taxes & record keeping

I'm sure there are more legal things to consider. You best bet it to search Google for this info based on your state/country. You can always ask other business owners what they do & where they get their info as well.

Branding, Dreams & Goals

What does this business mean to you? Why are you doing it? Where do you want it to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? What are you going to do to get it there? What goals will you set for your business? It's important to think of these things when you're starting out because your answers will determine everything about your business from how serious you are about it, to the legal aspects, to your marketing, & beyond.

Graphics

When you have a business your logo will be one of the main things people remember you by. You think of McDonald's when you see that big yellow M, you think of Target when you see that red bulls eye, & you think of Apple when you see the apple with the bite out of it. That is graphic branding & you need to think about what you want your graphics to reflect.

What do you want them to say to your customers? What feel do you want reflected? You'll use these graphics in a lot of different places including your shop, website or blog, social media sites, ads, business cards, shipping & packaging material or any other marketing materials you may end up wanting. So like I said earlier, these are some basic areas to think about when it comes to starting up a handmade business.

Below are Amazon links to two of my favorite books all about handmade/craft businesses. You can get them on Amazon, ebay, book trading sites, discount book stores, or at your local library. They are a wealth of information & I'd recommend them to anyone considering starting a creative business. The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco Also check out this review on Business Basics from the above book - Craft Inc. It covers a lot of the above topics a bit more in depth if you're interested!

Share with me in the comment section...

What business basics have you been putting off learning & why? 

further reading:

• registering business names, trademarks, domains & more
• 5 reasons building a brand will help you build your biz

Meagan Visser is a wife, mother, & creative entrepreneur living in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She inspires moms to pursue their creative business dreams on her coaching website MeaganVisser.com & she offers fashionable & eco-friendly products for babies & toddlers in her Etsy shop, Baby Swank. Connect with her on Twitter & Facebook!

creative biz | 3 questions to help you find your niche

meagan visser of MeaganVisser.com has a fantistic five part series for us this week on running a successful creative or handmade business. this is part 2... (part 1)

In my last post, I asked you if you were considering starting or getting serious about having an online handmade business. If you answered 'yes' then pay attention because today I'm going to tell you one thing you must do in order to help your shop become memorable to potential customers.

Let's start off with a little story about my first online shop.

I started selling online 3 years ago. I was the type of person that liked to dabble in a lot of different types of crafts so I decided to set up an Etsy shop to see if I could make some money off of what I had fun doing...crafting. So I jumped in, came up with a name, made several different types of products such as ceramic soap dishes, skirts, knitting needle cases, jewelry, etc. I snapped some photos of my products on my living room floor, put them in my shop all on the same day, & then I waited to see if anything sold. Slowly but surely some things started to sell. A few of my skirts & a necklace or two. But then it all stopped. I went for months not selling anything. Talk about being discouraged! I was! I remember being so excited to tell my husband that I'd gotten my first sale. I thought this was the start of a fun new opportunity for me. Boy was I wrong!

My first mistake...

My first mistake was that I wasn't specific enough with my products! I didn't know what would sell. I just wanted to put some products out there & make money. I wanted to have something for everyone & I didn't want to limit myself. Do you know what my shop ended up looking like? One of those side of the road, hodge-podge yard sales. Don't know what one of those looks like? Well come visit me here in East Tennessee & you'll find out real quick! People take a bunch of their old junk & set it out on the side of the road with a for sale sign next to it & think that they're going to make some money & get rid of some junk at the same time. Do you think it works? Absolutely not! First of all, people don't want junk & secondly they don't want to dig through all of your junk to find what they're looking for!

Here are some reasons why starting a shop where you offer a lot of different types of products doesn't always work out so well.

1. Customers don't remember a shop that sales a little bit of everything like they remember a shop that's devoted to one type of product or craft.
2. It's harder to make a name for yourself & brand your business when you're all over the place.
3. It's harder to market your products because you have so many different target markets.
4. You're giving people too many choices which ends up being confusing & overwhelming to them.

I'm sure I could continue on, but I think you get my point.

3 questions

Here are some very basic questions for you to ask yourself before you jump the gun & open a shop that doesn't do much for you. Don't make my mistake! Plus, I have a fun little worksheet that you can print out to use to help narrow your choices down. Click here to get it!

1. What do you love? It's pretty simple really. What types of crafting do you really enjoy? What are you passionate about? What type of project makes you excited to get started? Maybe you love sewing quilts? Could you do it day in & day out, every single day? Would you still love it if you had to make 8 or more in one month or would you grow tired of it & get burnt out? What if you weren't getting any sales? Would you still love making them?

2. What are you good at? You may really enjoy making & decorating cakes, but are you any good at it? Do people rave about what a natural talent you have for it? Do people ask you to make cakes for them when they need one? Could your products compete with others that you've seen being sold? If you want to really do your best & give your handmade business a great start you have to offer unique, quality products. Your shop isn't an East TN junk sale. You have something that people want & need. You've given them something that they're proud to show off & promote to their friends. You have something you're proud to put your name on.

3. What's the competition like? I'll be honest with you. Selling online can be tough. Have you gone onto Google & typed in your product idea to see what comes up? Have you checked out the various handmade marketplaces to see what other shops are there selling the same thing you want to sell? If you haven't yet, you should! It's always smart to be aware of the competition around you. So here's what I suggest doing if you've narrowed your craft down to one thing you love doing that you do well, but the market is saturated. Study your competition & figure out how your business & your product stands out from them. How are you different? That will be your ticket to dealing with the competition.

Share with me in the comments below...

What do you love to do & what are you good at?

further reading:

• what are you really selling?
• what do you do when you are selling the same thing as everyone else?

Meagan Visser is a wife, mother, & creative entrepreneur living in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She inspires moms to pursue their creative business dreams on her coaching websiteMeaganVisser.com & she offers fashionable & eco-friendly products for babies & toddlers in her Etsy shop,Baby Swank. Connect with her on Twitter & Facebook!

creative biz | are you ready to get serious about your handmade business?

meagan visser of MeaganVisser.com has a fantistic five part series for us this week on running a successful creative or handmade business. this is part 1...

Are you one of those people who loves creating & crafting things?

Do you tend to do well at whatever you try & you're sort of a Jack {or Jill} of all trades when it comes to your crafting abilities?

Have you been told by friends that you should sell the things you make & does everyone love getting your handmade goodies as gifts anytime of the year?

If so, have you ever considered selling online & making some money with your talents?

Perhaps you are allready selling your items; have you taken the next steps to really making a go of it as a business?

What’s holding you back?

Is it the fear of putting yourself & your products out there?

Is it that you think there’s too much competition or that your products aren't “good enough”?

Is it a lack of time or is it simply not knowing where to begin?

If you’ve thought about starting an online handmade business, then stick around! Over the course of the next few days, I’m going to take you through

• the basic process of setting up shop & selling online
• how to narrow your focus & options so your business is memorable
• some business basics you need to think about before getting started
• 4 important areas you need to focus on in your shop, not to mention what you should be doing after getting your shop up & running.

And you know what? That's not all! I’m going to be giving you lots of resources for great information that you can look into for starting & running a handmade business & maybe a worksheet or two to help you get all your ideas together.

Sounds great, right? Are you interested? Are you ready to rock your creative business?

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is your business general or specific? For instance do you have a specific point of difference and a specific target audience?
2. Have you jumped right into selling? Or have you considered some important starting points such as doing market research, creating a marketing plan, and building a stand out brand?
3. Are you focusing on the main areas of your business that will convert browsers into buyers? Do you know what these areas are?
4. What are you doing to push your business to the next level? What are your plans for growth? How will you establish yourself as a leader in your niche?

If you are uncertain about your answers for any of these questions then this series is exactly what you need to move forward with your creative business.

BTW…I want to hear from you throughout this series! I want to know your thoughts, questions, & concerns that come up as you read these posts. Think of this as having a wee-bit of one-on-one access with me to get some of your most basic biz questions answered or even just to get some encouragement. So let’s start now!

The next step is for you to answer these questions in the comment section below.

Do you have an online handmade or creative business? Choose:

• "Yes & it's going well"
• "Yes, but I need some help"
• "No, but I'd like to start one"

What is your biggest question/area of concern about selling your items online?

Meagan Visser is a wife, mother, & creative entrepreneur living in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She inspires moms to pursue their creative business dreams on her coaching website MeaganVisser.com & she offers fashionable & eco-friendly products for babies & toddlers in her Etsy shop, Baby Swank. Connect with her on Twitter & Facebook!