5 Passed On Pieces of Advice for Any Craft Business

So you've decided you want to run a business (and in this case I'll be using hand made jewellery selling), but what next. How do you turn things that you have made into money? Well, its not quite as simple as putting them on Ebay or Etsy or where ever. See the following tips to help you maximise your business from the very beginning!

1.  Know your product

Try really hard not to like it or love it -- in fact the more removed you are from the product, the more objective you can be with descriptions and the less upset you will be if that particular piece does not sell. Know what style your pieces are (I'm terrible with this) and know what people would type into a search engine to find your particular piece.

In my case, I assumed that my pieces would only pop up under "polymer clay". Which they do -- BUT there are other ways to approach my products such as their style (romantic or bohemian) or their colours (bright, vivid, quirky) or their uniqueness (every heard of OOAK? One of a kind!). Try and think outside of the box (which is really hard I know) and remove yourself from your art, if only to do the Search Engine Optimisation and descriptions of your work.

2. Know your customer

If you want to be really successful you must know your demographic -- who are you making these pieces for? If the pieces are being made for someone like you, then who are you? Age, gender, dress style, music taste, career, finances....you get the picture.

Its really hard creating something for someone else, which is something that I have found whilst making my jewellery. Inspired by pieces are super hard because they are often inspired by colours I don't particularly like but ones that are "on trend". Its more difficult because to my eye, they don't look right -- I want to add vividness or bright red to it!!

3. Really know your style

So, what is your style? Steampunk? Goth? Jock? Ok, so I made that last one up, I ran out of ideas. You see how great I am with style, huh? Mostly, my style seems to be Disney-fied. Not sure how good or bad that is! Haha! But its a romantic style, very floral and bright. Thing is, I DON'T know what my style is, and therefore the pieces are not necessarily cohesive and neither are the new pieces I make. I have an idea in my mind but the pieces never seem to hit that mark. Hence why I am struggling.

But I am here to help you. Have a style board/mood board where you cut out pictures from magazines, the internet, photocopy books etc so that you have general feel for that style. Is it floral? Metal? Are the colours the basis of your style or is it the materials? Establish a strong style and you'll never waiver.

4. Market, market, market!

Get a facebook page, get a blog (ta daaa), get twitter, wanaloo, pinterest...anything to get your products out there, to get yourself out there. The best thing about social media is that the reach is HUGE but you don't have to be corporate in your approach, just friendly, professional to some degree and helpful. Showing people the real you can help you win friends and influence people.

Get chatting to your potential customers, keep them happy and then the world is your oyster. I know the crafting side of your products is probably the core of your business, but equally, so is interacting with your potential customers. You never know when someone is going to stumble across your facebook/twitter/whatever and think, 'Hey, I think I'll check this guy's shop out!'

5. Keep up!!

One thing that I have really struggled with is trying to keep up with everything: accounts, marketing, blog, making products, updating descriptions etc etc. I blame my depression but it still affects the business. Remember illness that stops you doing any of your business things WILL affect your business. So try and get on top of things, don't let things slide. Keep going.

Use scheduling apps such as Buffer that connect to your twitter and facebook which allow you to schedule your posts. And the great thing about this little tool is its FREE, its EASY and you then spend little time on social media. You can type things in there, or add photos or websites for 1 hour a week and then the weeks worth of marketing is done!

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I hope this article has helped you. I'm not a great example as I have yet to apply these bits of knowledge to my own work! But these are some great tips that I have picked up from here and there.

Don't forget, if you want to see the items in my shop look here or my facebook here

Below is my latest custom piece for a friend. Its actually one of my favourite necklaces that I have made :) Constructed from wire, handmade roses of three colours and metallic look beads.

How To Price Your Hand Made Jewellery: Tips

There is a lot of confusion on how to price your hand made jewellery, and I haven't quite grasped it yet either! You might think that pricing you items low will make it sell quickly as people are always on the hunt for a bargain! Right?...Well, thats not always the case, especially with hand made items. If you under value your work not only are you under cutting fellow artists, but you can make other people think that your items are low quality or are even mass produced (which is one comment I had about my rings when they were seriously under priced!). Of course, you can do damage to your business by going too far the other way and over pricing your pieces, which can obviously put people off. 

Selling jewellery is a huge learning curve for those of us who make it and there is always more to learn!! So here is an article that may help you from the jewelrymakingjournal.com!

Pricing Handmade Jewelry Too Low

By Rena Klingenberg

Many artists make the error of pricing their handmade jewelry too low.

Often it’s for one of these reasons:

* They don’t value their own talent. They feel “lucky” to sell one of their pieces at any price, even if the sale barely covers the cost of their materials.

* They believe their jewelry is “unworthy” of netting higher prices.

* Their well-meaning friends and family (who don’t know anything about the handmade jewelry market) urge them not to “risk failure” by setting their prices too high.

* If their jewelry isn’t selling, they assume it’s because of the pricing – so the first thing they do is drop their prices.

* Their financial situation makes them desperate to make a sale, so they hesitate to put higher prices on their work for fear of scaring customers away.

* They’re not sure how to price handmade jewelry.

But why not charge low prices for your handmade jewelry?

I’m going to share some of my thoughts here, and then I hope you’ll leave a comment below to share your thoughts and experiences regarding low prices on handmade jewelry!

 Working Harder to Earn Less

Pricing handmade jewelry too low means the artist may have to make and sell 5 pieces of jewelry to earn $50, rather than earning the same $50 for just 1 piece.

When jewelry artists set themselves up to work harder while earning less, it’s not a sustainable way to run a business.

Sooner or later the overworked artist tends to either burn out, or shut down the business because it’s not profiting enough to stay afloat.

 Growing the Wrong Customer Base

Under-pricing handmade jewelry also means that artists tend to attract a customer base that consists of “bargain shoppers” rather than “handmade jewelry shoppers”.

That makes it hard for the artist to raise their prices without losing a big portion of their customer base.

It Devalues the Overall

Handmade Jewelry Marketplace

When some artists get into low-price wars, or try to compete with cheap imported jewelry, it can hurt other jewelry artists’ sales.

Unrealistically low prices can cause some customers to equate “handmade” with “cheap pricing”, and pass up jewelry that’s priced higher and more realistically.

Undercutting other jewelry artists doesn’t do you or your fellow artists any good.

You Don’t Want to Make

This Kind of Jewelry Sale!

I’ve seen some jewelry artists actually buy other artists’ low-priced jewelry … specifically to take it apart and remake the components into a much higher-priced piece of jewelry!

The under-pricing artist is thrilled to make a sale – but has no idea their creation is being bought as a cheap source of jewelry supplies.

Don’t let that happen to you!

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I hope this has helped you at the very least see the reasons why you shouldn't under price for the sake of attracting customers! Its likely to put people off you rather get people to buy from you!

In the meantime here is a selection of gorgeous jewellery from: http://www.nintaijewellery.co.uk

Until next time x

Kick Start Your Creativity Part II

I has been a while, but I have started on a whole new project that may (or may not) take me far! Watch this space! :)

http://lifehacker.com/5963282/creativity-takes-courage

True Story!

So, a while back I wrote an article on how to kick start your creativity. I promised a part 2, so here it is!

Match your interests, hobbies and skills

What do you love to learn about, know, make, hear and see? What perks up your day when you read about it? Now, ask yourself what you CAN do. Can you write, craft, sew, cook, inspire or motivate?

Matching the answers to those three questions can give you new ideas on what to make or how to form a business out of what you love. Recently, I have been through this. I made three columns on a sheet of paper. What I love, what I like and what I can do. Oddly enough, I had a connection of two or three things that WEREN’T TO DO WITH JEWELLERY! And so, I am now exploring those. Not to necessarily make money, but to keep my creative flow moving and to allow me to explore past what I thought I loved and find some new things to love.

It’s all about pushing boundaries BUT you have to find those boundaries to begin to be able to push them!

Be excited about it!

Whatever your idea, whether it is doable or not in its infancy should get you excited! It should be able to keep you up at night just thinking about the possibilities! If you are not excited then it is not the right thing for you. If you are looking to build a business for example, you are going to have to keep that business going with new ideas and new directions for a long time (if you are successful which I hope you will be!) Eventually you will run out of excitement. And THAT is when it is time to change tact.

It is like writing a dissertation. You know that you have to write 10,000 words, possibly more on a subject which you have to thoroughly research and pick apart and argue over months and months. So it better be a subject which gets your blood pumping!!

Try to do the opposite

Now, this is a far out idea. If something isn’t working for you in whatever path you have chosen or found yourself on—then do the opposite.  Been writing? Do drawing. Telling everyone? Keep it to yourself. Buying lots? Using what you have.

It will make you think more about what you are doing and where you are going as you will be going against what your mind is used to doing. From this you can then develop different ideas and ways of thinking that allow you to build on everything that you have done and learn more about everything that you are going to do.

Or do a bit of brainstorming with opposite ideas. So what is the problem and how do people usually solve it? List a few then list the opposite to those answers. You will soon switch your mind set and journey off into a completely different road that will (hopefully) keep the excitement up and those creative juices flowing!!

Imagine you are someone else—how would they solve the problem

If you are stuck in a rut with your job, creativity or life in general then imagine you were someone else.  

So for me, I imagine (don’t laugh) that I am Lara Croft. A) because I am a woman and b) because she is absolutely kick ass with no compromises thrown in. And SHE would be able to solve any problem! (Let’s face it, if she can come back from that awful Angel of Darkness series instalment, she can do anything! Oh, and she beat death. Lots.)

So if she was going to attack any problem she would think logically, and hit it hard. So that what I do when I hit a problem that really knocks me for six. I think like Lara.

You could think like Einstein or President Roosevelt or Gordon Freeman! You will probably you’re your own role models. Let them help you think your way out of a problem!

Finally….interview your future self

Now this is a hard one but if you are already set in your role model mode then you can always answer the questions like they might.

Interview yourself from the perspective of 5, maybe even 10 years in the future. What have you achieved? What was your biggest obstacle? Who helped you get this far? Can you give anyone any advice on how to start? What was your very first step?

You can think of more if you try that are more personal to you. If you can see the goal, perhaps you can think of how to get there. Baby steps but in the right direction will give you the time and perspective that you need to keep you thinking on the track. Don’t rush, the journey is worth it!

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So that is the second part to the “Kick start you creativity”. I hope it was helpful. I am on a new journey now having worked through the above ideas with regard to Bewitching Bijou which will hopefully bring you all some interesting work and art from me!

Have a wonderful Spring!!