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.