Your small handmade business NEEDS email marketing in its life. It’s 4x more effective than social media is and it’s a guaranteed way to stay in touch with your followers. Facebook, Instagram or Twitter can change their algorithm at any time to limit how many people you reach, or even shut down your account without warning. …
Here’s how I used to treat craft shows. I’d go into crazy-woman sewing mode in the weeks leading up to a craft show. All other marketing and updating of sales channels would stop so I could give my full attention to production. I’d stay up late the last couple of nights before the…
When I started my handmade business, I thought more was more. The more options of handbags I offered, the more sales I could make because I’d be appealing to a wider variety of customers. I had: No clear customer I was targeting. No clear style I was known for. No product…
The very first craft show I sold at was in a small community league hall with less than 20 vendors. Craft fairs were fairly new and indie at that time. Although people showed up, it wasn’t exactly a buzzing scene. So it made my lack of conversation/selling skills even more apparent and awkward….
I have a confession… I love reading YELP and GOOGLE reviews. Especially the bad ones. I’m not really sure why. I’ll spend several minutes scrolling through strangers’ opinions of a business, even if I never plan on being a customer of theirs. At the risk of sounding like an online lurker, let’s say it’s…
Selling your products wholesale to retailers can be a great revenue stream…if you’ve priced your products properly. Selling wholesale often means bigger orders with less effort. Instead of having to sell 50 items to 50 different customers, you can sell 50 items to a retailer in one transaction. Of course, profit margins are…
November and December are two of the busiest shopping months of the year, thanks to all the gift-giving opportunities. Many businesses earn the majority of their revenue in the last quarter of the year. Are you ready to make the most of holiday sales? By the end of October, there’s not a lot of time…
If you haven’t noticed by now, I love translating my riveting life experiences (buying an outhouse and eating blizzards for dessert) into business lessons. This article is yet another lesson taken from the exciting pages of my life, this time when I was bathing suit shopping. Who wants to try on bathing suits,…
Asking for the sale is not as awkward as it sounds. The sales technique isn’t about coming right out and saying “will you please buy?”, but rather, asking questions that help a shopper make a decision to buy. If they’re not interested in buying, they’ll simply let you know. But if they’re on a…
It kind of amazes me how many handmade businesses start before they know who they’re starting for. No shame. I didn’t know who my ideal customer was when I started my first handmade business. However, that was over a decade ago and the Internet is much different today; rich with bloggers sharing free advice….