Business Tips, Ideas, Resources

[NaturelMistik]

More awesome information from the folks at Handmadeology:

http://handmade-business.com/handmadeology/

From that same page, a preview of Bruce Baker's "The Ultimate Guide to Handcrafted Success":

http://handmade-business.com/preview-of-the-ultimate-guide-to-handcrafted-success-by-bruce-baker/

I really like Bruce's approach and techniques, and use them while working shows. If you have not heard of him, give his site a visit:

http://bbakerinc.com/

I have the Booth Design & Merchandising for Craft and Trade Shows CD and the Dynamic Sales and Customer Service Techniques CD. If you can only get one, I recommend Dynamic Sales and Customer Service Techniques.

[NaturelMistik]

More common sense tips from the Etsy blog:

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2015/five-common-etsy-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/?ref=fp_blog_title

[NaturelMistik]

More good information from the Etsy blog:

How to get serious about your Etsy shop

blog.etsy.com/en/2015/how-to-get-serious-about-your-etsy-shop/?ref=...

Number 4 in that articles is more important that you thing - Develop a Business Plan:

blog.etsy.com/en/2013/how-to-write-a-creative-business-plan-in-unde...

There is going to be an online lab on this same topic:

Subject: How to Get Serious About Your Etsy Shop
When: Monday, January 26th @ 11:30am (EST)
Where: etsy.me/labs126
Who: Etsy Admin, and YOU!

They will post an archived version of the video in the Online Labs (etsy.me/labs126) after the live session. Also, if you would like to participate in the live chat, it is only available during the live session.

[NaturelMistik]

From the Betty Means Business blog and newsletter, by Kate Byrne:

Zero Tolerance on Drama

Seriously, when it comes to growing your business, drama is nothing but a waste of your precious time and almost never worth it.

Being drama free can manifest in a range of ways, including:

:: Being solutions focused, instead of blame/excuse focused.
:: Never ranting or making unfounded or misleading claims in public.
:: Being classy and maintaining high standards no matter what.
:: Removing yourself from any dealings with crazy people.

If up until now, you’ve welcomed or pursued drama, this can be a big – and ultimately freeing – mindset to shift. It can be helpful to remind yourself that every communication/interaction represents your brand, and to ask yourself ‘what am I trying to get out of this?’ before acting when you feel wounded. If the answer is rant, I get it – we’re all human and sometimes shit happens. But I strongly recommend you get your fix with your closest friends or mastermind soulies – NEVER publicly. I promise, it usually has the opposite effect than the one you’re hoping for.

Feel you need to take action to resolve a drama? Ask a team member or your lawyer to act on your behalf, so you can protect your energy and time, and stay focused on what’s really important.

Think like a CEO

Switching your mindset from worker in, to CEO of, your business can change everything. When you start to see yourself as the leader of your business, your perspective can shift in a number of big and small – but usually always profound – ways.

Getting clear on and stepping up as the CEO your business needs you to be, can make a huge difference when it comes to decision-making, outsourcing, delegating, how you interact and communicate with others, and how you spend your time.

For example, I bet it’s fucking awesome to be loved by everyone you have dealings with – and of course you want to (and should!) be your lovely authentic, friendly self – but the focus of an excellent CEO is what’s best for the business, not being BFFs with everyone. Yes, stepping into your CEO role fully will mean, from time to time, making and sticking to some hard decisions, but ultimately your biz will thank you for it.

Accept only the best – from yourself and others

If you're packing a mentality that’s satisfied with half assery (or cheating) your biz will suffer. Your business, your community, your clients, you – and all the people that need to hear your unique message and/or work with you – deserve your very best.

If you’ve ever half assed something in your business, here’s a love-tackle for you: you already know that plagiarizing, not delivering on agreed client commitments, or ‘barely done is good enough’, is in fact, not good enough at all. I’m betting short changing yourself and others isn’t the legacy you want to leave behind.

This mindset shift is especially relevant when it comes to your team and the level of support you allow yourself to receive.

BUT: this isn’t an excuse for self sabotage through perfectionism. Done is definitely better than perfect. Just be sure you’re personally proud putting your name on all you do.

Treat your business like a business

I get that growing your business from the ground up can feel really personal, especially if you’re building a personal brand, but trust me: to really grow your empire, you need a little distance.

Treating your business as a business means both recognizing that your business is a separate entity from you, and taking it seriously.

Stay aligned and connected to your intuition, but do your best to de-personalize decisions (tracking can be helpful here – hard data can take the heat out of situations). That, plus turning up every damn day, committing to a regular work routine and ‘office hours’, and setting and monitoring budgets, will quickly move your biz from hobby to a growing and profitable gig

Release your victim mentality

Constantly having to wade through disappointed feelings of ‘but it’s not my fault’ or ‘this wouldn’t happen to her’, isn’t going to make for easier empire building. Taking personal responsibility isn’t always fun, but it is a trait of all the multiple 6, 7 and 8 figure business-women I personally know.

The upside of taking personal responsibility is recognizing the limitless possibility that you can proactively have/do/create/be. Rather than the suffocatingly-limited reactive opportunities available to you as a victim, recognizing you are in fact a powerful, active creator of your experiences and the success of your business is really exciting and opens up a world of fun and potential profitability.

[NaturelMistik]

This is a really good read:

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2015/community-news-january-2015/?ref=community_blog_title

[NaturelMistik]

Just a reminder that people are paying attention, well, at least their lawyers are paying attention:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/taylor-swift-and-etsy-are-sparring-over-adorable-110250699674.html

[NaturelMistik]

If you have a Google+ page for your Etsy shop, this will probably be a good session:

https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/16269670/

[NaturelMistik]

From the Arts Business Institute newsletter:

ABI shares some tips for heading off and responding to aggravating customer issues:

Negative comments.

“That’s easy – I could make that.” “My son takes better photographs that those.” Have you heard degrading comments, or offhand remarks from shoppers that hurt, or just made you mad? Most people are very nice, but there are always a few tactless folks out there. Don’t let that ruin your day.

Rise above any temptation to respond to negative comments; they are welcome to their opinion. Rather, seek out those people who have positive or constructive comments about your work. You will surely hear a lot of compliments, but some customers have suggestions that may provide new ideas or even improvements. Pay attention to those people who have something to add that may make your collection better or more appealing. Sometimes acting on a suggestion from a shopper can turn into a bestseller!

Haggling.

At a retail event, there are always people who want to try to talk you into a lower price. Of course, that would never happen in a store or at a doctor’s office, but many feel that artists are fair game – and it’s insulting. But if you expect this to happen at times and plan ahead, you can give an easy answer that defends your price and clearly turns them down.

If someone is buying a number of pieces of your work and you choose to offer a discount, or free shipping, then do what you feel is right for you. Likewise, you may have a policy to give repeat collectors special pricing. But these terms are for you to offer to customers as you see fit.

Plan for hagglers, and be ready with an answer for those who ask for a discount. A simple, ”I’m sorry, I don’t discount my work” can be very effective.

Customer complaints.

This category includes everything from shipping problems to breakage and repairs, and other issues. Everyone in business has customers who are unhappy at times, and you should be prepared to deal with them.

Plan ahead to address common complaints that customer might have, so that you can resolve them quickly. Do you have a return policy? Do you offer guarantees? Do you provide repairs on your work, whether free or for a charge? Share this information on your website and in the information you give to customers at the time of purchase – it can help you avoid problems before they surface.

If you have provided care information up front such as instructions to dry clean a garment, or use silver polish on a necklace, or if you recommend a particular type of picture hanging system, you have headed off questions and complaints that might have come up.

Still, there will be times that you must deal with a customer who isn’t happy with their purchase. Remember, excellent customer service is expected these days. Many times, bending over backwards to make sure that your customers are really happy can pay off, with future sales and testimonials forthcoming.

[NaturelMistik]

Another great resource for the coming holiday season!

http://www.flourishthriveacademy.com/151-ways-to-boost-your-holiday-sales/

You have to sign up with your email, but you can always unsubscribe if you do not like the content. :-)

[NaturelMistik]

More good tips from Sycamore Street Press (I listed the headers below, lots of good links in the article):

http://sycamorestreetpress.com/blog/10-steps-to-working-smarter-not-harder-at-your-small-creative-bu...

1) Take time to keep an eye on the bigger picture.
2) Do what you do best. Delegate the rest.
3) Focus on what is most important for you to be doing RIGHT NOW.
4) Stay Innovative.
5) Capitalize!
6) “Multiple Income Streams” isn’t just some lame business jargon.
7) Passive income is kind of the best.
8) Create Systems
9) Get Organized
10) Use these small biz tools:
• Dropbox to organize design files and photos into folders
• Google Drive for documents, to do lists, and text
• Google Calendar for schedules
• Quickbooks for accounting
• Zoho for contacts
• Viraltag for Pinterest scheduling
• Schedugram for Instagram scheduling
• HootSuite for Facebook and Twitter scheduling

[NaturelMistik]

Some inspirational thoughts from Jess Van Den of createandthrive.com:

Edited down by me, available in full with links:
http://www.createandthrive.com/this-is-whats-holding-you-back-from-succeeding


This is what’s holding you back from succeeding.


Knowledge

Or – more accurately – lack of knowledge.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Of course, I’m part of the Google generation – my kneejerk response when I don’t know something is to ‘google it’ – and honestly, this is how I’ve learnt pretty much everything I’ve needed for my business over the last 6 years.

However, that only takes you so far, for two reasons:

•One – goodness me, does it take a lot of stumbling around in the dark trying to find the right info!?! Research sucks up a LOT of time – time you could be spending working on your products or other aspects of your business.

•Two – as we said above, you don’t know what you don’t know. Maybe there’s some immensely useful technique or tool or program that would make your life and business so much easier to run… but you don’t know about it. This is where being part of a community, learning from a mentor, or taking courses comes in useful.

You cut through the crap and save an immense amount of time by learning from those who’ve gone before. With the magic of the internet, the barriers to acquiring knowledge have been obliterated… but the amount of information available has also exploded.

The benefit of buying a course, attending a talk, or reading an ebook is that you skip the research. Someone has done it for you. They’ve searched, tried, tested, and then shared the distilled – immensely useful – information with you.

This, then, segues perfectly into the next limitation that’s holding you back.



Time

We all have the same amount. 24 hours, every day.

However, we have also all chosen a certain lifestyle that affects how much time we can devote to our businesses – and this will vary immensely between us. You are not anyone else – you are you, and your success will look different to mine and anyone else’s.

It’s taken me 5 years to reach the place I am with my business – over 3 of those it has been my full-time job. If you have a day job, kids, other commitments… your time is limited.

The time it will take you to achieve what you deem ‘success’ is the time it will take you. I know that sounds a bit zen, but it’s the truth. You can be clever about how you spend that time, but there is no magic bullet that will make it happen faster.

However, getting a bit of guidance will help. A lot.



Money

Just like time, the money we have to devote to our businesses will vary wildly. Maybe you have a partner with an awesome job who rakes in the dough. Maybe you’re both working part-time and just scraping by. Maybe you’re on your own and studying, or raising your kids.

Wherever you’re at, you have a limited amount of cash to invest in your business. Only you can decide what the best use of that money is. Do you need to invest in tools? Materials? A website?

It’s never been easier to make money from your creativity than it is now. You can open a shop on Etsy and get 20 products up in there for 4 bucks. The only thing you need to spend is time.

I’ve chosen the time route, because I have it. I still spend time rather than money wherever I can – which is why I love social media marketing and blogging. Some of you might prefer to spend money on advertising instead (though please still have a social media presence, it’s unavoidable these days!).

You need to spend one or the other – TIME or MONEY – in order to grow your business.



Fear

Honestly, I believe this is THE biggest thing holding most of you back.

If you don’t believe in yourself, nothing else matters.

I don’t care how much knowledge, time, or money you have. If you don’t believe in yourself and your product you will not succeed. You will never take that leap forward because you’re always scared you’re not ‘doing it right’. You’re frightened to devote yourself to your dream because you don’t believe that you can make it a reality.

Quite simply – you don’t think you’re good enough. You don’t think you deserve it. You don’t think it’s possible.

I call bullshit on that.

No-one can live your life. No-one can do this for you. No-one can make you believe in yourself. YOU have the power. YOU are the one with the dream. YOU are the one who WILL make it a reality. This is YOUR life to live EXACTLY as you please, because you’re not going to get another chance at it.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Get out of your own way and go for it.

So, now it’s time to ask yourself – what is it that’s truly holding you back?

[NaturelMistik]

An explanation of the liability shift when chip cards become somewhat mandatory on October 1, 2015 (from squareup.com):

The liability shift — part of a nationwide effort to cut down on fraud — is fast-approaching. Here’s what’s happening: banks are now issuing new, more secure chip cards (aka EMV*** cards) to customers. And sellers are being asked to do their part by upgrading their payments terminals to accept these cards by October 1, 2015.

After that date, your business could be on the hook for certain types of in-person fraudulent transactions if you aren’t set up to accept EMV. Previously, the banks and processing networks ate the cost of some of these fraudulent charges. Now that could fall on you.

What sorts of fraud won’t be covered anymore? The simplest way to think about it is this: the liability is shifting to the party with the less secure technology. A scenario: a fraudster pays with a counterfeit EMV card at a business that doesn’t have an EMV reader. The business processes the transaction as a magstripe transaction (EMV cards also have magstripes). In this case, the bank that issued the card made the investment to upgrade to chip technology, which would have stopped the fraud if the business had had an EMV reader. So the liability here shifts to the business.


*** A brief explanation of EMV cards from creditcards.com:

EMV -- which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa -- is a global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions. In the wake of numerous large-scale data breaches and increasing rates of counterfeit card fraud, U.S. card issuers are migrating to this new technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud.

As the U.S. payment industry transitions to EMV technology, there's a lot to adjust to, starting with what to call the new cards. They might be called any of the following terms:

•Smart card
•Chip card
•Smart-chip card
•Chip-enabled smart card
•Chip-and-choice card (PIN or signature)
•EMV smart card
•EMV card


And a note on the safety of these new cards from identityguard.com:

Since the new technology allows the card to be read while still in the owner's wallet, can identity thieves steal credit information simply by placing an RFID scanner nearby? The answer seems to be a conditional maybe, but a rather extraordinary set of circumstances would have to be present.

Remember we said the card is read by a scanner held one to four inches from the chip. That would mean a bad guy would have to get his scanner within four inches of your card. Some argue this would be possible by a scammer bumping into you in a crowd and running a wand over where your wallet is - pocket or purse.

Some argue that scammers can develop more highly sophisticated scanners that can work at greater distances, but that will take a leap in technology that would be costly, and in the end probably not worth it.

Most RFID card now being issued encrypts the cardholder’s information. So even if the card is read by a remote scanner, to even access personal information, the scammer must also be able to break the card issuer’s encryption code.

Moreover, RFID cards also create a new authentication code for each transaction. Unlike a magnetic stripe card a thief can use over and over until the card is shut down, with a single authentication code it is pretty much a one and done situation for the scammer.

[NaturelMistik]

Not really a tip, but definitely a good read. And the puppets are cute too:

http://www.anotherlongpostbystacey.blogspot.com/

[NaturelMistik]

This is really inspiring:

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2015/elizabeth-gilberts-guide-to-creative-living/?ref=fp_blog_title

[NaturelMistik]

Miss Malaprop's Guide to How to Make a Living as an Artist or Crafter:

http://www.missmalaprop.com/how-to-make-a-living-as-an-artist-crafter

Lots of good information and links.

[NaturelMistik]

Free webinar today @3:00pm EST from the folks at 'How to Sell on Etsy':

https://eshopmarketers.com/webinar-registration241gi

[NaturelMistik]

Jess with Create & Thrive just posted a link to 5 different free eBooks! Not sure how long this will be active, so grab them while you can. It is password protected.

Password (case sensitive): GimmieTheGoodies!

Link: http://www.createandthrive.com/about/handmade-business-toolkit?utm_source=Create+%26+Thrive&utm_camp...

Note: You may not have to use the password since I copied this from the page after I entered it.

[NaturelMistik]

Here is the Complete Etsy Category List - a great way to figure out where/how to list your items:

https://www.etsy.com/help/categories/seller

[NaturelMistik]

Moving these over from the 'Announcements' thread:


Another great post from Etsy - 10 Ways to Think Like a Buyer

blog.etsy.com/en/2014/10-ways-to-think-like-a-buyer/?ref=etsy_success


And another place to promote your shop:

www.etsy.com/teams/21915/promos/discuss


New landing page for buyers and sellers regarding safety issues:

www.etsy.com/trust


How to request a phone call from Etsy:

www.etsy.com/help/article/4872

[NaturelMistik]

From Square - Successful Entrepreneurs Do These 8 Things Every Morning:

https://squareup.com/townsquare/successful-entrepreneurs-do-these-8-things-every-morning/

[NaturelMistik]

For those of you who are brand spanking new, or in the process of opening your shop, or just opened your shop but are a bit lost, this course/challenge is for you!!

The Etsy 30 Day Challenge with Hey Jules. Over the course of 30 days you will have access to information, instructions, demos, and Q&A to help you open your shop. Plus, they are offering all participants the opportunity to list their first 20 products for free! Real all the details here:

https://www.etsy.com/madeincanada/etsychallenge

[NaturelMistik]

Available for a short time! This is a really good offer:

http://www.handmadeologyuniversity.com/

[NaturelMistik]

From Jason at Etsy-preneurship:

http://etsy-preneurship.com/11-etsy-links-you-should-be-using-to-keep-your-shoppers-engaged/

[NaturelMistik]

This is fun (and useful) - spell check your Etsy shop:

http://instantspellcheck.com

[NaturelMistik]

Hey friends!

Etsy is doing a listing critique in the forums TODAY at 12:00pm EST. This is a good way to hear from Etsy Admin what you are doing right (and wrong). First come, first served; only one listing per seller. Here is the information:

Hello Etsy sellers!

On Wednesday, June 8th, we’re going to be offering tags and titles listing critiques to help get your shops into tip top shape! Etsy Admin worldwide, with guidance from the Shop Optimization and Seller Account Management Teams, will be evaluating your specific listings and sharing their feedback in the Forums.

These listing critiques are an excellent opportunity for you to receive specialized feedback from Etsy Admin about what’s working and what you could improve on for a specific listing in your Etsy shop.

We will consider requests for a critique on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that thoughtful critiques take time to construct, which means that we might not be able to get to every request during this session.

We will be accepting submissions for listing critiques from 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST and critiques will be delivered between 12:00pm - 4:00pm EST.

- How to participate -

Head into the Discussions section of the Forums on Wednesday, June 8th at 12:00 p.m. EST, where you will find a Listing Critique thread pinned to the top. You can respond to that thread with a link to one listing from your shop that you would like us to focus on before 1:00 p.m. ET. (Note: You can only post one item for the session, so choose wisely!)

Etsy Admin will share their feedback on a rolling basis from 12:00pm - 4:00pm (Not necessarily in the order that the links are received.)

Thanks and be sure to set those reminders for 12pm EST on Wednesday!

Link to the post: https://www.etsy.com/teams/7716/announcements/discuss/17796387/page/1