The Herb Gardener: Homemade Herbed Cheese.
Now that spring time is here, I really need to get my garden back into better shape. I have everything needed to spice up this yogurt cheese in my garden (er, except for the paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper :P) so it’ll be really fresh and delicious!
Tenacious Textiles: Where Wit Meets Whimsy.
My best friend, recently married and moved far away from me, added some adorable items to her Etsy shop! I snatched up a headband. I’ve been meaning to make or buy one, but just never got around to it. Thanks Christy! Check our her shop… I want the Scaredy Sugar Glider, but I think I’m going to save my money for some other fashion items she may put out!
Sewing Machine melody from lara grant on Vimeo.
This person used conductive thread and her sewing machine to create music! This is pretty amazing. I might have to try playing around with conductive thread and electronic fashion sometime… there are some pretty cool projects out there, like this Turn Signal Jacket on Instructables.
As if I needed more hobbies.
This table is hilarious and adorable. Brings “camaraderie” to a whole new level! :)
A shirt cuff wallet from RePlayGround. It’s a wallet made out of a cuff of a plaid shirt. It’s a great use of scraps and it looks very classy.
An embroidered replica of our favorite “cock sauce” (Sriracha).
And TetrisGems.com, which sells Tetris-themed jewelry! Besides the above-pictured necklace, I really like the idea of the couples ring. How romantic! :P
Another great crafty business resource that I found incredibly useful is the podcast Craftypod. Most of the episodes do not focus on business, but the ones are do are an incredible mound of information. The episodes are only 20-25 minutes long, so are a pretty quick listen. I listened to a lot of them while folding up my massive piles of laundry, and some others while I taught myself to embroider for the business.
The only problem I had with Craftypod was the loading of their website. Each page, especially for the main podcast site, took FOREVER to load, at least in Google Chrome. Is there too much stuff on the main pages?
Here are the business-related episodes that I found the most useful and helpful and gave me new ideas (and reinforced/validated some ideas I already had):
Marketing
#70: Marketing Your Art & Craft, with Ryan McAbery One of the first episodes I listened to. It’s great to hear tips from someone who is so successful on Etsy and otherwise… in fact, she was so successful, that she… well, why don’t you keep reading this blog post?
#78: Market Your Craft Online, with Jennifer Perkins This episode gave me ideas on where to start online with marketing. I will most likely stick with the blog and probably Facebook.
#89: Branding Your Crafty Business I didn’t really know what “branding” meant until I listened to this episode.
#106: Engagement Marketing for Your Crafty Business
Business
#95: Crafting for Money vs. Passion, with Paul Overton A great interview about what it means to craft. Is making your passion and hobby into a business a good idea?
#107: Taxes for Your Crafty Business, with Hunter Coleman This is something that has been freaking me out. Coleman talks about some business deductions you can do, and just other general and VERY useful tax information.
Etsy-specific episodes:
#76: Etsy Street Teams with Leah Pellegrini A quick primer on Etsy street teams and how different they can be organizationally from one another. The show notes also gives links to some other great resources to “band together” with other crafty businesses.
#97: A Top Etsy Seller Downsizes, with Ryan McAbery
Happy New Year and Valentine’s Day!
Today I am going to work, where we are tapping Pliny the Younger by Russian River… Hopefully some lovebirds will come in for some good ol’ hoppy goodness!
What is everybody else’s plans? (Or, if you’re reading this AFTER Valentine’s Day, what did you do?)
I love sending mail and I have a couple of consistent pen pals. This is a cute idea!
This actually sounds like a pretty cool way to send business-related mail also, especially if you have a physical storefront that people can visit. For me, I won’t have a physical location, but I still like the idea for personal letters or invitations to get-togethers.
The Map-as-Envelope (via Lifehacker).
There is no way Vanessa Coppola actually keeps her craft space this tidy (via Craftzine).
This post is categorized under “Inspiration” but it’s more like “Jaw-dropping disbelief” that any creative-type can keep their space this tidy. Where are the works-in-progress lying around? She must have thrown everything into the living room right before taking these pictures.
Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby in a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco, published by Chronicle Books
When I first wanted to start the business, I looked up general business startup info, looking at the usual suspects: the California Small Business Assistance Center, the Small Business Administration, and subsequently SCORE San Diego. The latter had a to do list to help me break down what I needed to do when, like file a fictitious business name and a business license.
Craft, Inc. has all of that information also, but what it’s mostly useful for is the craft side of your business. It is SUCH a great resource and answered a lot of questions that I didn’t even know that I should have. What is your creative mission statement? What makes your items unique? How will you package your items?
What I love most about this book is that it focuses so much on the business aspect of being creative (because let’s face it: you’ve probably got the creative part down, just not the business!). How should you price your items so you’re fair to yourself and your customers? How should you publicize and market your company and designs? How about getting customers to pay? What is the difference between wholesale/consignment/retail?
There are a lot of questions to answer when you start any type of business, and this book is great in answering them, and helping you answer them. There are a few checklists in here for the aspiring business owner to go through to make sure he/she has thought of all the important things. And I LOVE checklists.
Table of contents:
Chapter 1: Your Creative Mind – how to feed your creativity
Chapter 2: Your Business Mind – some business essentials
Chapter 3: Your Personal Style and Your Products – includes tips on how to find inspiration, how to protect your work, and other information on how to create your products
Chapter 4: Production and Pricing Plans – includes how to price your items, if/when you should buy additional equipment for your business, and other info about actual production
Chapter 5: Marketing and Publicity Strategies – includes picking a publicist, how to reach out to magazines and blogs, and other marketing/publicity info
Chapter 6: Making Sales and Order Fulfillment – includes information on craft fairs, how to deal with consignment, getting paid!, and more info on how to get your business name/brand out into the world
Chapter 7: Ups, Downs, and Next Steps