Category: The Business Chat

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – Sshh! Here’s a dirty little secret!

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This is for my knitting colleague who refuses to pay someone to code her website, she will save money by doing it herself. It’s been 3 years and she’s still working on it.  This is for my jewelry friend who refuses to join a prestigious online marketplace because it costs $60/year. She’s selling on her own website and has sold 15 items so far this year (it’s July).  This is for my pottery friend who will only do crafts shows if the booth fee is less then $50. She has a great job as a barista to pay the bills …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – Tell your customers what you sell.

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Tell your customers what you sell.  How hard can this be? Remember, you sell a couple of things.  If you don’t know what you sell, you can’t communicate this to a customer and communication is the basis of marketing. “Jewelry” is too broad a term and I challenged you to distill your work into a nice short description. (Remember that bicycle courier in the elevator?) Well guess what, today I’m here to tell you that you don’t sell jewelry. Well, yes you do, however jewelry (or knitting or art) is only a small part of what you sell. If someone …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – How to fill out a craft show application

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With a huge sigh of relief I put away the last of my receipts thinking I was all finished with horrible admin tasks. Then heck, it happened. I looked at the calendar and realized, crap, it’s January 14 and I have a craft show application due on the 15th (the show is next November).  ARGH! Good thing I looked at the calendar and an even better thing that I had written that deadline down. So I shall defer the sigh of relief as I fill out one more application. When you are starting your crafty business there is no faster …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – What the heck is…

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Announcing a new series, the WTHI? series. (What The Heck Is?) Good for you, you’ve decided to learn a bit more about running a business! Yay! Knowledge is power after all isn’t it? Hm,  where to start?  You try to read some business books or websites, and they throw around these terms that you have no idea what they are. Nor do you understand how they relate to your little crafty venture, there are too many acronyms and graphs. A lot of the time it seems like the information out there has nothing at all to do with what you …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – Psst, here’s a dirty little secret

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“Oh no, I can’t afford to do that show! The booth fee is SO expensive!” “No way do I have a website, I’m not technical at all, I’d have to pay someone to create it!” “I can’t sell in that store, they take a 50% cut!” Today I’m sharing one of those dirty little secrets that isn’t discussed much in other business columns.  It costs money to sell your work.  it’s hard when you first start out. You spend so much money just making your work. Then you decide to sell it and you have to invest in stuff you …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – What is that?

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It’s an exciting week over here at Sailorgirl Jewelry. My new and improved website should launch at some point!!! This project has been in the works for months, chugging away in the background, worked on during the crazy holiday show season and sidelined by details like Christmas. All in good time, it’s almost done! To celebrate the launch I am updating my online store with over 30 new items. You know what? Listing 30 new items is a HUGE amount of work! With the new site I’ve committed to listing one new item every week for 2014 and with that …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – Beware the Slot of Doom

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I admit it, this is a repeat article. With 21 shows days within a 30 day period the fact that I can still remember it is Saturday and click the publish button is a bit of a miracle. And while it is a repeat, this is most appropriate for this time of year.  Yay! Someone clicked the Add to Cart button on your website/online store and purchased your fabulous earrings!!! Congrats!!! Now, before you run off to celebrate you still have work to do. You have to get those earrings to their new owner. You have to ship your product. …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – Building a booth

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Several of you have written me lately to ask about building your first booth. (You do know that you can email me questions? Catherine@sailorgirl.com, always happy to share information). You have asked about where to buy a booth, and where to get the parts. OK, let’s talk booth.  You must create a booth that is a showcase for your work, not a stand-alone fabulous booth. Some booths are so pretty, so creative, so much a work of art on their own that the product is secondary to the display. Your display is the supporting character in your act. Without it …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – let’s build a booth

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Several of you have written me lately to ask about building your first booth. (You do know that you can email me questions? Catherine@sailorgirl.com, always happy to share information). You have asked about where to buy a booth, and where to get the parts. Well, let’s talk booth. You must create a booth that is a showcase for your work, not a stand-alone fabulous booth. Some booths are so pretty, so creative, so much a work of art on their own that the product is secondary to the display. Your display is the supporting character in your act. Without it …

The Business Chat

The Business Chat – beware the Slot of Doom

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Yay! Someone clicked the Add to Cart button on your website/online store and purchased your fabulous earrings!!! Congrats!!! Now, before you run off to celebrate you still have work to do. You have to get those earrings to their new owner. You have to ship your product. Of course it won’t be that much work because before you listed those earrings you thoroughly researched how to ship, what packaging to ship in and how much to charge for shipping. Of course you posted all of this online or in your booth (where you took an order for the earrings). And …