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40 Question Blog Series – Question #37 What can I do this New Year (2011) to ensure a happy and prosperous craft business?

First things first, Happy New Year!!! I am so thankful and lucky to have great and talented craft artists following me and if this is the first time reading this blog – welcome and you came in just at the right time. Each January not only do I feel relief thinking finally some time off, but I really look forward to what the New Year has to offer. To answer this great question , here's my Top 6 list to help you be more prosperous during 2011.

Question #37 What can I do this New Year (2011) to ensure a happy and prosperous craft business?

1. Get organized! Now is time to go through your inventory of already made art/craft work, clean your workshop, balance the books and organize paperwork. For all the excuses made of “I'll do it when I have more time”, now is a perfect time for this especially with little or no shows coming up and inclement weather, like snow, approaches. I personally am dedicating January to clean my full workshop, trash items that I haven't used, and find a better system to organize my own paperwork. The best thing about being organized is you finally know what you have and don't have preventing re-ordering the same thing over and over, get a clear picture of what is and isn't selling, and the best part is finally being able to find everything.

2.  Cut costs! Take the time to look over what you had spent in the last year and see if there are any patterns in spending too much on something you didn't need to. In addition, make sure you are buying items at wholesale, not retail prices. Now is also a great time to look at different suppliers to cut costs. One good thing about the bad economy is it is a buyers market and many suppliers are running sales and offering free shipping to stay competitive, while others are doing something completely different such as acquiring newer colorful fabrics, affordable eco-friendly alternatives, or better paints and other art supplies. I do this right now, I use 5 different suppliers for my candle supplies and some offer something different while others offer staple supplies at better than wholesale prices. Shopping around really helps cut costs.

3.  Improve the quality of your work. There is nothing more alluring to your customers than knowing that what they are getting is a high quality piece of art/craft and the craftsmanship doesn't change, unless it is constantly getting better. Craft artists switching from cheap fabrics to higher quality quilt fabrics find buyers are less likely to go their local fabric shop and “make it themselves”. The same can go for jewelry makers – strive to learn a new and edgy technique to create and even more unique and highly desirable pieces of jewelry art. Photographers may want to buy better quality paper for their originals/prints – offering a better paper so that the print won't fade or is eco friendly makes for a great selling point.

4.  Utilize social networking! We all can vouch that “word of mouth advertising” works, but many don't realize how super fast social networking gets that word of mouth all the more faster. Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook are just a few popular social networking websites with many others to boot. Starting with Facebook (as nearly everyone, group, shop, etc. has one), use this to create a personal page (such as sharing family pics) and one for your craft/art business. Next, look up friends and family members and invite them to be a fan/friend of your business site. Some content that is worth posting are announcements about upcoming art shows, any good news about your business (like how you are going to be interviewed for a news paper article or won an award at a show), or simply letting people know what you are up to in your studio/workshop – whether it is cleaning, creating something new - posting a photo of it, or simply asking fans questions on how to improve your work. Twitter is great for the “short and sweet” posts like “Just finished up at the XYZ craft show and sold out of my brand new pots!”. Linkedin is great for business to business networking. Of course there are tons more – simply learn about as many as you can and join at least two to start advertising your business to the world!

5.  Improve on customer service skills. The most effective way to attract and keep customers is to bend over backwards to ensure they have a happy and positive experience shopping with you. This means in person as well as via your websites. Service with a smile, offer 100% satisfaction or your money back guarantees, listening to customers needs first before you hiem 'em up by hard selling to them, educating your customers about your work, and simply be compassionate and friendly all goes a long way to win people over with great customer service skills. There are a TON of books, podcasts, websites, seminars, etc. that cover the topic of delivering good customer service and all pretty much free. You may think you are already great at delivering good customer service, but there is always and I mean ALWAYS room for improvement. As art/craft salespeople, it is hard to use all kinds of sales language ( body language is just one of many) and listening to what the customers needs are isn't enough because there are no cookie cutter, A-typical customers anymore. Everyone is different now and it is essential to learn how to identify ways to turn on their buying switch and turn off their “I'm just looking” switch.

6. Think outside of the box. Vague? Perhaps. When I talk about thinking outside of the box in this context, I want to bring to light that there might be a different and better way of doing what you do if you broaden your way of looking at things. With this time of year welcoming a New Year, new ideas and passions emerge. Some people feel they can only sell at art shows and nothing else – wrong! There are so many options, like selling online (through your own website, artfire.com or etsy.com) or try getting your work in local galleries or gift shops that may provide an even better way of selling your art/craft. Find a better “assembly line style” of creating your art – you can accomplish more if you do 5 pieces (lets say) at one time verses one at a time. This can save you a HUGE amount of money, raising profits too!

I guarantee if you do just one of these tips you will be putting yourself on the right, and prosperous path to a happy and more prosperous New Year. Along the line of resolutions, one I am making for this blog, and the readers of this blog, is to add more personal experience with what I am doing currently with my own craft business with future blog posts. I feel it is more necessary to give first hand accounts of what works and doesn't work from yet another angle. I hope you all resolve to keep tuning in and share this blog with all your craft friends. Once the 40 questions blog series is over, I will continue this blog however may try to do a podcast (maybe a video podcast??) with the 40 questions covered and updating those tips in the podcast and/or making the 40 Questions Blog series available via a narrated CD. What are your thoughts? Is this something you would be interested in? Let me know! Until the Question #38, I wish you all a Happy New Year! - Michelle Sholund, www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com . Learn more about my craft business via www.bythebaybotanicals.weebly.com !