Every year I think, This year I will do X, Y or Z! Great intentions. But if I never start I will never know if I can do it so 2020 is my year.
For the past 10 years I have been living in Australia running a Hair Accessory business called Little Lizzie. It's been a struggle at times and I have come to realise that I have wasted way too many hours on things that in the end really didn't matter. So this Blog will be going over some of the things that I have found worked for me in my business as well as giving tutorials in Bow Making and a few other crafty things.
One of the hardest things with any handmade business from a makers point of view is getting good feedback in the starting out phase. You've come up with an idea (or multiple ideas) of products you would like to make. You've looked on YouTube (as almost all of us do) for tutorials. You've saved your favorite inspiration to a list and have tried a few things out but you don't know if your makings are "good enough". You might have asked your friends or family what they think ... but are they saying they're good just to make you happy. Believe me every crafter has been there at one point or another. This self doubt can also happen at any time along your journey, so it's important to remember that it is not just you that has these feelings.
Most of us turn to Facebook and search for groups in your chosen field of craft. This can be an excellent way of finding out if you are on the right track. Unbiased opinions of strangers that will tell you what they think. You post a few photos and see what people think. You get some likes and a few comments ...whew you're on the right track, it's not just family being nice. You decide to ask a few questions in the groups you've found. Now this is where as a crafter of any sort you need to take peoples opinions with a grain of salt. Because they are just that opinions, it's their truth and not necessarily THE truth. If asking for recommendations of suppliers and places to find items you haven't been able to find then the information they share with you will be valuable. But if asking for information on laws surrounding your chosen crafting venture then you are better off doing your own research. This is because you will get a lot of people that will just disregard certain laws because they see them as being too hard to follow. That they have been doing this for a long time and never been caught so a law magically doesn't apply to them. They now pass their "truth" onto you and because you never check for yourself, down the road it could become a problem for you. So always do independent research around anything that has a legal or governmental context to it.... just to be safe.
So now you turn to trying to sell your items. This is where it becomes your choice. You have to decide how much effort you want to put into your business. When I started out I only did markets. That's a lot of physical work. Early mornings even when it was raining. Setting up marquees and lugging tables and then waiting for customers to walk by and hoping they will buy your products. This can be hit and miss depending on the day and the type of market you are attending so if you want to go down the market route you need to research. Locate and find the markets you think will fit your business. There are weekly, monthly, bi-annual and annual markets. Visit them in operation and prepare to spend the day there or visit the same market a couple of times on the same day. They might start out busy and then fade out quickly or sellers might be there for hours before customers arrive at lunch or tea times.
You might not have the time to dedicate to Markets after all you might work all week and want to do things at the weekend so sitting at a market all day is not for you. So online is the way to go. In fact everybody should have an online presence. Deciding how to start can be the problem. You need to decide fairly early on what established selling platforms you would like to use. My recommendation is to have at least two points of online presence, at least to start with. These two should consist of one social and one selling. Facebook and Instagram are the 2 biggest social media names but there are others so if in your location you know of another that is the go to social platform then go with that. Then you need to choose a selling platform. Now for most I would not recommend starting straight out with a personalized website but if you really want to go down this route straight out, then more power to you. For most using an established forum like Etsy.com or Shopify will be the way to go. Both of these can be linked to your social media platform so that when a customer sees something they like they know how and where to get it from. There are fee structures to both of these that you need to keep in mind when listing your items but both of these companies have a huge established presence which means that there are potential customers waiting for you from day one of listing which is important when you are trying to enter a marketplace. I had my Etsy account for almost 5 years before I really started to use it. So remember you can set up accounts and use them minimally, to keep them open, until such time as you are ready to use that platform fully.
Then my last piece of advise which most of you will think well I chose that first, is your business name. Now I named my business Little Lizzie. I named it for my niece and that was fine until I started thinking about branching out into other avenues about 5 years in. I was inspired by some wedding pieces I had been asked to make and I briefly thought I might go down that line of making but my business name doesn't really fit the product and of course I didn't end up doing it. So even though its hard to imagine the future try to choose a name that is going to stand the test of time. Then google that name, see what it brings up in the search engine. Then go to Outlook or Gmail and see if you can create it as an email. After that go to your Social media and Selling platforms and see if you can create a page using that name. Only after that do you choose a name..... Consistency is key. You want a customer to go this is the name of the business type it in and there it is. Not have hyphens and underscores in different places because when you went to the next platform the name you wanted was already taken.
