News You Can Use for 2013

You just can't find better hints and advice than this - shared by Maggie at Creative Income!  Thought you might find this helpful.  Check it out......

Blog | Winter Crafts | Crochet Patterns | Free Craft eBooks | Knitting Patterns | Low-Cost Crafts

Remember to add mail@FaveCrafts.com to address book to ensure inbox delivery.	January 1, 2013

Hey Crafters,

Happy New Year! We couldn't think of a better time to hash out your business plans and get a kickstart on beginning or growing your crafty enterprise. Luckily, our contributor, Vicki O'Dell, has been kindly putting together a series of articles on starting your creative business in 2013 with advice and tips pulled from her own experience. It's all the things she wished she knew before she jumped in head first like you might be ready to do. So read up and don't give yourself an excuse to not kick that dream in the butt!

Start Your Creative Business in 2013

1. Time and Effort
   
2. Being Consistent
   
3. Balance
   
4. Keeping a Secret
5. Dream Big
   
6. Copyright Basics
   
7. Promotion
   
8. Pricing
   

Bonus Starter Articles

1. Tips for Building a Successful Creative Business
   
2. So You Have an Idea For a Craft Business?
   
3. 3 Ways to Pull the Trigger on Your Creative Business
   
4. Building Your Brand Online: Websites and Blogs
   

Sincerely,

Editor of Creative Income

Great Resources and Links

Here are a few resources you might find very helpful in the upcoming Holiday Season that were provided originally by :

From AmEx Open Forum, Facebook Secrets to Keep Customers Interested

From Businessweek.com, Sell More Online This Holiday Season

From AmEx Open Forum, Fighting the Penguin: Tips for Winning Back Google Traffic  

We're always looking for ways to maximize our exposure and venues for selling our products.   Good luck and Happy Selling!

Great Resources for your Craft Shows

8 Articles to Have Your Best Craft Show Yet!

Posted by maggie on June 13th, 2012 at 03:42pm

‘Tis the season! Craft fair season that is. As you’re busily shuffling around trying to get all your product made, priced, and displayed some of the finer details of preparing for a craft fair can easily be forgotten or just slip through the cracks. Having multiple craft show checklists running is probably something that you do already, but it can’t hurt to check and double check right? The last thing you want to happen is to show up at craft fair and realize you forgot to bring change.

http://creativeincomeblog.com/articles-to-have-your-best-craft-show-yet/

National Crafts Month

One of my favorites - http://www.favecraftsblog.com/craft-tutorials-national-craft-month/  Always great ideas and new projects!

Crafting as a Business By Michelle Sholund

Crafting as a business

We found this really great article on Georgia Fairs and Festivals we thought you might find very helpful:

Do's and Don'ts

When you begin to treat your hobby as a craft AND a business you can learn to make what you do fun and profitable!

So, you were at a craft show, thought, "I can do that", and now you are ready to work on doing your first craft show. How do I find a craft show, what are my expenses, how do I charge - a million questions are probably going through your mind. Here's some advice as to what to do and what not to do when doing your first craft show.

DO - Craft shows close to where you live. Look in local papers, chamber of commerce places, or event websites. This will keep expenses low such as gas, time to and from the show, etc.

DO NOT - Go to the first show you see advertised. There are a number of shows out there such as street festivals, high schools, etc. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is not wise because you could miss out on others that may have more advertising which leads to more customers, cheaper space fees, etc.

DO - Know your price range for a show. With this I mean the space fee could be $20 to $500 or more. If you are starting out go small and work your way up. The higher you go when you first start out doing shows can be a big let down if you can't break even. Also, higher priced shows are more for the big league crafters that go from state to state - not all crafters, but most. It is best to get a following doing small shows and then try out for a bigger show.

DO NOT - Change the price of your products from show to show. It will make customers think you are dishonest and possibly think you don't make your own products. Find a happy medium and stick with it - remember you can do sales to help out at shows that are in lower income areas. If you do have a problem pushing your items then I would try lowering the price and see what happens. Another suggestion is to mention that "Due to availability of certain items prices are subject to change."

DO RESEARCH - Like what you are doing here is research in learning about what to expect doing craft show. But more so, go to various crafts shows and see it from the stand point of customers and crafters. How is the flow of traffic? Are crafters or customers complaining? What is the size of spaces at the show and what areas are getting seen more than others? Also if someone is selling similar products you are, check prices and introduce yourself. Some crafters may be iffy in giving you advice due to competition but others can be a wealth of knowledge.

DO NOT - Expect that once you have a space and your craft you need anything else. Your display is the second most important thing next to your craft and should try doing setting up your display before doing the craft show to know what to expect. Just having a table and your items on it is not a display. It is wise to get a table cloth that covers three sides of your table. And the table cloth can be plain or decorative/festive. Having just a table cloth alone will hide your boxes and containers under the table. Also, having height and dimension will get people to see you items - i.e. shelving for on the table or free standing, peg boards, clothing racks (if you sell scarves, clothing, etc.) If your items lay flat on the table upon first look people won't think you are selling anything - just look at your display from a customers point of view. And do not have empty space. If you do, it looks like you aren't well prepared or there isn't enough to keep one's attention. The more you fuss over your items as in restocking, it gives customers a sense of urgency in "ooh what else is she putting out, maybe it is different than what was out already," and that you are busy due to sales.

DO - Wear comfortable clothes and prepare for inclement weather. Some indoor shows are hard to predict whether it will be hot or cold inside (even outside for that matter). Dressing in layers helps. Also with rain (whether it is an outdoor show or indoor show) know the easiest route to your booth and how to shield your items and display from rain and wind. There are numerous times I have seen displays blown over time and time again due to wind and rain damage.

DO NOT - Assume that the promoter knows your needs. In your application make sure you have things noted like the need for electricity, or that you need an extra table, be in a visible area, or not be next to certain types of vendors. If you aren't specific in your application, promoters may not be able to help you.

DO - Give customers space. A lot of customers are there to browse and may or may not want to engage in conversation. However, saying hello to customers or a how are you today opens the window for conversation if the customer has questions.

DO NOT - Crowd your customers. Just think of the one store you get harassed in as soon as you walk through their doors. Allow customers to browse and suggestive sell. If someone likes a certain type of jewelry, say a necklace, show them a matching bracelet or piece "xyz" would compliment their eyes. Also, some customers zone in on one thing and will be oblivious to other items on your display, suggesting that if they like what they are holding, they will definitely like this one and point or pick up the item you think they would like in addition to what they have. Also, keeping some information (personal information) to oneself is good because remember you are there to sell and tying up some peoples time with conversation can discourage other possible sales.

DO - Have business cards! How else can a customer contact you if they want to buy more of your things or have an issue with one of your things? Doing a simple business card on the computer with a word processing software or a desktop publishing program is very cost effective than going to an outside business. And the paper can be pretty cheap depending on how nice you want your cards to be. Sometimes your kids or grandkids can help you with that too. Also having a notepad for people to sign up on a mailing list is really good too. If they are interested in more information this allows you to have the ball in your court with the information verses waiting by the phone hoping they will call you.

DO NOT - Walk around asking questions from other vendors about their sales. This is considered a no no in the show circuit. If vendors at the same show do well and you are not, they will probably not feel right telling you that they are doing well. If they are having a slow day it will only bring down their morale to have to share figures they are not proud of. Either way it is not a good idea and is heavily frowned upon by the show promoters and other vendors.

DO NOT - Have high expectations for your first show. You will get a lot of "How cute", "Isn't that nice", or even "I can do that" and they can just walk away. And you will get sales but comments will for the most part out weigh sales. Some do really well on their first show and others don't. The biggest reason for this is exposure - the more exposure you do the more people will find you and buy time after time. Remember if you break even that is good! Doing more that deserves a big pat on the back. Also the more knowledge going into a craft show the better you will do too.

DO - Have fun! The biggest thing with shows is generally they are a lot of work but a lot of fun too. You get a huge surge of self confidence and ego boost from customers - who doesn't like that?! Also, meeting other crafters is really good especially the advice may have too!

LASTLY - DO NOT - Get discouraged. It may take 2-3 craft shows to get the hang of them - but every craft show is a learning experience. Also, don't get carried away with shopping for yourself - remember you do want to make money and keep some around for reinvesting in your craft as well as walk away with some profit. I have been doing shows for a couple of years now and am finding my niche in what shows are best for me and my products, getting a following, etc. It will come, just stick with it, plan well, and think positive.

Crafting as a business

By Michelle Sholund

Strategic Social Networking

Strategic Social Networking: Finding Influencers

Posted on July 5, 2011

When you become sick of blindly applying for job openings you may turn your efforts towards networking. You may not have the opportunity to network in person with the key people you identify and then target so here are some tactical ways for finding influencers through social media.
LinkedIn
If you aren’t sure who you should be connecting with on LinkedIn, take a look at the jobs you’re applying for. You want to connect with anybody you can at that company and ideally the person either in charge of hiring or who would be your supervisor if you got that job. You can do some detective work and if a job listing for ABC Company says you will report to the Creative Director, do a people search in LinkedIn for someone with that job title at that company. You can connect with people several ways.
1. Groups – if there is someone very important you want to connect with try to see what groups they are a member of, which is sometimes publically listed at the bottom of their profile. Join one or several of these groups, then after you are a member you can request to connect with the same person and list the common group as how you know them.
2. In Mail – for those on LinkedIn paying more for their account, you can message them without being a connection through InMail. Sometimes a person will also list their actual email in some part of their profile so keep your eyes peeled for this too.
Take an extra 10 seconds and customize the request to connect message so it includes their first name and 1 sentence like. “Sam, I’m looking to connect with other healthcare IT experts like yourself. Thanks, Tina”
Twitter

Strategic Social Networking

Find the key influencers you want to reach out to on Twitter. If you already have been doing this on LinkedIn, you’ve saved yourself some work because you can find all the Twitter handles of your 1st connections and follow them. But you don’t want to stop at passively following an important person, you want them to engage with you and hopefully follow you back.
Before you mention them for the first time do some research.
1. Look at what they’re talking about in their stream. If there are links, click on them.
2. Go to the website they have listed in their bio and poke around. If it’s a blog, read a few posts.
3. Try to find more trivial facts about them like what they do for fun, their dog’s name, what sports team they cheer for and what restaurants or bars they check into on FourSquare.
Now you can mention them with a question about one of the links they shared, a recent blog post, or how they enjoyed the food at the Mexican restaurant last night. This gives you a much better chance of engaging with them.
Above all never ever directly ask a stranger for a job, this is a huge turn off and will hurt you more than never reaching out to them at all. Let people get to know you first, and provide them with value by helping them with something or sharing relevant content. After you have built this relationship then you have earned the right to ask for something in return.
Check out this post for more networking tricks.

Should You Offer Free Shipping?

Merchant Spotlight:
The Case for Free Shipping: Is it Profitable?

April 26th, 2011 by Darby Williams

Free shipping has been around for ages (at least the eCommerce age). You would think it’s been fully studied and every online merchandiser knows the quantitative impact on their business. But it hasn’t, and they don’t. They know a lot about it, but not always whether it’s profitable!

Summary Conclusions

Our Case Study on TheFind’s new Quick Promotion tool shows a 23% traffic uplift for retailers running Free Shipping promotions on TheFind. Industry research suggests that free shipping on reasonably-sized products could be a profitable way to grow traffic, sales and loyalty. The trend among most retailers it to offer some form of free shipping during key selling periods (like Holidays and Mothers’ Day). The trend for more and more influential retailers is to offer unconditional free standard shipping (but that may be more strategic than profitable).  Free shipping clubs is a great way for smaller retailers to reap some of the shipping economies large retailers enjoy, and make Free Shipping (with a minimum order size) profitable.

Case Study on TheFind

We started by understanding the impact of Free Shipping on driving traffic to your site – from TheFind. On March 20th, we launched a “Quick Promotions” tool in our Merchant Center. With this tool, merchants can quickly set up an across-the-board Free Shipping promotion for every product that meets a specified price range. A key feature of the tool is that Free Shipping is boldly displayed in the product tile on our search results pages.

Since March 20th, 113 Merchants have initiated Free Shipping promotions on TheFind using this tool. We measured both clicks and impressions for a 2-week period just prior and just after starting the Free Shipping promotion. We analyzed Click-Through Rates to normalize for changes in demand during this period. What we found was an average uplift of 23.1% in CTR from offering Free Shipping on our search results pages. Our conclusion is that “You can significantly increase traffic with Free Shipping, taking share directly from your competitors”. Makes sense in general.

Tipping Point – Commit or Lose Share:
You’ve probably noticed more articles and blog postings about Free Shipping in the last 6 months. That’s because there’s significant momentum with Free Shipping promotions – in aggregate and with notable eCommerce trend-setters. It’s hard to determine realtime when tipping points occur, but the indications look very strong that for Free Shipping promotions, the tipping point is happening now!

In aggregate during the 2010 Holidays comScore reported the percentage of U.S. eCommerce transactions that included free shipping rose to 55.1% the week of Nov 11/28/10, up from 45.6% the same week in 2009. Given the need to promote heavily during the 2009 recession, the increase in 2010 is quite significant. 57.5% of merchants offered free shipping without conditions at some point during the 2010 Holiday period, perhaps even more surprising than overall adoption percentages. 7% of the leading 100 online retailers offered Free Shipping on all orders, according to Lauren Freedman’s etailing group annual mystery shopping survey.

Trend-setting individual merchants:


Amazon – offers free shipping on qualified orders over $25; plus, Amazon Prime – free 2-day shipping for all Prime members.
Walmart – for the Holidays, offered free shipping on nearly 60,000 online items, including most electronics, jewelry and toys — with no minimum purchase requirement.
Zappos – a true pioneer in this area, offers free shipping as part of its deep-seated customer service commitment that includes free shipping BOTH ways plus 365-day return policy and 24/7 customer service.
Ebay – big push with its sellers to offer Free Shipping promotions – products sold using Free Shipping rose dramatically – from 5% in Q1/08 to 33% in Q4/10.
Macy’s – offers free shipping for all products $99 or more.
Overstock.com – offers free shipping for new customers on their first order.
LL Bean – offers free shipping with “no minimum purchase, no end date and no conditions – guaranteed”.


Free Shipping membership clubs:
Amazon Prime – free unlimited two-day shipping, no minimum order size.
Williams Sonoma Reserve – free standard shipping on most items.
Sears’ ShopVantage – free standard shipping.
Overstock’s Club O – free shipping on every order, plus 5% discount on most items
ShopRunner – free unlimited two-day shipping, no minimum purchase; plus all ShopRunner returns ship free (equivalent to Zappos).
MasterCard Marketplace – free shipping is a prominent feature with participating merchants.

Of all these trends, in my opinion the combined moves of Walmart and Amazon have impacted online retailers the most, given the breadth of their combined product coverage. Next most impactful are the “all-in” commitments of Zappos and L.L. Bean. Did we say “Tipping Point”?

The Economics:
The domino effect of these competitive moves will likely drive Free Shipping to become a “cost of doing business”. You may need to ante up to maintain share. I think we’re a year or 18 months from that point, but proactive merchants may want to take the plunge now, and be fully and permanently committed by the Holidays. In fact, you may want to purposely make this move well before the Holidays. Undoubtedly, it was very deliberate timing of L.L. Bean to commit in a non-Holiday period to make the case that it’s part of their founding commitment to customer service, not just a Holiday promotion.

That said, I’m sure you still want to know the economic impact of making a permanent move to Free Shipping. Here’s what we discovered in our research and analysis:

Increase in Average Order Value – comScore measured the correlation between Free Shipping and AOV over the 2010 Holiday period, and found a whopping 45% higher AOV on average with products sold with Free Shipping. (See chart to right) This factor clearly helps in delivering “profit contribution” to the equation, though it may not fully compensate for the added shipping cost. The key question is, of course, “that’s the average, but how much will your AOV increase with Free Shipping?”

Increase in Orders – Reason #1 – Reduction in Shopping Cart Abandonment – As you know, the Shopping Cart is where most shoppers first discover the cost of shipping. The surprise of discovering high shipping costs at that pivotal point in the shopping process is the #1 reason shoppers abandon their cart. Which is a key reason why Amazon, L.L. Bean and others state Free Shipping on their key landing pages. Perhaps our case study results, above, might shed some light on the impact free shipping on cart abandonment – 23% increase in click-through on TheFind might translate to the same ballpark drop in cart abandonment.

Increase in Orders – Reason #2 - Bringing Shoppers Off the Sidelines – a recent consumer survey found that 23% of consumers use the reason “high shipping costs” to avoid buying online. In other words, free shipping actually increases the overall size of the online shopping market. It may well cannibalize some offline sales for multichannel retailers, but I believe it’s a net increase for multichannel merchants, as cannibalization will probably pull from competitors’ channels, as well.

Increase in Lifetime Value –with Free Shipping membership clubs, like Amazon’s Prime and Williams-Sonoma Reserve, there appears to be strong evidence that loyalty increases significantly, causing members to “think twice” before buying elsewhere. The net benefit is more frequent shopping occasions and higher revenue-per-member per year, drawing share directly from competitors.

Decrease in Acquisition Cost – We hear more and more from merchants registered on TheFind that their primary marketing challenge is new customer acquisition. Even if the contribution margin of a new customer’s first shopping occasion is negative, the use of Free Shipping as a purchase motivator for first-time customers could significantly increase the open and click-through rates of email marketing and display advertising campaigns, significantly reducing their CPA. (Here again, our case study results of 23% click-through lift might be a starting point guess for CPA decline.) This is probably why Overstock has aggressively pursued the use of Free Shipping in new customer acquisition.

The Offset: The Actual Cost of Shipping – as with most of the profitability drivers above, the cost of shipping varies by product. Product size and weight. Product value. Shipping distance. Guaranteed delivery timing. So any effort to determine the profitability of Free Shipping must be modeled for each product category (or macro-grouping of products by size-weight-value). Most merchants who offer Free Shipping do so using “standard” (or ground) shipping (4-5 day shipping), bringing shipping costs down significantly. The few articles that have been published about the net profitability of Free Shipping suggest that even then, without significant AOV increases, Free Shipping is not profitable at the order level. Clearly, a full profitability model needs to be developed to really know. But the most sensitive variable in this model is the actual shipping costs. And economies of scale do exist in shipping. A recent New York Times article cites the Distribution Management Group who reported that air shipping prices for big merchants are about 70% less than for small merchants. Luckily, the rise in clubs like ShopRunner – a branded Free Shipping buying club for participating merchants – aggregates hundreds of merchants to bring much of the scale benefits enjoyed by the very large merchants to all merchants.

So, in answer to the question “Free Shipping: Is It Profitable?” – it depends… on the factors mentioned above, and it needs to be modeled for each product category in your business. I will go out on a limb and say that using best practices in how you employ Free Shipping and fully leveraging the scale economies of your company, or participating in aggregation clubs like ShopRunner or marketplaces like Amazon’s Marketplace, will likely enable you to make Free Shipping both profitable and strategic to your company, for most reasonably-sized products. (The version of Free Shipping that drives the most likely AOV uplift tends to be Free Shipping for all customers who reach a minimum order threshold.) And the sooner you do it, the more your early returns will include share increase instead of share maintenance.


Darby Williams

Darby heads up Merchant Services at TheFind, responsible for engaging the merchant community and creating merchant tools and programs that drive revenue lift. Prior to TheFind, he was the first product and marketing exec at PowerReviews, where he helped lead the creation of social commerce solutions for retailers and brands. Prior to that, Darby lead marketing and product teams for software and ecommerce companies, such as Microsoft, Active Decisions and Cook Express. Darby has an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago, B.A. from University of Virginia, and is a loyal fan of The Food Network, So You Think You Can Dance and The Washington Redskins... or any combination thereof.