Meet Rebeca from COLORPOPINK

Print Washington State Art – $15

Can you sum yourself up in 3 sentences?

I’m an artist and graphic designer. My favorite forms of graphic design involve a lot of typography, color, texture, and simplicity. My shop is called ColorPopInk because I create designs that you can use to add a pop of color to your wall in the form of ink on paper.

What is your favorite thing about creating?

It’s really fulfilling when I get feedback from a customer saying that they love my work. I’m sort of addicted to that feeling I get when I know I’ve made someone smile.

Print Nursery Art – $15

Where do you find your inspiration?

I’m often inspired by love and life. I’m a people watcher, and I just love seeing people be kind to one another.

Do you have any selling tips or tricks for other Etsy sellers?

It’s important to be flexible. If something is not selling, then maybe there isn’t a market for it, or maybe it needs to be tweaked and improved.

Do you have a coupon code for us?

ZEROSHIP2012. This is good through the end of the year.

The Temptation to Lie About Success

Running a business is a lot of work. And sometimes, it’s a lot of work with little reward. There are times when people ask me how my sales are doing, or how much money I am making, and I get that impending urge to lie (just a tad.) Stretch the truth, or, as some define white lies: omit certain truths. The need to justify the amount of time I spend running my business, along with the need to justify that I quit my secondary job in order to do so, is stronger than ever. With the bills piling high and the dishwasher breaking, AGAIN, I don’t just WANT to make extra money selling my handmade crap, I NEED to. It’s embarrassing to relate anything else when asked those probing questions.

It’s tempting to say “I made this much this month!” and give the gross amount, before fees, shipping costs, supply costs, etc. The latter, net amount is so much less impressive.

It’s not that I don’t have any grounds to brag about how awesome I am. Evidence suggests that I have gone from an Etsy D-lister to, quite possibly, a frikin fantastic C-lister! Sales HAVE increased, and so have net amounts made. Facebook fans have gone up (well beyond 500 likes now, thank you very much), twitter followers have expanded, and I’m nearing 200 blog followers. (Surprisingly, people enjoy reading this crap!) So it’s not like I’m a COMPLETE failure or anything. But my Aunt Becky (a totally made-up relative for the purpose of example) doesn’t care about those numbers. She wants to know HOW much I am making and IF that amount is impressive to HER or not.

Chances are, it wouldn’t be.

So what do I do? Do try to convince her of the growing success I am becoming, while avoiding her probing inquires for actual numbers? Or do I flat-out give her my numbers, and try to convince her that they are GOOD despite the look of utter disappointment that is sure to cross her face? My answer is: a mix of both. By comparing how well I USED to do versus how well I’m doing NOW, says I’m on the right track. I can easily compare how it took me almost THREE FREAKING MONTHS to get my first Etsy sale, and now I’m getting one almost every day. Granted, many of these sales are for $1.99 collage sheets or patterns that grant me pennies after listing and PayPal fees, but that’s beside the point. I’M SELLING. People are BUYING MY CRAP and that’s exciting, DAMMIT!

Even if, despite my reasoning and explaining, Aunt Becky still looks perplexed at why I would dedicate so much time in order to receive so little in return, at least I won’t allow her to bring me down. There is no need to lie about how successful (or unsuccessful) my business is going at the moment as long as there are still positive things to focus on. It’s by focusing on the things that are going well (and how I can make them KEEP going in that direction) that my business will continue to grow. Before I know it, I just might start selling enough to pay some bills down, or even, buy a new dishwasher. Until then… you can count on me to keep plug, plugging away.

How To Design Your Own Business Cards

If you are running a business, your business cards (though miniscule as they may seem) are very significant. Think about it:

• You hand them out at craft fairs.
• You include at least one in every package you mail out.
• You pass them out to strangers and friends when your business is mentioned during face-to-face conversation.
• You tack them onto community bulletin boards.
• You decorate your house with them as a substitute for wallpaper. (Okay, maybe not this one.)

You get the idea. Business cards = kind of a big deal. Which I urge not only to have them, but to have business card which accurately represent your business.

If I am handed a business card (at a craft fair, or what have you) and it has some pretty, swirly floral design and a web address on it, I’m not going to keep it. If I can’t look at your business card and at least GUESS at what you are selling, it’s going in the trash. Secondly, and maybe this is just because I am a graphic designer, but if it’s a stock design I’ve seen before (I think a lot of us recognize the black silhouette wearing pearls from Vista print’s stock), then I’m going to toss it. If your are a creative person selling items you’ve CREATED, why would you have a very non-creative business card that has been used a million times before? You may think that design is pretty, but I’m telling you, about a gazillion OTHER crafters do to, and are already using it.

So if you want business cards that stand out, but still look professional, then you have two options. You can pay someone to design them for you (like me for example, I am currently running a $14.95 special in my MegansCreativeDesign shop), or you can learn how to design them yourself. If you’re going to try the DIY route (and lets face it, that is the way most “crafty-types” are inclined), then here is a simple list of tips that will hopefully help you.

Make what you are selling obvious.
Follow the squint rule. If I could not read the text on your business cards, would I be able to guess at what your product is? You don’t have to out-right have a picture of your product (if you don’t think that is suitable), but something related would be nice. For example, if you sell soap your business cards could feature bubbles or a bathtub. If you sell crochet items, maybe have faded bundles of yarn as your background. While I have an actual picture of one of my products on my MegansBeadedDesigns card, I have background that try to capture the “feel” of my Glamour365 and SteampunkDream shops.

Keep it simple.
You don’t have to put every single link and bit of contact information onto that tiny 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle. Your Shop name, and Etsy URL would be enough. However, you can add your name, or another link or two, just don’t over-do it. (Just to give you some ideas: On my MegansBeadedDesigns cards I have my shop URL, blog address, and Facebook. On my Glamour365 card, I have my URL and Twitter. On my SteampunkDream card, I have my URL, and a 10% off coupon code.)

Limit your fonts.
3 is pushing it. 2 is awesome. 1 is good. IF (big if) the fonts go well together you may do more, but 1 for your shop name, and 1 for your contact information should suffice. For smaller fonts, such as what you have to use for your web address, use a font that is EASY TO READ.

Don’t make me get the magnifying glass.
I’ve seen business cards that use white text on a dark background in size 4 font. Don’t do this. Allow your font size to be large enough to be readable (you can go slightly-smaller with serif fonts), and a bit larger than that if you are going to use the light-on-dark route.

Give it some breathing room.
You’ve probably heard this before: graphic designers love white space. There is a reason for this. It makes your design more visually appealing. It cushions the elements on it so that they stand out more and grab adequate attention. White space does not have to be WHITE (as in the color), it is referring to the negative space around your elements. Offer this space so that your background (or blank space) can show through.

Hope these tips help! If you opt to design your own business cards I would love to see how they came out! Please feel free to share. :-)

Releasing the Pressure to Work for Free

What you are an artist or a crafter, it can be a bit too much for someone to wrap their heads around the fact that you actually need to MAKE MONEY. To do things, like, you know, EAT.

Dark Blue Floating Necklace & Earrings Set

Most of the times it’s your very own friends and family who are the WORST when it comes to this kind of a thing. “Can you make me this?” “Can you fix this?” “Can you design me this?” “Can you critique this?”

Considering that I have SO MUCH FREE TIME, I respond, “Well, of course! I’ll get on that right away!”

So my list of freebie jobs for friends and family builds and builds, until I don’t have time for the jobs that actually pay the bills. I’m not going to tell you to NEVER do some favor jobs for people you care about, but I am going to warn you that if you give an inch, people tend to ask for a mile. So…

Know where to draw the line.
One favor for a friend is one thing. For example, if your a knitter and your friend’s hat is starting to fray. Go ahead and fix it for her. When she brings you a box full of hats that need fixed, tell her you charge by the hour. Period.

Let them know your favor counts as a gift for an upcoming event.
Right now I’m designing invitations and bridesmaid jewelry for my friend who’s getting married, along with a dozen other favors for her wedding. These favors are going to count as her wedding gift, not in addition to. Same thing when I design announcements for my friends who are graduating, and so on.

Don’t be afraid to name your price.
When a random co-worker asks me to make a pair of earrings for her, I’ll say right off the bat how much that will cost. I’m not about to make the earrings, and then hope she’ll ask me what she owes afterwards. Chances are, she’ll just say “thank you!” and think that they are free of charge. I’m NOT exaggerating, this has happened to me before. Save yourself the trouble and give your quote ahead of time.

Let people know how much you NORMALLY charge.
If you DO agree to work on a project (as a gift) for someone, for free, be sure to let them know how much it will cost next time. This will also help you in the matter of other people seeing your work from this person and making inquiries in regards to it. It also doesn’t hurt to inform people just how valuable your time really is. Maybe they’ll think twice before asking again.

Practicing Patience in a World of Instant Gratification

We live in a world of instant gratification. If I want to watch a TV show, I can pop open my laptop, head over to Hulu and watch it. No waiting until 8:00 p.m or whatever, when the actual show is aired. If I hear about a good book that I ought to read, I can instantly download it on my Kindle right then and there. No heading over to the bookstore or library where they might be out of copies and I might have to wait until a back-order comes in. If I have a question, I can Google it. If I want find someone who will want to head over to the movies with me, I’ll make a Facebook post. I’ll usually get a response within an hour. Or I can just text the people I would like to go with in a mass-text to find out who’s free, responses usually arrive within minutes.

Amidst all of these instant results there are still many things that can not, and do not, happen easily. Learning, for example, is a gradual process that never ends. A person does not learn everything they will ever know even in all of their years from kindergarten through secondary education. It just keep on going. Falling in love is another example. A person may yearn for a companion their entire lives and have it never happen. There is no magic switch that can help anyone find the person that they are compatible with, and even if a partner is found, their relationship can take an entire lifetime of work to prosper.

Those of us who are trying to run small businesses have to remind ourselves of all of the things that can not happen instantaneously, and place our success in THAT category. It may feel disappointing when we set up all of our items for sale… and then wait as nothing happens. It’s natural to feel that twinge of disappointment and failure when there isn’t any instant reward to keep you going.

It took me over a month to get my first sale on Etsy. For some sellers, it can take even longer than that. But what’s important is that I didn’t quit out of frustration when this happened. I started to observe that the truly successful sellers weren’t the ones making a short-term profit and then ditching, but those that tirelessly worked on their items and their shops, plugging away day after day until the sales started to gradually trickle in. I have followed suit. I continue to create what I love and realize that just like with learning, the process of running a business is never over. I may not be at a point where I am completely satisfied with the amount of business I am getting, but I am happy with the direction it is heading. Through an endless process of improvement, I am enjoying the journey.

Getting Support from Family and Friends

There are some AMAZING individuals out there in the world of the internet. They have done me some HUGE favors by referring my business to their own cyber and social networks. I am supremely grateful for their support. I’m talking about those people who I’ve never actually met face-to-face, but they seem to think that I’m awesome enough to share with those that they have. Super flattering. And super helpful for my online business. My thanks goes out to these individuals ten-fold.

But what about those who I do know in “real life”? My family, friends, co-workers, etc.? In comparison, support from them has been fairly sparse. My grandmother occasionally sells earrings for me at the assisted living center she works at, and my mother-in-law is more than happy to tell people about my business (even in her Christmas newsletter, goodness gracious!), but that about sums it up. I’m not complaining about these people, not in the least bit. My lack of support from them is entirely MY FAULT. Partially a result of shyness, and partially a lack of confidence. I have yet to take the initiative to ASK for their help.

Ways in which I plan on recruiting my friends, family, and co-coworkers to help spread the word of my business:

• Invite them not only to “like” my Facebook fan page, but also tell them I will ♥ them 4evahhhhh if they encourage their friends to like it too.
• Give them more than 1 business card, asking them to pass the extras on.
• Leaving flyers for craft fairs I am attending in the break room at work.
• Inform friends of my abilities the next time they are needing a service (design work, gift ideas, etc.)
• Ask friends and family for ideas on what else I could be making and adding to my Etsy shops, that way they feel like they are contributing.
• Offer friendly “affiliate” type incentives. E.g., “Short on freelance graphic design work right now. If anyone knows anyone who would want me to do some design work for them, I’ll buy you lunch if you recommend me!”
• Host an open house jewelry party. Send out invites and encourage those invited to invite someone else.

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but that is a fairly substantial list for now. If you run your own business or sell handmade, how do you encourage the people you know to help you spread the word?

♥ Hello 2012 ♥

Floating Silver Necklace & Earrings Set - $10

It’s a new year. I went out with friends wearing more glitter and rhinestones than typically acceptable and danced to terrible music to usher it in. So it’s official. Well, it’s been official for 3 days now, I’m just a bit tardy on the whole welcoming committee thing. (Oops.) Plus I’ve been on vaca from my day job until today, so I’m just starting to get back into the groove of the grind. So without any further ado:

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012!

On January 1st, many a person decides on a thing or two which he or she needs to work on in his or her life, and makes a resolution to enact such a change. A month or two later, the resolution is promptly disregarded. (Most of the time.)

The resolutions CAN be accomplished, IF you stick to them (and if they are realistic enough to begin with.) In 2011, my resolution was to narrow down my number of jobs. By late October, I was able to quit my weekend job and therefore fulfill my resolution. (Hooray!) This year, I have two resolutions, one for my Etsy shops and one for my personal life.

Personally, I’m resolving to keep up on my housecleaning. It hasn’t exactly been a pretty site over the last few months, but if I am able to keep up on it more, than it wouldn’t be such a daunting task when I DO do the housekeeping. Simple enough.

Water Digital Collage Sheet - $1.99

For my Etsy shops, I am going to focus more on my MegansCreativeDesign shop, of which I have been neglecting pretty shamefully over the past year. Its managed to reach 100 sales, but pitifully, considering that most of the digital collage sheets I sell are under $2 and haven’t been updated in several months. I plan on offering more custom Etsy shop design listings, collage sheets, and other branding listings (business card designs, label designs, etc.) It’ll be a lot of work, but I think that by the end of the year it could look pretty spiffed out.

Tip for Keeping Resolutions:
I find that resolutions are easier to keep if you set measurable steps to reach your goals. For example, instead of “lose weight” the goal of “lose 3 pounds a month” is easier to measure and stick with. Instead of “be more active” try “go for a 30-minute run every other day.” So for me, instead of “keep a cleaner house” I might set my housekeeping days on Tuesdays and Fridays. For my Etsy shop, perhaps one new design listing or collage sheet a week. I think that’s doable.

What are your new year’s resolutions for 2012? Can you break them down into measurable steps so that they are easier to keep?

Friday’s Featured Artist – Billi Rothove

It’s Friday again! (And a very special Friday at that!) I think that every day this week has felt like it should be a Friday, and that has made it a really… realllly looooong week. It’s probably because I’m like a 10-year-old when it comes to being excited for Christmas. (OMG, it’s freaking here!!!!!!!!!!!!) So the anticipation kind of drags things out. To help you get through it, I present to you the latest installment of my Featured Friday Artist tradition. Be sure to check out this seller’s shop, she has some fantastic work!

Have an AMAZING weekend everyone! Happy holidays!

Thanks for sharing with us Billi! Tell us a bit about yourself:

I am a studio artist working and living in my studio 24/7. Since art school I have been a fiber artist completing large commissions for hotels, banks and art centers, a jeweler doing production silver and OOAK gold, and a surface designer exhibiting at SURTEX, NY and ACRE, Las Vegas. I have been an educator in higher ed (UCM, Warrensburg), UMC Gallery Director, traveling lecturer talking about women artists and their work, and lastly, Gallery Coordinator for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Tell us about what you sell on Etsy:

I sell my paper batik products, mixed media collage, cards and gift tags on etsy. Each piece is OOAK.

"Green Vines" Original - $8

What is your favorite thing about creating?

I love that there is something(art) I am so intrigued by that I have been deeply involved and enthusiastic about since I was a teenager.

Paper Batik Carry Out Box - $20

Where do you find your inspiration?

I find inspiration everywhere. For me it always has been a state of mind.

Do you have any selling tips or tricks for other Etsy sellers?

I’m very new to etsy and can only recommend to read and study all the resources etsy has made available to us. I am enjoying the treasuries and BNR most recently.

You can find me at:
billi.rs.rothove.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/BillisPaperBatiks

The Daunting Task of the Christmas Newsletter

I’ve recently decided that this is going to be my first year writing a Christmas newsletter. We all get them. We all get bored with enjoy them. I typically don’t have a hard time getting myself to write. (Obviously, you are thinking if you are a frequent reader of this blog.) I often times have to restrain myself from turning these posts into novels.

However, there are still some forms of writing that I can find difficult. It becomes especially tricky when I have to write for a certain, close or general audience. As in, an audience I can’t use the word “shyte” around. As in, the audience who will be reading my Christmas newsletter.

Taking the leap I went ahead and wrote my brief letter blog style. Instead of being all mushy-gushy, I went ahead and voiced my words in my usual, slightly-snarky and semi-ironic way. I did however, refrain from using the word “shyte.” I also designed it with pretty graphics and pictures, so maybe, just maybe, the images will entrance anyone from being offended by my writing style. (Oh, the glorious benefits of being a Graphic Designer!)

You can click the below image to see/read for yourself (background: Nick is my hubby & Jeana is my younger sister who lives with us):

I haven’t printed/mailed these off yet, so if you have any pointers for me feel free to share. Also, I’d like to know if you write your own Christmas newsletter? Do you find it more difficult than regular freestyle writing?

Trying to Sell to Sellers

Black and White Rose Bobby Pins - $16.00

One of the great things about Etsy is its community feel. It’s unlike any other website I have been a member of. This can also come with a bit of a downside, as the members of this community are also there to sell their handmade products and vintage items. It’s tempting to try to sell to one another, considering how often your are around one another in the virtual sense.

Granted, I buy from other Etsy shops all of the time. I’m addicted to shopping on the website! With all of its neat stuff, it’s impossible to find a comparable marketplace in my own neighborhood. Even so, I think that one does a disservice to one’s own shop when too much time and promotion is being dedicated into attracted other sellers to buy your stuff.

Premade Etsy Shop Kit - $5.00

Unless, of course, you sell graphic design or supplies – in which case other sellers ARE your target audience. But if not, it may be time to do some strategy shifting. Perhaps, rather then trying to sepdn so much time in your Etsy teams and in the Etsy chat rooms, try joining other forums and groups off-site. Pick groups that share a common interest of your that is NOT selling craft items. For example, if you have kids, join a mommy-blogger group, or a recipe sharing club, or a video-game forum. ANYTHING. By making virtual friends with persons not a part of the Etsy “club” you can introduce them to etsy -and your shop- as BUYERS, not competitors.

Beaded Brown Earrings - $4.95

By dedicating more time into building up your Facebook fan page and twitter following with more non-etsy sellers, you’ll be able to promote to people who AREN’T waiting for their next sale before they can buy anything. Something to consider anyway, before you spend all day making treasuries for you treasury team and posting new listings in all of those new listing threads hardly anyone browses through anyway.

Something to chew on anyway. I would love to hear your thoughts!