Eliminating “Just”

“Just” can be such a limiting word.

“I’m just a mom.”

“I just make scarves.”

“This is just another day.”

“It’s just a job.”

“He’s just a writer.”

“She’s just an adviser.”

 

Eliminate the “just”s, and eliminate your limitations.

“I’m a mom. I am the most important person in someone’s life.”

“I make scarves. They become reminders of my love for whoever I give them to.”

“This is another day. Anything is possible.”

“It’s a job; another step on the way to my dreams.”

“He’s a writer. He feeds souls with words.”

“She’s an adviser. She motivates, empowers, and propels.”

I don’t just make jewelry. I create art that women can wear. My pieces will help you express your unique individuality, stand out from the crowd, and receive plenty of positive attention and compliments.

Do you think in terms of “just”? How much of a difference would it make if you were to break the habit?

A New Destination for Marketing Articles

My fabulous fellow business owners,

I’m super-psyched that you’ve enjoyed reading my blog. I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback you’ve given me, and touched by every word of thanks you’ve ushered my way. Each comment, message, and tweet gives me a glorious warm and fuzzy feeling I can’t get from anything else. Even sexy-time.

While I’ve decided to steer this particular blog into more of a customer-friendly direction, there was no way in heck I could leave you guise behind.

I considered it, but your messages and words of thanks changed my mind.

You needy mother-cluckers, you!

So I’ve created a new web space for all of those business-oriented blog posts that you’ve come to love. While it’s directed towards beaders in business, most of the articles will apply to any handmade business owner and aspiring entrepreneur. I hope you’ll join me over at BeadingForBusiness.com. I’ve got some big plans for the new space; you can expect a good time.

Confidence is Sexy, Being a Douche is Not

I’ve written here before about what a difference being confident about our own work can make for our business and our bottom line. Confidence is sexy after all, and it attracts followers, fans, and buyers.

As artists, our natural instinct is to feel insecure about our work, at least until we feel it’s been validated. And by validated, we mean ordained by someone super-important, published somewhere super-recognized, or making us so much money we can afford a dozen mansions and a yacht to boot. The oxymoron of this kind of thinking is, of course, many of us won’t get that kind of validation until after we start to exhibit confidence in our own work.

A lack of confidence from the maker instills a lack of confidence from potential buyers. We can’t expect our customers to think our stuff is awesome unless we do. While this makes sense, it’s still hard to actually practice in real life. So we fake it ’til we make it. (As you should.)

However, I feel like I need to warn everyone here that there is a vast difference between being confident in our own work, and criticizing the work of others. Sometimes handmade creators do this to try to make their work look good by comparison. It doesn’t make your work look any better, it just makes you look like a douche.

Negatively criticizing other artists, especially newbies who are just starting out and trying their best to learn their way, reflects poorly on you.

One of the many jobs I’ve had was working in a big-box department store. When it came to new employees, my co-workers often treated them in one of two ways. The first group would complain about having to work with them, as it meant more work for them and having to train someone who didn’t know the ropes yet. The second group gladly took up the challenge, and was happy to show the new face the how-tos, knowing very well that proper training in the beginning prevents bigger mistakes from occurring later on. Plus, this second group knew that positive relationships all around make for a better work and business environment.

So if you want a boost of confidence in regards to your own work, create better, higher-quality products that you can feel proud of and confident enough to brag about. Using your social networking platform to put other artists down, no matter how much “better” your work actually is, makes you look low and sleazy. Don’t do it.

How to Identify Your Opportunity Costs

Let’s take a moment to discuss a really dry term. I probably first heard it in Economics 101, and you’ve probably been tested on what it means in a similar classroom setting: opportunity costs.

*yawn*

Starting to get as bored as you were when you had to listen to a professor lecture on micro economic theory? Hang with me for a second, because I do feel like this is something important that we should brief on, particularly if you are trying to run a business with a limited amount of time at your disposal. (Hint: time is limited for all of us. Nobody gets more than 24 hours per day.)

An opportunity cost is essentially what is lost because you were too busy doing something else.

If we break it down into a simple example, it looks like this:

Jack and Susan are both good at peeling potatoes.

Jack can peel 2 potatoes per minute and Susan can peel 5 potatoes per minute.

Susan can peel potatoes more than twice as fast as Jack.

HOWEVER: Susan can season and cook the potatoes so that they are so mouth-wateringly delicious that the customers at their restaurant can’t wait until their next meal so they can come back and order more potatoes. Jack can cook the potatoes too, but they usually end up burnt or just not as good. It’s a process that takes time and skill that only Susan possesses.

Susan needs time to cook and season the potatoes, so even though she is better at peeling the potatoes than Jack, it makes more sense to have Jack do the peeling. The opportunity cost is what is lost if Susan were to waste her time on something less suitable for her talents.

Now let’s take this example and apply it to your life and your business:

What are the things that only YOU can do, or would really suffer if you didn’t do them? If you are running a handmade business, this could probably be answered with the design and much of the creation of your items, perhaps your blogging talents, or your personalized responses to customer questions. In your life, some of these things could be playing with your kids, taking your spouse out on a date, and consoling a friend with a problem.

What are the things you are currently doing, that someone else could be? This list will generally consist of things you may be good at, but would not suffer if someone else did them for you, like house-cleaning, product photography, sorting e-mail, writing ad copy, packaging, etc.

Now I want you to take your list of all the things YOU don’t have to be personally doing, and identify which of those things are taking up the majority of your time. Which of these things, to put it another way, are causing the greatest opportunity costs? What would you spend your time doing if you didn’t have to do those things?

You may be costing your business (and your life) some serious growth potential if you are spending too much time doing menial tasks that could easily be outsourced to someone else. Crunch your numbers, and if you can determine some real increase in business if you have more of your time freed up, budget to do just that.

Putting Your Day Job into Perspective

How do you feel about your day job? Do you love it, hate it, or are you somewhere in the middle of those two extremes? Our job is a pretty significant part of our lives. We spend the majority of our waking hours at it, especially if you count our commute time.

We identify a large part of ourselves with our field of work.

One of the first things we ask when we meet someone new is “What do you do?” We base much of our first impressions of someone based on how they respond. We can be quite a judgmental bunch, looking at someone differently if they say “brain surgeon” versus “freelance rapper.” We shouldn’t, but we do.

As for those of us who run handmade businesses in addition to our day jobs, there are a couple of ways we tend to regard the 9 to 5. I often hear one or the other from the colleagues I’ve spoken with.

You often hear the first group say, “If only I didn’t have to work my day job, I would…” [insert completed goal, dream reached, Mount Everest climbed, etc.]

This group tends to their of their jobs as a necessary burden. They don’t like them, but their handmade businesses are no where near the point of being able to financially support them on their own. So the job is a necessary evil, providing temporary cash flow while restricting the ability to reach the larger entrepreneur goals that “could be,” you know, “if ONLY.”

Then there is the second group. This group may or may not like their days jobs. That’s not the point. The point is, they view their day job as a means, not an inhibitor.

This group (also the kind of people who view the glass as half full, as you have probably guessed), think of their day job like this: it’s an opportunity to make money while still being able to work on building their business in their spare time. This group knows that while operating a business while working full time may be hard, it is still entirely possible.

The first group, the Debbie-Dowers, will use their day jobs as an excuse to not work on their dreams. They act sad about it, but really, they are using the 9 to 5 as an excuse to not even try. It let’s them off the hook you see, as failure is always an option.

The second group views their job as a means, as well as a safety net when considering the possibility of failure. They refuse to use their jobs as an excuse to quit working towards their dreams, and move full speed ahead. The first group ends up with a job they despise and blame for the regrets of all they things they didn’t try.

Which group do you want to be a part of?

My Not-So-Secret Secret is OUT!

I wasn’t going to utter a word. I was going to keep it a secret until I felt it was “ready” and then I was going to announce it to the world.

But I was just too damn excited to wait until then.

So I may have posted the link on a couple of forums and shared it with an Etsy team or two. You’ve most likely seen it if you follow me on twitter, or taken a peak at the new shop tab on my Facebook Page if you are a friend there.

Needless to say, it’s not much of a secret, but I’m going to officially announce it just as though is has been one (pretend I’ve been good about keeping it hidden):

Megan’s Beaded Designs now has it’s OWN website!

Inventory is slowly but surely being added. With 4 Etsy shops and then some, you can imagine just how many listings I have to transfer over. Not to mention, I have a large craft fair coming up the second weekend in March, so I’ll be holding off some listings until afterwards, in case they sell there (which also means there’s a good chance your favorite items in my Etsy shops may also not be coming back!)

For this reason, I’ll be holding my GRAND OPENING sale from now until the end of March. Use coupon code OPENING2013 for 15% off your purchase from MegansBeadedDesigns.com. Coupon expires April 1st (no April fool’s), and you can use it as many times as you like until then.

Happy shopping everyone!

Release the Pressure by Lowering the Stakes

The stakes tend to be pretty high nowadays for a lot of things. If you’ve thought about trying to run a business or start your own blog, they could be enough to scare you away. The pressure to be amazing is daunting… and is the root cause of a lot of our procrastination. We are afraid to start something because we’re afraid it won’t end up as good as we want it to be.

How to lower the stakes:
That thing you want to do but feel like you have to do it really well?

Do it.

Do it so often that it no longer becomes such a big deal. If you can, do it a little bit everyday until it becomes a habit and who cares if you’re as amazing at it every time as you initially thought you should be.

Think about how nervous you were that first time you stood up to belt out your favorite karaoke song in front of everyone. Talk about SCARY, regardless of how many apple martinis you may have downed. NOW: think about the 100th time you’ve stood on that stage to sing the same song. Not as scary anymore, right? You may have even gotten a little better at singing. But even if you haven’t, the pressure to be as amazing as you thought you needed to be has loosened, if not disappeared completely.

Now about that business and/or blog. Same technique applies.

If you’ve been hanging around here awhile, you’ve probably noticed that I blog a lot. I generally schedule a new post to go up 6 out of 7 days of the week. I haven’t been around that long (about 2 years), but I’ve already published well over 400 posts, along with a scattering of guest posts on other blogs to boot. Not every post is amazing. Some of them turn out to be downright duds. But that’s okay, because I’ll be posting a new one shortly afterwards.

Same applies for your business. Not every item I list is amazing, but by listing as many as I do I don’t feel the pressure that each one has to be. Not every craft show is going to be a smashing success, but if you do enough of them every year one single show won’t have as much pressure for you to make it one. Not every Facebook update is going to go viral, but if you update on a daily basis, you’ll start to get a better handle on which ones grant a larger reach.

I know what you’re thinking: Quantity does not beat quality. Maybe not, but it sure beats doing nothing. And, dare I suggest, that the great quantities you produce will give you the room and practice to create better quality right along with them. It’s simple, really. The more you do it, the less pressure you’ll feel each time.

How to Run a Successful Handmade Business & KEEP Your Day Job

I love helping my fellow crafty peeps out. I always feel a deep sense of accomplishment whenever one of you dear readers lets me know how much this blog has taught and motivated you to press on and become more successful in your life and business. I appreciate you and I practically end up on cloud nine every time I hear that you return that appreciation.

I love offering you guise help and advice and recommendations based on my own business and personal experiences. However, sometimes my response needs to be much longer than a single blog post, LinkedIn comment, or Twitter response. When I’m asked, “How do you do it all?” It’s hard for me to correctly answer in just a few sentences.

So I wrote an eBook.

… an it’s available on Amazon for your kindle or e-reader right now for $3.99.

In this book I go through the beginning steps of setting up your business (deciding what to make, and who to sell it to), how to promote those products to increase your sales, and how to manage your time so you can still do all of the other things that are just as important.

I set the price lower than a cup of coffee, because I really want all of you guise to read this book. In fact, I want to give a PDF version away to one of you for FREE.

Share this link (

How to Run a Successful Handmade Business & KEEP Your Day Job

) on the following platforms, and receive an entry to win each time you share:

- Post on Facebook +1 (can be repeated daily for additional entries)
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Please leave a comment with your links/usernames to prove how many times you’ve entered. Contest is open until midnight on February 19th, winner will be announced on the 20th.

Friday’s Featured Artist = YOU

So you’ve seen and enjoyed all of the fabulous Featured Artist posts that grace this blog every Friday. You’ve gotten to meet a lot of fantastic new handmade businesses this way, amiright? It’s always so great to share the love and discover new sellers.

But by now you may be thinking, what about my shop? Well… if you have an online shop where you sell your handmade goodies, I would LOVE to consider it for a Friday feature here on my blog.

All you have to do is fill out your responses to the interview questions in the form below, and I’ll contact you when your feature is posted! It’s really just that simple. Why on earth would you pass up an opportunity for this kind of free promotion for your shop?

I’m looking forward to your responses!

Your Name(required)

Email(required)

Website(required)

Can you sum yourself up in 3 sentences? Give it a go!

Tell us about what you sell:

What is your favorite thing about creating?

Where do you find your inspiration?

Do you have any advice for other sellers?

Do you have a coupon code for us?

Where else can we find you? (facebook/blog/etc)

Do you have an item you would like to offer for a giveaway?

Have you thought about 2013 yet?

Unless you’re a big believer in Mayan predictions, 2013 is just around the corner! I know we’re all crazy busy with the holidays coming up, but you’ll be grateful for taking a quick moment to make some plans ahead of time.

So in-between wrapping presents, shipping out orders, and frosting your latest batch of sugar cookies, let’s take a moment to consider…

What worked the best in 2012?
Which craft shows offered the best results, which months were the busiest, which promotions were the most effective? How about which items sold the best, and which ones didn’t? What monetary investments proved to be the most worthy? Which time investments offered the biggest bang for their effort?

What lessons did you learn from 2012?
Did you not charge enough to make a decent enough profit? Did you goof on some packing and end up shipping broken items? Did you spend too much money on supplies that you probably won’t ever use all of? There is a lesson to be learned from every mistake, so what has 2012 taught you?

Are you ready for tax-time?
January is tax-time for most small businesses in the U.S. To save yourself the panicked scramble of trying to gather all of your documentation and numbers, perhaps a little pre-planning and accounting on your part in December can save you some grief.

What are your goals for 2013?
Keeping in mind the benefits of choosing measurable goals, what are some of the things you would like to accomplish in the new year? What steps can you start during the beginning slow months to help kick them off? A little consideration now, could make a big difference later.