This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series 7 Ways for Your Art or Craft Business to Outsell the Retailers. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 6, Part 7

Parts of this 7 part series have been reprinted with permission from the article “7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business” by Pam Grimm of Ideaco.

7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business

By Pamela Grimm, Ideaco

5.  Lack of sales skills: Too often a salesperson could give information, but not transition the conversation into a sale. More than not, staff members would walk away with apparently no regard for whether the customer had actually picked up the product or were going to purchase anything. We were given a very informal information session that did not inspire or motivate us to purchase that product. 90% of the stores did not even show us a sample or give a mini demo on how the product could be used or create an urgency to purchase. In many stores we walked in, asked questions, got brief answers and walked out without purchasing anything.

How to Transition to a Sale

Be sure to answer customers questions with the benefits of the product to them not the features. Remember they want to know how the product will solve a problem for them, save them time or money, or make their life easier. People make emotional purchases, help them feel this product will help them in some way.

Show your art or craft in the setting it will be used. It requires less imagination for your customers to see it in use in that setting. Demonstrate the benefits of the product to the customer.

Artists and crafters are often afraid of being too pushy and possibly driving customers away. Fear makes us too reserved and passive. Be assertive not aggressive. Remember when customers enter your booth they are interested in buying your product. Asking them to make the purchase isn’t being pushy as long as you take, “No” as well as you take, “Yes.” Remember the worst thing they can say is, “No.” Be as grateful for the customer who doesn’t purchase as you are for the one who buys. Not every customer is going to make a purchase, so don’t take it personally. Remember that every NO leads you one encounter closer to the big sale.

When the customer seems to be standing there looking like they’re lost, ask if you have answered all of they’re questions. If you’ve answered all their questions they may need some prompting. Ask if you can ring up their purchases for them? Ask them if you can bag them up for them? Ask if you can take the crafts to the counter for them?

By asking the customer if they would like to purchase you’re giving them one more opportunity to think about the product without allowing them to talk themselves out of the purchase.

This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series 7 Ways for Your Art or Craft Business to Outsell the Retailers. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions

Parts of this 7 part series have been reprinted with permission from the article “7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business” by Pam Grimm of Ideaco.

7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business

By Pamela Grimm, Ideaco

4.  Assuming not Assessing: When a staff person could speak about products, she often told everything she knew about it before asking any questions. Most of the time the information was not even relevant to the question or need. We found most staff members don’t bother to probe for information to meet a customer’s need; they download all they know in hopes they have covered it.

How to Assess A Customers Needs

They say to assume makes an @$$ out of you and me. To assess what a customer needs you need to ask questions and hear the answers. Don’t get ahead of yourself and spill everything that you know about the product instead simply answer the question. When you’ve answered the question if they don’t say anything wait a few seconds and ask another question, it could be that they are considering one product over another or how much money they have to spend or it could be that they are waiting for you to ask for the sale.

Questions that might help you know what they would like are:

1. Are you buying for someone special today? This tells you if they are looking for childrens items, items for teens, adult items or items for the elderly.
2. Are you buying for a special occasion? People need different kinds of things for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and everyday.
3. Are you looking for a particular style? Depending on your craft your merchandise will have some varying styles some things might be more modern or contemporary, others might be more country, some things will be Victorian or classic. Things like jewelry will vary from an abstract random pattern to a symmetrical pattern that repeats itself. Some of your items may have an Americana flair while others might have an ethnic flair from other regions. Some items will be more natural while others may be more synthetic, some may be recycled.
4. If they are buying for themselves you can ask if they are buying to match a particular outfit? What color is it?
5. What are their favorite colors?
6. When the choices have been narrowed you might ask if you have answered all their questions.

Your job at this stage is to discover their questions and answer them while narrowing the choices. It’s a fine art but you’re a creative person you can do it!

What does Real Estate have to do with selling arts and crafts?

The way I see it your art or craft show booth is kind of like trying to sell a house. If you try to sell an empty house people can’t see in their minds what the house will look like when it’s all finished, painted, furnished, and decorated. You will also have a hard time trying to sell a house that is full of clutter, people can only imagine that the rest of the house hasn’t been taken care of well. They will see that the house will be too much work and cost too much money.

Your art or craft show booth is like selling your house. The booth will help your customers imagine using the product they have purchased from you. You have to do the imagining for them. How?

First you need to think about your product, who is it designed for, how and where will it be used? The answers to these questions should affect the theme and design of your booth.

Is what you’re selling for boys, girls, men or women? Is it for children, preteens, teens, young adults, or mature adults? Don’t present children’s items in an adult setting or adult item’s in a child like setting. Use colors that appeal to the ages you’re selling to. What ideas and themes appeal to them?

For instance fancy jewelry for teens might be presented as if at a prom, towel racks might be presented as in a high class hotel bathroom, and clothing needs to be presented as if it were in a fancy closet but also as outfits on the person.

When you created your product you had a vision of how people would use it, your booth is your opportunity to present them with that picture.

Stage your booth just like you would a home that you were trying to sell. Imagine yourself as a customer walking into your booth. Critique and criticize as if you were the customer, ask friends and family to do the same. Ask for them to point out things that are distracting, look odd, and especially anything they feel is not safe.

What is a Jewelry Shopping Service?

copyright by Rena Klingenberg

I first stumbled onto the “jewelry shopping service” approach to marketing my handcrafted jewelry a few years ago.

I couldn’t believe I’d never heard anyone talk about this before – because it’s a wide-open field with TONS of opportunities to sell your jewelry. It’s the main way I sell my jewelry now. Personal shopping services are a growing trend in all kinds of market niches.

Typically a personal shopper helps clients determine what they should buy, locates the best deal on an intended purchase, or finds the perfect gifts for customers to give. Personal shoppers tend to specialize in a particular area of expertise, where they know a certain market and its suppliers inside and out.

Above all, personal shopping is a service business, and as people get busier and shopping options get more overwhelming, there’s an increasing demand for specialized personal shopping service businesses of various types.

What if you operated your handcrafted jewelry business like a personal shopping service?

There are absolutely immense opportunities for jewelry artists to sell their work this way, as you’ll see in “Secrets of a Handcrafted Jewelry Shopping Service”.

A jewelry shopping service could easily be your entire jewelry business, or just one income stream of it.

It’s a very flexible way to sell your jewelry, and I’ve found that it’s very easy to fit it in around all the other things going on in your life.

Why It’s Such a Profitable Way to Sell Your Jewelry

By operating as a jewelry shopping service, you’ll be selling directly to your clients at full retail prices, so you won’t be paying any booth fees, shop commissions, party hostess incentives, wholesale discounts, etc.

In fact, one of the best things about it is that you have very few sales-related expenses, because there’s no “middleman”. Nearly 100% of the proceeds go directly to your business.

And what’s more, many of your clients will be fairly big spenders. They’ll shop from you over and over again because they love your customized products, personal service, and the way you take their problems out of their hands – and they’re willing to pay quite well for it.

The book also has a chapter describing a clever strategy that will increase your profits even more; I give an example of this strategy from my own business, and explain why it’s so profitable.

Everything You Need to Know
to Start Your Own Jewelry Shopping Service

In this ebook I share my entire successful business model with you. It’s easy to do, and it really works. I’ve tested and refined my jewelry shopping service strategies, and I describe them in detail in this step-by-step guide.

I also share dozens of real-life examples of successful products, services, marketing methods, and stories from my own jewelry shopping service, to help you get started.

You don’t have to re-invent the wheel and go through the same learning curve I did to figure out what really works (and what doesn’t!). It’s all in the book.

———————————————-

Unlock the secrets of a new way to sell your jewelry to customers who are VERY willing to buy from you, again and again, in Rena Klingenberg’s ebook “Secrets of a Handcrafted Jewelry Shopping Service” -
http://www.jewelry-books.com/shopping-service.html

I was looking on the internet for cool things to share with you all when I came across this calculator for quilters.

FabriCalc - Using this convenient little tool, you will never again need to guess how much fabric to buy, how many strips to cut, how wide to cut your strips or how much your fabric will cost.

By Alice Horrigan

Good lighting is a main ingredient of a successful trade-show booth. Just the right lighting system can help an artist create the atmosphere of a fine-craft gallery. This will lure gallery owners off the isles and into your booth – the first step toward making a sale.

Lighting is a relatively expensive investment. So how does the budget-conscious artist find the right solution?

When it comes to choosing a lighting system, artists new to the trade show circuit often become overwhelmed. Prices vary wildly, and each convention center may have its own lighting rules. Lighting technology is changing rapidly, making the choices harder still.

This article details what I learned while tackling the challenge of lighting my 10’X10’ booth at the American Craft Retailers Expo (ACRE), a large wholesale show for American and Canadian craft artists. As I am new to trade shows, this information is meant only as a pointer for artists in the process of choosing lighting, and perhaps also for more seasoned artists looking to update their systems.

In examining many different lighting options, my objective was to illuminate my glass jewelry beautifully but inexpensively. I wanted the lights to be lightweight and modular, to fit in boxes for shipping to the show. I was looking for contemporary styling, in silver or black. And I wanted to have at least one special lighting effect – not too flashy – to give my booth a unique element.

In his CD on booth design, art business consultant Bruce Baker suggests 1,000 watts will light up a 10’X10’ booth very effectively. I decided to stay at or under 500 watts, however, because the ACRE show includes 500 watts with the booth price, and the halogen lighting I ultimately decided upon illuminates my displays very well. Since I bought the lights at a “big-box” store with sites in virtually every city in the U.S., I can add more lights once I’m at the trade show if necessary.

The Battle of the Bulb

Contractors Choice Lighting (www.ccl-light.com) says a light fixture is simply a “bulb holder.” The bulb, therefore, should drive one’s choice of a fixture. This is somewhat true for trade-show lighting, although the fixtures may dictate the types of bulbs, depending on the choices available at the store where one shops for the lights. The CCL website offers a “Bulb Photometrics” page (http://ccl-light.com/photometrics.html), whose graphical representation is a refreshing departure from the complex descriptions of lighting options that have proliferated on the web.

Halogen is the bulb of choice for many trade show exhibitors. It offers a crisp, white light. Although people commonly refer to halogen as non-incandescent, it is in fact a kind of incandescent lamp. It generates light by using a thin filament wire made of tungsten, heated to white by passing an electric current through it. According to General Electric, the first halogen lamp was developed in 1959 – not too long ago for many of us!

Halogen bulbs differ significantly from the traditional type of incandescents we grew up with. The halogen bulb’s filament is surrounded by halogen gases (iodine or bromine, specifically). These gases let the filaments operate at higher temperatures. The end result is a higher light output per watt.

The gases also do something rather miraculous: Tungsten tends to evaporate off the filament over time, and the gases actually help re-deposit the tungsten onto the filament. This extends the bulb’s life way beyond that of the traditional incandescent bulb, whose evaporated tungsten clings to the walls of the bulb like a smoky apparition and eventually the uncoated filament snaps. Who hasn’t rattled a burnt-out light bulb and enjoyed the jazzy cymbal sound of the broken filament inside?

In addition to giving off more light than traditional incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs emit a whiter light that provides better color rendition. “For highlighting and bringing out true colors, use halogen lamps,” suggests USA Light and Electric’s website (www.usalight.com). “Nothing looks better than the drama brought in with halogen lamps.”

Baker also suggests halogen lights – floodlights in particular – for a contemporary look, especially for jewelry and glass. It’s important to consider that other fine craft materials such as ceramics and wood might be better enhanced with halogen spotlights, or even with some of the more traditional incandescent lights that emit a warmer color.

Having decided upon halogen lighting, my next task would be to choose bulbs. The ACRE show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which has instituted a strict halogen lighting policy. Each light cannot exceed 75 watts, and all halogen bulbs must be factory sealed in glass (not in a removable lens or linear shape).

Thankfully, there is plenty of factory-sealed halogen lighting, in the form of PAR halogen bulbs. PAR is an acronym for “parabolic aluminized reflector.” PAR bulbs have a built-in reflecting surface made of pressed glass. The glass provides both an internal reflector and prisms in the lens for control of the light beam.

PAR bulbs are numbered, as in PAR 16, PAR 20, PAR 56. The PAR number refers to the bulb shape. Bulbs.com has a halogen section of the site where you can quickly compare the various PAR bulbs visually. Within a given category of PAR bulbs there are various wattages, wide and narrow spotlights and floodlights, different base sizes, and even different colors.

Fortunately I was able to skip the process of deciding on a PAR bulb by deciding first where to shop for my lights (more on that below).

Power Issues

When you go to shop for track lights, you’ll notice there’s a choice between 12-volt and 120-volt fixtures. 120 is the standard voltage that comes directly into most homes and offices – and convention centers.

For a lamp using 120 volts, no additional parts are necessary beyond a regular socket. 120-volt fixtures generally are lighter than 12-volt fixtures because they don’t need a transformer. They also cost less and can use halogen or regular incandescent bulbs.

I stopped short of investigating 12-volt fixtures, except to find out that they step down the amount of energy being used to a lower voltage, and thus are more energy efficient. They require a transformer to convert the 120-volt household current to 12 volts, and they may require hardwiring (although one artist I know found a 12-volt fixture with a built-in transformer which she was able to plug into a 120-volt outlet. A 12-volt fixture accommodates very efficient bulbs that offer a variety of wattages and beam spreads, including the 50-watt MR-16, which is popular in galleries.

I decided on 120-volt lighting for the trade show, because I wouldn’t have to worry about transformers and could just plug it in.

Choosing a Store and Track Lighting

I read the ACRE online forum for clues about where to buy lighting. What one artist said struck me as eminently sensible: He buys all his lighting at Home Depot, because if anything goes wrong at the show, he can find a store nearby for replacement parts.

This was something to consider: Tempting as the gorgeous designs might be, special-order lighting of any kind introduces the risk of having a malfunctioning light for the duration of a show.

Another artist on the ACRE online forum said he buys his lights from Lowes. It probably doesn’t matter which big-box store one chooses, as long as there’s one in every city.

Since I was new to trade shows and this was to be my first lighting kit, I resisted choosing from the many good suppliers on the web. I settled on the limited but attractive selection at Lowes. A side benefit of this was that my choices were comfortably narrowed.

Within the category of halogen lighting, you can get either track lights or stem-mounted lights (with arms extending outward). I went with track lights. This was partly because the stem lights I found on the web were relatively expensive and Lowe’s didn’t offer them, and partly because with track lights I could have one cord instead of several hanging down.

The Lowes lighting salesperson was helpful in putting together a full package from the track lighting on display and in stock. I decided on four, two-foot tracks to keep the size of my shipping boxes down. Here’s a rundown of what I bought:

· 4 two-foot track sections, Portfolio brand, black finish, Item #225678. Each section holds 2 lights, for a total of 8. Total: $23.12

· 8 Flared Gimbal Track Lights, Portfolio brand, Item #120673, with a satin chrome finish for a contemporary look. They are easy to attach to the track by following the directions. Total: $80.76

· 8 halogen bulbs, Par 20, 50-watt, for bright, crisp light. I bought several floodlights and a couple of spotlights. The bulbs are very packable, at a little over 3” long and 2.5” in diameter. Total: $60.00

· 2 Miniature Straight Connectors by Portfolio, Item #120716, for joining two of the track sections end to end. The idea is to have only one cord to plug in from a row of four lights. Total: $5.92.

· 2 Cord and Plug Sets, Portfolio brand, Item #120827, to power track from a standard AC wall outlet. I connected these to the end of the two of the track sections by unscrewing the covering on one side of the track. Total: $17.06

· Various Multi-Purpose Ties (cable ties), by Catamount, for attaching tracks to booth pipes. Total: $5.00

· 2 heavy-duty extension cord/power strips – 14-gauge, 15-feet, with three outlets each, Woods brand, from Lowe’s, Item #170224, model 82965. Total: $22.00

Grand total: $213.86

The Gimbal lights I chose only accept a 50-watt, PAR 20 bulb, which made it easy to pick out the bulbs. So in this case, the fixture drove the choice of bulb, not the other way around.

According to the Bulb Photometrics page at Contractors Choice Lighting, a PAR 20, 50-watt halogen flood bulb will emit a beam of light with a 5’4” diameter when it reaches 10 feet away. It offers about 12 foot-candles worth of light at 10 feet away from the bulb (a foot-candle is the level of illumination on a surface one foot away from a standard candle.)

For the sake of comparison, a PAR 30 beam offers a diameter of more than 8’ at 10 feet away, and you still get about 14 foot-candles at that distance. What happens if you notch it up to a 75-watt bulb? You get a lot more foot-candles (38) at 10 feet away. This suggests that larger trade-show booths might want to take advantage of higher PAR and higher watt bulbs.

All together, the track lighting system I chose uses 400 watts of electricity. This left me another 100 watts to add specialty or accent lighting to my booth, while still remaining at the 500-watt limit.

Cords, Plugs and Hanging Lights

The Las Vegas Convention Center has very strict rules for cords, plugs, and hanging lights.

The two-pronged, 18-gauge cords that the manufacturer has attached to your lights are acceptable (leave the UL tags and labels intact). These lighting cords cannot be plugged into the convention center outlet, however. Instead, you must plug them into a three-pronged, heavy duty, 14-gauge extension cord – or a breaker strip with a 14-gauge cord. You can then plug that 14-gauge extension cord into the convention center outlet.

A 14-gauge extension cord is capable of handling 1,825 watts. It’s helpful to read the brief extension-cord sizing and safety information on the web pages of the Underwriters Laboratories (www.ul.com/consumers/cords.html) and the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FY800) before purchasing a cord.

Bruce Baker suggests the cord be 20 feet with six outlets, and that it include a cord reel. I couldn’t find this type of cord at Lowe’s, so I decided on two 15-foot, heavy-duty, 14-gauge extension cord/power strips, each offering three outlets. If you have a larger booth, you can find a 25-foot cord with three outlets at Lowe’s.

There are so many different approaches to hanging lights, and so many variables to consider, that it could be a topic for another article. In general, you can hang or clip lights onto a cross bar or onto the “hard walls” of your display if you have them. Depending on the rules of a particular trade show and the size your lighting system, you may be permitted to attach the lights to the booth’s existing pipe and drape.

Since my booth design does not include my own walls, my lights will attach either to the existing pipe or to a cross bar. Cable ties (commonly called “zip ties”) appear to be tool of choice for attaching tracks to the pipes or bars, and even for attaching additional cross bars to existing pipe and drape. One artist I know uses Velcro strips, followed by cable ties to secure the attachments. There are a few entire websites for cable ties. One of them is http://www.cabletiesplus.com .

I purchased Multi-Purpose Ties from Home Depot. They can bundle 4 inches in diameter, withstand temperatures up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and hold up to 50 lbs.

Accent Lighting: LEDs

There are many ideas for accent lighting – although a fair treatment of the topic is beyond the scope of this article. Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is one technology that is experiencing breakthroughs and growing fast. It takes many LEDs to equal the light output of a 50-watt bulb, and LEDs are fairly expensive, so LEDs aren’t ready for prime time when it comes to lighting a whole booth.

There are several close-up applications for LEDs, however, that are worth looking into now. An example is the in-counter light bar sold by MK Digital Direct at www.mkdigitaldirect.com (at a whopping $175 per foot). The more affordable MK Sparkle Light Pocket ($30) is a portable device that has extra long-life of over 100,000 continuous hours and promises to give jewelry “maximum sparkle and scintillation.”

The Nexus mini LED light system (www.ccl-light.com), meanwhile, offers a lot of illumination for its size – a puck shape not much bigger than a quarter. The company says it is for direct display lighting of crystal and glass, and it can even be submerged in water. The light is attached to a 12’ cable that ends in a plug, and has “mode switch” with seven different color choices. Unfortunately, white is not one of the color choices, and at $25 it’s a bit expensive. Still, a few of these lights combined with room lighting could draw viewers into your booth and toward your most dramatic displays.

LEDS also include tube lights, flexible lights, linear lights, and bulbs. Superbright LEDs (www.superbrightleds.com/edison.html ) has a collection of 120-volt screw-in LED bulbs for accent and other low-lighting applications, as well as a host of other fascinating products such as “plant up-light fixtures.”

At this writing, the search was still on for accent lighting to give my booth an extra special glow. Stay tuned for a future article on the results.

Online Resources

The following list is not an endorsement, but rather a starting point for research on lighting systems, cable ties, and accent lighting.

www.ccl-light.com – inexpensive and many choices, has “Bulb Photometrics” page to help determine how much light and what kind you want from a bulb

www.direct-lighting.com – stem-mounted and track lights

www.usalight.com – large selection of lighting and bulbs

www.bulbs.com – quick visual comparison of PAR bulbs (in halogen section)

http://www.cabletiesplus.com – Cable (zip) ties for securing track lights to pipe

www.mkdigitaldirect.com – LED lights for jewelry cases

http://www.american-image.com/products/lights/lights.html – a nice selection and visual layout of stem-mounted and other lighting (but not cheap)

http://www.brightmandesign.com/products/wash-super.html – good technical information and images of lights set-ups for trade shows; several stem-mounted clip-on designs

www.superbrightleds.com – LED accent lighting, including screw-in bulbs and light bars

Alice Horrigan is a glass artist living in Ithaca, New York
http://www.fingerlakesgifts.com
http://www.wholesalecrafts.com (Artist #23436)
Retailers may see Alice’s work at the American Craft Retailers Expo (ACRE) wholesale show, May 2-4, 2007, Booth #333. Pre-show appointments call 607-351-3284, or write to alice@fingerlakesgifts.com .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Horrigan

Entry 3 of 6 in series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Craft Show Profitability.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Recently I’ve been working to make my business more profitable each and every day.

Week one I worked on catching up on left over unfinished projects from previous weeks to prepare for my 30 days of greater profitability. As usual I accomplished some of the things I intended to do, did some things I planned to do later early, and didn’t accomplish some of the plan.

Week two I learned new things about my email marketing to keep my messages from being flagged as spam. I joined a networking site I’ve been meaning to join for months when they ran a special I couldn’t pass up. I did a client consultation which was a new service for me. I blogged about what I was doing and I did all this while keeping up with requests for information about my business.

This week I got less accomplished than I had intended but what I did do I feel good about.

Week 3 what I accomplished.

• I did mail coupons to show promoters.
• I had a second client consultation.
• I learned something new about my facebook profile and group page. Added links to my group from my profile page.
• Worked on creating my profile on LinkedIn. Added a few contacts there.
• Worked on cleaning out my overly full email box.
• Signed up for a MySpace account. You can follow our posts at http://www.myspace.com/extravaganzacrafts.
• I blogged about my experience working toward greater profitability this week.

Here is what I didn’t accomplish.

• I still didn’t get my accounting done.
• I didn’t call the people I just mailed free newsletters to in the last few weeks to ask them what they thought of the newsletter. It is probably too late but I will try to fit this into next week anyway.  Call your prospects right away they are only interested about 7 days!
• I didn’t create any articles to send to show promoters that will encourage them to list their shows with me.
• Since I didn’t write the articles I also didn’t start calling my huge list of show promoters. Obviously I didn’t sign them up in my email marketing system.
• I didn’t contact Power Pay and get signed up to accept credit cards.

I hope that this series is inspiring you to work along with me to improve your businesses profitability by doing something each day that will make your business stronger. I know that I’m a bad example but I would really suggest that you write your goals down on a calendar. This way you can truly see what you did accomplish and will remember what you didn’t get done so you can work on it in your spare time or in your next 30 day plan.

The plan for the next 7 days:

• Day 16 -Call the people I sent newsletters to. Ask them if they would like to receive free articles. Sign them up as prospects.
• Day 17 -Create articles for show promoters.
• Day 18 -Call show promoters and ask them if they would like to receive free articles to make their businesses more profitable.
• Day 19 -Call Power Pay and get set up to accept credit cards.
• Day 20 -Find my friends who are already on MySpace and try to connect with them.
• Day 21 -Do my accounting!
• Day 22 -Write article for my newsletter.
• Day 23 -Blog about my accomplishments this week.

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series 7 Ways for Your Art or Craft Business to Outsell the Retailers. Read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions

Parts of this 7 part series have been reprinted with permission from the article “7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business” by Pam Grimm of Ideaco.

7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business

By Pamela Grimm, Ideaco

2. Lack of interest in customers:

It surprised me how often I could walk into and out of a store without having a single conversation with anyone. No one seemed interested that I was even there. When we did come in contact with staff, they really didn’t know how to conduct small talk to establish some kind of personal relationship connection. It was all business. Why is this important? Because the personal connection made with the store is the core of a positive experience…making a connection that makes you want to come back to that store, think of that store,and become an advocate for that store. Another “dropped ball” was in the lack of gathering contact information. In over 95% of the stores, we walked out with no way for the store to ever follow up, market to us, or make another connection with us.

How to Overcome a Lack of Interest in Customers

As I mentioned in part 1 everytime a retailer misses a sale they leave an opportunity for you to make the sale, if you have a product of similar quality and value. I feel like it is obvious that if a customer walks into your booth and leaves without even a greeting that you have missed an opportunity, but since it happens so often in every industry it bears repeating. If a customer walks into your booth and walks away without having a conversation with you, you have missed an opportunity for a sale.

I admit it is hard to find the motivation to happily greet every customer when a show has few customers and sales are slow. Remember it is more expensive to find new customers than it is to sell to those who have already purchased from you. It’s not the purchase one customer is making that will make your business profitable it is the many purchases they will make in the future that will. Retailers who fail to greet their customers aren’t seeing the full potential of each customer. Every customer has the possibility of one sale or one thousand sales depending on what you do to earn their business. If you follow up with correct marketing principles with the customers who have purchased from you approximately 20% of them will make 80% of the future purchases from your business. By treating each customer like your best customer you won’t miss your next golden opportunity.

A customer walked into your booth, saw something there that interested them, your job is to establish a relationship of trust with the customer. Find out what is was that brought them into your booth, and ask for the sale. How do you establish trust with someone? What makes you trust someone? Establish trust by getting to know them, find out what it is that they want and give it to them. You can’t establish trust if you haven’t spoken to them. Start off with a simple, “Hello.” Don’t ask, “How are you today?” unless you truly want to know, customers know when you care and when you’re just asking to start a conversation. If you ask, “How are you today?” you must truly care how they are today. Ask where someone is from, or what brought them to the show today, ask what they are looking for, or if you can help them find something. Ask if there is someone they are shopping for or if they are shopping for a special occasion. Ask if they are looking for a particular style or if they are looking for something in a certain price range. Listen carefully to their answers without trying to figure out what you are going to say next. When they are finished speaking then take a moment to consider what to show them. When you have narrowed the choices to a few of their favorites ask for the sale by saying, “May I wrap those up for you?” or “May I take those to the counter for you?” If they’re having a hard time deciding, offer to give a small discount (10% off) the lower priced item if they buy them both.

When ringing up the a customers purchase always offer an upsell. An upsell is an additional complimentary product for example McDonalds offers a larger fry and drink with every hamburger (or hamburger meal) purchased. Done correctly chances are some customers will make the extra purchase, but no one will if you don’t offer. Don’t forget to collect the customers contact information during this step. They have purchased from you showing a need or want for your products so you should follow up with them to find out if they have additional needs, You can’t follow up if you have no way of contacting them again. You can collect their personal information by using duplicate receipts and including their name, mailing address, phone and email on every receipt you make out. Be sure to ask if you may include them on your mailing list and mark that on the receipt. Only mail to those that gave permission to be included.

Treat every customer like a golden opportunity. Follow up with them multiple times and soon you will be able to sort out the customers who will make many multiple purchases in the future and focus the largest part of your marketing budget on them and your profits will definitely grow.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.net to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

I’ve been looking for sources of grants for artists and crafters for a very long time. This week Dee Bishop the craft shop examiner for examiner.com contacted me and when I asked about grants she posted an article that I wanted to share with you Grant and funding sources for artists.

Don’t forget to to visit the Commonwheel Artists 38th Annual Labor Day Arts & Crafts Festival in Manitou Springs, CO this Sep. 1 to 3, 2012

Handcrafted arts and crafts festival vendors contact Julia Wright at 719-577-7700 to reserve your show booth now.  Remember to tell her thank you for listing her show with The Extravaganza Craft News.

Want more information on this and other art and craft fairs in Montana each month subscribe to The Extravaganza Craft News at www.extravaganzacrafts.com.

Plastic Storage Drawers

On my wire cubes I have these little plastic drawers with the Boy Scout emblem on them.  I am not sure where I got them but I have all kinds of things in them.  I would take some better pictures of them except something happened and my phone camera isn’t synchronizing correctly with my computer.  Hope to get that fixed soon.

They contain roller stamps and ink for them.  They also contain pop dots a.k.a. thick foam tape for scrapbooking and rubber stampers.  They have boxes of paper clips I used to make angels, baskets of shells, juice can lids and scratched CDs saved for various kids art projects, corner rounders, stickers for kids projects, and so much more.  I also have several of these little plastic drawers in a cupboard full of rubber stamps.

Plastic Storage Drawers

I love these little drawers on my wire cubes because two of them side by side perfectly fit the width of the cubes.  You can also do as I’ve done here and use the plastic drawers as a shelf.  Another option would be to stack 3 plastic drawers  on one side of the cube and use the wire cube pieces to divide the rest of the cube vertically.

How many times has someone who was trying to help you actually hurt your chances of getting what you wanted? How many times has someone with good intentions tried to help you reach what they saw as your full potential but actually stood in the way of you reaching your dreams? How many times has a pushy salesman stood between you and the car you wanted trying to sell you a different one?

Your job as a business person is to help a customer who already has an idea what they want, find it and then sell it to them. Remember not to stand in the way of them buying your handcrafted art.

Some Don’ts. Don’t stand in front of your craft show booth (or anyone’s booth) talking to people you haven’t seen in a while catching up. Get their number so you can call later and allow them to move on. Don’t read in your booth. If you work on a project in your art festival booth talk about what you’re doing even when no one is around. Don’t get so caught up in the project that you become unapproachable.

As an art or craft vendor it should be
your goal to discover what every customer
who walks into your booth wants.

First establish a relationship. Smile, say hello, and introduce yourself. Give customers an idea of how things are arranged in your booth. For example say, “Hello, my name is Shasta. Necklaces are here, bracelets over there, and rings are by the checkout stand.” Tell them your special of the day. For example, “Today we’re having a sale on jewelry buy one necklace (valued at $x) and get a free pair of earrings (valued at ($x).” Some art show promoters don’t allow sales so be sure that you are not breaking the rules. If you are not allowed to have sales then show the customer the featured item of the day. You don’t always have to run the same special, but if you find one works particularly well for you, use it often.

Narrow the choices. You might allow customers to shop a few minutes or you could try to help them narrow their choices. Ask them if they are shopping for themselves or for someone else today. When you know who they are shopping for you narrow down which questions to ask to help make their choice easier.

By asking where a person is from you establish a casual conversation which can give clues to what styles they might be looking for. You can ask them if they like the style most common to their area. For instance people from Montana might like a western or outdoor theme, while people from Florida might like a beach theme. They might like that theme but be looking for something different just because they like to be different. The question is really just meant to give them a way to express what they do and don’t like and what they might be looking for.

You can always ask if they had a specific item in mind, or if they would like you to show them some of your ideas.

Close the sale. When they seem to be stuck ask if they would like to see more options or if you can ring up their selections? They might just be waiting for you to ask for the sale.

Offer an Upsell. Never let a customer who is purchasing just buy the one thing they have picked out. Offer an additional item similar or complimentary to the one they purchased at a small discount. For instance if they decided to buy a platter ask if they would like the matching gravy pitcher for 10% off or offer them two platters for $x.

Keep in contact. Try to collect every customers name, address, phone number, and email address. Ask their permission to add them to your mailing list. Tell them you will be sending relevant product information, specials, notices of where they can find your products. If they will share their birth date with you send them a special discount on their special day. Only mail to customers who give you permission and keep all information relevant. Remember how much you hate junk mail and spam!

For automated email responders I use AutoWebBusiness.com . I highly recommend you check them out if you don’t already have some kind of automated follow up/email system in place.

Recently I signed up to do business with a big company and have had nothing but a terrible experience. They have however helped me to realize what good customer service is and what it is not.

Good service is delivering what was promised, on time. It is realizing that as a business person it is your job to deliver value for your customers dollars.

Good customer service is having a way for your customers to reach you regarding any problems they are having with your art or craft, your policies or your business in general. It is having a clear effective way for them to report problems. It is listening to them and valuing their opinions.

Customer service is NOT giving people the run around. It is NOT making them call and leave several messages to resolve a problem. Customer service is NOT WAITING two weeks before returning phone calls. It is returning their calls within 2 days of them calling even if it is only to tell them you are sorry for the problem and working to resolve it. Then resolve it and let them know.

Providing good service ISN’T about correcting customers misconceptions about your business after they happen. It is preventing them in the first place, or taking responsibility for them if they do occur.

Great customer service is having a 100% satisfaction guarantee that states:

If you are unsatisfied with our product or service for any reason we will refund you money completely. No questions asked. However if you would like to tell us what is was wrong with our product or service we would be happy to listen so we can improve our business in the future.

It is informing all your employees of this policy. It is telling them that listening means not talking. It is giving them the authority and resources they need to refund the customers money.

Lastly customer service is about seeing upset customers as an asset. Upset customers can do the most damage to your business OR you can see that they are your best opportunities to grow. By hearing your customers complaints you know the places that your business needs improvement. If you resolve their problems with your business satisfactorily they may even become your best customers.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love HGTV.  This week I was watching Unsellables and Sofie Allsop said something that made sense to me for craft show booths.  Sofie said that in order to sell our house we have to make it stand out from the crowd.

How do we make our craft show booth stand out from the crowd?

• Make your craft show display professional. Make it highlight your crafts not compete with them.  Don’t over crowd or clutter your booth, also don’t let it get a picked over look.

• Make your crafts the best quality.
• Collect your customers contact information and respectfully contact them with information that will be valuable to them.
• Offer the best customer service.  Develop a relationship with them.
• Offer the best guarantee.

These are just a few ideas of how you can make your handmade craft business stand out from the crowd.  How do you make your handcrafts stand out and make an impression that people will remember positively?

I was just wondering if you are making any money selling your crafts in this economy? What crafts are you selling, are they selling well? Have your sales improved or dropped off with the “recession” and what are you doing differently that has helped or possibly hurt your business?

Dear Readers,

I’m working to build the best list of art and craft shows in the US that Twitter has ever seen.

I’ve already started a list of artists and crafters that show promoters could visit looking for vendors of handcrafted items.

Help me get the two groups together if you are an artist or crafter on Twitter follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/TheExtravaganza and message me to that affect.

Message me your favorite art and craft shows that tweet and I will follow and list them for all to see.

Thanks,

Shasta

On January 7, 2011 I received this message from electric fence wire:

“Thanks admin for sharing this and link back to http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.net website that can help people to know about an advantage of electric fence wire.”

Why am I posting about this message? I am posting about this message because it is the kind of comment I get on my art and craft blog all the time. It proves that people are destroying their business reputations because they don’t know how to use blogs to draw attention to their business.

What did they do wrong?

1. Their business had nothing to do with the purpose of my blog?
2. Their post had nothing to do with the post or blog? They obviously didn’t even read the original post.
3. They gave no information that was relevant to my blog, post or customer.

Frankly I find it conceited and rude that they think I would just link to their site. I have no reason to recommend electric fence wire to my art and craft customers, they wouldn’t find it relevant to them. I have no reason to trust them or do business with them, so why would I risk the reputation of my business to link to them? The only thing I know about their business is that they treated me like a fool assuming I would just post such a link.

Comment correctly to build links and drive traffic to your site.

1. Visit blogs and communities that are related to your craft business.
   Visit sites where people are looking for the best fencing solutions if you are selling electric fence wire. Handcrafted jewelry businesses might visit sites where people talk about the best jewelry to go with an outfit or face shape. Woodworkers visit places where people are talking about styles of furniture or decorations, or about furniture repairs. Knitters might visit sites that make blankets for charity, or knitting guilds.
2. Keep your comments relevant to the purpose of the blog and the individual post.
   People looking for information to make their art and craft businesses more profitable are not looking for electric fence wire. Comments that are irrelevant waste everyone’s time and damage both business’s reputations. Every business should find blogs and posts that are related to them to comment on.
3. Share information that will be useful and valuable to the customers of the blog and to the original poster.
   I wouldn’t have been offended by electric fence wires post if they had shared information that would be useful and valuable to my customers. I would have happily shared a link to their site despite the fact it wasn’t likely something my customers would be looking for because it would have been accompanied by information that my customer could use.

Use good commenting etiquette to build traffic to your craft business.

Entry 1 of 6 in series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Craft Show Profitability. 
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Recently I’ve been working to make my business more profitable each and every day. Today it occurred to me that I should share with you how I plan to do that.

• Day 1-Set a goal to do something to make my business more profitable each day for 1 month.
• Day 2-Make a plan. Get out a calendar and write down the goal for each day until calendar contains one goal for each day. Make each goal one that can be accomplished in a time frame of 1 day to 1 week.
• Day 3-Finish writing down goals on calendar. Breaking larger goals down into step by step goals if necessary.
• Day 4-Clean office so I can find everything I need to accomplish goals.
  

• Day 5-Do projects I’ve been putting off for the past month or so especially accounting.
• Day 6-Finish projects I’ve been putting off for last month.
• Day 7-Blog about my experiences this week.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Your customers won’t buy art from you if:

• They don’t know where to find you or your product.
• They aren’t prepared to buy now. For instance they weren’t expecting to see a product they wanted so they don’t have money right now.
• They don’t know what you are selling.
• You aren’t selling what they want.
• If your handcrafted product is hard to get, the wrong price or bad quality.
• You haven’t asked them if they would like to buy.

We were selling World’s Finest Chocolates as a fundraiser to earn our trip to Jamaica with ROC Wheels in March 2011.

The first day the kids sold chocolate bars, they sold very few. The next day more people knew they were selling them and several bought. The third day their sales increased again because people knew they could count on them having them and had their money together.

• Problem: Not knowing it was available!
• Solutions: Consistency, advertising, marketing your finished crafts to correct market, having a website or blog to show case your art work, email marketing.

One day my son took the chocolates to school. A child asked him if he had Mint Meltaways. He answered yes and was swarmed by kids who wanted the mints. They hadn’t bought before because they didn’t know he had them.

• Problem: Not knowing what was available! Not offering enough variety.
• Solutions: Better advertising and signage, having a website or blog, email marketing. Offering the right product to the right customer.

We arranged to sell the chocolates at a grocery store in town, set up a table and sat down to wait for our first customer. I noticed that although we were directly in front of the door many people walked right by or bought a product right next to us without even seeing we were there. When we asked if they could use chocolate for stocking stuffers many people checked out what we were selling.

• Problem: Not knowing where to find you. Not knowing what you are selling.
• Solutions: Consistency, better advertising and signage. Not being afraid to offer your product and ask for a purchase.

The favorite chocolate we are selling seems to be the caramel candy bar. Chocolate sales increase when we keep those in stock and decrease greatly when we run out. Some people will buy another variety, some won’t.

We noticed however that when we sold to a wider variety of people (at the store instead of the school) the different flavors all sold about the same.

• Problem: Not selling what the customer wants.
• Solutions: Find the right market for your product by selling to a different group of people. Change your product to meet the needs of the group you are currently selling to. Offer a wider variety of products or narrow your products to the ones your customers buy.

People at the store weren’t expecting to see us so they didn’t have a few dollars cash on hand. They usually went to buy groceries and came back with money to spend.

• Problem: Customers aren’t prepared to buy now.
• Solutions: Follow up through mail, email, a website or blog or even an occasional phone call. Remember just do it respectfully always giving the customer something they want for instance information they need, a discount, or even a special just for them.

One problem we didn’t face was resistance to price or quality. The problem is that a low price can give the idea that a product isn’t high quality, but if the price is too high customers won’t buy. The solution is to do your research and carefully set your price within a range the customer will pay. Decide if you want to have the lowest price, the highest price, or some where in the middle.

The biggest difference between a craft show and a trade show is the buyer who will walk into the show.

Buyers at craft shows are the end consumer or the person who will use the product. Many buyers at trade shows are representatives or agents of retail stores. They come to trade shows looking to buy large quantities of various items which will then be resold to the end consumer.

These representatives will expect to pay a much lower price (usually half) than the customers at a craft show because they will then need to mark up the price again to make a profit on the resale.

Things to Consider

1. Will I be able to make my product quickly enough to fulfill many wholesale orders in large quantities? Will I have space to create, pack and ship large orders?

2. What price should I charge for my product wholesale?

Most retailers will mark up the price you give them at least 30% and in some industries up to 700% is standard. The key to knowing what price to charge is to do some research.

Call the owner or manager of retail stores selling products like yours and tell them you are doing market research on your product. Ask them about the product you are considering, the usefullness of the product to their customers, the style and other design elements of the product. Ask what price they would expect to pay for such a product and what they would charge for similar products.

The most common rule for wholesale pricing is to charge two times the cost of producing the item (don’t forget to add costs not directly associated with the item like studio rent, travel, shipping, electricity). Expect retailers to at least double your wholesale price, when setting retail prices.

3. Am I able to create my product for this price and still make a reasonable profit on my business overall?

4. Do I want to offer:
• A discount for buying larger quantities?
• A guarantee, how long is my product guaranteed, and what is covered?
• Additional materials to help with the sale?
• Samples?
• Marketing materials?
• Case prices and packaging?
• Product buy back if it doesn’t sell?

5. Am I going to continue to sell my product retail? How am I going to set my retail price without competing with my wholesale buyers?

The Pros and Cons of Trade Shows
Pro: Larger orders
Con: Lower price

Pro: Larger orders
Con: How to produce those large orders in a short time?

Pro: Trade shows may target my exact industry or customers for instance a Toy Trade Show would be perfect for selling handcrafted toys.
Con: Cash Flow -Cost of preparation and having enough supplies on hand.

Pro: Less time spent selling. I now sell my product to one person whose job is to sell my product.
Con: Less connection/ feedback from/with the customer.

Pro: Selling to a wider audience.
Con: Chance of creating competition with people who bought from you. In essence competing with your self.

I often hear the question is a license required for my art and craft show booth, art and craft show, or online art and craft business.

The answer is it depends on the city, county, and state you live in.  Every city, county and state creates their own rules and regulations regarding business licenses and special event permits etc.  Each location will also have it’s own rules on tax collection at art and craft shows.

So how do you find out if you need a business license or special event permit for your craft business?  Call your city offices and ask them what department handles business licenses and special event permits.  You can also type your city, county, state and the keywords business license requirements or special events permits into a search engine.

My business is outside the city limits so my city won’t issue me a business license.  My county and state don’t require business licenses for my type of business.  I finally visited a neighboring city and was issued a business license.

You will usually need a business license to buy wholesale.  It is to your benefit to get a business license even if you aren’t required to have one.

Register your business with your state as a DBA (Doing Business As) as this allows you to get a business checking account which will make doing your taxes so much easier.

Visit the State Resources page at Extravaganza Craft Productions for more information if you live in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, or South Dakota.

If you live in the areas mentioned above and know the requirements for your city, county or state please comment on this post with the address, phone number and website.  I will add that information to the State Resources page to help other crafters in your area.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

I received an email the other day from Give to Get Marketing expert, Joe Gracia, that shows how Mullen’s Ice Cream Shop uses their business card to do double duty.

The business card contains the business contact information including name and phone number, but also includes an offer to the business’s customers.

The business card functions as a coupon for $1.00 off purchases of $6.00 or more, $2.00 off purchases of $12.00 or more, $3.00 off purchases of $18.00 or more, or 2 scoops for the price of one. They easily fit all this information on one side of a business card.

There are several ways this concept could be adapted to any business, but I immediately thought of art and craft festival vendors.

Different craft vendors can use different offers.

For instance lower priced jewelry might use an offer very similar to Mullen’s offer above with just a small increase in savings for a slightly larger purchase. Instead of two scoops for the price of one you could use get a free pair of earrings valued at $x.xx with every necklace valued at $xx.xx purchased. For higher priced items like fine art or furniture you might want to increase the size of the discount (or use a % off offer) and purchase to fit more with your items.

The idea is to encourage a customer purchasing one item at craft festivals to purchase an additional item or complimentary item as they will receive a larger discount or savings the more they purchase.

Other offers that could be used on a business card include:

• $x.xx off offers
• x % off offers
• buy x get x -1/2 off and other similar offers
• buy x get x free

The back of the card should have a picture of your best seller and say, “Bring this card and a friend to any show and receive xx offer. See our website for current show schedule.” It should then list your website address. NOTE: Your website should tell what shows you will be attending, have other places they can purchase your items (such as galleries, specialty shops, etc.), and have pieces for sale. By including a coupon code beneath each offer on the front they could use the coupon on their online order to encourage larger online sales.

HOW TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS LIKE A MAGNET
Marketing is all about ‘helping people get what they want.’ Simply do that and you’ll have all the customers and sales you’ll ever need. Learn this simple formula and your business will begin to grow instantly. For more information, visit: Give to Get Marketing

We all face the same problem how to sell more handcrafted arts and crafts and make more money. Want to know the easiest way to double sales on your website and in your craft show fair booth?

People want what they want and they want it now! Make it easy for them to get your items now and in the future.

My family sold fireworks the past 3 years. The first year I noticed something that held true the other two.

I noticed that 50% of sales at the fireworks stand were made on credit cards. I also noticed that people who had decided they had already spent their limit often decided to purchase more when they learned we accepted credit cards.

More people buy when they hear that we accept credit cards because psychologically they are separated from the feeling of spending money. Taking out a piece of plastic and handing it to someone feels different than taking out a dollar and handing it to someone.

People spend more money when buying with a credit card because they can. They want something right now and they can get it now by putting it on a credit card.

People have been conditioned to forget about the payment involved with a credit card, because… they can pay for it later.

Lori Mulholland of Stitch a Book (www.Stitchabook.com) says,
“My experience at shows are your HAVE to take CC’s. Some of my shows are 50 % CC income.

I started out with the old Knuckle-buster hand push-pull contraption, and was recently told about SQUARE. It’s a white square that has a divot in it. You attach it to your smart phone, and you can slide the CC in the divot and process it that way. You get the customers email address, and the reciept is sent to them via email. Google “Square” and you will see it. The Costs of accepting CC’s is way better than the alternative. I have used Propay for many years and it has worked well, but it was brought to my attention at a recent show, that the use of the knuckle-buster is now illegal, for identity theft purposes. Having access to the whole number is OUT-Dated and Out lawed. The Square takes all that off your plate.”

When people pay cash for an item they may have to wait six months or more while they scrimp and save up for it. Giving them the feeling that they will have to work and sacrifice for it, something they don’t want to do.

In the meantime they will probably forget that they wanted the item or where they saw it. Save yourself time,effort, and profits by making it easy for customers to purchase now.

What does this mean for your arts and craft shows booth? It means that you can double your sales at fairs with this one simple solution, accept credit cards!

Why don’t we all accept credit cards?

Most of us look at the cost of accepting credit cards and it seems that it’s going to cost us more than we can afford.

We look at the options available and we see that it’s going to be seemingly inconvenient for us. With new solutions like SquareUp (https://squareup.com/) that work with our mobile phone there are no excuses.

The costs of accepting credit cards becomes unimportant when you consider that you will double your sales and profits by accepting them.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

How can you make your booth stand out at jewelry shows?

1. Specialize in something!

Artisans can specialize in:

* gold or silver jewelry
* vintage pieces
* bridal jewelry
* jewelry from natural gemstone, precious or semi-precious stones
* Western, outdoor, rugged, or nature jewelry
* Silverware jewelry
* Pieces inspired by any race or nationality
* Beaded jewelry
* remake antique jewelry

Your pieces can be inspired by a place such as all your pieces having the colors of the Grand Canyon or your favorite mountain scene. They might be inspired by your favorite city, or even by an industrial building.

The key in specializing is to choose a large group of people with similar tastes in handcrafted jewelry and design jewelry specifically for them.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Buyers at art and craft shows love to hear the story of the person creating the crafts.  They love to feel that they know person they are doing business with and that they are doing business with a real approachable person.  This is an important part of the trust building process that must go on between a buyer and seller.

A craft blog (short for weblog) is a great inexpensive way to share your story with buyers at the markets, both before and after they attend craft shows.  There are many different providers of free blogs including WordPress.  I used WordPress because when I built my website I had no technical knowledge of HTML, installing blogs, etc.  WordPress was fairly easy for me to figure out and install, yet it has many different plugins that add functionality.  You pick and choose what you need your craft blog to do.

Your blog is a great place to let people know what craft shows you are attending and what booth number you will be in.  It’s a wonderful place to announce new products and services, as well as to share tips on product maintenance.  Share bits of your personal story, as well as information about the techniques and supplies you’ve used.

Key to getting a lot of traffic to your blog stay on topic giving your customers the information they are looking for, and post search engine optimized posts often.  Be sure your blog points your visitors back to your website if you have one.

One last tip that was shared with me recently join blogfrog at http://theblogfrog.com I joined a few weeks ago and new people follow my blog every single day.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

People in general require 7 or more contacts with a person or business to become comfortable with them.

Most people only buy from your craft show business after 7 contacts with it although there will be the rare person who will buy from you the first time they come into your show booth.

Do you see the same customer walk into your craft show booth very rarely, rarely, sometimes, regularly, often? Are those contacts daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly?

You are making a common mistake if you answered that you very rarely, rarely, or sometimes see the same customers at craft shows. Many crafters spend too much time and money chasing new art and craft show customers and don’t spend enough on turning people who are already interested in your crafts (your prospects) into buying customers.

You are losing most of your sales if you don’t follow up with customers who come into your booth.

Follow up with your customer by creating a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a very simple guide for your business. It shows you what you are doing to guide your prospects through your process to buying your arts and crafts.

Quickly make a list of everything you use to create a contact with your customer including business cards, fliers, emails, website, blog, art and craft shows, direct mailing pieces, phone calls, and social networking. Leave lots of space between each item so you can write down the goal of each thing. Decide on and write down a single goal for each marketing piece.

Goals can include things like getting prospect to:

• visit my blog
• follow me on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn or other social marketing
  
• visit website
• give me name and contact information
• share their email
• tell me their needs
• getting a testimonial
• visit my craft show booth
• buy something

The goal of each marketing piece will help you determine where that piece of marketing will go in your marketing plan. Make sure to emphasize the desired action you want your customer to take in each piece of your marketing so that your prospects can easily tell what action you would like them to take.

Customers aren’t likely to trust you enough to buy handmade crafts from you on the first contact. Now draw a map of how you would like to encourage your customers from their first contact with you down the path to buying crafts. Remember to continue to encourage those who come into your booth and have purchased crafts from you before to come back to your craft show booth or website.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Set a goal for your art or craft business, then set a reasonable amount of time to accomplish that goal in.  Working on it a little bit every day makes it nearly impossible not to accomplish it eventually.

Goals that you might need to work on to improve your handcrafted business:

1. Learn to know my customers and market better.
2. Improve the customer service my customer receives.
3. Sell more at shows-become a better salesman.
4. Follow up more with customers-collect contact information and follow up respectfully.
5. Improve marketing plan or pieces.
6. Build a website.
7. Promote my “handcrafted” website.
8. Automate more of the sales process.
9. Make my business paperwork including business cards, fliers, brochures, catalogs, invoices, etc. more consistent to build brand awareness.
10. Make sure all my business paperwork has correct information on it including business name, contact name, complete mailing address, phone, website, and email.
11. Improve my displays.
12. Find new places to sell my arts and crafts including gift shops, galleries, specialty shops, and handcrafters boutiques, etc.
13. Improve my online sales.
14. Improve my offline sales.
15. Improve my accounting techniques.
16. Improve profits-set correct prices or cut costs.
17. Organize my workshop, studio or store for a better customer experience and better efficiency.

Setting a goal for your art or craft business  is like climbing a pyramid you can’t do it in one giant step.  Instead break it down into smaller steps.  Promise yourself to at least try and do one  smaller step a day.  Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t, instead try to go on the next day and celebrate the days you accomplish more than one step.

Work on one of your business goals at a time until you get really good at doing it consistently.  When you are really good at reaching your current goal add another goal without dropping the first one.

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Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Easy instructions for creating a website are located at:
https://www.storesonlinepro.com/store/4184138/build%20a%20website

Everyone probably remembers the artist or crafter who bugged them so much they asked not to be placed near them again… Don’t be that person.

1. Don’t put together a professional display. Make sure the legs of your booth stick out into the aisles, don’t use sturdy tables and don’t cover them. Don’t make things secure. Just bring cardboard boxes and let people rummage through them.

   An unstable display will not make your business profitable, is dangerous, and might get you and the show promoter sued. Remember to keep all parts of your booth including the legs and storage in the space the show promoter provided, everyone paid for their space and no one is happy when their customers are tripping over the legs of your booth.

   On the other hand a professional display will be safe for you, your customers, the artists around you, and the show promoter. It will also increase your sales. Ask show promoters for an extra booth or half booth if you need more space to create a safe display.

2. Refuse to hand out fliers, postcards, or to hang posters saying this is the job of the show promoter. When sales are slow go around asking everyone if they made back their booth price.  Then accuse the show promoter of taking advantage of the artists and crafters.

   OR

   Imagine there are 100 artists at an art and craft show, each one mailed 100 postcards to their customers in the area asking them to come see them at the show. They also told everyone they talked to about the show. More than 10,000 people knew about the show before the show promoter did any other advertising. The show promoter also advertised the show in the newspaper, radio, TV, on every bulletin board, and on the internet.

   Every artist and crafter at a show benefits from the word of mouth advertising any other vendor does. Being a responsible vendor means doing your part.

3. Don’t bring the things you need and then ask everyone around you for them. Don’t bring tools to set up, don’t arrange in advance to rent tables, don’t bring change for customers.

   Set up your display at home in advance, as you do make a list of things you need and pack the things you have. Careful planning can make it so you don’t get a reputation as the show pest.

4. Block the aisles, stairs, demonstrations, or other displays while visiting with friends, family, and even customers.

   Blocking the aisles makes it so customers can’t get to the booths.  It also makes it unsafe for the customers if they are in a hurry to get out. Remember, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you wouldn’t like someone to keep customers from being able to see your merchandise, don’t keep customers from being able to see theirs.

5. Leave a mess in your booth.

   You’ve worked hard all day at a show and you’re tired, but so is the show promoter.  Don’t clean up after yourself and you cost them extra time and money after they already had a long day. Chances are you won’t be asked to come back.

I was reading a post by Carla of Cobweb Corner and it got me thinking how she got her prospects (people in her craft show booth) into the buying mood making them buying customers.

Read her post here:
Jewelry Shows – There’s Something about a Sale

The internet marketing gurus I’ve been studying suggest creating a loss leader (a product you lose money on in the beginning to get people buying). They often offer a free product to gain the trust of the prospect and charge shipping on the product because if the customer would pay for shipping they are a qualified buyer.

The thing I didn’t see in her post was after she had her craft show prospects in the buying mood, what she did then.

The thing I’m learning as I study marketing is always offer an upsell or a downsell when a customer is making a purchase.

When you have a customer making a purchase always offer them a complimentary product (meaning a product similar in style or nature to the one they are already purchasing) as an upsell. You can even offer a product that is twice the price of the original one they are buying. Keep offering additional upsells as long as they keep saying yes.

When they say no, offer them a down sell. A down sell can be another lower priced product, a discount on the whole set, or a payment plan.

Tell me what you offer as an upsell or downsell.

Are you just starting your art or craft business and don’t know what the legal requirements for your  new business are?

The IRS has a Checklist for Starting a Business located on their site http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small.

Also see my post License Requirements for Art and Craft Show Businesses

Why is it that 20% of the artists and crafters make 80% of the money?

The reason is that 20% of the artisans set goals and take steps that will take them to their desired effect.

A captain of a ship at sea decides on the final destination of his ship, then he charts his course mapping out each stop along the way. He departs from the docks and sets his course.

In order for your craft show booth to achieve the goals you want for it you must define what those goals are. Your goals (your definition of success) are your final destination. What do you want from your craft business?

• Do you want to do crafts to make extra money for the holidays?
• Do you want crafts to be your full time job?
• Do you want to create handcrafted products to supplement your income?
• How many craft shows do you want to participate in a week, month, season or year?
• How much money do you want to make at a show, a month, a year?
• When do you want to achieve these goals?

When you’ve chosen the final destination for your craft show ship you need to decide on the course you are going to take to get there.  The course you chart will vary depending on your final destination?  You will have to do more to achieve greater success.

Places you might need to stop along the way to achieve your success:

• A certain number of shows each week or month.
• Know which shows are best for your product.  Juried, unjuried, art, craft, fair, festival, bazaar, boutique or commercial.  Which one best suits your product, has products in your price range, has your customer in attendance and the least competition?  Do you want to do wholesale and retail shows?
• Know which products are most profitable and at what price you sell the most while still earning the most profit.
• A way to collect your customers contact information and an incentive to encourage them to give you their information.
• A way to follow up with the your prospects, and a way to follow up with your customers.
• A website.
• A blog and other social networking sites.
• Email marketing system
• Mailed advertisements
• Participate in contests
• Press releases, call to artists, and other publicity

After you’ve chosen your destination, and charted your course the next step is to leave the dock. Like the captain of the ship you are never going to get anywhere if you never start out. The sea is always threatening and unpredictable but the captain and his crew put on their brave faces, prepare the ship, untie it from the dock, raise the anchor and set sail.

Like the ship at sea you are going to get blown off course a little every time the wind blows and the waves threaten so as the captain of your ship the last thing you need to do is check your compass make sure you are on course and adjust accordingly.

That’s what 20% of the people do that earns them 80% of the money. They chart the course of their ship, set sail and correct their course as necessary.

What do you think?