Entry 4 of 6 in the series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Profitability.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions
copyright 2009-2011

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.

Week one I worked on catching up on left over unfinished crafts and business 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.

Week three I mailed coupons to show promoters, had a second client consultation, worked on facebook profile and group pages. I created a profile on Fast Pitch Networking and added a few contacts there. I worked on cleaning out my email box, and signed up for a MySpace account, and I blogged about what I had done to make my business more profitable this week.

Week 4 what I accomplished.

• Power Pay contacted me but then never got back to me. I guess I still need to call them next week.
• I remembered that I had a Linked in account and had a new member join there.
• I found my friend that was already on MySpace and reconnected with her.
• I created an email I can send to all my customers and prospects reminding them that they can follow me on my blog,facebook, twitter, MySpace, and Linked in. I need to finish formatting it and send it to everyone. I remembered to tell a client over the phone that they could follow me all these places.
• Worked on creating my profile on Fast Pitch Networking. Added a few contacts there.
• Worked on cleaning out my overly full email box which got even fuller despite my efforts.
• 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 get the article written for my newsletter although I have some very good ideas to write about.

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 8 days:

Day 24-Write and send a quick email to all my customers from the past asking them how their businesses are doing? Tell them how my business is doing and showing them where they can get more information from my business. Sort of bring them back to take another look at my business.

Day 25-Write the article for my newsletter.

Day 26-Finish writing my book.

Day 27-Clean out my email box.

Day 28-Do my accounting

Day 29-Create articles to send to show promoters who haven’t listed with me yet.

Day 30-Call show promoters and ask them if I can send them free articles.

Day 31-Blog about my 30 days to Greater Profitability for my art and craft show business.

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 3 of 7 in the series 7 Ways for Your Art or Craft Business to Outsell the Retailers. Read Part 1, Part 2, 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

3.  Lack of product knowledge: With so many products coming and going it is understandable that you can’t know everything about everything. However, many stores could not even explain the basic details of what are considered staple products of the craft. These are the products that don’t change out often…they are essential to doing the craft. Most often, we were shown the area in which to find the product we were looking for, then left to fend for ourselves.

Share Your Product Knowledge

You obviously know all about the products that you create.  The question is do you appropriately convey that knowledge to the customer. Do you know the difference between the benefits and the features of the arts and crafts you create? The features are what the product does, the benefits are what the product does for the customer. If you were considering buying something what would you want to know first, the benefits of course. Customers want to know how this product will save them time, save them money, make their lives easier, or solve a problem for them. What are the benefits of your art or craft? Tell your customers first the benefits and then the features.

The benefits of a towel rack are

• Keeps your bathroom organized saving you time because you no longer have to pick up smelly wet towels.
• Dries your towel saving you money because now you don’t have to wash your towel every time you use it.
• Towel warmer which makes stepping out of the bath a luxurious experience.
• Quick warming and energy efficient saves you money.
• Never gets too hot so it won’t burn your child or your towels.

The features of a towel rack are

• Silver color so it matches any decor’-which might double as a benefit.
• Three towel bars so you can hang a towel for each person in the family.
• Towel warmer.

You can improve on the retailers mistake here by realizing it won’t work to sit in your booth waiting for your craft projects to sell themselves. Show off the benefits of your product by demonstrating it. Show people how your towel rack matches the toilet paper holder and the hand towel rack. Plug in the towel warmer and hang towels on it so customers can feel how nice a warm towel is. Help them imagine using your product in their own home and you’re on your way to a sale.

1. There must be enough people interested in buying your arts and crafts.
2. You must be able to persuade people who are interested in your art to buy.

These are two very separate and distinct problems with different solutions.

First one needs to realize that to be very successful selling their handcrafted goods they must chose to create a craft that is wanted and needed by a large enough group of people to support the number of sales the artist needs per day, week, month or year.

Most artists choose which craft to sell based on which one they like to create the most, the one they get the most compliments on, or the one they like the best. This is actually backward and can be detrimental to your business ever succeeding.

Crafters spend too much time looking for those who want their crafts this way. Artists don't realize they are trying to make people who aren't even interested in their art not only like it, but buy it-a losing game to be sure. 

They are always looking for people interested in their handcrafted merchandise and have no real direction to look... instead of going to a group of people who are already interested in their crafts and trying to persuade them to buy.

It's like trying to tell your customers their favorite color is purple when really their favorite color is green. They aren't going to even want to stand around and listen.

Like trying to sell hand tatted doilies to every child, teen, and young single adult that comes near your booth rather than slightly more mature married adults and grandmothers.

Let's be honest here we can't make people like what they don't like or want. They just won't buy it and our time and money will be wasted in the effort.

If your artwork meets the needs of a large group of people but still seems like people aren't interested the problem may be:

• is the group of people who want, need, and like your product large enough?
• one caveat here is that you want to target a very specific group of people. Get too generic and you go back full circle.
  
• are you targeting your prospects well in your advertising, marketing and offers?
  
• are they are willing to pay your price to get it?
• are you selling where your buyers are, where they are prepared to buy, when they are prepared to buy?

You can still succeed selling your artwork this way if

• there is a large enough group of people who want, need, and like your product.
• they are willing to pay your price to get it.
• you learn where your buyers are and go where your they are to sell your product.
• you don't mind that your business will be less profitable than it could be.
  

On the other hand persuading a person to buy your crafts when they are already interested is much easier. It requires many skills but most of them are small and can be learned over your career.

The skills you will need include:

• correctly pricing crafts.
• using signage and tags effectively.
• proper displays.
  
• learning to make small talk that draws out the needs of your buyer.
• recognize the needs of your customers from clues they give in conversation.
• not over selling or underselling -giving the customer just the right amount of information so they don't feel overwhelmed or that their questions haven't been answered.
• recognizing when a buyer is on the fence-knowing what will get them off the fence and on the buying side.
• using coupons, discounts, sales, samples, upsells and downsells effectively to persuade an undecided buyer.
• staying in touch with and following up with customers so they will buy for the first time, make repeat sales, and refer you to others.
• using your business documents, fliers, business cards, to make more sales.
• asking for the sale and calls to action.

The difference between trying to create interest in your crafts and persuading people to buy your crafts is: You won't be able to create an interest in your crafts where there is none! You will be much more successful trying to persuade a large group of people who want, need, or like your craft already to buy.

The way I see if people really aren't interested in buying your artwork you have 3 choices:

1. Go where people are interested in buying your crafts.
2. Find a craft they are interested in buying and sell it.
3. Find a job working for someone else.
   

What do you think?

Entry 2 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 craft fair business more profitable each and every day. Today it occurred to me that I should share with you how I plan to do that.

Well last week 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.

Here is what I did accomplish.

• I kept up with incoming orders and new requests for information while getting my kids ready to go back to school.
• I published my monthly craft newsletter that I try to accomplish the last week of the month (although it won’t be due out until the next week).
• I learned something new about my email marketing that will keep my messages from being flagged as SPAM as often.
• I worked with a new client doing a phone consultation on building their website (this is a new service I offer).
• I blogged about my experience working toward greater profitability this week.

Here is what I didn’t accomplish.

• I really didn’t get my goals written down on a calendar although I do have them planned out in my head.
• I didn’t get my accounting done and it has been falling behind a few months now.
• I didn’t get my office really clean (instead I worked on my daughters room and it is greatly improved).

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 8 -Get my coupons sent out that I mail to show promoters each month.
• Day 9 -Call the people I just mailed free newsletters to in the last few weeks. Ask them what they thought of the newsletter and if I can sign them up for a free report and to receive further information from my company. Sign them up as prospects in my email marketing system if they say yes.
• Day 10 -Do my accounting.
• Day 11 -Create a few articles to send to show promoters that will encourage them to list their shows with me.
• Day 12 -Start calling my huge list of show promoters and ask them if I can send them free articles that will help make their businesses more profitable as well as articles that will make their vendors businesses more profitable. Sign them up in my email marketing system.
• Day 13 -Continue calling my list of show promoters and sign them up for the articles in my email marketing system.
• Day 14 -Contact PowerPay about getting a system in place to be able to accept credit cards.
• Day 15 -Continue getting PowerPay set up and blog about my experiences this week.

What are you doing to increase sales in your craft fair booth?

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

There are many benefits to hiring your children to work in your art or craft show booth. Your children will learn responsibility and business skills while your craft business will reap the tax benefits. You can teach your child about scheduling, work ethic, entrepreneurship, setting goals and accomplishing them to the best of your ability.

Give your child clear tasks and hold them accountable for accomplishing them.

The law is simple treat your child like an employee :

1. Have your child do tasks that are appropriate for their age. Choose tasks they are already good at, for instance a computer savvy teen might be able to type letters to your clients, or even build websites. Artistic teens could design brochures and younger children could place address labels and stamps on mailings. Children who enjoy crafting might help assemble less technical parts of the jewelry you are creating or paint base coats on the
2. Document the tasks and hours that your child works. Keep good records just like you would with any other employee.
3. Pay your child the same wage as you would pay any other employee doing the same task. Pay your child minimum wage for stamping envelopes if you would hire an employee to stamp envelopes at minimum wage. Pay your child per envelope if you would pay a temporary employee per envelope.
4. Pay your child regularly with a check.
5. All assignments completed must be necessary to the business. The child must actually be doing work for the business.
6. File state and federal quarterly payroll reports, a W-2, and a tax return for the child at the end of the year, even if no taxes are due.

The long and short of it is that the IRS when performing an audit needs proof that the work your child did for your business was a necessary business task, that was actually completed by your child, and that you paid them a fair and reasonable wage. Waiting to pay your child until the end of the year will cause suspicion that you are just trying to avoid paying taxes.

Visit the US Dept. of Labors website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/childlabor.htm for more information.

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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.

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.

Pricing an art or craft show product is more of a science than an art. You can’t just set a price that you think is okay and expect to sell a lot of your product for a profit.

First of all you need to know what it costs you to produce your product. You want to include the costs of the goods used to create your product plus a little more to buy extra supplies.

Second you need to include your wages. What price per hour would you like to make? How many hours did it take to create your product?

Third you need to add in the price of your other expenses. Don’t forget to include things like the cost of your studio, electricity, advertising, cost of travel, cost of shows, in this figure. Then spread these costs out over the price of all your products.

NOTE: You will recover a small portion of these miscellaneous costs each time one of your products sell. For example your miscellaneous costs add up to $2000 a year and you sell approximately 1000 products a year that means that you need to add $2 to the price of each product to recover those costs.

Last and definitely not least you need to know what price the market will support. What this means is that your price can’t be higher than the amount the people who buy your product are willing to pay for it. IF you sell a product that is similar to a retail product you can go to the stores and see what price products like yours are selling for.

Then you need to decide if you can make your product for that price.

Here is a formula to help!

A. Cost of goods used x 1.5 = cost to replace supplies used + costs of new supplies

B. $dollars per hour I would like x #number of hours it took me to create product = my wages

C. Miscellaneous expenses for the year divided by approximate number of products I can sell a year = cost of miscellaneous expenses per product

D. Add A + B + C =Total cost of product

Compare the answer you got in D to retail prices in the area to know if your price is inline with market expectations.

It may take some adjustment to find the price point that sells the most product at the best profit.