|
April 10, 2012
“If you don’t understand why this is awesome, then get out of my office!” – overheard from a customer who bought a diver riding shark messenger bag
My partner and I recently decided to stop applying to craft shows. The reasons are many-fold, but we’re not giving up on doing pop up events. We actually make a ton of money at them, it’s just a matter of picking the right events for our business. Lately, we’ve focused on doing comic cons, with a few other niche festivals here and there. Here’s why we’ve fallen in love with comic cons.
1. No Juries
Comic cons aren’t juried, so there’s no hipster police to appease. My partner and I have no real desire to put a bird on it, we like our space cats and pterodactyls and we’re not going to change that. When our monthly sales goals are at stake, we can’t leave that kind of thing to the whims of craft show organizers.
2. Bad Weather? No Problem!
Since comic cons are indoors we never have to worry that it’s going to be too hot, too cold, too rainy, etc. If anything bad weather works in our favor since it’s all the more reason to come indoors.
3. Gigantic Targeted Audience
Comic cons draw a big crowd that appreciates our absurd and nerdy style. Cons we attend draw anywhere from 30,000 to over 100,000 people. The best part is it’s pretty much all our kind of people. Comic con attendees aren’t looking for feather silhouettes and nautical stars, they want our space cats. We love spending the day with hordes people who get our sense of humor and are as excited about our designs as we are.
4. Surrounded by Pros
While craft shows tend to attract mostly hobbyists, exhibitors at comic cons are usually pros. When we’re working on set up or break down before and after the show we can trade stories with the other exhibitors and swap useful information about other events, suppliers, etc. It’s nice to be able to talk to other business owners who make their living doing the kind of thing we do.
Takeaways for you: I’m not suggesting all my readers start exhibiting at comic cons. If your products aren’t on the nerdy side, they’re probably not your kind of event. What I am suggesting is looking beyond just craft shows to see what other events attract your target audience. Consider other types of cons, festivals and events that draw a large crowd. Make a list of the types of people who buy your products and then look for pop up events that draw that audience.
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
March 20, 2012
Spring is in the air, and with the spring season comes several shopping occasions including:
- Mother’s Day
- Father’s Day
- Graduations
- Weddings
How are you going to get your products in front of more customers shopping for gifts for loved ones or a little something for themselves? How about a placement on I Shop Indie? I Shop Indie allows you to join forces with other indie designers to buy advertising and get your products seen on a bigger budget for a fraction of the cost. Here are the details on our upcoming spring membership:
How it works:
1. Designers wishing to participate pay a membership fee to belong to the co-op
2. The co-op dues are used to buy ad space that directs traffic to Ishopindie.com’s
3. That ads bring the customers, who see your lovely products featured on I Shop Indie
4. The customers find what they want, click and are sent to your online shop to make a purchase
What you get with membership:
1. 10 products on any category page of ishopindie.com.
2. One product featured right on the home page, which is the first page our visitors will see when they click on our ads.
3. 2 bonus items can be listed on the “sale” page.
4. Your products will appear on our I Shop Indie until June 30th
5. Your promotions, sales, coupon codes, etc. promoted to our monthly mailing lists, we have over 3,500 opt-in subscribers! You will be able to promote on our lists for our April, May and June issues!
6. Your news, promotions, sales, etc. promoted on I Shop Indie’s Twitter and Facebook accounts until June 30, 2011!
When/Where will I Shop Indie Advertise?
From April 15 though mid-June you’ll see ads for I Shop Indie’s spring season website on several high-traffic sites including Design Sponge, Design is Mine and A Softer World.
What Our Members Have to Say About I Shop Indie:
“I’ve had a lot of traffic, new people signing up for my email list and quite a few sales from the holiday promo, so thanks! Co-op advertising has been successful for me.”
Amber Coppings, Xmittens
“I’ve been very pleased with my participation in the I Shop Indie program so far. It’s been one of the biggest sources of traffic for my shop since I started and it’s led to some definite sales. ”
Mallory Whitfield, Miss Malaprop
“Thank you so much as I Shop Indie has gotten me press coverage with this journalist. Thank you so much. Much appreciated for everything!”
Charmaine Leung, Go Jewelry
How much does membership cost?
Membership will be $99. This includes a full year of appearing on the co-op site, 3 months of marketing on our newsletters and social media pages and all the traffic from our ads that will be running April through June!
Are there any discounts available?
Yes! Pro-rated pricing is now available. Contact me for details.
Space is going to be limited, so reserve early to secure your spot. You can sign up below and I’ll send you an invoice via Paypal.
Sign Me Up!
Sign up right here, and I’ll send you a Paypal invoice so you can secure your spot!
|
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
March 15, 2012
When we started our business, we were hobbyists. We didn’t make much money and our expenses were minimal. We collected piles of receipts and stuck them in folders for doing our taxes at the end of the year. Fast-forward a few years later and we’ve had to become a lot more meticulous with our accounting and bookkeeping. Here’s how we do it:
1. Update Books Monthly
With a growing business and six figure operating budget, we’ve got to stay on top of what we’re doing with our money. Both for our own information and for tax purposes. As much as we hate doing books (yep, it’s boring and tedious), we make sure to update our books at least once per month. To ensure that we remember to do it, we set a recurring reminder on our calendars so we’re prompted to do it at the beginning of every month.
2. Use Accounting Software
We use Quickbooks online to keep our books in order. We like it because our accountant can easily be granted access at tax time and all our information is stored securely off-site. There’s no danger of losing our records if something happens to a computer in our own office. The cost is minimal and the user interface is intuitive.
3. Banish the Paper
The best thing we’ve done with taming our books is going paperless. Receipts can fade over time, and if you get audited it can go as far back as 7 years. That’s a whole lot of paper! Going digital with our expenses saves us space in our office and filing headaches. Every time a receipt goes into our hands we scan it with an iPhone using ScannerPro. This handy app scans our receipts and stores them in our Dropbox. This means every receipt we need is in one easy-to-access place and can’t be lost or damaged since it’s all stored securely off-site.
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
February 9, 2012
Image via OeilDeNuit
Today’s post comes from Brooke Becker of Brooke Photo Studio.
Everyone has heard that “A picture is worth a thousand words…” so what do your product photographs say about your products? I have been in the photography field since 2003 and while I am helping small business people sell products with my photography, I continue to be faced with bad product images in my experiences as a consumer. Do your product photographs have any of these mistakes?
1) Images Are Not in Focus – The worst mistake you can make is posting product images that are not in focus. Not only do they look unprofessional, but why would a consumer want to purchase a product they cannot see clearly? Product photography should always be in sharp focus, displayed at a large enough size that the consumer can have a clear view of your product. If you have a logo on your product, make sure that it is in sharp focus as well.
2) Busy Backgrounds – White backgrounds work best in most cases. If there are too many colors, patterns, or objects in the background the focus is not on your product. This is especially important when your product is displayed in a list of thumbnails. You want to stand out, not blend in to a crazy background.
3) Poor Lighting – Not only does poor lighting look unprofessional, but it can distort the color of your product which can lead to customer complaints. Product photography lighting should be even with minimal or no shadows. Poor lighting can also lead to over or underexposed images which will cause them to lose detail.
Product photography should be crisp, clean, and look like it came out of a catalog. Just because your business is small doesn’t mean that your photography shouldn’t look as good as the images in the Target flier. The bottom line is: Many people are judging your business solely on the images you provide to represent it, if those images are not of a high standard you are not capturing all of the customers that you could be.
Want awesome product photos? Brooke is offering a terrific very limited time deal on product photography! Let a pro do the work without breaking the bank, learn more..
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
February 1, 2012
Anyone who knows me personally will see the humor in me writing this post. For those that don’t, I do not have kids or any interest in having them, but I see so many common threads with parenting and entrepreneurship, I thought this post might be something my readers would relate to — whether you’ve got kids or not 
1. No two are the same
This is a really important thing to understand about businesses (and raising kids I imagine). What works for one is not going to work for another. There are some basics that we can all agree on — keep your books in order, have a marketing plan, etc. (Or in the case of your kids, don’t beat them with a broom handle or feed them candy all day.) But there are so many specifics that are great rules for one business and not for another.
One of my best friends owns a successful apparel company and relies on search marketing and SEO for the bulk of her sales. My partner and I also own an apparel business but rely much more on events and wholesale. We definitely make money on SEO and search marketing but it’s not our #1 source of sales. Even within the same industry, what works for one business doesn’t always work for another.
Takeaway: It’s good to talk to other people about what works for them in their business, but don’t assume their practices are going to work for you. Always test everything, your business is constantly evolving and so is the consumer market. The rules that worked a year ago or for another business won’t necessarily be best for you.
2. You hang around other people who have them and can become a bore to people who don”t
Since my partner and I don’t have kids, we’ve lost touch with friends who do. We lost friends we’d known for over a decade because once their kids entered the picture the kids became the focus of their lives. I totally get it; discussing gluten allergies and the like is super-interesting when it’s your child — but to people without kids that kind of thing gets boring. So if you want to have a 2-hour conversation about your kid’s food allergies you’ll probably have more luck with that if you hang around other people with kids.
I can be the same sort of boring about running a business. It’s such a huge part of my life that it seems to come up a lot. I know my non-business owning friends couldn’t care less about SEO and inventory tracking so I try to control myself, but sometimes I can be pretty damn boring. All bets are off when I get together with my friends who actually OWN businesses. You’ve never seen such nerdy drunks. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago we got hammered and talked about affiliate fraud for over an hour — then it was on to taxes and managing staff.
Takeaway: If you want to keep your non-entrepreneur friends, try not to talk their ears off about work. Make sure you have some business-owner friends you can do that with instead.
3. It’s more difficult if you don’t have enough money
Raising a kid isn’t cheap; it will probably cost you over $200,000.00 from birth to college graduation. Beyond just feeding and clothing them, your kids will probably need an endless number of extras like ballet lessons, soccer cleats, braces, tutoring, etc. If you can, you try to invest in those extras to make them the best they can be. If you’re scraping by on a tight budget, just covering the basics is difficult.
A business is no different; it needs all kinds of things that cost a fortune. You’ll be shelling out for office space, software, advertising, trade shows, manufacturing, staff, etc. As the company grows the expenses grow too. If things go well, the income outpaces the costs more and more every year, but the costs are always going to be there and when you start up they will probably exceed the income, in most cases for the first couple of years.
Takeaway: Launching a business requires planning and funding. If you try to operate without enough capital you’re going to struggle and miss out on important opportunities that could help you grow to your full potential. Before you go into business, look at the various costs associated with starting up and have a plan for how you’ll pay for all those expenses.
4. You find yourself doing things you never thought you would
Last year we had some production issues with our print shop and decided we needed to proof all the pieces that were going out for a huge order. We spent hours inspecting, counting and folding t-shirts. I thought to myself “Yep, this is a good use of my fancy college education that cost over $100,000.00″. We did it because our company is our baby and we want everything to be perfect and we can’t always 100% trust the people we hire to care like we do. So if we want everything to be perfect, sometimes we have to take on some pretty crappy tasks. I think of these things as the equivalent of staying up all night to help your child build a model volcano for a class science project. It’s far from what I want to be doing, but sometimes it has to be done and I’m the only one that’s going to help them do it properly.
Takeaway: Owning a business isn’t that glamorous. You’ll probably have to roll up your sleeves and do some work you’d rather not be doing. You have to be the kind of person who’s willing to take on any kind of task, no matter how unsavory, in order to reach your goals.
5. It’s so worth it
My partner and I think of the phrase “It’s so worth it” as parent bingo. It’s attached to the end of every story that starts along the lines of “Geez, I am so tired today. I got no sleep last night because the baby had a fever and threw up all over my hair.” Those stories always end with “but it’s so worth it.”
My business often keeps me up all night and barfs in my hair, at least figuratively speaking. And while it doesn’t hug me and tell me it loves me, it does other cool stuff that makes it “so worth it.” When I see our products flying off the shelves at an event or in our wholesale customers’ stores, I get excited. It’s satisfying to know we brought something into the world that people love. It’s great seeing our products in TV, magazines and other media and knowing that millions of people are seeing this thing we created. Every time our business has the equivalent of a toddler’s epic stomach flu it sucks, but the plus column always has more in it than the minus column.
Takeaway: Crap is going to happen and it’s not going to be fun. If you’re running a business you love you’ve got to accept the bad days along with all the great ones. If you do your job well, there will probably be more good days than bad.
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
January 9, 2012
Getting good materials and suppliers can make or break your product-based business, so it’s something you must learn to do well. Your competitors all have their sources and they probably won’t outright give you their suggestions. So how can you get the perfect suppliers? With a little detective work, you can find your own sources. Here are 3 sleuthing tricks I’ve used that have turned up great results for me:
1. Industry Forums and Tradeshows
Your potential suppliers and manufacturers likely have their own community, just like entrepreneurs. They talk amongst themselves, go to events, etc. If you want to find suppliers, go where they are. If you want to find a supplier for metals, go where the metal suppliers chat. If you want to find the perfect imprintables, check out an imprintables tradeshow. Tradeshows and forums are a great way to discover suppliers who might be terrific suppliers but terrible marketers (A.K.A you won’t find them on Google.)
2. Google in Supplier Speak
Suppliers use their own lingo for talking about the things they sell and it might not be the words you’re familiar with. This is too bad for them because if they wrote their websites using copying their customers use, they’d probably get more customers from search engines. On the other hand, this is good news for you, because if you are googling in their language you’ll find suppliers you competitors might not find.
For example, if I wanted to make dog tags and I searched “dog tag chains” I’d miss all the suppliers who are calling them “ball chains”. If you aren’t familiar with the lingo your suppliers use, check out forums suppliers hang out on and try to get proper terminology.
3. Sleuthing The Competition
If a competitor is using a material or supply you really want to use, you might be able to figure out where they got it by investigating their product pages. Here are a two clues to look for:
1. Manufacturer tags on their product photos. (You’ll have to look closely, but sometimes you can spot these.)
2. Product descriptions — some people use their supplier’s product descriptions for items they sell on their websites. This is bad for their SEO but handy for you. You can google some of the phrases in their product description and see if you find a match at a supplier site. You might also find industry-specific terminology in their product descriptions, which can help you find suppliers on Google. (Again this is a dumb thing for your competitors to do. Their customers probably don’t know what the hell cabochons are, but thanks to their use of industry jargon, you might come away with a good new term to google to find a supplier.)
I’ve found suppliers for my own company using those two pieces of information on several occasions.
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
December 29, 2011
Even though Christmas was just this past weekend, for retailers, it’s time to think Valentine’s Day. It’ll be here before you know it and people will start shopping for gifts in the next few weeks. To make the most of Valentine’s Day sales, I’m organizing a Valentine’s Day co-op.
If you’re new around here, this is how co-ops work:
1. Designers wishing to participate pay a membership fee to belong to the co-op 2. The co-op dues are used to buy ad space that directs traffic to IShopIndie.com 3. That ads bring the customers, who see your lovely products featured on I Shop Indie 4. The customers find what they want, click and are sent to your online shop to make a purchase Let’s face it, the holidays can be an awesome cash-fest when you sell online and January sales can be a real let-down. Marketing for Valentine’s Day is an easy way to keep the money coming in.
If you join the Valentine’s Day co-op you’ll get:
- TEN products on any category page of ishopindie.com website.
- One product featured right on the home page.
- TWO bonus items can be listed on the “sale” page.
- Your products will appear on our IShopIndie.com until March 31st!
- Your promotions, sales, coupon codes, etc. promoted to our monthly mailing lists, we have over 3,500 opt-in subcribers! You will be able to promote on our lists for our January, February and March issues!
- Your news, promotions, sales, etc. promoted on I Shop Indie’s Twitter and Facebook accounts until March 31, 2011!
- Real-time access to your click-through data 24/7! You’ll always know exactly how many clicks your products are getting and you can add, edit or delete listings any time through our easy account manager tool. You can remove items with low click-through or promote items with high click-through right on the home page.
When/Where will I Shop Indie Advertise?
From January 10 though mid-February you’ll see ads for I Shop Indie’s Valentine’s day website on several high-traffic sites including Design Sponge, Design is Mine, and A Softer World.
How much does membership cost?
Membership is $65.00
Sign Me Up!
Sign up right here, and I’ll send you a Paypal invoice so you can secure your spot! Don’t delay, my discount offer expires Friday January 6th!
|
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
December 12, 2011
Last week I talked about using package design and branding to sell products. Today I want to discuss a related topic, using props and staging in your product photography to help boost sales. The first thing to understand is that you aren’t just selling a product, you’re selling an experience. Your customers are buying from you because your product fills a need. It makes them feel eco-friendly or stylish or edgy or interesting. You want the experience with your product to be emotional from the second your customer engages with it. This means having great branding, a great website, a nicely merchandised table as a live event, appealing product photos, etc.
So today, I want to show examples of how other online shops have used staging and props to add to the experience of shopping with them.
Aromaholic’s branding concept brings together drinking and bath/body products. Everything’s more fun with a cocktail, even bathing! Aromaholic drives the point home in the photo above by photographing her soap with a cocktail. The photo conjures up sense memory of how a white russian smells, helping the customer imagine how the soap would smell.
Way Cool Shirts designs a lot of products for wine lovers, including the tote pictured above. They could have shot the tote on a plain white background, but instead they help customers imagine enjoying a glass of wine at a cafe after a day out, this stylish tote bag in tow. The photo helps the customer envision this bag being part of their every day life.
Pinup Revival poses their Rockabilly model with a vintage car. They could have easily put the dress on a dress form with a white background (which is how stores like Anthropologie present their dresses), but using a prop and a model styled the way their target customers want to look, Pinup Revival does a great job of helping their customers imaging wearing this dress to a vintage car show and feeling like a glamorous pin up girl.
Pottery Barn has staged its baskets as an essential and functional decorative element for a guest room. Their photo says “just imagine what a terrific hostess your guests will think you are if you own these baskets. You can stock them with comfy pillows, soft blankets and hip reading material. Your guests will feel right at home curled up reading a magazine at your house”. They’re not selling just baskets, they’re selling the promise of a cozy, stylish and well organized home. Compare that with this photo of the same item. It communicates what the product looks like, but doesn’t play on the customers’ desire to be a great host or have a beautiful home.
Lucky Circus has chosen to pose her printable calendars next to a bright bouquet of colored pencils. Adding this prop helps a customer imagine their organized and creative DIY life with this calendar. The colored pencils suggest that the owner of this calendar will spend hours adding colorful notes to their schedule. People who aspire to a more organized and creative life will be drawn to the photo and more likely to make a purchase. (This kind of imagery is the same thing that keeps me buying Real Simple magazine. Why yes, I would like an easy Make Ahead Holiday Menu, so my guests can marvel at my perfectly executed meal while I look made up, manicured and high heeled instead of frazzled and sweating over the stove.)
Honizukle has expertly staged their personalized stationery on a desk with a cute funky vase and some colorful twine. A customer who buys personalized letterpress paper is probably drawn to a DIY handmade aesthetic and considers herself a creative person with unique taste. Honizukle appeals to their customers’ sense of self by adding accessories like a funky vase and some twine. The image says “When you’re not out collecting antique pottery at the Sunday market or embroidering a gift for a friend, maybe you’d like to send beautiful letters with this personalized artisan stationery. Why not have everyone who gets your letters understand that you take great care in everything you do, and a simple off-the-shelf purchase of paper at Rite Aide won’t do for someone like you.” Honizukle isn’t just selling stationery, they’re selling a tool their customers can use to further express their sense of self with the people they keep in touch with.
Takeaway for you:
Really think about why your customers buy your products. They don’t just need earrings or soap or a bag. What are they trying to project about themselves to the world? How does your product fit with their lifestyle? By communicating these concepts with your product photography, you help customers relate to your products and imagine owning them and enjoying them. Getting your customer into that frame of mind is an important step towards making the sale.
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
November 25, 2011
I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving (if you’re in the US) and that your holiday sales are starting to take off. As a thank you to everyone who’s helped me grow Smaller Box I’m offering a special sale, this weekend only!
Starting today you can save up to 50% on my ebooks and coaching services. Hurry though, sale ends Monday night at 11:59 pm EST. Don’t miss out!
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
November 18, 2011
One week from today I’ll be announcing a super awesome Black Friday special just for Smaller Box fans.
If you don’t want to miss out, make sure you’re signed up to my monthly newsletter! Plus, when you sign up you’ll get a 100% FREE copy of my SEO guide. A must-have resource for any creative entrepreneur with an online shop.
Sign Up Now:
This content is copyrighted. See my content sharing policy here.
Older Posts » |
|
