I wanted to bring up a topic I hear a lot about on some design forums, but that gets little discussion from makers, and that’s spec work. Spec work means doing work on the speculation that you’ll get paid. I’m against you doing it and I’m against you asking other people to do it.

First of all, spec work comes in all sorts of forms. Sometimes it’s someone outright asking you for it. You’ll hear a story like “I’m starting a new business and if you do my website for free I’ll give you 1% of the first months sales” or “I want a new logo so I’m having a contest, best logo design wins a free prize”. Design contests are pretty much all spec work. You’re going to do design work and they’re only going to pay you if they decide they like the finished product.

Imagine if the entire economy worked this way. What if I decided I was only going to pay my dentist if I felt my teeth looked sufficiently white after a cleaning? Imagine if I told my divorce attorney “I’m only paying you if you get me 75% of the assets.” Other professionals don’t work under these conditions and designers/artists shouldn’t either.

Here are two of the most compelling reasons to avoid doing and asking for spec work:

1. It devalues design
If you’re one of those people who’s always pissed when someone criticizes your pricing or complains about how artists are underpaid, you should be the last one to do spec work or hire on spec. There’s a very good chance of the artist/designer doing work and getting paid nothing, which is about the worst deal you can get as an artist/designer. Even if you are looking at entering a design contest for a well known brand because you want the bragging rights or exposure, please know that neither of those things pays your bills.

Anyone seeking spec work is showing no respect for the artists’ work or time and thinks that you should work for free. Don’t encourage this mentality by actually doing it. It only perpetuates the belief that design/art is ubiquitous and no one need pay for it.

2. Good designers/artists don’t do spec work
While there are exceptions to this rule, generally speaking good designers and artists won’t do spec work. They usually value their own time enough to not get involved in that kind of work and they have enough paying customers to actually keep their schedule full of work that is paying them.

What this means for you is that if you are trying to get work done on spec (for example holding a logo design contest) you’re not going to get the most talented people submitting work. People willing to take on spec work might be too inexperienced to know better or not really be skilled/talented enough to get enough paying customers to occupy their time. Even if you have a good designer doing spec work, you’re not going to get their best work since you’re not really working with them. The best contracted design (whether it’s a logo or t-shirt design or new website) comes from a client working directly with an artist or designer and going through feedback and rounds of revisions.

If you need design work done check out portfolios on sites like Coroflot or Behance. Look for a portfolio that represents the kind of work you want done on your project and then contact that artist or designer about doing the work for you. If you can’t afford their rate wait until you can or keep looking for someone whose rate you can afford. Accept that this is a cost of doing business and be willing to pay for design work that you need done so you can get a product that serves your business the best.

I’m willing to bet this has happened to you:
You walk into a store and pick up a [bag/necklace/shirt] and think to yourself “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe this [bag/necklace/shirt] is in this store! My [bags/necklaces/shirts] are a zillion times better! Why are they such a big deal? Why won’t this store carry my [bag/necklace/shirt]?”

You may be totally right, your product might be way better than a competitor’s version and they might be selling their crap right and left while your struggling to sell anything. The problem has nothing to do with your products vs theirs. Here are some of the more likely reasons they’re outselling you:

1. Distribution
I talked about distribution channels yesterday but can’t emphasize their importance enough. It’s the same idea as a crappy top 40 song getting huge. If every radio station is playing a song all day every day it will get popular, whether it’s good or not. If a product is in everyone’s face enough people are going to buy it. Take a hard look at how your branding and product are being distributed now and what more you can do to get your brand and product in front of more people.

2. Presentation
Packaging and presentation are sometimes way more important than the product. I wrote a post several months ago about companies selling incredibly unremarkable products with great packaging. If your competitor’s presentation is nicer than yours they’ll sell more product, even if the item itself isn’t special.

3. Relationships
Relationships matter in every industry. Knowing the right people can make or break your brand so forging connections is an important part of growing your business. A famous blogger is more likely to write about her friend’s company than a stranger’s company. A buyer at Saks is more likely to buy product from a friend who started a handbag line instead of you. A magazine editor at Lucky is more likely to feature a friend’s line instead of a stranger’s. You may not have friends in high places yet but making friends in the right places can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Look into trade shows and networking events where you have the opportunity to meet people and see if friends of friends have connections that can be of value.

4. Sales Skills
Whether you’re doing direct retail at pop up events like craft shows and festivals or business to business sales with store owners and buyers, sales skills are important. I’ve been to so many live events where people working in the booth are surly, unfriendly or snobby. I can’t imagine those people trying to charm a store owner, since they can’t even talk to a consumer. If you aren’t a naturally outgoing, confident, charismatic person hire someone who is to deal with the sales side of your business.

While I won’t go so far as to say having a great product is meaningless, it won’t make or break your company. A good product helps, but without the other ingredients you’ll have a difficult time realizing any success.

I’ve been so busy with running my company that I’ve hardly had time to share great links, so today’s update is a bit long. Before I get to it, I wanted to tell you that one of my favorite biz coaches, Sarah Shaw, is doing a free conference call on July 10th about how to get your business to $1 million. You can sign up for it here.

• Misconceptions About Starting a Clothing Brand – Although this article is specifically about starting a clothing brand, these misconceptions apply to starting just about any product-based brand.
• Rich Snippets for Ecommerce Websites – a little SEO geekery if you’ve got your own site.
• 2- Simple Ways to Get More Re-Tweets on Twitter
• Boost Your Average Order Value
• Do you have a sales rep? – If not, here’s how to find one
• 17 Tools to Analyze Your Links
• Is Your Ecommerce Model Profitable and Sustainable?
• 5 Mistakes to Avoid on an Ecommerce Site
• 34 Blog Post Types That Work Wonders – Not sure what to blog about? Here’s a great list of post format ideas.
• Why I Ditched the Press Release
• When is the Best Time to Run Social Campaigns and Sell Online?

I obsess about pretty much one thing 24/7 — getting my brand and products in front of as many eyeballs and into as many consumer hands as fast as possible. This might sound like a no-brainer for a product-based business, but I’m always surprised when I talk to other budding entrepreneurs who limit their distribution channels.

When I talk about distribution channels, I mean all the ways you are getting your brand and products in front of consumers. While I won’t say it’s impossible to make it with a single distribution channel, it is much more difficult. If you rely only on Etsy or only on craft shows to distribute your product you’re missing out on a lot of other ways to build brand awareness, boost sales and ultimately make more money.

When you think about distribution channels, think about the options that are a best fit for your product and brand and think about all the different options within a type of distribution channel. Here are some examples of distribution channels you may currently be overlooking.

1. Online
While most of my readers do some form of selling online, there are tons of sub-channels within online sales such as:

• Your own wesbite
• Marketplace websites (Ebay, Etsy, Amazon)
• Deal-a-Day Sites (fab.com, Living Social, Zulily)

The more online venues you use to sell your product the more consumers you can reach. If you currently sell online, look into more places you can sell online, instead of relying on a single venue.

2. Wholesale
A lot of creative entrepreneurs are wary of getting into wholesale. You have to learn some lingo, talk with confidence to total strangers and try to sell to them, and get your product to a price point where you can sell it for 50% off and still make money. Admittedly, there’s a lot to know but it’s not an insurmountable challenge, you just have to educate yourself. (Side note, I LOVE this wholesale e-course. If you want to get into wholesale this is a top notch resource!)

Within wholesale, there are lots of ways to sell to stores, you can try:

• Sales Reps – Reps will sell your product to stores for you, though they take a percentage of gross sales. Usually 10-15% depending on the industry. You’ll need a price point such that you can pay a rep, sell for half off and still be profitable to make this work.
• Trade Shows – Trade shows are events where buyers and store owners gather to shop for products to carry. Be prepared to invest about $10,000 to do a trade show. (You’ll be paying for booth fees, booth decor, marketing/sales collateral and most likely hotel, air fare and rental car.) They’re not for the newest of newbies but if you have a little experience under your belt and the cash to invest, a trade show can be a great way to get seen by stores.
• Cold Calling – This requires the least outlay of cash, though it will eat up a lot of time and you’ll need to be comfortable with calling up stores and asking them to carry your line. My company has had a ton of success with this method.

3. Events
I love events, it’s not only a great way to sell a lot of product directly to consumers, it’s a great marketing tool. I always go to events with a sign up sheet for my newsletter and a huge supply of the most adorable swag you’ve ever seen. People love it. I always leave with thousands of dollars in sales, hundreds of new email subscribers and thousands of people taking my free comic strips and stickers with plans to adorn their laptop, car, fridge, office, etc. with my branding.

I recommend vetting events carefully, choose events that attract your target customer and have a large audience. These things are a numbers game so you are likely to make more money and get more marketing impact out of an event with 50,000 attendees than 5,000. Here are some kinds of events to consider:

• Craft shows – I am not crazy about craft shows for my own business but lots of people love them. There are all kinds of craft shows from the alternative variety that attract the young and hip to traditional craft shows that attract suburban moms.
• Conventions – I have had great success with comic cons, but there are conventions for nearly every niche interest such as scifi, tattoos, steam punk, etc. Check local media or convention centers for lists of upcoming conventions.
• Festivals – think music festivals, food festivals, wine or beer festivals. Pick festivals that attract your audience. Check out your local chamber of commerce, newspaper or other local/regional publications for listings and ads for upcoming events.

Distribution channels feed each other
The more good distribution channels you have, the more the other channels benefit. I’ve found stores to carry my line doing events and I’ve had them contact me online because of my web presence. I’ve had retail sales online shoot up from having my products and brand seen at events and in stores. I’ve had my event sales grow because I go to the same kinds of events all the time and people recognize and like our brand, sometimes they recognize us from seeing us online or in stores.

They more you do all of these things the more they boost each other and the more overall revenue your company will see. Experiment with different channels and sub-channels to see what gets you the best results. You need not do every single channel, but you’ll likely see a big boost to your business from working on more than one.

You’ve probably heard this before but it bears repeating:

“If a customer has a good experience with a company they will tell one or two people, if they have a bad experience they’ll tell ten people.”

I can’t emphasize this point enough because I see the good and bad at work all day and if you own a business it’s important to think about this.

To begin with, at Ex-Boyfriend we strive for 100% customer happiness and we’re probably pretty darn close to that. This doesn’t mean we’re perfect, but when something goes wrong for our customers whether we are to blame or not, we try to fix it. If the postal service loses a shipment, we replace it on our dime. If we mail out a wrong or defective item to a customer, we don’t have them bother to mail it back unless they want to. If they want it off their hands, we send a prepaid postage label. If they don’t feel like mailing it back, we still replace the item fast and free of charge.

Does this sometimes mean we lose money on an individual transaction? Yes. But the rate at which this happens is very low, far less than 1%, and what we get in return is extremely happy customers who love us and tell people to shop with us and buy from us again and again. We are okay with losing a battle here and there if it means we’re winning the war. What we want with our customers is a long term relationship and that means treating them as we we’d want to be treated if we were the customer.

This all might sound like no-brainer stuff but you’d be amazed at how often I run into the opposite attitude when I’m a customer. A few months ago I decided to never buy anything ever again from a supplier I’d been buying from for years. I’ve spent at least $100 with her on every transaction and probably ordered from her at least half a dozen times before. The orders were always great, the replies to email were always fast. So what went wrong? The postal service lost a shipment she sent me. When I told her it was never delivered (even though the USPS marked it as such) she told us since the delivery confirmation says it was delivered she wasn’t replacing it and if we wanted our stuff we could buy it again at full price.

Was it the supplier’s fault our idiot mail carrier likely left a box of product unattended on our doorstep in the middle of Baltimore city and it was probably stolen 2 seconds later? Nope. But it’s not my fault either and the bottom line is I spent about $150.00 on a shipment I never got and I was pissed. This supplier was willing to do nothing to help us or try to make the situation right. So that was the end of her consistent business from us and the end of me telling other businesses to buy from her. Was it worth not replacing our $150 shipment that probably would have cost her less than $50? I wouldn’t think so. But this is the kind of short-sighted thinking I see from other businesses all the time.

Most of my suppliers and vendors aren’t perfect. Most of them screw up sometimes. The reason they continue to get their share of our company’s six figure operating budget is because of how they handle their mistakes. The vendors we keep are the ones who fix problems at their expense instead of leaving us on the hook.

Whether your customers are other businesses or consumers, making them happy can have a huge impact on future business. You’ll never know how much referral or repeat business you lost from pissing someone off. It’s not something you can measure. What I can see from doing our best to please our customer is the emails we get every day raving about our amazing customer service and how much our fans love our products.

Got a customer service story to share? Post in the comments below!

When I hear a business owner say “but it’s toooo expensive!” what I really hear is “I don’t really want to be in business.” Being in business requires spending, and growing a substantial business is going to require substantial spending. I’m not suggesting reckless or ill-thought-out spending. I’m talking about the kind of spending that takes you from small timer to next level. Here are two important ways spending small hurts you in the long run:

1. Nickel and Diming
Which appeals to you more: 50 poly-mailers for $10 or 1,000 poly-mailers for $100? If you said 50 for $10 you’re nickel and diming and it’s hurting your bottom line. While it’s more tempting to lay out less money up front, you’re paying double the cost to do this. Apply this same philosophy to other business expenses like supplies, manufacturing, etc. and you end up with less profit and poor margins.

When I have to spend money on my business my primary concern is what’s going to cost me less in the long run per piece. If I am sure I will use all of whatever I’m about to buy and then some, I’ll always opt to buy in bulk and get a lower cost per unit. These choices of course have to be made with some common sense, you might not want to buy a million poly-mailers and have all of your budget tied up in one thing that will take you years to use, but it’s important to take a close look at what your business buys. What could you spend more on up front that will drastically reduce cost?

2. Missing Opportunities
Have you ever said no to doing something you felt would grow your business simply because of the price tag? Maybe it was a trade show that was going to cost $3,000 for a booth. Maybe it was a pop up event that was going to cost $1,000.00. Saying no to things that can deliver a boost to your business is a surefire way to hamper your growth.

When you consider a business opportunity it’s important to calculate the projected return on investment, not just concern yourself with the initial outlay of cash. If you did the pop up event could you sell over $2,000.00 worth of product? If you did the trade show could you generate over $3,000 in wholesale business? When you see opportunities like this always think about how much money you can make from them after expenses, rather than just considering the initial expense.

Are there ways spending bigger could help you save money and grow your business? What’s holding you back?

Happy Friday! Settle in for a long holiday weekend with these small biz and marketing reads from around the web:

• The Costs fo Starting a Clothing Brand – even if you don’t want to start a clothing brand, this post is great for thinking about all the costs involved with starting a product-based business.
• Reduce Shipping Costs with Hybrid Services
• Why You Don’t Have to Love What You Sell
• 10 Ways to Evaluate an Online Marketplace
• How Customers Respond to Bad Customer Service – If you think you’ll get away with giving customers the shaft, think again. Great infographic on what customers do when you treat them poorly.

From time to time we get to chatting with our manufacturers and suppliers and we’ll hear “I really want to do what you guys do, start a label. Can you give me any tips on that?” or “I tried to start a label, it never worked out for me.” While I can understand the appeal of starting a label, it’s not the job description most people think it is and it’s not the job for everyone.

A surefire way to fail in business is trying to take on a job that doesn’t play to your strengths and interests. While some companies succeed in wearing multiple hats, it’s not what works for most businesses. When you are working with products you usually are going to fall into one of the following categories:

1. Manufacturer
My very first attempt at entrepreneurship mainly fell into this category. I liked making stuff for myself and thought it would be fun to make a whole bunch of stuff and sell it online. I pretty quickly realized that I actually hate making stuff. I enjoyed making one or two things for myself, but making hundreds or thousands of things didn’t interest me in the least. It was repetitive, it was boring, it was tedious. I failed because I’d taken on the wrong role for myself. What I really liked was product design, not manufacturing.

If you’re truly happiest chilling in your workshop all day listening to music and cranking out products manufacturing is for you. Maybe you enjoy working with your hands or find the repetitive nature of that work soothing. The world needs makers, so if this is your strength this should be the focus of your business.

2. Retailer
Having a storefront is an entirely different job description than being a manufacturer. To take on this role you’ve got to enjoy working with the public and have a knack for curating and merchandising products. People often ask me if I’m ever going to open a store for Ex-Boyfriend. The answer is probably not. We have no real interest in running a store of our own. We’ll do pop up retail events every few weeks, but we’re always glad when they’re over.

If you love the idea of decorating a space and filling it with your favorite finds and showing your space off to consumers and chatting with people all day, a retail store owner might be the perfect job for you. If those are the things you love, there’s no reason to get bogged down with tasks like product development or manufacturing.

3. Product Developer/Label Owner
This is what I do. My partner and I are most interested in designing and developing products and bringing them to market. We suck at making things, especially in high volume, but we love the design aspect and don’t mind the logistics of coordinating with manufacturers or finding stores to carry our line.

If your strong suit is design and you’re comfortable managing manufacturers and conducting business to business sales, this is the job for you. You can’t spend all day talking to consumers or making products, because you have to spend your time developing new products, coordinating their production and bringing on retailers to sell your wares.

You’re going to need partners…
While it’s possible to do two or more of these jobs, most business owners will find they are best suited to choose one or two at most. Your best shot at thriving is focusing on the role you’re best at and most passionate about. You can choose other businesses to work with to take on those other roles.

If you find yourself struggling with one of these roles, consider whether it’s really what you want to be doing. If you love making stuff but can’t stand sales and marketing, running your own label might not be the best fit for you. Consider working with other businesses that like that stuff and providing them your manufacturing services. If you want to start a store, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to fill it with your own exclusive wares, find labels you want to support and fill your store with those products. Think about what you enjoy doing most and excel with, that should be the focus of your business.

Thank goodness for smart phones, I don’t know what we’d do without them. I think about work pretty much 24/7 and the only constant is my iPhone. Here’s how it helps me manage our business.

1. For bookkeeping
I totally hate paper, it creates clutter and takes up space I don’t have to spare. Thus, my goal is to be as paperless as possible for our business. This means we can’t keep the truckloads of receipts our business racks up, even though we need them for bookkeeping and tax purposes. To keep the clutter at bay we use Scanner Pro. This handy ap allows me to scan a receipt the minute it gets into my hands, no matter where I am. The receipts get uploaded to our DropBox so we always have them when we need them.

2. For task management
My to do list is always a million miles long and looking at it can be daunting. To make sure stuff gets done I add every task to my Google Calendar (each day of the week has its own to do list). As soon as a sentence starts with “we should…” I’ve got my phone in hand and I’m adding a to-do to my calendar.

This means no task is ever forgotten and I can add tasks to my to do list any time, even when I’m on the go.

3. For design concepts
Inspiration rarely hits me between 9 and 5. I usually do my best creative work over martinis and by the time inspiration strikes I’m usually a little too tipsy to write. I always keep my phone handy though, so I can dictate whatever ideas come to mind via Siri. Then I can review my ideas the next day to see what we want to use.

Do you rely on your smart phone to run your business? What are your can’t-live-without features and aps?

Check out this week’s recommended reads from around the web:

• Why Etsy Users Should Have Their Own Websites
• 14 Best Practices for Handling Returns
• Are Your Online Customers Cheating on You?
• 23 Tools to Research Your Competition
• 35 Ways to Improve Sales
• 10 Photoshop Skills for Beginners