Are you dreaming of starting your own business this year? This chapter series shares my experiences and I believe could be a powerful tool to help you accomplish your goals! I love writing and sharing what I’ve learned. I love throwing a bit of humor in for good measure. Because life isn’t much fun without laughter!
Women and Handmade Business is an ongoing series of enriched blog posts that centers around sharing knowledge and experience regarding starting, growing, and running a handmade business. Mentorship sessions will also be available in the coming months!
To see the latest posts, click on the Women and Handmade Business category. This page will also be updated periodically with more info as it’s available!
Tentative schedule:
March 14: Getting started – what you need to know on the legal end. I share my experience on registering my business to help give you confidence to move forward to pursue you dreams. Downloadable/printable worksheets will include:
– legal filings worksheet
Cross your t’s and dot your i’s. This checklist will help you remember what you need to do, and what paperwork you need to bring with you for your filings.
– brainstorm a name
Not sure yet what you want to call your business? Avoid the pitfalls of the name game by filling out this worksheet that will help you brainstorm ideas based on your product, target market, brand identity, and aspirations for your brand. Also think about word associations that can help or hurt your business.
– product possibility
Are you marketing a product, or a service (designing things or offering tutorials or classes)? Having at least a broad idea of what you want to be doing as a part of your business helps you determine the name and feel for your business going forward. This will be general for starters, and we’ll go into more depth in a later lesson focusing specifically on product development, pricing, sourcing materials, etc.
Setting Up Shop – the basics of getting your Etsy shop off the ground. Great information, links, how-to’s to get you started off on the right foot.
Date TBA: The importance of great photos for your online shop items. Taking a break from the legal side of things to talk about something fun and dear to my heart – photos. If you’re hosting your shop online, the only connection that they make with your products is what? Yep! Your photos. Ever heard someone talk about a website, you log on, and as the photos appear you shudder and click away immediately? Or have you had to opposite happen? You load a site you’ve never heard of, see beautiful images, and instantly want the items? Yep. It’s that powerful. We’ll talk about a few technical things, like choosing a camera, and making the most of the camera that you have, the importance of great lighting, and go over styling tips. We’ll also talk choosing or evolving a “style” for you business, and then styling your photos to match and draw your target demographic!
downloadable/printable worksheet topics:
– determine the ideal look and feel of your online presence.
– building backdrops, backgrounds, and collecting props
– setting up a studio space for photos
– styling your products to attract your ideal demographic
Time Crunch – we’ve all heard it: How do you manage to do it all? The answer? We don’t! Ha! This entire chapter is devoted to time saving methods, ideas, and organizing to keep you sane and your business and household running. We’ll talk resourcing, menu planning, etc. More info coming soon!
Planning and choosing product for your business. This is so important. We’ll go over true cost, value, demographic, time commitment, etc. More info coming soon!