3 Tips to Make Social Media Marketing Easier & More Effective
Social media is most commonly used by small business owners to market their products, brand, and business. But it’s NOT the most effective form of marketing. It can be frustrating to deal with a platform’s algorithm updates and getting your posts to actually reach your followers. When you use these 3 tips and change your…
10 Ways to Market your Small Business without Social Media
If you’re like me and have a strong dislike for social media (to put it mildly), you’ll appreciate these marketing alternatives. Social media platforms are often here today, gone tomorrow. And during their time in the sun, they make changes overnight that can cut your reach in half or make it hard to grow your…
How To Market a Small Business if you Hate Social Media
Most small business owners rely heavily on social media for marketing. But social media can be the least effective marketing method and trying to keep up with the algorithm changes is frustrating. If you feel like you’re spinning your tires when it comes to social media, but you’re not ready to throw in the towel,…
How To Use Conversion Rates to Increase Sales
Whether you’re selling online through Etsy or at craft shows, taking the time to calculate conversion rates can improve your sales in a matter of days. It’s often ignored by small business owners, but it’s something every successful business (and every large corporation I’ve worked for) does on a regular basis. This task is a…
How To Create Product Compositions in your Craft Show Display
Whether you’re creating a craft show display or photographing your products, product composition is important. Composition helps: Create organization and structure Create a focal point (that tells shoppers to “look here!”) Lead the eye throughout your space so shoppers don’t miss important details Without proper composition, a space can feel cluttered, disorganized, and uninspiring. This…
5 Things Inexperienced Business Owners Do
If you want to skip the growing pains associated with being a new business owner, avoid making these 5 mistakes. These are 5 things amateur or inexperienced business owners do: 1 – Jump in without research When you get a business idea, it’s so exciting and you want to strike while the iron’s hot. …
5 Strategies to Increase Units Per Transaction
Increasing your units per transaction is a simple, efficient, and budget-friendly way to boost your revenue. You’re simply capitalizing on the customers you already have. This article explains 5 ways you can boost your business’s units per transaction. What is UPT? UPT stands for units per transaction. It’s a sales metric that tells you,…
3 Common Reasons Craft Businesses Struggle
There are a lot of specific reasons a small creative business will struggle to succeed. I’m not covering everything that can sink a business, but rather 3 common mistakes that will set you up to struggle. 1) Selling entry level products “Entry level products” are products that require basic/beginner skills to make and almost…
3 Steps for the Start of Each Month (for small business success)
There are a whole LOT of things you CAN do at the beginning of the month, but if you’re a solopreneur running a craft business, Etsy shop, or selling at craft shows, you likely have more tasks than you do time. So let’s keep things simple, and focus on 3 important tasks that will set…
5 Business Metrics to Track Monthly
Math. Woof. If you’re anything like me, you prefer to ignore the number side of your business and just hope for the best. But if you’re also like me and want nothing more than to build a successful business, you can’t ignore your numbers. There’s much more to building a financially sound business than what’s…
6 Small Business Best Practices that are Commonly Ignored
You know those roundup articles that ask dozens of successful business owners what their best piece of advice for other business owners would be? I find they’re often offering generic advice I’ve heard over and over. Like: “show up and hustle”, “don’t take no for an answer”, “surround yourself with people who are smarter than…
5 Things I Regret Doing as a New Business Owner
When I was new to the entrepreneurial world and starting my first few businesses, I followed a lot of common advice that may work for some, but didn’t work for me. These 5 things aren’t necessarily bad for a business. But it took me several years to realize they were bad for my business, and…
How To Attract More Shoppers (at craft shows or online)
Before you can make a sale, you must first catch a shopper’s attention. If a shopper doesn’t notice your craft show booth or Etsy listing, or they do but aren’t drawn to it, you won’t have an opportunity to sell. You can’t build a display or create a listing that appeals to everyone. So you…
The Best Digital Products to Sell on Etsy (2023)
Digital products are often very profitable to sell online because you can create one digital product and sell it over and over to multiple customers. You may incur marketing and selling costs, but your production costs are zero (unless you make updates to the product). Some digital products are more popular than others and I’ve…
How To Create a Sales-Boosting Theme for your Handmade Business
A piece of advice I often share is to refine your product line. Most handmade businesses I see are trying to offer too much selection. But I understand a lot of people don’t want to scale back. So if you insist on offering several different types of products, consider carrying a theme throughout them. …
How To Find Popular Products to Make & Sell
This is a really easy and quick way to get ideas for new products, and get a general idea for what types of products are popular on Google (which typically means they’re popular on other platforms such as Etsy). Follow the 5 steps below to come up with a list of new product ideas to…
7 Types of Craft Shows to Avoid
Not all of these points are red flags telling you not to sell at a particular craft show. However, they may be signs to proceed with caution. Craft shows can be labor intensive and come with several expenses. So you want to be sure a craft show is the right fit for you and your…
10 Costs of Selling at Craft Fairs
When I started selling at craft shows, I would count my money at the end of the event, compare that total to my booth fee, and if I made more money than my booth fee, I considered the event a success. But there are so many other costs to doing craft shows. Many vendors don’t…
10 Cons to Selling at Craft Shows (& how to avoid them)
For a blog that’s all about selling at craft shows, this article may seem out of place. But too many people sign up for craft shows, full of hope, and walk away with their dreams crushed, vowing never to sell at another craft show. I don’t want you to lose money at craft shows, or…
7 Types of Products to Avoid Selling at Craft Shows
One of my most popular articles details the types of products that sell best at craft shows; you can read that here: What Sells Best at a Craft Show? This article explores the other side: Types of products that don’t tend to sell well, or that can actually harm the sales of best-selling products. I’ve created…