If you want to draw shoppers to your craft fair booth, put the same care into your display that you put into your crafts. Here are seven smart strategies to help you get started. 1. Keep it neat. Cover your table in wrinkle-free, floor-length fabric (solids and light colors work best) to hide extra boxes,…
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Come Together: How to Start a Craft Group
Connecting with like-minded makers can fuel your creativity, help you hone your crafting skills, and keep you energized. Not sure where to start? Here are some helpful hints on starting a craft group. 1. Set goals. Decide what type of crafting group you want to start. A knitting circle for yarn enthusiasts only? A craft-of-the-month…
Picture Perfect: 6 Free Photo Background Ideas
Even the most beautiful crafts won’t sell online without great photography to showcase them. How do you shoot like a pro? In addition to mastering technical basics like lighting, focus and contrast, you can make your product photography pop with the right background. Makers often stick to white, seamless paper backdrops, but you can put…
Do’s and Don’ts for a Successful Craft Fair
A day at the fair can be exhilarating, exhausting … or both. Use these strategies collected from craft fair veterans to minimize stress and maximize your profit potential. DO your homework. Research craft fairs to find one that’s a good fit for your products. Who typically attends? Who exhibits? What types of products are sold?…
Time to Quit Your Day Job?
It’s not always easy to make the leap. Our quiz can help you decide. Admit it. You’ve thought about it. If you love crafting enough to design and sell your own products, you’ve probably daydreamed about making it your “real” job. But are you ready to take crafting from sideline to full-time? Here’s a quick…
10 Must-Have Apps to Grow Your Business
From bookkeeping basics to rewarding referrals, these online tools can help you succeed. 1. Referral Candy drives word-of-mouth sales by giving your customers a coupon code to share with their friends online when they buy an item from you. If their friends buy from your store, the customer who referred them to you gets a…
Tips For Tax Season
Learn some helpful tips for your business this tax season. Ah, spring. Flowers bud, birds chip and April 15 looms like a rain cloud on the horizon. For many makers, tax season is an annual reminder of the downside of running a home business. To make it less onerous, follow these tips for simpler filing…
Take Your Creative Business to the Next Level
A grand vision of tremendous growth is a good thing, but with profitable growth come new responsibilities – and potential pitfalls. Entrepreneurs often encounter common stumbling blocks, including pursuing growth opportunities too quickly, neglecting the needs of existing customers and losing touch with their creative identity. Are you ready to take your creative business to…
Tips for Buying American Made Products
Nearly eight in 10 American consumers would rather buy an American-made product than an imported one, and more than 60 percent said they would be willing to pay 10 percent more for certain merchandise, according to a 2013 survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. “When woven into customer-facing content, the phrase ‘Made in…
10 Essential Time Management Tips for Makers
English real estate entrepreneur William Penn famously said, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” For most entrepreneurs, time always seems to be in short supply. The tasks on your daily to-do list – from making products to meeting with customers – could probably fill an entire week. How can you…
