By Tara, on April 16th, 2010% Lean in a little closer. I have a secret to share.
Don’t tell anyone, but I have a super-hero alter-ego. You know her as the Blonde Chicken.
And no, she doesn’t fight for chicken rights (although we are both vegetarians). And she doesn’t dress like a chicken (because that would be ridiculous). She’s the Blonde Chicken for a totally adorable reason (if you don’t know the story, go read it here), that hasa nothing to do with chickens (and only circumstantially with being blonde).
Even if you don’t know it, you’ve already met her. Well, you’ve met her if you thought you were talking to me, at a craft show or at TNNA, or on Twitter or on Etsy or anywhere that has anything to do with yarn. (If you ran into me at the grocery store, then yeah, it was just me)
What?
For the past, oh, 4 . . . → Read More: In which I confess…
By Tara, on March 26th, 2010% Yay!
Time to give away a copy of Handmade Marketplace!
The winner is:
MissAriane!
She (like many of you!) asked about pricing.
Handmade marketplace has good information about pricing, and I have all sorts of things to say about. In fact, I talked about pricing briefly in the free crafty-biz Q+A. Maybe I’ll do a full class in the future?
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!
By Tara, on March 19th, 2010% Win a copy of Handmade Marketplace! . . . → Read More: Handmade Marketplace – book giveaway!
By Tara, on March 1st, 2010% I’m super honored to be interviewed by the fabulous Diane of CraftyPod about teaching crafts (and specifically, knitting). We had a great conversation about the experience of teaching and how to get started teaching.
If you’ve wanted to start teaching your craft, listen to the conversation here.
Diane mentions that my Learn to Knit kit taught her to knit (squee!), you can find the kits here. Even if you know how to knit, these kits are a great way to teach a family member and avoid frustration that comes from not knowing how to describe when-the-loop-does-this-you-do-this.
Have you taught your craft? Anything you’d add to our conversation?
By Tara, on February 16th, 2010% While getting ready for tomorrow’s How to Rock a Craft Show class, I surveyed a bunch of crafters and asked them for their craft show questions.
The most-oft asked question:
Do you make any money at it? How much? Did it REALLY help you quit your dayjob?
To answer this, I think it’s best to look at hard numbers.
What percent of last year’s income came from craft shows? Could I have quit my dayjob without that income?
To figure it out, I added up all my sales both online and off of yarn + fiber + lessons. Then I added up my craft show sales. I divided my craft show sales by my total sales to get the percentage. (Note to the more-math-minded…did I do this right?)
I got .48
48% of my sales came from craft . . . → Read More: But do you make any money?
By Tara, on February 15th, 2010%
Craft Shows have been a part of BCB since I first knew I wanted to quit my dayjob. I got to talking about it last week with some other crafters on Twitter.
It got me thinking back to my first craft show and thought I remembered that I wrote a post after that first show.
Sure enough, I wrote of the most popular posts on this site, 5 1/2 Shocking Facts about Craft Fairs. I reread it and I’m delighted by my exuberance. That feeling hasn’t faded in the last 2 years of doing shows; in fact, it’s only grown stronger (and has grown into selling at my own shop).
As I prepared for my second show (which was much bigger than the first), I wrote another post about preparing for craft shows. In it, I link to a lot of great basic resources.
It’s funny to reread that . . . → Read More: Growing with Craft Shows
By Tara, on January 27th, 2010% Last week I listened to the BEST podcast I’ve ever heard about sharing-your-crafty-thing. It was Sister Diane’s CraftyPod show about Engagement Marketing.
If you sell your crafty thing (patterns, yarns, purses, whatever!) you really need to listen to this.
What’s Engagement Marketing?
Diane gives a great definition and explains why you’d want to use it, but I can’t resist putting it in my own words. It’s sharing your thing by connecting. By making relationships, by talking to your customers one-by-one. It’s what we (you and I) do here on the blog in the comments. It’s chatting on Twitter. It’s leaving comments on Flickr.
Ignore the word Marketing.
Because it’s so much more than that. (and I don’t like the word marketing)
It’s not just sharing my passion with you, even though that’s always fun.
In all of this connecting, sharing, chatting; I’ve gotten to know you. You share your yarn-ideas . . . → Read More: In which I gush about how much I love you…
By Tara, on January 6th, 2010% Do you make something awesome? Want to share it with the world? I want to help! . . . → Read More: Helping Yarnies Share Your Thing
By Tara, on December 31st, 2009% You know, the thing, the thing that’s really really wanting to be done.
For me, at the end of 2008, that was getting out of the office-world and more fully into the yarny, business-y, running my own ship-world.
And I did it. And the year was so hard.
But I did it!
And after listening to the call free Q+A call I did earlier this week (you can get it here), I realize so many of you have a thing to do in 2010 and aren’t sure where to start. Or you have lots of questions about how I did it, because you’re not sure it’ll work for you.
And the truth is, I don’t know if it’ll work for you. So there’s no point in giving you a bunch of do-this-and-this advice.
The best I can do is suggest that you ask yourself some questions and you figure out . . . → Read More: Do the Thing in 2010
By Tara, on December 28th, 2009% Confession: I’m scared. Worried. Unsure.
A lot of the time when it comes to business stuff.
Especially as I prepare for today’s Q+A call. Especially when I think about the new year and all the new stuff I’m planning to try. Especially when I think about biggifying (that’s Havi’s word).
Confession: I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time.
I have an idea, I put it into motion. Whether the Learn to Knit Kit or the Year of Yarn or today’s call.
An idea comes to me and I run with it, while I have the courage.
But often, during that sprint from new idea to finished product, I second-guess, doubt, wonder.
I wanted to share that today, as so many of us are thinking of the new year. You may be plotting to quit your dayjob or trying follow your big dream and I wanted to . . . → Read More: Business Confessional
|
