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)

For the past, oh, 4 . . . → Read More: In which I confess…]]> 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 years she’s been running the show.

The Blonde Chicken started by approaching a local yarn shop (in Dayton, OH) and offering to dye some custom  colors (I was busy managing a paint-your-own-pottery studio at the time). Then she photographed more yarn and put it on Etsy.

When I moved to Tennessee and got a desk job, she was NOT detered.
She took the yarn to an art gallery and did a spining demonstration during an Art Walk (the nerve!).
She’s the one that applies to craft shows (and then has the guts to actually GO and talk to STRANGERS) and twitters and heck, lots of the time she writes what you find on this here website.

Why?

The Blonde Chicken is strong and brave and silly and passionate about eye-popping brights and socially-responsible fiber.

And when I first ventured online, as a dreamy girl with a teeny tiny business idea, I was too shy. Too shy to post on a forum. To shy to blog. To shy to tweet.

I know you wouldn’t believe it if you’ve met me at a craft show, but I am painfully shy.
Turn bright red and stutter-kind-of-shy. Painful!
I put off applying to craft shows because I could not imagine the horror of talking to people. real! live! people!

So I called upon Blonde Chicken. She jumped in with both feet; making friends, snapping pictures, writing, dyeing, spinning.

Everything that seems too too. Too overwhelming. Too scary. Too out-there.

All those things, the Blonde Chicken does.
With silly music blaring and dye pots bubbling and chat a-chattering, we do it together.

That’s just weird.

Yeah, I know.

But the thing is…it’s helpful.

Helpful to not feel like I have to put myself out there.
Helpful to ease my way into it.
Helpful to remember that somewhere in me is the ability to do epic stuff.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of the Blonde Chicken in my business because now that I have a real, in-person yarn shop and teach real, in-person classes, a lot more people are meeting me. Tara.

And I realized that, in the beginning, I needed Blonde Chicken. Needed her to go out and biggify the us and the yarn.

But now, thanks to growing with Blonde Chicken, I’m not so shy. I’m not so afraid to say “Hi, I’m Tara, I make yarn.”

I’m tempted to end this with a sappy “If you’re nervous about biggifying…find your inner super-hero”, but, well, that’s too sappy.
Instead, I just want to say, in the words of a multi-national corporation I don’t even buy from: Just Do It.

Find the thing (Victoria-shmoria can help with that) and do the thing.
Put yourself out there, share your thing, be brave.
And if you just ca not imagine doing any of that, make up an alter-ego.

It’ll be fun.
And weird.
I promise.

PS. Ha! I’m not the only one! The super-smart Maryann has an (imaginary) assistant, Tina! Love the hair, Tina!

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!

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?

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?]]> 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 shows.

I did the same math for 2008: 42%.

Considering I only did 2 shows in each year, I think that’s pretty significant!

To get a really clear picture, I looked at the months around the craft shows. In the month preceding Urban Craft Uprising, I had 1/5 of my normal online sales. In the month following UCU, I traveled  extensively (and didn’t reopen my Etsy shop) so I made about 1/10 of my normal online sales.

So while doing the show  made up for those two months, it’s clear that the percentage would have been different had I kept my online sales going and didn’t do the show.

In other words, I sacrificed sales before and after the show to make one big chunk of income in 2 days.
Had I not done the shows, my online sales might have made up for it.

But another consideration is that I prepared for the show during July, the slowest month for yarn sales (both in my shop and throughout the industry).
I probably would have low online sales even if I hadn’t done the show.

Is there no clear answer?

I’ve left one thing out of the equation: post-show sales.

And those blow everything out of the water.

The people I meet at craft shows become online customers at an incredibly high rate.

It’s a little hard to track, since I don’t have any way of knowing how many hundreds of people I talk to at a show.
But I do know when they come online, because I recognize their names or see it in their address.

And I do know that many become repeat customers, buying yarn every month for years after the show, because they become my friends. On Twitter, in the blog comments, in my inbox.

Post-show sales come as quickly as the night after an event, when people I met that day log-on to my online shop.
Post-show sales come from people who sign up for my newsletter and buy something after getting that first newsletter.
Or the fifth.
Post-show sales come from someone at the show blogging about what they bought.

In other words, it grows.
By meeting people, talking to them about yarn, sharing my passion.

This is the aspect that makes the answer to today’s question an unequivocal
YES.

It’s worth it, for the people.
It’s worth it, for the marketing.
And it’s worth it (as I wrote yesterday), for the fun.

If you want to learn HOW to get those fabulous post-show sales, check out the class How to Rock a Craft Show.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments!

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]]>

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 post, because while I cover all the steps in preparation, I certainly don’t go into the details (like, how do you figure out how much to bring?). And the details are what people always ask me about!

Exactly 1 year and 1 day after that last post, I wrote about the Pain of Craft Shows. In it, I share all the agony (and exhilaration) that goes into pouring yourself into a show.
I think it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to the WHY I do craft shows. I say:

I do craft shows because it’s the one place, the one situation in which being a full-time yarnie feels good, normal, accepted. The people get me. They get my yarn.
It’s a place to be me: handknit clothes, stripey knee-socks, pink-haired, yarn-making me.

And when I get home, back to my solitary studio, back to my online conversations, that afternoon of pure me-ness stays with me, buoying me, refreshing me.

Sounds fabulous, eh?

In talking to others about craft shows, I’ve been asked a lot of questions.
Specific questions.
Questions I don’t answer in the above posts, questions I couldn’t answer in a zillion posts.
To answer the questions and to help everyone branch out into this very satisfying experience, I put together a class, How to Rock a Craft Show.
If you’ve been thinking about doing craft shows or you’ve been wanting to them better, check it out!

If you have questions about craft shows, leave them in the comments!

If you sell your crafty thing (patterns, yarns, purses, whatever!) you really need to listen to this.

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.

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…]]> 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 with me, you help me crochet, you review my class.
You challenge me, encourage me and inspire me.

For that, I thank you.

Enough with the gushing.

If this all sounds like utopian love-fest, it sort of is.
It makes my working life so much better, that I get to share it with such fabulously brilliant people.

But it’s also REAL. And useful.
Useful in sharing my thing and useful in making my business sustainable.

And it’s accessible to anyone. Really!

Want some of this gushy-ness?

To feel this good and gushy about the people involved in your business, start by listening to Diane’s podcast.

And if after you’ve listened, you’re looking for some concrete ways of applying it, check out my Share Your Thing class (which is now available for homestudy).

PS. Not into all this business talk? I promise I’ll get back to yarning tomorrow! In the meantime, suggest a couple and you may win 50% off a skein of yarn.

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]]> 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 what th the Thing is for you and how best to get there for you.

Maybe your thing isn’t quitting your dayjob, but pretty much whatever your thing is, you need someplace to start. And a resolution to do the thing probably isn’t enough.

With that in mind, I humbly offer a list of questions to ask yourself before you do the Thing.

These are the questions I started asking as I started on the journey to quitting my dayjob.

Let me know if you use the questions and please please pass them on to anyone who has a thing to do in 2010.

Good Asking and Happy New Year!

PS. Download the Questions to Ask pdf by clicking here.

PPS. Wondering how to get more customers, to get more sales, so you actually make what you need to make to quit your dayjob? That, my friend, is Sharing Your Thing & I’m teaching a class about it next week! Read more here.

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]]> 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 remind you that these big things often come with fear or doubt.

It’s a step in the process, not a sign you need to turn back.
If anything, it’s a sign you’re on the right path, that you’re really reaching towards awesomeness.

So today, if you’re feeling a bit of overwhelm at the awesomesauce of the coming year, I want to let you know: you’re not alone.

In fact, you’re right on schedule.