Ceating Success From the Inside Out: Selling Your Uniqueness

No two pop-tarts are alike and the same goes for people.  Yes, it’s true.  I was going to use the analogy of snowflakes, but that’s so overdone.

Seriously, though, as small business owners selling on Etsy and at craft fairs, we can often feel overwhelmed and lost in a sea of other artists and makers.  When we feel this way, it can help to take a step back and get introspective about who we are and what unique points of view, skills, and strengths we have to offer the world.  Then we can use that powerful information to present ourselves and our products in a way that no one else can.  Unlock your special pop-tartness right now, with these steps.

Know your greatest qualities.

We all have pre-conceived notions of what makes us special, but the people who know us, love us, and work with us can tell us what they consider to be our best qualities from a totally different perspective.  So ask them and don’t be shy about it.  Set up a free account with Survey Monkey and create a one-question online survey asking at least 20 people you know what they think your 3 best qualities are.  You can make it anonymous if you like so that people can respond freely. 

Once you have the data, rank the responses until you can see what your top 5 best qualities are according to those who know you best.  Consider these top qualities and reflect on whether these traits are reflected in your brand and the way your present yourself to your customers.  Write down at least one specific example of how you can better incorporate or represent your top 3 qualities into your brand.

For instance, one of your top qualities may be that you are detail-oriented.  That quality will surely be reflected in your work, so promote that unique selling point.  Make it obvious for your customers.  Mention it in your Etsy listing descriptions how every detail is carefully considered by you before being executed.

Tell your unique story.

Each one of us is a product of our experiences on this Earth.  We all have stories that make up who we are. What are the big stories that have shaped your life?  Write down at least 5 one-sentence story points that define you that you feel your ideal customer would relate to; things like family stories, overcoming adversity, why you do what you do, how you discovered your art, accidents, near misses, exhilarating moments, losses, life experiences, momentous occasions, fortuitous events, etc.  Then turn each of these story points into a full-fledged story (write it down!). 

Once you have these stories, you can use them in different ways as your present yourself and your business to the world – through your About page on Etsy or your website, blog articles, or biographies for shops or galleries where you sell your work.

Think about your goal – you want to establish connections with customers who appreciate what you have to offer and who return to see what else you are producing.  For instance, when potential customers read your About page, they don’t want to just learn about you.  They want to learn what it is about you that can help them get what they want.  So make sure that you tell a story in your About page that shows customers what they can expect from you that they can’t find anywhere else.

Remember, there’s only one of you in the history of this world and what you have to offer is of value to others.  What is your unique story that will connect you to your customers? 

Resources.

Want to learn more about yourself, your strengths, and your best qualities?  Here are some resources:

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath

http://www.howtofascinate.com

http://www.tonyrobbins.com/ue/disc-profile.php

Take Action Now!  Follow the steps above then leave a comment below.

5 Things to Do Now to Get Back on the Goal Train

Remember those goals for the year you wrote down back in January when the year was your oyster?  Now that we are almost halfway through 2013, it’s a great time to re-evaluate the goals we set, dust them off if they have fallen to the back of busy schedules, and perhaps re-adjust where necessary.  A high five to all of you who have been actively working on your goals since the beginning of the year.  For those of us who may have let them get away from us, let’s look at 5 ways to get back on the Goal Train.

1.       Review your goals

Read through the goals you wrote down at the beginning of the year.  If you didn’t write them down back then, take some time now and record them.  Put a giant green check mark next to any goals that you have met thus far, along with words of praise for yourself for following through with your game plan.  Come up with some kind of reward for yourself to acknowledge your accomplishments.  If you haven’t met any of your goals yet, don’t let negative energy overtake your thought process.  Be kind to yourself and commit to following through with the following steps.

2.       Re-assess your goals and priorities

For goals that you haven’t met yet, review their order of priority and rewrite your goals so that the most important ones are at the top of the list.  If you have goals that you want to meet but the deadlines you assigned have past, contemplate why you missed those deadlines.  Did something unexpected come up that prevented you from meeting it?  Did you forget that you had that goal?  Was the goal too ambitious or unrealistic?  Is there some kind of fear or apprehension that is preventing you from tackling a particular goal?  You may want to record your thoughts in a journal so you can better understand where you are struggling and therefore be better equipped to address these challenges in the coming months.  Set new deadlines for your goals before moving to the next step.

3.       Make clear and feasible action plans for each of your goals

Breaking down each goal into actionable steps makes achieving big things less daunting, so on a separate sheet of paper for each goal, write down step by step what you need to do to achieve it.  Make sure that each step is a clear-cut task that you can schedule.  Now schedule it!  If you have a calendar that you use, record the steps on the calendar with due dates and reminders.  I use Google Calendar.  Our very own Marilyn from Pulp Sushi introduced me to a great organizational app called Wunderlist.  You can create a separate list for each goal and it will feel so good to cross each step off the list as you complete each task.

4.       Commit to reviewing your goals regularly

It’s really easy to let time go by and not work toward your goals if you forget what they are.   When you review your goals regularly, they will remain at the forefront of your mind and it will be more likely that your daily actions are those that lead you to accomplish those goals.  Added bonus is that if it’s in your conscious mind, then it will be in your sub-conscious mind too.  You may even come up with powerful ways to meet your goals while you are sleeping!  If you often wake up in the morning with ideas, you may want to keep a pen and paper near your bed so that you can write these genius ideas down as soon as you wake up.

5.       Be your own cheerleading squad

Even if you haven’t been able to put a green check mark next to any of your goals, be compassionate with yourself.  Negativity and beating yourself up is not going to help you achieve your goals.  Congratulate yourself on your re-commitment to meeting your goals and think positively about the coming months.  Remember that you are the custodian of your life and you have the power and the will to achieve what you set out to do. 

6.       Visualize your success

Spend at least 5 minutes visualizing what your life will be like when you have accomplished your list of goals.  What will it feel like?  How will your life be different?  Don’t just imagine it, but put yourself there and feel the emotions.  Believe that you have already attained your goals.  If you can do this exercise every day, it will reinforce all of the previous steps you have taken to get on the Goal Train and cruise to your destination.

What I realized when I did my re-assessment of my goals, is that I have way too many of them and they were too ambitious.  I didn’t leave any room for real life to happen.  I’m paring down my list and putting more focus on the ones that are the most important to me.

In revisiting your goals, was there anything you changed? What insights did you gain in your evaluation of your progress so far?  What goals have you accomplished this year?  I’d love to hear about your successes and wins!

Take Action Now!  Revisit your goals then leave a comment below.

Creating Success from the Inside Out - 5 Money Traps to Avoid When Pricing Your Work

I was inspired this week to talk about setting prices for our work after participating in a webinar about money blocks, given by the Lucky Bitch, Denise Duffield-Thomas.  It got me to thinking about what money traps we artists on Etsy may fall into as a result of our own money blocks.

1. Setting your prices at wholesale level in a retail environment

I have gone through several iterations of pricing formulas and read lots of articles to figure out the best way to price my work.  The conclusion I reached was that I need to price my products so that I can sell wholesale, establish pricing consistency no matter where a customer might find my product, and still make a profit.  If I sell a pair of earrings for $40.00 on Etsy, then wholesale buyers will need to buy those earrings from me for 50% of that price, at most, so that they can sell those earrings in their shop for $40.00 and still make a profit.  This also means that I need to price my products so that when I sell my earrings to a wholesale buyer for $20.00 I am still making a profit.  If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t sell wholesale, so I can set my retail prices lower”, I ask you to reconsider this as you read the rest of this post.  I believe this thinking is potentially damaging to your wellbeing as an artist.

2.       Not paying yourself for labor

If you’re like me, you love every minute of creating your handmade items, so it doesn’t often feel like work.  However, there are two points to consider here.  The first is if you want to scale your business up and potentially hire a person to help you in the future, then you need to build labor rates into your product prices.  If you don’t charge yourself for labor now and then you find yourself hiring someone later (whether it’s a person to help you bead, sew, knit, balance your account, or ship product), you will have to recalculate all of your prices at that point, which could affect an established customer base.  More importantly, your time has value.  Your skill has value.  You should get paid for that time and that skill.  And I don’t mean $3.00 an hour!

Lucky Cat Sculpture by amberhlynn on Etsy

3.       Assuming that YOU are your customer

I fall into this trap all the time!  As artists, we may not have an income level that matches that of our customer.  It certainly depends on your market, but it’s important to avoid pricing your items according to what YOU can afford.  You may have an item that, when you calculate the price, you think, “Oh, no one will buy that at this price!” If you are assigning an appropriate value to your items then the customers who love what you offer and see the value in the product will be happy and willing buyers.  If you sell the item for less than what it is worth, then you are in danger of devaluing yourself as an artist. 

Another aspect to this trap is that we spend so much time with our products that sometimes we can grow too close to them to assign an appropriate value.  Familiarity can cheapen the value of the item, in our own eyes.  Try to look objectively at your work.  Put each item on a pedestal and adore it!  That customer who has been hunting for just the right thing will adore it, too, when they find it in your shop.  And they will pay money for it.

4.       Looking at what your competitors are charging and pricing your items accordingly

I believe that setting your prices according to your competition is detrimental to your wellbeing as an artist and a business owner.  When I browse products on Etsy, I’m amazed at how cheaply some sellers price their products.  It can be hard to offer an item for sale that is sometimes double what other sellers are offering for a similar product.  Don’t let other people’s money blocks dictate the cost of your items.   Come up with the formula that feels good to you, that helps you meet your business goals, and that reflects what you are worth as an artist.  You will be more at peace with yourself and happy doing the work because you know you are getting paid fairly for it. 

5.       Feeling guilty about asking for the true value of your work

I love lifestyle business guru Leonie Dawson who explains that there is a balance to the Universe in the exchange of goods and services for money and that when one person gets more value than the person on the other side of the transaction, it’s not healthy for either party.  That’s not to say that you can’t offer sales or promotions.  When you offer a promotion, you aren’t just selling your items more cheaply.  You are doing it for a reason; perhaps to create more buzz for your shop; to get more customers to sign up for your newsletter or blog; or for other non-monetary reasons that still have value to you as a business owner.

Do any of these money traps resonate with you?  How have you overcome them?  Are there other money traps we, as artists, should consider?

Keeping on Keeping on

Barbara Winter who writes a terrific blog about supporting yourself as an entrepreneur had a great post the other day, "Blase is not a Power Tool".  It's worthwhile to read her whole piece.  She mentioned a quote from Winston Churchill that struck me as appropriate for this week and this business.   " Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm."

I stopped by the Garrison Art Center Fine Art and Craft Fair over the weekend.  It's a show I've done for many years and have always loved .  My back problems kept me from doing it this year, but I enjoyed just visiting for an afternoon.  Chatting with vendors whom I've known for some time, and meeting some of our new team members, we discussed how the show was going.  Most said there were plenty of people but that sales were down.  But there was no grousing.  One man said this was the first show he's done this summer that the weather was so good - he's experienced high winds, torrential rains.  But he showed me pictures he's taken of some sights in this area that he plans to draw and turn into future offerings.  Other long time jewelers said that while this show was down, they hoped the one next weekend would bring them back up to where they need to be.  In the meantime they're thinking of other ways they can boost their sales, increasing variety of products, considering online sales.  Some people who were first timers were pleased with the responses they were getting from visitors and anticipate that that may translate into sales down the road as people get to know them.  Everyone mentioned how much they love this gorgeous location on the Hudson River, how friendly the other vendors are.

 This particular show certainly didn't qualify as a failure.  But I've known several of these folks to experience real failures before getting here - not even making booth fees, putting up with unhelpful organizers, disastrous weather.  And yet here they are; they smile, they're generous with their neighbors, they're eager to go on to the next thing, they're coming up with new ideas.  They are full of enthusiasm.   It seems to me that they are successful.

Have you had shows that you'd classify as failures?  What helps you keep up your enthusiasm when situations don't match your expectations?