So you’ve done lots of hard work, establishing a target customer, designing something they should love, validating it with enough people you’re sure it will work, and figuring out how you will convince these people that your product is everything they ever wanted. It’s posted and ready for sale.. now what? There are lots of people out there who match…
Email Marketing Basics
I know. Everyone struggles with email marketing. It’s almost a given for small business owners. I have some bad news for you. This isn’t going to tell you what to put in your newsletter. Quite the opposite, I’m going to tell you a monthly newsletter isn’t enough. I have even more bad news. Most free email services won’t let you…
Etsy and the Intermediary Model
What does your business expect from Etsy? Do you think of them as your marketing department, whose job is to bring you viable leads? Do you think of them as a paid salesperson who is actively shaking the money tree to bring in revenue? Do you think of them as an advocate for your business? If you expect any of…
Business Strategy Basics
Introduction: I write a lot about business strategy and that it’s important, but I just realized that I really haven’t shared my definition of it. To understand the term “strategy”, it helps to realize that the term is a shortened way to refer to your business’ “strategic plan,” so whenever I say “strategy” you can replace it with “plan” or…
The Product Life Cycle
At lot of times when I get questions from business owners in a forum, I have to answer “it depends”, and one of the biggest variables is exactly where their product is in its life cycle. Products have a series of stages they go though, and the exact tactics you are using depend on where it is. Research & Validation…
The Goal Post
It’s that time of year again. Everyone has set their New Year’s goals to lose weight, make more money, and be a better person…. but I’m guessing very few people have thought about HOW. I usually recommend against basing goals on outcomes. The best goals are process-oriented and are based on what you are committing to DO. You have zero…
First Impressions: Handmade at Amazon
I have been hearing a lot about Handmade at Amazon for a while and thought I’d give it a try. I had a few initial impressions I wanted to share. As time goes on I might find out some of my impressions were wrong but that’s all part of the process 🙂 My process might be a little different from…
The Top Three Etsy Seller Mistakes
Look at any of the dozens of Facebook groups out there dedicated to selling online (usually on Etsy, eBay, or Shopify) and on any given day, there is someone asking if sales are down this month. Their sales are down 30%, 60%, or worse this month and want to know why. There isn’t a month of the year that you…
Dealing with a Drop
One of the questions I get a lot goes something like this: “I used to have a ton of sales but the have dropped off!” The questions that I ask in return almost always get the same answer: (you can guess what it is now and I’ll tell you in a minute) Do your sales normally increase or decrease this time…
Seven Tips for Time Management in a Handmade Business
One of the problems that growing businesses often have, especially ones with a single person in them, is getting it all done. Whether your business has one person or 500 people, the product needs to get made, the accounting needs to be done, and marketing campaigns need to be put together and released, new products need to be designed, and…