Tip#2 - Tell Your Kids

If you have children at home, you will need to orient them to your working from home. It is possible that you are working from one of the rooms on your house or even your bedroom or the living room. Children when they are small will usually find any and every reason to seek your attention if they know that you are around. Every argument, every need, every question will be referred to you just because you are there. And going by the sense of timing that they have, their attention seeking antics will kick off within ten minutes of you starting to work.

What you need to do is make them understand that when you are in a certain room, which is your home based office, you are not to be disturbed. Go as far as to tell them that that area is out of bounds for them. Kids may not understand easily why you are not available to them when you are just a holler away. So making them believe and understand that the office is a serious place is a god idea. Restricting them to go there at will re-enforces this thought. Tell them that they are to refer to you in the office only for a very good reason. They will try and come to you in the beginning, but as you resist that urge to go see what they are about in the beginning, they will gradually stop doing so. Close the door to your room or office. Eliminate extra sounds. Make the kids get into the habit of knocking before entering. This one really works. Nothing gets them to understand that they are disturbing you from doing something important than having to knock before entering.

If you work from the desk in a living room or the bedroom, make the kids play or study in another room.

Basically, imagine that you are operating not in your home but in an office for the sake of productivity. You always know at the bottom of your heart that you are indeed working at home and enjoying the freedom and independence that comes along with it. I hope you find this tip for a better working from home helpful.

Tip #1 – Staying Refreshed

Believe it or not sitting on your computer and working can burn calories. If you are working from home, the odds are that you are going to be spending a lot of time in front of your computer. There are exceptions, of course, such as having a home business like crafting, catering etc or running a franchise business from home. But if your home based work involves spending a lot of time in front of the computer then know this, all the time that you spend thinking and brainstorming issues, you are burning up calories.

It is common to feel pangs of hunger or thirst while working and many of us use these needs as an excuse to beak away from what we are doing. Getting up to snack or drink frequently can not only break the working rhythm but can also result in a short break turning in to a longer one. The other thing that can happen is that you end up ignoring your thirst, sometimes for hours on end, resulting in you feeling dehydrated.

Don’t let either of these things happen. Keep a bottle of water near your workstation so that it is a hand’s reach away. Keep a few health energy bars in the drawers of your desk. You can even make yourself a sandwich before you sit down to work if you know for a fact that you get hungry at a certain hour while working.

The secret of working from home is to make these little changes in your focus and discipline. I hope you find this little tip helpful.

Can You Work From Home?

Working from home seems like an attractive proposition to a lot of people. Everybody thinks of it as having more freedom for the things you want to do and improving the quality of your life. Being independent with your work means that you either have a business from home or you freelance as a professional. If you are someone who works for himself or herself but wants to work from home as well, you need to evaluate certain matters. The truth is that working from home requires additional motivation. You need to be more versatile and better organized. You need to be prepared to be the solution finder for all matters and sundry that crop up in your business. Consider the following before you consider working from home:

Are you ready to “ Do it Yourself”?

Working for a company mostly has you working with an infrastructural support. You have other people in the office who have separate functions that complement your duties. You have delegation of labor where you can assign several tasks to others. Working from home will most likely mean you handling many of these talks yourself. Unless, of course, you are starting out with a fair investment in infrastructure. You have the option of starting out with additional space and additional employees. You may also outsource your work to companies or freelance professionals for lobs such as marketing, accounting and bookkeeping etc.

Are you disciplined and organized?

You may find it hard to get many things accomplished without the presence of the daily working schedule that working in an office job imposes on you. Working in an office forces you to have a schedule. Being supervised with your supervisors and having to meet goals and deadlines keeps you disciplined and focused. Working from home, you will have to muster the will power to maintain the same, if not a higher, level of discipline. You will not have others to remind you or to depend on in order to be productive. It is one of the biggest setbacks that people face initially while working from home. They find their productivity lacking.

Making goals for yourself is a good tactic to maintain productivity and functionality. Set weekly and monthly goals and try to meet them. When you find yourself slacking, be ready to give your business extra hours.

Can You Resist The Distractions?

This is a collary to the ability to discipline and organize yourself in your work. working from home alienates you from the office environment which is designed with the sole aim of making the people perform to the best of their abilities and productivity. Instead you get all the distraction that are a part of your life at home. If you have a family it might the kids or friends. It may be house work or errands that need to be run. And just because you are there, you might be expected to do it. You may even feel like them getting them out of the way first. The trick is to make a work routine and stick by it as much as you can. It may seem like the obvious thing, but it is important. Your work hours should be treated like so by your family and friends. Make them understand that you are not to be disturbed while working. It is not all that difficult. After setting the example the first couple of times, they all get the message.

Website For A Small Business

How Important Is A Website To A Small Business

The first question that you need answered for yourself is, “ what is the idea or intent behind having a website for a small business?”. Its just not making online sales. It is also about having a presence on the internet. Lets cover both these aspects systematically:

Selling your products online:

almost anything and everything sells online today. If you are unsure whether your product can be something that is sold online you should consult an online marketing expert. There are more chances than not that they will be away the market and sell your product on the Internet. It is not a matter of creating booming sales online but about enhancing your offline sales. It may of course be very possible that your product does become a popular commodity for online shoppers. People shop online today for everything from electronics, cosmetics, groceries, apparel, crafts to even real estate. So you should not presume that your product is not something that can join this wide array of online products without doing some market research taking expert opinion of an online marketer.

Having a presence on the Internet:

many small-business owners go with the presumption that having a website is only about selling products online. This is simply not the case. Internet has become a powerful medium of information for people today. Many shoppers today look for information on the Internet before they go ahead and buy something. They look for information on the individual product as well as the company they are buying the product from. So even if you are not generating online sales having a good informative website about the product you sell and your company will serve to enhance the credibility of your product and your company. In fact, being now small-business this could be more crucial to you than the multi-employee and the multi-million-dollar companies. Having a good and professionally designed website can give an impression of size and professionalism that may otherwise be not possible to achieve.

Even when people are not looking to buy online they often search on the Internet for addresses and location of markets and stores where they may find their product. Having a website will small-business will help these people to find your offline store.

The truth about being in any business is that you face competition. And the truth about competition is that a large part of it has its presence on the Internet. If you do not want to lose any sort of an advantage to your competitors then you should go ahead and think of having a professionally designed website for your small-business.

It is equally important to have a website that is well designed and gives the professional impression. The website with bad navigation and poor designing will serve to cause your business more harm than good by giving an impression of unprofessionalism.

Selling At Craft Fairs Not For Everyone

Selling at craft shows is not for everyone. It is also not easy. But it just might the only way for you if you are looking to sell your craft if an craft show at an art gallery is beyond your means. The trend of craft fairs has shown an increasing trend over the past few years. More and more people are attending craft fairs all over the country. You can get hold of a craft fair calendar to know when a fair is appending and were. There is are a few fairs happening somewhere or the other at any given time of the year.

Participating in craft fairs is a great opportunity to network with other artisans. You get a fair idea of what is selling and at what price. Talking to other crafters can inform you about the sought after craft fairs and the ones to not waste time over. Also, if you are selling online as well you can create a clientele from all parts from the country. All you have to do is publicize your website along with your stall. Make sure that everyone who visits you stall leaves with your business card that has your website listed well. Even the customers that do not buy from you then might do so later. They may either buy something that they saw and could not make up their minds about or something completely new for another occasion.

With all that said, we agree that participation in a craft fair is a good idea for all crafters, right? Wrong. It is not a good for crafters who are not up to the task. You are not going to accomplish much if you do not enjoy the whole process. Check yourself for the following conditions before you head out to the next craft fair.

1) Judge Yourself:
Craft fairs have crafters participating from all over the country. Needless to say you are going to witness a bounty of high quality craftsmanship. Make sure your crafts are up to the mark and design and craftsmanship in order to compete. You can first only visit a craft fair in order to get an idea of the work being sold.
Some craft fairs are judged by a jury. A jury evaluates the crafts and only allows the ones to participate that pass their evaluation.

2) Research the Craft Fair: Having a craft calendar can help you with this. A craft calendar gives other vital information about the fairs. You will know the price of the booths, whether it’s a judged by a jury or not, the number of artisans participating, availability of a stall, contact information about the contact person etc. All of this is important information for you to decide which fairs to participate in. Plan accordingly. Factor in all costs like traveling and staying expenses. You may have to decide upon a special price for your craft in order to cover the costs of participating in the fair. Be ready to offer discounts in order to boos your sales.

3) Keep the costs Down:
Unless you have gained experience with participation in craft fairs and know exactly what sells and how much, start with minimal expenditure. Keep your losses covered till you are assured of the amount of profit you can generate from your sales. This will happen only after you have attended a few fairs. Try to find another artist who you can share a booth or a stall with. There may be some one like you who is looking to for a start up with craft fairs as well. If you plan on participating in various locations, remember that the sale figures may vary from place to place. Some crafts might be more popular in one than in another. Feed all this information to your research so that you know what sells best and where.

4) Pricing: Many times you need to price your craft differently for a craft fair in order to cover the extra cost that you will incur in making the journey, staying and renting the stall. Be ready to offer discounts on the items that are not selling well. Always keep the discounted items separate from the full price section. Discount only when you need to. Do not discount as a policy e.g. on the last day of every craft fair. Buyers remember these things and may wait to buy something from you till the last day of discounted prices when they would have just as easily paid the full price. Always keep a balance between highly priced items and the low ones. Highly priced items make more profit per item but sell less. Cheaper priced items may sell more easily but you have to sell more to make the same amount of profit. You should also be able to accept credit card payments.

5) Travel with all the stuff that you are going to require, including a companion. Selling at fairs can a tiring experience. Have a companion along who may be a friend or family. This way you can take short breaks in between when you really need them. You will also need help in dealing with the multitude of customers that are usually present for craft fairs. Since you will need to do other things like view other stalls and network with other crafters, it will serve to have someone to take care of your stall along with you.

Do not be disappointed if you do not make a profit selling on craft fairs straight away. Most crafters do not. Selling in craft fairs can be a very different experience than selling in stores. You should gauge your success not only by the number of sales but by the overall results that should include the number contacts you made for future business and the exposure that your business receives. If you are serious about making a profit out of selling at craft fairs then be ready for early mornings and traveling distances frequently. Learn from each fair experience. Develop techniques specially for selling at fairs.

Selling Wholesale To Craft Stores

Selling wholesale to craft stores means a lot more exposure and sales for your crafts. If you manage to get into a successful whole sale contract with a craft store, a lot of extra work hassles are taken care of. You do not have to concern yourself with marketing, advertising and selling as that is the role of the business you are supplying to. You can concentrate on creating and manufacturing your craft item. However, in order to land with a successful whole selling contract with a craft store you have to follow a right approach. There are several important points you need to keep in mind.

The most important thing is to make sure that you business is ready to handle the increased number of orders you are likely to generate from the wholesale orders.

Selling wholesale is likely to give your business more exposure which likely to be followed by more orders. Nothing will hurt your long term reputation then being unable to meet the deadlines for your orders.

Once you are sure of your capability to meet the orders, you need to start identifying the stores are interested in selling to.

Do not apply to any and every store you can spot. You need to do a research. To begin with make two separate lists of craft stores. One list contains the business you are really keen on working with and the second should contain the ones that you are really not all that concerned about. I will explain the reason for this later on in this article.

Now you need to start contacting these stores.

Be ready for the appointment. You could get it anytime. Be prepared to go if the store asks you to come by the very next day. Have your very best samples to show them. They should be accurate representatives of what you are going to be supplying to them. Match the paperwork to make identifying the products and the details about them easy for the store. There are two essential documents you will need to make. One will be a description sheet and the other will be a price sheet. The description sheet should have the details about each craft item such as size, color, weight, material used or whatever else is relevant to your craft. There should be a system where you can allot product codes to each craft. This is usually an alphanumeric string. This makes future reference to the product much easier and prevents confusion when it comes to placing orders.

The sales sheet should have the prices of all craft items and their variations according to size, color etc if they apply.

You should have you business information printed out on a business card. Make sure to leave a copy of all three with the craft store.

Prepare yourself with a presentation and potential questions that might come up. Be ready to prove the marketability of your craft. If you have done some research for this, make sure you have it with you at this point. Common questions that you need to be ready to answer is:

How is your craft better than the rest? ( if it is something that is already there in the market)

What makes your craft different from the rest?

What makes you think that it is going to sell? ( If it is a completely new craft)

How soon can you deliver the first order? ( This is usually a good sign as it means that the person has moved beyond doubting the credibility of the craft and is thinking ahead)

In the beginning you were told to make two lists of craft stores. Ones that you were not so keen on while the second of the names that you really wanted to work with. Here is the reason why. It is important to be confident of your craft and presentation when you approach a craft store for a whole selling offer. You need to be convincing about your ability as a crafter and manufacturer. If you are starting out fresh and this is the first time you are going to be doing something like this you may feel shaky in the beginning. It will be a good idea to practice first with the craft stores on the first list, wiz, the ones that you are not so interested in. After visiting a few stores and getting a feel of how things usually go, you will feel much more prepared and confident of hitting the stores you really want a business tie-up with. Good luck!

Advertising And Marketing Methods

It is a good idea to pay one attention to your marketing and advertising methodology along with craft making.  In today's the day and age and every kind of business and product requires a certain amount of marketing.  You may have the advantage of having a good network of people, however, most of the time you will need to use marketing methods to bring your product in front of the potential customers.  Do not get daunted by the thought of handling sales and marketing yourself. If you do not want to spend a lot of money then you there are other means that you can rely on. You can always allot this work to someone else. Outsourcing to experts makes it possible to get expert services without having to hire someone full time. Also makes the services more affordable for everyone.

Even if you are selling a great number of items implementing marketing and advertising will only serve to extend your business. There are other means of advertising your product without having to spend a lot of money. When it comes to marketing on a tight budget you are only limited by your creativity. Since you are a creative person to be running a craft business, we can assume that creativity is something that will not be in a short supply. 

Going to Craft Fairs
Going to craft fairs can put you in a unique position to promote your crafts. In it is an extremely useful place to develop networking with not only customers are to also other crafters in your own line of work.  It gives you an excellent opportunity to observe the competition and a test your product product and price.  You do not only come across potential customers but also chances for a partnership with other businesses.  Many craft businesses are interested in new craft ideas and resources or other products from other fellow crafters.

Taking Samples To Stores
Depending on the kind of craft you make you can take a sample to local craft stores like toy shops, jewelry stores etc. Whenever you do so, make sure you carry the best samples of your craft. They should be accurate representatives of what you are finally going to be supplying. Along with your samples also carry separate price list and description list. There should be a code reference for each craft that makes it easily identifiable. The price list should contain the price of all of the craft along with the product code.

Local newspaper ads
Apart a national newspaper many towns and cities have a local newspapers as well.  These newspapers mainly cover the local news and current events. Therefore they tend to target the interests of the local populace to a high extent. You will find that placing ads in the local newspaper is not only much cheaper or but gets you extremely good results as well.

Flyers And Posters
It does not cost much money to print out simple flyers and posters at home. It certainly does not cost much to put them in places of strategic interests. If you are willing to do some legwork you can place your flyers. Even if you are not, you can simply hire some youngsters to do the job for you for a few dollars. Putting them in places that is likely to see influx of the kind of customer you are targeting can get you wonderful results. The places that are known to perform well are craft stores, coffee shops, book shops.

Craft home parties
Nothing gets a business going better than having a party to celebrate its opening.  Spread the word about your business through your friends and family and have a party.  Put your crafts on attractive displays and showcase them to everybody who comes. Most of people usually enjoy coming to such parties as they get to meet a lot of friends. Make sure that everybody who comes does not leave without giving a feedback. Have them leave their contact information. You can send them messages or emails whenever there are is new stock or offers.

Craft Making As A Home Business

If you you are looking know to start a business from home and you also enjoy making crafts as a hobby then you possess the right combination to start the business from home.  While there are many lines of businesses that can be started from home the field of art and craft is especially suited for this purpose.  What art and craft requires as a main ingredient is innovativeness and creativity.  These are not dependent on a heavy infrastructure or start-up costs.  If you can paint, sculpt, make handicrafts etc you can do this worker from practically any room in your house. Since making crafts is more or less dependent on the artist, you can start home based business and manage the working hours as per your convenience.

When it comes to running a craft making business at home you can either choose to make one or several craft items.  You may choose individual products or you may choose an entire category of craft items.  For example you may choose to make a handmade lampshades as individual craft items or you may choose to make an entire category of stuffed toys of all kinds in different shapes and sizes.  Apart from this there are various other forms of crafts that you can undertake at home such as making jewellery, sewing, embroidery and quilting, wood crafts, paper crafts, glass painting, scrap booking, flower arrangements, painting, sculpting, pottery etc.  In the list is pretty much endless. It is possible that you just might have a completely original idea for a craft.  You can do the market research and decide if your craft is worth launching .

Start Up Cost
The general idea about starting a home based craft business is that it does not require much money to start.  It is possible to start a home based craft business with a low-budget as less as hundred dollars. But this depends on a lot of factors. If you have a good existing network of people, you will have no problem selling your crafts to begin with.  If the craft you are making does not require any expensive equipment or you already own the equipment such as a sewing machine, then you can save up on your start-up costs. 

Before you start a business make a financial plan. You will be able to determine all costs to be incurred such as marketing, advertising, rents, salaries etc. A financial plan can also inculcate the data from the market research.  It may not be possible for you to sell your craft without using active marketing and advertising strategies. Starting with a low budget is good but it serves no purpose if you are not able to reach your buyers who will buy from you.

Once you  have determined the course you want to move along, its time to put your decisions in to actions.  If you feel that it is funding that you require, you can get appropriate small-business loans from banks, financial institutions, traders  or even from friends and family who are willing to co invest in your venture.

There will be other functions you will have to perform related to the growth of your business such as marketing, advertising, hiring, managing etc. We will cover all these in further posts.

Marketing Resources For A Small Business In Canada

Smart Marketing on a Small Budget

A comprehensive guide to marketing a small business, it covers topics ranging from developing a marketing plan and persuasive marketing communications, to writing and producing effective marketing communications on the computer, to handling face-toface marketing opportunities. Included are worksheets to accompany each topic and an index. Part of "SOHO Solutions for Canadians" series.

Smart Marketing on a Small Budget

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
ISBN: 0-07-560469-8

12 Simple Steps to a Winning Marketing Plan

This book is to help people who don't know much about marketing to learn enough basic concepts to develop a good first draft of a marketing strategy for a company product.

Steps to a Winning Marketing Plan

Publisher: Probus Publishing
ISBN: 1-55738-297-2

Global Marketing for the Digital Age

This guide demonstrates how to develop a global marketing program that uses digital and online technology. It explains step-by-step how to expand a business into foreign markets using databases, e-mail, the web, call centers, prepaid calling cards, internet telephony, online networks, push channels etc.

Global Marketing for the DigitalAge

Publisher: Harper Business
ISBN: 0-00-255740-1

Marketing Publications

Effective marketing is critical to the success of any business. The publications listed in this section are excellent tools to assist you in developing a sound marketing plan for your small business and can significantly improve your changes for success:

Treasure Trove of Crafts Marketing Success Secrets

Author Barbara Brabec shares craft wit and wisdom, the craft fair experience, selling to shops and galleries, wholesaling tips and ideas, other marketing options, the finishing touch and a craft shop of your own.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Marketing Basics

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Marketing Basics tells you what you need to know about positioning and marketing your product. It provides step-by-step instruction on putting together a promotion plan, information on managing a sales force and steps for matching your product or service with the customers who need it.

Marketing for the Self-Employed

Marketing puts you in contact with the people who want to buy your products and services. If you can reach these customers effectively, you can ensure the success of your business. Yet many self-employed people never master the art of marketing. You will learn how to do it here from someone who's done it himself. Topics include: effective marketing, tools and tactics and time and money management.

Marketing Masters

Marketing Masters: The Best Ideas, Tips and Strategies from Canada’s Savviest Marketeers, features Profit Magazine’s most popular and practical marketing stories, profiles and interviews.

These are new and classic stories of marketing genius that offer timeless advice every entrepreneur can learn from and be inspired by.

Marketing Publications

Treasure Trove of Crafts Marketing Success Secrets

Publisher: Barbara Brabec Productions
ISBN: 0-9613909-1-3

The Complete Idiot’s guide to Marketing Basics

Published By: Alpha Books
ISBN: 0-02-861490-9

Marketing for the Self-Employed

Publisher: Prima Publishing
ISBN: 0-7615-0592-X

http://www.primapublishing.com

Marketing Masters

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd.
ISBN: 0-471-64274-6

Craft Directories In Canada

Business Associations

Crafts Association of BC (CABC)

The Crafts Association of BC (CABC) is a non-profit arts service organization, and the coordinating body for BC craft disciplines. The Association is a network of craft professionals dedicated to the development of excellence in crafts.

Crafts Association of BC
1386 Cartwright Street
Granville Island
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8
Toll-free: 1-888-687-6511
Tel: (604) 687-6511
Fax: (604) 687-6711
http://www.cabc.net

Canadian Craft and Hobby Association

The Canadian Craft and Hobby Association (CCHA) is a nonprofit association dedicated to the growth of the craft and hobby industry. The Association holds two annual trade shows (Calgary and Toronto) that feature exhibitors from across North America.

Canadian Craft and Hobby Association

24, 1410 40th Avenue NE
Calgary, Alta, T2E 6L1
Tel: (403) 291-0559
Fax: (403) 291-0675
http://www.cdncraft.org

Newsletters

Craft Contacts

Published 6 times per year, the newsletter offers profiles of craft artists, information on exhibitions and educational opportunities, calendar of events, classified advertisements, business information, employment opportunities and information on other craft related activities.

Craft Contacts

Crafts Association of BC
1386 Cartwright Street
Granville Island
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8
Toll-free: 1-888-687-6511
Tel: (604) 687-6511
Fax: (604) 687-6711
http://www.cabc.net

The Crafts Report ONLINE

The Crafts Report provides a constant flow of information on: marketing, growing your craft business, time management, studio safety, retail relationships, features on other crafts professionals at all levels of the field, industry news and more. By not focussing on any specific medium, Crafts Report is able to address all craftspeople and provide solid business information, regardless of the kind of work you create or sell.

The Crafts Report ONLINE
http://www.craftsreport.com

Tradeshows and Exhibitions

In addition to tradeshows and exhibitions listed on the Canda/BC Business Service Society web site, refer to Business Associations and Newsletters. Many of the contacts within the CBCBSS site maintain comprehensive listings for regionally planned events throughout British Columbia, Canada and the United States.
http://smallbusinessbc.ca/search/events.php

Craft Shows (Annual Guide)

This directory, available from the Crafts Association of British Columbia , is a list of tradeshows around the province. Also lists major Canadian and US shows.

Craft Shows (Annual Guide)

Publisher: Craft Association of British Columbia
1386 Cartwright Street
Granville Island
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8

Toll-free: 1-888-687-6511
Tel: (604) 687-6511
Fax: (604) 687-6711
http://www.cabc.net/about/progserv.htm

Internet Resources

Makers Gallery

The Makers Gallery mandate is to design and host web sites for professional Canadian makers in any creative field, including craft and art, whose work exhibits skill, creativity and integrity.

Makers Gallery
http://www.makersgallery.com

CraftWEB

The CraftWEB Project online community creates the opportunity for professional craftspeople, craft organizations and people interested in crafts to meet, share information and promote fine crafts worldwide. CraftWEB seeks to maintain the highest possible standards of workmanship. We welcome aspiring and experienced craft artisans to our site.

CraftWEB
http://www.craftweb.com

CCCAnet – The Canadian Visual Arts Information Network

The Canadian Visual Arts Information Network is a project of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Arts is an online arts organization which seeks to raise international awareness of Canada's professional artists. CCCAnet is comprised of an extensive database of Canadian visual artists and their work and a directory of links to other Canadian visual arts web sites.

The CeramicsWeb

The SDSU CeramicsWeb is an experimental website for ceramics. It includes such things as databases of glaze recipes and material analyses, links to other ceramics web sites, health and safety information, and a variety of educational materials related to ceramics. The CeramicsWeb started life as the

Ceramics Gopher - the first resource on the Internet for ceramic artists, and that gopher server is no longer in service.

Giftware News Online

Giftware News Online provides up-to-date trends information, great book listings and new product releases for the giftware trade. Retailers can also browse through new management articles to help run your business better, find out about trade shows for businesses, learn about marts, manufacturers, and more.

CCCAnet – The Canadian Visual Arts Information Network

http://www.ccca.ca

The CeramicsWeb

http://grafik.sdsu.edu/ceramicsweb/ceramicsweb.html

Giftware News Online

http://www.giftwarenews.net

Financial Resources For A Business In Canada

Financing Your Business

You may want to use one or more types of financing in your small business. You may choose short-term debt financing, longterm debt financing or equity financing. For more information on financing your small business, visit the Canada/BC Business Service Society's web site at:

http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/financing

Financing a Craft Business

The majority of individuals starting a craft business have relatively minor funding and financing concerns as compared to other small business ventures. Most entrepreneurs in this area of business will operate their venture from the home, minimizing many of their financing needs.

When starting a craft business, funding needs are likely to revolve around the purchase of equipment and supplies for developing your product. There may also be a need to setup a home office with required furniture, office supplies and equipment.

Funding / Financing continued

Given the relatively minor financing requirements of starting most craft businesses, the most likely sources will be traditional lending institutions such as banks and credit unions. Financing options appropriate to this type of business are a credit card; an operating loan; short-term financing in the form of an operating line-of-credit and equipment leasing.

Use of a credit card allows the small business owner access to a line-of-credit with a pre-determined limit, without restrictions on access or use of funds. Available through all banks and credit unions, credit cards are extended to business owners based on their personal credit history. Operating loans are made to small businesses and used to supplement operating capital. A short-term loan of this type may be negotiated through any bank or credit union and provides the small business with an operating line-of-credit with the same associated terms and conditions as other forms of loans.

Sources of Financing

Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDC)

Community Futures Development Corporations provide rural businesses with loans to assist expansion, or to help entrepreneurs create new businesses. Loan amounts are up to $125,000.

Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBF)

The Canada Small Business Financing Program was created to help small businesses reach their potential by making it easier for them to get term business improvement loans to finance the purchase or improvement of fixed assets, for new or expanded operations. Administered under the Canada Small Business Financing Act (CSBFA), the program is a joint initiative between the Government of Canada and private-sector lenders.

Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is Canada's small business bank. BDC plays a leadership role in delivering timely and relevant financial and management services, with a particular focus on the emerging and exporting sectors of the economy. BDC is dedicated to helping create and develop Canadian small and medium-sized businesses.

Sources of Financing

To find the nearest Community Futures Development office in BC, check:

http://www.communityfutures.ca/provincial/bc/locations/

or call Canada/BC Business Service Society

Tel: 1-800-667-2272

Strategis Web Site – Sources of Financing

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sources

To find the nearest Community Futures Development office in BC, check:

http://www.communityfutures.ca/provincial/bc/locations/

or call

Canada/BC Business Service Society

Toll-free: 1-800-667-2272

Canada Small Business Financing Program

For further information on the CSBFA, contact the Lender of your choice or view the Web Site at:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/csbfa

Business Development Bank of Canada

Toll Free: 1-888-INFO BDC for a local branch check:

http://www.bdc.ca

Overview of Government Financial Programs

The Overview is the Canada/BC Business Service Society’s publication that lists government assistance programs and services for small business. Both federal and provincial government programs are listed.

Not meant to be a comprehensive list of all business assistance programs, the Overview is a collection of the more popular programs that are more readily available to the small business owner.

Creation/Production Grants to Professional Artists

The Visual Arts section of the Canada Council offers three types of grants to professional artists working in architecture, the visual arts, independent criticism and curating, craft and photography.

To be eligible to apply, you must: be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada; have completed basic training (not necessarily in a formal educational institution); have produced an independent body of work; have received recognition through public presentations of your work. The value of the grant varies for established, mid-career or emerging artists.

Overview of Government

Financial Programs

http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/

pdf/overview.pdf

Creation/Production Grants to Professional Artists

Visual Arts Section

Canada Council

PO Box 1047, 350 Albert St.

Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5V8

Toll-free: 1-800-263-5588

Tel: (613) 566-4414, ext: 5060

Fax: (613) 566-4390

http://www.canadacouncil.ca

Craft Business Publications In Canada

All publications listed in this document are available, on reference, in the C/BC BSS Business Start-Up Library.

How-To Publications

Start and Run a Profitable Craft Business

This book is for anyone who has ever considered taking up crafts or who is already involved in crafts as a hobby or business. It answers such questions as how do I find out what crafts will sell?

What skills must I have? How good do I have to be? How do I set prices for my work? What are the best outlets for craft work? Is wholesaling or retailing better for the beginner? What government regulations affect craft workers? How can you increase production? What records are necessary to keep? Is it wise to hire other people to help?

Start and Run a Profitable Craft Business

Publisher: Self-Counsel Press
ISBN: 1-55180-071-3
http://www.self-counsel.com

Business Manual: Craft Business

This guide quotes financial information and operational data derived from actual business cases. The business manual provides a wide range of information related to starting a business, such as: market/location, record keeping and taxes, financial management, advertising and promotion, operations and much more.

Publisher: Entrepreneurship
Institute of Canada
http://www.entinst.ca

How to Start a Home-Based Craft Business

The author shares his experiences and down-to-earth advice to help you estimate your start-up costs, manage your cash flow, and stay profitable once you are in business. From painless record keeping to savvy marketing techniques, his step-by-step methods are realistic, innovative, and easy to understand. Use his handy worksheets, quizzes, and checklists to achieve your goals.

Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
ISBN: 0-7627-0066-1
http://www.globe-pequot.com/

How to Start Making Money with Your Sewing

This publication guides you through every step of starting a viable business. It includes such topics as: how to perform market research and uncover trends; ways to choose the best sewing equipment; tips for setting up your sewing area, how to write a business plan, and effective methods for advertising; and marketing and keeping business records.

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55870-474-4

How to Start Making Money with Your Crafts

Amateur-crafter-turned-pro Kathryn Caputo tells you everything you need to turn your fun and satisfying hobby into a fun, satisfying and money making venture, including how to develop a product line, successfully sell at craft shows and find markets for your work.

How to Show and Sell Your Crafts

Learn how to: build an effective display, conduct market research, set prices, and market yourself.

The Crafter’s Guide to Pricing Your Work

Learn how to: estimate materials, labour and overhead costs; assess and sell the value of your work; account for regional price discrepancies; calculate your studio rate to determine your hourly wage and sell even flawed products.

Creative Cash: How to Sell Your Crafts, Needlework, Designs and Know-how

A valuable, basic handbook of information covering everything from: market research; promotion; pricing; and innovative salesmanship of all sorts of handmade craft items.

Earn a Second Income from Your Woodworking

This publication contains advice on how to make the transition from hobbyist to entrepreneur. It includes information on how to develop good business sense, marketing skills and the knack for finding a niche within a market. Discusses how to handle tax forms, promote yourself and make business plans. Addresses issues such as what need your product must fill, financial considerations for older woodworkers, what form your business should take, market trends, how to set up an operating or income statement and financial projections, how to do record keeping, public relations and market research.

Make Your Quilting Pay for Itself

Professional quilter Sylvia Ann Landman shares easy-to-use tips for turning a rewarding hobby into a profitable business. Learn how to take inventory before you get started, schedule your time, find your niche, set your fees, write a business plan, market yourself, sell at craft shows, on consignment, through sales reps and via mail, order and explore many options for earning income.

How to Start Making Money with Your Crafts

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55870-400-0

How to Show and Sell Your Crafts

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55780-447-7

The Crafter’s Guide to Pricing Your Work

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55870-435-3

Creative Cash: How to Sell Your Crafts, Needlework, Designs and Know-how

Publisher: Barbara Brabec Productions
ISBN: 0-9613909-3-X

Earn a Second Income from Your Woodworking

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55870-464-7

Make Your Quilting Pay for Itself

Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 1-55870-446-9

How To Find A Craft Job

If you are looking for a craft job at home there are a couple different approaches that you can use to land yourself the right home based craft job.  As the phrase "job" suggests, you need to have an employer that you can work for.  So the trick really is to find suitable employers that are willing to hire crafters who want to work from home.  You will have to scrounge your local area for craft stalls and retailers as well as the Internet for offline craft businesses in order to approach all the suitable and potential employers.  The good news is that the field of craft making is such wear home based employees and workers are welcome.  Since many of the craft businesses may be small or medium level enterprises, all crafters that can work from home and achieve a level of professionalism are greatly encouraged.  I hope you do not get the impression that craft businesses are mostly poor and they cannot afford to pay their employees.  Nothing could be further away from the truth. The crafting industry is one of the most successful and widely established in the small-business enterprises of United States of America.  There are many major craft making businesses and craft stores. Craft business is huge not only in the US but all across the world.  The second reason why working from home is encouraged is that craft making is an art.  In order for businesses to look for talented craft makers it would be the restrictive growth policy to limit themselves to searching for creative talent only in the local area.  Craft businesses are always on the lookout for new crapped ideas as well as new crafting talent.  Which is why they are not averse to hiring people in different areas of the country and having them work from home.

As mentioned before the key to finding a suitable craft job at home is to find a suitable employer.  So what your attitude is conducted an effective search for craft businesses.  Do not lament yourself still looking for employment opportunities only in your local areas because, as it has already been established, talented people are hired from all across the country to make crafts at home.

 

Searching For Craft Jobs Locally

Searching for craft businesses and craft stores locally should not be a difficult process.  You may already be well aware of the major craft stores. Maybe you are lucky enough to have an entire crafting market in your local area. You should go and have a careful look at all the major and minor markets carefully in order to spot craft businesses that you might have missed. Upcoming of shopping malls is a boon  since it puts so many stores under one roof. You may be able to find what you're looking for just by visiting a couple of the popular malls in your area.  If you are still unsure of whether you have covered the ground, all you need to do is go through the Yellow Pages and spot all the Craft business stores and retailers that maybe potential employers. You also need to find out whether craft fairs are regular feature in and around where you live.  Craft fairs can be excellent networking grounds for someone who is seeking employment in the field of craft making.  People from all across the country participate in major craft fairs.  They are more than willing to give up their contact details and discuss new opportunities for themselves.  If you feel that you have something to offer you be just find yourself friendly and receptacle ear of a craft business owner. Not only that but visiting craft fairs give you an excellent idea of the state and requirements of the current craft business.  It gives you an opportunity to evaluate your own potential for being a successful home based crafter. You will get a fair idea of what exactly it is that is required of you in a craft job.

 

Searching For Craft Jobs Nationally

now that you decided to extend here search for a craft job on a nationwide basis it would be foolish indeed to take advantage of the omnipresence of the Internet in every walk of life.  All major businesses have some sort of eight presence on the Internet.  This is especially true for the craft business as selling online is a huge potential and market for them. You should look for Web sites that are selling crafts commercially it was there are more likely to hire people to work for them.  Your initial searches regarding craft stores may turn up for a websites with craft projects and craft ideas. These are not what you are looking for as mostly all of them except free submissions from craft hobbyists. Do not wasted time contacting them as they are extremely unlikely to be willing to pay someone to summit craft ideas.  You need to look for businesses that you can make tangible crafts for one term can sell it for you for either on a commission or profit sharing basis.

By craft magazines and craft journals.  There are a rich source of crafting enterprises all across the country.  Some of them even really is a complete list of craft businesses all across the country. Note down important addresses and phone numbers. Establish contact.

As mentioned before visiting a craft fair can put you in touch with many people who are involved with the craft business from all over the country.  Most of them are from the people and you will get the chance to discuss your ideas that many of them.  You are also likely to receive valuable advice from veteran crafters. There is probably no better way of coming in close proximity to the various aspects of a craft job than visiting a variety of craft fairs. There are certain publications that publish a complete calendar for the craft fair is happening on across the country.  This is an extremely handy guide you to have as it is very likely that you may be having a craft fair only a few miles from where you live and may not be aware of it. You can buy a craft fair guide and calendar here.  A lot of craft fairs happen over the weekend. It may not only prove to be a professionally fruitful but also an extremely pleasant trip for you to make.

Once you have located ideal craft businesses that can be potential employers you need to establish contact with.  You need to be able to present your creativity and scale in an enamoring fashion. Finding the right opportunity is only half the battle won.  How you present yourself and your crafting skill is going to determine your success or failure just as much.  Learn how to go about applying for a craft job at home.

How To Apply For A Craft Job

In the prequel to this writing it mentioned that finding the potential employer is only half the battle won.  The next part that follows is just as important and that is how you go about presenting yourself and your talent to the potential employer.  There are usually to scenarios when one is applying for a craft job.  Either that particular employer is already on the lookout for crafting talent or you are approaching an employer that you are interested in getting hired by even though they are currently not looking for new talent. Both the circumstances are almost similar barring the slightly different approach that is required for each.  But we shall consider these later.  Let us first deal with the basic approach that you need to take.

Have a portfolio ready
You need to have something to showcase your talent and skill to the person. Nothing speaks better for crafting talent than having a portfolio with photographs of previously done work.  Resume for any other job may sound good on paper but you are more likely to impress your employer by showcasing here crafting ability effectively.  And nothing does that better than a few high-quality photographs of your and made crafts. You can either choose to have your crafts photographed in a studio you can do them at home yourself.  There are several small photography story was that will do the job for you that not much cost. If you feel that you are unable to take high-quality products of products than investing a little money in getting a proper portfolio made might just be worth the effort. Do not under any condition display bad quality photographs that suffering due to blah, poor lighting or just inappropriate settings. A bad quality for your speaks badly for you in more than one way. Not only does it not flatter your crafting talent but also displays unprofessionalism and disinterest in your own work.

Have A Clear Idea Of Your Ability
In order to present yourself and your crafting ability to the fullest you need to have a clear idea of what you can and cannot do.  The requirements of a craft job can be very varied.  The skill required of you may depend from one craft business to another.  You should be able to answer direct questions regarding what you can and cannot do with clearer answers. Know what you want from their job.  Do not end up taking up something that you realize he did not enjoy doing.  One of the best things about having a craft job at home is that you are able to do make a living are doing something that you truly enjoy.  It is akin to turning a hobby into a profession. Landing a craft job that you do not enjoy doing or a job that is beyond your ability will only be detrimental to your career as a home based crafter.

Be Polite:
among all other things be polite and genuine in your communication. Do not overreach and do not over press your employer for a job the matter how desperate you might be for one. Rude and hasty behavior puts off employers really quickly.  Make your initial approach in an in intrusive manner by making a call or sending an e-mail requesting a meeting. Be genuinely in communicating your ability in the meeting because sooner or later you are going to have a backup your words with action. After a week or so of your initial meeting, if you have still not heard back from the employer, make a follow-up call to find out.  Be polite.  Do not press your query but say that you are calling because you were curious as to the outcome of the meeting. In case the reply is not very favorable say a polite goodbye with the statement that you should be kept in mind in case some opportunity arises in the future.

Dealing with the case when the employer that you are interested in getting a craft job with is not hiring, you need to figure out how to make an offer to the employer that they cannot resist.  Your best bet is to present your skill in our fashion that makes the employer realize that their business can benefit from hiring you. Being ready with an original craft idea will usually extract good responses. You can have ideas as to make their current craft line better. Communication becomes critical. You need to impress the employer. And for that you need to be someone that can deliver something better than what they already have. Do not waste time with businesses that you cannot match with your crafting talent no matter how much you want to get hired by them. Do not get dis-heartened by rejections. Take time to make yourself better prepared.

When It’s Time To Buy Raw Materials In Bulk

One of the expenses of running a craft business from home is buying raw materials.  Just like you may look for discounted rates for developing your infrastructure like buying machinery and office furniture, you may also want to consider cutting down on the running expenses of your home business. Buying in wholesale... save money in the long run there is Street a sharp price difference between retail and wholesale prices.  You must however wait to consider a few points before deciding to buy in wholesale.

The certain disadvantages to buying their suppliers and bulk which you should consider.  Buying in bulk can set your budget back by utilising a large portion of your available cash flow. 

Many wholesalers usually require you to buy the materials in a certain large quantity before the willing to provide you with the wholesale rates.  You may either feel that your business is not expensive enough to warrant this large supply of raw material or that your capital cash flow does not permit it.

Buying in wholesale can also require you to fulfil certain business requirements.  You will require the tax identification number which shows that you have registered business.  You will also require a sales tax identification number as you will be exempt from being charged a sales tax while purchasing raw materials.  But this same tax will be levied on your customers when they buy from you.  You will need to submit this tax to your state on a quarterly basis.

The final benefit of buying here supplies in wholesale is that you save money over the long run.  For this purpose you will need to evaluate your savings over a long-term.  You will need to anticipate the sale for a particular craft in order to justify buying supplies for it in wholesale. For this reason it is advisable to first test the market of your craft and determining the demand for it.  If you buy a lot of from material for a particular craft beforehand and are not able to make the matching amount of sales you may just be left with a lot of unused raw materials which will be a waste of your finances.  There are situations also went what determines that the profit margin does not change by much when buying raw materials at a wholesale price. In such a case it may make more sense to buy your supplies in retail from a favorite craft store.  Not only can you afford to be more choosy but also not be left bereft of our major part of your cash flow.

The reasons for buying in wholesale are thus:
If you feel that you can save a lot on the cost of making your craft are buying supplies for it in wholesale.

If you feel that the supplies of raw materials that you need is erratic at your local craft store.  If there is uncertainty involved of whether or not you will find the supplies you need at a particular point of time in the year, you may choose to purchase it in bulk.

If the supplies your craft are not available easily or buying them requires you to make plenty and details of transactions which takes up a lot of your time, then you may choose to purchase them at wholesale rates at one time.

Once you can be fairly sure that you will save on both time and money by buying a supplies in wholesale then that is the right time for you to start buying for your business in bulk.

Selling Your Crafts Online

If you have done your research for starting out a business at home you may well have realized that craft as a commodity is hot selling on the Internet.  There are several online craft stores. But there are also millions of buyers looking up to buy craft and craft supplies every single day.  You may be contemplating setting up a traditional craft business by making and selling from home based setup.  But in today's time and age, like any other business, your home based craft business will only benefit from having a presence on the web. 

But selling here crafts online is not necessarily about setting up an online craft store.  Marketing your crafts online is simply another means of advertising your business to people and at the fraction of the cost of regular advertising.  There are so many different ways of marketing yourself and your craft business online. Even if you do not know much about the Internet and Internet marketing, there are several ways you can learn and none of them are too tedious or time-consuming.

You can learn about Internet marketing skills other mediums of webinars, e- books, watching online videos, listening to audio tutorials, reading the e-courses on various websites and even buying special books and magazines from your nearest bookstore. You can generate a large amount of business by medium of Internet marketing whether or not you have website. The trick is to get targeted traffic to come across your marketing efforts and contact you in one way or the other.  This is known as generating leads for your business. If you successfully managed to generate leads through the efforts of Internet marketing you will have a list of potential customers that you can follow up with later in order to generate sales.  Some of the interested buyers may not want to buy at the moment but have sufficient interest in order to subscribe to the mailing list with further offers and deals.  You can turn these people into paying customers by using a well-designed follow-up policy.  Whether you choose to follow up with these people by means of e-mails, postal mail or telephonic calls is entirely up to you.
one of the important tactics that e-mail marketing teaches you is how to generate these leads for your business and how to collect contact information from people. Just as important as generating leads is generating the right kind of leads way business.  Otherwise known as target marketing, it means that you have to get to the people who are actually interested in what you have to sell to them and hence more likely to become here paying customers.  While directing people online to land on your Web site or contact your business, all efforts should be made that only those people have been targeted who are looking to buy what you have to sell.  Otherwise it is a waste of time and effort on both sides.

Once you realize the importance of Internet marketing you must give it due time in order to learn the important aspects.  It is easy to go sideways with marketing on the Internet. Keeping yourself targeted and focused will generate sales for your business. If you lose focus and get sidelined you will end up wasting a lot of time and effort.
a majority of your time on the Internet should be spent in generating leads and customers for your business. Do not tried to jump the learning curve. Give it time and your complete attention.

Shipping Policy - Time

Now that you have decided your shipping rates policy you need to determine the shipping time in delivering the craft to the consumer. The shipping time that you fix for delivery to your consumer affects your business in two ways. Firstly, it helps a potential buyer from making up his or her mind with a they want to buy from you. Secondly, the consumers experience regarding the time it took for you to deliver your craft determines whether they will come back to do business with you again not.

Shipping Policy And A New Buyer
let us consider the first scenario of what effect your shipping Time will have on the consumer who is buying from you for the first time. When a consumer buys something they are anxious to receive it. If your shipping time he's more than that of the competitors in the likelihood is that such a consumer may shift this business from you to them. No consumer likes to wait for a very long to receive the product after they have paid for it. It is only natural to be curious and anxious to receive your product.

Shipping Policy and Its Effects on the Repeated Consumer
if the consumer has a bad experience regarding the shipping time with you the first time the likelihood of such a consumer shopping with you again is unlikely. For this reason it is mandatory to have a clear and precise shipping Time policy. You must endeavour to deliver their products in the promised time. The terms of the policy must be clearly stated to the buyer before he or she finalizes the order. They must be in no doubt as to the duration in which they can expect the delivery of the product to take place.

Key Features for An Effective Shipping Policy
Keep the shipping Time has less as possible and try to expedite the whole process as much as you can. If you are swamped by a lot of orders and take time a few days till you can ship out the orders then make this clear to the buyer. Under no excuse exceed the shipping time promised to the buyer. If there are delays in your shipping time normally, adjust for the same in the promised shipping time.

However, if you are facing long shipping times because of being under manned and under staffed in your craft business from home, then you must consider expanding the shipping personnel. If you feel under manned in the shipping department then it surely means that you can afford to hire some more people. And with the expedited shipping that additional personnel will bring you, you can hope to make some more profits anyway.
Just remember, people usually do not like to buy from businesses that take a long time to deliver the goods. And they definitely do not like to buy from businesses that do not live up to their delivery time promises. Consider the situation where something was promised to be delivered to you in 3-5 days and takes 10 instead. You are wondering all the while whether the order is even on its way or it has been misplaced in the mail. You may or may not have insured the craft for shipping and are worried for an extra 7 days that you might have lost the money buying the craft product.
After such an experience with any business, are you likely shop with them again? The answer is a clear resounding NO.
What ever the shipping policy that you may adapt, please make sure that the buyer is made clearly aware of that before he orders. That way there will not be unnecessary complication and you will not have to waste your time addressing queries regarding the shipment.

Ideal Shipping Policy:
The ideal shipping time policy is to ship the order between 2-3 business days and the to have the package arrive within whatever the regular time taken for the chosen method of shipment is. Whether it is 10 days or 2, make the buyer aware of it. Just as soon as the buyer has bought the product from you, send an email along informing that the product is slated to be shipped out. As soon as you do, send the details of the shipment to the buyer so that they know their product is on the way. You do not want to waste your time answering un-necessary mails inquiring if the shipment has been dispatched or not.
Add the option for express shipping that delivers within 3-5 business days. This costs much more than regular shipping, but gives the buyer the option for buying from you in the situation that they need something in a hurry. Some buyers just prefer their orders to reach to them fast as they are impatient.
All that said, the simple guideline is. Keep the shipping time as short as possible. Do whatever you can to make it as short as possible. Keep it as organized as possible by using reliable postal services. Always keep the buyer informed about the transit time involved, from before he buys to after he buys. Offer expedited shipping feature so that a buyer can shop from you when they want something in a hurry. Offer shipping insurance as it adds the feeling of security in the minds of the buyers and costs only a few dollars extra.

Shipping Policy - Rates

You may find this hard to believe but your shipping policy is just as important as any of the strategies that you are implementing for the success for your home business. Not only does it have the power of building new customers for you but also determining whether they become your loyal customers or not.
It begins with basic psychology of a shopper. People usually do not like paying too much as a shipping fee. They compare it to conventional shopping where you do not have to pay anything besides the retail price. The shipping on a item is viewed as an additional cost by customers.
Many major retailers make the shipping free when the shopping amount exceeds a certain amount. Many online stores feature free shipping as a promotion policy as they have figured out that it is a big factor in winning over customers.
You have various ways of determining the shipping rates for your craft.

1) First, keep it to the basic and the very minimum that is actually incurred by you in shipping of the product. This is done when you want to keep the pricing and the profit you are making from your craft entirely separate from the additional costs that you are going to incur while shipping the item. The advantage of this system is that it is a completely true and transparent system. If your shoppers shop with retailers often then the odds are that they are well aware of the general shipping rates. If you shipping rates comply with the norm than they will have more reason to trust you and lesser reasons for discontentment.

2) Second, you can decide to absorb the additional fee of shipping in the overall cost of your craft. This can be done if you feel that the pricing of your craft is reasonable enough and adding the additional shipping costs will not make the price unattractive to the potential shopper. The advantage of this system is that free shipping is a retail shopping promotion that appeals to the custom greatly. As mentioned before many online retailers ran the policy of free shipping if the to amount exceeds a certain sum. This is because it has been proven that free shipping appeals to the consumer. The disadvantage of this system is that it can unnecessarily inflate the pricing of your craft. It may have the psychological disadvantage of this waiting the customer from buying from you and going to the competition instead.

3) Third, you can actually charge more money as shipping than what is actually incurred by you. This is usually done when you feel that the price you are setting for your craft might seem unattractive to the buyer. Off setting some of this amount in the shipping fee will make the price seem more reasonable and you will still get the desired money for the product. The advantage of the system is that it will bring down the retail price of your craft which is what the customer first sees and notices. It will somewhat bring a psychological advantage to your pricing as far as the consumer mindset is concerned. The disadvantage lies in the fact that the consumer may find the shipping cost exorbitant and get discouraged from buying from you. Your consumer may also be aware of the regular fares for shipping and may stand is that your shipping policy is not transparent. He or she may find this reason enough to distrust your business and buy from the competition.

Ideal Shipping Rates Policy for Starting Out:
Determining the shipping rates and your shipping policy can be a matter of research, experimenting and experience. It is advisable to go with the most transparent policy to begin with. Decide a reasonable price for your craft. The one that you would have sold it for regardless of whether there was a shipping involved or not. And then charge the normal and actual shipping rates. Also keep the offer of free shipping if the order is exceeding a certain sum. This encourages the shopper to increase their bill by a few dollars. Make sure that this amount is enough for you to absorb the cost of shipping and still make a profit.

Marketing & Design Sell Your Craft

If this is the first time that you are contemplating setting up a business at home and have no experience with running a business then the task may get the daunting in the beginning.  You may begin to feel very quickly that there are simply too many things to handle at the same time.  It is easy to lose focus and to neglect the fact is that perhaps in once you business the most.  According to me there are two crucial aspects that determine the success or failure of not just your home business but for that matter any business.  Speaking in terms of a home-based craft business the number one factor that will determine your success is your craft product.  The second factor that many people tend to neglect and not give due importance to is effective marketing and advertising strategy.  Let us try and deal with each one of these individually.

Your Craft Design:

this is a somewhat obvious point to guess.  At the end of the day what your consumers will be paying for is your craft item.  You have two do everything to ensure that it appeals to your consumer in one way or the other.  You can either be an item of utility or beauty.  It is essential for a craft to fulfil either one of these two conditions.  On starting art you must make it a point to start with your best craft product and best craftmanship.  First impressions are indeed important and can build or break the reputation of a business.  The networking of a home-based business works slightly different to the professional business.  There is a lot of word by mouth publicity involved.  There is also often a lot of interest in your business among the local neighbourhood, friends and your family.  Since the nature of a home-based craft business is more personal it is important to build a favourable reputation and impression with a high-class quality craft product.  If you do not manage to get this right you went to your home business damage that might take you a long long time to recover from.  The advice is to not be hasty when starting out with your own business and to get this one important factor just right.

Effective marketing strategy:

it is really quite surprising how so many people neglect to market and promote their home business or the lack of right approach.  Many crafters just seem to expect to get business and potential customers for their craft.  Many people starting out a craft business at home feel that since they are starting out at a small level, contemplating marketing and advertising strategies is not part of the business plan.  Whatever your reason might be for having neglected making an effective marketing strategy for your home business, you need to realise that no matter what level or scale of your home business you do need to approach it as a business.  It may be your crafting hobby that you were trying to turn into a part-time business, but you can only succeed if you makes a professional approach with the personal one. Many people get daunted with the mention of marketing and advertising as they feel that this is a costly venture.  You may have a stereotype correction regarding what marketing is all about.  Marketing can be done in so many different passions and most of them don't have to involve making huge expenses.  Promoting a business is not all about putting advertisements in tabloids, newspapers and other media.  Marketing is a simple procedure of spreading the news of your business and getting people to come by. Just taking this step of networking with your family and friends can serve this purpose.  The nature of a home-based business and specially a craft business is such that the personal approach matters a lot.  You cannot afford to discount the value of word by mouth advertising.  Not only can your friends and family help spread the word but a simple planning of an opening party where you invite the local neighborhood and other mums from your children's school, can have results on the popularity of your home business that may really take you by surprise.

Read our other writing on effective marketing strategies.

Tips To Price Your Craft Right

The price tag that you choose to put on your product has the ability to woo the customer or to send him away. Follow some quick and effective tips for deciding the optimum price of your craft and maximize your profit.

1) the .99 formula
for the sake of psychological advantage trim down your prices to .99 of the previous integer. For example if your want to sell a craft for $7, make the price $6.99 or $6.95. you will still get almost the same price for your craft and gain a selling advantage as well. When you reduce the price by just 1 cent, in the first impression that the buyer has of your pricing, you actually put the price in the realm of one complete dollar lesser.

2) The pricing points
every $10 represents a pricing point. Every increase of ten dollars in the price of the craft adds the resistance from the buyer to buy. This is rather more specific to the craft business where a lot of products are reasonably priced. For an industry that has higher priced items such as jewelry, electronics etc. the pricing points can be determined in the denominations of $100, $500 or $1000.
for the home based crafting business, we feel that the pricing point of $10 fits the bill. If you can making expensive crafts then you can adjust this accordingly.
if you can manage to sell your craft for less than $10, then there is nothing like it. Even if you want to sell it for $10, you can price it at $9.95 following the previous tip. People commonly associate amount less than $10 as change. For parting with bigger amounts than $10 over a purchase, the consumer starts to think more seriously and evaluating the purchase as being worth the expense or not.

3) Selling at Craft Fairs
when selling at craft fairs, there are a few changes that you might need to make to your pricing policy. If you have a busy stall, then you might consider not using the .95 formula for your pricing. When dealing with a lot of customers, exchanging the change of a few cents over every purchase can become time consuming. You might make some customers impatient. You might also run out of change very quickly and have to round off your price to the next lower integer, hence reducing your profits.
another thing to keep in mind is that for multiple purchases, adding the total becomes tedious if all the prices are suffixed with .99 and .95.
if you are doing brisk business for the time at the craft fair, price your crafts at complete integers i.e. $5, $7, $10 etc.

4) Offering Discounts:
offering periodic and seasonal discounts woks wonders for boosting up the sales and increasing the popularity with the saving conscious customer. However, there has to be a system to the sales madness as well. Only give discounts on those items that you are just not able to get rid of after a long time. Make a system out of it, like a having one or two end of season sale for your items. Or have a separate section for discounted items that can be a feature of your store or business. Never place the discounted crafts with the ones that are regularly priced. It tempts the buyer to make a comparison between the discounted and the regular priced crafts and ask for a discount even on the non discounted items. The same rule applies while selling in a craft fair. Never group the discounted items along with the regularly priced items. Also, never make discounts a regular and predictable feature and cycle while selling in a craft fair. Your participation in a craft fair may range from a day to several days. And if the consumer knows that you are going to offer an end of the day sale on your craft products, then he or she just might wait for the end of the day to buy what they want.

Follow these simple and yet effective sales tips to boost your sales. But remember that generating sales should be a long term goal. It is possible that you may be doing everything right but the sales are taking time to come. Or it could be that you are doing something wrong. But these scenarios are perfectly natural to expect. In order to distinguish between the two cases you need an effective business plan. A business plan helps you lay down an effective strategy for marketing, financing and promoting right at the onset of your home business. you are not left floundering for solutions at every twist and decision making situation.

If you do not have an effective business plan and your sales are not coming in, you need to remember to be patient. A majority of businesses take some time to get established and for the sales to start happening. Do not panic and start offering sales and discounts on your products. A good business plan will also be able to demarcate the important milestones in the progress of your home business and when you can expect what development.

If you feel that sales are not happening in spite of your best effort, then it may be time to re-evaluate your business strategy including marketing and promotion.

In the end, remember that there are two things that determine the success of your home business. one, a quality product and second, good and effective marketing. Getting just one of these two things right is half the battle won. Getting one of these two right makes succeeding with the other so much more easier.

Factors Controlling The Price Of Your Craft

There are three main factors to consider while pricing your craft to sell. They are :
Practical Factors
Psychological Factors
Creative and Glam Factors
Practical factors
Practical Pricing Factors are related to the actual costs and the labor involved with making the product. You have to include all costs in the pricing of your craft, one way or the other. There are certain costs that are offset in the pricing completely in each individual piece. These are costs like cost of the raw material, charges by the artisan, if you are paying some one to make the craft on a per piece basis.
Then there are short term costs such as the phone bill, electricity bill, a monthly rentals, monthly wages that need to be divided across the number of crafts that expect to sell in a month. You can add these expenses and divide them with the number of products you are selling a month. This can often be determined and adjusted over time as you get a better idea of your sales figures. But work with a safe estimate to begin with.
There are certain long term costs that you have to include in the pricing of the product. These costs are adjusted over the period of several months or years. These include expense for assets like machinery, real estate, furniture, office equipment, business loans etc. If you have undertaken business loans for the capital and startup expenses of your business, you can look at how much of these expenses you need to offset as installments every month to banks or financial institutions that have lent you the money.
It is common for any home business to take until several months to finally start generating a profit. But you can do the best you can to keep the losses to a minimum by pricing the product right.

Psychological Factors:
It is apparent that you cannot let the practical costs of the product be the only deciding factor while determining the correct price for your craft. In the beginning you will probably manage to sell a few products. You cannot possibly think of offsetting all your monthly costs over those few items. It will make your craft ferociously expensive and no will but it. Considered the perceived value of your craft and tried to decide how much by a buyer will be ready to pay for it. The psychology of a buyer will be determined by two elements of your craft. Number one, the usefulness and number two, the attractiveness. Try and make a practical evaluation of both these qualities of your craft and try to determine the irresistible price for the customer where he or she will find it to be a great bargain. The step of $10 is considered to be a common measure of psychological thinking of a buyer. Crafts that are priced at less than $10 seemed to meet less resistance from the consumer than the ones that are priced at more than $10. Many times you will find items listed that $9.99 or $9.95. Even though these prices are almost equivalent of $10 they have a psychological advantage since in the buyer’s mind they are less than $10.
There are many thresholds like this. Several major retailing stores price their items at $.95 and $.99 in order to appeal to the customer base greatly.

Glam and creative Factors:

The glam factor again has a lot to do with the perceived price of a craft. If your craft is associated with a certain image of glamour, grandeur or hype, then you can price your craft much higher. For example, you can create a hype about a certain bracelet you make my associating it with styling, trendy, fashionable and cool. This will appeal to the youngster and the teenage consumer who will be ready to pay a good price for it just to be in with the latest cool trends. Creating hype and image for a craft product is something that has to be dealt with in the marketing and advertising strategies. We shall disscuss those later.
Creativity is an individual asset and quality that cannot be measured in any definitive terms. But it is not something that you should neglect while deciding the price of your craft.
If you are making something original or creative then you have every right to charge for your creative input as without it the craft cannot exist. Your creativity and passion is the lifeblood of your crafting business. The talent that you bring about in your business is one of its greatest assets. Think about it like this. If someone works for a designing company and presents concepts for graphics and designs, he gets paid for that. A painter does not charge for the price of the paint and canvas but for his creative impetus that creates the painting.

The competition:
The competition has a lot to do with the perceived cost for your craft. You have look carefully at the competition and their prices. Based on whether your product is the same as them or in any way superior, you can think about setting the right price on your craft. The competition also makes the job much easier for you when it comes to determining the right price. You may find it confusing to determine how much long term cost to off-set with the product pricing. You may also find it hard to determine how much quantity you can expect to sell. Setting a price on your creative talent may make you feel dizzy. But one look at what the competition is doing ( successfully), can put you right on the track again.
Creativity as an asset is true for all art work. And it should be true for your crafting business as well.
Pricing a craft product is really not as simple as it may seem. Do give it ample time and consideration. If you view all of the factors listed above jointly, you will be able take much of the guess work out of the pricing determination.

Is A Craft Business The Right Path For You?

We have covered ‘ Is A Home Business Right For You’ in another writing. Now we shall narrow our outlook down to the crafting business… ‘ Is a Home Based CRAFT Business Right For You’.

There can be two good reasons to start a home based craft business.

1)      you are an ardent craft hobbyist and then turning your hobby into a business enterprise is only the next natural step.

2)      You are an entrepreneur and see the potential of starting home business in crafts.  It also makes things a little more fun if you are a lover of art and crafts.

The fact that it can be a profitable business is in no doubt. Provided you run it the way it should. Let me give you the example of a favorite craft shop of mine before I begin to explain what the ‘right way’ is all about.

This craft shop has some really beautiful craft items on display all the time. Every time you go there, you end up picking up something or the other, either for yourself or someone else. These are a wide range of items from expensive decorative pieces in bone china and marble to small trinkets like bracelets, earrings, t-shirts and caps. It should be mentioned here that the same craft store has a coffee shop along with run by the owner. So it works both ways. If you go to buy something you end up having coffee as well and if you go to have coffee, you end up buying a craft item! Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Any way, the main feature about this place is that it is always fresh. The inventory of the place is regularly updated every month or so. This does not mean that what was available a month back will not be available the next. But there is a cycle. The shop is updated in segments. If there are 10 different segments and each one gets updated every fortnight, it means that each segment gets to be on display for at least 5 months, if it does not sell out first, that is. Apart from this there is constant redesigning and rearrangement being done that makes the place look fresh all the time. There are also regular exhibitions being held by other crafters and craft businesses. So all in all an active craft store and one that leaves an impression in the mind. Whenever you think of picking up an artifact the first that place that comes to mind is this craft store with the coffee shop. Believe me, the lure of coffee and sweet desserts is  a powerful draw..!

What’s my point with all this? Simply this. If you are going to run a craft business from home, you are going to have to keep it fresh and active. There are many ways to do this. You do not necessarily have to keep changing inventory of dozens of items but you are going to have to find ways to keep your store attractive and interesting for your customers.

As far as a craft business is concerned people prefer lively, colourful and the cheerful environment.

There are two main kinds of craft business that you can run from home.  You can either run a craft business that specialises in one or very few crafts, for example, a gift basket shop or a pottery shop. This usually applies to people who are crafters themselves and transform it into a home business. Many times people who are artisans themselves manufacturer and manage their home business both at the same time.  Some of them have someone from the family helping them out.  Depending upon the amount of time it takes for you to make your craft you can either decides to do it all yourself or hire some help. You may find ready help close to at hand when you think if you look to your close family and friends.

The advantage of specialising in a particular kind of craft is that people come to think of that particular craft as being synonymous with you. People also prefer to go to a specialised outlet when looking for anything specific. If your craft item is a genuine and the original product idea then it will also be possible you to set your own price and profit margins without being dictated to by market trends and rates of the competitors.

The second kind is where you have a wide variety available like ceramics, glassware, clothing and apparel, jewellery etc.  This kind of business is usually run by someone who is either a lover of art and crafts or by someone who is an astute entrepreneur and sees the crafting business as a profitable business opportunity. This usually requires outsourcing inventory from various sources that may be in or out of your town. If you love travelling then this might be a great opportunity for you to collect interesting art items for your business from all your travels. Not only will you have the advantage of having craft items that are not otherwise available with any other local store but you will easily be able to mark up the price on such items for a bigger profit margin.

The advantage of running a hybrid craft business is that sometimes people just decided to drop in when they know they want to pick up something nice for themselves or for someone else as a gift but are not decided on what that gift is going to be.  Such people are likely to drop by just to see if they can find something nice to pick up.  You can help increase the trend of such and decided shoppers by frequently updating your inventory so that the shopper knows that they can pretty much expect something new every the time that if it decides to come by your store.  Having various crafts on display also keeps the store looking colourful fresh and interesting.

If you think that you can manage the above activities than a craft business just might be the thing to you.

Is A Home Business The Right Path For You?

The first decision making that you need to do as far as a business from home is concerned comes much before than you may think. You may feel that in order to do a home business the first thing you need to decide is the product or service of your business. Not so.

The first question to ask yourself will be whether you should even BE in a home business at all. That is the first decision that you need to make.

There are various reasons why one might start a business from home. What you need to understand from the start is that you need to have a plan and have to be ready to work. The biggest difference in working on a job and having a business to run is that you are working for yourself rather than someone else. Instead of working to help someone else succeed you are working directly for your own success. That said, you should know that it is not any easier or the work any less when starting out a business from for yourself. In fact, it gets tougher to begin with. In a job your responsibility is limited and you are really just concerned with your delegated set of duties. You know that you will get paid at the end of the month. When you have a business of your own, you and only you are completely responsible for its success or failure. Since all your efforts are directly responsible for your success, you will need to do all that it takes. This is specially true when you are just starting out. If you find your job too demanding, you may feel that you need to double or triple your efforts till your home business gets up on its feet.

It is fruitful to have a home business of your own. Once the hard work is done and you have managed to get it successfully up on its feet, the rewards are just as sweet. So the reason for you to want to start a business from home should not be that you feel that you are overworked at your job, but, that you want to work JUST AS HARD FOR YOURSELF. Having a successful business from home is like having any other kind of business. In order to reap you must sow.
You will need to show just as much initiative or more for your business to succeed. The decisions that you  will need to make will encompass all aspects of any business such as administration, marketing, planning etc. Are you up for this?

The reasons why you  want to quit a job and start a business should be the right ones. Feeling that the job requires too much of a discipline and regulation is not one of them. Running a business from home requires just as much if not more discipline from you. You have to be organized and planned in your approach as the distractions that present yourself while working from home are many more as compared to when working in the controlled environment of an office.

Make sure you have laid out all the essentials elements of a business plan before you  before you consider the switch over in lifestyle. How you should go about making a business plan and the things that you will need to consider will be explained in further writings.

A home business is not for you if you want to shirk away from responsibility and hard work. There will be plenty of both involved. There will be more decision making to be done that will effect your success directly. A home business is not the option for your if you are looking for a way out of either. But if you feel that you are ready to pour in your heart to make the business succeed, if you have the passion for what you are trying to achieve, then GO RIGHT AHEAD. There is no greater sense of satisfaction than being self sufficient and self reliant.

As a final note, when starting out with a home business remember that there are hundreds of opportunities out there. I believe that anything that you are passionate about can be turned into a profitable enterprise following the right steps. But some ideas require more work and input than others. This is where you need to map out a business plan.

Avoid the get-rich-quick schemes that you may come across. There are genuine business opportunities out there but none of them can promise you riches overnight. Even a genuine business scheme will need plenty for hard work and impetus from you.

5 Tricks To Increase Sales Of Your Crafts

The success of any business we it home based all otherwise depends on the amount of success that you have at selling your product. The business of making and selling crafts has a few peculiarities that are specific to the crafting industry only. Follow some of the simple but effective pointers when it comes to your selling techniques. They are guaranteed to make both short-term and long-term benefits to your business.
1) sell only your best crafts. Do not be in a rush to start your craft home business.
the start-up phase of any business is an extremely crucial time in the lifeline of the business. Reputations can be built and destroyed during the first few weeks and months of the inception of a business. You have perhaps put in weeks and months of planning before launching your business. It is understandable for you to be eager to get the show on the road. But our advice is to not be hasty. You have put in a lot of hard work suspending a little more time in ensuring that everything is according to plan, won't hurt. Highlight and showcase your best craft work for the opening weeks. This will help you establish a reputation as a quality product. The adage that one commonly hear is " first impression is last impression". This is a common saying and it has become a common saying because it is largely true. If people form the correct first impression about your business and the product they are likely to become customers or at least have enough of a favourable impression in their minds so as to pay your repeat visit or mention you to friends and family. But if the first impression is not right and they feel that they are product is substandard than they are least likely to give your second chance and come around to your store on a business again. Once the reputation has been established for your business is to be making high-quality product, an occasional lapse of workmanship will be overlooked and forgiven, especially when treated with courteous salesmanship.

2) sell to moms
many women who are running a craft business from home feel uncomfortable about approaching other moms and neighbours about their business and craft products. They are afraid of seeming too pushy. They do not want to seem to be taking advantage of the proximity and familiarity. This need not be the impression that you give to other moms when you speak about your business. The trick is to keep it ready casual and not make any direct sales pitches. In case you are not friends led to many of the moms you have plenty of opportunities while meeting them at school games, meetings, community clubs etc. Do not keep yourself aloof but striker casual conversations with various groups of moms. Sooner or later the question of what you do will come up. This is where you can in from everybody about your home based craft business. Refrain from making any sales pitches. You will realise that many of the moms interested and curious about what you do when how it is that you make a business from home work for you. And the magic of art and crafts is such that almost everybody is interested in having a look at what you are making at least once. You can always and out your business card while leaving with a casual remark to remember you if any of them need anything in lines of your crafting business. Don't be surprised if you suddenly find plans being made by the moms for giving you and your home business a visit the very next day. Also don't be surprised if you land up with a few others the very same day.
3) network with friends and family
when starting out a craft business at home the first step really can be networking with your close friends and family. Not only do they provide a good testing ground for your craft product but can also be your first initial customers. It happens often that one uses perspective of their own product if they are the makers. Offer your craft product for speculation and survey. You might find the opinions given by them valuable and a good reflection of the likes and dislikes of your potential customers. In case you need to hire additional help for your own business you may well find it within the people close to you. Networking with fans and close family helps you save on the marketing costs. If you are starting up small and do not want to spend a lot on advertising to begin with then spreading news about your business word-of-mouth is just as good a marketing strategy as any.
4) place at least one advertisement
you have to understand the importance of marketing when it comes to running a home business. Many people make this very obvious mistake of not taking direct marketing measures to ensure that people become aware of your business and product. It is quite possible that your reputation spread through friends and family. But you must make it a point to place at least one advertisement in prominent fashion so as to tap into the general marketplace. You can always distinguish between the customers you receive from the people you know and the one that have come to you as a result of direct marketing. Using direct marketing in addition to informal resources will give you an idea of how much of the success direct marketing can be for you. You will never know that if you don't try it. Place an advertisement in a manner that you feel is most appropriate to reach your target customer. These can be flyers across town, advertisement in the local newspaper, broadcasting on the local radio station, posting noticeboards in schools and clubs etc. publicity through friends and family has a rather slow effect. The customers will take time to trickle in and will do so in very few numbers at a time. Direct marketing can have the effect of directing the attention of a large number of people to your business at the same time. You may find that a large influx of customers is more profitable to your business. Plus, when customers walk in to a shop bustling and busy with other customers, they are more likely to buy something themselves.
5) target your market
the value of determining a target market cannot be understated. You are likely to get the maximum results when selling to a targeted section of the consumer market. If you want to sell your craft successfully you should be able to see a target consumer for your craft right from the beginning. You can even make a craft to target a specific segment that you feel is a high buyer of such things. Once you have decided the profile of the consumer that you want to target, direct most of your selling efforts to this market. You will find that you have the highest conversion ratio from these consumers. Conversion ratio is the ratio between the number of consumers that are exposed to your product to the number that becomes a paying customer. Not only does this save you time and money but also provides for an enhanced reputation as a specialist. You are also able to direct more effort towards the improvement of your craft and offering essential customer care service.

What You Should Know About Shipping Insurance

When the question arises whether or not to offer a shipping insurance to the buyer when buying from you there are various ways to deal with it.  You can either make it compulsory for the buyer to opt for a shipping insurance or you can leave it up to the shopper to decide whether they want shipping insurance or not.  You may also decide to cloak the insurance in what you charge as the shipping field without making the buyer explicitly aware of it or giving the buyer the explicit choice of opting out of it.  Let us explore each of these options slightly more in detail.

Making Shipping Insurance Compulsory for the Buyer

You may want to cover yourself for the risk the item getting lost in the shipping. If the item goes missing, the buyer can always file a chargeback with the credit card company and it will be valid because the buyer has not received the goods. You will not only have to give the money back but also have lost the craft item and also suffer additional charges that you are charged in almost all cases of credit card payment reversals. Making the insurance compulsory always has you covered with for the loss in transit and also makes the buyer feel more secure about purchasing the product from you. The money saving customer might want to avoid the shipping insurance charges but you can make it a part of the shipping policy and explain the benefits to the customer. Since it is always only a few dollars more on the regular shipping price  and a tiny fraction of the value of the product, a reasonable customer should be able to see reason quickly.

Making Shipping Insurance Optional:

Many sellers offer shipping insurance but leave it as an option for the buyer to make. This may sound like a good policy as both the money conscious and the cautious buyers will find it favorable to shop with you.  The drawback is only this.  The money conscious shopper will always try to avoid shipping insurance.  In case of loss in transit you will still be burdened with the chargeback from the credit card company and the additional charges from your business account, not to mention the inventory that is lost in the mail.

Cloaking Shipping Insurance in the Overall Shipping Charges

the tactic adapted by many sellers is that the charges for shipping insurance are included in the main shipping charges and are not disclosed to the customer as a separate amount.  The advantage of this system is that the consumer will not feel that they are unnecessarily being charged for a service that they feel they do not require and you will always stay covered for the eventuality of the goods getting lost in transit.

The only disadvantage of the system is that including shipping insurance and the shipping charges will have the effect of inflating your overall shipping rates which might have an adverse effect on the decision of the consumer to buy from you.

Most of the sellers who shipped internationally either make shipping insurance compulsory for the buyer or locate in the overall shipping charges.

How to Choose the Right Method for Charging Shipping Insurance:

you will have to deal with the matter shipping insurance in one of the fashion mentioned above.  It is true that charging shipping insurance covers you for the risk of your goods getting lost in transit.  But you may decide based on experience that your particular mail carrier is an extremely reliable one with a good record of delivering goods safely and timely.  Your track record with the carrier may show you that the goods getting lost or damaged during transit is a rare eventuality.  You may feel that not charging a consumer shipping insurance and hence keeping your overall shipping rate low is a far greater advantage than the minimal risk that you have to undertake in the unlikely circumstances when you carrier uses of damages the goods in transit.  You may feel that not charging shipping insurance and keeping the shipping rate low encourages more buyers to buy from you and increases the sale for your business overall. In such circumstances you may decide it is more prudent not to charge shipping insurance.

In these circumstances you may also make the shipping insurance are optional feature for the shopper to use.  This is a good policy as the cautious buyers will feel more secure shopping with you.  The only disadvantage is that it may have a psychological effect on certain buyers. They may feel that the shipping is a risky option.  Such buyers may get discouraged from shopping.

Making shipping insurance mandatory or cloaking it in the overall shipping rate is usually the case when the craft being shipped is expensive. It is also an advisable policy to undertake when shipping to locations where delivery is uncertain, erratic and unreliable.  Most of the businesses shipping items internationally either make shipping insurance mandatory for the customer or included in the general shipping cost.

Insure Your Home Business

Many of us overlook this fact while starting out. You may feel that you are only starting out small time and that you should conserve your capital for setting up your business. You may also feel that you do not need it as the inventory is small and can be left for later when your business grows some more. There is also that fact that no one really expects any mishap befalls their business and which is a perfectly normal way to think.
First of all you need to understand something about running a business, be it from home or other wise. There are certain rules that are the norm and one does not overlook. There are certain steps that one should adhere to even though they may seem to unnecessary at the time. Getting insurance for your business is just one of them. There are other principles as well such as Making A Business Plan, Planning Marketing Strategies, Determining Target Market etc. but these we will discuss in other writings.
There are three commonplace excuses that people think of for not getting insurance for your home craft business:
Your Business Is Too Small To Get Insured:
You may tell yourself that you do not need to get insurance for your home business just yet. You are just starting out and the business is small. That may be so. But if you expect the business to grow that nest time to get insurance for it is now. If you wait till the time that the business has grown, you may find yourself paying a higher premium. Although the premium depends on the cost of the inventory you are getting insured, the insurance company is more likely to make you favorable quotes if you have been their customer since the beginning with a good track record. The premium will keep increasing as the size of your business and the inventory grows. It is usually adjusted every year. But there are always special benefits for regular and old customers.
Insurance is expensive and you cannot afford it right now:
This is a misguided line of thought. When setting up a home business, you have to take all costs into consideration while making a financial plan. You are going to considering overheads costs of telephone, electricity, rentals etc. You insurance premium should figure in this plan. The sum of the insurance premium may seem like a lot when looked at individually but once it had been clubbed along with the other expenses of the business, it will simply become a part of it.
The best way to price a product is to try and offset all your over head costs in the costing of it. That is the only way you will be able to determine your net profits.
You do not need Business Insurance as you are going to be careful:

You are the optimistic. You do not believe that you need insurance for your home business as you are going to be careful. And since it is on your home, you feel it is doubly secure. The fact that running a business from home without having it insured can make the insurance on your home invalid as well. For example, if there is a theft, the insurance company can always argue that having a business at home increases the risk of threat because of the added inventory and stock that may be valuable. Insurance companies charge a premium based on the risk factor that they determine the lists for the asset. If you have not informed them of the business you are running at home they can well determine that you did not disclose the complete risk that they are undertaking to insure in the first place. And hence the insurance is void.
You can easily avoid this by informing your insurance company about the business that you run from home. Most of the time the company will be perfectly willing to insure your business along with your home by adding a small rider cleared already existing policy. This is probably will mean a much lesser premium for you as compared to taking an additional and individual policy for the craft home business.
As a final word, determine the rate that your company is willing to give you first your business insurance. If it is the same company as the one with which you have your own insured then they are likely to give you a good rate. But if you are not completely satisfied with the quotation feel free to look around with other insurance companies. If you do manage to find a lower rate you can even go back to your home insurance company and see if they are ready to match it.

Is Your Craft For a Home Business A Profitable One?

Making art and crafts is an art form. Like any other art form that sells like painting, sculpting, photography etc. you have the potential for turning your craft making into a profitable business as well. But you already knew that, didn’t you. You must have seen several craft businesses flourishing around you. There are so many artifacts available for sale by various artisans in shops, malls and online stores. There are huge fairs and craft shows happening all the time all across the country that prove the popularity of art and crafts with the American people. Is your craft an item that the people will love or appreciate? There are two main features appeals to people in a craft. One is that if usefulness whiles the other is that of attractiveness. If you feel that your craft fits the bill then you can have your very own home craft business concept at your disposal.

What you need to do first of all is try and get an opinion and a report of how people perceive your craft. You can easily do this by asking your close friends and family. Showcase you crafts to them informally and gauge their reactions. Ask for opinions only from the people whose judgment you trust. It is important to see other people’s perception as one’s own perception of their own work can often be tainted and biased towards favoritism.
Next try and determine the marketability of the craft.

This can again be done informally by offering your craft for sale to friends and family or contacting some local craft shops to see whether they are interested. You can survey the crafts that are popular and being sold in craft stores and malls. Your craft business can only succeed if the craft has selling potential. Many people decide to start their business with a craft that is established and is has a good selling record.
Third and finally, determine the price you could sell the craft for. You could look around the craft market and even on craft stores online to get an idea of what prices people are charging for similar items.

The price that you can sell your craft determines the profit and your overall income. The net profit has to be well worth the time, effort and the cost involved in making the craft. While the craft may well be a potential selling item, it is quiet possible that the net profit that you can hope to earn with it is not worthy of the enterprise.
Turning your hobby into a business and that too a home based business can be a bliss. Many people dream of doing just that. You can start it as part time and as it grows, pursue it full time. What can be better than being self reliant with a self owned business doing what you love and are passionate about.

Important Aspects Of Home Business

If you are not satisfied with the overall success of your home business then its time to go over some important steps that you might have missed. These steps apply to both regular business from home as well as online businesses on the Internet.

1) Are you being able to give the business enough time?
2) Are you generating enough leads?
3) Do you have a good business plan including a marketing and a financial plan?
4) Is you marketing strategy effective?

Lets cover these aspects in short here.

Are You Being Able To Give Your Business Enough Time?
If you are running a business from home there are going to be plenty of distractions. You are removed from the controlled workspace of an office where there is the conducive environment and infrastructure of working. You should know that you need to create an environment as close to a business model as possible even though you are working from home. You should have office space, furniture and equipment that will help you work effectively and smoothly. It does not matter if this space is in an attic or a garage, as long as it is your work space where you can focus without disturbances from friends and family.

Are You Generating Enough Leads?

It is a commonly repeated statement that a consumer needs to see your product at least seven times before he or she notices it. It is commonly repeated because it is true. If you are advertising your business in any of the various ways, be it online on the internet or through the classified advertisements, you need to be collecting information from the people who are seeing your ads. There may be people who are visiting your online business website but leaving without buying or leaving any sort of information about themselves such as names, emails or telephone numbers. The same can be true for your offline store or business.

You are loosing a lot of leads in this manner. If you has means of contacting these people later with offers and deals, there is the potential of turning several of them in to paying customers. There are some good ways of getting people to leave information about themselves. You can offer discounts, deals, updates etc. We shall cover these in other writings.

Do You Have A Good Business Plan?

Every business including a home based craft business needs to have an effective business plan. We shall discuss the business plan more in detail later but essentially a business plan is a strategy for succeeding. It lists out the steps that you are going to take to make the home business work. It tells you where you are headed and the results that you can expect. Even before you start, having a business plan will let you know how much financial capital you need and how much earnings you can expect from your venture. You can set target goals for yourself and devise and effective marketing policy in order to achieve this.

If you do not have a business plan, it is time you made one. Without one you are floundering and wasting a lot of time and effort. Many hurdles that you may blunder in to in the future will become apparent beforehand enabling you to adapt effective strategies to avoid them.

In short, a business plan should be comprised of :

Company Plan

Marketing Plan

Financial Plan.

View A Detailed Report On Making A Business Plan .

Determining The Demand Of Your Craft

It is with no great stretch of the imagination that one can say that the success of a craft home business depends on what you make and sell. When deciding upon a craft assemble for your home business, it is common to go in one of the two ways. You can either choose to make a craft that is a popular and an already established craft in the market. The second choice is to launch a completely novel and creative concept. People usually take one of these options as both of them have their own advantages in claiming the market share. What are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing to produce an already established product or making an entirely new one, we shall discuss in another writing. For now let us concentrate on how you should determine the demand for your craft product for either of the two scenarios.

Choosing a Time-Tested and Established Craft As a Product of Your Home Business

for someone starting a craft home business it seems favourable to start with making a product that has already been successful in the market. One may feel that a product that already has a good track record will make for a successful business enterprise. Presuming that your particular craft will sell because it has a high demand and supply cycle may prove to be the serious error on your part. You should stop to consider the following points:

1) has the market already been saturated with the demand and supply? It may be true that the craft is highly in demand. But it may also be equally true that this high demand is already been met with a high number of manufacturers. That may well mean that there is no room for you as an additional manufacturer in the market.

2) is your craft in any way better or different than the existing versions? Since the demand and supply for the particular craft has existed for some time it is natural to presume that most of the buyers already have loyalties to various manufacturers and businesses making that craft. Is there any great that you can make your craft better or different in order to entice this existing customer base away from other businesses?

3) finding new customers is easier than winning over the existing ones. You will need to figure out whether there is a potential for new buyers entering the market or not. It is easier to find new customers for your business rather than get existing ones to switch over from their current providers. The success of your home craft business will depend on an increasing customer base rather than one that is static and indulging in repeat orders from their favourite businesses.

Choosing a Unique Craft for Your Home Based Business

having our completely novel idea for a craft as a home business has its own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the demands that you can generate for it. While you may well feel that your idea is a wonderful one and one that will generate a lot of interest, whether it actually does or not is a matter of speculation. On the flip side, you have the entire market to target as there is no other craft existing like yours. So they all can be potential customers. Do not plunge blindly into launching your home business without first researching the market for your craft concept.

The best way to determine whether your craft idea has marketability or not is to conduct the little research and survey on your own. You can either contact other local craft businesses and asked them whether they would be interested in retailing your product. The idea behind this is not to supply your product to other craft businesses but to gather opinions from other seas and business owners and learn from their experience. You can run a small tester through your friends and families and see how much they appreciated it.

There are two factors that determine the marketability of a craft product. In case you are coming up with a novel concept for your craft business you should keep these both in mind.

1) usefulness: try to determine whether people will find some usefulness to your craft. Your close friends and families can be important allies in gathering opinion about this feature. It is said that people determine what they want to buy based on what the want and what they need. People always buy what they need first and then move on to what they may want. It is always better to be selling something that people need rather than what they want. Shopping for something people want is always a matter of choice which they may decide for or against. But if a person needs something, the likelihood is that he or she will try and get it.

The usefulness feature of a craft caters to the need aspect of the shopper's mindset.

2) attractiveness: whether or not your craft has usefulness to its features it needs to be aesthetically pleasing to the shoppers. The attractiveness on its own can be a complete factor determining the sale of your craft. Making craft is also a form of art and what sells most as art form is whatever is aesthetically pleasing to the person interested in buying it.