Creative Tenacity: The Importance of a Great Display

Morning folks! I hope everyone’s month of May is chugging along nicely - I seriously cannot believe how fast this month has flown by! This month I decided to continue to talk more about craft fairs. For most of us makers who sell at craft fairs, the season doesn’t really get into full swing until about May/June (maybe late April), so I feel like a second craft fairs related post is timely for most. 

Today I want to focus on one main topic: effective displays. Such an important and nuanced part of selling your work at craft fairs!

Your display matters at least as much as the quality of the product you are selling. Without a great display you’re going to have a difficult time pulling customers into or up to your booth as they walk along, taking in many points of visual stimuli at once. Your display needs to be pleasing to the eye, but also needs to make sense with your brand. Sometimes a great display will actually be rather simple, as that can be the best way to let the items shine.

When I put my display together at craft fairs, I often think of the fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, who was known to say “The eye has to travel.” You need to give your audience various points of visual interest so if the first thing their eyes land on is not to their liking, they can naturally find something else of interest to take in. To put it much more simply: create layers of height and depth in your display! There are many different ways to do this, from commercial risers that you can buy, to a basic cardboard box or container hidden underneath a table cloth, to more interesting elements like old trunks, and wooden fruit boxes. Obviously, I am most adept at creating displays for jewelry, but the basic concept of creating height and layers to a display can apply to most any product. 

I belong to the SF Etsy team, and one of their wonderful members (Lisa Spinella of Tickle and Smash) has put together a Pinterest board that has a lot of great inspirational photos to help you out with display ideas if you’re not sure where to start. Another great place to look is through the online photo albums that various craft fairs will put together and make avaible to the public after an event has passed. Renegade, West Coast Craft, and Urban Air Market are just a few great ones. When you look at photos of others’ displays I encourage you to take inspiration from these great displays and make it your own. Just as we, as artists, do not want to copy others’ work or have our work copied, to blatantly copy another’s booth display is not the best idea either. You also want your display to make a mark, and if you look too much like other vendors, you will loose this great opportunity to form a lasting memory in people’s mind.

Creating a beautiful display doesn’t have to cost a lot either. My display has evolved over the years, but early on I simply used cardboard boxes of varying heights hidden under pretty cloths or tablecloths to create different heights and layers in my display. 

Another important part of your display will be your pricing. Specifically, making your pricing easy to find and read and understand. Whether you choose to price each item individually, or create price signs for items that are all the same price, is up to you. The easier you make it for your customer to find the prices and understand them the more likely your customer is to stick around and look for a while and hopefully buy. Many customers want to be able to compare and shop around through your display, selecting an item or items that fit two categories: fall into their budget and are pleasing to their tastes. If they have to ask over and over again what the price is on an item, they will often loose interest and venture elsewhere. If you’ve priced everything clearly and someone still asks for the price on an item, always respond politely! I tend to reply by saying something like this: “That necklace is $40. And if you’re wondering about the price on any other necklaces, just look for the gold tag on the chain.” I’ll then point out the prices and mention something like “it’s easy to miss these!” Basically I do everything I can to make the customer NOT feel stupid for asking about the price. I can’t tell you how many vendors will simply reply, vaguely about the price being on the tag leaving the customer to feel like they were an inconvenience. I don’t think I need to say this, but your customer is not an inconvenience!

You also want to think about creating a space for any promotional or branding materials you may have. Business cards, flier or postcards for other upcoming events you may have scheduled, and a newsletter sign up form all fall into this category. 

Overall I find it helpful to look at your display as your main way to communicate the essence of your brand. It is the thing that people will notice before they notice your product as they meander through busy events. And it is often the thing that will either draw them in, or make them decide to walk the other way. Also of import: clear signage indicating what your business’s name is. This is twofold: as you develop a following people may come out to events specifically looking for you. And two, you want people who like your work to remember you. Clear brand signage will make that much much easier. 

I want to wrap this post up by emphasizing oner thing: you can always change it up! If at the first event you venture out to, you find that your display does not work for you the way you need it to, then dedicated yourself to trying something else at your next event. (This is good advice regarding any area of your handmade business: you can always change whatever it may be if it's not working the first way your conceived of it!)

Good luck in all of your craft fair adventures this craft fair season! Now I'd love to hear from you guys - what's been an effective displaying technique for you? What really hasn't worked? I'd also love to hear any of your fun or unusual craft fair stories in the comments below. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Creative Tenacity: Attitude, Mind-set, and Craft Fairs

Morning you guys! I’m happy to be back with my next addition of Creative Tenacity! Thanks to everyone who read my first post and commented, emailed me, or just said “thank you.” I do hope that this series is resonating with people. Writing it is also eye-opening and expanding for me, as it gets me reflecting on my own way of handling things, and how I might be able to do things better with Tangleweeds in the future. 

I decided to move into arts and crafts fairs with this next post as it’s an area I have a lot of background with. Long before I started Tangleweeds I had a small handmade jewelry business called Designs By A Hummingbird. I also sold at craft fairs under my first business, and while it was also jewelry, it was a very different type of jewelry. I feel like these two different businesses helps to give me a well-rounded perspective on events. (With all of that said, this is of course all from my perspective and my perspective alone and is in no way an exhaustive, all encompassing account of everything you need to know about craft fairs!)

There is also SO MUCH to cover in this arena! I’m only going to cover a section of topics related to craft fairs in this post. More will come in later posts in this series. 

Choosing An Event

Choosing your events can be much like a game of chance. It’s pretty much impossible to know if an event is going to be a good fit for you until you try it. Yes, you can ask fellow artists and vendors for their experiences, yes you can walk the event and get the lay of the land before you apply (for the following year or season), yes you can google the shit out of the event and look at an endless array of photos from the event, analyzing and picking apart if you think your brand will be a “good fit.” Ultimately all of this will only give you a relative idea if the event will be profitable for you. 

I have done events that should have been hugely successful only to find that my sales were mediocre, and I have done events that were small and new and in a weird location and done fairly well. My advice on choosing events basically boils down to this: If you want to try out an event, do your homework and look into it by all means, but you really need to DO IT in order to know anything about it. You of course will need to assess the risk factors: How much does the event cost? Is there travel involved? Will you be okay if the event is a complete bust and you don’t even make back your booth fee? These are important questions to ask yourself and should always inform your decision to do an event or not. 

As an aside - initially, in the beginning, you will need to be prepared to do events and not make a profit. You will be in the initial “figuring it all out” stage and you will be learning a lot. Sure, there are brands and products that do amazingly well from day one, but you should be prepared for the possibility that this is not how it will go. (Enter: the day job or side job!) The more you set yourself up to be okay with taking risks the more room you are going to have to grow with your handmade work and your business. An example: in general I find that while it may be scary to put down $300+ for an event, these are typically the events that make the most money for me. I know this sort of craft fair price tag is a bitter pill to swallow in the beginning, but oftentimes, the more expensive events are the ones that really bring in the buyers and sales. There are EXCELLENT smaller and less expensive events as well, nothing is absolute! 

As far as finding out about events goes, there are many ways. One of the easiest is to join your local Etsy team and ask others in your group about events they would recommend. Also, one way that I will search for events online is to simply Google the name of a particular city I would like to do an event in along with the words “holiday craft fair” or “summer arts and crafts fair” or something similar. This is a good way to expose yourself to new events that you haven’t heard of, and it’s always a positive to try a new locale, especially if you feel like the locales you have tried have not responded that well to your work.

Attitude, Mind Set and Unsolicited Advice

This is an area that I really wanted to cover, as I think it’s one of the most important and possibly the most elusive when you’re first getting started selling your work, and especially at in-person events like craft fairs or other pop-ups. 

In general, craft fairs and other shows are A LOT of work and can be both physically and mentally draining. But there are things you can do to alleviate some of the stress and make for a more fulfilling experience, regardless of how the event goes sales-wise.

Before I talk about attitude, a bit about my experience selling at events: When I first got started selling at events I felt so incredibly awkward. Everything from the load-in, to creating the display to talking to customers about my work was stressful and anxiety producing. It was all too easy tolet how I did financially at an event affect how I felt about myself. That is a terrible spot to be in.

But I kept at it for months and then years until I go to the point where it all started to fall into place and at times even feel effortless. I am now at a place in my life where I can sincerely say I LOVE doing events. That love has come from years of culling together knowledge from my lived experiences. 

Basically my point: if you’ve had a few terrible events, try to learn from it. I bet there are ways you can make events in the future more fulfilling and worth your time. In the meantime, here are some of my suggestions for doing just that. . . 

1. This bit has served me very well over the years. Treat everyone who comes into your booth or up to your table at an event as if it does not matter if they buy something. In other words: treat them with respect, act genuinely interested in connecting with them, and be nice! Now, obviously it helps to WANT to do these things. Because if you’re being nice just to be nice or following this advice because you think you should that’s all going to come through and you’re going to come across as fake and kind of plastic-y. 

For me, I look at events as a way to connect with people. I truly enjoy this part about events. Yes, some folks are going to be not so nice, or say slightly rude things, but this is true in every aspect of life. You shouldn’t let it scare you away form craft fairs. I’ve met some wonderful people at events, and I don’t honestly think I would be able to connect with folks in the same way if all I saw when they walked into my booth was a giant dollar sign above their head (or two or three dollar signs =)

2. This next part is going to happen to you at least once in a while and can be a tricky topic to navigate: the unsolicited advice. (insert dramatic, tense music here) Yes, there are going to be customers who think they know what your next product should be, how much something should cost, how you should display things differently, and so on and so forth. In the beginning I think this kind of advice would rankle my nerves so much because I was filled with a lot of self-doubt about what I was doing. It was easy for me to see other people, having what they thought was a better idea about how I should be doing things, as a threat.

Now, when someone has advice for me while I’m at an event I try to respond politely but in a way that makes it clear that I know what’s best for me/Tangleweeds. (Because at this point in my trajectory I do!) I will say something like “I hadn’t thought of that, I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future.” I think it’s important to clarify something here: it’s not about placating someone, but rather remembering that most everyone means well. When I used to work in coffee shops and had to deal with problem customers, I tried to remind myself that everyone is doing the best that they can at any given moment. Sometimes someone’s best is going to rub us the wrong way. In the end, just remember that it’s you making the decisions about your product and your biz at the end of the day, and let the suggestions and advice roll off you like water on a duck’s back. 

3. Which brings me to my last section about attitude and mind-set and that’s talking about your work/product. This is where listening to your customers, even the ones who don’t buy anything, and taking in that well meaning “advice” as graciously as you can is really going to pay off. 

When I first started selling at events, I was super nervous talking about my work. I usually didn’t try to strike up a conversation with a customer unless they initiated one first. As you can imagine, my sales weren’t that great at many of my early events. Over time though, as I listened to the people who would come into my booth and paid attention to how they were describing my work as they spoke to me or to there friend/shopping buddy, I started to see my work through the customers’ eyes, which started to illuminate the talking points for me. 

Obviously you’re going to want to filter out the outliers and the bits of feedback that are idiosyncratic to one person and one person only. But over time you will notice over-arching themes that you can begin to incorporate into how you talk about your item. 

As an example: One thing that I started to notice when my customers would try on my earrings was how many people commented in a complimentary way about how lightweight they were. I quickly came to realize that this was a huge selling point as many women (myself included) don’t want heavy earrings weighing down their ears. I was so close to the work that I didn’t realize that something I was intentionally doing (making earrings that were by design lightweight) was an important talking point with my customers. . . at least I didn’t realize it until they made me see it! 

If you’re really wanting some initial talking points though, and don’t want to go into your first event with nothing to say, my recommendation is to start with the obvious and remember that customers most likely know little or nothing about your work when they walk up. Saying something as simple as “I make all of this (jewelry, ceramics, pillows, etc.) myself in my home studio in San Francisco” opens many doors for conversation. You’ve just clarified for your customer that yes, your product is handmade and (if the event is in the SF bay area) you are local as well. Other good talking points:

• point out your current favorite design and why (the back story) OR point out your newest designs
• talk very briefly about why you started making what you make (keep it simple because you don’t want to overwhelm the customer)
• tell the customer that they’re welcome to try anything on/pick anything up to have a closer look
• mention any sales or promotions that you may be having
• and always remember to say “hi” or “good morning” or something else simple when they walk   into your booth/up to your table. Acknowledging their presence is a HUGE plus and amazingly something that many vendors simply don’t do. 

If you can keep some of the above points in mind, I think you will find events to be a fulfilling and rewarding experience, even if they don’t start out initially as profitable as you might like. I do acknowledge that craft fairs and other events of this ilk will not be a good fit for everyone’s brand and product, but I do think that you have to give events everything you’ve got before you can safely say that retail events are not right for your biz. 

On that note, I’ll wrap this post up! I know we’re moving back into fair season for many of us soon. Mine really starts to get underway in April, although I’ll have a couple of events in March. I’d love to hear what anyone else might have to say about how they keep a good attitude when they’re at a selling event. Feel free to leave a comment (or a question!) below. 

Happy Tuesday!

Creative Tenacity

If you follow me over on Instagram, then you already know that this year I’m going to be starting a regular series of blog posts geared specifically towards my fellow creatives who are looking to start selling their handmade goods! Helping others out in the small ways that I can is something I’ve been wanting to incorporate into Tangleweeds for quite some time now, and this blog + Instagram seemed like a great way to do it. 

I’m going to cover the areas of running a small handmade biz that I feel the most equipped to offer advice on. Topics will range from the specific to the more broad, touching on such aspects as finding success at craft fairs, resources for inspiration and motivation, vendor etiquette, taking the leap into wholesale, building and finding a creative community that supports you, and so much more.

I’m excited to offer this to my creative followers and readers of this blog!

Before I offer up my first serving of creative advice though, I want to dispel any notions my readers may have that I am an all-knowing, all-seeing, have all of the answers at the tips of my fingers creative biz-wiz lady. ‘Cause you were thinking that, right ;-)? In all seriousness, I want to offer up my perspective because I think that it may be helpful to some other folks out there struggling to sell their handmade work. And because helping others feels great! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how many of us, especially women, love to help others out, but when it comes to asking for help for ourselves we’d often rather walk around in the dark, stubbing our toes on things and bumping into who-knows-what rather than admit we need help. I am a work in progress when it comes to admitting I need help, but one thing I have found to be true is that the more I offer assistance to others and see them benefitting from it (and not keeling over dead because they asked for it) the more I’m able to ask for help myself. 

I also think that we all have our own unique perspective and vision that is unlike anyone else’s. Being a millennial I grew up with the notion that we are all “unique snowflakes” and that idea has been torn apart and made fun of in many a social media “news” article, but I think there is some truth to that. How many times have you met someone, someone who you had made certain assumptions about, or over-simplified in your head, only to discover that the subtle nuances and unique attributes about that person are like no one else? I may be going a little astray with that tangent, but my main point is to say, the more us creative entrepreneurs share what our path looks like, and how we got to where we are, the more clear it becomes for others. So much of this handmade economy is rather new, lending to a “walking around in the dark” feeling to many of us when we first set off down this twisty road. And while my path isn’t going to look exactly like anyone else’s path, sharing my experiences and the knowledge I’ve gleaned from the last 7 and 1/2 years of running Tangleweeds may help someone else out with a problem or tough spot they may be in.  

My first helpful-advice post will go up on January 31st. In the meantime I’m combing through my own notes and listening to what others would like to hear more about. If there’s a specific topic you’d like more info on, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll endeavor to make it a part of the topics I cover in 2017. 

In the meantime, I hope everyone’s new year has been off to a good start. With so many different types of energy swirling around in all of our day-to-days, I know it can sometimes be difficult to maintain focus and vision on a creative business. I hope this little blog here helps a few of you out along the way! #creativetenacity

On the Importance of Self Care

This past weekend I vended at the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival (HMB). It was a wonderful event, but even wonderful things can be exhausting! The couple of weeks leading up to it were pretty packed too, with lots of prep for the event itself, but also with just the usual melange of stuff that life throws at us. Several times leading up to HMB I found myself wishing I could take some time off. 

I've worked for myself long enough now to know that when I start wishing for a few days off, it usually means I need to take a few days off. To be clear, every time I fancy a vacation or a couple of slow days I don't automatically schedule in time off from work. Rather, I'm talking about when I find myself coming back over and over again in my head to the simple thought "I need some time off," I know I need to take heed of this. Often, to not listen to these wishes of my mind and body, means getting sick or just getting so run down that the work I do produce is done inefficiently or poorly. 

When I talk about these small breaks with some of my fellow handmade small biz owners, they often look at me incredulously and say something like "I wish I could take days off." I'm here to say "Yes you can!" I know there are probably a thousand and one reasons ringing through your head about why it's just not possible, but I encourage you to find a way to make it possible.

In mulling over the thought threads for this blog post I thought about creating a bullet-point list of things to do to prepare you for a few days off, but then I decided I'd just write about what I do, and how I go about making the days off possible. For each and every person it's going to be different. We all have different personalities and styles along with businesses that require very different levels of involvement and dedication. 

Here's what I do to make time off a reality. . . 
To start, I often don't plan this kind of time off ahead of time, or at least not much. It is usually in response to that internal voice I mentioned above that insists I need some rest. Usually I take at least three days off, but not more than 4 or 5. I want the time off to feel more refreshing than just a weekend, but not so much that I fall too much behind on work. 

I usually set an intention to keep up on one aspect of the business, and usually this is the aspect that causes the most stress if I fall behind on and that's EMAIL. Now, to clarify, this means I am only staying on top of the email coming in to my inbox. I am not generating any new email by reaching out to wholesale customers, applying to new events, or anything that would take my initiative to make happen. I am simply staying on top of what can quickly become an avalanche if not dealt with daily. 

The second thing I do is keep a running list of the things that pop into my head regarding work and my everlong to-do lists, while I'm taking a a few days off. Doing this is my way of mentally setting aside work to make room for the time off. 

Thirdly, I make sure that the days off are not planed when I have a bunch of deadlines on things due. I've accidentally done this in the past and basically ended up having to "cancel vacation" to rush back to my studio on the second day when I realized that three orders had to go out that day. For example, I REALLY wanted to take these days off last week. But I knew if I did that I'd be ill-prepared for HMB. So I promised myself the days off this week, and in that way also rewarded myself for all of the hard work put into HMB.

And, lastly, I don't plan a whole heck of a lot for this time. I might start a new weaving project, or fix something broken at home that's been long neglected, or cook some real meals. I also don't plan many trips. For me I find that the time is most rejuvenating when I'm able to slow down and simply go with the flow for a few days. Sometimes that flow isn't very productive, and sometimes that flow is lots of little projects at home. It's usually a good dose of solitude though, something I often crave when my life gets a little too busy. For me, I flourish in the lack of plans because my life is, for the most part, pretty planned out on the daily in large part to keep Tangleweeds thriving. (You might be the kind of person who wants a lot of plans during a few days off, cause it may keep you from worrying about work.)

I think the last thing I want to say is something I should have led with at the beginning: you NEED to take time off now and then as an entrepreneur. It will never feel like the "right time" and you will always have too much to do for the time allotted. My taking time off does not mean that I completely cleared my schedule and am blissfully without obligations regarding Tangleweeds this week. No, it simply means I prioritized the importance of some time off to rest and recover. . . and to possibly spend the whole day in my PJs =)

Thanks for reading this week! I'll be back next week with my next Tangleweeds Giveaway. . . 

This Life: It's Going To Be Tough

Back at the beginning of February I was interviewed for the Dear Handmade Life blog (run by the same lovely gals that put on the Patchwork Craft Fairs that happen throughout California.) One of the questions I was asked was: 

***What inspiring advice would you give to other creatives be they established or just starting out?***

photo from 10+ years ago when I had my first handmade jewelry business: Designs By A Hummingbird

Here's the answer I gave:

"The advice I’d give to creatives, whether just getting started or well established might be a bit unexpected: It’s going to be tough. Whether or not you’re trying to turn your creative passion into a business, it’s going to be a lot of hard work. It’s going to be amazing too, but sometimes the hard and difficult times will outweigh the shiny-bright-life-is-a-breeze times. I say this because I think it was the advice I needed the first couple years of going full time with Tangleweeds. I really thought I was doing something wrong because I didn’t wake up every morning thinking “gosh, my life is amazing because I get to work for myself!” So, if you’re waking up thinking “gosh, this is really HARD,” you’re not doing anything wrong, in fact you’re probably doing something really really right. It just takes some time for it all to start paying off."

I hesitated before I gave that answer, worried it would sound depressing or too negative or too much like I'm not over the moon grateful for the opportunity to be able to work for myself. But then I went ahead and gave that advice anyways, for the reason I stated above: it was the advice I needed when I first started out.

There is so much inspiring fodder, to be found on the internet, about people setting out and turning their creative passions into a successful business. I lapped that stuff up like an abandoned kitten when I was toiling away at my "day job" and trying to work on Tangleweeds in every spare moment I could find. By the time I left my day job to pursue Tangleweeds full time I was of the mindset that everything was going to be AWESOME, that I would find the time I needed to get EVERYTHING done, and that motivation and inspiration would stalk my EVERY MOVE as I went about my new life. 

Well, as any of you tried and true handmade business folks out there know, the reality didn't quite look like the dream. While I was toiling away at the day job I had painted such an overblown picture of what my life would look like when I finally got to work for myself full time that the let down was pretty severe. I had a long way to fall.

But here's the thing: (and one of those times where I see with hindsight that life really was watching out for me) I needed that dream, that rainbow filled sky of what my future would look like, in order to have the guts to leave my job. It was in part what propelled me forward and kept me focused on Tangleweeds even when things were growing at a snail's pace. 

The first two years of running Tangleweeds full time were really rough. So many times I wished I was one of those people who had a viable career to "fall back on" or another latent passion to pursue. There were times when I simply wanted the rest of my life to quiet the fuck down so I could focus on Tangleweeds 24/7. And there were the other times when I wanted to set a match to Tangleweeds and never look back. No joke (just ask my boyfriend, he can testify to this ;-)

Eventually though, through hard work and learning the fine art of "letting go", things started to coalesce in such a way that I actually started to LOVE my work again. I never stopped loving it, I had just become so overwhelmed by the initial stages of the business that I had stopped feeling the love. Yes, I absolutely still work just as hard as I did when I first started Tangleweeds six and a half years ago, but I've become better adept at setting things aside for REAL days off. I've also better learned how to accept what I have to give. Period. Usually things don't quite turn out the way I expect, whether that's a craft fair I'm selling at, a blog post I'm writing, or a new piece of jewelry that I'm designing. That's part of the art of what I'm doing. I can see that now, but it was really hard to see in the beginning.

Coming full circle here, I was prompted to write this post because of what a good friend told me the other day while we were having coffee out in Jack London Square. She said that the advice that I gave in that original interview has really ben helping her as she sets out on a similar journey with her illustration business. She also said that she passed the advice along to a fellow creative, someone on their own self-employment path, and that it helped him during a difficult spot as well. 

When my friend (hey Amy Rose!) told me how much my "advice" had helped her and a fellow friend, it really touched me . I share it here now in hopes that it might help another handmade business owner out when the road gets bumpy. Oh, and that topmost, and bottommost photos are from way back in the day (10 or so years ago) when I made my first go at a handmade jewelry business with Designs By A Hummingbird. It's fascinating to see where things have come from and where they have gone and to ponder where they might go.