Thursday, February 21, 2008

How to Find New Craft Shows

Part of the success of a small business is having the flexibility to try new things and adapt to new conditions. For me this year this means doing more craft shows so I get to travel around the country more.

So I thought I’d share some craft show listings to help you find new craft shows to explore.

Craft show directories online include:

Craft Fairs Online

Craft Site Directory

Indie Craft Show Directory

Craft Fair Directory

Craft Lister

Jewelry Displays for Craft Fairs

If you’ve been wondering how to make your jewelry craft show best sellers check out our jewelry display stands for great ideas.

For me the question of how to display beaded jewelry at a craft fair was easily solved by using these easy to display, setup and packup earring holders and jewelry display stands.

All the best with your Craft Shows!

Best wishes,
Belinda

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Friday, February 15, 2008

More Craft Business Building Books for Your Success

Well I got caught up in the searching around for books so here are some more books about selling your craft, making a business from your craft, business basics and lots of useful information.

Remember, support other independent businesses and get your books from independent book shops, not big corporate giants - spend your money powerfully with small businesses. :)

Here are some more craft books for you to explore:

Start And Run a Profitable Craft Business by William G. Hynes ISBN 1551800713

How To Sell What You Make by Paul Gerhards ISBN 0811724360

Crafts and Craft Shows: How to Make Money by Philip Kadubec ISBN 1581154704

Crafting As a Business by Wendy Rosen  ISBN 0806985534

Cash For Your Crafts by Wendy W. Rosen and Anne Childress  ISBN 0801989175

Handmade For Profit by Barbara Brabec ISBN 0871319950


Click here to see our dragonfly jewelry and earring stands as well as lovely butterfly jewelry designs.

All the best with your craft business!

Kind regards,
Belinda

http://www.CreativelyBelle.com/design - join our free email newsletter for free business articles, ideas from another creative business owner and your chance to WIN a $50 Gift Voucher for online jewelry shopping - they make great jewelry gift ideas too!

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Showing Off Your Jewelry

Something I love about presenting my handmade jewelry designs at Craft Fairs, Wedding Expos, Jewelry Parties and Jewelry Shows is having all my work around me on full display. I know this sounds obvious but the key is I love what I do and playing with the beads. I find it very satiating having the beaded earrings, necklaces and bracelets all displayed around me.

I love making jewelry I find beautiful and I think this is true for all of us who create - whether that creation is jewelry, sewing, quilting, weaving, scrapbooking, whatever it is we make we do it because we love it.

Because I make my business from selling my work presentation is very important for me. If my jewelry is poorly displayed then my sales are down. If well presented then my sales are up. It is very simple.

At a charming regional art co-op I love to visit the jewelry member has her work under lock and key hidden behind a wire security screen. It looks ugly and tells you to go away and stay away. Now she is wondering why her sales are non-existent. The answer is blindingly simple - the wire is ugly and gives a really negative message to potential customers.

Click here to See Available Jewelry Display Stands

These beautiful wire frame dresses are French designed and are great for show casing your earrings and jewelry.

Her concern is about having her work stolen. By using a locked glass cabinent she could securely show off her creations and sell pieces.

For me I use jewelry display stands to show off my jewelry creations. They are carry multiple pairs of earrings, are easy for customers to pick up and look at the jewelry and are appealing in their own right.

I have a really simple system for carrying the earring stands with all their earrings on them so it is easy for me to quickly setup as well as packup after a jewelry showing - always important but I think having systems for your business is also vital but more on that in other articles.

I started using jewelry display stands at home years ago because I find it very satisfying to have beautiful jewelry around me. I would always find places where I could buy one - this usually involved kindly and politely pestering the jewelry shop owner until she would sell me an earring tree - so I built up my display at home. It was so much easier having my favorite earrings out on display so I could pick them out first thing before work quickly and easily.

For me using jewelry display stands for presenting my jewelry creations was just logical and luckily it also put me ahead of my show competitors because I knew where to buy beautiful display stands when they were still using flat display boards and picture frames covered with wire (seemingly practical but hard for customers to easily use).

So when you are preparing for showing off your creative designs have a good think about creative and beautiful ways to display your work - whether this be at home or at a retail location.

Look around both online and at shops and galleries at what others are doing for displaying similar goods. For fabric creations like quilts, shawls and scarves often a simple white painted bamboo ladder is really effective. It looks good, is space efficient and light to carry.

For creating different heights on tables for display you can use a plank of wood supported by two small plastic containers covered in fabric. This gives you storage space under it at a craft show while giving you spacial structures for display.

By looking around with an interested eye you will find all manner of different ideas that are easy to use. Remember, keep it simple and effective.
Smiles
Belinda

www.CreativelyBelle.com/design - join our free email newsletter and be the first to know about new bead gem handcrafted jewelry stone designs and launches!

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Thursday, February 7, 2008

7 Top Tips for Running a Successful Craft Show Competition to Build Your Customer List

Building a good quality customer database list is the goal for all growing businesses and a key reason why we get out there at craft shows and fairs all year round. I know for me capturing customer contact details is crucial for creating and maintaining a strong business relationship. So I have worked hard on finding the best methods for my creative business to increase my customer list at every type of expo I attend.

So I thought I would share with you what I have learned over the last few years. I find running competitions and sweepstakes to be the easiest way to gain attention and be given contact details at a craft fair, jewelry show or bridal expo for my email newsletter list.

1. Be generous with your prizes. I give away 3 x $50 Gift Vouchers at my bridal expos and craft shows that can be redeemed at my online jewelry store. The gift voucher lets the customers choose what they want and lets you make offers across your product range.

I find having multiple prizes with the prospect of improving the chances appeals to more people than simply having one big prize - people like good odds.


Display Your Jewelry with these great earring holders!

2. Make it easy for people to enter the sweepstake. I have 4 clipboards with plenty of competition entry sheets and a working pen. There are times at a busy jewelry show when they are all in use. These are more likely to be shows that I am attending to build brand and customer lists that have lower over the table sales. For me the database is the main reason for attending the show and I have a team of us actively (and politely) approaching people with our flyer and competition offer.

For shows with high sale turnover I offer the competition to all shopping customers as well as having 2 competition entry boards at either end of the table. I still give out as many flyers as I can at these shows.

3. Have the sweepstakes entry sheets easy to see. I use pink A4 sheets at my wedding expos and jewelry shows. This way I can see them easily at the expo and back at work when they are being typed up. As a sheet is filled up I put it out of view, usually under the table, so people don’t see a stack of competition competitors.

4. Have plenty of good quality pens so if one stops working you can replace it quickly. You want decent quality pens so it is easier to read the entry details. Pens are not where you need to be cheap when it comes to being able to clearly read competition entries and building a quality database.

5. Let your customers write their details in peace so you get improved accuracy with the specifics. When someone is distracted something suffers and you want accurate details, not illegible or incorrect details. Wait until after then have finished writing to go through your sale spiel.

6. Let people know that the clearer the handwriting the better the chances of winning. What is the use of having the good fortune to have your name chosen only not to find out about it because your email address was so hard to read it was typed up incorrectly and you never get the email telling you about your success? Tell customers how to improve their chances and you get a better quality database.

7. Announce the winners of the competition in an email newsletter that show cases your products and services. I have pictures all through my email newsletter that link directly deep into my online jewelry store so customers can shop online with me easily.

There are a heap of email newsletter services and for me I found mine by joining a few newsletter lists that I liked the look of the business to find out how they did their newsletter and who with. So do your research by signing up to some free email newsletters, they can be of various products and not always related to yours. I found it best to sign up to ones that I liked the way they did business in the first place.

I hope you find lots of success for your business by building your customer database list and regular communicating. I find email newsletters to be far more effective for my business because of the shear affordability of sending emails rather than printing and postage costs. But more on that later in a sister article.

All the best,
Belinda

Visit my online jewelry store today at www.CreativelyBelle.com

Posted by Belle at 09:56:24 | Permalink | Comments (1) »