7 Newbie Seller Mistakes

Starting a handmade business is daunting, exhausting, and confusing. You’re bound to make mistakes (and that’s okay!). But here are 7 common pitfalls you can try to avoid.

1. You listen to the people that say your prices are too high.

There will always be someone that wants it for cheaper… if you price based on how much money someone wants to spend, you might as well give it away for free.

Just as many people made comments about my “high prices” or asked for discounts when my dresses were priced at $25 (good god, what was I thinking?) as they do now that my dresses are priced at $125 and higher. I ignore them because generally, bargain shoppers aren’t my market.

polka dot swing dress by SmarmyClothes

2. You believe that raising your prices would scare away your buyers.

As I mentioned above- when I started out, I really was selling things for $15-25 a piece. I’ve steadily increased prices over the years, as I’ve grown more comfortable with valuing my time and my work. Raising prices has never EVER killed my sales.

I had a friend that was selling handmade corsets for $100. She should have been charging at least double that, considering the amount of work and attention to detail she put in. She was constantly swamped with orders, and one of the ways she was finally convinced to raise prices was that it might slow the orders down a bit. She raised her prices by $25 as an experiment. Her orders actually increased over the next few months, which was a bit of a mixed blessing. But at the very least, she was making a little more money to justify the long hours.

scared comic book girl earrings by SugarPlumRobots

Read more…

Setting Goals for your Handmade Business

It’s the time of year when everyone takes a look back at the past year and asks themselves, “What can I do better?” 

And while it’s natural (and good) to make your business goals part of that, it’s equally important to make sure the goals are reasonable. Setting unreasonable goals for yourself is a recipe for failure and disappointment.

A good goal should be:

  1. reasonable
  2. attainable (and by that, I mean it’s something in your control)
  3. proactive

 

Felt home decor flower by IngerMaaike

 

A common goal I see for handmade business owners is setting a milestone with sales. And while the milestone itself may not be unreasonable, I don’t like this kind of goal because there are too many variables that determine sales. And a lot of them are out of our control.Read more…

Super Deal! 500 business cards for free!

prod_businesscardOvernightPrints is offering 500 free business cards, all you have to do is pay the shipping!

This is a really good way to get hang tags for your product for free-  Get the cards printed with your logo, punch a hole in it, and then attach it to your goods.  Voila! High quality printed hang tags for cheap!

You could even get a smaller logo printed 2-3 times on one card to double or triple your savings, especially if you prefer smaller tags.

And of course, you could always just get them as business cards. I had some printed that can double as a business card and a hang tag.


High Quality Printing at Low Prices!