So, today, I challenge you to try something new. With the economy and sales the way they are you might have already realized that you might not have much to lose to go out on a limb.  Try something you’ve been meaning to try but haven’t felt ready to take the risk.  Here is what prompted me to encourage you in this direction today:

Create your own bead pen and letter opener.  As you know, people love to touch beads, and when they can touch, they are more likely to buy.  People also like to feel like they’re getting something special, or custom.  How many times do you get asked, “Do you have this in blue?”  This gives them the perfect opportunity to create their own.  This was a hit last weekend at my studio show.

Tips and Tricks for Interactive Sales:

1.  Make it affordable.  Customers are doing the work of building the piece, you just need to supply the components.   Make it worth their while.  In my pen display the blank pens and letter openers are $10 and beads are $2 each.  A pen averages $26-$32.  Not bad for a handmade gift that you had a part in creating.

2.  Variety. Make sure you have enough options but not so many that it is overwhelming.  Blue and black are popular so I have more of those out but only one of every other color.  When they sell, I replace them.  If there is too much out it is overwhelming to the eye.  Also, if you have say, ten of each color pen blank out it doesn’t look as ‘exclusive’.  They look a dime a dozen which cheapens the perception.

3.  Examples. Be sure to have finished examples to show customers what is possible.  You may also sell them as is, which is always fun because then you get to make more!

4.  Workspace. Make sure there is enough room so that your interactive station is not interfering with the rest of your show.

There are still people who want just the finished product.  Give them plenty of room to shop where they won’t be crowded by those who want to stand around taking their time creating a work of art.

5.  Packaging. Be sure to have gift boxes.  These are the types of items that should be affordable enough for gifts.  Hang tags telling a bit about you as the artist or the process is a nice touch for gift items too.  Make sure they have your contact information on them.

6.  Suggest uses. Since they’re affordable for gifts, help them see who would like them.  I know, I know, artists don’t like to hard sell or upsell.  But this is a perfect opportunity.  I like to point out that letter openers are great gifts for men, who you can’t always buy jewelry for.  Or, at this price, they’re a great teachers gift.  Or, for that person that has everything.

7.  Try it out. In this instance especially, these pens are so nice, give them an opportunity to see how smooth they write.  They’ll want one.

8.  Versatility. Explain how this isn’t a one-time gift.  You can change out the beads depending on mood or season.

9.  Encourage kids. Yes, I said it.  Encourage kids to touch and create.  Who can say no to a kid who has come up with something special for that special someone?  You might be surprised at how well kids do with this.

So, there are some of the reasons behind the interactive station I had at my show this year and why I think you might benefit.  This idea can be adapted to many things in the jewelry/bead world.  What about your medium?  How can you include the customer in the process?  Trust me.  It will draw them in, others will see the crowd gathered and wonder what is going on and people will talk.  If they love it, they’ll do the selling for you!

p.s.  If you want to have your own bead pen display, I get mine from Mark at the Bead Pen Group.  He is the creator and patent holder and has some other great beadable items you might want to incorporate into YOUR display.  (I don’t get anything for this endorsement, I just love the product).

I love Beads Galore.  It’s huge, it’s local, and they have great prices.  So, it won’t surprise you that, when I was alerted to this sale I was really excited.

Now YOU can experience them at 35% off, online, through the end of November.

And, did I mention that they have free shipping through the holidays to customers in the U.S.?  $1 to Canada and reduced shipping Internationally.

Check it out:

But anyway, today’s post is not about where I’ve been, but where I’m going and something that I think is going to be one of my most key instruments in keeping things streamlined.

In this day and age we are inundated with paper.  Credit card companies, utility companies and even our banks encourage going paperless and receiving statements by email.  That is a scary thing for most of us (possibly excluding newer generations coming up).  Piles of paper, even if they’ve already been processed, can be stressful for many business owners and individuals alike.  I know I get overwhelmed thinking about my filing and what DO I do with all of those cash register receipts?  ARRRRGH.  I feel a little anxious just typing about it.

But not anymore.  Enter NeatReceipts Digital Filing System.

Say goodbye to piles of paper that you keep “just in case you get audited” and really, you never look at it again.  Goodbye to bankers boxes of old statements that you think you need to hold onto for five years.  More space, less stress, I can already feel it.

I just got the small version for Mac and I can tell you that I already feel lighter and better.  It took a little figuring out to get it to recognize the drivers but I suspect that is because my version is for Mac.  The process involves inserting your paper into the streamline scanner, pressing scan, letting it do it’s magic and you are rewarded with a digital image stored on your computer (via the NeatReceipts software) in pdf form as well as key information being picked up and sorted/catalogued into a database that is easy to search and shuffle.

If you are inundated with paper and filing, you might want to consider this gadget.  I don’t get anything for this review, I’m just very happy and wanted to share it with you.

I originally found the link to this list at Rena Klingenberg’s blog.  Thanks Rena!

I started making beads in July, 2002 – so that would be 7 years now.

2.Did you start selling right away?

Not right away, but it wasn’t as long as I probably should have waited. After taking my first class, I started by apprenticing with Paulette Insall (who has moved on to painting), and after a couple of months I set up my own studio. I started selling early on in 2003.

3.Is there anything you can share about when you started to sell your beads?

Like many other newbie beadmakers, I took up selling really too early. It was partly due to necessity – we often have to sell in order to make the money needed to keep buying glass and such. But I admit to getting caught up in the idea that I was good enough to sell my work – a lot of people were asking me to. If I had to do it over I would wait a year or so before selling my beads – giving me time to perfect the basic techniques and find my artistic voice.

4. I have often linked to your article about selling on eBay. Thank you! Do you still sell on eBay?

Thanks for linking the article – I am glad you enjoy it!
I do sell on ebay still – but it’s not on a regular basis. I sell larger sets there when I want to kind of let everyone know I am still alive. Ebay is a great venue for getting your name out there, but it is not the ebay we once knew. The market has really changed over the years, and ebay is no longer the main place for beadmakers to sell. There are so many venues out there that are more geared toward the self-representing artists. Ebay gets the most traffic, though, so I keep a presence there.

5. What are your selling venues of choice? How has that changed over the years?

These days I prefer to sell beads on my website Lampwork.net, with the occasional ebay auction for larger sets. I sell tutorials on my other website, Coloraddiction.com, and also on Etsy.

Over the years, I have tried many different venues. Third party venues like Etsy, Artfire, Justbeads, Ebay and such are good for people who haven’t done a lot of online selling or are just starting out, because they help get one’s name out there and are not as much work as having one’s own website. Once I became a little more well-known, my website sales went up and I was able to concentrate on that as opposed to being on several other venues. I find that if I spread myself too thin I can’t keep up with more than just a couple of places.

I really like selling on my website because it eliminates the venue fees and I have more control. I’m kind of a control freak that way. LOL I do all of my own website creation and maintenance, and all of my own online marketing. It’s a lot of hard work, but really worth it.

6. Do you sell anywhere else?

Other than online sales, I have done a few shows here and there. I’d really love to do more shows though – we’ll have to see! I will probably wind up doing local shows to supplement my online sales. I did do the ISGB Gathering in 2008 and that was a blast – I highly recommend it.

7. Your colors are beautiful! How do you come up with such great combinations? Do you experiment a lot or is it natural for you now?

Thank you! Color is my main motivation and inspiration. The way glass transmits light is what drives me as a beadmaker. I have always loved color – it’s a blissful experience for me. It’s color rather than shape or design that gets me excited when making a set of beads.

Color combinations come to me in a variety of ways. Usually though it just comes when I happen to see color scheme in a magazine, in a store, in nature, on TV, in someone’s clothing – anywhere really. I am always thinking to myself, “okay, which glass color would that be and how can I get that combination?”. I even look at the colors of cars going down the street and automatically try to come up with the glass color that matches.

I also tend to spend a lot of time in the studio placing glass rods next to eachother to see what kind of emotional response they give me. I get a lot of ideas that way – spreading five or six rods out and trying to imagine them as a set.

By far the best place for color inspiration for me is a fabric, craft or yarn store. I could spend hours putting colors together in the local yarn store. I fall in love with color combinations every single day of my existence.

8. What advice would you give to someone new, wanting to create an online business?

I tell people all the time that making your art into an online business is very, difficult. It can be really rewarding, but it’s much more of a challenge than I ever thought it would be. You have to seperate your artistic self-worth and the monetary value of your art, otherwise it can be tough on your soul as an artist.

I also tell people that in order to succeed in a business, you have to love what you do. You have to give yourself time to fall in love with it and time for that love to come through in your art. That means giving yourself time to really learn the basic techniques so that your artisic voice is free to come out. Once that happens, your beads will sing with your voice, and more people will see value in that and will buy your work.

If you don’t love what you do, and you’re just in it for the monetary gain, you are less likely to succeed – because your beads will just have no soul. People really want beads that speak to them.

Once you reach that place where you are happy with your work, be prepared to really put a lot of effort into selling. Especially in these economic times – people are less likely to spend a lot on what might be thought of as an “extra”. You will need to go that extra mile in order to stand out in the competition. But don’t give up if it’s what you really love!

9. I know that you have experienced having your beads knocked off and designs sent over seas, as well as having your images stolen and used without permission. How have you dealt with that and what advice can you give to someone who might experience this in the future, or how to prevent it, if possible?

I still struggle with dealing with this. The toughest part is the emotional side – because when you love your art as much as I do, it’s part of your soul. And when people steal it to profit from it, it hurts. However, if you can somehow come to terms with the fact that in this industry it cannot be avoided, you’ll be okay. I’ve had to learn to just let some things go.

The best defense with this kind of thing is just to educate people about it. There will always be unethical companies and people out there, and the more we talk about it the better. Unfortunately these days there’s not a lot that can be done to prevent image theft or design theft. I have tried many many things – even contacting authorities and watermarking my images. There eventually comes a point where the benefits do not outweigh the effort made to try and stop these things, so you have to decide what to do when that happens.

I can’t tell others to not let it get them down, because I myself get down about it all the time. But what I can say is that no matter what, no one can take away your artistic voice.

10. I will be doing a review and holding a contest for your Simple Raised Flower Bead eTutorial on my Lori Greenberg blog…can you tell us a little about the process of writing a tutorial?

Tutorials are fun! Personally, I do my writing last. The first thing I do (well, after deciding which design I am going to turn into a tutorial) is make the bead I am writing about a few times while taking notes about each and every step. I then have my husband photograph each step while I am making the bead. He’s really good at it! I then edit the photos – and this takes the most time out of the whole process.

Lastly I write the tutorial from my notes and do the layout of the tutorial in my publishing program. The whole thing takes a couple of weeks because I tend to work on it intermittently while keeping up with other beadmaking and website sales.

11. Thank you Kandice!  Is there anything else you’d like to leave our readers with?

Mainly what I would like to say to people just starting out is this – There is now a lot of competition out there. Beadmaking is becoming more mainstream, so we all have to work even harder to stand out in the crowd. But if you put a lot of love in your work, have a little talent, and are willing to pound the pavement and learn about marketing and business, you can be successful.

Learn how to market online – there are a lot of free resources out there just by Googling. Learn to balance what you love with what potential customers are looking for.

Above all – be patient! Sales will come, but it does take some time.

You can find Kandice’s web site at www.lampwork.net, her tutorial site with fellow glass bead artist Kimberly Affleck at www.coloraddiction.com and her blog at www.coloraddictionblog.blogspot.com where she writes about glass colors, testing and color in general.  Make sure to see what she’s up to!

Table of contents for Using Social Media

1. How to use a Facebook to your advantage and not tick off your friends in the process.

Facebook is fun.  It is my social media of choice these days.  Not only is it a fun way to keep in touch with old friends, but it’s also a great way to make new friends and business contacts and to keep them informed.  In all my years of exploring chat rooms, online forums, usenet newsgroups, etc., facebook is the first experience where I’ve actually built friendships and connections effortlessly.

One thing I haven’t delved into more deeply are the Facebook Fan Pages.  I’ve received many requests to join them but haven’t created my own.  After reading John Jantsch’s article, 5 Tips for Getting More from Facebook, I am reconsidering the importance.  It’s a quick overview of fan pages, why you should have one and some of the ways you can use them.  To that, I’d like to add a few thoughts on the whole Facebook experience as a business owner…

1.  Be social.
It’s called SOCIAL networking for a reason.  Have fun and let your personality show (for the most part).

2.  Remember why you’re there.
If you are intending to use Facebook (or any social media) for business purposes, remember that your customers and potential customers will be reading what you write.  I use the same rules as I do for blogging.  You can read them at my article, This Will Go on Your Permanent Record…Conducting Yourself On-line.

3.  Don’t SPAM.
If all you do is share your new auctions and sales (without doing the regular social part) you will soon be filtered out or de-friended.  There are already enough ads on web sites (facebook included).  If you are social in between the sharing of your business info, you will be better received.

4.   Don’t Fake it.
Learn how to be social in a natural way.  Don’t pretend to be social just so you can get your business links out there regularly.  People will see through it, just like they can see through it when they’re considering real relationships face to face.

5.  Content.  (This could be a whole post on its own).

a.  Watch your mouth.
This is a sticky one to talk about.  I just told you to be social and now I’m going to tell you to censor yourself.  That goes against my beliefs, however, for business purposes I have to throw it in.  If  you read the article referenced in #2 above you’ll see what I mean.

b.  Try not to be boring.
If you are using facebook for business purposes, don’t bore your reader.  Don’t post just to have something up there.   I say, when blogging, not to talk about the weather, your kids or how busy you are.  On facebook it is ok, but don’t overdo it.  If you need to talk about the weather, your kids or how busy you are…be creative.  Don’t just say “it’s d@mn hot here.”  Come up with a witty comparison.  It’s all too easy to skip over boring status updates.  If you are boring, soon your friends will scroll right past your name even if you start to be entertaining.

c.  Don’t pontificate.
At least, not in your status update.  Keep it short and simple.  There is plenty of time to elaborate and explain once you receive a comment or two.  Short updates can be intriguing and therefore will provoke people to comment.  That is the social aspect of it and you want people to engage!

d.  Share your info.
Of course.  That’s what we’re talking about here.  Share links to your blog posts but don’t overdo it.  Again, be wise in what you share and don’t spam your friends.  Link to the most important, informative posts.  If you are being social on facebook, your friends will already have a glimpse into your daily life.  If they want to know more of the personal details they will subscribe to your blog.

e.  Share other info.
Again, facebook is about being social.  Give your friends something interesting, and that doesn’t always mean only YOUR content.  If you come across a cool video or article, share it.  DON’T just link to news stories because they’re there.  Link to stuff that interests you and shows your interests.  Note here:  if you link to controversial info you could alienate half of your friend/customer base.

f.  Quizzes and Games.
These are fun to do but please, change your settings to not publish every easter egg you find, how many cows you herd or how high of a score you got on word frenzy.  People really don’t want to know.  Clutter up the news feeds and that is another way to get yourself filtered or de-friended.

Is that enough to get started?  What else would you like to know about?  Do you use social networking?  Drop me a comment and pass this post on to your friends or share it on facebook!

Table of contents for Getting Started as a Full Time Artist

1. Getting Started – What you need to know – Part 1
2. Getting Started – Evaluation – Part 2

As you can tell from Part 1 of this series I am all about going into things with eyes open as wide as possible.  I like to know what I’m getting into and if I’m cut out for it.  Part 2 of this series will help you to explore if being a working artist is for you, and help you to discern where it is you will start.  Consider it as a sort of business plan.  Part 1 gave you an honest look at what it takes.  Part 2 is actually a kind of checklist you can go through.  Take some time and write out your thoughts for each heading below.  See where it takes you.

1.  Do you have money saved?  What do you need to make to cover your expenses?
If you are coming out of a stable day job I would suggest building up a nest egg before quitting, if you can.  Ideally a years worth of living expense would be nice but we all know that that isn’t always realistic.  Decide what you need to live on until you can start making a steady income.  This may include giving up some of you life’s luxuries (like Starbucks, eating out, having the newest technology, etc).  But it’s great incentive to be financially successful so you can still have those luxuries.  Don’t forget:  being self-employed means that you have to provide your own health benefits!

2.  How and where will you sell your work?
There are many ways to sell your work as an artist.  So many that it is easy to spread yourself very thin.  One thing I have learned is that if you try out too many things at once, you won’t do any of them very well.  Think about where you would like to sell.  Online? (auction, Etsy, your web site).  Shows?  (what kind?  Where?)  Home parties?  (do you have a customer base to start with?)  Boutiques?  Once you know this you can start to research how that works and what the best first steps are.  If you are not sure, it is never too early to start scoping it out.  Go to art shows and evaluate them, start looking at shops in a different way (would your work fit in?)  Are you tech savvy enough to sell online?  Etc.

3.  Where will you get your support?
Find resources from the pros.  There is nothing like picking the brain of those who have been at it for a while.  Do you have people like that around you?   Check out S.C.O.R.E. to see if there are local retired artists that can help you.  Much of the information will be unique to your location, such as getting a business license, tax id, selling venues, etc.  Find local artist groups/organizations.  Face to face, surround yourself with people who support you and protect yourself from those who would discourage you.

Another great support is online forums.  Find an active forum with artists working in your medium.  Read it for a while and be sure to learn the etiquette of their community before jumping in.  Always search and do your own homework before popping in and asking your question.  People are usually happy to help, but chances are, your question has been asked before and it gets tedious to read and answer the same thing over and over.  Do a search first!

4.  Is your art saleable?
Before you jump into art/crafting as a business, consider if your work is actually saleable.  Friends and family will often compliment our work, even if they don’t mean it.

5.  Are you able to price your work to where you will make a profit?
One mistake people make when they’re just starting out is that they price their work too low.  They may cover the expense of their materials but don’t take into consideration that they actually need to survive on their profit!  There are day to day living expenses, studio operating expenses (electricity, equipment, etc).  Find out the pricing formula for your medium and see if you feel comfortable with it.  For example, a good rule of thumb for lampwork is at least $1/minute for a piece.  For painting I’ve heard $1/square inch.  If you think those come out too high for what you’re offering, don’t quit your day job yet.  Those who have gone before us know what they’re talking about. They know what it takes to make a living as an artist.

6.  Do you think you can beat the odds?
Are you hearing all this and thinking, “yeah, yeah, yeah,” and it’s going in one ear and out the other?  Are you thinking, “I’ll be different”?  I urge you to hear what I’m saying. I say this because that was me, twice in my life (that I’ll fess up to)!  First, when I got a degree in counseling and at the beginning of the program they told us “You will not get rich at this.”  My denial told me, “Of course I will.  I’ll just go into private practice.”  Ha!  Then again when I started my own research into art as a living.  Much of what I’m telling you here is what I was told too.  It took three years and two media for me to finally wake up.  Don’t make the mistake I made.

7.  Do you love your art?
Of course you do.  I mean, REALLY love your art?  Can you sit and do repetitive tasks over and over and over?  Can you stand being alone for long hours?  Can your body take it?  If you’d like to do shows, can you travel?  Can you lift and move things for set-up and tear down?

8.  What is the market like where you live?
If you are considering selling locally or doing local shows, is there a market for it?  I live in a very touristy, vacation area.  We have seasonal residents…those who can afford second homes.  It is much easier to sell at shows and in shops here than it would be in a more rural setting where the cost of living is lower.  Be realistic.  Can you fetch the prices you need to?

9.  Do you have computer and photography skills?
Regardless of where you decide to sell, inevitably you will need these.  It’s great if you know someone who can do it for you but often times it’s not free, or if it is, you find yourself waiting on them.  If you have a time table for when you’d like to go full-time art, start learning these skills.  There are some great resources online for classes. lynda.com is a great resource for computer skills and you can find an online community for your medium that can point you towards photography tutorials for your type of work.

I tried to make it an even 10 but I’ve come up dry.  These should be enough though, for you to start to hash out your intentions. Feel free to drop a comment or email with any questions that might arise.

I can hear you…it’s expensive.  I can’t afford it.  And I say, yes, it can be costly.  The conference fee, for what you get is relatively low.  Under $400 for three days packed full of activities plus some meals.  Hotel room, travel and additional meals/drinks.

So here’s what I’m proposing:  Save $20 a week starting now.  If you were able to save $20/week starting now you would have roughly $1000 in a year.  That would be a good start to paying for your conference.

Can you do it?  Do you want to do it?  Would it help to get you there if you’re one who has been wanting to go but haven’t been able to afford it?  If this appeals to you and you’d like some accountability, drop a comment so I can get an idea of whether this would be a good idea.  Let me know which conference it is that you’ve been wanting to attend.  This could even work for classes.

I want you to experience it!

Table of contents for Getting Started as a Full Time Artist

1. Getting Started – What you need to know – Part 1
2. Getting Started – Evaluation – Part 2

Today’s commentary is in response to an email that I received from someone who would love to take the leap into making a living with their art after having a steady “day job”. Here is an excerpt:

…it’s my dream and heart’s desire to work out of my art studio from home and sell my beads and jewelry…and hopefully to teach beginners how to make Lampwork beads.

Do you have any suggestions for me? I don’t know how to go about selling my art…or how to go about doing this.

First, thank you for the email! Second, you are not alone. When we love something so much, especially  our art, we want to do it all the time and we all know, you can’t just drop out of society and make art. We need to pay our bills and feed our children too (or put them through college).

I remember when I first started looking into what it would take to do art full time and make a living at it.  I bought the book Crafting as a Business and started scouring the internet.  I found a lot of good information about how to do it and what was important to building a business.  I was getting increasingly excited about my dream!  But then I started poking around online where working artists hung out.  It was surprising to me how ‘negative’ a response I got.  Twelve years later I see that they weren’t being negative; they were being realistic.  They knew that it doesn’t do anyone any good to sugar coat it.

Much like Crafting as a Business, throughout these pages you will find informative articles on how to sell, how to set up web sites, how to market, build mailing lists, set goals, etc.  But here is something that you might not always hear:

Living your dream isn’t always as glamorous as you might think it is.  But it can be worth every minute  and successful financially if you are willing to accept and push through the following things:

1.  You will work more than you ever did at a 40 hour a week job.  WAY more.  Do you have the energy for that?

2.  You will spend as much time marketing and doing administrative work as you will making your art.  Maybe more.  Are you up for it?

3.  There will be tasks that you don’t want to do, but you will have to.  There are no midnight elves to come clean the beads and ship the orders.

4.  There will be days when you don’t feel like creating.  But you will need to anyway.

5.  You don’t get paid sick days or paid vacations.  Time is money and time off is time without pay.

6.  You will experience some lean times, if not all the time.  It takes time to build a successful business, art or otherwise.  (My husband is also self-employed.  There have were years in the beginning when business is down and we’ve lived on credit cards for months!  I don’t recommend it but just know it can be a reality).  Can you afford it?

The list goes on and I’m twelve years later I’m still coming up against new challenges.

Go in with your eyes wide open and when something comes up that you didn’t expect, rather than seeing it as a negative or a burden, learn to reframe it. Here is my strategy for doing that:  How I Enjoy the Little Things.  The amazing thing?  The things I used to dread?  I can now enjoy.

So.  There is Step One in jumping into the artists life.  And here is another perspective from someone out there making it happen.  Margot Potter – The Impatient Crafter.  If you think you’re up for the challenge, stay tuned for how to really get started.

You have until June 30th to send them your interpretation on the theme to be entered to win a gift certificate from glass supplier Ed Hoy’s.

Everyone is eligible as long as your entry is glass.  There is a hobbiest level and professional level for the contest so get working!

Do you know of bead, jewelry or other related challenges or contests that involve submitting art/craft pieces?  Let me know so I can blog it for you and expand your reach!