Vianza Blog

Today I’m happy to celebrate the launch of Market Yourself, written by our very own Community Concierge, Tara Swiger.

Tara is the one you’ve tweeted, Facebooked and emailed with when you needed help. She’s been here since the very beginning and has helped us build our community, think about what we offer from YOUR perspective (you are, as Tara likes to say, our Right Person), and communicate in a friendly, helpful way.

So it makes sense that she’s written the book to help you do the same, in your creative, handmade business.

Market Yourself is a systematic guide + workbook for thinking about, and then implementing how you share your thing with the world.

And I have 1 print copy of Market Yourself to give away!

To enter:

1. Watch our new Tour.
2. In the comments on this post, ask us any question you have about using Vianza and how it can help you streamline your business.

Tara will be answering your questions in the comments and next Friday I’ll randomly choose a winner and announce it via Twitter (you are following us on Twitter, right?)

Image Credits: Boy Wonder

Every once in a while it's a good idea to get out from behind your computer screen and to read a book or two. And if you are like me, you are more likely to read something in the non-fiction vein and specifically something in the how-to category. Besides being an opportunity to reduce eye-strain associated with staring a screen all day long, and more importantly, there are great resources out there that aren't online. What a concept, right?

Here are two titles that I recommend for creative makers who are new to or who want to get started with their own independent creative business.

image credit: Chronicle Books

Craft, Inc. - RevisedEdition: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Creative Hobby into a Successful Business, by Meg Mateo Ilasco

Without a doubt a must have for any independent maker who wants to get started or who is just getting started with their own business. Includes invaluable info on creating business plans, marketing research, protecting your work, being your own publicist and more. One of the best parts of this book are the really fantastic, pointed and totally chock-full-of-information interviews with successful independent creative business owners. There really is nothing quite like learning from those who are doing what you want to do! The first edition came out a couple of years ago and was a completely fantastic resource, but the new edition (September 2011) is even better with sections on social media and online marketplaces added.

image credit: Kari Chapin

The Handmade Marketplace Your Guide to Selling Your Crafts Locally, Globally and Online, by Kari Chapin

Another really great resource for creative makers who want to learn the nitty-gritty about how to market your crafts and set up your handmade business. Some highlights from the book, include: translating an idea into reality, pricing, how to accept payment, networking, approaching print media and more. It's broken up into little chunks that make it possible to focus in on the topic you are interested in. It also includes tips from what Chapin calls her “Creative Collective” and who are people who influenced her and who are also successfully self-employed. I look forward to Kari Chapin's next book (coming out July 20120 and which seems like the next logical progression--it’s called Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop, and Sustain a Successful Creative Business.

Jen Wallace shares her indie life at Indie Fixx where she writes about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, loving, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy.

If you’ve clicked around a bit, you’ve noticed that Vianza is brand new.

Not only do we have a spiffy new look for the blog (which we explained last week), we also have a MUCH simpler signup process. And we’ve taken all of our alpha feedback and improved the platform to make your merchandise sourcing and wholesale order workflow run smoother.

Take a tour.

That’s right -- Vianza’s wholesale e-commerce platform brings indie designers of home décor, gift accessory & fashion products together with their buyers to reduce the overhead cost of their order transactions. Many of you spend up to 20-40% of your work every week sourcing merchandise and managing orders using insufficient tools and costly business processes. Yikes!

Now, Vianza members can source, sell and service all wholesale transactions with greater ease and efficiency using a service that brings everything together.

Best yet - you get a 30 day free trial when you sign up as a seller (always free for buyers) and we’ll even help you add your wholesale catalog to the site!

Click here to join our private network of sellers and buyers using Vianza’s wholesale e-commerce system.

This is a guest post by Genevieve Brazelton, one half of Lightbox SF were she helps makers, artists, and crafters brand their businesses by telling their stories and embracing what makes them unique. On May 21st their guided e-course, InkYourself: DiscoverYourUniqueStory will begin.

Do you have a vision for your business?

It's one of the first things we ask our clients. Many can't really answer or we get a vague picture of landing a coveted retail account and getting rid of the day job. It's a start, but that's not a vision.

A vision is the big picture that you are working towards.

It’s how you want your business to run, who you want to be working with, and how you want to be thought of by your customers and peers.

And why do we think this is so important? Well, how can you get somewhere if you don't know where you're going? Taking the time to really ask yourself what you want your business to look like in one year, three years and even five years gives you not only something to work toward, but a guide for making the smaller choices that come up from month to month and even day to day.

Instead of working toward a vague notion of success you have a clear picture of what you're building. I've used the road map analogy before and I think it's a great illustration, but let's look at it another way. Think of your vision as the photo on the cover of a sewing pattern. Each day you move forward in your business you're putting in a few stitches or cutting out a new piece and as it starts to come together you can hold up the garment to see if it looks anything like the photo on the cover. Your vision is a guide for whether the pieces are all fitting together the way you want them to.

This vision also goes a long way to helping you create your brand identity. Knowing how you want your customers to think of you and what you want to be known for helps you to shape the story that you tell. It dictates the details that are important, shapes the collaborative projects that you get involved in, and helps to define the target market you reach out to. Your vision provides the outline for your brand story.

At Lightbox SF we want to create a friendly, supportive atmosphere. We want to work with creative entrepreneurs. We want to help small creative businesses succeed. That’s our vision in very short form. This vision lead us to pick a logo that has a hand drawn feel to attract those creative types. It guides the friendly, conversational tone of our newsletters. We speak to you as the friends we hope you’ll be. It also inspires us to share the successes of creative businesses we’ve worked with or admire on our blog, in our workshops, every chance we get. Each piece is part of the brand story that we are telling, empowering creatives to take over the world. And each decision was made because we have a bigger vision of what we want this business to be.

So what is the big vision for your business? What are you doing each day to bring yourself one-step closer?

Image credit: Portraits To The People 

This is the first of our Boutique Peek series, in which we pick the brains of boutiqueland’s finest founders.  Rhianon Jones owns the fabulous Echo Park Independent Co-op, located in the heart of Echo Park.  It exclusively features work from independent designers living and working in the Los Angeles area.  Stay up to date on the shop’s adventures via Facebook and Twitter.

If you were forced to choose, what's your absolutely favorite thing that you carry in your store?

Hard to answer because things are constantly changing but I'm always excited to see what Niki from Luxury Jones has in store for us.

Who's your typical customer?

We get lots of musicians from the Echo looking for edgy things to wear on stage. And artists from the neighborhood. A lot of fashion forward people from out of town looking to take home something unique to LA.

What are your best selling products?  Why do people love it so much?

Interestingly, we sell a lot of dresses to wear to weddings. Weddings can be a bit of a drag, so wearing something fun that asserts your free spirit seems to appeal to a lot of our female clientele.

What do you look for in a product line when you're choosing what to carry?

We look for sustainability, ethical manufacturing, originality, and artistic vision.

Describe your dream wholesaler!

Our dream wholesaler is constantly bringing in new stuff and understands the importance of keeping things local and ethically produced. It is great to work with like-minded people who believe that fashion should be fun, but not at the expense of the environment or people's health and welfare.

How do you make your shop stand out?

We stand out because the people we work with stand out. They are artists, we are their gallery.

Sarah Von is a Vianza contributing columnist and interview wrangler.  If you follow her on Twitter, you’ll be privy to all sort of tweets about small business, good ideas and, um, cheese.

Well hello there!

If you’re reading this in a feed reader or via email,click right on over so you can see (and admire) our new design!

This week we got a fresh new look (along with fresh new features for users, but we’ll talk more about that next week) and a beautiful new blog (and a Twitter and Facebook facelift).

What’s that mean for you?

For starters, check out that sidebar!

You can find posts in a plethora of new ways - by author, by category, and by date.

And lookee there! Fresh new categories like For Retailers and Marketing your Indie Biz, full of the exact advice you want!

We also rounded up our very posts in the Featured post area, so you can get the very best without searching and searching!

The best part of the new blog redesign is that cute little 'Sign up' button. See it?

Pop in your email and you’ll get the very best of the blog compiled into a sweet weekly email. We know you don’t always have time to drop by every day (and we do research and create 5 new posts a week!), so we’ll send you the week’s best.

What do you think?

Let us know in the comments!

Do you need a mailing list?
Is it really worth the effort?
 
I’m here to tell you that the answer to both is a resounding YES! 
 

Customers that sign up for your newsletter are your RIGHT people.

 
They love your store and site so much that they actually take the time to sign up for more information from you!  These are the people with whom you want to be talking to and developing a relationship with.  They’re the ones that want to be kept in the loop and will most likely be your true blue customers. 
 
One of the most important things to remember is that no one is thinking about your business as much as you are.  Customers need a reminder or specific reason to come back and visit your store.  Inviting customers to sign up for a mailing list helps build on that relationship and provides that all-important repeat traffic.   
 
Once you realize that your customers truly want to hear from you, that they want to know when things go on sale or new items are available, then creating regular newsletters doesn’t seem as difficult.  Just think about how you would greet customers who walk into a brick & mortar store.  Maybe there’s a sale that week on a particular item.  Wouldn’t you let them know while they were browsing?  Sending a newsletter is doing the same thing - letting your RIGHT people know of the special things going on in your store that week or month.  Remember...they took the time to give you their information.  All you need to do is keep them in the loop!
 
The first step is setting up your list.  There are lots of options, including Aweber and Constant Contact. I use Mail Chimp for my store - they allow you to have up to 1,000 subscribers for free and it’s easy to use their templates and set up email campaigns.  They even have a user guide for help and instructions.   The best thing to do before committing to one is to ask others what they use & like and to look at the features each one offers.
 
Once you sign up for a service, you’ll want to create a sign-up form for your customers.  Make sure to personalize it with your own information and brand identity.  Lastly, add the sign-up form to your store site.  Any of the above email marketing services should be able to walk you through these steps.

Next week, I’ll share some specific ideas for content for email marketing.  I would love to hear from you now...do you have a mailing list?  Are you sending regular email newsletters?
 

Feature Image Credits: Scoutie Girl and Tina Jett
 

Piper Toth happily traded the corporate world for the online world when she opened her online boutique,one sydney road. She authors the blog of the same name where she waxes poetic on the crazy roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship!

After dabbling in music and sciences, Melissa Schooley dropped out of college to put together an art portfolio and attend the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She’s been potting full time since 2005 and is currently making functional porcelain servingware.  You can befriend her on Facebook, Twitter or follow her adventures on her blog.
 

What is your more prized creation - the coolest thing you've ever made, with your own nimble hands?

By far, my most prized creation is a teapot that I made that has mini headlights. When you tip up the pot to pour the tea, the headlights come on. Fun and functional all at the same time!

What is the worst piece of business advice you've ever been given?

I would have to say this involved bringing a new line of work to a wholesale show before I had worked out the kinks in production. I hadn't produced any of the pieces in any great quantity, and it was at the show that all the bugs come out in new designs. What a nightmare! It created a very stressful year for me and as a result, I'd highly recommend taking at least a year to try a new line in a retail setting before introducing it to wholesale clients.

What was the biggest entrepreneurial epiphany of your career?

As silly as this may sound, it would probably be the fact that I'M the boss. When I finally understood that I could say no to certain opportunities and requests, and that it was ME who was in charge of where I wanted to take my business, I suddenly felt a lot more in control and much less stressed.

Give us your top 3 indie artisans/designers to watch.

Avril Loretti, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hand + Shadow, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Suite One Studio Ceramics, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

What's your best tip for strengthening your relationship with your retailers?

Be organized and communicate! Retailers are busy and have a lot on their plates. When I see buyers at a show, I like to have previous orders handy in case I need to reference them. I also like to talk about the work with them and how its being received in their shops. They are on the front lines, so to speak, so I take their feedback seriously. What do they like or not like about specific products, what pieces are selling the best, which ones aren't moving, etc. If I can help my retailers sell more work, all the better for my business.

If you could offer one sage snippet of wisdom to aspiring designers, crafters & artisans, what would it be?

Step outside of your comfort zone! Don't be afraid to try things that scare you and don't be afraid to take risks! The one thing that every, single, business person has in common is failures- products that flopped, shows that were a complete disaster, etc. The one thing that every successful business person has in common is that they didn't let the failurs stop them. They got up, brushed themselves off and changed their approach or tried something new.

Thanks for sharing, Melissa!

Sarah Von is a Vianza contributing columnist and interview wrangler.  If you follow her on Twitter, you’ll be privy to all sort of tweets about small business, good ideas and, um, cheese.

We at Vianza are a bit obsessed with collaboration + co-creation.  We think the best products are when makers + buyers work together to create something that will delight their customers.

“Co-creation is about creating new products & services working in conjunction with another skilled individual or business, showcasing  a combined vision, which is bigger than the sum of the parts.”

- Mita

How to start collaborating

- If you’re a designer and you don’t know where to start, we covered the three ways to co-create.

- If you’re a retailer, Piper wrote tips on collaborating with the designers you carry here.

- Check out these tools we use to collaborate.

- Want to create a private label line for your shop? Start here.

Get inspired - Modish has a brilliant series that highlights collaborations.

Do you collaborate with designers, retailers or customers to create any of your products?

Do you ever find yourself saying “Oh, I’m not an artist, but I sell other people’s work”?  As retail store owners, we may not actually be artists but we certainly have an eye for design and a talent for finding what our customers love.  So why not expand on that and work with your artists to create something special and unique for your customers?

At the end of the day, you know your customer best!

Collaborating can be as simple as asking the designer or artist if a particular item can be made in a different color or as complex as creating an item together.  Not only do you get to flex your creative muscles, but you’ll also create something exclusive to your store.  If your customers are anything like mine, than they love knowing that what they’re buying is something unique and can’t be found anywhere else.  If you think about it, that’s why our customers shop indie stores or shop local.  They’re looking for those special items. 

And what’s more special than something you helped create just for them!

To give you an example, here’s what I did over the holidays.  I had been looking for stocking stuffer gifts for the store and wasn’t having much luck finding “the one”.  I knew I wanted to carry sachets and small cosmetic bags - but I couldn’t find that special design. I decided to email one of my favorite artists to see if she would be able to create something for me.  Lo and behold, she was more than willing to do so and with a little direction from me as to color and pattern, she created these striped sachets & bags for my store.  They fit the store perfectly (after all, they were created with my store colors in mind - even I couldn’t resist them - I ended up keeping some for myself!)

The best way to start collaborating is by having a conversation with your artists.  Start by asking if they would be willing to create an exclusive product.  Once you know they’re open to the idea, you can start tossing around thoughts and ideas as to what to create. 

Don’t be afraid to let your inner artist come out to play!

Have you considered collaborating with your artists?  What would you create?

Images:  1. Collaboration between Pigeon Toe Ceramics and Shanna Murray

2. Collaboration between Yorktown Road and one sydney road

Piper Toth happily traded the corporate world for the online world when she opened her online boutique,one sydney road. She authors the blog of the same name where she waxes poetic on the crazy roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship!