Blogs

Grow Your Email List : Grow Your Business

Woman with Tablet
You already know that there's power in an email list. It's your direct connection to your customers and potential customers. It's your non-intrusive way of marketing your business because the people who signed up asked you to let them know when you have new items in your store or you're running a sale or if you'll be at a show. Yet, most of us don't have a solid mailing list. We might have a few names of loyalty customers and family members but thats not going to keep you in business. And ten names aren't going to help you grow your business.

Beyond the Tweet: 4 Additional Ways to Use Twitter for Business

Tweet button
On average, people post a total of around 58 million Tweets per day on Twitter. That’s about 9,000 Tweets per second. That’s a lot of competition for a person’s attention. If most of your followers don’t follow too many people, you have a good chance of being seen. But if you’re trying to reach those influencers who follow more than 1,000 people, your message is going to get buried in less time than it took you to write it. So how does a solopreneur stand out in a loud and prolific crowd? By using a few techniques that go beyond the standard Tweet.

Getting out of your own way: Why you need a mastermind group

Group of Birds
I’m super when I’m not trying to be my own client. And I’m not alone in that. There are dozens of old sayings to back up this point; the best barber has the worst hair; the shoemaker’s children go barefoot. We’re always better at tending to others than we are about tending to ourselves. To solve this problem, you could spend the next ten years meditating quietly in a zen garden or you could join a mastermind group.

Spring Cleaning: Revitalizing your Product Offerings

Bottle with Flowers
As artists, sometimes it can be easy to get stuck in the rut of offering the same products season after season, when really just making some small changes could mean the difference between sales or no sales. Having revitalized product offerings does not mean you need to completely overhaul your current lineup of goods. Instead, you can make a few changes to what you already have and create a sense of renewal in your shop just in time for summer!

Tax Time Made Easier: Start Preparing for Next Year Now

Accounting
As far as the IRS is concerned, selling handmade items as a hobby and selling them as a business are two very different things. When it’s just a hobby, you’re required to pay tax on the income but there are limits on what you can deduct. Once that activity becomes a business, the IRS allows you to deduct almost all of your expenses including a portion of travel and meals while at a craft fair and the electricity it takes to run your home office.

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