Creative Entrepreneur

You can find creative inspiration just about anywhere if you look closely enough. Sometimes, staying inspired can seem difficult when when you're running an indie business, even though you love what you do. When you feel the well running dry, check out our creative inspiration resources for artist communities, handmade blogs, and online eye candy.

Sales Slow Down? Raise Your Prices

When sales slow, as they often do after the holidays are over, we often revert to the knee-jerk reaction of running a sale to encourage buyers to buy. But that mentality could do you more harm than good in the long run. And let's face it, fast cash is nice, but you should be in this for the longer haul. Let me say here that there are perfectly good reasons to run a sale that have nothing to do with purchasing panic. The best reason is to clear out old inventory that is taking up room on your shelf or in your brain. It could be that you made too many of an item and you're tired of looking at them. Or you made a mistake - that shrimp scented candle seemed like a good idea at the time but now. . .

5 Apps to Help Up Your Instagram Game

Instagram is the social media channel for both artists and online sellers. So if you’re both of those, it’s even more important that you up your game. Instagram is a visual platform but there’s more to it than just posting beautiful photos of your work. Here are five apps that will help you up your Instagram game, which should, in turn, lead to more followers, more engagement and more sales of your work.

5 Holiday ‘Don’ts for the Handmade Seller

Feeling merry? Maybe not so much? You’re not alone. As much the holidays can be filled with good sales and good cheer, it’s also a time of stress for many entrepreneurs. And if you’re trying to run a handmade or art biz while holding down a full-time job – just stop everything right now, close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Now here’s a list of holiday “don’ts” that can help you get more out of the last few weeks of 2018.

Handmade Sellers: Pausing to Give Thanks During the Busiest Time of the Year

If you’re a solopreneur, you probably have a love / hate relationship with Thanksgiving week. Many store owners are dealing with a sudden boost in business, which is great, if you can keep up. Creating handmade items, shipping, customer service – the holiday may only be one day but it manages to eat up an enormous amount of time, leaving you struggling to fit a sixty hour work week into 24 hours.
Facebook Groups

Grow Your Handmade Business with Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups have been around for a long time, but it’s only been in the past few years that they’ve really taken off. There are small groups for just about every club, team and community on the planet and larger groups that cover everything from Astronomy to the X-Files. As a handmade seller, there are three good reasons to join multiple Facebook groups: to learn, to network and to sell. That last one is the one that can get you into the most trouble, so let’s take them in the least volatile order.
Music Jewellery Online

IndieMade Inspiration: Chrissie C of Music Jewellery Online

Like many entrepreneurs, Chrissie's business evolved out of her own interest in finding something that simply wasn't available. Frustrated by the lack of options, she decided to solve the problem for herself, and for others, by opening up her own online store. With Chrissie around, it's music, music, music but she still found time to stop and type out the answers to our burning questions.

 

Woman with Flowers

How Do You Measure Success : Growing Your Handmade Business in 2017

As soon as you make the decision to start selling your handmade goods online, it’s all about that first sale. It’s a huge thrill knowing someone wants what you made, and the money is nice, too. But sales are like potato chips – you can’t have just one, you need another and then another. And if you don’t get as many as you hoped in the time frame you imagined, it’s easy to get discouraged. In one week you go from feeling like a successful entrepreneur to feeling like a total failure. That’s one, tough roller coaster ride. Obviously, you want to sell what you make but to survive the long haul, you need to open yourself up to other measures of success.
Relaxed

Yes Virginia, It Is Okay to Take a Break During the Holidays

When you run a small business taking time off can be especially scary. If, on top of your Indiemade business, you also have a family to care for and / or another job , taking time off can be downright terrifying. We tell ourselves that the fear comes out of our work ethic or possibly the fear of losing our jobs (or customers) if we’re not constantly taking care of business. But deep down, what we’re really afraid of is not being needed or missed.

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