A business podcast just for crochet business owners where we learn how to grow your crochet business and set it up for success!
Press play to listen to episode 9!
Inside this Episode
Below is a breakdown of each section in this episode. Feel free to skip ahead to the parts that interest you most. Each section has the timestamp beside it so you know exactly when the subject starts and ends.
Welcome [0:00-0:19]
Do you Sell on Ebay? [0:32- 3:11]
Can you talk about the changes to Crochet Boss Academy? [3:12- 8:39]
I have been off social media for awhile, I am not up to date on your goats and tiny home! [8:40- 11:35]
How do you make your product pop at a tabled vendor event? [11:36- 18:00]
Do you have any suggestions for Father’s Day? [18:01-20:29]
How to set up free shipping for local customers via Etsy? [20:30- 22:26]
Do you think watermarks on pictures are necessary? [22:27- 25:45]
What is one thing you wish you knew now about your crochet business? [25:46- 26:42]
Is our announcement section in our Etsy store a good place to put our landing page? [26:43-28:18]
You can find the live replay of this Instagram live video on my IGTV!
Resources Mentioned
The Ultimate Craft Festival Guide– Blog post
Taylor from Taylor Lynn Crochet
Taylor’s Market Set Up Youtube Playlist
Da-Da patches from Angie & Britt
Father’s Day Roundup Blog Post
Transcript
Welcome back to Tuesday Talks! We only have a few questions to go over today, so this will probably be fairly quick. Let’s start some questions!
Do you Sell on Ebay?
No I do not sell on Ebay. I have never looked into it so I don’t have any advise. I am very team Etsy! I think if you sell handmade things you should have any Etsy shop.
I think Etsy serves all my needs as a handmade seller, so I don’t need to go to another platform. The more platforms you are on the harder it will be to stay organized unless they are integrated in some way.
After you outgrow Etsy I would open your own shop like a Shopify account on your own blog or website. I would still keep your Etsy shop open though, so you can still serve Etsy strangers and turn them into true fans of your brand. Then when they re-buy they will go to your website rather than your Etsy shop- they will follow you on Instagram, subscribe to your email list, and tell all your friends about you. That is the goal with Etsy- pulling them in from search and then turning them into true fans.
If you want to try out other platforms, I say go for it! You need to go where your ideal customer is. I know Amazon has “Amazon Handmade” but I have never even shopped there. I am satisfied with Etsy. I have heard other platforms have higher fees than Etsy, so why would I choose that over Etsy who also has a whole database full of customers who are already shopping for the things that I sell in my handmade shop?
Can you talk about the changes to Crochet Boss Academy?
I have been getting a few messages about when Crochet Boss Academy would be opening back up. It will be opening back up early 2022!
I am making significant changes! The current business model is a membership. You would pay $20 a month and get access to new issues every month. Or you could pay annually, and that would come with some extra perks!
However I am not digging the monthly business model, so I am taking all the content that we have done over the past year and turning it into a course! It will be one price for the whole course, but I will be going through it with you guys! It will be a guided course. I will go through every issue with you, one step at a time. I am planning on doing multiple lives each week. Ideally we would be going live 4 days a week in the new private Facebook group.
It will be between 8-10 weeks long starting in March maybe because that is usually the start of our down time as makers. So hopefully in March you will have enough down time to work really hard on growing your business and building a strong foundation for when Fall and Winter come.
I hope that gives you a little sneak peek at what is coming for Crochet Boss Academy! Not everything that is in the membership will be in the course, because I don’t want to make it 52 weeks long. I want it to be 8-10 weeks packed with only the most important information for your business.
I am very excited for the course version over the membership style. I probably won’t be releasing any crochet patterns, doing Tuesday Talks or be on social media that much over those weeks. All of my attention and energy will be put toward putting you all in my hand and taking you through the course.
I have been off social media for awhile, I am not up to date on your goats and tiny home!
Yes we moved into a tiny home! She is 400 square feet! Me, Gabe, Ava and our two dogs all live in the tiny house! We are on our farm which is 26 acres. We have a lot of woods! Currently our goats are enjoying their dinner.
We are adjusting really well! It hasn’t been hard at all! We have been enjoying it.
I do not have a washer and dryer yet! Luckily there is a dry cleaner in my town that will do loads of laundry for you!
How do you make your product pop at a tabled vendor event?
There is a post on my blog- The Ultimate Craft Festival Guide. It has a couple templates and free tags for you, lots of good info there! So definitely check it out!
Taylor from Taylor Lynn Crochet has a ton of market set up videos on her youtube that are absolutely amazing. She thoroughly enjoys setting up market displays!
My best advice is limit what you bring. Don’t bring one of 66 different things.
Bring multiples of one thing in fewer colors.
Your product line should serve your ideal customer really well. Inside my Wild Grace shop I sell Mommy and Mini hats with poms. I sell Bitty Boho Bibs, Bitty Boho Bags, Rainbow Rattles, and nylon bow headbands and that is all! My ideal customer is a millennial girl mom, she drives a mid-luxuary car, she cares very much about what people think, she has a nice home, every room in her home is highly decorated, she never leaves her house without makeup on, everything matches. So all the products I have are built to serve her well.
I have 8 colors and they are all like bohemian style. My goal was all the colors I chose will match everything in my ideal customers daughters closet.
Everything in your booth should attract one ideal customer. When she walks by your booth she will know all those items are for her! Or if a friend of your ideal customer walks by your booth they will think wow my friend would like all of these things!
So have fewer items in your product line, make multiples of them in a handful of colors. That is my advice if you want to use that craft show to build your business!
If you are just trying to sell things for fun or to reach a goal like $500 to use toward a vacation or something like that and this show is just a one time thing for you my advise would be different.
I would use the craft fair like I use Etsy. Take those customers and turn them into true fans of your brand and business.
Do you have any suggestions for Father’s Day?
Yes! Crafty Boho Slippers, Gabe loves his! Depends on what your guy is into but the beer cozy mitten, I feel like that would make a good Father’s Day gift. Daddy & Me matching beanies would be really cute. I have “Da-Da” patches that I got from Angie & Britt.
I have a roundup of 11 patterns for Father’s Day on my blog from last year.
Another post on my blog is how to make a cute hand print mug for Father’s Day.
How to set up free shipping for local customers via Etsy?
My quick fix is to create a coupon code that offers free shipping and make it something like “Local Pickup ONLY”. That way if anyone who uses this code who is not local you can let them know they will have to pick up or pay shipping costs. You can cancel the order and let them reorder and pay shipping, or make a custom listing just for shipping.
When creating a coupon in Etsy you can set it to give free shipping. I do suggest funneling all your orders through your Etsy shop that way you have everything in one spot and each sale you make on Etsy boosts your selling juice 🙂
Do you think watermarks on pictures are necessary?
This depends on your mindset, your business model, your “why”, and your goals.
For me it is not necessary, or for Wild Grace. If someone wants to steal your photos, they are going to steal your photos. When the Claire Bun Beanie went viral wish. com and Amazon sellers stole my photo for like 3 years!
For one it does not affect my business. Yes it is shady and unethical but it does not affect my business. I was so stressed out when it first started happening because I was scared to death that people were going to think that those were my beanies. When they bought from wish or amazon they were not getting what was in the picture.
I made sure to be clear in my listings that this was the only place I was selling.
I know this has happened to other people in our community and people get tore up about it, but honestly it’s not worth the energy! I would loose sleep over it, I was angry, and I felt violated and eventually I was like what is the point? My business is still doing fine, and it is still growing! But that was just me! Everyone’s business is different. Everyone’s why is different.
I did hear that Etsy will not feature shops that watermarks on them. I am not sure how true this is! Some of my older stuff has watermarks on them because I was trying so hard to make sure nothing happened, but it was not worth my energy or time.
It is totally up to you if you want to put them on your photos. If you care about it, do it!
What is one thing you wish you knew now about your crochet business?
I wish I had known sooner, was that I needed to find an ideal customer. .
If you can find your ideal customer, and focus on your “why”. If things don’t connect to your “why” just let them go! If it doesn’ serve your ideal customer, let it go!
You can’t do everything, no one can!
You can’t serve everybody, nobody can! If you try to serve everybody you won’t serve anybody very well.
Is our announcement section in our Etsy store a good place to put our landing page?
I am not 100% sure if that link is hyperlinked so people can click it! I will have to test that!
If it were a hyperlink- my suggestion would be to link to your email list sign up page. That is what I would link to!
Etsy doesn’t like for you to link to a different site off of Etsy. It might be in the rules that they don’t allow that, research that or ask Taylor.
That is all I have for today! Thanks for hanging out! I hope you have an amazing rest of your week!
-Ashley