Be the Expert by @Rena_Tom

Contributor post by Rena Tom

print by linda ketelhut

I want to be able to get myself mentioned in more publications as an expert and possibly some TV spots. I also want to know how get the word out about my services--that's been really difficult as I can't really afford traditional advertising, but even with my strong social media network, it hasn't been enough to pull in local clients (who aren't necessarily using Twitter/Facebook, etc.).

-- Alejandra, commenting on a previous post

Today I want to talk about something that makes a lot of people uncomfortable: tooting your own horn. You may make great products or provide a much-needed service and feel that people should be able to recognize you on merit alone, but these days your skills are not enough; those who are *also* successful marketers are the ones who will get the accolades. Telling the world that you know what you are doing and that what you are doing has value is a huge trust and reputation-builder and great for your business.


CONTINUE READING...

Rena Tom: Making Sense of Your Business Finances

After a few weeks of guest posting, we are thrilled to have Rena Tom join us as an official contributor here on Poppytalk.  Rena will be answering business questions from makers every other Monday.  If you have a question for Rena, please feel free to leave a comment.  Be sure to check out her site where she offers up business advice including great interviews and more here. Here's her latest post:

Contributor post by Rena Tom

My biggest challenge is ... financial organization. I find that very scary and more difficult the bigger and more successful I become. What if I want an employee? How will I pay taxes?

- Sarah of Dodeline Design, commenting on a previous post


No matter how much we do what we love for the best of reasons, in order to elevate it from hobby to business we must keep an eye on the bottom line. Dealing with money issues is almost always scary, however - so much depends on forecasting and what-ifs over which we may have very little control. To address your questions, I’ve brought in an expert on the topic of finances and your small business.

Lauren Thorp of Stamp 48 is a financial consultant who focuses on helping you achieve your financial goals, so you can focus on your creative passion. She has previously worked with micro-enterprises and community groups to increase the chances of sustainability of their businesses, and has also been a financial analyst, spending her days developing forecasts and budgets in Excel. She recently quit her full-time job to pursue her passion of helping creative business owners grow their businesses.

I asked Lauren some common questions asked both by those starting out and those ready to grow big. Read on!

Q: What are some financial challenges particular to a handmade business?

A: One of the biggest financial challenges that handmade producers face is that of scale.  As a small business owner, you don't have access to some things that the larger companies have access to: funding and credit. While it's not impossible to obtain, it's definitely challenging. Most handmade businesses are forced to bootstrap their operations. However, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter can help small producers fund their work before production, which allows them to raise enough cash to produce a new line of products.

Q: What must small business owners have in order to keep a clear picture of their finances?

A: A strong record-keeping system is a must. Make sure you have a place where you store your receipts and invoices. This can either be paper files or electronic files, but I'm partial to electronic. Raise your hand if you're terrible at organization. Oh, I see you back in the back. It's okay, Shoeboxed is a great service that can help you keep your files together. You get prepaid envelopes a la Netflix to stuff with your crumpled-up receipts and business cards. Send it in to Shoeboxed and they scan it and upload it for you. You can retrieve your data in a wide variety of formats to do with it at you please. Staying organized is the key to staying on top of the financial health of your business.

If you don't want to hire a bookkeeper for your business, you can DIY by signing up for an online bookkeeping service to keep your finances in check. I've heard great things about Outright (free for 30 days, then $10/month). Outright, and services like it, are well worth the minimal investment, and simpler than traditional bookkeeping software. It will even calculate your estimated quarterly tax payments.

Q. Let's talk about pricing. How do I know I'm charging the right amount from a business standpoint?

A: Let's tackle this question in two parts: theoretical and practical.  A price says a lot about your product. It communicates to your customers the value of your product. If you have a higher-priced item than the market average (and your quality matches), customers will tend to see your product as a luxury item. That can be a great marketing technique.

On the flip side, many handmade producers try to compete with Big Box prices thinking that if they are competitive on price, more buyers will be attracted to them. However, this doesn't tend to be sustainable over the long haul due to a fancy economic term called "economies of scale" (hey, wait! please don't stop reading, I promise I won't bring up any more nightmares from your high school Econ class!) Economies of scale simply means that as the quantities of the items that are produced increase, the cost to produce the item decreases. Even simpler, the more you make, the less it costs. And that's how Big Box stores have their super low prices. As you know, you're not a Big Box and you only make a limited number of items as a small/handmade business; thus, you have to charge a higher price to stay in business.

By lowering your prices to try to compete with mass producers, you are doing yourself and the handmade industry a disservice. Big Boxes should compete with other Big Boxes on price, and handmade producers should compete with other handmade producers on price. The two markets (Big Box and handmade) are separate from each other. People who shop for handmade products do so because it's better for people and the environment. The entire handmade seller community needs to get on board with this idea in order for this to be viable.

Still with me?

On to actually pricing your items. The basic formula to find your wholesale price is (your hourly rate x number of hours to produce + cost of the materials). Your retail price is then two times your wholesale price. [Note from Rena: there are several pricing formulas but this is a good starting place.]

For a bit more detail and a downloadable Excel calculator, check out this post I wrote last year. Even if you don't currently do wholesale, you may want to someday, so charge all of your direct customers the retail price and not the wholesale price. If your retail price seems unrealistically high, check out this post from Lauren Venell on Craftzine about the top-down pricing approach.

Q. How much money do I need to save, and why?

A. While it might be tempting to take the cash from that new bulk order that you just received and go buy yourself a pretty little something (you worked hard, gosh darn it! you deserve it!) resist the temptation. In order to grow your business, you will need more and more cash to fund your expansion. Do you dream of creating a higher end line of products? Remember that you will have to invest in higher quality raw materials. Or maybe you want to hire a shop assistant, which will make your life 200% easier. Unfortunately, your shop assistant won't work for free. Set aside as much money as you bring in that you can. I know "as much as possible" doesn't really answer the question "how much", but seriously. As. Much. As. Possible.

Also, don't forget to save up for your quarterly tax payments. As an independent business owner, governments usually want to collect from you each quarter. Hopefully this isn't the first time you've heard about this. If it is, find a CPA for yourself pronto.

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores. Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.

“Strategic Planning, Step by Step” by @Rena_Tom

Guest post by Rena Tom

Becky Murphy

Big picture planning or proper business planning I think is probably the biggest challenge for me - to the point that I never seem to get very far with it before I give up and get back to other work!

I'm fine with planning smaller projects, etc. but getting a handle on the big (BIG!) picture and planning strategically for my business in terms of where I want/need to go I find really difficult.

- Simone Walsh, commenting on my previous post

In my previous post, I asked you to tell me about the most challenging part of your business. Some responded that it was marketing and others said it was financial and legal concerns, but Simone's comment about big picture planning encompasses almost every issue you brought up, so I'm going to start there.

What is strategic planning?

Big picture planning is also known as strategic planning. Some of you started your business on a whim and have seen it grow tremendously, but you never circled back to work on your strategic plan. Or, you may have done plenty of research before starting, but have not revisited your plan for a while. It can seem like a daunting and lengthy exercise when there are orders to ship, people to email and dinner to get onto the table, but it is really essential to have in place if you are at a point where hard decisions must be made and you are feeling a little lost.

Think of a strategic plan as a roadmap to help guide you when there are too many distractions, opportunities, and unexpected problems keeping you from moving forward. Or, consider it preventative medicine that will help you avoid costly and time-consuming crisis management later on down the line.

Strategic planning differs from tactical or operational planning, which we are more familiar with. It's concerned with long-term goals (2-5 years out) while tactical planning is concerned with the next 18 months, roughly, and operational planning is for your day-to-day activities. It can also feel a bit grand to makers just starting out - but a good plan should address growth (or non-growth) of your business, too.

How do I make a strategic plan?

Your strategic plan consists of Vision, Mission, Goals, Strategies and Tasks or Actions.

Start things off with an ambitious vision statement and a clear mission statement. You should be able to refer back to these statements for every business decision - print them out and pin them on the wall above your workspace. It's also a good exercise for your About or Profile page.

For the vision statement, consider what does your business ideally looks like. It's a high-level look at what kind of impact you intend your business to make in the community. The mission statement differs in that it has more specifics and measurable goals attached to it. You can think of the vision as answering Why and the mission answering Who, What, and How (and sometimes When). If you'd like more detail, there are great resources and examples online like this article from MindTools and this one from Inc.

Next, carve out some goals for yourself. Write down a big list of everything you want to accomplish with your business. The list could address production capacity, marketing efforts, or growing your customer base, or be financial in nature. Try to sort out which items are really strategies (which fall underneath a particular goal), or things you want to do that aren't goals at all, but are actually tasks. For example, a main goal might be "double income by next year”, with a strategy to "diversify revenue streams" and tasks like "open a pop-up shop" and "hire a sales rep".

If you find you have too many goals, you may have an unrealistic view of the future and be prone to freezing up, decision-wise. A very simple way to prioritize or eliminate goals is to use a Goals Grid. This was created by a business consultant named Frederick Nickols and looks like this:

For each goal, ask the two questions in the table. The benchmark of course is your vision and mission statement. You will quickly discover goals which you have already met (hurray!), which ones you really want, which ones are not actually important to your business, and which ones could be detrimental to fulfilling your mission (involving too much time, money or risk).

At this point, you've narrowed down your giant list to a few key goals that you want to accomplish over the next few years. Go ahead and put in real numbers and dates next to these goals so you can measure how well you are doing. You are now at the part you are probably more used to - create strategies to address the goals, then write down action plans for each strategy. There will be some back and forth here -  you should prioritize strategies based on the rate of return and adherence to the mission, and to do so, look at the actions, or tasks, you must undertake. Compare the risk and benefits of completing each task at the current point in time.

Now what?

It's time to execute! Put your action items in your calendar and attack them one at a time. You should have no doubt why you are doing something now because you have considered all the repercussions beforehand. If a new opportunity comes up, you can hold it up to your plan and see if it moves any part forward. If a hard decision needs to be made, do the same to see where a certain decision impacts your plan the least.

It's important to revisit your plan periodically. Circumstances change, goals change, and YOU change. The plan is not set in stone – but you should keep it up to date at least for your own peace of mind.

How many of you have a strategic plan in place? How has it helped your business at a critical juncture?

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores. Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.

What is the most challenging part of your business?

Guest post by Rena Tom

Mini goals chalkboard by Mary Kate McDevitt

Now that we have covered the topic of too much success, let's get down to business. How do you reach that exalted state where you are completely busy and feel like you have to turn away work?

I'd like to hear more from you about your concerns. I'm pitching a virtual booth labeled 'Advice' and inviting you up to the counter. What is the most challenging part of your business? What do you wish you had more information about? What is preventing you from moving forward?

Please leave your questions in the comments below. I'll pick from the most original and also the ones that recur the most. I love doing research so feel free to get a little esoteric :) If you need a little kickstart, you can peek at the 10 Minute Guides [http://renatom.net/category/blog/10-minute-guides/] I write over on my site and I would be happy to expand on any of those topics.

Too Much Success, Part III

Guest post by Rena Tom

Yellow Owl Workshop

This is the third and final installment of a discussion on having too much success in your life - here are parts I and II. If you are still reading, I salute you!
The first two posts were a bit more philosophical, so today I’m going to go over specific online tools that can help you manage your workload so that you can more readily pursue your success, whether that’s being able to stop working every night after dinner, or getting into a showroom or trade show.

Finally, I have a wonderful interview with Christine Schmidt and Evan Gross of San Francisco’s Yellow Owl Workshop, who produce handmade paper goods, plus fun extras like rubber stamp sets, ceramics and even jewelry. I’ve taken some key points from their interview and the previous posts, and found applications that will help you address these areas.

Know Your Audience

Knowing who you are selling to – both actual and ideal customers – is important to all aspects of your business. If we look specifically on the logistics side, it will help with scheduling production (see today’s interview), pricing your work to maximize profit for effort, narrowing down your product line so you don’t waste time producing work that will not sell, or informing product selection for your retail store.

Surveys are your friend here! Online survey-building tools include Formstack, Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, and PollDaddy, and there are many more. Some of these apps offer analysis tools as well so you can make the most of the data you collect.

Learn to Say No

I talked about this a bit in the last post but it’s really important so I’m going to cover it again!

You may be uncomfortable saying no to people, but it’s a necessary part of staying sane. Try to come up with different ‘no’ situations and then think of polite responses – and use them. There’s a great article by Celestine Chua here that talks about saying no, and teaches you how to do it.

You also need to learn to say no to distractions. Even if you’ve carved out time to get work done, there is email to check and Twitter to watch and blogs to read. It’s easier today to get less done than ever before. When you really need to buckle down and work, and sitting at the local café or the library with headphones on isn’t enough to make you focus, try out an application that makes sure you do one thing at a time. A few good ones I found are Think, Concentrate, Self Control and Vitamin R. Some grey out your desktop, some keeps email from hitting your inbox, some have timers – they all have a different approach so see what feels right for how you work.

Delegate What You Can

Check out this great graphic with respect to delegation from the folks at easywk.com.

You should ideally be spending your time as a business person doing what no one else can do – the creative stuff. For more specifics, you may need to write your own job description! Once you have that in hand, find a way to offload the rest. Even if you are a one-person company, there are ways to get help. You may spend some money but if you spend less than what you would pay yourself for a task, you win!

Virtual assistants are a somewhat new phenomenon – there are people who can handle tasks for almost any field, even the creative ones. A few VAs suitable for creative business owners are easywk, LongerDays, and oDesk.

Another interesting service (only offered in a few cities right now, but poised to grow) is TaskRabbit. If you need physical errands run, you enter a task and qualified people (a lot of college students, retired professionals and moms) bid on it. This is great for also handling personal tasks as well as business-related ones, so you could hire someone to drop things off at the sample maker and also pick up Uncle Jerry from the airport.

Finally, we come to shipping, which is a big timesuck for makers. If your volume is sufficient, consider a fulfillment center like ShipWire, and stop running to the Post or FedEx, wasting time waiting in line!

Don't Leave Home Without It

If you are waiting – in line to renew your driver’s license or in a parked car with a sleeping child – and you want to review some images or documents, you can still be productive. Store your files in the “cloud” (and back them up), and get work done anywhere. Dropbox or SugarSync store all kinds of files, and Evernote is a flexible note taking system that personally acts as my brain, since my memory is not as good as it used to be.

NOTE: I have a tech-y background and live in San Francisco so there’s no app I won’t try at least once, and many of these are Mac-centric. There are non-tech or non-Mac ways to address these points but I’m not as familiar with them – if you have suggestions, please chime in!

Interview with Yellow Owl Workshop

>>What projects are in progress right now, and what have you just wrapped up?

We just introduced our new summer/fall line for the National Stationery Show, which was a huge undertaking. We typically plan new design introductions around the big trade shows every year (winter gift shows, then National Stationery Show, then summer gift shows) and the number of new items we introduce depend on how crazy things are leading up to those shows.

For this latest show, we went all out, introducing something like 20 new card designs, 3 new pendant designs, and then 2 new product categories: boxed card sets and stamp activity kits. At the same time, I was working on a few projects related to my new book Print Workshop, including a tutorial video and creating pieces for some upcoming book signing/workshop events. So for right now, we are just unwinding a bit!

But starting next month, we'll be working on new designs for early next year (the fun never ends!) as well as a possible new book proposal. I've also been trying to find the time to develop a wedding invitation line, so the goal is to get that started as well. I've had some success with custom wedding invitations, but they can be extremely time consuming so I've had to turn most inquiries down, which I regret. I'm hoping that a wedding line, where people can choose from a variety of template designs, will make it more feasible to take on wedding projects.


>>Can you tell me about prepping for a product release: concepting the idea, creating samples and getting it just right, figuring out production issues, packaging, and marketing?

Each product release evolves differently, depending on the nature of the product. But in general, I'll start with an idea that I've been thinking about (which may be something I've been thinking about for years or could be something that just came to me that day) and decide what the best format would be for it - does it make more sense as stationery, as a stamp, a pendant, a print, or something new that I haven't tried before? It can be a little tricky trying out new things, and can be risky financially, so the next step (and often the most time consuming) is to research sources for materials. We've been lucky enough to find a supportive community here in SF, so our first stop is asking around to our creative friends to see if they have any ideas. And then if that doesn't work, we check with our current suppliers to see if they either can help or know someone who does. We work mostly with small suppliers and manufacturers of raw materials, and they often are a wealth of information for contacts to other types of manufacturers and suppliers. If that doesn't work, then Google it is!

Once we locate a source for whatever we need, we work on getting a few samples together for approval and for upcoming trade shows. With a sample in hand, we consider any redesigning needed to make the product more viable for retail - it's usually not until you have a mock up in hand that you can really sit down with the product and think about it from a consumer's standpoint. Is the packaging too fussy? Too easy to mess up? Does it convey all the information that a customer needs to know what is inside? This is less of an issue when thinking about our indie retailers who might have a small shop where they can talk to each customer and see what they are doing, but it's something that definitely needs to be considered as you think about selling to larger retailers.

In terms of marketing, this is where those trade shows come in. Once we started doing them, we realized that life would be a whole lot easier if we stuck to a production schedule that coincided with the trade show schedule. That makes marketing much easier, because now once we get the product the way we want it, and we've figured out the cost and whether we can price it right (a whole other topic in and of itself!), we will take photos, which will eventually go into a catalog. The items are then introduced at the show, and stores and press see it there and can take home a catalog. Also, once they are introduced at the trade show, we will send images to a few select bloggers that we love and any contacts at print magazines that we have. A nice blog post on a new product, coupled with showing it at the bigger trade shows, and you're on your way!

I would end with a quick word on trade shows. When we started selling wholesale, we figured the trade show was an obsolete idea. Who needs to pay $2,500 for a booth in a convention center when you have the Internet? We figured we could just email stores with some images and viola! Now, we've come to see trade shows as a necessary evil. Store owners are just as busy as we are, and they don't have all day to read through all their emails and surf the web. A lot of stores (and especially larger retailers) rely on gift shows as a centralized place where they can find lots of new products at once. So, as much as it pains us to say it, trade shows are a really efficient and effective way to market your product.

>>I know you have employees; how do you make time to manage what they do and also have space to be creative?

This is a new development for us, and quite honestly, one that we struggle with regularly. Getting our first employee was a major step for us, and one that we probably took far later than we should have. But it's scary! Then, once we got a few, we started to realize that it's almost a full time job just training them and giving them new responsibilities all the time. So we hired someone who could basically manage the day-to-day operations - including what each employee would be doing. We were lucky in finding someone amazing who we could trust to handle all of that. This way, we really only need to communicate with one employee, who can then delegate accordingly to the others. That's probably the best tip we can impart. Even so, it is definitely a challenge to make sure things are being communicated properly, and it does eat into the amount of time you have to be creative. It's a process we are still working out, but the good thing is that we have employees who are really reliable and responsible, so even when we are a bit too crazed to manage everyone, they are good enough to understand what needs to get done.

>>Do you ever feel you have taken on too much stuff? What do you do in those situations? How do you prioritize what needs to get done?

All the time! It's so hard to say no, especially when you don't have ESP (not yet, at least, though we are working on it) and can't tell what might be around the corner. When an opportunity comes in, at that moment you might look at your calendar and see that all of next month is wide open. So you say, sure, I'll do it. And then a week later something else really cool comes to you, and it needs to be done urgently. Then what do you do?

You have to learn to prioritize, and you have to learn to say no. The most important thing that we've learned in this regard is to just say no up front to anything that you are not 100% jazzed about. That way, you at least minimize getting into these situations. Still, sometimes it's inevitable, and at that point you have to just make a list - or sometimes we'll list it all on a calendar on our chalkboard so we can visualize it better - and decide what is really and truly urgent and what isn't.

Everyone always wants everything right away, but some things you just know are more flexible than others, and so you just have to make choices. For example, custom wedding invitations are one of those things that usually don't have flexible dates, so those almost always get top priority, whereas making a new design is more flexible. There have been times when we've had to push back introducing new designs until the next round of trade shows simply because there were other priorities that had to be taken care of first!

Also, you have to always be honest with yourself. We strive to be reliable and dependable for all of our customers, but sometimes you can't be afraid to piss someone off. There are times when it can be totally overwhelming, and many tears have been shed in our household as a result. At those moments of sheer madness, you have to feel comfortable with telling someone that you've already said yes to that you can no longer help them. So another example - I agreed to do create a custom DIY project based on a project from my book for a magazine story, and when the deadline was approaching, I realized I simply didn't have the time to do it. And because they are on a strict deadline, I had to just suck it up and tell them the truth - that it wasn't happening. There is of course a risk that they won't try to work with us again, and that sucks, but we had to be realistic about it. When there is only one person doing all the creative work, there are limits. And if you stretch those limits too far, you'll break.

Thank You

When Jan came to me, asking me to lead a discussion on this topic, I was a little worried – it’s like a giant iceberg that is mostly under the water line. I want to thank Jan and Earl and all of the wonderful designers who have contributed – Meighan, Lisa, Kelly Lynn, Christine and Evan – and the commenters as well. This has been fun, and I’m open to taking on another topic, so please let me know what you’d like to hear about in future business columns. - Rena

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores. Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.

Guest Post by Rena Tom: Too Much Success Part II

Guest post by Rena Tom

Lisa Congdon

First of all, thank you to everyone who read the previous post and left a comment. It's good to get feedback about this topic, and also to see that it is a common problem when you are a creative business owner. Perhaps I should have titled this series "too busy" instead of "too much success" because I think there are lessons to be learned by everyone who is trying to run a small business.

Meighan gave us a great tip in the previous post - keep a good schedule and stick to it. Here are four more ways to help manage your workload.

Plan Ahead

"I can entirely relate to this. Last holiday season, about a month before Christmas, my Etsy sales quadrupled. It was great the first few days, but after a few weeks of this, I was unbelievably stressed out. I was getting further and further behind -- yet everyone wanted their order delivered asap because it was a gift for Christmas. All I can remember about that month was working, working, and working."

-- Rachel from Elephantine, commenting on the previous post

Contingency planning is a lifesaver, especially for the high season for your work. This is generally the last two months of the year, but if you make wedding-appropriate items or picnic/outdoor supplies, it might be summertime instead. Here are ideas to help you create your plan:

1. Put a 12-month calendar on your wall and try and fill it in as completely as possible. For instance, figure out your drop-dead ship date for the holidays, then work backward from there, adding in vacation dates for suppliers, lead times to get components shipped to you, other events you will be involved in that may take up time (like craft fairs), etc. Don't cut things too close, as bad weather can easily throw everything off; a giant snowstorm can prevent a wholesale order from reaching your store, or a retail order from reaching your customer.

2. Decide if you want to hire help this year, and if so start looking early. Plan to look for more help than you need as some people will inevitably not be able to fulfill their commitment. Figure out a budget to make sure this is right for you. Also write down *exactly* what you expect them to do, and a review process for their work. This lets you avoid awkward conversations later on, and also keeps you from micromanaging people.

3. Find alternate suppliers and shippers for as many aspects of your business as possible. You never know when a company will run out of something you need to fulfill an order, or stop working entirely (see the Canada Post strike going on right now - yikes) and leave you in the lurch.

4. Don't promise what you can't deliver. Customer service is so important for small business owners. If orders are pouring in and you can't fulfill them in the usual amount of time, stop taking new orders if you must, and let your existing customers know immediately,. Some people will cancel and be upset but most will be sympathetic, and even congratulate you on your success. This happened at Rare Device one year and while we lost some money and felt embarrassed, we came out with our reputation intact.

Work Smarter

"Profits flow from businesses that cost-effectively meet their customers' needs—not because a desperate entrepreneur works until midnight seven days a week. No question, when a business is caught in an economic downturn, and especially when key people have been laid off, there are times when you need to work extra hours. But the long-term solution to the problem is to work smarter, not to burn yourself out with 15-hour days."

-- Bethany Laurence, Save Your Small Business (Nolo)

"For me the harder part to becoming more 'successful' is making some of the larger decisions about growth. Do I just keep upping my prices so I sell less and have to make less? Do I get more help in the studio to make more? Do I get a larger studio to accommodate more production or out-source some of the production?"

-- Heather from Dahlhaus, commenting on the previous post

Look at your business plan every 6 months, or every year at minimum. If you don't have a business plan, try to at least set goals for 1 to 3 years out, and also write a mission statement for your business, and a statement listing the values that are important to you and your business. Revise the plan as necessary - your requirements and feelings and interests will change!

These documents will help guide your decision-making about how much money you want to make, if you prefer to make everything yourself or if you want to step back to a designer role and have other people produce for you, what kind of stores you want to be in, or what kind of customer you want to attract. It will also prevent that uneasy feeling you get when you feel like you are doing something out of character, or not true to the vision you first had when making a product, or selling a certain kind of goods in your store.

Learn To Say No

My former business partner Lisa Congdon had a heck of a schedule in 2010 and early 2011. Besides running Rare Device with me, she had numerous, labor-intensive book illustration jobs, group and solo art shows and even published her first book! However, it was starting to take a toll on her. She says:

My career as an artist was taking off, but at what cost? As much as I tried to exercise regularly and take care of myself, I often felt run-down and awful (mentally and physically), and my time with my partner and friends was seriously compromised. I was working 6 days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day for nine months. Something had to change! I made a goal that 2011 would be different.

I am focused now on returning to balance in my life. I realized that one of the great things about being self-employed is that I get to be the boss and make decisions that are the best for me. This includes not saying yes to every illustration job that comes my way or to every publicity or interview opportunity. Every time an opportunity comes my way, I weigh the costs and benefits before committing. I often turn off the Internet at my studio so I can focus on painting without distractions. I'm including regular exercise and a healthy diet and plenty of sleep. I still work a lot and I still occasionally pull late nights, but I'm focusing on maintaining a thriving art + illustration practice that also allows me down time for fun and relaxation.

Be strategic with your yeses. It can be very hard to say no to people and projects, especially if you are starting out, but once your business is underway, evaluate what saying yes will mean in terms of what you will get out of it. Reasons to say yes:

Is it fun? Will I learn a new skill? Is there a measurable benefit, or are you at least banking goodwill that will benefit later on? Does it further a cause or mission that I believe in? Is there a lot of money involved? (Let's be honest: that can be a valid reason.)

If none of the above applies, go ahead and say no. You can always find a way to turn someone down gracefully, or say "not now", leaving the door open for an opportunity at a later time.

Slow It Down

Even though you are an entrepreneur, slow growth or no growth is a viable strategy. You might have a plan that allows you to make a certain amount of money but also build community, offer great customer service and retain the values that were part of your decision to be in business in the first place - and that's great! Don't get caught up with anyone's ideas of success except your own.

If you look at your numbers and have not met your goals, you are still in a growth phase, but if you are making a profit and are happy with your standard of living, perhaps you don't need to think about taking on a trade show or creating new product designs just because you "ought" to. This New York Times article talks more about some business owners choosing to stay small, and this insightful post about growing a graphic design business (or not) can be applied to other creative fields as well.

Interview with Kelly Lynn Jones

Kelly Lynn Jones - Little Paper Planes

This is a long, long post but I wanted to leave you with an interview with Kelly Lynn Jones, an artist and also founder of Little Paper Planes. Since 2004, LPP has been assisting artists in their careers through prints, publishing, curatorial and licensing projects. I met Kelly when we were both selling at a craft fair in Oakland about a zillion years ago. She is one of the busiest people I know and she was kind enough to take time and answer some questions I had about her business, her life outside of work, and how she separates the two.

>>What are the projects you are involved in right now?

I just finished a couple of huge projects which included a book deal with Chronicle Books, preparing for and attending the Surtex Licensing Show, launching the new LPP website which was a year in the works, and lastly moving studios for both LPP and my own practice. We rented a storefront in Oakland and had to do all the demo and build out of the space so it was an intensely laborious experience. All of the above happened at the same time over 3 months.

Right now, I am trying to decompress from that, though I am always moving forward. I'm working on some potential licensing deals for some of my artists, working on the next exhibition for LPP which opens online on the 19th of July. I am working on the very first product line for Little Paper Planes; it is a line of leather accessories. For my own practice I am working on a collaborative project with Collin McKelvey that is for the gallery Sight School in Oakland as well as a video that will be screened at the INDEX Festival in NYC in August. Lastly I am working on an upcoming show for my own work at The Lab in San Francisco in August.

>>Is this the busiest you've been or can you tell me about a previous time that stressed you out?

HA, no, this is how my life is always, or at least for 12 years. I am always juggling at least 3 projects at a time. When I lived in LA, I was having a bunch of exhibitions for my own work, manufacturing and designing a clothing line, running Little Paper Planes and waitressing. During that period I realized it was all too much and that's when I decided to give up the clothing line. However, the following year I started graduate school so all the craziness came back in full swing.

>>What are some methods you use to get a handle on all that you have to do?

I don't think I have figured out the best method. I am not going to lie, I get stressed and completely overwhelmed and question everything, though I also like the hustle and trying out lots of various projects. In the past year, I have been trying to set boundaries for myself - of course I often break them. I only work on LPP stuff Mon-Fri and have to stop by 5:30. As far as my own practice goes, I schedule 3-4 days a week to work on stuff whether it's researching or making. I do well with deadlines and schedules. For me, it's the only way I can fully balance all I do. I also have a hundred lists. There is a huge satisfaction in crossing off a task that is completed.

>>Do you ever defer requests from people, and how?

Yes. If it something that I do not feel passionate about and I am overextended already, I have to say no, but I always like to keep invitations open. So, depending on the request, I try to make something happen for the future when timing is right.

>>How do you prepare for what you know will be a busy time, like holiday orders, or a show opening, or getting press?

For holiday orders, I usually start working on that in early October to get everything in line for the crazy. For a show, I try to give myself a timeline with small deadlines so I can easily meet and manage things realistically without rushing and getting overwhelmed or cracking under pressure. The worst is a creative block. For press, I don't know if I am ever great at press, but I usually send stuff the day of a featured artist or [when I have] something that is worthy of press. I find that in our mass media, fast-paced life, press seems to work better when things are 'right now'. I only send PR packages for press in advance when it is for print, not online.

>>Are you in a growth phase or holding steady right now? Is it by choice? If so, why?

For Little Paper Planes, I think I am always in a growth phase. Since everything I have done is by myself without financial backing, it's a slow n' steady pace. I also am always interested in evolving, as our world is constantly evolving, whether it's through media, economically, artistically, etc. I like to try new ways of collaborating with artists which is the main reason I run my organization.

For my own practice, growth is a must. The moment I feel 100% confident in what I am doing, I have to switch it up. As an artist, I am always searching out new ways to look at the world. I like to be in a state of not knowing and let myself learn from mistakes and failures. I guess this can be applied to running my business as well. The only constant in life is change.

>>Do you feel like you have to do everything yourself, or are you happy to get hire help/get interns?

I battle with this often. I have been running my business for almost 8 years. I have had a handful of interns in the past 4 years. I now have a group of 4 people right now who assist in various operational aspects for LPP. Even though they are all amazing and talented, I do have a problem with wanting to do everything. Maybe that is part of [the business] being my baby. Slowly I am learning to let go, since I know it is important for the growth of the business.

>>How do you stay grounded in your business when it feels like things are getting out of control?

Well, I don't know if I completely know how to fully stay grounded. I am making baby steps in letting go of being such a workaholic. This weekend I am going camping and last weekend I went hiking. So I am actually trying to get more in touch with nature and get out of my immediate surroundings and away from my computer and my phone. I try to make a lot of time for my good friends who are all artists as well. We have potlucks and just hang out and talk about everything that is going on. I feel like I have an amazing support system since we are all trying to make things happen. Also having a partner who understands your lifestyle is so rewarding. I have an amazing boyfriend who tells me daily it's all going to be ok, which sometimes is all you want to hear.

This way of life can at times be crazy, intense and makes me wonder if it's all worth it, but in the end when I go to sleep I know I wouldn't want any other life. Despite always thinking about money and surviving, I think it's all worth it. I think you should only do what it is you're passionate about. There are always sacrifices but getting the opportunity to meet and work with so many artists is truly amazing. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by art and be an artist. It's a wonderful way to navigate this life.

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores.  Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net.. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.

Too Much Success: A Multi-Part Series

Guest post by Rena Tom

photo: Rena Tom

"The fortunate people - the truly fortunate - are not so much those who succeed in life as those who succeed in living. There are some who do both; many who do neither, and some who do either one, but not the other. Success in life, so called, can be overdone, but hardly success in living. It seems possible to succeed too much in various lines of attainment, legitimate and sincerely profitable in themselves, but success in living involves getting the most out of life, not in a day or a year or a decade, but in a lifetime. That involves living wisely, and you can't live too wisely."


-- Edward Sanford Martin, "Too Much Success", 1908

Jan asked me to start a conversation about a topic that is multifaceted and complex, yet not often broached online. There are plenty of articles on making your business more successful, but let’s look at the other side. Can you be too successful? And if so, what can you do about it?

As a creative entrepreneur, you might be thinking, "gee, nice problem to have," but be careful what you wish for. If you are not ready for success, you may end up overworked, underperforming and poorer - financially, emotionally, or both - than when you started.

Today I'm going to talk about success in broad terms, how to measure it and and how to achieve work/life balance. In future posts, I'll cover tactical tips for people who have too much success in their business, and then get into technology-based solutions to increase productivity so you can spend more time being creative and enjoying the fruits of your success with your loved ones.

Defining Success

How do you define success? Is it a specific number of units sold, or a dollar amount at the end of the year? Is it getting into your favorite magazine, or being featured on your favorite blog? Is it a really nice compliment about your work, or a warm thank you note from a fan? Or perhaps it's being able to make enough money to stay home and be with your family.

Everybody has a different definition, and the trick is to recognize your own standards and not get sucked into trying to achieve goals that other people set for themselves. Competition can be rather insidious, as this thoughtful article on design*sponge touched on. Focus on your own needs and stop wasting time thinking about the other guy!

To craft your definition, you should take your business goals and blend them with your personal goals. For the former, these tips break things down very nicely, and for the latter, I love how Mighty Girl formulates and achieves her life list. Review your goals at least once a year to see how you've done and also to see if the goals still hold true.


Achieving Balance

If you have hit a lot of your business goals but are still unsatisfied, maybe it's time to address your work/life balance. I talked to Meighan O'Toole who writes the fantastic contemporary art blog My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses. She recently made the decision to cut back on her blogging to three days a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday).

Meighan O'Toole of My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses

Meighan also has a full-time job that she enjoys and wants to keep, which is sometimes the case – not everyone wants to quit their day job! Finding the sweet spot between hobby and full-blown business can be challenging, and is one instance where too much success with your creative endeavor can be a problem.

Meighan’s new strategy is "to cover the best of the best [to] set me apart from the hundreds of art blogs that have started in the past 2 years" and to stop "posting and posting - trying to keep up with the Joneses." We talked about burning out from trying to post so often and how the decision to go for quality instead of quantity is both less time-consuming and more satisfying.

She now schedules her week to allow time for both work and play, and focuses on her writing on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. On the other days she might do a studio visit but otherwise sees her friends, goes to the gym, et cetera.

Here are a few tips Meighan wanted to share:

  1. Take a minute and enjoy your life in the moment. Refuse to 'capture the moment' to put online.

  2. Make sure you get out & see people, get inspired. The book The Artist's Way says you must continually refill the well to keep putting out creative vibes. If the well dries up, so do you.

  3. Take one day, maybe every week - maybe every two weeks - and do nothing job-related. Read a book, do something nice for yourself like a massage, sleep, watch bad movies. Stay still & let the world come to you for once. DO NOT open your laptop on that day.

I know that monitoring your business 5 (or 7) days a week is still a requirement for many of you, but Meighan's advice to not always frame your actions in a business context is solid. Business may be a very large part of your life, but it is not your entire life. Why be successful if you don't have time to enjoy it?

How do you balance the demands of your business with maintaining your personal life? Do you worry too much about what your competitors are doing? Do you feel successful?

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores.  Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net.. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.

New Mini Series Guest Blogger: Rena Tom

photo credit: Hula Sevent

Earlier this month Katie of The Wheatfield suggested a blog post for Poppytalk on being overwhelmed as an independent artist/entrepreneur.  As she mentioned, many are sure to be in this boat and she'd love to hear from others about dealing with the stresses of running a successful business.

I couldn't agree with her more.  And as I thought about this, I instantly thought of Rena Tom.  Rena recently started her newest business as a retail strategist for creative business owners, and having previously owned the successful boutique and art gallery, Rare Device with locations in New York and San Francisco along with being a new mom, I thought she might have some great advice with respect to this question. 

Please follow Rena here in a mini series as she starts a conversation starting today about balancing success.  She'll explain more in her post but I just wanted to say how excited I am to have her joining us and I definitely recommend visiting her new site where she covers so much more with respect to running a business both on and off line.  She has a lot of knowledge to share and executes explaining it so well as you'll see (if you haven't found her already).  So please join me in welcoming her, with her first post following shortly.


A little bit about Rena:

Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores. For this work, she has been featured in publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Lucky, Real Simple, Food and Wine and Martha Stewart Weddings as well as on many design blogs and newsletters. She has contributed an interview to Craft Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business, and has been a juror for the AltCraft section of the American Craft Council Show.

Previously Rena operated a successful jewelry design and wedding invitation design business and was a web content management consultant. She remains an avid crafter, and blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net.. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.