The Show, in existence since 1977, is one of the most exciting, prestigious and highly successful contemporary craft shows in the world.  All proceeds benefit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

All work is for sale.  Artists must be in attendance during show hours and are responsible for the sale of their work.   Overall sales by artists are approximately $3.4 million each year.  Approximately 18,800 people visit the show.

Designeyes are looking to select 26 artists from the UK to participate and would like to invite you to apply.

The show is open to all craft artists, incl. basketry, ceramics, furniture (includes all media), glass, jewellery, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, textiles and wood.

The stands costs appr. £1,600 for 8x10ft stand, 6 corner stands are available at appr. £1,800 each, and two larger stands (12 x 10ft) at appr. £2,500.  The stand fee includes 7 nights in a hotel nearby.

Designeyes will charge a management fee of £300 per applicant as well as taking a 20% commission of your total sales to cover all our costs of setting up and running the project.

Deadline for application: 8 March.

For more information please contact designeyes/Flow Gallery on info@flowgallery.co.uk for further details and an application pack.

If you have a new label, innovative idea, product or service, our team of experts can assist to fast-track your business to success, which minimises your risk.  Many great new ideas do not reach their market due to poor strategic planning, lack of expert advice from high level advisors, and poor access to useful networks.  Many do not even get to the first hurdle of accessing expert market feedback.

Our  Bootcamp will fast-track entrepreneurs to this first stage, and further. Entrepreneurs will be matched with a team of experts who will work with them to direct their strategies to make sure their business idea is properly researched, developed, planned, funded and launched; increasing their chances of success! The experts have extensive strategic planning, brand development, retail, buying, supply chain, e-commerce, legal, pitching and finance experience.

There’s also a cash prize of £1,000 for the entrepreneur with the best idea pitched to our experts during the Bootcamp.

When?: Fri 15 – Sun 17 June

Where?: London College of Fashion, Holborn, London

Costs?: £412.50 plus vat = £495.00 total

For more information about the programme and our experts check out the Fashion Enterprise website, or you can book directly here.

It can be a very creative process, mapping out the journey ahead in a visual way, imagining what you want to do, and then to check on a regular basis if you are still on track.

Here is my collection of business planning books that have really helped me over the years to help design and crafts businesses in a creative way to develop and even stretch their big ideas, to set great goals through a variety of techniques, but most importantly to get them into action and turn their ideas into reality.

These books go from ‘the big picture’ thinking to planning ‘in detail’. 

All 5 books are available through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Ives Pigneur

You should read this book to identify the big building blocks that make up your business and create a visual business plan that shows how they connect with each other.

It really helped me and some of my clients to become more playful around very strategic decision making, especially when you are developing a new business, product or service.

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers is a great book to start brainstorming different business models or looking at different income streams.

Great for quick future scenarios thinking in a group – for your own design or crafts business, but potentially also when working with clients who want to develop a new product or service.

In an afternoon or a day you can come up with different business models with the help of this book in a very playful way.  No long strategy meetings, just brainstorm!

It helped me to understand what business models actually are, and how the web and internet are really changing the way we do business and how we make money.  The ideas in this book where the starting point to develop and test the business model and new income streams for The Design Trust.

In a way this book wants any business to be more like a design business: “Business people don’t just need to understand designers better; they need to become designers,” – Roger Martin, Dean of Rotman School of Management.

It breaks down different aspects of your business, and then shows you how interconnected these segments need to be to make the overall business work successfully.

It really makes rather abstract and strategic thinking a lot more fun!

Business Model Generation is a great book for creative entrepreneurs as it very visual and beautifully designed by London based designer Alan Smith of The Movement.

The ideas around Business Model Generation were co-created through crowd sourcing, with contributions of more than 200 people.  You can find some great presentations online explaining the ideas behind the Business Model Generation in a very visual and quick way.

There are lots of creative and innovative case studies in the book, incl. Nintendo wii, Swatch watches, Skype, Amazon.

Firstly it takes you through the 9 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas:

• who are your customers?
• what are your key activities?
• what value do you add?
• what communication and sales channels do you use?
• what relationship do you want with your customers?
• what revenue streams are you creating?
• what resources have you got?
• what key partnerships have you got?
• what do you spend your money on?

It then describes various techniques and tools from the world of design that can help to describe, discuss and design a better businesses of any type: customer insights, ideation, visual thinking, prototyping, story telling and scenario building. Just a pictorial reminder of these different creative techniques make it valuable for most design businesses to read it.

There is a great in depth chapter about the SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).  SWOT can be a great tool to evaluate your internal and external forces, but most don’t go deep enough.  This book asks some really great questions to help you get deeper into your SWOT.  Very useful indeed to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Finally it goes through the process of evaluating with existing and new techniques your different business models.  It explains how the Business Model Canvas can be turned into a more formal business plan.

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers doesn’t give any answers, but asks the really big questions for you, and gives a step-by-step process to identify your business models.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

This book is one of the most useful and popular self-development books in the world.  In fact this is not a business planning book at all, but it uses some great tools for creating your life vision or purpose, that are extremely useful in creative business planning too.  Especially as so many design and crafts businesses are sole traders or freelancers (were you are your business) this self-development book can be used to plan your business.

I did found the title of the book a bit off putting to be honest, and it didn’t sound that relevant to me when I read this book for the first time nearly 10 years ago.  However, it really touched me on a deep level on questioning what my purpose and values were in my life and work, what I was really passionate about, and what I really wanted to do with my career and work.  I have re-read and re-used parts of  the book again over the years, just as a reminder, both for myself but also for business clients.

I recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People strongly if you are looking for the ‘big picture’, need help with time management or goal setting, want to identify what makes you really tick, or if you are stuck or feel lost in a job or career that you don’t enjoy. This book is about big and long term thinking.

The 7 Habits are:

• Be proactive: this is about taking the initiative to make choices based on your values and principles, as well as taking responsibility for your behaviour rather than your mood or circumstances.
• Begin with the end in mind: create a clear purpose or mission statement to guide you on a day to day basis.
• Put first things first: Focus on things that matter most, regardless of them being urgent or not.
• Think win-win: This habit is about seeking mutual benefit for all parties, encouraging conflict resolution, and thinking in terms of abundance in opportunities, wealth and resources.
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood: When others feel listened to, valued and affirmed, then true communication and relationship building can take place.
• Synergise: is about creating something bigger than 1 + 1.
• Sharpen the saw: This habit is about taking the time to renew all aspects of ourselves: physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual to avoid burnout.

I have used this book many times with my business clients, especially when working on:

• Developing a long term vision or mission statement through the 80^th birthday exercise.  See another blog post: What is your vision?
• Time management: Anything in your inbox or on your to do list is either urgent or non urgent, important or non important.  So you get 4 possibilities: urgent & non important, urgent & important, non urgent & important, non urgent & non important.  Covey’s ideas is to set time aside to work on the non urgent & important quadrant (often things to do with systems or the foundations of your business or life), because if you work on this more ‘strategic to do list’ regularly many things on it will become less urgent.
• Sharpen the saw: look at all aspects of your life and spend time on activities that give you energy, with people that support you.  Many high achieving creatives or entrepreneurs can feel lonely and stressed.  Spending some time to rejuvenate are essential to continue to be creative and fulfilled.

The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam

You should read this book if you are a creative sole trader or freelancer who wants to be guided through the business planning process to a really high quality, visual way of creating your unique business plan.  This book is published to such high standards that it feels at times more like a museum catalogue than a business book.

The Creative Entrepreneur: A Diy Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real is also a great book if you are struggling with the idea that you actually can make money from something that you are passionate about and really good at.

Or if you know what you want to do, but are self-sabotaging your route to success.

The Creative Entrepreneur is great for start-ups but also if you feel rather stuck and want to re-focus and get some more clarity in what you are about.

Lisa is a visual artist, as well as a business & marketing strategist, and this book is full of very creative examples of all the different planning tools she uses in her training workshops.  Nearly every page has examples with full colour images. Some really stunning visual and imaginary plans and images in here!

The Creative Entrepreneur is a great starting point if the ‘traditional formal written plan’ doesn’t work for you.  The exercises and plans created in this book can’t really be shared with the average bank to get you a loan, but they will really help you to identify what you want to do and how to make it happen.

Lisa works a lot with visual journaling whereby you gather ideas and concepts through doodling or images or just a couple of words.  I like this idea of business planning as a journey, being able to see your progress over time, getting more and more clear about what you really are about and want to do.  This kind of circular movement (with getting more and more clarity and focus) reflects much more how business planning really is in practice then this idea that you would flash a good business plan out in a week.  It might take you a while before you really know what your business plan is.

The Creative Entrepreneur main concept is focused around the idea of a mandala and 4 pathways that need to be balanced:

• Heart & Meaning looks at your passions and dreams, creating a purposeful business;
• Gifts & Flow looks at your unique talents that contribute to ‘flow’;
• Value & Profitability looks at creating a customer-centric business, and how to create and deliver value that people will pay for;
• Tools & Skills looks at developing your business and leadership capabilities to achieve the results you want in the first three pathways.

If you know what you want to do, but still struggle with worries or ‘thinking too much’, then there is a really useful chapter in this book about ‘Mastering the four modes of functioning: sensing, thinking, feeling, acting’.  These 4 modalities have a direct impact (constructively or destructively) on our mood, thoughts, energy and outcomes, which will affect your results, and ultimately if you are successful or not.

It gives some really great creative examples about how to tackle your fears, procrastination, pessimism, negative self-talk, over-analysing, over-optimism, lack of confidence or self-esteem (to name just a few!).

The Creative Entrepreneur: A Diy Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real also shows the strategic tools of the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and setting SMART objectives – but does this in a uniquely visual and creative way.  Really great to be able to see other creatives visual examples.

The last chapter in The Creative Entrepreneur is about ‘The Essentials of Promotion’, which shows again some stunning examples of branding, business cards and promotional material.

I hope this book doesn’t bamboozle you with lovely inspiring images of other people’s careers and businesses or scare you that your visuals wouldn’t be up to scratch to the standards in this book.  It really should give you the courage to turn your vague ideas into images and then into a highly visual plan, which can be highly productive and insightful.

The Right-Brain Business Plan by Jennifer Lee

You should read this book if you want a step-by-step guide to creating a formal business plan, but starting from a more visionary and imaginary way (e.g. use your right brain!).

The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success really goes deep into each aspect of running a business, and each aspect of a formal business plan. It includes the different ‘formal’ business plan elements (executive summary, vision and values, competitor analysis, finance, marketing, management and personnel, operations and action plan) and works with a variety of creative exercises to turn your ideas into a business plan.

What is really great about The Right-Brain Business Plan is that after doing the creative exercises and tools, it is only a very small step to actually create a business plan that any bank manager would be happy to consider.

The book shows a wide variety of creative exercises (incl. visual, interviews, story telling, collage) and examples, with great success stories that seem very achievable for most freelancers or sole traders.  At the end of each chapter there is a very useful recap of activities and a check list of what you just learnt.

There is a great chapter in this book about creating a support network so that you don’t have to do it alone.  As the rest in the book, this chapter really covers a wide range of solutions: creating your ‘helping-hands-wish-list’, creating your job role and job description, who to hire and what to outsource, getting a mentor or coach, forming strategic alliances and partnerships, assembling a board of advisers, finding an accountability buddy.

The last chapter in the book gives great practical tips and tools to turn your goals into reality, how to keep the momentum going, and how to keep your business plan alive on a daily basis.

Some of the wording in the book (‘Managing the moola’ instead of money) and the style of the hand-made illustrations might put some people off.

Craft.inc Business Planner by Meg Mateo Ilasco

You should read – and especially use – this book if you are a geeky crafts person that gets excited about to do lists, filling in templates and is passionate about check lists …

That’s me! As an ex-graphic designer and business adviser I do have to say that I really love this beautifully created planner.

Lots of space to put in your own notes, sketch out your ideas, draft your budgets.  It really does make you feel organised and in control (if you are that kind of a person!) with everything together in a well designed folder.

Craft Inc. Business Planner really is a great DOING book that takes you through all the nitty gritty detail of selling your crafts.  There are separate folders for: business basics, product line, marketing, wholesale sales, trade shows, retail shows, extra worksheets and contacts & resources.

There are lots of quotes of designer makers and experts such as Grace Bonney, Editor of Design*Sponge.  There are great infographics (such as a press kit checklist) and well-designed planning tools.

This book is very much aimed a the American crafts market, so certain parts are less relevant such as the financial and legal side of running a business.  However, if you are looking at approaching the American market, you might find it useful to have the US terminology at hand.

What are you favourite business planning books?  Have you read or used any of the books above? Comment below!

Promoting or selling online with an established website or directory is one of the best and cheapest ways to increase your profile and to generate sales all year round.  They have overtaken galleries and other sales opportunities like consumer and trade fairs.  Many galleries now research for new products on line too, so don’t be surprised if a gallery in the US approaches you through your Etsy shop!

Instead of creating your own website, it is far easier to sell your crafts online by joining one of the many established online shops or directories.

As they have already an established traffic stream coming to their website, it is far easier to increase your profile and get sales, than when you create your own website.

They have established admin practices and do most of the marketing for you, so that you can concentrate much more on the making and selling, then when you have your own private website.  Many designers and crafts people actually use their individual shop or profile as their main website, as it saves so much time and money.

There are three levels of online sites to promote your craft products:

• directories that give short listings and direct to your own website e.g. The Crafts Council Directory or Craft Central Designer Maker Gallery
• online market places where you create your own shop e.g. Etsy or Folksy
• online shops that sell your products e.g. Not On The High Street or Seek & Adore

Each of these levels ask for a different input from you, and charge different rates and commissions.

Do your research!

Before you start applying to all the different websites that are out there (and there are 100′s!) make sure that you have done some market research.  Does the site fit in with your target market, brand and price level?  Do they actually sell the products that you have got? What are their selection criteria, terms and conditions, what are the charges, what happens when consumers return your products, who keeps the stock and sends your products to the consumer, and when do you get paid?

Some of the sites are online shops, where they do most of the work on marketing and administration on your behalf. Your name might not even be attached to your products, and obviously the commission or fees they take are higher than with the DIY sites.

Other sites are like a market place or a directory where you include the images and tags, where you do all the promotion and most of the admin, and where you actually run your own online shop or portfolio.

Here are some of the questions that you might like to ask to determine which site(s) are the best for you:

• What are the charges?  Is there a one off joining fee or annual subscription?  Is there a listing fee, regardless of you selling the item?  How much commission do they take?  Do they prescribe how much your postage & insurance will be?

• What kind of payment options do they accept?

• How popular is this site (with your audience!), and what marketing do they do? There seem to be a lot of sites out there that look good, but actually do not get any traffic.  Make sure that you don’t spend a lot on fees, without thoroughly looking at their traffic and sales figures.

• How does the website look like?  How user friendly is the site? Both for you, but also your potential clients.

• What are the price points for similar products like yours?

• If a site is really popular, would you actually be able to handle large orders? 

• How many international consumers or trade buyers attract the site, for example would you be able to ship your work confidently tomorrow to the US or Australia?

• Who else is promoting or selling their work on this site, and is this the kind of work you want to be related to?

• Are you looking to network with other designers or crafts people? Some websites (like Etsy) create a seller community spirit with joint online and offline events and lots of training support.

• How easy is it to leave?  Are their binding contracts?  And what happens if you are off on holiday for two weeks, can you temporarily close?

Much of this research you can do online (seller forums are often a good place to get some gossip!), but also make sure that you talk to other designer makers, as they often have information about which sites work well and which ones don’t.

You might be tempted to have more than one online shop, just research what works best for you!

And this can be a great launch pad to set up your own private website.

Images

One of the most important things to do is to provide very good images of your work. This will ensure that you get through the selection if it is a curated site, but also obviously will help to sell your work to potential clients.

Images need to fit in with the overall feeling of the site.  Some websites prefer clean shots against a white background, others prefer highly stylised images. Often a combination of overall shot plus a detail shot are the best. Really show your products to their best ability e.g. texture, colour, softness.  Most sites allow you to have max. 4 images per product, really use this to your advantage.

Make sure that your images and products fit with the website’s feel, brand, target market and price level.

To improve your credibility and positioning, it really helps if you are able to group your products into a certain collection or theme, for example baby & mum gifts, ceramic kitchen & home ware.  That way your products will be displayed together in the same category, and will look far stronger than if you have lots of different single products across different categories or tags.

Even with only a couple of complimentary products at different price levels you can create a strong and professional collection.

You can take images yourself, but often it is worthwhile to work with a professional photographer who has got experience photographing hand-made products. Great images can get you onto selling websites, but also into trade shows, exhibitions and into the press.  Definitely worth the investment!

The best way to sell your work is by using models – but unfortunately it is also the most tricky and off putting bit if you don’t get it right! Ideally you would use a professional photographer, with a model, stylist and make up artist.  That way your work will be presented in the most professional way.

Do some photographic research in how other people present their work. 

Especially if you are in highly competitive category like precious jewellery, it is really important that your photography and work stands out.  Doing research can also really help you to describe better to a professional photographer how you want your work to be shot.

Tagging

The second most important thing is to ensure that you tag your work well.  Tagging are the words that you add to your images, and are the key words that people put in to search for products.  Just tweaking these words a little bit, can really help potential clients find your work.

As people can’t see, touch or try your products you need to give them as much info as possible – in writing and with your images.  Your tags should include materials, colours, size, type of product, and anything else a potential customer would like to know.  It often really helps to get somebody else to read your description to make sure that you have included everything.

Do check with the website owner, very often they can give you more detailed advice on what works well.

Popular product lines

Make sure that you fit in with key seasonal festivities such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Christmas.  This will ensure that you get more sales throughout the year.

Many of the craft website like to have products that can be personalised in a certain way e.g. with names or dates.  Gifts for men and wedding gifts are also a categories that are popular. Make your products more ‘giftable’ through nice presentation or boxes, and show these in your images as well.  If you have products like that then make sure you include them in the selection, as the chances that you are selected increase dramatically.

Build trust online

It is essential that you communicate clearly with your customers, even before they have bought from you. Being on a well known site will make potential customers more secure.

Your images, profile and feedback will all contribute to your credibility.

Keep in regular contact with the online shop owners, ask and follow their advice about what works and doesn’t – they should be the experts!

One of the main reasons that people buy design or crafts products online instead of major retailers is the personal connection with you. 

So make sure that your communication with them is personal and friendly.  Wrapping it as a present, or hand-writing a thank you card to your customer included in their package will be very well received!

If somebody asks you a question online, answer them asap.

A good starting point to draft your own online shipping and return policies is by checking the website’s policies, or the policies of the courier you are using, as they actually will do most of the work and set the parameters.  Be clear and upfront about your postage and insurance charges.

When people order from you ensure that you promptly send a friendly email to thank them and let them know that you received their order.  Give them details when they can expect the products.  When you ship the product send them another email with tracking information.

Be honest and straight forward in your communication with your potential clients, they will appreciate it!  If you only ship on Mondays, or if you are on holiday for two weeks, then let them know.  If a product is currently sold out, then let them know.  People don’t like to wait.

Make sure that you package your products really well, to avoid any damage in transition.  It will avoid a lot of heart ache, on your side but also the buyer’s!

Consider carefully how you will deal with returns.  Only you can decide on your return policy, and as long as it is clear you should be covered in the event of a dispute.  However, even though you might be in the right, be careful how you deal with an unsatisfied customer.  Try to see how you can work out a solution that works for both of you.  As a small online business you depend on positive feedback, and it really isn’t worth your energy to have a fight with one customer about money.

No matter what happens, try to remember that you are a professional.

Did you find this post useful? Why not share it with others?  Have you got any additional suggestions?  Other blog posts with recommended websites and directories to sell your design and crafts will be published in the next coming weeks – watch this space!

Ideas Tap is looking for projects that are inspiring, original, innovative and that will deliver.  Your project must take place between April and December 2012.

This round of Innovators is open until 22 March.

For more information and the terms & conditions check out the Ideas Tap website.

There are various categories, including ‘start up of the year’, ‘retailer of the year’ and ‘creative business of the year’.  Business owners can nominate their business for the prize at the Waltham Forest Business Competition webpage by the 30th March deadline. The Waltham Forest public is then asked to vote to select the overall winner who will be announced on 30^th April.

Further information can be found at the Waltham Forest Women in Business website.

Since 2004, the Clore Leadership Programme has awarded over 200 Fellowships to outstanding individuals from across the cultural sector.  Fellows come from diverse backgrounds – they may be working freelance or within organisations.

The Fellowship Programme aims to shape emerging creative leaders though in-depth learning, tailored as far as possible to the needs, aspirations and circumstances of about 25 individuals a year.  The structure of the programme includes residential courses, an extended placement, individually selected training, mentoring and coaching.

For more information and the full application pack see the Clore Cultural Leadership website.

When? 13 March, 9am – 2pm

Where? Pool Innovation Centre, Trevenson Road, Redruth, Cornwall TR15 3PL

Costs? Free

For more information and to book check out the Grow Cornwall website.

]]> http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/flash-to-bang-the-product-design-process-free-seminar-cornwall-13-march/feed/ 0 http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/cheltenham-design-festival-who-is-designing-the-future-20-22-april/ http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/cheltenham-design-festival-who-is-designing-the-future-20-22-april/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:44:59 +0000 Patricia http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/?p=1077 The Cheltenham Design Festival will see great creative thinkers from many areas of design and innovation coming to Cheltenham. It’s a 3-day event revolving around the theme ‘Who is designing the future?’ Designers from all disciplines, engineers, architects, inventors, innovators and technology experts will discuss the role that creativity plays in improving our lives.

Speakers confirmed so far include: design guru and expert Stephen Bayley, Britich product designer Kenneth Grange, creative thinker and innovation expert Nick Jankel, urban innovation expert and creative thinker Charles Landry, architect Stephen Marshall, Chiief executive of Conran Group Roger Mavity, landscape and garden designer Dan Pearson, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, visionary retailer George Davies.

There is the festival, an academy for young people, and various masterclasses.

When? 20 – 22 April

Where? Parabola Arts Centrre

Costs? Tickets will go on sale end of February.

For more information and to buy tickets, click on the Cheltenham Design Festival website.

Design Event is now looking for designers who want to exhibit this year in September at 100% Design.  Designers must be based in the North of England, incl. North East, North West and Yorkshire & Humberside.  You need to have innovative and market-ready work in furniture, surface design, textiles, lighting or product design.

For more information and an application pack check out the Design Event website.