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What to do if you want to make more money as a creative? 8 strategic questions & actions

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Dear Design Doctor
I am a ceramicist and sell through a lot of galleries. Frankly I can’t keep up with demand, and my work is very labour intensive. I have been gradually increasing my prices and have worked out what I ‘should’ charge – around £40 for a mug, but I actually charge £20 – £22 (retail price).
This means I get less than the minimum wage – I simply want to make more money as a creative. I don’t expect to make a lot as a potter, but I would love to earn a bit more than this!

 
The answer to this real-life question is provided by Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust:

Patricia van den Akker of The Design Trust

‘Thanks so much for your question, and great to hear you are selling well, but as you probably had already worked out yourself: you can’t continue like this! You might be busy, but this is not a sustainable business – neither financially nor emotionally.

So, what can you do?

There are plenty of options for you to make more money as a creative. Do you have the guts to make some (big) strategic decisions for yourself? Here are some big questions I would be asking you as a coach or adviser:

Question 1: Are you procrastinating? Could you be quicker?

Firstly: Have you calculated your cost price correctly? Although you mention your price above, I am not sure if you are actually covering ALL of your costs. Click here to find out how to calculate your cost price correctly.

You might think that you are expensive, but it is very common for makers to miscalculate and charge too little for their products, and barely cover all their costs.

Or creatives say that they are profitable, but actually still pay themselves too little! It’s not just your materials that you need to cover, but also your overheads such as your studio space and marketing, and in particular your labour and time.

Calculating your cost price is a crucial first step if you want to make a better living as a creative.

The next step is to check if your production methods can become more efficient. Have a critical look at your creative – and making processes and evaluate if you can decrease the time spend on each task.

  • Can you group certain tasks together and become more efficient and effective by producing them in batches?
  • Are some production methods really labour-intensive but would your clients really see the difference? And more importantly: would they be prepared to pay extra?
  • Can you work with an assistant, outsource or delegate tasks to somebody who charges less than you (might be tricky below the minimum wage!)
  • Are you spending a lot of time to get your ceramics ‘perfect’? Are you overworking your work without anybody really seeing the difference? Are you actually not that busy and therefore spending more time on your products then is actually necessary? (Answer that one honestly!)
  • Do you really love what you do but not really see yourself as a business? Have you still got a bit of a hobby-mindset going on? It’s very common when you are starting out to be slower, and therefore the prices you need to charge are relatively higher against a more experienced maker.
  • Could you make more products per hour? Or simplify the designs so you can ?make more?

Although you might not get your cost price down that much, these efficiency savings will help to make more money as a creative. Especially as any gallery commission will double or triple your retail price any savings on your cost price can have a big impact.

GET INTO ACTION:

Become more aware of how you are spending your time. Keep accurate time sheets for a few weeks. And start to keep a time sheet for every project or commission you do. You might be surprised how much time they take, which might make you more realistic when you are putting proposals together in the future! What’s also interesting is that when you start keeping time sheets like this, then you start to procrastinate less nearly automatically!

Start to be more honest with yourself about how you spend your time: Is your perfectionism getting in the way? Are you faffing, procrastinating and taking too much time? Could you get more efficient? Are you taking yourself and your business seriously enough?

Find out the facts about your cost price too so that all your costs are covered. Knowing the facts often encourages makers to finally charge appropriate prices!

Question 2: Why compete with the High Street’s mass-manufactured goods?

Because that’s what you seem to be doing! And that’s a battle you will always lose. Sorry.

Your price expectations seem to be very low to me, as you are comparing your products with price levels for mass-produced products!

The reality is that your uniquely made products are very different and you can’t compete with a machine!

You and your potential clients (stockists included!) need to see that a handmade mug is different from a mass-produced mug, and that the perceived value of both should be very different. If you don’t present your work more uniquely to the outside world then you will never get that higher price you need (and what it is worth!) and make a better living as a creative.

See here the story of the £12,000 table and that you too are selling much more than just a product.

I see this issue of competing with the High Street and mass-produced items often with crafts, in particular with functional giftware and interior products, such as ceramic mugs and plates, handmade cards, printed cushions and wooden salad bowls:

  • There is much more pressure on the prices of functional products as the consumer has a psychological price that they will pay for such items. Clients have often an idea of what they would pay for a wedding gift for example or what a mug ‘should’ be worth. In comparison: the price of a piece of art is often harder to guess than a functional item.
  • There is a lot of competition from far cheaper mass manufacturers importing from cheap-labour countries for functional items. Again this brings perceived value and the price down.
  • And an extra problem with functional ceramics is that consumers like to buy them in series: 4 of the same mugs, 6 dinner plates. That puts even more pressure on keeping the single unit price low.

In my opinion it will be very hard for you to compete in this product area. It will be an ongoing battle (that you are likely to lose). And I doubt you will ever be so efficient that you can sell to galleries at £10 with a profit (unless you are planning to become a robot!).

And I doubt that that’s the kind of creative business that you want to run?

GET INTO ACTION:

Stop creating work in a very competitive market (where you won’t be able to win on price) and start being more creative with the products you make and how you present yourself if you want to make a better living as a creative:

  • How can you make more unique products that have a lot less competition?
  • How can you create work with a higher perceived value and therefore you can charge more for? Can you increase the size, change materials or make it more decorative or illustrative?
  • Present your work in a better way, in better places? Improve your branding and photography?
  • Make them more one-off and exclusive? Can you create a limited edition (individually numbered)? For even more ideas see question 3 below.
  • How can you make work that is more ‘art’ than ‘design’ or ‘manufactured’? Because Art has a broader and more flexible price point than most functional creative products.

TOP TIP: My topsy-turvy pricing tip: Instead of calculating your cost price and then working out a wholesale price and retail price … instead start at the other end: What do you think your clients would be prepared to pay? What could be worth £50 or £95 or £250 in your business? And then work backwards to see if you can produce it for those price levels. Get creative with your price points and what you want to create!

Very often we see that actually increasing your price points or offering different price points can make your business more sustainable than focusing only on selling lower-cost items!

Question 3: Can you add value (without adding costs)?

There are plenty of ceramicists who sell mugs for £40 or more.

Very successfully!

So, what’s going on?

These £40 mugs might be classic vintage, have historic value, are elaborately decorated (think English beer steins!) or created by well-known potters.

How can you add value to your work without adding costs?

How can you make your ceramics worth more? More valuable to your potential clients? And make more money as a creative!

In my talks I regularly give this example about cushions:
I see many fairly similar, printed, small square cushions out there that cost £40 – £60 retail. To be honest that is pretty expensive for many customers, especially as fairly similar cushions can be bought on the High Street for far far less. Why copy what’s already out there in the mass market?
If a cushion designer would create a more unique cushion (e.g. a different shape, add applique, or increases the size dramatically) then these cushions would be worth more as there is less competition and more interest.
If a cushion designer would create a large floor cushion then the costs would only go up marginally, because although the material costs would be higher, the biggest cost of labour wouldn’t be much higher as a small or a large cushion take up a similar amount of time to make. But this larger cushion will be worth much more in the eyes of a consumer! It’s not a cushion, it’s a piece of furniture! And you can easily charge £100 – £120 for that!

So how can you add value to your ceramics?

  • Can you add decoration, beautiful and more unique glazes or colours? Or really personalise your mugs?
  • Can you create very specialist or unique mugs? Make them more local? Add illustrations or mark making?
  • Can you play with the size, and make lovely big coffee mugs that fit snuggly in your hands? Or create a set of very collectable americano cups?
  • Can you make your ceramics more ‘handmade’ or more ‘high end designer maker’? Deliberately making them more unique and exclusive, rather than machine-made? (Here we go again!)
  • Can you move away from mugs and start to design larger ceramic pieces for which you can charge more? Think about more ‘art-like-non-functional’ items here such as vessels or wall pieces as art has often got a higher price value than functional items. (See question 2)
  • Can you add ‘keep sake’ packaging to make it a really special gift (but keep the costs down!)?
  • Can you increase your own profile as a ceramicist? Is your branding and photography in line with your profile? Have you won any awards or have you taken part in prestigious events? Can you share your story on your packaging?

GET INTO ACTION:

Become more aware what your products are worth in the eye of your potential clients.

What can add value to your work without adding costs?

Charging more is all about the perceived value, rather than the actual value.

Get more creative with the type of product you create and think about the perceived value for your type of products. How you can improve the branding and presentation.

And just a kind reminder … just because you are selling loads, that doesn’t mean that you are profitable! One of the easiest ways to increase your sales and profits is by stop selling unprofitable and products and start introducing higher end products. Go through your recent sales and identify which products are losing money, and then either increase their price or stop producing them and start replacing them with work that is sustainable and profitable.

Question 4: Are you underselling yourself?

What’s interesting is that you have done the calculation and the facts are stating very clearly that you are not charging enough. And still … you have decided to overrule these clear facts and charge less then you should! Hummmm.

So, what’s going on there?

Why are you not charging the right amount?

What is stopping you from charging the right amount?

Are you worried that nobody will buy from you?

Do you worry that you or your friends wouldn’t be able to afford your work?

Do you love what you do and therefore don’t see it as a ‘real business’?

Do you think that your work isn’t good enough yet?

Do you worry what others might think?

Two things to consider here:

  1. If you charge too little for your ceramics then ‘people in the know’ will think there is something wrong with it. They won’t think ‘oh what a bargain’. Do you really want to be known for being cheap?
  2. If you continue as you are at present you will get completely overworked and likely get a burnout. Is that worth it? Are you still enjoying your work or has it become a hamster wheel out of control?

And yes, you aren’t the only creative who undercharges and undervalues themselves. It’s very common! And I suspect that the vast majority of craft businesses should massively increase their prices. Especially women. Because we love what we do. Because we ‘don’t do it for the money’. Because we are worried about being too successful. Because ….

But unless you start taking yourself seriously then nobody will!

GET INTO ACTION:

How can you work on your confidence? Your own emotions and behaviour around money, selling and marketing (often ‘learned’ at a very early age!) can have a huge impact on how you run your creative business and your ability to make more money as a creative.

I very often recommend this book by journalist Barbara Stanny on ‘Overcoming Underearning’ to help specifically with tackling money mindset issues. Or this book by creative coach and poet Mark McGuinnes on Motivations can help too, in particular the chapter about money versus creativity.

Unless YOU start to work on your confidence, and charge and communicate what you, your skills and products are really worth, through regular communication and presenting yourself appropriately, you will continue to be a poor artist in everybody’s eyes (especially in your own eyes).Unless you work on your mindset around money and your confidence then nothing will change.

I can give you all the advice in the world around increasing your prices, or changing your business model but unless you realise that YOU need to take charge of your business you will continue to make a loss.

Which direction do you want to take? Make a living or continue to be poor and very busy?

Question 5: Are you showing in the right places?

Getting the right price for your work is directly related to WHERE and HOW you position yourself.

Pricing is relative. What is expensive in one place, might not be expensive in another location.

Are the galleries you are with selling other high quality, more expensive crafts? If your £20 mugs sit next to a £95 cake stand or £150 collectable tea pot then your mugs won’t look out of place at all! But if you are selling online or at an amateur craft market then your mugs will be very expensive indeed.

You say you are selling with a lot of craft galleries. I suggest you assess your current stockists critically, and find some new higher end stockists that sell higher end products and attract clients that understand the value (and therefore the price) of your work.

I assume that you are selling maybe locally or that you might be selling to ‘tourism shops’ where price levels are often lower.

Rethink where you want to sell, if you want to make a better living as a creative.

Good professional galleries, collectors and regular buyers of good quality crafts know the value of high quality handmade products, the training and skills required. They will know their clients well and can advise you on what sells and what doesn’t, and what you can charge.

Many creatives worry about the affordability of their work, and lower their prices very quickly if they don’t sell. But the reality is that the price level isn’t as important for the purchase as you might think. Lowering your prices doesn’t necessarily get you more sales. What you need to focus on is doing more marketing to the right clients.

GET INTO ACTION:


Are you showing in the right places? Identify a list of at least 15 shops, galleries and events where you would like to show and sell your work. Make a list of the ceramicists who are selling there right now, the kind of work they sell, and their price level. Do some research into the places that appreciate your skills, and approach them professionally to start selling in the right places for you and your work.

Or look at who your role models are, the ones that are able to charge what you would like to charge. What are they doing differently?

Get inspired (don’t steal!) how they present themselves online and at events. What can you learn from others and how they make more money as creatives?

Question 6: Do you need a middleman at all?

Or what about not selling through galleries or shops all together?


Galleries have to charge commission, and therefore make your retail price high! (for more info about why galleries charge so much commission, click here.)

Especially at the beginning of a maker’s career the added commission doesn’t work in your favour: you are still relatively slow and learning and therefore it takes you longer; you are not well known enough and therefore can’t charge a premium (yet); and adding the commission of the galleries or retailers will make your retail price simply too expensive.

The reality is: many new makers can’t afford to sell wholesale.

But: You don’t have to sell wholesale!

You could have a very profitable business and make a better living as a creative by just selling direct to consumers, via craft markets, online with your own web shop and getting commissions.

You will need to do more marketing and selling yourself than you probably do now, but your profit margins can increase and you will have direct contact with your clients, which can lead to higher value commissions and personalising your products.

Or … look at other trade buyers too …

Option 7: Different trade, different price.

If you want to make series of tableware but your prices don’t stack up for selling wholesale, then see if you can sell through other trade businesses such as interior designers or create hotelware. They buy in larger quantities like retailers, but they pay more than retailers (normally they get a 30% discount on the retail price).

Many small restaurants, organic coffee places, and boutique hotels love to have a more unique tableware range to present their food and drinks. And they are prepared to pay for it!

And there is a creative and commercial opportunity for you in this too: The shapes and colours in hotelware are much more adventurous than plain white plates that are most common in consumer tableware.

GET INTO ACTION:

Can you sell in bulk, to others than retailers? Get curious and see what other creatives are doing.

You can approach high end restaurants and hotels directly (do your research of who is interested in design and presentation), but there are also specialist agents in this field.

Or find the interior designers or branding consultants who specialise in working with these kind of boutique hotels. Tableware decisions are often part of interior or branding decisions when a restaurant is (re-)launched. Find out who works in this field and then pitch directly to them.

Option 8: Create a higher value collection

As I said at the start: Functional ceramics have a very clear price point in consumer’s and wholesaler’s eyes.

You can’t change that.

But what about getting more creative with the kind of products you make?
What about products that are less functional?
More collectible?
Larger in scale?
Work that is worth (much!) more in your client’s eyes?

I am not trying to turn you here into a ceramic sculptor or artist, but think about larger ceramic vessels, lidded pots, vases and bowls.
These have a functional purpose, but are also decorative, and therefore worth more.

In the last few years the TV programme The British Bake Off has sparked big trends and sales in bakeware products. I wouldn’t recommend to you to create ramekins (too functional again!) but do think about the presentation of cupcakes and tarts.

Could you make beautiful platters, a footed cake or even a tiered cake stand? Something that’s really beautiful and a future family heirloom? These kinds of beautiful AND functional items are more unique (and less easy to produce by the mass market!) will sell!

What will you do?

I have given you 8 very different strategic questions and options to make a better living as a creative. It’s up to you now to decide which way is best for you and your practice and business.

But you do need to make a decision! You do need to change direction!

If you continue on your current path then you will make very little money. Or worse: you will soon lose your passion for making.

Get more creative not just with the products that you make … get creative with your business model & marketing.

Make your creative business work for YOU.’

Did you find this blog post useful? Did it get you thinking about your own business and pricing? How creative you can be to make a better living as a creative? Have you got other suggestions or do you feel similar like this ceramicist? Please add your comments in the comment box below.

10 ways to get better traffic to your creative business website

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Do you want to get more but especially BETTER people (AKA potential clients!) to visit your website or Etsy shop? Visitors who will actually buy your gorgeous creative products or commission your design services?

If you want to get more online sales then the first step is to get traffic to your creative business website!

The Design Trust website gets thousands of visitors each month and is a key marketing tool for our business. In this practical article, Patricia van den Akker, director of The Design Trust shares her own experience of how you can drive more and better traffic to your creative business website.

Tip 1: Use the right keywords to attract your ideal clients

If you want to get more and better traffic to your creative business website then the number one tool to use is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and use the right key words for your creative products or brand.

Think about what your ideal clients are looking for, not just in terms of product type (e.g. a scarf, ear rings), colour and materials, but also WHY they are buying (Use keywords such as Halloween, stocking filler or housewarming gift) and WHO they are buying for (go beyond the obvious ‘gift for women’ and use more specific keywords and tags such as ‘present for pets’, ‘gifts for bakers’ or ‘jewellery for rock stars’).

If you are running a local business (e.g. a venue, gallery, but also run craft workshops) that attract local people or from a specific area then don’t forget to include your location e.g. ‘print workshops in York’.

Once you have identified your keywords, use your key words in the product title and the first 50 words of your product descriptions to increase your ranking. Use Answer The Public, a brilliant key word tool to show you what people are searching for around a particular topic or product.

Find out here why SEO and keywords matter when selling on Etsy and Not On the High Street, but not so much for your own website.

Tip 2: Categorise your product pages properly

Giving the categories on your website the right name can really help you to rank higher on Google, but also on Etsy and other online creative market places. The reason is that the category also appears in the URL of your web page and therefore will score higher than random words on your product pages.

So for example, use category names such as ‘silver necklaces’ or ‘ceramic tableware’ rather than ‘collections’ or ‘portfolio’ because they will show up higher in online searches. The URL of that product page then becomes… www.mywonderfulbiz.com/silver_necklaces/

Tip 3: Post in-depth case studies regularly

Blogging is a very useful marketing tool to increase the profile of your website and brand, and can also really help you to get more quality traffic.

One of the best secret market tools for creative businesses is case studies – especially if you offer design services or commissions. A missed opportunity as very few creatives use them!

The secret to writing an effective case study is to really explain the entire process that’s involved in working with you on a design project or commission. Start with setting the scene of who your clients were, what the brief was or what they were looking for, and then explain step-by-step what happens throughout the process.

Case studies can really give an insight into how you work, your eye for detail, your creative process, your excellent customer care and the decisions you make and challenges you have had to overcome. Include images of your prototypes or sketches throughout your story. And then finish your case study with a picture of the end result and a quote from your happy client – not just about the final product but also about the process and their experience of working with you.

If you name and tag this blog post with appropriate key words, then future clients are much more likely to find you when they are searching for something similar. A good example of this is pet artist Jo Scott’s page here: www.joscottart.com/pet-portrait-commissions/

Our Business Club members can watch an in-depth online webinar recording here on how to write good case studies and promote them effectively.

Tip 4: Use trending & timely topics

Can you include keywords in your product pages or in blog posts around topics that are very popular right now? Think about:

  • When the Pantone colour of the Year is being announced
  • Key design or craft events that your audience or clients visit e.g. write a blog post review or do an interview with a key exhibitor or speaker
  • Gift holidays such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and of course Christmas.
  • Awareness days that are relevant to your business and audience. World Book Day or Small Business Saturday are great events to get involved in! You can see a full list of awareness days here. Have fun and get creative!
  • What’s of interest to your clients such as key sporting events, Chelsea Flower Show or TV moments such as the Great British Bake Off and The Great Pottery Throw Down.

Your keywords can of course also become hashtags on your social media to drive traffic in that way too!

Tip 5: Pitch for a relevant guest post

The Design Trust website traffic went through the roof in 2018 when I wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper about How to start a craft business (you can still read it here!).

When you get published on a big online resource then you get positive ‘back links’ to your website, which is a very powerful tool to build your ranking on Google.

What are the most important online resources and blogs that your ideal clients read? Identify at least 5 specific websites that publish guest posts that your ideal clients are interested in.

Do your research and pitch some specific ideas to them. If your guest posts get published then you might get really high end traffic, but also if it’s an important and popular site such as The Guardian newspaper then your ranking will increase very quickly as the Google computers will increase the importance and relevance of your site.

Need a bit of help to identify who your ideal clients are and what they might be interested in? Read this blog post with 10 questions to get to know your dream clients better.

Tip 6: Answer your client’s questions

What questions do your clients have about your kind of products or services?

If you can create a blog post explaining technical intricacies or answering their questions then they might come across you when they Google their questions.

Make sure that the URL name of the blog post uses the relevant key words to increase the chances of being found. The Design Trust website gets a lot of traffic because we answer many questions that creative business owners might have about business planning, marketing, costing and pricing. Many of our blog posts indeed start with ‘How do I do x’.

Use the language that your clients might use in their questions to get the best ranking results.

Or type in the question that you want to answer into Google and see other variations of that question coming up too. Or use the Google Keyword tool to get a very detailed insight into what keywords to use.

Furniture company Luke Hughes has published some very good technical blog posts about wood veneers for example to help their architectural clients.

Tip 7: Install Google analytics or something similar

Do you know how many visitors your website is currently getting? Have you got reliable details not just about numbers but also about who your visitors are, how long they stay, what your most popular pages are? Google Analytics can give you the answers to that, or check out the analytics on your Etsy, Shopify or Squarespace website. We also recommend a really handy SEO and traffic tool called Ubersuggest that was created by Neil Patel.

Check out your facts so that you know how much traffic you are getting but also what they are looking for and the keywords they are looking for.

And when you see your traffic numbers steadily going up on Google Analytics that’s a mega motivation to keep driving traffic to your creative business website!

Tip 8: Do you promote your blog posts and product pages? Consistently?

When you have published a new article or product on your website then don’t just hope that your ideal clients will find you! You need to work a little harder on getting website traffic these days.

Send out an email to your database about the new post or your latest product with a clickable link back to the specific page on your website. NEVER send readers to your home page in the hope that they can find the right page! They won’t have the patience.

Also promote your blog posts on social media regularly to move your social media followers onto the next stage of the client relationship.

Social media is a great tool to drive more traffic to your website, as it’s only one click removed from looking at their social media time line.

If your online articles are ‘ever green’ then continue to send new followers to your articles so that they get to know you more or learn more about you, your creative business and products.

Tip 9: Is your content shareable?

If you regularly add good quality content to your website then it’s much more likely that readers will share it.

Have you got social media icons on your pages that make it super easy for people to share? Do you ask for comments (really good for your Google ranking!) or do you ask them specifically to share with others (The Design Trust does – see bottom of this page!)

Do you refer to other articles and product pages and include internal links? This will make sure that your reader or client is more likely to stay longer on your site, and also remember you.

Tip 10: Do you promote your website … wherever you are?

When you do events do you promote your website too? Your visitors might not yet be ready to buy from you, so make sure that you hand out promotional material with your website so that they can shop online afterwards.

Do you send invites out for events? Make sure again that your website is included, as they might not be able to attend.

Is your website includes on all your social media introductions? Social media is key to drive traffic and if somebody likes what they see on your Instagram or Pinterest feed then make sure that they can find your website easily.

Is your website address on your price list or included in your email signature?

Make sure that you promote and communicate your website address on every promotional and communications tool you use. Your website is your online home and the easiest place for your potential clients to purchase from you – whenever they want, wherever they are in the world.

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Did you find this blog post with 10 ways to get better traffic to your creative business website useful? Then do let us know in the comments below. We would especially love to hear from you what you learnt specifically and what you did as a direct result of reading this article.

Get to know your ideal clients with these 10 questions

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Want to get to know your ideal clients better? Are you struggling to identify who your dream clients are and how to approach them?

Many new creative businesses struggle to find out who their potential clients could be. But it doesn’t need to be that difficult! Marketing isn’t rocket science and using your common sense can get you very far.

Start to think about who might be using or buying your creative products or services. Ask other people too. Look at where your competitors are selling or talking about their work. That kind of research can give you important clues to who your ideal clients are.

If you are really struggling to identify your potential clients then it’s very likely that you aren’t focused yet or clear on your niche:

What do you do best and who are your ideal clients?

It also might help you to know that you don’t have just one ideal client – but probably around 3 – 5 different client types or groups! Don’t try to put them all together because you will be creating a monster that doesn’t resemble your ideal client in the slightest!

Why is it important to get to know your ideal clients?

If you know who your ideal clients are then:

  • You will find it much easier to design and create the right creative products and collection for them – original, innovative and creative products and services that are actually wanted because you understand their needs and wants better and you have more empathy for your ideal clients. So it will be easier to sell your creative products and less likely that you end up with a lot of unsold stock! 
  • You will find it much easier to position yourself in your marketplace and to stand out from the crowd because you will be designing more specific products for specific client’s needs, and you will know how to attract your clients with the right photography and styling, showing at the right events, and appearing in the press that they read. By being focused on serving a specific client group you will become a specialist and it’s easier to become known by your ideal clients because you will know exactly where to show and sell your work.
  • You will be more focused and effective because you understand your clients at a deeper level, meet them in the right places, know when they are most likely to buy and how to attract them. The whole creative process from designing to launching your products and services will be much easier.
  • The more you understand who your ideal clients are the more you will understand who you are, what your special talents and strengths are, and that will help you to become braver in your designs and more confident too. You and your clients are not necessarily the same people, but you will have some values and tastes in common.

If you think that everybody is your client, then you will have a lot of disappointment in your business (unless you have got unlimited amounts of money, time and energy to reach them all!).

The reality is that less than 1% of the general public is interested in what you do. If you want to create a successful business then it is YOUR job to find your clients!

Like in the playground you need to start looking at who YOUR ideal clients are. Read the other 6 marketing myths that might stop you from being more successful with your creative business.

Once you have got a bit of an idea who your ideal client groups (both your potential consumers, trade clients, and stockists) are then use the following 10 questions to get to know your dream clients better:

Q1: Who are they?

On a very basic level start to think who your clients are in socio-economic terms e.g. their gender, age, life cycle, income, job, hobbies, etc.

  • Are you selling your colourful graphic prints cheaply to recent design graduates, a young couple moving to their first flat in Brighton, or to a pregnant yummy mummy in Hackney who wants to put some in the nursery?
  • Are you selling your bold silver statement rings to a goth for that special event, to an ambitious Marketing Executive who wants to show a bit of oomph at that press conference, or to a woman in her fifties who wants to celebrate her freedom and show her personality? What do they want to express exactly when buying or wearing your big silver rings?
  • Is your natural linen textile wall hanging appealing to a recently divorced psychedelic lady in her 40’s, a couple of retired lawyers looking for art for their cottage in Devon reminding them of their extensive foreign travels, or for the office of a creatively-inclined dentist in Central London who wants to calm down their client’s nerves?

Understanding your clients at that level will help you to create products that they will love to buy and treasure for a long time. 

This kind of socio-economic information used to be enough to do successful marketing, but in the last 15 years or so we have all changed a lot and we all belong to different tribes. ‘Older’ people are harder to stereotype these days, so age or gender alone will not tell you enough to identify your clients. Therefore these next questions will help you to get to know your clients at a deeper level.

GET INTO ACTION:

Get a piece of paper and start writing down some of your answers to the questions below. Or first read through the entire blog post (it’s a long one, but a good one!) and then return to the start here and answer the questions. Or bookmark this page or print it off.

Q2: What jobs and hobbies do your ideal clients have?

What job do your ideal clients have? Many creative products are bought by people who aspire to be creative but aren’t necessarily creative themselves. Your products or services will make them feel more creative, more themselves and give them some personality! You need to find the people who have an interest in art, design, and creativity as well as the money to purchase it.

Especially if you want to sell to rich people it might be really useful to dig a little deeper into their hobbies as they often spend a lot of money. For example, a wine connoisseur worked together with a furniture designer maker I know for many months to get his wine cellar just exactly right. They both really appreciated their passions and wanted to create the very best and unique space solution.

People working in the press, marketing or law often purchase creative products. Why? Because they want to look good, they often have events where they ‘need’ to look special, and want to surround themselves with beautiful products.

GET INTO ACTION:

Do you know what your ideal clients do for a living and in their spare time? Start to get inquisitive and find out when you talk to them at events. You will be surprised about the similarities that many of your clients might have.

Or you can deliberately create products for specific hobbies such as special heritage gardening tools for gardeners, spiky and rebellious jewellery for rock-lovers, or simple artisan ceramic plates for bakers to show off their wares.

Connecting with people’s hobbies will tell you a lot about their values and what’s important to them in their life.

Q3: What’s important to your ideal clients? Their values

What matters to your ideal clients? What are their values? Are they interested in ecological issues and limiting waste, or buying handmade or from local independent shops? Or do they just want to purchase a memorable piece of jewellery for their spouse to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, but they don’t have a lot of time and want to be really sure that it’s right for their partner?

Trying to persuade somebody who isn’t that interested in you or your work is very hard work.

However, it’s very likely that your dream clients share your values!

Are your dream clients looking for a ‘safe’ gift or a more personal gift?

Do they want something affordable or do they want to ‘show off’?

Do they want to know the person who made it and know where it came from, or do they ‘just’ want a bit more of a special gift?

Are they prepared to pay for the highest quality and can they wait to get the very best, or would they prefer good quality but a sooner delivery?

REAL LIFE STORY: A passementerie client (creating very elaborate textile trimmings for interiors) I worked with many years ago worked only with the very best. She was often invited to work with celebrities, ministers and in embassies. She was extremely good at matching the exact colour of traditional interiors with contemporary passementerie, and she loved to work with high-end clients and specialist interior designers, making them feel very cultured and ‘rich’. But what her famous clients really appreciated about her was that she would never tell anybody anything about her clients or what she would see in their homes and especially their bedrooms.  She took confidentiality extremely serious.

Understanding what’s important to your clients will help you to connect with them and to reach out to them.

GET INTO ACTION:

If you don’t know what your dream clients’ values are then start to think about what’s important to you in YOUR life and business. What are you passionate about? Where do you clash with people or when do you feel your boundaries are being pushed?

Knowing yourself will help you to understand your ideal clients. If you are a control freak then it’s good to work with other control freaks, who appreciate your very high eye for detail, rather than people with a laissez-faire attitude!

If you want to sell directly to consumers as well as to retailers then you might like to split them out as they might have slightly different values and motivations. Although they often overlap (consumers will buy in shops they love, and these shop owners are passionate too) the professional buyers will have additional values around making money to ensure that their shop thrives.  Or if you are working directly business-to-business (e.g. as a freelance graphic designer) then your professional clients will have values around either making or saving money or saving time.

Split up different client types and their values. What are the differences between consumer and trade, but also within trade or consumer groups? Get curious, do your research, and use your imagination a little to spot the differences and similarities between them? Can you create around 5 different ideal clients and write down their gender, age, jobs, hobbies, values?

Q4: Where do they live?

Where do your ideal clients live? Do they live in big cities or small towns? Which countries do they live in?

But also: What kind of house do they live in? Do they live by themselves, with a spouse or with children? Do they live in a chic, black-marbled penthouse flat overlooking Hyde Park, in a flat in the Barbican, or a Victorian terrace in Bristol?

If you are creating products for the home then you need to start thinking about the style of their homes:

  • Is it contemporary urban, shabby chic or mid-century modern? Can you create a collage of how your ideal client’s home looks like and what they are trying to express?
  • What other homeware brands do they surround themselves with? The more specific you can be with their style the better!
  • How does their living room look like, but also their kitchen, the study, the hallway, children’s rooms and the garden? Different rooms can be used for very different purposes, and some are more private than others. For example, people spend more money on cushions for their bedroom (that can stay more pristine!), than cushions in the living room that will be used more and are more likely to get dirty (especially if they have kids and eat on the sofa!). Start to investigate at that micro level when you are creating products for your ideal client next time!

Many interior products are purchased regularly, but if you create homewares that are once-in-a-life-time-purchases (such as a specially made dining table) then you really need to understand your client. You might have to build trust over many years before they decide to commission you or purchase. Many designer maker furniture designers I have worked with spend considerable time getting to know their clients before designing and creating the perfect table. Read here a story of a furniture designer who asked me how to sell a £15,000 table.

You might also consider what their offices or workplaces look like, especially if you are selling to professional clients, as they might not just purchase for their homes and gardens, but for their workspace too. Would you be able to sell your artwork to a psychiatrist or dentist for example, or what about the boardroom of a local accountancy firm? What do they want to express with their art or decorative objects to their clients and employees?

GET INTO ACTION:

At this stage, it might help you to create collages of the kind of houses your ideal clients live in or would like to live in.

You can create a mini story and give them a name, gender, age, and job, with a short biog of who they are. And you can add the words that you collected before to your collages too.

These creative exercises can help you to focus on getting clear about your signature style, your branding, and they might give you new and more unique product ideas that you can design in the future. Work that your ideal clients love so much that they are much more likely to purchase them!

Q5: What do they wear?

If you design jewellery, fashion or fashion accessories then you need to work out what type of clothes your ideal clients wear:

  • How would you describe their fashion style? Classic, long-lasting slow fashion, or do they follow the latest trends? Do they love colours or more natural fabrics?
  • What other brands are in their wardrobe?
  • Do they wear very different clothes for their job than for their leisure time? Does their job (see Q 2) require them to wear certain kinds of clothes?
  • What are they trying to express with their clothes?
  • Where do they purchase their clothes?
  • And what do they value? Do they want something that really captures their personality or something that they can wear for a special occasion (at work or home) or when they take the kids to school? Statement pieces and day-to-day-pieces require very different jewellery and fashion accessories!

GET INTO ACTION:

Create a collage of their clothes, what they wear and when can really help you to create more unique products and also give you ideas about the styling and the photography of your own jewellery or fashion accessories.

And if you make a list of actual shops and online places where they purchase – that’s a great starting point for a database, or a list of brands to follow on social media!

Q6: Why do they buy? How does it make them feel?

Now we are starting to dig beyond the surface of your client’s life and motivations. Are you ready to put your psychology hat on?

Finding out WHY your ideal clients buy your kind of work is one of the most important marketing questions to answer!

Finding the answer(s) to that key question can truly help you with developing better and more unique products, and to help you with writing better product descriptions or emails. Especially if you can identify how they want to feel if they see, touch, purchase, use, wear or gift your products then you will find it much easier to sell your products or services successfully.

REAL LIFE STORY: Recently I overheard a mum and daughter talking about the various wedding photographers they had seen that morning. They weren’t that interested in the technical details or even the style of the different photographers, but the bride-to-be kept saying that ‘he really made me feel good about myself’. (And what’s more important than that on your best day ever?!)  Indeed the most important thing when you are a wedding photographer is: How do you get on with the nervous bride and bridegroom and their families and friends. Your people skills and soft negotiation skills will often get you much further than being technically perfect.

Indeed, your customer care is crucial if you want to sell your creative services, but also your creative products – you are selling so much more than just a product! Often, you are selling an experience.

Understanding why your ideal clients are interested, want to buy, own and treasure your creative products is crucial.

There might also be specific occasions that your ideal clients might want to buy – for example as a Christmas present or their 10th wedding anniversary. Being aware of these occasions can help you to plan better for busy times (most of my creative clients sell the vast majority of their products in the 10 weeks before Christmas) but also to write better copy and connect with your clients in your emails, social media, and product descriptions.

Your consumer clients will purchase for more emotional reasons whilst your trade clients want to make sure that your products will sell and make them money.

GET INTO ACTION:

Add to your collages words that express how your clients would like to feel:

  • Not just when they purchase or browse for work like yours, but also when they own and use your products or services. Or how they feel when the give your work to somebody as a special gift.
  • What are the questions or worries they have about your work or about you?

This exercise can really help you to get into your client’s mind and heart. And with that clarity its’ often much easier to write better emails, product descriptions or social media texts that really resonate with your ideal clients.

Q7: When do they buy?

Indeed … WHY they buy is closely related to WHEN they buy!

They might be looking for a gift for Mother’s Day, a wedding present for their niece, or a souvenir for their next door neighbour who looked after their house while they were on holiday.

If there is an important occasion and a good reason then there is far more chance that they will purchase. If it is a special occasion then they are more likely to spend more and will want to have a special, handmade product with a story to tell.

Being aware of WHY and WHEN your ideal clients purchase can make all the difference if you want to create a sustainable creative business and turn interest into actual sales and commissions.

WHEN is closely related to their motivation to take action to purchase. Not just to love something, but to actually buy it. This might be related to birthdays, weddings and Christmas, but also to bigger motivations such as moving home, refurbishing their homes, creating a nursery, or downsizing. Especially one-off bigger purchases are closely related to big changes in their lives. So you need to make sure that they know of you and trust you because once they have purchased they might not want to purchase again!

REAL LIFE STORY: A couple of years ago we did our attic up and turned it into a lovely bedroom and bathroom for my husband and I. Years before we got planning permission I started to dream about what this space was going to look like. I started a secret Pinterest board years before our attic was ready! And this is very common … you might have clients who drool over your gorgeous products for many years before they are really ready. Then, when the builders were finished I spent an awful lot of money in a 4-week period on new rugs, new artwork, a new king-size blanket, candles, … That was 5 years ago now, and I haven’t spent that much money on interior products since because I simply don’t need them now.

Get curious about WHEN your clients ‘need’ your products or work.

And yes, we all need some luxury products at some point! How can you make your creative products wanted by the people who need them – right now?

GET INTO ACTION:

Are you promoting your products and services when your clients are most likely to buy from you?

Do you make a connection between WHEN your ideal clients are more likely to buy, and when you promote your work? Your marketing can be much much more effective if you promote yourself at the right time of the year and connect with the potential motivation of your ideal clients!

Q8: Where do they buy?

The more you know who your clients are, what their wardrobe and hallway look like, the easier it is to identify where they buy.

What are the shops, department stores and boutiques they go to? Which craft fairs or trade events (in case of professional buyers) do they go to? Do they go to flea markets in France or check out hidden boutiques in the countryside? Do they use online places such as Etsy, NotOnTheHighStreet or have they found out about Trouva yet?

GET INTO ACTION:

I challenge you to create a list of at least 30 places where you could show and sell your creative products and services. This is a great starting point for your own database and for boosting your contact list.

Start following these places on social media, get invited to private views, get their newsletters.

Start engaging with the potential places that you might want to show and sell your products and services too.

We have got a great list here with our favourite places to sell design & craft online. 

Do you find this difficult? Then check out where your role models or close competitors are showing and selling their creative products and services!

Q9: Which magazines or blogs do they read?

The more you know your ideal clients the easier this question is! It’s not enough for you to say that they are interested in reading ‘home and interior magazines’ … you really need to go deeper! There is a huge difference between readers of Red Magazine and Good Housekeeping, and readers of Mollie Makes and Crafts Magazine.

GET INTO ACTION:

Identify at least 10 specific magazines or blogs that your ideal clients like to read. And yes, use images of those magazines to create your ideal client collages!

This is also a a great starting point for when you want more press for your creative business and contact specific magazines. Follow journalists on social media too, as this is a more effective way to start networking with them than relying on press releases. Want to get more press for your creative business, then read this article.

Q10: What questions have your ideal clients got? What are their worries and objections?

If you have answered all these questions so far then you have got a pretty good idea who your clients are already and what they want.

But do you know what is stopping your ideal clients from buying from you?

If you understand that then it becomes much easier to sell your products and services!

What do your ideal clients worry about? That something is too expensive and too extravagant? Check this blog post about what to do if your clients think you are too expensive. Or are they worried about how your wonderfully decorative but very fragile ceramic vase will be transported to them half-way-around-the-world? Or are they a trade buyer who loves your jewellery but isn’t yet sure if it will actually sell.

GET INTO ACTION:

Brainstorm a full list of all the objections or worries that your clients might have. Look back over email correspondence or remember ‘difficult’ conversations you had at shows. Make a distinction between trade clients and consumers. as they often worry about different things.

Then start to identify various solutions against any of these worries, and turn them into happy clients?

  • Can you include an FAQ on your website or tell them how you package your work carefully?
  • Can you adapt your terms and conditions in a way they understand?
  • Could you offer Sale or Return to a new retailer who isn’t sure yet about your work?
  • Can you add better images and product descriptions so you get fewer complaints but also overcome some of these worries and objections?

By being more aware of what your ideal clients worry about you can give them the solution, or a trust-worthy answer. And getting that sale or commission after all!

TDT March Pinterest Quote How to find Ideal Clients Patricia van den Akker
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Did you find this detailed blog post about how to get to know your ideal clients useful? Did you do the exercises? We would love to hear from you below in the comments box below to see what you learnt, and more importantly what you actually did.

The Design Trust’s 28 recommended podcasts for creative businesses

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Podcasts are such a great way to learn, get inspired, hear another opinion or just to have a laugh. Perfect to put on in the evenings or on a train journey or while making work.

We asked our community to let us know what podcasts for creative businesses they are listening to, so here is a list of some of your favourite podcasts (for business and pleasure!) as well as our own recommendations. Enjoy!

21 Podcasts for creative businesses – about business, freelancing, creativity and more

Want to find out more? Click on any of the red headings to get immediate access to these creative podcasts.

The 21st Century Creative

Podcast hosted by creative business coach and poet Mark McGuinness to help creatives succeed amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st century. Check out the interview with our Director Patricia van den Akker too!

The Accidental Creative podcast

Popular podcast for creative businesses since 2005 by Todd Henry on how to make your best creative work, delivered weekly with tips and ideas for staying prolific, brilliant.

The Autonomous Creative Podcast

Jessica Abel’s brand new podcast devoted to revealing the truth of what it takes to be a professional creative and build a life around creative work. Every two weeks, Jessica goes behind the scenes with professional creatives in a wide variety of fields to find out what it took for them to be able to quit the day job and build a creative career.

Our Business Club members can listen to Patricia speaking with Jessica Abel about finding purpose in your life and business here.

Being Boss

Aimed at female creative entrepreneurs and freelancers who want to make money doing what they love. Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon dig into the successful mindsets, habits, routines and boundaries of creatives.

Being Freelance

More than 200 episodes to listen to about what it takes to freelance.

Craft Industry Alliance Podcast

Abby Glassenberg interviews makers about their craft business and how to earn a living through a love of craft.

Creative Pep Talk

The podcast helps creatives make a good living, making good art. Through ridiculous analogies, personal stories and artist interviews by freelance illustrator Andy J. Miller hopes to help creatives break free and plan their creative career success.

Creative Rebels with David Speed and Adam Brazier

Inspiring interviews with creative people who have rebelled against the 9-to-5.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

A series of videos and podcasts by Stanford University with candid interviews with entrepreneurial leaders exploring their journeys, sharing personal stories of the ups and down behind real success.

The Entrepreneurs

Monocle’s weekly podcast interviewing inspiring business owners across the globe.

The Goal Digger Podcast with Jenna Kutcher

Jenna is a brilliant self-made millionaire who talks simply and honestly about marketing, social media, branding and more as well as about being a working mum and the juggle. Really informative podcasts by herself and with a great selection of guests across the business world.

How I Built This with Guy Raz 

Featuring interviews with entrepreneurs and founders who share the backstories of some of the most noteworthy start ups and companies of our day, including Whitney Wolfe of Bumble, Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia, and Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Burt’s Bees. Perfect for any aspiring entrepreneurs.

How to Fail with Elizabeth Day 

Each week Elizabeth is joined by a new interviewee, a respected name in their field, and asks them what they have failed at and also what they learnt from that. It’s great listening!

Illustration Hour

Bi-weekly podcast which sadly ended in April 2020, about the craft and business of illustration and design with in-depth interviews with illustrators, artists, art directors and graphic designers at various stages in their career. All the episodes are still available and worth a listen.

Make / time podcast

Conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from what they’re making, and where they’re going next. Hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum.

Material Matters with Grant Gibson

Hosted by writer, critic and ex-Editor of Crafts Magazine Grant Gibson who interviews a variety of designers, makers and artists about their relationship with a particular material or technique. One of our favourite podcasts for creative businesses!

MONEY CLINIC with CLAER BARRETT

One of Anne-Marie’s favourites, the FT’s money-making expert Claer Barrett responds to real-life money questions from a range of guests. Every episode is packed with nuggets, tips and takeaways shared by top FT writers and financial experts. Super helpful in many ways.

Never Not Creative

Hosts Andy Wright and Sarah Nguyen interview creatives, mental health experts and consultants to share advice stories and conversations linked to our goals as a community

On Design with Justyna Green

Insightful conversations with the ‘most inspiring designers and artists and what inspires them’.

Online Marketing Made Easy

Amy Porterfield is a huge name in the digital marketing world. She built a multimillion-dollar business with online courses and now teaches others how to do the same. The podcast content is perfect for online course creators but she also shares masses of information about digital marketing.

What Works

American small business expert Tara McMullin (Tara Gentile) interviews small business owners in depth about what really works to start and grow their business. One of Patricia’s favourite podcasts to listen to while sitting in the bath …

6 Podcasts for creatives for pleasure

99% Invisible with Roman Mars

Perfect for design-minded folk, this podcast investigates the ways design and architecture play into our everyday lives, making you aware of the world around you in ways you’ve never been before. Topics range from how Las Vegas influenced modern architecture, the development of birth control pill packaging, and the ways that city planning influenced the growth of urban squirrel populations.

CALL HER DADDY

Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy is the most listened to podcast by women on Spotify. Alex Cooper cuts through the BS with every guest and topic, asking the questions we all want the answers to. New episodes come out on Wednesdays only on Spotify and guests vary from Jane Fonda to Jay Shetty, Hailey Bieber to John Mayer.

Desert Island Discs 

Everyone’s favourite with so many incredible people from scientists to pop stars share their life story along with the tunes that they would take with them if stuck alone on a desert island. Our Business Club Manager Anne-Marie Shepherd’s favourite episodes include Thom Yorke, Ian Wright (you’ll need a tissue), Daniel Ratcliffe, and Mel C from the Spice Girls (quite the revelation!)

Getting Curious with Jonathan van Ness 

A weekly exploration of all the things Jonathan van Ness (of Queer Eye, Gay of Thrones) is curious about. Jonathan invites experts in their respective fields to share their knowledge as they get curious about anything and everything under the sun.

No Such Thing as a Fish

A fun fact podcast where Dan, James, Anna and Andy discuss their favourite facts unearthed in the past seven days. A new episode is released every Friday from 2pm.

Planet Money 

A perfect blend of education and entertainment, and makes good on its promise of explaining the economy with stories and some surprises.

Stuff You Should Know 

Still going strong after 10 years, this is a brilliant podcast exploring the story behind, essentially everything. Genghis Khan, Barcodes, Tardigrades. Each episode digs deep into a topic and you’re never sure what you’ll get.

TDT March Pinterest Recommended Podcasts for Creative Businesses
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We know there are plenty more wonderful podcasts for creative businesses out there … Please share what your favourite creative podcasts are in the comments below.

How to apply successfully for a craft fair – behind-the-scenes insights from a judge

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Do you wonder what happens behind-the-scenes during the selection of craft fair applications? What the judges are looking for and what they talk about? What makes a successful craft fair application … or not?

Patricia van den Akker banner image portrait 1

Patricia van den Akker, the Director of The Design Trust, shares in this blog post her experience of being a judge at contemporary craft shows and how to create a successful craft fair application. Although each selection panel and craft fair is slightly different, there are some common challenges and questions that each of them have to face.

“I have been involved with organising and marketing craft fairs and design trade shows for over twenty years. One of my very first jobs in the UK was to organise the selection of the Chelsea Crafts Fair, way back in 1995 at London’s Kings Road.

At that time the Crafts Council would get nearly 2,000 applications (!) for this highly regarded craft fair. Each applicant would send in six 35mm slides (some glass mounted – and no, not all survived the journey in the post!). It was my job to sort all these slides out per category, and then put them in alphabetical order and load over 10,000 slides into slide projectors. During the judging process it was essential that the 6 slide projectors would show all 6 slides of that maker at the same time. If one got out of sync it was a nightmare to get it sorted again!

Fast forward 25 years and these days I am delighted to be asked to be a judge for craft fairs or awards. For the last 6 years I have been a judge for the One Year In Award at the New Designers graduate exhibition, and been a judge for the Not On The High Street Award in 2015, the Etsy Handmade Award in 2016, and also for the selection of craft shows such as GNCCF in 2017 and the Spotted Award at Top Drawer in 2018.

What are the craft fair organisers looking for?

“Craft fair organisers often start the judging day by talking about their specific craft fair, their criteria (e.g the quality and originality of the work) and also that they want to maintain a combination of both new exhibitors and established makers.

They often remind us not to select based on our own taste but to look for diversity – it’s no good to have loads of jewellers in a show, or ceramicists that are all showing very similar work. They want us to choose not just what we like but to select both new makers as well as established ones, and look for variety in styles and price level so they can offer their visitors a choice within a range of quality craft products.

Often ineligible applications have already been removed by the organisers at this stage, for example because the applicant did not provide all the information or correct image formats, or because the work doesn’t fit the event’s criteria. For example if your work needs to be handmade then production-made work will not be accepted.

The organisers then tell judges how many craft fair applications they have received and how many stands are available in total, and often we will get a reminder of how many stands are approximately available per category. In particular as a precious jeweller your chances are often lower as this is such a popular category!”

Your work and images really need to stand out if you want to get into a craft fair, especially in very competitive disciplines such as precious jewellery.

“The selection process goes fairly quickly, as there are often 100’s of applicants. Often the images within one category get shown once quickly, and then all the images get shown a second time a bit slower when the judges cast their vote – for ‘in’, ‘out’ or ‘waiting list’. Mostly by simply calling it out or putting a hand up. Most of the time the votes are pretty unanimous, but when a judge feels strongly either way about an application then they often will argue their case so that an agreement can be reached.

The craft fair organisers often want to allocate around 80-90% of the available places, with the rest going on the “Waiting List”. So if there are 500 applications for 200 stands then about 180 places will need to get the ‘in’ vote and 40 will go onto the waiting list.

Craft organisers use the Waiting List to add some flexibility for themselves. Not everybody who gets selected will take up the offer of a stand after all. And by not allocating all the stands immediately they can review if there are any additional gaps in their craft fair exhibitors in terms of new versus more established makers, and variety in disciplines, style, price level etc.  They don’t want to have too many people on the Waiting List, as they realise that it can be frustrating for exhibitors.”

The secret to a successful craft fair application? Professional images!

“Most craft fair applications I have been involved in are predominantly judged based the images provided. Without any doubt if you want to be successful with your craft fair application then focus on your work and images.

Often the images are separated by discipline, and all the applicant’s images will be projected as a set at the same time, in alphabetical order.

To make it as fair as possible it’s rare that the maker’s name is revealed, although of course judges might recognise the work of certain makers.

Often all the images within one category are projected once to get an overview, and then the judging happens after that. Most decisions are made very quickly, and your images might be seen for only 5 – 10 seconds in total. So you will need to make an impression on those judges fast!

So what are the judges looking for in the images?

Consciously or more unconsciously the judges look for:

  • Do the products fit within the eligible categories or style? Is the quality and product right for this craft fair? Very often people apply while their work isn’t eligible or not right for a certain show. If this is a contemporary craft fair then don’t apply with very traditional work, with Fine Art, or products that are obviously not created by the person themselves. In a recent judging panel we had a lengthy discussion if the maker had only strung the necklaces together, or if the glass beads were also made by her. Make sure that there is no doubt!
  • What is it? Sometimes it’s very hard to see what the product actually is! That can be because only a detail of the product is shown, or because there are so many other items on the image that we don’t really know what your product is. Sometimes the image is very dark or the shadows so stark that it’s hard to see the object. Sometimes it’s hard to see what material the product is made from, if it is indeed handmade or mass-produced, and sometimes the scale is hard to guess.
  • Do you show coherent work? Does your set of slides together look like it’s made by the same person or is it very diverse in style and materials? Especially at the start of your career you might still be trying to identify your style and creating very different work. But try to show a collection of work that is coherent. It’s about getting the balance right between similarity and enough diversity!
  • Are your images in focus? Especially important of course for detailed products such as jewellery. But any shaky image will make you look unprofessional, especially as they will be projected large scale during the judging. Also make sure that all your images have the same DPI (dots per inch) otherwise some images might show up much smaller or bigger than others. Ensure that you check the format requirements when applying, because if the organiser is unable to open your images then it’s unlikely that you will be selected. Quick images taken on your phone, with shadows and a busy background, projected on to a big screen really will not come across as very professional.
  • Are your images professional enough? Most craft fair organisers will use the images you sent in for your application for the promotion of the show. They might ask for additional press images later, but basically the images for your craft fair application need to be of a professional standard so that they can be used in the press. If you are shooting new images think about professional styling, and avoid busy backgrounds. I have seen images shot outside with parts of grass showing up, or a big contemporary chair in a very old-fashioned and brown house. Neither got selected. 
  • Be careful with using models. Using professional models who wear professional make up, photographed by a professional photographer who works with lighting, can create the most amazing images. But if you are not an experienced photographer then be very careful. Look at how other professional makers show their work on sites such as NOTHS or Design Nation for professional inspiration. 
  • Are you showing your work at its best? Especially in very popular categories such as precious jewellery, prints, scarves or cushions you will need to show what makes your work better and stand out. You don’t have to limit yourself by only showing one product per image! Show a collection of earrings or a set of a necklace and a ring that belong together in one image – but don’t add too many items and it feels overcrowded. Show your work really close up so we can see the detail of your craft skills! Go up close to show your weaving quality or the thickness of your glazes. If your work is really big or really small then show them in context so we as judges can recognise the size immediately.
  • If you are an established maker or if you have exhibited at the show before then don’t make the assumption that the judges know you and your work. Show recent work, and if you are planning to launch new work that’s always great to see and a big bonus.
  • If you are looking to add a little variety to your product pictures then add an image of you working on one of your pieces, or add your branding or packaging, and sometimes it can be great to see how your stand or display looked too. But make sure that your products are clearly the heroes of your images!

TOP TIP:

Look for image inspiration at last year’s exhibitors for the show on the organiser’s website and some of the most popular Instagram accounts. This will give you a good idea of the organiser’s expectations in terms of products and quality of image.

What else do the judges look for?

“Most craft fair organisers love showing a diversity of work, in terms of price level and style. However, do research the show in more detail to find out who the visitors are. For example many Christmas craft fairs will be looking to include some more giftable items too, while some of the higher end craft fairs might be looking for wow pieces that truly show off the quality of the work. Tailor your product selection to what the show is about and who attend.  

Most craft fair organisers want to add some new makers and keep some well-established makers who can attract good press and the collectors. If you make more unique work then it’s often much easier to get selected then in the most popular categories such as precious jewellery or fashion textiles, where you will need to stand out more.

Sometimes when there are questions about an application then we might look for further information on somebody’s application, website or social media. But often there is very limited time for this. When it is difficult to see the size or material from an image then the additional information will be checked, or for example if it is unclear if something is handmade by the person themselves or just bought-in and only assembled. 

However, in my experience when an event is for new makers then the website and additional information will be more likely checked too so that the judges can get a better overall picture of the applicant.

Some craft shows, such as Made London do not use external judging panels and they take the time to look in more detail at the extra information and your website, and not just your images.

So when you apply for a craft fair do make sure that your website is up-to-date with good images and information such as materials and sizes, as you are much more likely to get selected.”

Did you find this expert-behind-the-scenes blog post on what judges are looking for in craft fair applications useful? Then do let us know below. Have you got additional experiences as a judge or organiser that you would like to share? Then we would love to hear from you … send us an email or do comment below.

‘How do you manage your time?’ Three creatives share their tips

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Managing your time can be tricky! So much to do when you work for yourself … so much to juggle.

We all work in very different ways. Some people use apps, some swear by paper and pen, some plan their days hour by hour others simply wing it. On the back of this and with the publication of our diary planners, we asked three busy creatives: ‘How do you manage your time?’ and ‘What are your favourite planning tools?

Product designer Sue Pryke

Sue Pryke ceramicist in her studio

www.suepryke.com

Sue says: “My background is firmly rooted in the crafts, having started my journey into ceramics at a small pottery in Lincolnshire in the mid 1980’s.  Learning the skills of production throwing; sometimes digging the clay, then wedging and weighing the clay to throw to all the same size and shape.  I found the challenge of this precision absorbing and the repetitive nature satisfying.  I’m sure it was this early interest into repetitive forms that sparked an interest in volume production and the need to have everything the same.

I’ve worked both as an in-house designer and as a freelance designer for over 20 years for retailers and manufacturers and I still use the skills I learnt in my first job and prefer to work directly with materials, making the initial prototypes, so that I can naturally adapt the forms as the shapes are being made.    

I’m inspired by the everyday and the ordinary.”

I love planning.

I remember our business tutor when I was studying my degree saying that the 3 P’s were an important platform for any business: Preparation, preparation, preparation!

And the other admonition, originally from Benjamin Franklin I think “Fail to Prepare and Prepare to Fail!”

They’ve always stuck with me.

I don’t always stick by this – I can be disorganised and forgetful too – but I’m aware that preparation and planning is key to getting things to run smoothly as well as routine.

I make lists, I have a book to jot down EVERYTHING … and the girls who help me in the studio also have a book each, to jot down exactly what they’ve made, fettled, how much the clay weighs that day, how long the casting time is.

This way we can all keep track of what’s going on, and when and if someone else has to pick up the threads of a job, then we don’t have to start from scratch as the basis is already there, and I know also how long it takes in reality to make something.

I have office time everyday, as well as time put aside for social media, and then a kind of whole office day a week. It’s never quite long enough, to follow up emails and invoicing etc.”

Sue Pryke White Ceramic Tableware
Sue Pryke Tableware Collection. Photo Credit: Yeshen

How I manage my time …

“My day starts with an early walk with the dog or a run, I mean 6.30ish. This helps to clear my head and prioritise, and has to be this early to allow up to an hour for office and social media catch up before I get to the workshop at 9am.

I take an hour out on a Monday morning to go to yoga too and I make sure I am out of the workshop on time for at least 3 days a week by sticking to my exercise classes or running club sessions so that I have to finish on time!

I don’t have any time saving app, but I have a good clear calendar to jot important events down in as well as The Design Trust’s yearly planner as I think this is a good combination of the 3Ps, a daily planner and a calendar as well as business advice. Perfect!’

[Thanks Sue!]

Illustrator Jessica Hogarth

Jessica Hogarth Illustrator

jessicahogarth.com

Jessica says: ‘I am an illustrator and surface pattern designer based in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

My business is made up of 3 strands: wholesale, freelance designing and selling direct to customers via Etsy, Not on the High Street and retail events.

My work is illustrative, colourful and unique and I have applied it to a wide range of products including greeting cards, tea towels, coasters and wallpaper. I have collaborated with lots of companies on a freelance basis including Comme des Garcons, The Wall Street Journal, The RNLI and The British Museum.

My favourite planning tools

“To organise myself I use Google Keep for lists – for both personal and professional things.

I found it hard having a long list of things I was trying to remember being mixed up, such as accounts info being in the same list as booking a dentist appointment! With Google Keep everything I need to remember is in one place, in its own list depending on the topic and can be updated on the move. I am logged in on my computer at work and my phone, so I can add to it wherever I am! 

For day-to-day tasks at work I write reminders on a weekly planner that sits right in front of me. Things crop up during the day that I want to do, or if I have an order arriving from a printer this is where I pop this info. I tend to write a few jobs down for various points of the week on a Monday and add to it as I go along.

I flag emails I want to remember but then put them in a folder as I don’t want them clogging up my immediate inbox – this has helped me feel more at ease about my full email account. The flagging ensures I won’t forget and I check in on them every few days to reply to some.

My diary is my absolute saviour day-to-day. My life is pretty hectic so this goes everywhere with me.”

Jessica Hogarth Illustrative Work
Jessica Hogarth Illustrative Work

How I manage my time …

“I do find it difficult to switch off from admin – I am very organised so I find it difficult to design sometimes when I know there is paperwork to be done. At the moment we are incredibly busy so I am doing admin all morning and then usually getting 3 or 4 hours to design in the afternoon.

When it gets really busy (with Christmas when I am doing local events) then my Mum (who works for me) is in most days too! This Christmas I took a long holiday as I needed it.

I always get run down at this time of year so I made a plan in September and gave myself a few key design deadlines to work to. I have just about managed to stick to them so this is definitely the most organised I have been for new product launch in January. I spent much of the summer working only 3 or 4 days a week due to one thing and another so really focusing and making the most of my working week has helped me to achieve this.”

Illustrator Niki Groom Miss Magpie

Niki Groom Miss Magpie Fashion Spy Portrait
Niki Groom Photo Credit: Amber-Rose Smith

www.missmagpiefashionspy.com

Niki says: “I’m an illustrator for fashion, beauty and travel brands and create hand drawn artwork for packaging and social media. I also illustrate live at events and sell prints of my paintings in my online shop.

I’ve been freelance for 10 years. When I think back to those early years, I remember trying to stick to some sort of structure as that was all that I’d known before in my job as a commercial fashion designer.

How I manage my time …

My biggest piece of advice, rather than downloading a great app or reading an epic time management book, is to work out what kind of worker you are and play to your strengths and weaknesses.

I’m naturally really organised and focused, and I don’t have a family life to juggle, so actually I don’t need an online calendar with unnecessary reminder notifications.

My deadlines are in my head, I know how long things will take and I’m realistic with my time.

However my weakness is that I’ll always prefer to spend time on creative work rather than admin. So to deal with that I now I do my admin in a different place to my creative work. I’m not allowed even one pen there, it’s my desktop computer, my scanner and my files.

There’s so much advice out there, so just make sure you’re trying things that suit you, it’s not one size fits all.”

Accessorize window display illustrations by niki groom
Accessorize Window Display with Illustrations by Niki Groom
The Design Trust March Pinterest Quote Sue Pryke Planning for Small Businesses 1
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Are you looking for productivity tips for your creative business? Check out this epic post on productivity for creatives with 14 detailed tips that work. 

Feeling overwhelmed? Then watch this FREE online video with Patricia van den Akker with 5 practical exercises on what to do to be less stressed.  

How do you manage your time? Do you plan your days out or work adhoc? Are you an app user or a stationery addict? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.

The Design Trust’s favourite finance and money books for creatives

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Are you scared of money and finance, costing and pricing your work? Many creatives are! But the reality is that if you want to start and run a successful creative business then you need to face the money facts and somehow learn those financial skills.

I am often surprised how few creatives have ever read a book about finance or money.

While it’s one of the easiest and cheapest ways to boost your financial skills!

In 2019, The Design Trust organised a special month-long #FebFinance challenge around finance and money, which started with daring creatives to read at least one of our recommended finance and money books for creatives that month – and it was a huge success with 100’s of creatives joining in, commenting and getting excited about money and finance! Yes, reading a book can be very inspiring and life-changing even.  We continue to have finance as our February topic every year in our Business Club.

So, if you thought that there are very few finance and money books for creatives available, then check out our favourite ones here.

We would love to hear from you in the comments if we have inspired you to read one of them!

Women on Money by Julia Rothman - for Good Company Money Issue
‘Women on Money’ by Julia Rothman (c) – for Good Company Money Issue 3

Book 1: Overcoming Underearning – Barbara Stanny

This is one of my most recommended books for creatives, and many creatives have told me how life changing this book has been for them too. 

Barbara is an American journalist who was born into a rich family and then married. Unfortunately, her husband gambled all the inheritance away so she had to get herself a job (and a divorce!). She decided to interview professional American women who earn more than $100,000 to see what they do and how they think differently. This book is the result.

Overcoming Underearning is a great book if you are a chronic ‘under-earner’… somebody who finds it hard to stand up for themselves, who is very likely a people-pleaser, and finds it difficult to talk about money, let alone negotiate a better deal or ask for more.

By the way being an under-earner has got nothing to do with the amount you earn, but that you are earning less than you want or need to earn.

It’s a fairly quick read (less than 2 hours so no excuses there!) but it’s a very powerful book … asking poignant questions about your thoughts and behaviour around valuing yourself and your work. It will make you conscious of what’s going on, so be warned that this book can have a strong emotional impact.

But it could really resolve some of the major underlying issues you might have about undercharging for what you are worth.

It’s aimed at women in particular, but I think many creative male practitioners might find this challenging book useful too.

Book 2: Profit First – Mike Michalowicz

You probably know that sales – expenditure = profit.

But what happens if you turn that equation around? Sales – Profit = Expenditure.

In Profit First Mike Michalowicz explains that most people have this contradictory habit called Parkinson’s Law: “The demand for something expands to match its supply.” Or basically we spend what we get.

Do you spend in line with what you earn?

And when your sales go up … what happens then?

Do you spend more to invest or ‘because you are worth it’? And therefore never make a profit?

Indeed, that’s what many business owners do! When we get more sales then we also increase our spending!

And as we often pay ourselves from our profits, we often end up earning very little because we first spend on the business before rewarding ourselves ….

Sound familiar?

Michael argues in this book that we should first set a limit to what we spend on ourselves (e.g. our ‘drawings’) as part of our business expenses, by allocating a specific % of money to pay ourselves first! So, pay yourself first and then limit your other expenses. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Profit First is a very insightful book that will help you to minimise your expenditure and ‘tame your cash-eating monster’.

Mike shares some really great ideas of how to manage your money better, assessing the financial health of your business, minimising your expenses and debt and starting to pay yourself a higher salary.

You can read the book in about 4 hours, but the ideas and systems Mike shares can have a major impact if you decide to implement his suggested systems of different buckets. Even if you don’t follow all his rules to the letter, but simply allocate your income immediately into pots for salary, savings and expenses, this book will help you to mange your money better.

What they dont teach you about money Claer Barrett

BOOK 3: What they Don’t TEach you about money – Claer Barrett

This is a brilliant personal finance book written by the FT’s personal finance expert Claer Barrett. It is clearly written and easy to understand because it avoids confusing money jargon. What They Don’t Teach You About Money covers everything from our emotions around money to investing, pensions, mortgages, credit cards and student loans. It helps you understand how borrowing money works (and how expensive it really is), how to get into good money practices and how to think ahead – even just a little bit – to plan for the future.

A fantastic book to help get your own finances in order so that you are set up well for your business finances too!

Book 4: How to Become a Money Magnet – Marie-Claire Carlyle

Are you sabotaging your chances to attract more money?

This is a very thought-provoking and practical book, full of questions, quizzes and exercises to challenge your attitudes and thoughts around money, being worth it, and how to break the pattern to become ‘richer’ in your life and business.

How to Become a Money Magnet is a joyful and insightful read that you can dip in and out of regularly, with lots of checklists and case studies. You will get much more out of this book if you decide not just to read the book, but actually DO it.

Book 5: No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: No Holds Barred, Take No Prisoners, Guide to Getting Really Rich – Dan S. Kennedy

I read this book a few years ago and I really had a love-hate relationship with it! (It doesn’t help that the author is close friends with and a big fan of Mr. Trump, and I don’t really believe books with titles that tell you that you will get really rich!). I have to say that I sometimes screamed at this book and squirmed too.

But, it’s actually really insightful, and if you want to sell to rich people then I do recommend this book to you.

Plus, I personally think it’s a good idea to sometimes read a book that you might not agree with. This book will definitely expand your mind and your approach to selling to ‘rich’ people.

The start of the No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent is really useful as he shares marketing data and insights of who rich people are (pointing out the huge differences between a self-made New Money man or someone who inherited money. Between somebody earning say $250K a year and someone earning $10million. Between an older business family man – often with two families (haha) – and a gay couple in Manhattan!), and how they spend their money, and how they want to be treated. Yes, most rich people are optimists, but don’t believe the myths that they are confident! 

The second part of the book is about what they spend their money on, which goes into great detail on what kind of products and services they are interested in, the importance of niches and being the best, and the motivations behind their purchases. And the last part of the book goes into how to market and sell to them, the customer service required, the networking and schmoozing.

This is a long, detailed, and very well researched book, with very specific marketing advice if you want to sell to rich people. It’s not a quick fix book to get rich. (Which is a good thing in my opinion.)

Book 6: Think & Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

This is a finance success classic. It’s unbelievable but this book was first published in 1937.

And what is truly amazing is how relevant it still is today!

Napoleon Hill researched the habits and mindsets of hundreds of tycoons in the USA for over twenty years at the start of the previous century to write this classic on how to become financially successful.

You’ll realise that there have been recessions before and that people dealt with it.

That the struggles we have today around money and success are much more universal, and have very little to do with our current financial, political, economic or internet/technology age.

Think and Grow Rich is a classic self-help book on how to get rich and successful, beyond today’s financial struggles and the interference of social media and the internet (the telephone even barely existed when he wrote this book!).

Timeless lessons from the white men in charge from a century ago are still surprisingly relevant today.

Book 7: Motivations for Creative People – Mark McGuinness

Although this doesn’t sound like a finance and money book for creatives, it definitely is. Mark McGuinness is one of my favourite creative business coaches and when he launched Motivation for Creative People I was frankly a little surprised: “Surely creatives have no problems with motivation?”

But what’s really good about this book is that it covers all of our motivations as creatives, and how they often conflict with each other. Especially the ‘creative’ versus ‘money’ motivation! 

If you struggle in your head to make a living from what you love doing, and find it hard to charge properly for your work, then this is a great book to help you. Mark is a poet himself too, and he explains the external and internal motivations (‘the rewards and the joys of work’), how they work together but also conflict, and how you can create a business model that works for your creative business or career in line with your values and goals.

You can read an extensive book review of Mark’s book here. 

Book 8: Go Fund Yourself – Alice Tapper

This personal finance book is written by a fun loving, British, twenty-something economist, with a good social media profile, and it was recently recommended to me by a millennial (Thanks. You know who you are!).

This book covers the basics of how to manage your money better while dealing with the challenges, insecurities and opportunities of the 21st century. Stuff that we probably should have learnt at school, but we were never taught budgeting skills, mortgage rates or basic investment. Plus let’s be frank: nobody really likes to talk about money, and most of us don’t really know what to do. This book fills that gap.

It’s a really practical and honest book to help you get out of debt, spend smarter and more in line with your own values, get an emergency fund together, get your pension sorted, and even invest. Plus it has got a special chapter about money in business – although it’s a little basic, it gives an introduction to financial terminology, how to start doing your accounts and deal with tax.

But what I love about Go Fund Yourself is that it’s also about the bigger and more inspirational picture around money, and what your financial dreams, values and aspirations are. How to change your money mindset. How to make choices from all the different options. It has a healthy dose of scepticism when it comes to ‘wealth’ and will help you to make a more conscious effort to your financial realities (whatever your age!).

Finance for the People
‘Finance for the People’ by Paco de Leon

Book 9: FINANCE FOR THE PEOPLE – Paco de Leon

This is a wonderful, plain speaking, easy to understand personal finance book that delves into our emotions and habits around money and how we can change them.

Finance for the People asks the reader to look at their beliefs and experiences around money and then offers practical exercises to help shift the mindset with realistic mindfulness activities too.

The book has more than 50 fun illustrations and diagrams to make the concepts accessible. It’s the kind of book we should all read in our twenties to help us not be frightened of money, to help us learn about saving, investing and pensions and to bring in good finance ‘habits’ early.

A fantastic book for people who are not sure where to start when it comes to reading about money!

Book 10: Worth It  – Amanda Steinberg

This book is written by the American independent investment adviser Amanda Steinberg who ran the very successful DailyWorth website, and who was on a mission to get more women interested in money and investment. The first part of the book is all around what you are worth, what stories you have been telling yourself around money, and how to hit the reset button.

Worth It is an inspirational read about money and how you can create the life you want to live. Some of the advice is very much aimed at the American market, and might not be so useful for a British or European audience, but overall her approach travels well. From a British perspective it’s interesting to read her questions around investing in a property, as she personally has been bitten badly and lost her own house in the past and is therefore a strong advocate for renting.

Book 11: Stop Thinking Like A Freelancer – Liam Veitch

Freelancing is tough financially.

Liam used to be a struggling creative freelancer but created a very successful £1 million+ web business and in this fairly quick book (3 hour read) he explains how he did it. How he managed to attract enough of his dream clients, build exposure, and created more predictable income streams. Of course in the process he stopped being a solopreneur and became a ‘proper’ web agency with a team.  And that’s of course not what every freelancer is looking for.

But Liam has got some good points around the small-minded-thinking that many freelancers often have and that can stop them from being more successful.

  • That they don’t think of themselves as businesses.
  • That they need to start thinking bigger.
  • That they need to have clearer financial and business goals.
  • That they need to throw out the non-and-low-paying clients and aim for better and more reliable clients.
  • They they have to start differentiating themselves from the competition.

Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer is a great read for any creative freelancer who wants to up their game and become more professional.

This isn’t a pure finance and money book for creatives, but one that will expand your thinking, make you more strategic and give you loads of marketing and development tips.

May Pinterest Quote Patricia van den Akker Finance Books
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Did you find our recommended finance and money books for creatives inspiring? Did you purchase and read one of these books? We would love to hear from you in the comments. Share with us which finance and money book for creatives you selected and why. And let us know what you learnt, so that you can inspire other creatives to read these books too!

Please note that we have included some affiliate links to Amazon in the blog post above, as many of our readers like the convenience of this online retailer. However, we would love you to order any of these books from your own local book shop!

The best time management books for creatives

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99U time management book quote
From ‘Manage Your Day To Day’ by 99U

Are you struggling with time management? Would you like to be more productive, stop wasting your time so much on social media, and make more time for making and creating? Many creative professionals struggle with time management, so here is my personal selection of the best time management books for creatives who want to stop talking and start doing.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

This is a time management classic for both individuals and organisations. I read The 7 Habits nearly twenty years ago for the very first time and it had a profound effect on me. And it still has!

Although the title is very business-like and corporate it actually goes really deep emotionally. It’s not a ‘quick fix’ book (I wouldn’t recommend you read it all in one go!) but it deals with our human struggle on how to spend our limited time in this world. I have re-read this book now several times, and each time I discover new ways to work on myself and refocus on what I really want from my life and business. It asks some really big questions but also offers practical solutions and activities.

The book centers around the 7 habits:

  1. Be proactive: Stop moaning and start taking charge of your life basically! It’s up to you how you choose to respond to challenges, where you are heading and how you’ll spend your time. What are your values? What do you want to focus on?
  2. Begin with the end in mind: Rather than focus on the here-and-now and immediate tasks (e.g. do you start your day with emails and social media?) start to create a value-driven principle-centered mission of what you want to get out of life. What life do you want to create? What do you want your legacy to be (literally)? Setting long term goals will give you clarity and purpose to help you make better decisions. Then work backwards to set smaller goals and deadlines of what you need to work towards.
  3. Put first things first: Are you making the time for these important aspects in your life? Is the balance in your life right between life and work, you and your family, your health and your money?
  4. Think win/win: You’ll need to negotiate and create relationships build on trust, values and long-term goals if you want to achieve your goals.
  5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood: When it comes to interpersonal relationships will you truly try to understand the other person’s perspective? Really useful chapter also about learning to negotiate – both in business terms and within your family and personal relationships.
  6. Synergise: Put it all together and you’ll get more than the sum of its parts. Through mutual trust and understanding conflicts are resolved and better solutions can be found than when working alone.
  7. Sharpen the saw: Are you looking after yourself (physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually) so that you can be more productive?

I recommend the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People especially if you need to look at the bigger picture and you want to find clarity and focus: What do you want from your life? What’s your purpose and values?

Give Me Time – The Mind Gym

This is both a strategic and practical book that goes straight to your own time management issue. At the start of Give Me Time you do a quiz and based on your answers you’ll get a personal recommendation of which chapters/exercises to read and focus on. Perfect if you haven’t got a lot of time and want a quick fix!

Although this time management book isn’t specifically focused on creatives, it’s very helpful if you don’t like planning, if you feel that you never have the time to do what you really want to do, if you are super busy but it doesn’t fulfill you and if there are too many distractions in your life.

Finish – Jon Acuff

Let’s be honest … do you find it hard to finish projects? To turn your ideas into real products and services that you can sell and launch? You start, work on lots of different projects and ideas …. But you rarely finish them?

This book (you can read it in less than 2 hours) is full of really great insights about why we don’t finish what we start. I really cringed a couple of times …

About the importance of the first day after you start when you are full of hope, when you often supersize the scope of your project, and then don’t follow through. And instead of getting yourself back on track gently, you quit.

About not being good enough. By having only the exceptional standard of ‘perfectionism’. And oh yes, the ugly head of perfectionism raises up regularly in disguise!

About how adding fun and joy to your goals and activities make it more likely you will do them. But how this bizarrely contradicts with out inherent belief that if we want to make something happen it needs to be hard, and can only be achieved by a lot of sweat and tears.

About the hiding places to avoid messing up. (Also called procrastination)

About the importance of tracking your progress.

And the final chapter really hits it home: About why we so often self-sabotage when we are very very close to reaching our goal. (This is so good!)

“What are you getting out of not finishing?

Because you’re getting something.

That’s the true reason why you don’t finish.”

Finish is a must-read for any chronic, super busy and super-excited starters who frankly rarely finish anything and want to really figure out why that is the case. Deep stuff. A book that will make you sit up straight.

Manage your Day to Day – a 99U book edited by Jocelyn K. Glei

This is a compilation of articles by creatives and entrepreneurs around time management including marketing guru Seth Godin, Behance Founder Scott Belsky, graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister, author and creative process expert Steven Pressfield, and creative coach and poet Mark McGuinness (see below).

Short, snappy articles and Q&A’s covering building a rock-solid routine, how to focus in a distracted world, tame your email and social media, and sharpen your creativity.

A beautifully designed books with great quotes such as:

“I don’t wait for moods.

You accomplish nothing if you do that.

Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

– Pearl S. Buck

Manage Your Day To Day is a beautiful little book – perfect if you want to get a little boost and make the most of your time and creativity.

Check out the 99U website for useful time management articles for creatives too.

Productivity for Creative People – Mark McGuinness

If you are looking for a quick introductory read into time management, especially for creatives, then this is it. You can read this practical book in an hour or so, covering both the big challenges and practical solutions for creatives who struggle with having too much on, who don’t have time to create, who feel anxious and overwhelmed most of the time, and who get distracted easily.

Mark has brought together in this book many of the time management gurus, such as David Allen and Steven Pressfield, and translated them for creatives, with many practical stories and insights from his own practice as a writer and poet, and creative coach.

Especially the chapter on how to get creative work done is very useful, with tips including email management, how to stop last-minute panicking, how to design your ideal work week, create rituals and habits to get into your creative zone, how to stop procrastinating by incubating instead (this is truly a marvellous insight!) and even how to make the most of boredom!

At the end of each chapter Mark asks some really poignant questions to help you find your own answers. And throughout Productivity for Creative People Mark shares stories and insights from his own perspective as a writer and poet, as well as his creative coaching clients. If you are looking for a creative business mentor then you find Mark in our list of favourites here.  

Time Management for Creatives ebook (free!) – Mark McGuinness

I’ve recommended this 32-page Time Management for Creatives ebook for many years to creatives as Mark really covers all the aspects of improving your productivity and getting better organised. Although published in 2007 (and downloaded more than 100,000!) it is still very relevant. Highly recommended! And yes, this is a free download.

Organizing for Creative People – Sheila Chandra

Do you believe that creativity thrives in chaos? Then this book is not for you.

This is one of the very few books about organisations systems for creatives, written by a creative – the singer Sheila Chandra. It’s full of really practical advice on how to sort out your systems, paperwork, work and living space, routines, how to make better decisions, planning your work load, delegation and much more. She asks the really big questions for most creatives, but also gives really practical advice to help you get sorted. Organizing for Creative People is for creatives who need a helping hand to get sorted.

Create Space – Derek Draper

We are the first generation that don’t have enough time.

‘Rather than having the need to fill space, we have the need to create it.’

In Create Space psychiatrist Derek Draper argues that we, and especially leaders, deliberately need to make more time and space to think, more time and space to connect, more time and space to do, more time and space to be. And each of these 4 parts is broken up in 3 chapters to create space to reflect, learn, decide, check in, share, relate, plan, deliver, lead, dream, balance and grow.

Each chapter starts with a story explaining a specific case study from Derek’s executive coaching practice, and his psychological theories behind the behaviour and dominant thought processes and behaviours. At the end of each chapter he includes some ‘ask yourself’ questions, often very deep and thought-provoking, or suggest practical exercises to work on.

Derek makes the case for us to deliberately step back and regain some control. Unless we make space deliberately we won’t be performing and developing at our optimum. This is much more than just a question of how we fill our time and diaries, or even how we manage our energy, but it’s mostly a state of mind to create your own life and priorities.

This is an excellent read for anybody who is feeling overwhelmed, who makes rushed decisions, who wants to encourage their deep and creative thinking, who wants to make more time to reflect.

(In 2020 Derek caught Covid and spend nearly 12 months in hospital, he is one of the longest surviving Covid patients in the UK. He is still recovering.)

Personal Kanban – Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Kanban (Japanese 看板, signboard or billboard) = a Lean manufacturing method to manage and improve work by balancing demands with available capacity, and by improving the handling of system-level bottlenecks.

Based on Japanese manufacturing methods to minimise bottlenecks in the system this book shows how you can use these agile working principles in your own life. However machines need to be productive, but people need to be effective. It’s not about doing more and more and more, but about choosing the right work at the right time. Being aware of the impact on ourselves of the work we do, as well as on our colleagues, families, and the wider world.

In Personal Kaban there are only two simple rules: visualise your work and flow, and limit your work-in-progress.

  • Visualise your work flow through Post-It notes into specific columns, moving them from one step to the next will make your work priorities more actionable, and providing a context-sensitive flow.
  • Limiting your work-in-progress will help you to complete what you start and understand the value of our choices.

Combined, these two simple acts encourage us to improve the way we work and the way we make choices to balance our personal, professional, and social lives.

It’s a very simple system that will appeal to creatives who love PostIt note planning!

Growing Gills – Jessica Abel

The subtitle of this book is ‘How to find creative focus hen you’re drowning in your daily life’ and is one of my most recommended books for creatives.

This isn’t a ‘pure’ time management book, but rather a very practical book about the creative process and how to get your best work done.

Jessica is an award-winning graphic illustrator and Professor of Illustration and she created this book to accompany her popular online course The Creative Focus workshop. Although you can read this book in two hours you would totally miss the point. This is a book that you need to DO. Indeed, you’ll get a workbook and short online course for free with the purchase of this book.

As Jessica suggests herself: Read one chapter a week and then do the accompanying exercises in that week and see how it works for you. Indeed this book is more like a course to get focused, rather than a book about time management.

Each chapter deals with a specific challenge that many creatives will recognise:

  • What is really stopping you?
  • Why do we as creatives hold on to too many ideas and how that stops us from finishing any of them?
  • How to identify and gain control over the many commitments you’ve made to yourself and others?
  • How to prioritise
  • Dealing with the ‘Dark Forest’ or why and how we go through creative crisis in the midst of big projects. And how to escape.
  • How to get back on track when you’ve derailed.

Jessica has got a great knack to describe a situation in such a way that it really resonates, but more importantly she identifies what’s really going on and what you can do about it. The description of The Dark Forest especially really resonated with me. At the time I felt seriously lost in the middle of rewriting my own Dream Plan Do book.

Firstly, I was surprised that I wasn’t the only writer/creative dealing with this challenge (Oh yes! So obvious in hindsight, not at the time!) but also how she managed to describe my feelings, and then reframe it as an essential part of the creative process, rather than me beating myself up for being pretty lost and thinking I would never get to the finish line of writing Dream Plan Do. While of course continuing to procrastinate! Haha!

Her explanation of why it is crucial to go into these undiscovered territories, without a map, really helped helped and calmed me down. Yes, I realised – it’s the only way to create your best work!

Another wonderful creative exercise in the work book is the ‘should monster’ AKA the evil gremlin of self-doubt! What are all the ‘shoulds’ in your life that are driving you crazy? Instead of keeping it all to yourself .. get it all out! Draw your own ‘should’ monster with all your ‘shoulds’ and then share it on social media! Do check out #shouldmonster on social media. As soon as you start to see the funny side and that you aren’t the only one struggling with this you will feel so much better!

Growing Gills was written in particular for new creatives, and especially creatives who are not yet working full-time or are considering the move from hobby to professional. But I think most creatives can do with a boost of insights into how the creative process sometimes can be challenging and tricky, so that you are better prepared. Highly recommended. Especially if you DO the exercises, rather than just read it as a book.

When – Daniel Pink

The big but basic idea in this book is that our energy is at it’s best in the morning and earlier in the week (if you have weekends!). Throughout the day our energy levels go up and down, and if you work with these natural energy flows then you become a lot more productive. The subtitle of this book is: The scientific secrets of perfect timing.

So instead of wasting your time in the morning with more and more emails and social media, use this time for ‘deep work’ that needs your brain space. For example this is the perfect time for some serious thinking or creating that needs you to get into flow.

I was aware of this phenomenon (who isn’t?) but it really shows that by planning better WHEN you do certain activities will increase your productivity.

So now I often really plan blocks of time to work on writing up projects or creating online content, while I leave more repetitive jobs such as emails, social media or indeed folding up the washing and doing the supermarket shop for later in the day when my brain isn’t as sharp. And I am a lot kinder to myself (and more realistic!) of what I can achieve in a day too! Just by shifting jobs around during the day has helped me to get more done quicker.

When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing is full of practical examples of what can go wrong if activities aren’t done at the ‘right’ time (when people are tired or have lost most of their willpower) and also how to plan your days and hours better in line with your own energy. It also shows how important regular breaks throughout the day are – including a detailed description of the ‘perfect nap’!

THE DESIGN TRUST DIARY PLANNER – Patricia van den Akker

TDT 2024 The Design Trust diary open quarter 2 action plan with hands lifestyle square

Although this isn’t strictly a time management book for creatives many clients have told us how useful they have found our diaries and planners to help them turn their big goals and dreams into do-able actions by breaking them down into smaller chunks. Our specialist annual diary is giving many creatives the strategic and practical framework to reflect and plan ahead through setting long-term goals and turn them into goals for the next 12 months, making time for quarterly reviews and monthly planning, and tracking their goals and numbers for finance, marketing and social media.

When you work by yourself it’s often hard to get accountability and to stay on track. If you decide to do things tomorrow then nobody really notices. Unlike a regular team meeting on Monday morning with fellow colleagues, the solopreneur struggles. Many of our diary planner readers have told me how they use the planner to write down their goals and activities, but also to have regular meetings by themselves to help them actually do what they want and need to do.

The Design Trust diary planner also helps creatives to do the right things at the right time. Most creative businesses are seasonal with a most sales in the run up to Christmas. So it’s really important that you start ‘planning with the end in mind’ – if you know when your clients are most likely to purchase then work backwards to plan when you need to have your website ready, your images, when to design your collections. But also on a weekly or even daily scale can you get much more done by being aware of what to do when, and to stack your time with similar activities and doing ‘brain-intensive’ activities (like planning, creating) in the morning, and more repeat jobs (like emails) in the afternoon or evening.

The Design Trust diary planner has been self-published for the last 5 years. For more details about The Design Trust diary planner see here. It’s normally only available for pre-order in mid September, and then from early November – February. More than 7,000 creatives in many countries across the world have been using The Design Trust diary planners in the last 5 years to achieve more in their business and life and turn their goals into action.

April Pinterest Articles Time Management Books for Small Businesses
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DISCLAIMER Please note that we have included affiliate links in this post, which means that The Design Trust will get a small commission if you order the recommended time management books for creatives above via Amazon. Of course it’s entirely up to you where you order your books from (we prefer small indie local book shops too to be honest!) but as many of our readers find Amazon very convenient and we offer lots of advice for free we do sometimes include links that earn us some additional pennies and pounds.

Have you got any recommendations for time management books for creatives? Or did you decide to purchase one of the books above and got lots out of it? We would love to hear your comments and time management suggestions below in the comments box.

8 reasons why email marketing is effective for your creative business

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Do you mostly use social media to promote your creative business? Do you realise that email marketing is about 10x more effective to reach the right clients and to get sales?

Do you know why? Here are 8 reasons why email marketing is effective for your creative business:

1. everybody in the world has an email address 

Almost every human being in the world has an email address. That’s a fact.

In 2020, the number of global e-mail users amounted to 4 billion, and is set to grow to 4.6 billion users in 2025.

You might think that ‘everybody’ is on social media … but do you realise that there are 3x more email accounts in the world than Facebook and Twitter combined?*

2. Your email contacts want to hear from you!

You might not like the ‘new’ GDPR rules but email works … exactly BECAUSE it’s permission-based.

ONLY include people on your email list who have given you permission to get in touch via email.

In fact this is a huge advantage of email marketing: People have deliberately given you their email address details. That means that they are interested in what you do, and want to hear about your news, events and product updates.

They might have bought from you in the past or they have met you at an exhibition or trade show. Your regular, creative and useful emails reminds them of you and your work, helps generate brand awareness, and builds your relationship with your past and future clients.

Did you know that the average email has an opening rate of around 20% while the chance your Facebook followers see your post is less than 6%?*

Your social media posts are fighting often with 100’s of other social media posts. The chances that they’ll see your Instagram or Facebook page is to be honest fairly slim. But the chances that you reach their inbox are pretty good!

Start to think of your email list subscribers as the VIP’s they actually are! They want to hear from you, that’s why they signed up to your list in the first place.

But don’t just send a bunch of emails in December when you want to invite them to your shows or sell them wonderful Christmas gifts. Stay in touch throughout the year, respect your potential and existing clients and keep building that relationship. Want to get some ideas what to write about in your next email? We have 24 ideas for you here. 

3. Email marketing becomes quickly profitable

Marketing costs on social media such as Facebook and Instagram can surprisingly add up. It might not look like much to boost your post for a fiver here or there, but do you actually get any results? Do you really know what you are doing? Google Ads and similar services have huge potential to drive the right traffic to your site, but they can cost an awful lot too if you don’t have your targeting right. But to achieve that you probably need to hire a social media expert or do some learning yourself!

Email marketing is much easier to understand and track, and can be part of any marketing plan. Many Email Service Providers (ESPs) such as MailChimp, HubSpot and sendinblue are free to use for smaller subscriber lists, so ideal for small businesses.

Even if you only get one sale from an email that’s a great result as you won’t have spend a penny to achieve that. Yes, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach new customers and maintain relationships with current consumers.

4. You are only one click away from that online sale

Email marketing is just perfect if you want to sell online! Because it’s literally one step away from getting visitors to your online shop or website.

If you email your clients at the right time of the year wonderful pictures of your creative products then they are much more likely to visit your online shop. They don’t have to move (which would be the case if they are reading a magazine article with your products) or do anything special. In just one click they are on your site and can purchase. So so easy!

Keep your emails simple, short and visual.

One beautiful image of one of your creative products. Add 50 words of text. Add one simple link directly to the right page.

That will get you more online sales than long rambling emails about your life as a creative.

Do you remember to include just one or two simple links in your emails to drive more traffic to specific product pages on your website?

5. Email marketing success is easy to measure 

As Henry Ford famously said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is waste, the problem is I do not know which half.”

With some forms of marketing you can never be certain if it has been effective. But with email marketing, you can easily see how effective your communications have been:

  • You can measure how many people opened your email and clicked through to your website.
  • You can see when people opened your email, or how often.
  • How many people unsubscribed from your list. (If you send irregular emails you will have more unsubscribes than when you are regularly in touch!)
  • Where your clients are located.
  • With more sophisticated email software (such as ConvertKit or Drip) you can connect directly to your ecommerce site and see how much your contact has spend with you so far, and on which product categories. They can even give you suggestions of the best time to send your future emails based on previous performance, or give you recommendations on better subject lines to increase your opening rates.

This kind of real-life data can really help you to make your email marketing even more effective because you can get detailed information on how your email campaigns are performing, learn from your mistakes and make adjustments.  Check out your email metrics to see how effective your marketing is.

6. Aim your emails at exactly the right people

One of the most common email marketing mistakes is to send the same email to everybody on your list. 

No! Instead make sure that you either allocate manually new and existing email contacts to specific lists (e.g. create lists for: existing clients, for Etsy clients, retailers or press, or who visited you at a specific event) or when they sign up for your email list so they can allocate themselves to specific lists (Do they want to get more details about your upcoming events and new product launches, or do they want to get special offers or hear more about your commissioning process or your upcoming craft workshops? Create different sign up options on your registration form.)

Segmenting your email list will help your potential clients to receive the exact info they requested.

And for you it’s really useful to know what they are interested in and what info they want to get from you via your emails. (And no, it’s not just about getting discounts!)

Using lists and segmenting your contacts into different groups will allow you to make your emails much more personalised and targeted. And therefore your opening rate, click rates and actual sales and orders will be much higher. A great result again!

7. Email marketing will get you clients … not just ‘likes’

Social media is of course a very important part of any small creative business’ marketing actions. Each different social media tool can be used to interact with your audience, raise your profile and strengthening your relationships. And because of that, social media is an important step in getting sales.

But when it comes to converting people into customers or supporters, email marketing is a far more effective medium.  According to McKinsey, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. The Direct Marketing Association found that email marketing has a Return Of Investment of 4300%*

You probably already noticed this yourself … you get lots of interest on your Instagram. But do any of your followers actually buy from you?

8. Use automation in a personal way

One of the best ways to make your email marketing more effective is by using automation. This might sound boring and robot-like, but actually this can really help you build your relationship over time (!) with your ideal clients for relatively little time input. 

We at The Design Trust use automation in our email marketing especially when people sign up to get more details about our online workshops or newsletter. We have created a so-called auto-responder which get triggered when somebody registered for one of our email lists. When we set the email or workshop registration forms up we create a sequence of emails that we will send to our new contact over a period of a few days or weeks.

We try to be really helpful in all our email marketing so they might be additional resources around the topic they are interested in, or a series of popular blog posts that we recommend. We often ask questions too in these emails so we get a two-way-correspondence going rather than just us talking at them. We encourage the new contacts to get in touch with us if they have any questions. That way we get to know them better and provide some good old-fashioned customer care!

Over a few days or weeks we will give additional useful info in bite-size chunks, and by the end of the sequence the chances that this new contact has visited our website, understands what we really do and how we do it, or remembers us next time they want to improve their creative business skills is much higher.

And these small actions together are all crucial to get ultimately more sales and bookings!

We write these autoresponder emails once and update them regularly, but they get send out automatically, and therefore are a very effective way to stay in touch and get known for what we do, and to educate our potential and existing clients.

Why not check out if your email provider allows you to create auto-responder? And spend some time to create a simple sequence of emails for when people sign up to your email list. It’s a very good use of your time!

*The stats in this blog post come from the Campaign Monitor Report 2019. 

We hope that these 8 reasons why email marketing is so effective to get sales will inspire you to take action. Come on, dust off that list of people who want to hear from you, use an ESP service that works for you, write a nifty email message that is friendly and helpful, and hit send!

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If you’d like some extra email marketing inspiration then take a look at our favourite creative email newsletters. These are the ones we look forward to getting into our inbox!

[free video training] have your got too many business ideas and goals? or none at all?

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Have you got too many business ideas and goals for your creative business? Do you feel scattered and overwhelmed and not sure what to focus on first? Are you constantly busy but still feel like you are not moving forward in your business?

Or have you got no clue about what to do next? Don’t really know what you want?

Interestingly these two very different situations have got a lot in common! They very often are a result of overwhelm, lack in confidence and focus, and a fear of failure (or success!). And indeed both are very common challenges for creative businesses.

In this free one-hour video training Patricia van den Akker, The Director of The Design Trust, talks about what to do if you have got too many business ideas or goals, or if you haven’t got any at all. In this video you will learn:

  • Some very practical and strategic planning tips and solutions if you have got too many business ideas and goals or none at all.
  • Dig a little deeper and ask yourself: WHY do I have you so many business ideas and goals, or none at all? And what can I do about that?

Patricia also answered some questions from the live audience.

Watch this free training now to get more focus