Small Business Tips

Work + Life = A Fine Balance

Saturday, August 21, 2010

PHOTO: courtesy of seeveeaar’s flickr photostream

Hello Everyone! This month I’d like to share with you a post I did on my blog last year about work life balance. I’m always getting asked, “how do you balance a day job, side business and family?” There really isn’t an easy answer, rather a different way to look at things that seems to make me feel better, and ultimately more “balanced”. I hope you enjoy this and are able to find a new perspective and some balance of your own.

Originally published as Balance, March 30, 2009

I’ve been ENLIGHTENED!

We all strive to achieve some form of balance every day. Regardless if we are working moms struggling to find a balance between work/family or single people struggling to find a balance between work/personal life, we are all on the same teeter totter of life together.

Recently I heard something that has changed the way I view “balance” and consequently it has taken a load of stress off of me and I hope by sharing this story you too will feel enlightened.

I was listening to a talk radio show and they had on a guest Psychologist. A caller asked the question about how to find balance in life and the answer was simply thought provoking (in my humble opinion). Not extremely unique, but just so simple and easy to grasp it made me wonder why I had not thought of it already.

The Doctor replied (and I’m paraphrasing) “You never really reach a state of balance because balance is not a state, it is a PROCESS.” He went on to tell a story about how he never thought he could ride his bike without using the handle bars, because every time he tried the bike would sway to one side or the other. He chalked this up to not having “balance” and figured he’d never be any good at it. Then one day he realized, wait! the actual process of shifting your weight back and forth from one side to the other IS how you balance!

Now everything is crystal clear to me. When I’m spending time with my son, I used to stress out about how I needed to be working. Then when I’m working, I feel tremendous guilt about not spending time with my family. Now I understand this is completely normal and the constant shifting of how, where, with whom and when you spend all of your time is actually the art of BALANCING.

Here are some great links about finding equilibrium:

Another real mommy telling her balancing story…

http://blog.amyatlas.com/2010/07/ask-amy-the-balancing-act/

A resourceful site for moms trying to do it all!

http://www.theproductivemom.com/

I hope this has helped- thanks for stopping by!

Where did you get that fabric?

Thursday, August 12, 2010

by Jacqui Miyabayashi Mee a Bee, Japan

Some would say I’m lucky living in Japan. When it comes to having access to some of the most beautiful fabrics in the world I would definitely agree. Oh and I love sushi!

My business philosophy is to use materials that are Made in Japan. From fabrics to threads, buckles and buttons, I am incredibly lucky to be able to do that. Really in this day and age very little is not made in China or some other developing country. However a lot of manufacturing is still done in Japan, including fabric. The fabric industry benefits from thousands of years of wisdom dating back to the eighth century when kimono became popular in Japan.

These days kimono are only worn on very special occasions and even then only by a few so the textile industry has had to diversify to make everyday fabrics like those that I use to make my bags. I may be putting myself out of business here but a lot of you want to know where can you buy Japanese fabrics?

If you’re in the US I’m sure you know about the gorgeous Purl Soho.com. Located in New York this shop would be top on my list of places to visit if I ever made it over. The Purl Bee is the blog/inspiration notebook which is one of my regular places to visit.

If you’re a dedicated follower of cuteness from Japan then you must know about Super Buzzy (see some of their adorable fabrics above). The owners of this online shop actually visit Japan and go to the showrooms to hand-pick their fabrics. I regularly visit the site to find out what’s new and popular. If you’re in Ventura, CA why not call and arrange to visit the warehouse!

Here are three fabric stores you may not have heard of that are based in Australia. All three offer international shipping and are great people to deal with.

First up: Retro Mummy – mum of almost four kids, Corrie, loves all kinds of crafting and is especially passionate about Japanese fabrics. Her kids are gorgeous and I enjoy her blogs about home cooking and sewing for her family.

Funky Fabrix is both a store-front and an online store based in Brisbane, Australia. The family-run business pride themselves on their excellent customer service. Why not connect with Shona via Twitter and “see” the smile behind the webpage.

Kelani: Here’s another mum-run business based in Australia that stocks a lot of Japanese fabrics. Elissa uses her blog to tell the stories behind some of the cute prints she sells. Her inspiration gallery is truly inspiring.

Happy crafting!

Handmade with Care: The Joys & Challenges of OOAK

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

by Jessika Hepburn, O Happy Day Handmade

The term “handmade” has come to mean so many things, the diversity of items listed on Etsy under that category alone is simply amazing, and proof that the definition of the term is changing. I have always been a bit of an extremist and I have a “more is more” approach to life, so it is no wonder I am a purist when it comes to making my art, though maybe ‘control freak’ is more honest!

For my textile work I like to start from scratch with natural, uncarded wool roving and huge un-dyed vintage wool blankets, from there I custom dye all my wool with fibre reactive dyes on a propane stove or using the sun to heat the dye bath in a laundry sink on my back deck. This way I can get the exact colour that I see in my minds eye and the end result comes as close to that mental picture as possible. Also, it is the only way to keep costs down on materials since wool is expensive! From there I cut and stitch everything by hand, and ‘by hand’ I mean, the old fashioned way-with needle and thread (I am not extreme enough to work by candle light though).

Above: Custom play books are one of my favourite things to make, I use Mercurius felt for these to keep time down, also I love the smoothness and durability of it.

I am not suited to production work, I make everything once and then revamp it the next time around, watching me try to follow a pattern is laughable. I love to work this way but it also means that I have little to no inventory on hand making it nearly impossible to branch out from doing custom work or to expand to selling wholesale. Even with doing custom work sometimes I end up making way less than minimum wage when all is said and done.

For the paper-free plush invitations pictured above not only do I dye the wool and hand-stitch each one I also design and print the graphics onto printable paper. I have started making my own (of course) using a fixative called Bubble Jet Set and freezer paper. So now I can print on any lightweight fabric I want, including vintage and patterned silk and cotton. I had the invites priced at $5.50, the same price as a letterpress card, but it ended up being financially irresponsible so I had to raise the price in order to keep making them. There is just no way I can make them as quickly as a printer can, unless I start putting the kids to work (believe me, I’ve considered it!). That is the main issue with OOAK and custom handmade work, because it is so labour intensive the price points inevitably end up being high, so your potential market is quite small.

In January I was hired through my Etsy page to create a custom colouring book with illustrations to go along with a poem for a little girl’s first birthday. I am embarrassed to say that they are finally being printed this week. There is much to be said for patient and gracious customers and I am really pleased with the illustrations (see below).

Why do I do it? Because I love it. I love taking raw materials with their potential to be anything and transforming them into something I have imagined. I also spend a lot of time being cerebral, using computers and technology to develop and market clients and projects, when it comes time to make art I want to get my hands dirty. Unfortunately if I want the handmade aspect of my business to grow I have had to decide to get over my dislike of repetitive work and develop a product line that will be the bread and butter to the more creative (and time consuming work). I will be sharing more on the process of researching and designing a new product line and I am excited about taking on this challenge. I am also realistic about having the art I choose to make pay the bills, which is why I love the counterbalance of the marketing, design and consultation side of the work I am doing. It will pay the mortgage when the other will not and allow me the flexibility to pursue my other love, art for art’s sake; custom, one of a kind (OOAK), and handmade the slow way.

Turning a Successful Online Business into a Brick and Mortar Store

Monday, August 9, 2010

by April MacKinnon, Owner of Nurtured and Anointment Natural Skin Care

Many entrepreneurs, particularly women and mothers, begin businesses that can be promoted online. This maximizes the flexibility of an entrepreneur’s schedule: websites are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no attendants or staff required. A website is a perfect way to test the market with low risk and investment, and also allows you to determine your level of commitment to your business: do you prefer to work part-time, or are you more interested in capitalizing on your full market? While the internet is wide-reaching, it can also dilute your market. My business, Nurtured, began online in 2006 and successfully moved to a retail location in 2009.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Depending on the industry you are in, the size of the market, and the level of competition, you may find that directing traffic to YOUR site is more challenging than you imagined. As with any business, the least expensive way to bring people to your website is by word of mouth, or “word of mom”. This can be done in person or via social networking media. The work you do to promote your website – for example, search engine optimization, forum participation, paid or unpaid web advertising – and the financial goals you have set for your business will also drive the effort you put in to marketing. If you prefer to operate a remote, mail order business, the manner in which you promote your business will vary significantly from the promotion tactics you will use to capture your local market. I have seen a significant change in marketing practices between our entry into e-commerce in 2006 to today. Social media has replaced the newsletter, in our case, and is an exceptional way of building word of mouth both locally and globally.

Above: Bamboletta Dolls on display at the Nurtured store

Christina Platt, Mom and Owner of Bamboletta Dolls agrees: “I think that my popularity has been attributed to a few things – the first being word of mouth. Facebook has been incredible as well for spreading my product – once the fans hit 1,000 things just exploded. I also got some incredible press from Mothering, Celebrity Baby Blog, CMP that exposed me to a whole other market that would have normally not looked at natural dolls.”

When our retail store opened, we were able to represent Bamboletta as a retailer on a very small scale. She has since closed her retail accounts to focus on direct sales. Her thoughts on opening a brick and mortar store: “I think because I only really sell one thing – and things that relate to that one thing – the dolls – my situation is much different than a traditional store that sells items. If I lived in a large city I may have thought of one day opening a store but my issue is inventory, we essentially sell out as soon as we make dolls, with dolls not staying on premises for more than a few days – I never ever have inventory.”

If your scale is small, you will want to consider inventory. Christina’s dolls are labour intensive and require a significant amount of time and attention to detail to complete just one. If your product is hand made by you, and you do not intend or want to have a larger scale manufacturing plan, a brick and mortar store may not be in your best interest.

Above: The Nurtured store underwent a significant amount of renovation before opening for business.

Know Your Customer Base

Can you define your customer base in very specific terms? In our case, we noticed that educated women 25-34 were shopping online, while educated women 35 and up were not. Online, we were missing out on mothers who chose to start their families later and often had more disposable income. We were also missing out on gift purchasers: the mothers, grandmothers and friends of the women who WERE shopping online. Even customers who took the time to create a gift registry for their baby shower found that their family and friends did not use it. This created a significant gap in our market and did not allow us to capitalize on our potential market share.

Use Your Powers of Observation

As you increase traffic to your site, it is not uncommon to notice a number of orders come from one town or region in particular: this is common as word spreads throughout a group of friends or a play group. Keep watching these trends. If you’re the analytical type, keep statistics on where exactly your traffic is coming from and if there are patterns. If you have a customer list that includes postal or zip codes, you can export them to Google Earth and map your customer base.

Are your customers mainly local? In the case of Nurtured, our customer base was more than 70% local, and when broken down even further, the majority of those customers were living in one particular neighbourhood! Strong statistics such as these make a decision very easy when deciding where to locate a potential brick and mortar store.

Test The Waters

If you are considering a brick and mortar store in your city, attend a farmer’s market, craft fair, or plan a “direct buy” event to test the market. Before deciding to open a retail store, Nurtured rented a café on two separate Sunday evenings, set up a “show room” and had two buying parties leading up to Christmas. The success of these events made it very obvious that the market was now ready for a destination store such as ours.

Above: The Nurtured store fully stocked and open for business at 2571 Robie Street, Halifax, N.S

Be Prepared To Work Hard

One significant benefit to opening a brick and mortar store following a successful online store is that the risk of failure due to lack of customers is significantly reduced. However, the effort required to operate a retail store cannot even be compared to the level of effort required of an online store. For many months I worked 7 days a week, getting the store ready, making policies, hiring and training staff, learning the rules of accounting in a much larger business. The benefit is that our revenues increased 300% in the first year of moving from online to brick and mortar, in the middle of a recession, no less. A positive benefit of having established yourself online is that your existing customers will follow you to your retail store, significantly decreasing what could be a very slow and stressful establishment period for a completely new business. And, depending on your customers, they will either tell their friends or bring them in to see what they have been missing.

Network with the Business Community

Having a retail store will also legitimize your business to the business community: I was not taken seriously as an online business owner in our business community, but was welcomed with open arms once our retail store opened. As a result, Nurtured has become an award winning business in what most people assume is our first year of operation, but is actually our fourth.

For my company, opening a retail location was very obviously the right decision, we are now forefront in the market at a time when competition and interest in our products is increasing. We have a strong reputation and incredible staff and customer service. The store is established enough that I can now work four days a week rather than seven and draw a reasonable salary for my family.

Breaking into the Craft Show Circuit

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

by Julie Chen of Life Verse Design

I am here to encourage you to try your hand at your local arts & crafts shows and farmer’s markets. Depending on your product, research, and salesmanship, you could have a great deal of success at these local venues. I personally have sold much more at local shows than I ever have on my Etsy site, though I know this is not the case for all. So, here are some tips to get you thinking if this is an avenue you would like to pursue:

1. Pro: You can make a lot of money at a show. Think of the entry fee as renting a store front for a day or two. Divide it up to an hourly rate to see if you think it is worth it. My average show entry fee is $100. Could you rent a store for that cheap?!

photos from Life Verse Design and Etsy

2. Con: one word, inventory. The beautiful thing about Etsy is that you create an item once you know it has sold but, when stocking a “store” for a day, how many of each item should you bring? Arts and crafts shows require a lot of upfront work in manufacturing your product, displaying it, and packaging it to be ready to be sold. The risk lies in how much money you need to invest up-front, but in the end, it may be well worth it!

3. Pro: networking. Stock your booth with business cards and promotional materials to visually remind booth visitors of your work. I have had many orders come through months later from people who remembered my art from a show.

photos from atouchofvintage Flikr photostream

4. Con: Again, the money you need to invest in your booth. If and when you do a show you will need to have an entire booth ready to showcase your craft. That takes money and creativity but it is a fun challenge. A typical booth is 10×10 feet, which essentially holds 3 6 foot long tables in the shape of a “U”. You will need tables, table cloths, your inventory, ways to visually display your work, shopping bags, etc.. and all done to create a unique environment that speaks of your specific product. In my booth, I have created a mix of natural elegance, utilizing baskets to hold art as bins, bamboo poles to hang the art up so that the buyer has more to see as they glance through my “shop”, and rich colored table clothes and easels to create refined elegance. I want my customers to be able to picture my work in their home.

5. Pro: people specifically come to arts and crafts show to buy things. Though there are some window shoppers, I think arts and crafts shows are differ from retail stores in that people passionately follow them and come ready to buy. I highly suggest taking credit cards, as at least half of my sales are done as credit card transactions. I have been amazed at how in the last three years of doing shows, I see the same customers follow me around. People who shop these types of venues are loyal customers.

photos from My Fantastic Toys blog

6. If you are ready to take the risk of creating a travelling store, the last thing I would suggest for now is to do your research. Take time this summer or fall to just simply go to your local arts and crafts shows to see if you think your work would sell well there. Watch the shoppers. Are they your clientelle? Look at the vendors. Are they good quality and creative? Ask how many years the show has been running. The longer, the better as stated earlier, they will most likely have the biggest following. Talk to some of the vendors you admire to ask them if they like this show, if they sell well here, and what other local shows do they suggest?

In my next post about arts & crafts fairs, I will get down to the nitty-gritty and practical side of what to take to a show and how to prepare.

Here is a photo stream of booths to get some ideas for yours:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/715724@N24/

This site is a good resource to search for shows in your area, the website is hard to navigate & not well designed, but it is the most comprehensive list of shows & info I have found: www.eventlister.com

Another great article is this one from Etsy on “Craft Show Display Tips & Must-Haves“.

A Little Bit Better: Improving Your Business a Bit at a Time

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

by Arianne Foulks of Aeolidia

I have a strategy that I use throughout my home that I call, “A Little Bit Better.” I’ve noticed that if I live my day to day life, each room in the house gets a bit worse as I go through it – a dirty dish ends up on the counter, an empty toilet paper roll sits on the bathroom window ledge, a shirt is tossed on the bedroom floor. Instead, I try to make things a little bit better as I go through each room. So, on my way to the sink for a glass of water, I’ll put away the dish or toss a paper towel in the trash.

Rather than spending a day cleaning everything up, I try for frequent little maintenance tasks and adjustments each day. Less arduous, and easier to find time for.

With a successful business, it can be hard to find time to improve your own operations, as it’s often at the expense of doing client work, packaging orders, adding content to the website, and doing your day to day business tasks. Instead of setting aside a full day (or week!) to work on improving your workflow, instead you can apply “A Little Bit Better” as you work each day, making small improvements that will add up over time. Here are some examples of how I do this:

Answering common questions

My absolute #1 best way to save time each day is to make sure I’m not answering the same questions for clients over and over. If I ever find myself answering the same question twice, that’s when I tell myself I need a form letter – because someone is going to ask me again.

When the second client comes to me with that same question, I dig up my response to the first person, adjust it to work for everyone, and save it as a form letter. That way, any time I’m asked in the future, I just use the form letter instead of writing it all out again in new words.

Most email programs will allow some kind of form response, template system, or way to insert snippets of text into your emails from a list. When I used Thunderbird, I had a “signature” add-on that let me choose which signature to add to my message – I used this to make form letters and “form blurbs”. Gmail has a “canned responses” feature, and you should be able to find some way to make your email program do something similar.

Do this every time you see the same question, and you’ll find yourself with much more time on your hands – especially if you answer as much email as I do!

Preventing common questions

I know I said “answering common questions” was my #1 best way to save time, but even better is “preventing common questions.” Alas, these questions are not 100% preventable, so I still stand by my #1.

At any rate, if you get the same questions repeatedly, that points to there being a problem with the information you provide to customers. If they’re asking, that means they couldn’t find the info on your website (or didn’t try).

Head these people off at the pass by making sure the information is readily available and easy to find on your website. If it already seems to be, you may need to take it a step further, by putting this most vital info right on your contact page, or linking to it right next to your contact form. It’s great to have a link to your FAQ page here – in my case, I have links to “pricing” and “time line” right over my contact form, because some people seem to hop right there and ask me about pricing without looking on our services/pricing page or our FAQ.

Rather than fielding these questions every day, make them go away, and use the extra time for something more fun!

Clearing up confusion

Related to the previous topic, any time someone emails me and they’re obviously confused by information on my website, or they’ve gotten the wrong impression of what something means, I instantly go to my site and clarify or correct. I assume if one person emailed me thinking the wrong thing, then twenty other people probably looked at it, thought the wrong thing, and didn’t let me know.

Similarly, if someone points out a typo or mistake on your website (or you notice it yourself), fix it right then as you’re going past, rather than saving it for a big update.

Production-line tasks

Some things are better to do all at once than to do a bit at a time as they come up. For instance, my husband (and partner at Aeolidia!) pre-stamps our envelopes and sticks our return address labels on them. He then stuffs them all back in the envelope box and whenever we have a contract or payment to send out, it takes only a few seconds to get everything ready for the mail.

See if there are any little bitty tasks like this that slow you down each day (trying to find the stamps, discovering you need to print new address labels), and get everything all ready so next time it will be a breeze.

Automating tasks

Perhaps there are things you do over and over again that are time consuming, and are always done in the same way. If there is any way to automate these tasks, take the time to do it once, and save yourself hours of work in the future.

For instance, any paperwork that you routinely send out should be a template that you can just pop the client/customer’s name and info into. You may find you need multiple templates. I have three different contract templates I start from (one for web development, one for logo design, and one for illustration), so I don’t have to take the time to adjust one template for different situations.

Maybe you need a standard form to send off to wholesale clients, or an invoice or packing slip template to fill in for each customer. Maybe your website could generate this for you automatically.

Some of our clients create custom stationery/invitations for clients, and we’ve found a way to save them time in the proofing process, by creating a tool for them to use to upload, share, and get a response to their proof from their customer.

Maybe you spend a lot of time processing orders, and your web developer could find a way to automate some of the tasks – for instance, connecting your site with a program to automatically generate shipping labels. Now you’ve saved hours of tedious data entry, and instead you can make new products.

Services to improve workflow

A step beyond automating your recurring tasks is to start using software to manage these things for you.

I have three programs that I pay for and use every day, and they save me so much time that they’re worth every penny. I use Basecamp to manage every aspect of each of our projects, from to-dos and scheduling, to discussing things with clients and uploading files. I use Tick to keep track of my hours, keep myself on target with the amount of work planned for each project, and chart how much work I get done each week. I use Blinksale to send out client invoices, make sure everyone has paid, and send reminders.

Prior to signing up for these services, I had a text document where I listed all the work I needed to get done with rough timelines (huh?), I had no real method to be sure my work wasn’t going over budget on projects (what?!), and I was sending out PayPal invoices one at a time, with no way to follow up and see if I’d been paid (crazy!). I don’t know how I got anything done!

For businesses that sell products, not services, some other software programs may help. There are programs to manage your finances, speed up your shipping process, send newsletters, create wholesale catalogs, and help with your customer support.

Double check

Do a quick double check from time to time. Take a few minutes to run through your site like a customer would, and see if there are any errors or problems that have cropped up, or if there is anything that may be confusing about your checkout process. Instead of finding out from a customer a month from now that you no longer offer PayPal payments, you’ll nip any problems in the bud by doing a quick sweep through your site.

At Aeolidia, we try to go beyond just creating a website for our clients, and we work on making their shop easy to use, easy to run, and we add little things that help with their entire process. We are experts at eliminating the inconvenient!

I’d love to hear from shop owners about tricks you have to make things go smoothly. Alternately, what task do you find yourself doing over and over that you wish you could speed up or eliminate entirely? There is almost always a solution or an improvement to be made.

How To Win Your Designer’s Eternal Love

Friday, July 23, 2010

photo via http://www.kopozky.net/not-bad-at-all

by Sarah Semark of Triggers & Sparks

Bad clients are notorious among designers. We complain about them constantly, we’ve devoted a hilarious, yet-heartbreaking website to them, and we swap horror stories like badges of honour, rolling our eyes in empathy and disgust.

We spend so much time complaining about the bad clients that it’s sometimes easy to overlook the good clients. Lately, I’ve been working with a few really great clients, and I’ve been so happy because of it. Where a bad client can make you feel as though you’re losing your soul, a good client reminds you of why you fell in love with design in the first place and makes you feel as though you’re doing a good job. It’s the sort of warm-fuzzy feeling I associate with boys who bring me flowers and strangers complimenting me on my shoes.

Winning your designer’s love, regardless of any other factors, will mean that you will receive a level of service and quality that surpasses that most Troublesome Clients receive. When I love a client and feel that my client respects me as a professional, I invest more of my mental energy into their project. A good client makes you want to do an amazing job, whereas a bad client experience will often just make you want to finish as fast as possible and get the heck out.

So, how do you go about making sure you’re the greatest client ever, and ensuring your designer feels as passionate about your project as you do? Here, a few tips culled directly from my Dream Clients:

1. PAY YOUR BILLS AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE

Nothing says “you’re not worth much to me” like a leisurely bill payment. Freelance designers suffer so much stress about unpaid bills and cash flow, it’s hard when you don’t have a regular stream of income, that late-paid bills are a major problem.

I have one client in particular who sends me a full payment, via electronic means, within 24 hours of receiving an invoice. Every time it happens, I am utterly delighted. The rapid work-reward cycle means that I feel more compelled to finish work rapidly, knowing that I’ll be rewarded immediately upon completion. If, on the other hand, it takes more than a month to put a cheque in the mail (there is a due date on there, you know!), I’m going to feel much less inclined to speed through the project.

Freelance designers are not the power company—if you don’t pay us, we can’t eat (or buy pretty shoes)! Pay your bills promptly, please.

2. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT

It’s your designer’s job to gently guide you and to help you figure out what you want, then create a visual representation of your needs. If you approach a project without knowing what you want, the whole process goes to hell. Essentially, if you don’t know what you want (you don’t need to have every detail planned out, but you do need a rough idea) I can’t figure out how to build it for you. It’s like if you were to hire an architect to design you a house; you’d want to figure out how many bathrooms you want before asking for blueprints.

Beware the phrase “you’re the designer”, as in “Well, you’re the designer, you figure it out!”. While this is usually used with good intentions it will make the vast majority of designers cringe. To us, it sounds like you’re saying “you’re the magician!” (see also: “Can’t you just Photoshop that?” Design is not magic; Photoshop is not a magic button. It’s mostly work, training, and lots of patience).

3. UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR DESIGNER KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING (and that’s why you hired them, right?)

This directly contrasts the “well, you’re the designer!” mindset, and clients usually tend towards one extreme or another, where a balance is really preferable. A micromanaging client, however, will almost always be less popular than a hands-off client. This is an almost guaranteed way to make your designer want to throw himself off the nearest bridge, skyscraper, or touristy landmark.

Of course, there’s a fine line between giving feedback and micro-managing. How to tell the difference? If you’re into the sixth round of revisions, and all the revisions read something like so: “Make the logo 40% bigger, and move it 3 inches to the right. Make the text all white, and the background purple. Headings should be right-aligned and in 4pt red Comic Sans. Can we add a few animated gifs throughout the page in order to make it ‘pop’?” (Please note: often these sorts of phrases are then followed by “Well, you’re the designer! Can’t you just make it look better?”).

Remember: you hired your designer (I hope!) because you think they do great work and know what they’re doing. They’ve probably been building websites longer than you. While ultimately the final judgement call is yours, realize that a good designer will work with you to give you a final product that both suits you and your business and also looks good. Remember that we have your best interests in mind and give us enough freedom to create something beautiful for you.

4. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY

The client-designer relationship is much like any other relationship: emotions are involved, everyone’s a little nervous to begin with, you need to make sure everyone’s happy and nobody’s being taken for granted, etc. This is why, of course, good designer-client relationships generate brilliant work, and bad ones leave all parties unhappy. So, like with any other relationship, good communication is vital. Make sure you’re being clear about how you feel and what you want, and treat your designer with respect and consideration (this means no phone calls at 2am, no matter how dire you think the emergency is. In theory, I am sleeping then.) Your designer needs your feedback in order to know that they’re on the right track—make sure that you can give useful, constructive feedback in a timely manner.

And when all else fails, sending presents works, too. I once had a client who mailed me a box of chocolate brownies when my computer died in order to “aid the recovery process”, and another client who made me a heart-shaped chocolate cake. Chocolate generally engenders love and loyalty, but really, all that’s required is a polite thank you for a wonderful job, and I’ll move mountains for you.

Editors Note: I work with Sarah and her company Triggers & Sparks as a marketing consultant and I thought that this post was a perfect complement to Jacqui Miyabayashi’s post earlier this month about working with a designer and wanted to share with you all!

Liability in the Children’s Industry: The Reality of Entrepreneurship

Friday, July 9, 2010

April MacKinnon is a new contributor to OMHG, she is the owner of Nurtured, a natural parenting shop located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Anointment Natural Skin Care. April juggles the demands of parenting two young children while operating two young businesses.

Many entrepreneurs, particularly women, begin their businesses as a result of the change in priorities that comes with having a baby. The goal is often to create a low-risk, low-investment venture that contributes to the family finances while allowing for more family time. Some of these women have an academic or job-oriented background in business, others do not. While having a background in business can be very beneficial when it comes to planning and prioritizing how your business will begin and grow, many successful entrepreneurs have learned by doing. Some, like myself, have learned the hard way.

Liability insurance is often a forgotten item on the budget planning list, particularly in the children’s industry. Given the recent chemical-burns-lead paint-BPA-crib recall-stroller malfunction-melamine-in-baby formula scandals, liability should be at the forefront of every single entrepreneur, particularly when babies and their parents are your consumer.

There are three overall categories of business: service, manufacturing, and retail. Service business can include being a yoga instructor, or operating a small catering company. In many jurisdictions, service industry providers will be required by law to hold liability insurance. Manufacturing and retail, often hand-in-hand, particularly for small businesses marketing themselves and their product are at most risk for liability and the least likely to purchase it.

When I began the planning process of developing Nurtured, then an online retail business, I called a number of insurance brokers to acquire quotations on a liability policy. Red flags went up all over when I mentioned I wanted to sell baby carriers and slings. I couldn’t find an insurance company to take me seriously. One of the companies I called was Alfred J. Bell & Grant in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ed Nix, Commercial Account Manager, knew insurance inside and out and was very helpful in finding a company to accept my situation. I recently spoke to Ed about the difficulties new businesses have in finding and maintaining liability insurance.

Ed explained to me that for the self-employed, there are often programs that fit your situation, for example, yoga instructors holding liability insurance have very low premiums because there are very high numbers across the country and they are all holding insurance. The difficulty lies in being a small manufacturer as most manufacturers are not purchasing liability insurance, so with fewer insured manufacturers, the premiums are higher because each manufacturer needs to have an insurance policy tailored to their needs as opposed to “fitting” a pre-existing insurance program.

As I mentioned, baby carriers and slings came up again and again as a red flag for insurance companies as a retailer, so I asked Ed, are there items that are blacklisted, that insurance companies just won’t touch?

There are a number of factors an insurance company will look at when determining risk, and baby carriers, strollers and prams are among the highest risk products out there. The end consumer – infants and their parents – are generally favoured by the courts. In any product where there is risk of injury by falling or misuse, the liability will be very high.

Gillian Mathias, owner of Etsy’s Pip Robins also went searching for a liability policy for her former company, g slings, a small-scale baby carrier manufactuer. Her quote was in excess of $10,000 a year. The insurance company will also want to know where you are planning to sell your product. If you have a high sales volume to the US, your premiums will increase again because of the litigious nature of the market place compared to Canada. Also, if applicable, insurance companies will also want to see that your product is ASTM certified, CPSIA compliant or that the applicable standards of your country for the age group for which your product is intended is adhered to. This testing is often tens of thousands of dollars to complete, making it out of reach for many small manufacturers.

What about someone who wants to make a small wooden toy and finish it with beeswax, for example? Insurance companies will look to see that you have done your due diligence – are you using organic or soy-based paint? Have you ensured that all parts are large enough to not pose a choking hazard? Where are you planning to sell your product – craft fairs? Retail stores? Online?

If, after all of the planning, checking and quote soliciting, you decide to forge forward without insurance, the good news is that there is no requirement by law that you hold liability insurance. The bad news is, if there is a claim filed against you, and you are not covered under your residential insurance policy (provided you have one of those: you are not required to have a residential insurance policy unless there is a mortgage on your home), you will need to hire a lawyer. If you are found at fault, and you do not have enough assets to cover the settlement, the court can order you to hand over future earnings, garnish your wages, or seek money from your spousal partner. Declaring bankruptcy will not absolve you, either, the courts will still seek damages until the settlement is paid or your natural life has ended.

If you are planning to open a retail business, the above applies to you as well. If you are a retailer of a product that is subject to a claim, you will also be named in a lawsuit. If the manufacturer was not insured and you have some assets as a business owner, you will be subject to paying the settlement: the court searches for those with the deepest pockets. If you are a retailer of high risk products such as baby carriers and slings, it is advisable that you carry liability insurance and insist that your suppliers be insured as well: ask them. If they answer confidently, you know they have also done their due diligence and take their business seriously.

Manufacturing in China will also cause your insurance company to ask a lot of specific and detailed questions. They will want to know what is being made, who is making it, where are the raw materials coming from, and they will want to see independent third party testing for safety, quality control, and compliance to the governing standards of the market place for which the goods will be sold. Manufacturing in China may seem out of reach for small enterprises, but there are a lot of mom-run companies that investigate and choose to use this route.

At what point the customer takes responsibility for their purchases? Ed tells me that they don’t have to; the court will often side with the “victim”, the end consumer, because for the rest of us in business, ignorance of the law or of our product is not an excuse.

It can be scary, and even depressing to think about worst-case scenario and your risk, and for some, may turn them off business altogether. But for others, managing risk is just part of the process. Be sure to factor it in to your startup budget, ask around for recommendations from other small business owners, if you know them, and find out which underwriters will work with your industry.

As the owner of two companies, one being a small manufacturing business that produces skin care products and one that retails “high risk” items like baby carriers, I have learned the hard way that there are many governmental and bureaucratic regulations and hoops to jump through. The bottom line: don’t assume you know the rules. Check with expects, find other business owners that may be able to give you solid advice, access your local small business programs and do your research. Smart planning, forecasting and budgeting will help you on your path to being a successful business woman.

Go Confidently In The Direction of Your Dreams

Thursday, July 8, 2010

It has already been a whole week since I started editing OMHG and I thought it was time to share a bit about myself and what motivates me.

I started my first business when I was 11. I was living in cooperative housing with my single mother in Vancouver, BC and the building had a community room that I would book and open up as a drop in daycare. As a parent it is now hard to imagine that people would leave up to six kids with me at a time-eleven seems unbelievably YOUNG now!

Since that time I have worn many hats. At 19, after working with children for three years, I fundraised $10, 000 and started my own independent summer camp for inner city children. Camp Experience Your Dreams ran for 4 years and gave hundreds of children the opportunity to get away from the city heat and learn about the natural world.The amazing experience of taking over 100 children out of the city and into the rainforest for a week of workshops and organic food changed my entire life.

For years after that I used my marketing and fundraising skills to create and offer child and family based projects. I did everything from mentoring street involved teens, to managing large events like lantern festivals, leading me eventually to becoming Executive Director of a non-profit resource centre. In 2004 when my daughter was born I realized it was time to focus on projects that allowed me to be home instead of putting in a 60 hour work week.

I started a jewellery design company that I ran successfully for three years but that made little profit due to the massive overhead involved. Also, my heart wasn’t in it. Everything I had ever done relates to children and though I was excellent at, and enjoyed, making jewellery, I was not as capable of marketing it as something for children and families.

So I went back to the business plan drawing board.

My Nana was a textile artist and an amazing seamstress. In the 1950’s she designed clothing for stars like Marlon Brando and Katherine Hepburn. As a child I was always underfoot in her studio and by that time she had begun working in wool and silk. She would start with natural fibres and dye them incredible colours then weave or quilt them into vibrant works of art. The process of watching something bland and formless like raw wool becoming art made a profound impression on me.

So it wasn’t a huge surprise when in 2007 I started focusing more on creating handmade art for children using some of my Nana’s techniques. When our second daughter was born last March I realized that it was time to start a new business and O Happy Day Handmade was conceived. My business is just beginning and I will be sharing lots of tips, tutorials, and learning experiences this year as I develop my new company from the brand up!

Expect to see new posts about website design, social networking, business and marketing plan development, personal/business branding, advertising/promotional materials, and event planning for a business launch party!

I am excited about helping other small businesses navigate the world of buying and selling handmade and sharing my experience creating a new business with OMHG readers. Together we will go confidently in the direction of our dreams and create the life we have imagined!

Knowing when to make a change

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

photo by Summer Knobloch Photography

by Sara Tams of sarah + abraham

When I announced in May that I could no longer continue running OMHG, it probably came as a big surprise to many of you. It was a pretty sudden decision on my part, too. As I mentioned when I first launched this blog in February, OMHG came about when I won a free blog package from Susie at Zee Studio. I absolutely loved the design that Susie came up with and wanted to do it justice by filling the blog with amazing content.

I quickly became consumed with OMHG – always thinking about features to add and always on the lookout for ideas for content. I was so proud of every post. OMHG was beautiful and brimming with useful information.

And then one day I started to feel overwhelmed with work and out of balance. I wasn’t exercising much and wasn’t eating a healthy diet. I didn’t have as much time for my family as I would have liked. I also hadn’t been giving much energy or creativity to my business, sarah + abraham. I was simply filling orders and not doing any marketing or adding any new products.

So I decided right then that I had to put a stop to it. As much as I loved OMHG, as much as I was proud of it, as much as I would have loved to continue with it, I had to let it go. And once I made the decision, that was it, I was done. I sent an email to the contributors to let them know and then shortly after that I made the announcement.

I spent a lot of time talking with people who were interested in purchasing OMHG, and I received four great offers. I made my decision about who to sell OMHG to based on who I thought was most likely to continue OMHG in the spirit in which it was created and do great things with it.

Once we had an agreement in place, I began to really enjoy spending my newly found free time with my family. And then slowly I got back into the swing of things with sarah + abraham. I started blogging again at my sarah + abraham blog. I set up some trades with professional photographers and added their amazing new product photos to my website. I began offering some new invitation designs. And most recently I started offering personalized plates and bowls, which have been very well received.

I’m looking forward to adding more new products over the next few months, I hope to continue doing photography trades and improving my own photography skills, and I’ve decided to make my sarah + abraham blog less business-focused and more “customer friendly.” I’ve also decided to offer more value to my customers through unique products and content and to not rely so heavily on discounts and promotions to boost sales.

Right now my schedule feels just right. I try to get most of my work done in the mornings while my kids are at summer camps or entertaining themselves. As soon as I feel caught up enough with work, I spend the rest of the afternoon and the evening with my family. I’m getting much better about not working on the weekends and not thinking about work when I’m not working.

I’m really looking forward to being a monthly contributor here at OMHG, and I’m especially excited about being able to enjoy reading OMHG without all of the responsibilities that go along with being the editor!