So you’ve got a handmade shop - or are getting ready to open one. All the hard work that
goes into opening a shop is behind you (congratulations by the way! That’s seriously awesome) so
now.. I am guessing you’re looking at going to the next level - which is GROWTH... and
most importantly, making sales.
This is a super exciting time in your handmade business journey but if we’re being honest…
it can also be a bit of anti-climax - I say this not to dampen your mood, but because
I work with handmade business owners every day - and I see the vast majority of them
going through the same thing when they enter the GROWTH stage of their business.
In fact, everything I teach is based on the Makers Roadmap System which is a 4-stage system
to help you start and grow a successful handmade business, and the 3rd stage of this system
is the GROW stage. This is where I teach them how to grow their handmade businesses, essentially
- it’s about marketing and sales. And as makers transition from “starting
and opening their shop” to “growing their shop” I see the same thoughts, comments,
and questions popping back up - which is totally normal - but these thoughts and questions and at
times concerns only exist because there’s a GAP between their expectations of what growing
a handmade business will be like, and what it really is like.
So in this video, I want to help you prepare yourself for this exciting part of the journey
by going over what it really looks like to grow your handmade shop.
Let’s dive in!
Bonjour! I am Deb, Founder of Tizzit.co, a membership community for makers and handmade
shop owners just like your fabulous self and today I want to talk to you about what happens
ONCE you’ve opened your handmade shop and are looking at growing it.
There are 2 things that I hear more often than anything else. The first one is this:
And the second one is this:
Maybe to some of you, this sounds eerily familiar because you’re having those exact same thoughts. And
if you’re not - chances are you will. So let’s start by talking about # 1
Number 1 is this idea that suddenly it feels like everything must be done at the same and that
everything is important - that is so true I can feel it myself. Not only because I see many
sellers go through it but because I remember feeling the same way growing my own business
too.
Launching feels hard and is certainly a lot of work, but at least there’s some sense
of order because there are things you simply can’t do until others are done.
So for example, you can’t add a product to a store before taking pictures of said
product which means before that you’ve got to decide what your product collection will
look like. So it’s fairly easy to plan your work by using sequential logic, essentially.
Once your shop is open though, suddenly there’s ALL these things you need to do and can do
and based on what the internet is yelling at you - should do.
Now of course if you’re getting sales, there’s obviously order management, filling orders,
shipping products, all that good stuff. Aside from that, and before you even start
making sales, is the part that most makers struggle with the most ...which is marketing.
There’s also creating new products, and admin, bookkeeping, emails and customer conversations,
etc. You get my point - lots to do, and all of it feels important and most of it is important.
So what’s the solution here? How can you best prepare yourself to manage this new workload?
The answer is: organisation and systems.
Now, stay with me! I know you probably made a disgusted face when you heard me say the
word “systems” - no one likes that word, it sounds like the opposite of creative and
fun - but I promise that having systems in place is the one and only way to grow your
handmade business successfully - and to save you a TON of time so that you do have time
for fun and creative things.
What’s important to understand here is that as you transition from STARTING/OPENING to
GROWING/MANAGING your shop you will go from a LINEAR approach to work to a CYCLIC approach
to work.
As I was saying before, when your shop isn’t opened yet, the things you have to do have
to be done one after the other, in an order that makes sense.
As this point of your handmade business journey, it’s quite normal to have your tasks organised
sequentially - and the perfect way to do this is by using a good old to-do LIST:
* 1 - Design collection * 2 - Write product descriptions
* 3 - Take pictures * 4 - Upload to shop
* Etc.
But once you get into the GROWING or MANAGING stage, your work isn’t linear anymore, it’s
cyclic. Most of what you have to do, you will need to do again and again and again for as
long as you’re in business. Will it change a little as you grow? Of course!
But bookkeeping, posting on social, planning promotions, creating products, managing orders,
and all the rest of it are ALWAYS going to be on your list of things to do.
Which is why as you enter the GROW stage, you NEED to expect this so you can focus on
creating systems to organise yourself. Systems are to cyclic workflows what to-do lists are to linear workflows.
In essence, a to-do list is fine, but as you start seeing that your tasks are recurring, that there are
things that you'll be doing now and again in the future you'll need systems to manage those efficiently.
Systems are a better, improved version of the good, old to-do list. Which is why as you enter the GROW stage
you need to expect this so you can focus on creating systems to organise yourself.
This will save you time, and perhaps most importantly
will also help you GROW much faster because you’ll be
A - a ton more efficient and
B - consistent.
In marketing, for example, you can learn the “tactics”: you can learn how to use Instagram,
Pinterest, all of that, but the sellers who “make it” focus on systems to ensure that
they’re being consistent and implementing what they’ve learnt consistently.
There’s a difference between knowing how to do something and doing it consistently.
Knowing what to do is not enough, to get results, to get sales, you need to do it consistently.
And consistency takes discipline, and it takes systems.
SO... For everything you do inside your business,
ask yourself:
Is this a one-off task, or a recurring one? When will I do it again? How often do I need
to do this? Weekly, monthly, daily? Once you define that, the next question is
“how do I PROTECT this task?” How do I make sure that it gets done - on
time, consistently, no matter what. And that’s via clear systems, clear routines,
and clear processes inside your business.
It will take a bit of time to find what works for *YOU* and there is no one size fits all
here (or ever), you will need to experiment - find what best fits around YOUR life.
For example some of you might love to sit down once a month and schedule an entire month
of social media posts then - other prefer to do it every week - whatever works for you
works for me - but expect this cyclic approach to work and create systems so you can be consistent
with everything you do - that’s how you'll get the best results.
Ok, number 2 is this other concern I often hear from shop owners who just opened a shop,
and say:
"My shop has been open for a full month, but I haven’t had many sales or any sales
at all - what am I doing wrong”
The simple answer here: nothing is wrong!
Look, growth takes time. No one likes to say that, because no one likes to hear it - and
fair enough it’s not the nicest thing to hear, but it’s also the truth and I think
this is where the gap between expectations and reality is the biggest.
Most makers going into business selling their products think that once their shop is open,
sales will start rolling in almost immediately. That’s simply not the case for the majority
of sellers because that’s not how business and marketing work.
I remember a member of the Tizzit HQ community actually summing this up in a funny way one
day, it stuck with me. She said: "This is why it’s called the Growth Stage, not the Miraculous
Magic Bean Stage".
There’s no magic trick or hack or fairy riding on unicorns in the grow stage - The
mindset that you need to be in when you enter the growth stage is one of consistency.
Consistency can only happen over time, you can’t get the results that come from consistency
without doing the work consistently.
I know right now you’re probably thinking “oh that’s it Deb? That’s your advice,
that’s your secret? Just be consistent?” YES.
It sounds so, so simple - I know. Be consistent. Duh. But the simplest things are not the easiest
ones and that’s a perfect example of that. The advice I am giving you right now is so
simple most people watching this video will ignore it or forget it by diner time tonight.
DON’T be that person. Be the one who really takes in on board.
Consistency is the hardest part of building a business.
Keeping at it when you don’t get instant gratification is so freaking hard. We human
beings have brains that crave instant gratification. It’s hard to see the longer, bigger picture
gains - but it’s where everything plays out.
It’s so easy to think “ah whatever no one will notice if I don’t post to Instagram
this week, or add new pins to Pinterest or send that email newsletter, I don’t have
many subscribers or followers anyway”.
At times it feels insignificant, especially if you don’t have much of an audience yet because
you’re starting from scratch and you’re thinking “well my 27 followers won't care”
but this is where you need to have GRIT.
Because that’s what growing a successful handmade business really takes: GRIT.
Here's how Wikipedia defines "grit":
Keywords: perseverance of effort AND long term goal.
All those seemingly insignificant tasks add up to what’s known as the “compound effect”
(which I believe is the name from a book by Darren Hardy, and full disclosure I haven't
read the book), but the idea of the compound effect is to “reap BIG rewards from small,
seemingly insignificant actions over time.”
At first, you’re putting in a lot of effort for what seems to be very little results,
but slowly, you start getting more momentum until you’re getting a lot more results
for a lot less effort.
Now that’s easy to say once you start getting some results but not so easy when you’re
in the middle of that GRIT phase - and I believe the main reason for this is that NO ONE WARNS
YOU (well until now because I just did) so you expect instant or very quick big results
and when it seems to be growing more slowly, you ASSUME something’s wrong.
Now I have another video actually where I go over “how long does it take to get sales
from your handmade shop” which I’d recommend you watch next if you’re interested in diving
even deeper into that topic - and below this video, you’ll also find a link to my free
resource library for makers and handmade shop owners, full of free guides and resources
to help you grow a successful and profitable handmade shop so make sure to check that out
also - thanks for watching and until next time, Au Revoir!