Tag: Prior

by Leland Richardson on 0

How to Get Practical Craft Experience

Turning hobbies into full time jobs is the dream of many casual crafters. It takes time, creativity and persistence. Another key element is experience. Rudimentary knowledge of your art / craft isn’t good enough if you’re selling goods to paying customers.

You need to have the knowledge to put out a quality product at a price that your customer will pay while still making enough money to cover both your business and personal expenses. Just starting out and not sure how to get that knowledge? Here are my suggestions for getting good, practical experience in running a craft business.

Working for Another Craft Business

Years ago when I first started giving seminars on starting a new business, getting good practical experience working for another similar type business was my number one suggestion. It still is. This is the best and most ideal of situations.

Working for another crafter not only teaches you the specific skill, it exposes you to the complete picture of the business aspects of selling crafts. Definitely, having prior experience working for a business in the same craft discipline to the one you want to start will be one of your major keys to success.

However, I know that for many, unless you are a student looking for an internship, this isn’t an option. You’re working 40 hours plus at your day job and the last thing you want to do is get a part-time job working for someone else in your craft field. Honestly, fast forwarding to today, it would be a difficult option for me to achieve too. So, what to do if putting in hours working for another arts / crafts designer just can’t be done?

Practice, Practice, Practice

It’s trite but practice is a very necessary part of gaining design and fabrication experience. Do you ever watch Project Runway? What always happens at the start of each show? These are trained designers with years of experience in the field, yet after they are given an assignment, they don’t just get out a pair of shears and start hacking up fabric.

They think about their particular design, sketch it out, carefully consider the right fabric and use muslin to make patterns prior to cutting the actual garment fabric. Sometimes they have to halt operations mid-stream when they see their design just isn’t going to pan out. As an inexperienced crafter, these are the basic steps you should follow – sometimes over and over and over again until a design or technique is totally worked out.

Until you’ve had a lot of practice, it’s really hard to have a 100% grasp on whether the materials you want to use are adaptable to your design. Also, it can take numerous prototypes to breakdown design elements into logical construction steps. Remember, developing well-honed techniques from hours of experimentation is necessary prior to announcing yourself to the world as a serious craft businessperson.

Yikes, all that material – it can be expensive – that’s why the clothing designers use muslin first. If possible, use the equivalent of muslin for your design prototypes.

Take Craft Business Courses or Seminars Tailored to Your Field

While this is a necessary part of running a business for experienced craft business owners, it’s exponentially important for the inexperienced. You should already have subscribed to and be reading trade publications. There are numerous craft seminars given convention style each year, hi-lighted in these publications, providing great information on many different craft related business topics.

Usually spanning two to three days, a variety of topics are normally covered and you’ll be able to pick and choose between the seminars you want to attend. If the seminars aren’t within driving distance, you’ll have the additional burden of airfare and lodging. However, lacking the time to get on-the-job practical experience, this is the next best thing.

Joining Craft Professional Trade Associations

What happens when you go out to lunch with people you work with? Don’t you invariable end up talking about your jobs – maybe getting the inside scoop on pending events? Well, that’s exactly the sort of interaction you’ll get when you join a local trade association. Attending these meetings is a great way to get experience vicariously as you find out about new tools, techniques, suppliers and legalities specific to your craft.

Getting experience working in the field is invaluable. You’ll have the priceless opportunity to see how an established business maneuvers around problems beyond their control and deals with supply, labor and customer issues. Lacking that opportunity, put aside time to practice your craft. Pair this with keeping on top of developing issues in your business by joining trade organizations and attending craft related seminars.

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by Leland Richardson on 0

Business Plan Elements

Writing a business plan is both nerve-racking and exhilarating. It can be stressful to work through each section, dealing with problems and exploring alternative solutions. However, you’ll find that it’s positively thrilling to work through those problems and find out that yes, this is a doable proposition!

Most business plans have the following eight main sections; some also include an appendix. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong way to develop a business plan and your particular type of art or craft will shape its format.

1. Executive Summary

Consider the purpose of the business and briefly state how you intend to achieve that purpose. The objective here is to be direct and to-the-point. You’ll follow up on these basics in other sections of the plan.

2. Basic Company Info

List the contact information for your business here: name, address, and phone and fax number, how long you have been in business, hours of operation — you get the idea. Remember, the business plan is a work in process. Get the fundamental company facts down on paper now and you’ll find that updating the business plan in the future will be a snap.

3. Products or Services Offered

For example, let’s say you do leatherwork and create purses using authentic antique techniques such as Venetian lacquer. This section should contain a detailed description of the historical origins of your designs and the types of leather, components, and techniques you use. The Plan of Operations section will further elaborate whether you cut, dye and stitch the leather yourself, outsource the procedure, or hire employees to do it in-house.

4. Facts About Your Industry, Competition and Market

Using the prior example, discuss the leatherwork industry, particularly the historical replication niche in which you plan to place yourself. Address your competition and your customers, especially how you plan to beat the competition.

5. Management, Organization and Ownership

If this business is your baby and you’re handling all management aspects yourself, this section is brief. If you have a more elaborate setup, prepare a flowchart showing managers, the employees reporting to each manager and their job description. Ownership refers to choice of business entity and is one of the first decisions you need to make when starting a new business.

6. Marketing Plan

This is very important – how are you going to get your name out to your potential customers? If you’ve done your research, you should already have some basic ideas. Jot down bullet points and flesh out exactly how you plan to market your business.

7. Plan of Operations

This is your A to Z on how you plan to run your business. I find that it’s helpful to think about what you feel makes up a typical day in the life of an arts and crafts business owner. This section covers everything from researching and maintaining a potential customer contact list to deciding how you will manage your inventory.

8. Financial Projections

Until you have some sort of sales track record or signed contracts from customers, projecting gross receipts is guesswork at best. That’s why it’s crucial to take the prior sections of the business plan seriously. You use all the research and knowledge you gain by working through the business plan and calculate the unknowns in your financial statements with an educated guess.

9. Optional – The Appendix

My business plan also includes an appendix. This section contains all the legal and operational facts about my business such as my federal identification number, my bank account and credit card information, business license and sales tax certificate. It seems like I have to reference that type of information frequently so it’s handy to have it all in one place.

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