tara, Author at Tara Swiger

The Adventures

The view

Every week is an adventure and this is the view, the path and the finds that made this one special. You can follow all my adventures here.

The first flowers of the year!

How my to-do list gets done

Starbucks Vanilla Spice Soy latte: my new best friend

Eep! I pinked the tips of my hair (instead of the front stripe)

Currently knitting

The Path

My week was filled up with class discussion and solo-sessions with Starship members (I had five, which might be a record!). It's so invigorating to talk to interesting people about their adventure.

I just brought on a new writing client and I'm just loving the inside view at a business I've long admired. I don't do much writing-for-other-people because with the wrong fit, it can be draining (for both of us!)…so I'm also delighted (and a little shocked) when someone finds the info and signs up. Which reminds me, I should probably mention that I do that kind of thing, sometimes.

Banana yarn finally (finally!) came back in stock! I've got just a few skeins left, and you can grab 'em here.

I'm a Frockstar! Karina Dresses said so!

The Finds

I was delighted to learn that fellow coffeeshop-regular David makes music I love. Listen in here.

Handmade Ryan Gosling. And Feminist Ryan Gosling. Thank you, internet.

This retreat is SO close to me, I almost can't not go. Who's coming with me?

This envelope for expenses is going to the change the way I live (currently: all recipes for a whole year go in sad, torn-up envelope at the bottom of my purse)

Bonzai Aphrodite is back! My favorite vegan-ish blog.

What to do with all those Pinterest followers?

Last week during the #omhg chat* Marisa asked a great question:

“What do I do with my nearly 1 million Pinterest followers?”

Yes! I jumped all over it and Marisa and I got to emailing with ideas and suggestions for what she could do with all that possible-traffic. I've come across this question (and some great answers) so often that I know you're probably wondering the same. So here's my 4 tips for doing something great with your Pinterest account:

I forgot to mention it in the video, but I recently read and enjoyed Pinfluence. If you want more ideas and some technical how-tos it's a great book! {Buy it from your local bookseller!}

Do you use Pinterest for your business? How's it working out for you?

I get quite a bit of traffic thanks to Pinterest, but I'm just starting to use the kind of pin-able images on my blog posts (like this, for example). How about you?

Got a question you need answered? Ask me!
Want to get every video + special lessons? Subscribe here.

*Next week I'm co-hosting the chat! Come hang out, Thursday 1p-2p!

Get comfortable, be an explorer

beanexplorer

We've been talking about money lately. And money-talk can be…uncomfortable. Talking about hard times, slow learning and real numbers opens yourself up to judgement…even if it's just from yourself.
And that's why it's so important to be an explorer.

Before we get into your numbers and profit, let's talk more about exploring and how it can help us get in the right space to do this work:

This exploring is what we'll be doing in PayYourself. If you're ready to explore your profit margins and build on what's working, join us here. (Class starts on Monday, and that's the last day you can join. No, I won't be holding it again.)

What are you exploring now? What could use some gentle curiosity?

A messy path to profitability

Last week I shared a bit of my story, of what it was like to have to figure out how to pay myself once I quit my dayjob. But I left out the messy middle. The part where I had to take apart my whole system of profit and look at it piece by piece.

When I first started selling yarn, I did what most of us do, I looked around and priced my work according to what else was out there. But it soon became clear that I could barely afford the skein of yarn I was dyeing at that price. I had to buy in bulk, at wholesale prices in order to have ANY kind of margin.

But then, I had to look beyond the expense of that particular skein (also called Cost of Goods Sold) into my overhead: paper, ink, dyes, time, and figure out how that was going to get covered.

And when I get to this part of a conversation with a maker, I usually get two reactions:

But I can only raise my price so much!

True.

But I can only reduce my expenses so much!

Also true.

And this is where the exploring breaks down, because you just know there's nothing else you can do so you better stop looking at it before you discover something really awful (maybe you shouldn't have a business, maybe you'll never be a success, maybe this is crazy).

Honey, I know. I know that looking at these numbers brings up all kinds of panic. And I know that you're afraid that there's nothing you can do to make it work. I know because when I got to this point of my numbers-crunching I freaked out. I wanted to stop looking and just hope that the math would magically resolve itself if I just worked harder.

But it didn't. (And I gave that magic solution a good long time to show up.) What did resolve it was looking at other options. Revisiting the numbers and figuring out what else it told me. Just like with your marketing: explore what has worked and build from there.

So now I also know that there are lots of things you can do to make it work. You can introduce a new product, you can try a new income stream, you can shift your focus a bit.

There are a zillion things you can do to make it work, and none of them involve giving up.

These zillion things are what we're going to explore in Pay Yourself. We'll find out what's not working, sure, but then we'll focus on what is working and build more profit from there.

What has your path to profitability been like? What have you learned? What are you afraid to look at?

The Adventures

Every week is an adventure and this is the view and the finds that made this one special. You can follow all my adventures here.

The View

The finds

On my car trip yesterday I listed to this interview from On Being, with Seth Godin. It is so good. Every maker, artist, or thinker should listen in.
Tammie Bennett made the MOST AWESOME map. Check it out here.
Confession: I know nothing about who comes to my site or how they got here. I check Google Analytics every once in a while, but I'd like to be smarter about it. Thank goodness Diane is teaching this series of classes.

My path

How to plan your daring adventure – my post on the Karina Chronicles
Right now I'm in Cookeville, for my mom's first EVER Art exhibit! There's an opening reception tonight at Corner Coffeebar + Arthouse. If you're nearby – stop by and say hi!
The best part of this week was opening the new class and meeting the new students! Join us here.

The first step towards a profitable business

First Steps toward a profitable business

When I quit my dayjob to make yarn full-time, I had worked for months towards an income goal. But then, life fell apart. In one month, my car caught fire, my husband lost his (only-part-time-anyhow) job, and my house was broken into (yep, everything electronic was stolen. Thank goodness they didn't how valuable my little wooden spinning wheel is!)

Since that inauspicious start, my creativity has been my ticket to paying bills, traveling the country, going to movies and generally living life. In the beginning, I didn't know what to do except: SCRAMBLE. And, to be honest, sometimes it's still a scramble.

But I make it work.
I take my family to a hotel + fancy dinner + the Chocolate Lounge for Mom's birthday. I take a week off to be in San Diego for my Dad's birthday party. {This was the year both parents turned 50. It was a big deal. But don't mention it to them!} I get stuck overnight in an airport and can afford to get a hotel room at the last minute. I drive 3 hours and get a hotel to visit my husband's grandpa before he dies, then the next week for the funeral…then the next week for Thanksgiving.

These aren't glamorous rolling-in-the-dough stories. But this is real life.
I'm a 30-year-old married French major who likes to eat at Plant at least once a month, and can't bear “office casual”.
I bring home the puppy chow from my ideas and my words and my hands.

And in the nearly 4 years of doing this full-time, I've learned how do it, and do it with some ease.

And so, I think long and hard before I answer a question like the one Laura asked: “How do you create the income of your dreams when creating the products by hand?”

The answer is GINORMOUS.

But it's also kinda small: Profit.

Everything you sell, every project you work on, and every new “opportunity” you jump on must be profitable for your overall business to be profitable.

But doing that! It involves…math, my dear friends.
And it involves bold honesty. And we tend to avoid the things we're not-so-comfortable with. So I created a class that walks you through all of it. From individual product profit-testing, to the things that keep your whole business paying you. It's the systems I use (and that I've helped other crafters in the Starship use) to launch new products, find new income streams, and pay the bills.

The class is Pay Yourself, and you can register for it here.

But in the meantime, I can begin to answer Laura's question in today's video, with the very first step of profitability: Knowing your numbers.

Once you know your numbers, it's time to Pay Yourself.

Got a question? Ask me!
Like these videos? Subscribe and I'll beam 'em to your inbox each week!

The Adventures

Every week is an Adventure..and this is the view and the finds that made this one special. You can see all my adventures here.

The view

The Fonz + Pinky Tuscadero

Stella crushing my arm while I try to work

Love-y wrapping for the Month of Love packages

Valjean + Javert

Planning my next class

The Finds

Love this card that Amy sent me (get yours here!)

Yay! Sat down to spin a Dr Who + TARDIS yarn...and got this @amysnotdeadyet card on the mail! #serendipity #drwho

Tammie Bennett (my new favorite artist) sketched everyday for 100 days. And then made an adorable video:

I get a lot of questions from people who haven't started their businesses quite yet. And while I answer every single one, I'm far more interested in talking about all the middle parts. So I'm delighted when I find something I can recommend that covers all those just-launching-your-site steps. Paul Jarvis's new book, Be Awesome at Online Business, is exactly that. From finding a designer to writing your content to preparing for the launch, it's got what you need. This is my new official answer to “Where do I start with a website?“

And if you wanna get started with having a business selling your art or craft, Leonie's got you covered. Her business guide has every single step from pricing to printing your prints to shipping.

What did you find this week?

How to create a successful business

Before we go much farther with this me-answering-your-questions thing, let's talk about the BIG question.

The one that wakes you up at night, the one that you can't seem to find an easy answer for, the big secret everyone else seems to know:

How do I create a successful business?

I've got TWO answers, one simple and one complex, for this most-asked question.

The most important thing is to decide what success means to YOU.

What will success look like in your business? Leave a comment below or tweet it.

Got a question you need answered? Ask me!
Want to get every video + special lessons? Subscribe here.

DIY: Destination-setting

During a conversation about map-making last week, someone asked: I know all of the milemarkers (stuff I want to accomplish), but I don't have one BIG goal in mind. This is just a bunch of stuff that's not exactly tied together. Why do we have to pick a destination?“

I love that question, because it perfectly expresses how most of us think about our business. We know what we want to do (release that new product, write that book, do that craft show), but they don't seem big enough to focus all of our focus on. And halfway there (especially when it looks like it's done deal), we move on to thinking about the next thing. Now that you released that product you want to redo your photography. Now that you wrote the book, you've got to edit it. Or you get sidetracked by the other (smaller) 5,000 things you want to do and forget all about your goal until next January.

Setting a destination is both a discipline and a celebration.

It's a discipline to focus in on reaching one goal, to keep on one path. It forces you to organize everything rolling around in your head into a cohesive plan. It's easy to get sidetracked just chasing all these tiny-dos around our days and weeks, which leads to stumbling towards our goals.

It's a celebration because you acknowledge where you're going. It's easy to skip over what's happening now and start planning for the next thing, but when you know your destination you can take a minute to party when you get there. Yay! This is what I had planned for and now I'm here! I'm awesome!

No one else is going to do it.

When you work for yourself, you don't get raises based on employee evaluations. You don't have a boss to give you a project or to grant you permission. No one will give you a pat on the back when you do a good job.

This is an adjustment. Up until now, someone else has set the parameters of success. Parents told you what they wanted. Teachers gave you tests. Bosses assigned work.

But now…not only do you have set your own projects (and systems for doing them…and measuring their success), you've also got to assign an end point. Otherwise, you'll never find one. There's no big moment (that I've found) when you think: Ok, I've done everything and am perfectly happy with what I've created here! You're always changing your goals and moving the definition of success. Without parameters and feedback, the work can become a grind. A never-ending list of things to do, with no sign of completion.

You've got to give it to yourself. You've got to assign the goalposts and then do a touchdown dance when you get to them. (And that's the only sports analogy you'll see around here!). You've got to decide what counts as a success and then celebrate it in order to enjoy the work.

What's your next destination?*

What do you want to accomplish by the end of March? And how will you know you're there? How will celebrate reaching it?

*Need help picking a destination? Try the Map Making Guide, or leave a comment and I'll help you brainstorm!

Avoid the post-holiday sales slump

Welcome to a brand-new video series!

Each week I'll answer your creative-biz questions in a short video. Subscribe so you don't miss a one.
(Got a question? Ask me!)

Today I answered Ana's question:

How do I avoid the post-holiday sales slump in my online business?

If you can't see the video, click here.

I have four suggestions for keeping your hard-earned holiday momentum rolling through the New Year:

Keep the new people around.
Offer them something new (that goes with what they already bought)
Ask for the share.
Plan for the slump.

PS. Like my dress? Me too! It's Megan, from Karina.