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Good Shtuff – Businessy smarts edition

Good Shtuff is a weekly-ish look at what I’m reading and thinking about. This week, it’s all bussiness-y smarts.

Emblematic smarts

I love what Lean is doing here: testing an idea by offering it for free. Get an “embelem” for your business, for FREE, right here. Seriously. Awesome.

Do it all smarts

Leonie is my business guru. Everything she does is shiny and sparkly and awesome and hilarious and smart. Especially when it comes to explaining why you can totally do lots of different things in your business.

Confusion smarts

Business is simple. Except when it's confusing. Sometimes you don't need MORE specifics, you need to sit with the confusion. Mark says it best:

“If you’re willing to take the time needed with the concepts, not rush too fast and furious, then it all begins to click. Suddenly the relationship between your heart, your business and your clients makes sense.”

You can read more of his smarts here.

One on one smarts

Like Mark says above: Your biz doesn't need a one-size-fits-all solution, it needs personal work and learning and growing.
Which is why I do one-on-one work: so you and I can look at your business (or dream of a business) and decide what it needs more of (and what it needs less of). We bring clarity and focus, giving it time to soak in.
Even though I just announced that I'm scheduling into January and it's already filling up, you can see if it's right for you, here.

One step forward

Last week I sent this as an email to my SparklePointer people. I got so many responses saying “This was exactly what I needed to hear! Thank you!“, that I've decided to share it here. I hope you find it encouraging!

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While we've been talking about holiday planning, I've gotten several messages from you saying you're not there yet….but you really hope to make 2011 the year you start your business, or grow it into income-generating support.

I love these messages because it tells me that you are right on the cusp of the Doing.

Wait, let's back up.
In my experience with crafty businesses (or, really, any business), there's often a looong period of time where you consider selling what you make. In this stage you may even take some “steps” like signing up for etsy, listing a few things with hastily taken photos, or starting a blog (or maybe a whole string of un-updated blogs).
You think. You dream.

This is an important stage. But this is not a business.

The next stage is Plotting.
It's different for different people. For me, it involved a crazy amount of research (mostly business books) and writing down every idea I had. For others, it involves sending emails to people who might help (like me!). Or reading the Etsy forums. Or finding some blogs.
The difference between this stage and the first?

Intention.

At this point, you know, that you WILL do this sell-what-you-make thing. You will.
You may not know how. Or when. But something has shifted.
It's real.
But it's still not a business.

This plotting may eventually lead to Doing.
This is the stage where you make it happen.

If you hang out in the plotting stage too long, doubt will creep in.
Is it real?
Is it possible?

Stay in this doubt too long and you slip back into the Thinking stage.
Everything seems too hard. Too confusing. Too out-of-your-range.

So how do you move from Plotting to Doing?
By making one decision.
A decision to commit.
When you turn that Surety in your heart into something tangible.

The decision can be anything.
But it must involve investing in your business (investing = risking time or money or your comfort on something that will yield returns).
It can be signing up for a class.
It can be DOING what you learned from a blog post, a class, a friend.
It can be getting one-on-one help + gentle accountability.

Anything that you can look at when doubt seeps in and say “No, this isn't just a dream, I AM doing it.”

(Note: Afraid of moving to Doing too soon? Think you need more Plotting before you commit? Be reassured: you will ALWAYS be plotting. You never stop Plotting. I've been Doing my yarn biz for 4 years and I'm still Plotting and changing and experimenting. )

While the new year, the year of you moving from Plotting to Doing is still over a month away, I wanted to get you thinking about this. Wanted to remind you that you don't have to stay the Thinking or Plotting stage.

You can move forward.

I want you to move forward in the way that is right for you, whether you use my classes or blog or one-on-one help or not.
Really.

If you do think that what you need to move forward is focus and prioritization, I'm now scheduling personal helpfulness through January. If you'd like more information about how I can help you get some clarity with the next stage (or just help you from slipping back), let me know here (you can tell me a bit about your biz, real or imagined or just send a blank note) and I'll send you the information.

If this isn't what will help you move forward, then I'd like to encourage you to find what will work.

And remember: experimentation is a good thing.
Try one small thing. Try another.
It's only business 🙂

Wishing you a weekend full of thinking, plotting and doing,
Tara

Stretch.

If you're here from Scoutie Girl, Welcome! We've been talking about planning all month: planning for money, planning for sanity, remembering that we're just fine, even if we haven't planned.

Worried about your holiday crafting? Today I share some thoughts on planning it in a mindful way, over at Scoutie Girl.

I struggled to write all day.

I feel antsy, distracted, constantly checking my email, twitter, etc ad nauseum. Now it's 2:24 and I'm writing long after I'm usually done and then *bing* I remembered.

Just yesterday, in our #withlimits twitter chat (good advice there, even if you didn't take the class), we talked about scheduling in breaks. Taking the time to remember to drink water, stretch, walk around.

As soon as I remembered, I stood up.
I'm in a crowded coffeeshop, so I walked over to a slightly-less public place and strettttched. I'm sure I'm now the weird pink-haired girl who stretches wonkily, but hey, my head cleared.

Then I went up to the coutner and ordered a water.
I was self-consious (even though I already bought my coffee), but I noticed the feeling. Realized it wasn't so horrible to keep me from actually getting the free water.

I remembered that Heidi calls that anxious, antsy part the puppy. As with any puppy, you need to talk it on a walk. Feed and water it. Play with it.

And here I am.
Writing. With something to write about!
My point (and I do have one!) is that maybe what's missing is a break.

Start small (streeeetch! yawwwwn!) and add on.

Grab a water.
Make some tea.
Take a nap.

I promise, it'll help.

Good Shtuff – Relationships Edition

Good Shtuff is a weekly-ish look at what I'm reading and thinking about. This week, it's all about relationships: with customers, family and limits.

At your service

Just last week I was overwhelmed with a helpful urge and put out the call on Twitter:

How can I help? Ask me anything!

I love the people I got to know over the next hour, so I was delighted to read Jonathan Field's experiment with the same helfpful spirit. Inspired by this post, I'll be offering my help at least once a day, all week.
He's @jonathanfields.

At home

While helping everyone build the craft business they want is a huge priority for me, my marriage is even more important. I really appreciated this clear-eyed look from IttyBiz at prioritizing relationships for the self-employed.

Limits

The relationships in our lives can serve as catalysts and as limits. Recognizing those limits (and figuring out a way to work WITH it) will help you avoid the frustration of smacking into them unwittingly. We'll be talking about all forms of limits in today's class and there's a few hours left to join.

What have you been reading this week?

It’s ok

It's safe to say that I am more excited about the Holiday Sanity program (and all you creative smart people who are joining me) than I am about actually doing the planning. Which is why I invited you to keep me (and each other)accountable. This afternoon is where it all starts, but before we get going, I just needed a little reminder:

With all this talk of holiday planning, it may overwhelm you.
I know it does me.
I finally filled out my own mini-guide (yeah, I shared it with you just to convince MYSELF to do it!) and then all I wanted to do was nap.

And so today, it seems important to know: you don't have to do everything.
You don't have to be perfectly planned.
Or have life balance.
Or know what's going on.
It's ok, just as you are.

Whether you have a family, or an illness, or just stress.
Staying on top of it all, seeming perfect, having your stuff together.
That's not the goal.

The goal (or at least, my goal) is to notice.
To interact with the stuff that comes up, instead of ignoring it and hoping it all works out.
To get help when I need it.
To rely on my community.

This is just a friendly reminder that wherever you are, with your business, with your holiday planning, with your life is exactly where you're supposed to be.
And I'm so glad that you're there. And here.

(If you do have life-stuff that makes you worry you can't run a biz, check out tomorrow's class with Kirsty Hall, about working Within Limits)

Last Classes of 2010

I was going to make this announcement in December, and then I realized,

Oh, if I don't say it now, it'd be too late!

I'm not teaching many public classes in 2011.
For the last 4 months, I've taught at least 2 hours of brand-new material, in the form of teleclasses, every month.
And it has been awesome.
But as I strive to bring you more helpfullness in your quest of crafting a business, I need to focus more on answering your questions and less on selling you classes.

I will be teaching a lot more private classes, which will be free to people in my private programs (which aren't open yet, but you can sign up here and be one of the first to find out about them when they open).

Which means Holiday Sanity + Within Limits will be the last publicly-available classes for quite a long time.
That's why I'm bringing it up now, because if I waited until December I'd have to be all

“I'm teaching very few public classes, and oh, by the way, you missed the chance to take my last classes”.

So, for now, I'm just going to say that: Holiday Sanity + Within Limits are the last public classes I'm teaching for at least another 2 months.

If you're not interested in those classes, don't worry!

You can get weekly tips for working on your CraftyBiz (for free!) with the SparklePointer + I'll always be here, sharing everything I learn in my own crafty business, every week.

Free Guide to Planning your Holidays

This is the third in an ongoing series about planning (your business and your life!) for the holidays. If you want to keep your Holiday Sanity this year, join a group of crafters + artists in our accountability fun. If you're struggling to find the time because of family or health limits, check out Within Limits.

Instead of going on and on about planning today, let's just get down to the action. The action of looking clear-eyed and honestly about what you want to do this holiday.

For most of us, that starts with a List.

I am Queen of the List, but my planning really needs to go beyond the list.

I've put everything I know about dealing with big (scary!) to-do lists and turned into a teeny tiny mini-guide.

How I figure out what needs to be done.
How I make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
How I make sure it actually GETS done, hopefully a few days before it's really done.

All of it explained and then demonstrated with silly handdrawn worksheets.

This is one of the first materials I made for the Holiday Sanity program, but I got so much gushing about how helpful it was, I thought, I need to share this with everyone.

So here it is, completely free. No sign-ups or commitments or anything.
Just right click on the little button to download.

And enjoy!

Edited to add: At the request of several fast readers, we're going to do a weekly check-in, right here in the comments.
Today, let us know: did you fill out the first List of Doom?

Of course, you can get private accountability (and brainstorm and learn from a whole pile of clever crafters) in the Holiday Sanity program. Tuesday's the last day to join!

Planning for money

This is the second in an ongoing series about planning (your business and your life!) for the holidays. If you want to keep your Holiday Sanity this year, join a group of crafters + artists in our accountability fun.

One of the vital parts of keeping your business thriving during this busy season is to plan for money-making.
A lot of holiday-money-talk revolves around budgeting, but an equally important part is planning to keep making money, even when the holidays throw your schedule into the blender.

Of course, the holidays are often a time of increased sales for some businesses (mine included), so you'll want to plan for keeping things stable and/or increasing your sales.

There are several puzzle pieces that can fit together to make a financially healthy holiday

Offer something new for the holidays
Make it easy for your people to buy gifts
Keep income stable through the holidays
Maintain (and improve) your marketing

Offer something new

Can you do something holiday-themed in your shop?
Can you offer them in a new way or a new place?
I do this with a line of Christmas-y yarns, red + green + gold with jingle bells or sparkley stuff and a few yarn-themed ornaments.
I bring these yarns to Urban Craft Uprising (where they sell out, every year), which is a new venue (new compared to other months).

Make it easy to be a gift

The simplest way to do this is to offer gift certificates or gift baskets.
Your past customers can both GIVE them to their friends and REQUEST them from their loved ones.

Make it easy for your people to ASK for your thing as a gift. Last year I sent a special email that was actually addressed to husbands. The top of the email said, “Want to be SURE to get yarn for Christmas, forward this to your family!”.
Make it easy for your people to GIVE your thing as a gift.
You could write gift guides (answer the question: What kind of person would this be perfect for?), make it even easier (gift wrapping? last minute help?)
Last year I kept selling gift certificates until the very last minute (Christmas Eve), for people who would print the cards from home.

Know what you need to make each month.

Even if you don't do ANYthing different for the holidays, you'll want to keep everything from falling apart. Whether your business is your full-time income or not, it'll be helpful to have a real, number goal in mind.

Once you have a number in mind, you can break this down into when/how that money needs to come in. (Ex. If you're doing your christmas shopping at the beginning of December, it might be nice to have a little cushion for that).
After having soft deadlines for when you want the money, you can break that into individual products (if that makes sense for what you make). If you don't already have that many things in your shop, when you will you make them? How many per day or per week?

Improve that marketing.

I had all sorts of things to say about this, but then I read Diane's fabulous post about marketing during these marketing-drenched times, and I realized she said it all. So go read that. And do exactly what she says!

Putting it all together

Ok, so we have ideas for new products, production planned, marketing planned and now, how the heck do we have TIME for it?

The final step is to fit it all together.

For that, I made a little booklet that will walk you through the steps of making sure everything fits on your calendar, along with a handdrawn planning calendars and lists.
You can download it for completely free, right here (right click…save as…).

Plan a Sane Holiday mini-guide

And if you need some gentle accountability and little help focusing? Join us for Holiday Sanity.

How do you do it?

Is this how you plan for the holidays? If not, are you going to try it?
Tell me in the comments.

Good Shtuff: dancing, comics and sanity edition

Dance!

I'm probably a little obsessed with the hilarity of Kelly Parkinson. I mention her in nearly every Good Shtuff. But it's really good! Especially, this on How to dance (when dancing = marketing).

Comics

Jay, the house comic nerd, wants me to link to this post about what small businesses can learn from comics. Good shtuff!

Focus!

I've been thinking a lot about time + planning, so the new book by Zen Habits about Focus has perfect timing. Haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
A big thanks to @joyfulmess for telling me more about it in this interview.

Sanity!

We had a special BONUS class for the early-birds of Holiday Sanity. The post-class chat was amazing. The program's already so full of smart, helpful creatives that I can not wait to see who joins this week. If you need some Holiday Sanity, you can join us here.

Limits

Speaking of smart and helpful, I am so excited to have Kirsty Hall as a guest teacher in a class about building a business Within Your Limits. As an entrepreneur and artist and mother with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she has bunches to share about honoring your limits + building a sustainable business. You can get all the details and watch an adorable video of Kirsty here.

Amigurumi

This has nothing to do with business, I just thought I should tell you that I'm totally addicted to making teeny tiny crocheted things.

IMAG0002
A pirate duck, for Havi + Selma

I've already agreed to make a ninja for my web ninja and a typewriter for my Kyeli + Amy. And a dog to match my dog.
(Oh, that's so ridiculous I can't believe I just confessed it.)
I'll be sharing patterns and inspirations tomorrow at Blonde Chicken Boutique in case you are similarly obsessed.

What have you been obsessed with this week?

November is National Do Lots of Stuff Month

Happy November!
November is the month of turkey, gratitude and crazy big group projects. Something about all that impending time with extended family seems to draw us to gathering online to accomplish ridiculous goals.

Today I'm embarking on two (um, three?) big projects:

NaNoWriMo
NaKniSweMo
Holiday Sanity

I'm hoping I can convince some of you to join me in the craziness, let me know if you're also doing any of these in the comments!

NaNoWriMo

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a yearly endeavor to write 50,000 words (or, a small novel) in the month of November. Thousands of writers, the world over, participate and it is a beautiful thing. You can read more about it here.
I'm not writing a novel, but I am challenging myself to write 50,000 words this month (these right here count!), in the hopes of giving you what you've been asking for: more CraftyBiz written material to go with the classes.

Gettting it done

I'm using 750words.com to keep track of my daily words. My goal is to write 2,000/day every day that I can, since I'll be traveling a lot in November and I'm sure there will be several days when I can't write at all.
I'm still a little sketchy about WHAT exactly I'll be writing about, so if there's something in particular about crafting a business you'd like to read about, let me know.

NaKniSweMo

As if 50,000 words weren't enough, I'm also attempting to knit 50,000 stitches. Or, a whole sweater. This is a knitter's version or NaNoWriMo, NAtional KNIt a SWEaterMOnth, in it's 4th year and is organized by the inimitable KnitGrrl, Shannon Oakey.

Gettting it done

I'm knitting the Featherweight Cardigan by Helen Fettig. I spent, oh, an embarrassing amount of time thinking about what yarn I would make this in, before settling on the designer's own kit. It comes with the fabulously squooshy Malabrigo laceweight, which I got it in Pearl.
No special stitch-counting or knit-progress-tracking with this, I just plan to work on it All. The. Time. All the time I'm not working or writing or crocheting cute amigurumi.

(Not a knitter? Check out Art Every Day, a sort of NaNoWriMo for artists.)

Holiday Sanity

Unlike the other two projects, this has no big goal line.
It's simply an accountability and planning group project that I put together to help myself get through the holidays. It's my hope that it'll help you do the same.

Tools

I'm creating all sorts of (optional) worksheets to help me (and you) figure out what, exactly, has to be done (and by when) in order to have a great holiday season, both in my business and in my life!
To figure out what to include, I put together all the tools and tricks I know help me get stuff done and I talked to other crafty people about what's worked for them.
What we came up with is simple and not too time-consuming (the goal is to focus on our work, not on the planning.)

Each week will have a theme to help focus our work and we'll follow up in a (private!) chat room where we'll check in and ask questions.
I'm looking forward to it because I know just the *idea* of checking in with someone pushes me to do better work. I've seen my gentle email accountability do wonders in other crafty businesses on projects as big as starting their first shop to making art on a regular basis.
You can join us right here.

Are you doing any crazy big projects this month?

Tell me about it in the comments.

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