Thank you Jacci!

Find them all here.  Thank you Kind over matter!

Love

XXXX

1.  Expectations – based on many factors such as previous experience; your frame of reference or your perceptions.  You buy products because you expect something – either you bought them in the past and they were wonderful or your friend recommend them.

2.  Actual service or product delivery

If the service/product is not what you expected, you will be disappointed!

If the service or products are on par you will be content.

If the service or product is much, much more than what you expected then you are a delighted customer – and you will get that WOW feeling!!!!

I ordered two weeks ago two Lollipop and Kisses dolls for my little nieces.

They are made by one of the lovely crafters on my site:(found them here)

I love handmade products and thought that this would be a lovely present and much better than a plastic Barbie doll.

AND this afternoon I went to the post office to collect my parcel – and this was what  I received:

I was super excited!  This lovely package for ME???

And inside?

My pragtige twee poppies!!! Each with their own “Certificate of Adoption”.

AND their own names, Dimples and Flower.

I fell in love on the spot and this for a grown women of 41.  I can just imagine the love a little girl must feel for her own special doll.

And they smell divine no idea what it is – but a soft, powder, girly smell.

And back to the WOW factor..I am delighted!!

WOW! WOW!WOW!

Please support this entrepreneur and her team of disadvantaged ladies and buy handmade instead of “Made in China”.

Buy them here.

Till next time

XXXX

Heather Moore is the illustrator and designer that’s behind Skinny laminx. She lives in Cape Town and I love her work!

But take a look for yourself!

—
Don Miguel Ruiz

http://www.wishingstar.co.za/feltproducts.htm

Find the original ones here!

Love

What do you love to do?

What is it that makes your heart pitter-patter? Is it taking photographs? Working with your hands? Listening to your friends over a steamy cup of coffee? What are the things you love? Write them down. Don’t think about if you can make a job out of it. Just write.

What are you great at?

Everyone has skills that they excel at. I’m not just talking about things you’re good at; you need to find the things you’re great at, amazing, even. I’m good at cooking, but I’m certainly not about to be on Top Chef any time soon. Think about the things that your friends and family consistently say “Wow, you’re a natural at that!” Now write these things down. The items on this list may very well differ from the things on your “What I love to do” list. Again, this is okay. It’s all about the brain dump.

What can you actually get paid to do?

Not everything on the list of what you love and what you’re awesome at doing will intersect. Even less than that (most likely), will be the intersection with things that you can actually get paid to do. I love to take naps on rainy days. Frankly, I’m awesome at taking naps. But I can’t get paid to take naps. (If you can think of a way, please email me. Now.) There will be some things that overlap though, but you might have to get creative.

For instance, say you absolutely love to create beautiful felted throw pillows and love sharing a cup of coffee with friends. You’re also awesome at teaching people new things and helping to mentor them. You could start a business that teaches people how to create these pillows in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, such as a community coffee shop.

As your friends and family for ideas if you’re stuck. Tell them what you love to do and what you think you’re awesome at. They will likely agree if you are being honest with yourself. Then ask them how you can combine these things in a money-making venture. Ask them how you can create a dream job. They might surprise you with their awesome ideas! Even if they don’t come up with a winner, their ideas will likely spur more of yours.

At the intersection of what you love to do, what you’re awesome at, and what you can actually get paid to do, you will find your dream job. Or at least something close to it.

Don’t be afraid to pivot

After you’ve found this intersection, go for your dream. Give it all you’ve got. It will be hard work and lots of effort. You might get to a place where you find yourself thinking to yourself “why am I doing this again?” If that becomes a chronic thought, you have  a couple of options. You can figure out if it’s just one part of your business that you don’t like, or if it’s the entirety. If it’s just one part, you can begin to outsource that section to other people who love it (more on that in a later post).

If it’s the entirety of the business, don’t be afraid to pivot to something else. Many now-popular companies have pivoted their business model before becoming the company that we know them as today: Flickr used to be a gaming site and LivingSocial (daily deal site) used to be a Facebook application that allowed you to create virtual bookshelves for your Friends to see. Look where they are now.

Keep pivoting and trying new things until something sticks. You’ll know when it feels right and you’ve found your dream job.

Source: http://www.stamp48.com/

Of all the questions that crafters ask me; pricing is the nr 1 concern!

AND it is a tricky one. Overpricing – and you can lose sales…underselling and not receiving enough  monies for your creativity, time and material.

 Their is no magic formula  – but the following advice is a very good start on pricing your products successfully:

 1. Determine the Cost of Materials.  In my case it would be my felt; needles and thread.

2. Determine the number of hours spent making the item.  I spend almost an hour making one felt bunny!

3.  Multiply Hours X Wage for Labour cost.

The cost of your labor. For this exercise, use the Minimum Wage – R9.12 per hour and multiply that by the number of hours you worked plus the number of hours you spent on office time (The time you spend designing your product, collecting and looking for “free” items, ordering supplies, paying bills, record keeping, making repairs, and anything else related to producing the craft item)

4.  Determine overhead costs (This includes the costs for such things as your equipment, loan interest, rent, electricity, water, phone, insurance, postage, packing materials, promotional materials).

 5.  Add Materials + Labour + Overhead to get your COST PRICE.  This is the cost of producing one item, without any profit!  Now add your profit margin – this could be 35% – 100%, depending on how unique your product is or if you have a USP (unique selling point – a bit more about this later!). 

6.  WHOLESALE PRICE  (after adding your mark up of say 35%) – this is the price that you would use to sell directly to your customers or craft markets.

7.  RETAIL PRICE:  If you decide to sell through retailers then you need to add in their profit margin as well.  In America the golden rule is to double up.  So if your cost price is R10.00; the retail price would be R20.00.

In South Africa most retailers are happy with a 35% – 60% mark up – but remember two important points:

Some retailers don’t appreciate it if you sell your goods on the craft markets for R10.00 and they need to sell if for R30.00! It is also wise to advertise and sell a constant price not to confuse your customers.

And the second thing is ~ remember retailers need to add the additional 14% VAT to their prices – so the profit margin of say 50% is now only 36%.

Hope all of this makes sense!  Please mail me at info@wishingstar.co.za if you would like to receive this worksheet or calculation form in a nice and neat Pdf format.

Good luck pricing your precious goods and happy selling!

Love

M

— Think ever so carefully about the name you choose for your business. Before you commit to a name you like, do some research on the web. Is the url taken? Would it be confused with a trademarked brand that already exists?  We can’t stress enough how important it is to have a catchy, easy to remember, meaningful name for your business.

2.  Graphics, packaging, branding

Like your new business’ name, it’s crucial to have that name conveyed visually. Think about what your colors, fonts, patterns or images communicate about your business. Get professional help if you can’t do this yourself. There are so many talented graphic designers out there who can help represent your business as the professional operation it is. These graphics or extensions of them should be on your website, your social networking profiles, , and on your packaging materials, business cards, etc.

3.  Customer service

As an online entrepreneur you have the opportunity to provide excellent communication, create a friendly face for your shop, and promote repeat business. Having good, reliable and customer service is one way to guarantee repeat customers and new ones, through word-of-mouth. Make sure your customers know about your great service by drafting your policies on returns, exchanges, shipping and payments. It may seem a little dry but trust me, thinking about it before you dive headlong into business will save you (and your customers) a lot of heartache.

4.   Social networking

Haven’t you twittered your twitter twitteringly? Every day is Facebook Day! Everyone needs to find their mix (it’s a spectrum where one end is sad, neglected memberships and the other far end is the dangerous, extreme compulsion). Try to set goals and boundaries. The fact of the matter is that many indie business people swear that social networking drives traffic and sales when you have fun with it and aren’t a total spammy self-promoter.

5.   Be an expert

We haven’t exactly written a post about this yet, but one of the things we’ve noticed about successful  sellers is that they share information about techniques and business. (We’re not talking about sharing your secret recipe, but giving back some tips to the community of up-n-comers.) Especially in the crafty side of business, DIY and how-tos blur the line between buying and selling and we end up talking about the handmade lifestyle and helping each other out.

6.  The Art of pricing

 Think long and deep and wide about your expenses and then determine your pricing. Chances are your handmade goods or unique service won’t have budget prices offered by big box stores and big corporations. What you do is valuable and you need to price and market it as such ( We will post about this important tip over the weekend! WS).

7.  Photography

You must have bright, crisp, clean quality photos. Use natural light and turn off that flash!

8.  When writing, “Do You”

When you’re selling online, you rely on the written word in addition to your photography. Yes, you want to communicate all those details that a customer might ask you in person. But you also have to find your voice. Tell a bit of the story behind what you’re selling, open up a bit about your creative process or inspiration. Your voice will create that special experience of buying from an independent business rather than a faceless corporation. 

9.  Find Your Niche

This one is harder to sum up in a pithy, non-cliche way! So I’ll go with the classic “Follow your heart.” Whether you call yourself a designer, a crafter, a maker or an artist or whatever, what you are deciding to do is bring your unique expression to the world. You need to start somewhere, so start with what you love. You might find that you’ll refine that according to what your customers like. But keep making new things and trying out new ideas that tickle your fancy. There’s nothing worse than your passion becoming just another day job.

10.  SEO 

We will cover this topic in detail next week!

Source:  http://www.designsponge.com

Creative greetings

WS

Hello….

I love Paulo Coelho  – and this quote rings really true to me.

I been the founder and co-owner of a small business called Kindersafe.  Kindersafe started after I realise there is a huge gap in the South African market for child safety products.

I loved the business and I love the fact that we are trying to make SA a safer place for small children.

I learned so much and made lots and lots of mistakes and if I look back at the past 5 years and how I have grown as a person but also as a business mom.

BUT inside me I knew it is time to move on…to find something that I feel truly passionate about….and deep, deep in my heart it is my passion for crafting and MARKETING(in my case, felt and painting).

AND with this passion I want to help other small entrepreneurs and crafters to make a living out of their own passion.  In SA there is thousands and thousands of very talented crafters/painters/entrepreneurs but without the

exposure to the correct target market their work will go unnoticed!

Wishing Star wants to be that place that these entrepreneurs can find a platform to sell their goods and my work is to market the website and the concept.

But more about all of this a bit later.

Please join us for this new and exciting concept were together we can be so much more!!

Love

M