Spare any change?

When I first started selling on Etsy, I saw a call for a contest to re-design the piggy bank. I loved the idea! There's something about the piggy bank that brings together things that I love: childhood, saving money, the feeling of dropping a coin in a slot and hearing it clink on the bottom. If I'd had the skills to do it, I would have gladly partcipated. So you can imagine how excited I was to stumble upon this minimalist terracotta piggy bank from Seattle-based Ladies + Gentlemen. It even comes with a piece of chalk so you can draw or write your savings goals - or a face, or whatever you wish - on it! How cool is that? (Found via Rena Tom)

The First Step: Initial Investment

If you're just starting out, you're probably wondering how much money you should invest in your business. How much to spend on supplies? How many supplies to buy? Should you find investors? How much should you spend on marketing and advertising? How much should you spend on your website?

Before I dispense my advice, I'll start with my own story. I started Chelleline Cards on almost nothing. I was unemployed (this time, it was by choice), and about to start law school in the fall. I saw a stack of cardstock on sale at Staples, for very little, and bought it. I had a pile of book catalogs from BookExpo that were simply sitting in my apartment. I had a pair of scissors that I used whenever I needed them. I set up a site on Etsy after a month of making cards.

I started to purchase supplies as my business grew. I abandoned the Staples cardstock pretty quickly and started to get my cardstock from Paper Source, which was of better quality, and then finally signed up for a wholesale account with Waste Not Paper. I started to buy paper and fine papers to make my collages (rather than using magazines and catalogs). I bought a bone folder to score the cards. I bought special cutting scissors. I had an official website made (by my then-boyfriend and now husband). I finally bought a cutting machine to help me cut some of my designs (sorry for throwing that one in, I know I've repeated it ad-verbatim!).

I never looked for investors. I spend nothing on advertising. I do very minimal marketing (that may have to change. We'll see).

So what's the lesson you can learn from this?

Don't spend too much money on supplies and materials.

Obviously, start-up costs will vary depending on your type of business. With crafts- and design-based businesses, however, the start-up costs are not very high and I would recommend not overloading or over-spending on supplies until you have a steady paying clientele. Yes, having more supplies at the beginning makes you feel more secure (like a safety blanket), but you might switch suppliers (as I did), or you might go in a different direction that doesn't use those supplies, or the products you make from those supplies might not sell, and then what will you do? The best is to be pragmatic and not spend more than you need at the moment on materials.

Consider investing in a website.

Please note that the key word here is "consider."

Having a business website will make you feel more official and may help retailers take you more seriously. The downside, however, is that if you don't have any website development skills and if you don't know anyone who does, you may end up spending a lot of money for a business website. Some people advocate waiting until your business makes enough money to hire a website developer to make your site (the "don't spend more than you earn" rule).

I'm on the fence about this. I ran my business, albeit part-time and kind of as a hobby, for two years before I had a website made (for free) by my now-husband. I was still able to generate interest from retailers with only my Etsy site as my main site. However, I did feel insecure about not having my own official site and I was so happy when Mitya made it.

So, my advice is this: if you're serious about your business from day one, I would invest in an official business website. It will be great for your confidence and give you the appearance of being serious about what you do. Think of it not as you're spending more than you earn, but rather as an investment. The extra money dropped at the beginning will pay off in the long run.

If you're approaching it as a hobby/side business, I would use whatever free platforms are available to you (Etsy, DaWanda, etc.) and then invest in a business website once you feel you want to make the leap to full-time.

Apply the 'wait-and-see' approach to Marketing. Don't invest in advertising at the beginning.

Before hiring a PR professional or investing in a marketing course, I would try to learn some marketing basics on my own and contact the press by myself. Not only does it save you from spending money that you might not yet have, many people may not be ready when they first start out to handle large-scale orders that result from successful marketing and PR efforts. Wait until you develop a sufficient line of products and a way of producing these products efficiently before you hire someone or invest in a marketing course - and experiment with learning it on your own yourself. This includes reading various websites on how to do marketing/PR for your small business as well as monitoring blogs and industry publications that you may want to target eventually.

For similar reasons, I also wouldn't invest in advertising in the beginning. Advertising is expensive and I'm not sure how effective it is for craft- and design-based businesses. Wait and see where your competitors place ads. Read online forums to see where people have met the most success. I also would not invest in things like the Etsy Showcase, which are inexpensive but not effective at all (I know - I've tried it a few times!). Your $7, $15, or however much it is now would be better spent elsewhere.

Ghost Academy

As you can tell from my last post, I've ventured into the area of block printing. The process is initially more time-consuming than collage (it took me two days to trace and carve the linoleum block!) but once the linocut has been made, it's much better!

On a related note, I was really happy when I discovered the work of Ghost Academy. Their block-print cards are so sweet and adorable. I love the expression on this fox's face! And the kitty savants are too cute. However, there doesn't seem to be a place to buy them online and there are no stores in Montreal that carry their cards. I guess I'll have to wait until I visit one of the cities where they're carried! (Found via Crow and Canary)

Winter 2012 line now available

I just released my winter 2012 line. I've been working on most of these cards for the last week. It's been painstaking, agonizing work, peppered with many moments of indecision (which is probably obvious from the multiple themes!). You can see the entire collection here (along with more of my mom's new cards), but I've included some of our new creations below for your viewing pleasure:

Royal Mail to release Roald Dahl stamps

How adorable are these Roald Dahl stamps?? I just got word that the British Royal Mail will be releasing Quentin Blake's illustrations for various Roald Dahl Books as stamps tomorrow and although I rarely make impulse purchases, I had to get these! (And I bought sheets for my mom, sister, and Mitya's grandfather as well.) You can also buy your stamps here. Found via The Guardian.

The Good China

I love ceramics, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was when I discovered the work of Diem Chau. Chau embroiders images on organza and places them over porcelain cups and dishes for a delicate and haunting effect. I can say I wouldn't be eating off of these dishes! Found via Hyphen.

Bestsellers

Happy New Year! We rang in the New Year in Montreal (after a weeklong trip in Ontario that took us to Kingston, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and St. Jacobs - Canada's Amish Country) with a group of Russian ex-pats whom Mitya had met during the Russian elections protest. We had dinner at one girl's apartment in LaSalle, and then left at 11:30 to go to the Old Port to see the fireworks at midnight. Little did we know...the trains were not running as frequently, which meant that we got out of the Champ de Mars metro at 11:55. (By the way, all of the metro stations "near" the Old Port are at least a 10 minute walk.) We all ("we" meaning not only the people we were with, but everyone in the trains) rushed out of the train, up the stairs, past the turnstiles and the police who were laughing at us, up and down more stairs, uphill outside, and made it to Place Jacques Cartier 5 seconds before midnight! My thought as I was running and gasping for air: I really need to exercise more!

I'm taking this week to work on my winter line and a few other projects. (On a side note, I feel like I'm the only person who's ready to go back to work after the holidays. I started emailing some of my stores yesterday and today and then I paused and realized that they might not be ready yet!) I also took some time last night to calculate my sales figures for each design, and I was a little surprised by some of the results! (These are sales to my wholesale and consignment customers, Etsy, and the craft fair.) Here's what I found (because I'm a geek for this kind of stuff and hopefully you are too):

Top 5 bestsellers:

1. Smoke Signals Birthday
2. Heart Bubbles
3. Crossroads of Love
4. Elephant Birthday
5. I Heart U Tic Tac Toe

I was actually really surprised that the Smoke Signals Birthday card was the top-selling card of 2011. I felt that it had been ignored since moving to Montreal (along with my other English language cards), but I guess I was wrong!

I was also surprised that the Tic Tac Toe card made it into the top five as well. I wasn't aware that I'd been selling so many of them.

Interesting note: all of the top 5 cards are either birthday or love cards. Maybe that's what I do best? Or maybe that's what people need all year round.

And here are the next 5 bestsellers:

6. Close Encounter with Rudolph
7. Kentile Floors Birthday
8. Hanukkah Origami Candles
9. Birthday Bubbles
10. Wedding Lovebirds

I knew I'd been selling a lot of Rudolph this year (which made me really happy, since Rudolph has been on my line since almost the beginning, in fall 2007 - and his first realization was back in winter 1996, and this is the first year that he's been in more than 2 stores) but I didn't know that he broke into the top 10. I'm very pleased about that, especially since it's a seasonal card. The same goes for the Hanukkah Origami Candles card.

I was also surprised to see the Kentile Floors card in the top 10. I know there was a big rush for it in the spring, but the demand has died down since then (again, something I attribute to moving to Montreal - and not meant as an offense, just a realistic observation). But I love this card, especially since it reminds me of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, so I'm happy to see it here.

Another thing that I noticed, and which is kind of obvious, was that the top 5 selling cards were all designs that were in my line at the beginning (or close to the beginning) of 2011. Cards that were introduced later obviously didn't receive as many sales.

So, that's my wrap-up. It'll be interesting to see what 2012 brings. May it bring the best for all of you!