#21 Finding The Perfect Place To Sell Your Work
This episode focuses on where and how you as a maker and crafter can find the perfect place to sell your work by aligning your selling approaches with your personality and strengths. I share the story of my own journey of selling and how this has evolved. I share practical insights into various selling options, recognising the importance of authenticity in sales, and listening to your own wisdom and inner personality when it comes to choosing where to sell.
We'll uncover strategies to align your unique style with the perfect sales environment, whether it's busy craft fairs, galleries, or the expansive reach of online platforms such as your own website .
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Transcript:
Sarah: 0:00
Hello, welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. In today's episode, I'm talking all about where to sell your work. Whether you already have a creative business or you want to turn your passion into a money-making business or just make a little bit of extra money on the side, this episode is all about where to sell your work. So, wherever you're listening and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy. Wherever you're listening and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy. Welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. My name's Sarah Kavanagh, your host and I started the Thriving Maker to support makers, crafters and artists just like you to grow your creative passions into flourishing businesses on your terms and give you the life that you want. I'm a jewellery designer, maker and started my own handmade fine jewellery business over 15 years ago. I now also help other artisans and makers build their own craft and handmade businesses through marketing and branding and techniques and strategies I've studied, learned and put into practice along my journey. Right now, I want to help you to establish and grow your own design business so it can help support the lifestyle that you want. Think of this as your go-to resource and check in for all things strategy and marketing for your business, along with stories and anecdotes from my life as a handmade entrepreneur. Thank you for tuning in and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. Hello, today I want to talk all about selling your creative work and knowing where the best place to sell your work is. I want to make this episode as practical as possible so that by the end you have knowledge that can help you make the decision for you as a maker or an artist or a crafter, where to show and sell your work.
Sarah: 1:48
I thought I would start by sharing how I first started selling my work as a jeweller. Now I muddled along without really knowing what I was doing. I had taken evening classes, I was doing a bit of beading jewellery and I knew that there were lots of other jewellery makers out there, as there are in all craft disciplines, and I knew that my work probably wasn't really good enough to start with, but it's still. But I still wanted to put it out there. I still wanted to see if anyone would buy it and I knew family and friends had. So I had some validation of my work and that it could be sold, and at the time I was selling pieces, earrings and rings for about 30 pounds around that. They were, I think the most expensive thing I sold was £50 and I sold to the bridal market earrings and necklaces. I sold at a few shows and I sold on Etsy. I think I even tried to sell pieces on eBay at some point. I wouldn't recommend doing that, but this is the point is there are lots of different places to sell and it's about finding the right place for you. Over time I started to sell where I felt most comfortable and what suited me the most, and again where I was making the most profit from my skills improved, and so did my prices most profit from my skills improved, and so did my prices. And now, over 15 years later, I take predominantly bespoke commission work that each pays thousands of pounds and I choose to only work on a few pieces at any one time, which allows me to work the hours I want and to have the time freedom that I want to spend with my family and my children and go on dog walks and do all the things I want to be doing in my life. So that's just my really brief story of how I started selling my work.
Sarah: 3:50
There will always be lurking questions and doubts when you want to start selling your work or you want to move to a new selling approach. So if you've been doing something for a long time, maybe you've been doing craft markets for a long time and you want to move to a new selling approach. So if you've been doing something for a long time, maybe you've been doing craft markets for a long time and you want to move to maybe selling into a gallery space or building your own website and selling online. There are always going to be doubts and questions Am I too old to change, to do something different? There's hundreds of people selling the type of craft that I do already. The market is saturated or my work isn't good enough. I've only just started.
Sarah: 4:28
Well, as I told you, my work. I knew my work wasn't great. I I had everyone starts from somewhere. I started from somewhere and people still bought the pieces. But time moves forward and your skills grow and people will get to know about you and your work more. You'll start to feel more comfortable with your selling. So don't be put off with where you are starting from now or what knowledge you have or you don't have. This will come with learning and practice and time. We all start at the beginning all of us. It doesn't matter whether you're selling in Selfridges or you're selling at your local craft market, we all start from the same place.
Sarah: 5:13
So if you've ever wondered why some makers seem to do really well on Instagram where others do really well at craft fairs, or certain crafters build beautiful, successful websites while others flourish and are hugely successful on Etsy and the secret isn't about the platform all platforms are different and we all use them in different ways. It's about matching your sales personality and the way you like to sell and the way you communicate and like to engage with your work and with potential customers, and matching that to the right selling environment. And don't forget that the most sustainable business is one that aligns with who you are and that you feel most comfortable with and you enjoy doing, and you wake up every day wanting to do your work. You don't need to change your personality to sell successfully. I don't particularly love social media, but I use it because I know I have to, but it's not my main focus for selling my work. It's not my main tool for communicating with my audience. I do that in a different way. So you need to choose the right platform and approach that lets your natural strengths shine. So I'm going to run through a few different traits and scenarios for you to consider and get a feeling for which most feels aligned to you and which you feel most connected to. So here's five different scenarios for you.
Sarah: 6:44
So do you thrive in a community and love building relationships and sharing your stories? If this is you, then you might be best suited to selling on social media or at local markets and craft fairs or running workshops where you can build relationships. Your community, you can build those relationships. Do you enjoy systems and organisation? Are you quite methodical? Do you enjoy learning new technical skills and do you want to scale your selling? Do you want to really grow your business? If this is you, you might be best suited to developing your own website as your primary selling point and embrace email marketing so you can really start to grow and scale your business.
Sarah: 7:25
Do you like direct customer interaction and offering a personal service? Do you have strong in-person skills and enjoy emphasising the quality and techniques and can talk for hours about your work and what's gone into it? If this is you, you may be best suited to some of the more high-end craft shows, to gallery partnerships or bespoke work and expanding on your online presence with professional photography and storytelling, so you can really start to harness that personal, one-to-one service that you enjoy doing. Do you like to be more behind the scenes and prefer to write about your work rather than showing your face? Does going and meeting people to share your work fill you with a little bit of anxiety? You may be best suited if this is you. You may be best suited to having your own website and using blogging to educate and raise awareness of your work and documenting your processes, or using marketplaces such as Etsy and Folksy and using well-written, detailed listings. And make use of platforms such as Pinterest, where you're not necessarily interacting directly with your customers, but they are getting to know you through the words that you say, utilising your written ability and your passion for your craft. So you're still connecting to your customers, but not necessarily having to speak one-to-one with them.
Sarah: 8:49
In most cases, you're going to be taking a hybrid approach and combine different selling approaches that suit your personality and suit your approach to your business and how you want it to grow. So you may be doing digital online selling and traditional face-to-face selling at shows, using a hybrid approach where you try out different things to find out what suits your personality, your preferences, what you like to do and also your circumstances. If you have a young family or you live remotely, going to weekend markets every week may not be an option, so you're going to want to bring in another selling discipline to enable you to still sell your work when you can't be at a show or when you can't travel Over time. Test out different approaches and learn to know which works best for you and the growth that you want for your business. Don't forget you don't need to change your personality to sell successfully.
Sarah: 9:50
When you talk about your work with passion and authenticity, that is selling. That's sharing your love for your work is the same as selling your work, and that's all you need to really be doing. So you just need to choose the right approach that lets your natural strength shine, so you don't feel like you're forcing, you're being forced to sell. You're just sharing your work with people who love to see your work. So take a moment to think about these different selling approaches. What immediately fills you with joy and you think, yes, yes, I could do that, that's up my street, I'm going to enjoy doing that. Or what fills you with fear? If the thought of standing talking one-to-one with somebody fills you with fear. Don't write it down, don't go there. List your top three selling approaches and set a goal for each of them. Now, it may be that you only make small batch pieces, and so having enough stock together for a craft show might fill you with dread and fear, whereas having a few pieces that you can list on an online platform feels manageable and you feel comfortable with that. So just start with one selling approach and create a 30 to 90 day action plan to help you achieve it.
Sarah: 11:05
When you're first starting out with selling your work or embracing a new platform or approach, start small, get familiar with the platform and the process, and be strategic, and don't panic and give up at the first hurdle. There will be many hurdles, so you need to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable about this. Gradually, you will feel more comfortable and you will be in your flow for selling your work. If you have to learn tech skills, then include those in your action plan. Include time to research the different selling approaches.
Sarah: 11:37
If you need to learn how to set up your Etsy page. If you need to learn how to write descriptions for your own website, or you need to learn how to write descriptions for your own website, or you need to learn how to size your images for your website. So you have time. Your wisdom, your experience and your authentic voice and passion for your craft and for your creative outlet will be your friends. Remember to give yourself permission to evolve and to grow. So so I hope this episode has been useful for you. Until next time, take care, and I'll speak to you soon.