Friday, March 11, 2016

Watching CreativeLive - The Art of Selling What You Make with Tara Gentile

I heard that Kelly Brown was going to be on CreativeLive this morning, so I went to the website to RSVP for the course. She's not on yet, so I decided to check out some other classes. I ended up stumbling upon "The Art of Selling What You Make" with Tara Gentile. I like her :) Here are some points that I learned:
  • Cheap doesn't sell, value does.
  • Increase your self worth so you can increase your net worth.
  • Stop telling yourself that you're not worth it.
  • Tell yourself that you're worth it and that the work is worth it.
  • Don't price for the market you're in, price for the market you want to be in.
  • What you put your items next to can influence the price you can charge for your work.

  • What market do you want to be in?
  • Name 5 brand you'd like your product to be sold next to.
  • What factors have you been considering when you price your work?
  • Where, ideally, would you like your products to be sold?
  • Where is your customer going to shop to find products like yours?
  • What is your customer spending on comparable products?

  • Materials + Overhead  + Labor = Base
  • Base + Profit = Wholesale
  • Wholesale * 2 = Retail

The marketing puzzle
  1. Purpose: What does your product mean to you?
  2. People: No people, no business.
  3. Position: How are you positioned?
  4. Promotion: How do you get the word out?
Reality Check
  • How is your business currently perceived by others (family, community, customers)?
    • What do people think of when they think of your business? Do they think it's your hobby? Are they intimidated?
  • Who are the customers you're currently attracting?
I wasn't able to complete the course because it's Kelly time, but learned so much from this broadcast! Now time to put this to use.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

A Good Find: Free Crochet Baby Bonnet Pattern

I was roaming ravelry.com last night and decided to do a search for a free crochet bonnet pattern. A few results appeared, but one of them really stood out. I immediately got to work. I kept Roody up until 1:45 AM working on this little beauty, and I don't regret it.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

My New Favorite Thing: Chunky Newborn Hats!


I was on Facebook a couple days ago. One of my favorite newborn photographers in the whole entire world posted a beautiful photo (as usual) but I saw it differently. A prop that she used was so lovely, and she linked to the creator. It was a knitting page. BOOOOO!!! lol

Anyway, a lightbulb went off in my head--I originally started this "business" to create props for newborn photographers to use. Why did I stop?

I decided to continue about my day. I was on Instagram later and noticed the cutest little chunky hat. I almost bought the pattern for it, but then I looked closer. It was the shell stitch! I CAN DO THE SHELL STITCH! So I immediately got to work. This is what I came up with:


Remember The Shelly-Anne Hat Pattern that I wrote a couple weeks ago? Well, it's just that. Expect I used bulky yarn, made 22 rows for the ribbing and 32 sc for the top border. Then I did a progressive "decrease."

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Experimenting with Colors: Mixed Texture Striped Hat Pattern

I follow some amazing crochet/knitting pages on Instagram. Every time they post a cute hat, I get jealous. ESPECIALLY if it was knitted, because I know I can't make anything remotely close to that. So I've take it upon myself to become creative with my hats. The ones I've made so far are meh. I want something that looks really cool.



CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE PATTERN!