For our first two markets in 2018, we used half of the space at Decatur Recreation Center. April 2019 marked the first time we collapsed the wall and used the entire room. The reality is that even when we were using half the space at the previous markets, we were already in the full room. It was up to us to see it.
My vision is my belief that God placed a deposit in me before I was born to pursue my greatest and wildest dream as a maker. My vision is about my potential and seeing my fullest self without restrictions, hindrances, fear or doubts. My vision is not about my present conditions, but it is about my final destination. For some that might mean vending at a bigger venue or doubling your income, while for others it might be owning a brick and mortar store or developing a global brand.
Sometimes people don’t understand our vision and we spend time too much time trying to convince them of our vision. However our vision is bigger than our present conditions, people’s understanding and even what my eyes can see.
If I plan to go from a half space to a full room, then I better start seeing, believing in and pursuing my vision with everything I got.
There’s nothing worse than wanting to create, but not having the inspiration to create. Sometimes it feels like being stuck in the middle of a highway with no hope of getting rescued. But no worries! We have you covered. Here are three ways to defeat your creative block.
Plan Ahead
Take some time to consider what you want to create. If it is something you already know how to do, go ahead and get your materials together. There’s nothing worse than wanting to create and being plagued with too many decisions. When you are ready to create, start with the projects for which you have materials you have on hand.
2.Tidy Up Your Workspace
When I am feel stuck in my craft life, I take a few minutes to tidy up my workspace. It not only inspires me when my space is clean, it also allows me to see the tools and materials I have. Typically, once I can actually see what I have, inspiration is soon to follow.
3.Always Show Up!
One of the worse things we can do during creative blocks is to quit. This means that even when the ideas are not flowing, I still suggest that you show up. Maybe you won’t love the first or second thing you create, but one thing is sure: As you show up, inspiration will find her way into your craft room, into your mind and eventually, she will show up in your creation.
If crafting is a part of your business, then you definitely cannot afford to wait for inspiration to show up. You can show up expecting to get fresh ideas, fresh inspiration- show up and start working. Think of it this way, if our creative block is a wall, then we must be climbing in order to get over the wall. Staying inactive keeps us stuck and will not enable us to scale the wall.
Things are changing, and the way of doing business is also changing. As Entrepreneurs we need to follow trends as it relate to our business. Staying in the know, but also finding a balance.
Trend is important to small businesses because we want to be ahead of what’s going on. Knowing the trends help you prepare your products and services better for your customers; And making sure they are not left out.
Trends play a major role in our society and if you are not keeping up with it; you will definitely miss out as an entrepreneur. However, Learning about what’s trending is fun, because many people love to shop and enjoy trendy styles.
Trend is great! It’s good to know what’s trending within your niche. However, you can get caught up in it; and you end up losing your brand identity. And if you loses your true self to trend, you no longer become authentic as a business.
When you are not working from your authenticity, you tend to struggle with being creative. Stay trendy, have fun, stay true to your brand, but find a healthy balance.
Tax season is here, whoop whoop and that means it’s time to pull all my business documents together to take to my accountant. This blog post is an encouragement to you as much as it is to me to stay on top of these business financials, so we wanted to re-share.
There’s a reason people don’t take up business finance as a weekend hobby. Organizing your handmade business finances is one of those tedious business chores that’s easy to procrastinate in favor of buying more craft supplies (!), fulfilling orders, creating marketing content or good ‘ol watching Hulu.
But here’s the thing; getting your business financials together is too important to avoid or put off. Doing it right and consistently can be a game changer for your business. Here are eight reasons to show your finances some love.
1. Enjoy the fruit of your labor…i.e. make sure you’re actually making money. Running a handmade business requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Make sure you make it count by taking a look at whether your operation is profitable.
2. Take advantage of larger opportunities like grants, incubators or small business funding programs. Free money is always a good idea. Organizing your finances positions you to answer questions on grant applications about your revenue and profit trends without a last minute scramble.
3. Put more money in your pocket. Every business has waste and opportunities to improve. Taking a closer look as your expenses and income helps you to avoid waste, identify problems and address products that are not making money.
4. Evaluate investments like tradeshows, craft markets, software, photoshoots, etc. Craft markets are a lot of fun, but the associated expenses can add up. Looking at the numbers in totality as part of your financial process helps you make better decisions.
5. Celebrate your progress! You’ve come a long way with your handmade business. Clap for yourself and look at your numbers over time to appreciate your growth and set plans for where you want to go next.
6. Make decisions about new product introduction. This is similar to number 3, but the pre-emptive version. Launching new handmade products takes effort and resources; understanding profitability and projected sales ahead of time can help you decide if it’s worth it.
7. Make decisions about staffing and pay business taxes. On the fence about hiring help? You guessed it; understanding your cash flow from month to month can indicate whether you can afford it and how much you can afford.
8. Save time and avoid having to “cram” when you need to report earnings or loss when you file taxes at the end of the year. If you been there, you know. Pulling together 12 months worth of receipts, online expenses, sales reports, etc ahead of a tax filing deadline is NOT fun. Staying organized through out the year keeps things fun.
Struggling with your business financials? Consider getting help by hiring a bookkeeper and/or accountant. Can you relate to any of these reasons to get your finances organized? Share tips on what’s worked for you below.
At the beginning of the year, the co-founders of Craft Savvy Market made a decision that we wanted to create more programs that serve makers while spending more time with our family. COVID had taught us a remarkable lesson – cherish what matters most. We made a decision at the beginning of the year that we could meet 3 times per month instead of weekly as we had been doing. By having more focus, building our team so we could operate in our strength and leaning on our experience of over four years of planning craft markets, we were able to create more programs for makers while still making more time for our family. This is 2021.
May 2021 – We planned a Virtual event for makers to level up their finances. Due to events outside of our control, we had to cancel the activity. While we were disappointed, we were determined than ever to continue to create more events to help makers soar.
August 2021 – We held our first craft market in over 18 months. We moved from Decatur to Atlanta. While the location had changed, the love in the room for handmade was as strong as ever.
Head to our Instagram to sign up for our final two events of 2021:
November 2021 – Resilience Virtual Conference – How to scale your business through smart customer marketing
Learn from three experts how to build and grow your business through marketing
December 2021 – Holiday Market
We have no doubt that 2021 will be our best year ever!
We had our fifth market on August 14. I learned three lessons as a maker from that market.
1. Sometimes new is one of the best decisions you can make.
After hosting four markets in Decatur, market 5 was the first in Atlanta.
As a maker, it’s easy to want to rest on what is comfortable and reliable. But being a maker sometimes means taking risks and and trying something new.
2. The energy in the room at market 5 was magnetic and remarkably special due to gathering handmade makers and people to love to purchase handmade goods in one room.
As a maker I can contribute to that energy by showing up ready to share my wonderful goods and by supporting other handmade makers by buying their goods.
3. With the push for more video contents through Social Media platforms, Market 5 was an opportunity to capture not just photos but great video content.
As a maker during times where video is becoming king, I have to be more intentional about finding moments to capture memories through video.
Processes and systems are not the first things that come to mind when you think about the fun parts of running a handmade business, but they are so important to the health of your business. As your business grows, having the right processes in place can make the difference between staying stuck vs scaling your business to the next level.
We had the pleasure speaking with Cashemawo Thompson of @cashemawo on a recent IG Live about how embracing processes helped to shift her mindset and grow her online wellness business. Listen to her story here and check out her tips on simple ways to build process into your small business.
A conversation about the power of business processes with Cashe Thompson of Cashemawo Yoga
What processes are you currently using in your small business? How have they helped you?
This past November, we celebrated the third year of Craft Savvy Market. We definitely wanted to take some time to recognize the team and make some introductions.
Meet Ciatta-Mae –
Other Super Powers: Teaching, Leading, Planning, Writing
Craft Super powers: Paper crafts
Meet Charlene –
Craft Super powers: Paper crafts, sewing, making things
Other Super Powers: Project Management, Fashion Design, Graphic design, Accountability
Meet Jandi –
Craft Super Powers: Sewing, making things, paper crafts
Other Super Powers: Writing, Teaching, Planning Things,
Meet Mina –
Craft Super Powers : Jewelry Making, Sewing, making things
Other Super Powers: Doing Hair, Fundraising, Connecting People
“I think that idea is stupid and you are crazy for thinking
we will do that”
“Why would you think something like that will work? We’ve
never done anything like that before. I don’t want to do that”
In my mind these were the scenarios that played out when I decided to approach Charlene, Jandi and Mina about my idea to start a market for makers. I sat on the idea for months because I thought they would think I was crazy. I knew deep in my heart that God had deposited this idea in me and had directed me to those three ladies. But the idea of starting a market for makers didn’t make any sense – especially when we hadn’t done it before. In the end, I knew I had two choices – would faith or fear have the final say?
If I had allowed my fear-filled scenario to play out in my mind, there would never have been a Craft Savvy Market. We would never have had all the wonderful experiences with makers and costumers that we have had over the past 3.5 years. Charlene, Jandi, Mina and I have launched four face to face markets, a virtual market and are slated to have our first online conference for makers – Resilient 2021 on Jan 9, 2021. We started without a business background and market experience and we’re still here.
Many of us walk around with great ideas and potential to launch awesome projects and collaborations. At some point we have to decide who will have the final say in our life. I have since learned that in order for faith to have the final say, there are three things I must do –
Acknowledge my fear but move forward anyway – Acknowledge that you do feel scared because you are heading into the unknown but move forward nevertheless.
Reflect on how I have been on the road of fear before and celebrate my wins – Sometimes when I feel afraid to start something new, I reflect on my Craft Savvy Market experience and remember where we are right now. I didn’t let fear win then and I won’t let it win now.
Share my story – Sharing my story of fear honestly releases fear’s power over me. Sometimes we keep our battles to ourselves but I’m realizing that the more I share my struggles, the more I realize that fear has no power or authority over me. Faith will have the final say in my life.
It’s hard to forget the emptiness I felt after George Floyd’s
death. I didn’t think I could feel worse until I started scrolling down my IG
timeline and noticed a number of Influencers I follow didn’t even acknowledge his
death. Ok, I thought. Some people’s feed are planned months in advance. So I
moved on to their Stories feed since that has more flexibility. Scroll. Scroll.
Scroll. Beach pics. Laughing pics. Cat pics. No acknowledgement of this man’s
death or even any sense of outrage that this was even happening in 2020.
Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. No changes to the feed and no acknowledgement.
I remember waking up and thinking why am I in an online community that doesn’t care about the issues that matter to me? There were some Influencers that I was honestly too hurt to keep following. I decided that I needed to take an emotional vacation from their spaces. I had to pause to reflect on what spaces I wanted to be in.
That season taught me three things –
I have the power to decide who I will give my money to. Whose goods will I chose to buy and support? I don’t need to take that power for granted but to shop responsibly.
I don’t have to sit in a community that does not acknowledge and champion the causes that are close and near and dear to my heart. Before I simply jump into a community looking to level up my business or get financial gains, I have to consider the total cost of being in that space.
I have the freedom to curate a community that celebrates what matters to me – my faith, my family, being a black woman, being a Liberian woman, my love for writing and making. Just as I have the power to take a break from a space, I have the power to create a space.
I have the power to leave a space
that doesn’t reflect what matters to me.
