Small business guide: Tips 2 Take with You featuring Allisa Jacobs

*edit: This post was deleted when blogger crashed and erased all previous comments, so if you no longer see yours there that is why:( Sorry for the inconvenience!

Oh how I love online shopping. It means that in the wee hours of the morning, before the house awakes,  I can browse, wish, and purchase. I can shop in my slippers & eat cereal from my mug. It also means I don't need to cart around the little one, braving the rain and crazy parking lots.  I'm actually not really a big shopper to begin with, I'd rather make or do....but this week I've done lots of browsing for gifts, baby showers items, and supplies.  What I found gave me lots of inspiration...but also taught me a lot about my own shop in terms of thinking like a buyer. 

Here's a few lessons learned while buying:

• Welcome Me:  I love shopping on sites where I feel welcomed- maybe it's the phrases, the story, the images, the extra services.... something to make me feel like I'm not just sitting at home in my kitty pajamas at 4:30 in the morning, but the little bits to make me want to stick around and browse. 
• Spell it out:  All those details are important...and I need to find them fast & quick. Please don't make me search & hunt around to find shipping costs, measurements, and ingredients. Think about your specific items and what shoppers would most likely ask about (e.g. do you sell delicious jelly candies? Please tell me the ingredients, a bit about the kitchen they are made in, and how they ship...)
• Short & Sweet: I love clever descriptions and catchy lines to rope me in... buuuuttt...please avoid going on & on and telling the story before even getting to the good stuff- the product! 
• Explain Yourself:  I ran across a few items that seemed to have mysteries attached...one had crazy high shipping - which I am ok with, IF you tell me why (priority rates, large sturdy box, heavy weight). 
• Show off the Goods: Many items I perused were marketed as gifts...however, only a a few showed the packaging. This makes a big difference- I'm more likely to purchase something that arrives all cute with a tag and tied in ribbon than just a tossed in a mailer.  

I really hope to take some time and apply these lessons to my own shop soon.  

Have something to add to this list? Do tell! 

Thank you so much Allisa for sharing your fantastic advice!!

You can find a wealth of information on Allisa's blog about running a successful business. She is even coming out with an e-book soon on this topic! YAY! Take a moment to visit!

Small Business Guide: Marketing Advice featuring Jess Constable

I will say that my advice comes from my experience. In 2008 I was running Jess LC almost completely through wholesale accounts with stores via a team of sales reps. This meant that Jess LC was sold in over 100 stores across the country, and we also had a basic but functioning website. Our lack of online effort reflected in our bottom line. In fact, we only had 40 online orders in 2008 — 20 of which came in December alone.

Then in January of 2009 I started MML and dove into the world of online marketing for Jess LC. Since I was spending so much time with MML networking, writing, and blog reading, it made perfect sense to bring Jess LC to the internet as well. What I’ve done is certainly no secret, but it has radically changed my business. Today, over 80% of our business comes from online orders worldwide and we couldn’t be happier. It took years of trial (and error) and dogged determination to get it to this level. But it was worth every second and penny I spent to make this shop an online reality.

Here are the key steps that I took to make it all happen:

Tips 2 Take With You: Branding Your Business

Whether you are a major corporation or a small indie business, you realize how important it is to have strong visuals to represent your company. When I first started IHOD, I knew I needed a logo, business card, and etsy banner that were consistent to my brand. I have since then branded and re-branded until I finally came to a look and feel that I felt best represented my business. I want to show you TWO examples that I feel are excellent guides for an overall consistent, clean, and attractive business branding schemes that have been largely successful in their fields! I will be going more into depth in the coming weeks on logos, business cards, fan pages, etc.! So stay tuned.

If you know Danni, you love her and her work! She runs the very successful inspiration blog: Hello, Friend. You can see that each part of her business has a beautiful and consistent aesthetic which gives you a taste of what her business is about. Her blog, shop, and business cards are just a few examples of this.  

What she says about her blog: welcome to oh, hello friend: an inspiration blog. i love to create and design. i originally started this blog for myself to have a creative outlet to post about design, crafts, etc. my hope for you is to be encouraged, inspired, motivated to create for yourself.

(You can see through her work, Danni successfully carries this out in everything she does!)

Tips 2 Take With You: Product Pricing with Ashley Pahl

Ashley has a fantastic blog- Indie Pretty Projects dedicated to Indie Businesses and has a very helpful series with many more topics you may find helpful! I am so grateful for her being here today to share her tips with us!

When I first started selling my work online, I was drastically under-pricing my work. I was trying to be competitive with my pricing, thinking that people would be more likely to spring for a good deal; however, it didn't take long for me to realize that handmade shoppers will pay more for a nice, unique handmade product. A crafter's time is valuable, and they should pay themselves what they are worth.

 For handmade business owners, there seems to be a little bit of a struggle with pricing. They want to make their craft affordable to shoppers, but they want to pay themselves for their time. First, let's look at the top reasons for buying handmade: Handmade is quality, Handmade is unique, Buying handmade is important for supporting independent businesses. People shopping handmade usually aren't doing so because they think they can score a deal. Some handmade businesses will offer bargains, but that is the exception, not the rule.

(via yorktownroad)

Handmade business owners are trying to turn a profit, and they must price their products accordingly. Indie businesses must consider the following factors when pricing a product:

• cost of materials
• website fees
• time it takes to make that item and an hourly wage
• packaging
• any other unique costs

Sometimes handmade business owners do not pay themselves for their time because they want to keep prices affordable for shoppers. Crafters fear that if they charge too much, no one will buy their creations. The truth is, handmade items will sell if:

• there is a market for it
• no one else is making it
• it is the best product among the competition
• if the products are effectively marketed to the target audience
• if people trust the artist or business
• if the indie business has a great reputation

Many of those examples go hand-in-hand and cannot exist without another.

(via flapperdoodle)

Indie businesses who have a product that people want, and who have found their niche market, should never need to sell their products at a discounted rate. A simple way to make sure all of your bases are covered is to create a pricing formula unique to your own business.

1. determine the hourly rate you want to pay yourself
2. determine the cost of materials to make one item

A basic formula for pricing items is as follows:

• (hourly rate x time to make the item + cost of materials ) x 2 = wholesale price
• Retail price = wholesale price x 2

Multiplying by two to get the wholesale price is necessary to make sure all overhead, packaging, and website fees are covered. Wholesale is almost always half of retail price.
For example, let's say you want to pay yourself $18 an hour, you can make one necklace in 15 minutes and it costs $4 to make one necklace. Your pricing formula would look like:

($18 x .25 + $4) x 2 = $17 wholesale price

$17 x 2 = $34 retail price

*Remember: different crafters might require different formulas. This is a basic guideline, and it may need to be tweaked to your own specifications.


When a shopper is comparing two products, they look at the pictures, the description, the price, and the cost of shipping. They might look at feedback, too. An item that is priced much lower than the other might be perceived as being made with lower quality materials, or put together hastily. When someone is looking for a quality, unique gift, there's a good chance they could go with the higher priced item, based on the perceived value. If you take a look at some of the top sellers on Etsy, you will see that their items are not low-priced; they are charging what those items are really worth to make.


Here's the snag: if you know you are already paying yourself for your time and your items are priced fairly, this idea might not be for you. Shoppers can also recognize when an item is overpriced. If you are a crafter or artisan, do you use a formula to price your items? How do you balance paying yourself and making your items affordable to shoppers? What are your thoughts on raising prices when sales are stagnant?

Small Business Guide: Product Photography Tips

Hi friends! Ready for the new series here on IHOD? I am working with some experienced entrepreneurs I admire to bring you some fantastic Tips 2 Take With You! I know starting out my business venture, I would have LOVED to have a guru tell me all the ins and outs and ups and downs. I had some help from the blogosphere, and some I had to figure out all on my own.  So, my thought is, if I can help some you starting entrepreneurs in a small way, this will be worth it for me! I have been asked many questions about starting a business, and hope to address some of those questions. If you think of anything you would like to learn more about, leave a comment or shoot me an email! 

To start, here is a topic I believe every etsy artist, retailer, and shop owner has researched at least a few times. HOW TO GET OUSTANDING PHOTOS for your products! I recently asked Megan of Lilac Saloon how she got her gorgeous wallflowers so picture perfect and she so kindly typed out the info step by step for me! She is a sweetheart! I knew I had to have her as the first guest to share her wisdom with us!

White Backgrounds Made Simple - Instructions for Photoshop

Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Brightness/Contrast

(check box: use previous layer to create clipping mask)

  -Crank the brightness up all the way to make your background completely white

  - If NEEDED: With the Adjustment Layer selected, paint with black over the product using the soft edged brush (preserve a bit of the shadow below the product).

  - Paint brush with white over areas that may have too much shadow, to erase it. Click on the "Background" layer and add another adjustment Layer for Brightness/ Contrast

  -Bring up the contrast a bit if necessary to give the product a bit more saturation (works great for making the black look more rich and the white look more white).

White Backgrounds Made Simple - Instructions for Lightroom 3

-In the Develop Module, change the background to white by right clicking in the blank space that surrounds the photo and select White.  With the background white, it will help us see that the white space we're correcting in the photo is in fact pure white.

- Choose the Adjustment Brush (paintbrush) and choose Brightness as the Effect.  Slide the brightness up all the way to the right and slide Saturation all the way to the left (this will give us grey shadows).  

- Increase the size of your brush so that it's very large because you're going to quickly paint over the entire image with the brush - so, the bigger the better.  Paint over the whole image which will whiten that background but also make your image completely greyscale.  

- Now, choose the "Erase" brush while you are still in the toolbar for the Brightness Adjustment Brush.  Slide the Feather up all the way to the right and reduce the size of your brush so that it's small enough to color over your product in pretty good detail and around your edges.  With Feather, it gives the brush a very soft edge and so you will not need to be perfect or worry about sharp contrast from the background to the product.  

- Zoom in on your product and begin 'erasing' over your product.  It will look like you are coloring in with color, over your product.  Erase over your entire product!  

- Lastly, you can bring the brightness down just a touch if you need to reveal the shadows a bit more but just watch the white of the background so it doesn't start to get grey.

This is only ONE way of creating this effect, but it works for me!  Experiment with it and fine tune it so that it works for your products and your photos.  I hope it helps give your photos a boost!  ~ Megan

If you would like to download these steps in a Word Document you can do so here:

Product Photography Tips Download