Make It

The Design Sponge Book

Congrats to Grace Bonney on the upcoming Design Sponge book! I find Grace's trajectory from full time worker with a little Blogspot-hosted blog to multi-media powerhouse to be incredibly impressive and inspirational. This might be a weird thing to say, but it makes me love the Internet. The fact that it allows someone to completely follow their dream and bootstrap a blog that goes on to be a major force in the industry.

She seems to manage it all with (ahem) grace, too. She and I participated in a panel on blogging a looong time ago (sidenote: I guess it was only 2008, but it feels like forever ago) and when she returned to Boston a few months later, I remember being surprised and flattered that she remembered my name and our conversation. It was about making rounded corners in GIMP, which also happens to be the most visited post on this blog, by far.

Lately, I find myself more interested in what she is doing herself and with her brand than the content of the blog, though I did really enjoy this behind the scenes look at the design of the book cover. And the book trailer looks really great.

Small Business Spotlight - Grace Hester Designs

Business:  Grace Hester Designs     
Owner: Grace Hester
What: Modern and customizable artwork for children and moms.

Today for the Small Business Spotlight, I'm doing things a little differently. Instead of providing some general observations as I did in previous posts, I'll answer some specific questions that Grace wrote in with. Please take the time to answer the questions in the comments and give Grace some feedback.

Is this a product that appeals to you? Stylistically, I'm not a huge fan of this style of art, which is very common on Etsy and popular with customers. But, I'm not your target demographic as I don't have kids or purchase kids' items.

What do you like or not like about my etsy postings?  (pricing, photos, listing descriptions, etc.) Product-wise, I like the alphabet poster (these are also ubiquitous on Etsy but I like the style anyway), and the Little Piggy Nursery Rhyme print, which is a unique product. You also have nursery rhymes in Chinese which are also great because they allow you to reach a very specific audience of Chinese speaking customers. It's always easy to market a product when you have a niche customer base. I would suggest you consider doing a series of other nursery rhymes or songs in this manner, but look into the legalities of reproducing lyrics.

I think your photography is good. You have alot of items in your store, which is good because it gives customers lots to choose from and they'll spend more time at your shop browsing. Pricing is fair.

There are competitors out there with silhouette-styled work but they are mostly printed for sale, not paper cut-outs.  Is this a significant differentiator?  Or do you think I am better off focusing on silhouette prints (which are definitely easier to make and so I can price it more competitively)? I don't think the fact that you cut your silhouettes out of paper is a significant difference. It doesn't look like your sales reflect that either. I say, focus on the less labor-intensive prints and differentiate yourself through unique print products, like my suggestion above.

Does my blog interest you?  Do I have to separate my personal life journal-keeping with my business presence?  Or is the combination of both more appealing to a customer since they see the life of the owner behind the store? The types of posts that are appropriate for a business blog vary depending on the type of business. Because you're a mom who makes kid-centric products, incorporating stories about your family and personal life is a good idea and allows you to connect with customers. I see no need to separate the business posts from personal posts; your readers are probably moms who are interested in starting their own business from home, so they can appreciate both types of posts.

Helpful Suggestion/Criticism: You have received lots of nice online press so I think a next step would be to send some press kits to print magazines. To differentiate yourself from the many other shops selling kids' silhouette art on Etsy, create a signature line of prints like the Nursery Rhymes, and promote the heck out of it. Don't forget to market your Chinese language products to blogs and magazines for Chinese speakers. Think about how to promote yourself at different times of the year: release a back-to-school print in the fall, offer deals around the holidays when people are looking for easy and quick gift-giving options.

Alright, time to open it up for comments.

Small Business Spotlight - AwesomeAsAOne

Business: AwesomeAsAOne
Owner: Allegra
What: Fabric zipper pouches

First Impression: Allegra does one thing and she does it well. By focusing on zippered pouches only, she's been able to crank out an impressive number of sales in her first few months on Etsy.

Helpful Suggestion/Criticism: You specialize in pouches, you work with fabric and zippers, so why does your Etsy banner have a close up photo of a leaf? Make a new banner featuring either a photo of your pouches, some interesting photo of a zipper, a pile of fabric, anything that would relate more directly to your product.

Once again, I think consistency of photography would make your Etsy page more appealing. Your pouches are photographed against a variety of backgrounds, sometimes being held by someone, sometimes not. I say pick one "theme" and stick to it. I like this photo of someone holding the pouch in front of a tree trunk. Maybe consider photographing all your pouches in this way. Then when you get a spot in a treasury or on the front page, your photo will be instantly recognizeable as yours, even without seeing the shop name ("hey, that's the shop that photographs pouches in front of trees.")

You have a blurb in your Shop Announcement section about how the name of your shop came to be. This is helpful because the name is unique. However, I didn't realize that was what you were trying to tell me until I finished reading the paragraph since you start out talking about a video you watched in 5th grade. Consider putting a small note at the beginning of the story: "This is the story of how AwesomeAsAOne came to be" so that the first thing a customer reads on your page doesn't confuse them. Or, move the story to your Profile page and instead, put a note on the Shop Announcement saying "See my profile to learn about the origin of my unique shop name." That frees up space on the Shop Announcement section to post info about sales, vacation days, etc.

Alright, time to open it up for comments. Take a look at AwesomeAsAOne and let us know what you think. Am I on target with these suggestions or way off base?

Small Business Spotlight - Springcart

Business: Springcart
Owner: My
What: Jewelry, Stationery, Homegoods, Tea

First Impression: When I first visit springcart.com, I think the site is beautiful. The homepage is really appealing and My's background as a web designer is apparent. The logo/branding are nice and I like the big clear photos. The site is very easy to navigate, an element of web design that is critical for online retail but often overlooked.

Helpful Suggestions/Criticism: There's alot of different types of items for sale here and I think trying to do a little bit of everything can sometime end up diluting the entire line because your efforts aren't focused in any one place. While may of the items are handmade, they aren't all handmade (I'm assuming the handbags fall into the latter category). I would suggest only offering handmade products, which would allow you to really emphasize that in your marketing efforts and streamline the product offerings a bit.

The product photography is all over the place. Consistent product photos go a long way in online retail. Consider photographing all of your products - in all categories - against the same background. I like the way this card is photographed here against the black background with your logo in the corner. It would be great to do this for every primary product photo, so that when you click on the "Correspondence" tab and see all of the stationery items, the page looks clean and neat.

The blended teas are very unique and sound delicious but they really don't seem to fit with the other items offered for sale. I'm always wary of buying edible products from vendors who don't specialize in making that type of thing. Either consider dropping the tea from the line up or spin it off onto its own site with only tea and tea accessories, which would give me as a consumer more confidence in your product.

Alright, time to open it up for comments. Take a look at Springcart and let us know what you think. Am I on target with these suggestions or way off base? Your comments can help My refine her business and take it to the next level.

Small Business Spotlight, Back on Track

A long time ago I called for submissions for a new feature, the Small Business Spotlight. You guys contacted me in droves and (bad blogger that I am) I responded to your passion and interest by not writing the feature for two months. I apologize for the delay, but the wait is over. For the rest of the week, I'll be spotlighting some of the small companies that contacted me. Eventually I hope to get to everyone who contacted me.

I don't have an MBA and I'm not a pro business consultant but what this column is all about is bringing an outside eye to your work. Getting the opinion of an impartial third party and then opening it up for comments from the readers here in the hopes of getting your business to its very best place.

Small Business Spotlight - Call for submissions

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm going to start doing Small Business Spotlights every Tuesday where I'll highlight the business of a Make It reader and offer my opinion on steps to take to make your business stronger. Then I'll open it up to comments and you guys can weigh in with your opinion. I think this will be a great opportunity to get some unbiased feedback about your business from an impartial audience. Hopefully everyone will benefit from the information that will be shared in these posts.

So to do the small business spotlight, I need some small businesses!

If you're interested in being featured, please email me shannon [dot] riffe [at] gmail [dot] com with some basic info about your business. Your business doesn't have to be design/craft - based but you must have some sort of online presence (for example an etsy shop, website, or blog). Let me know what your business is, how long you've been in business, what your goals are and what you'd like more help with. Can't wait to get this new feature started!