Archive for the ‘business group’ Category

After nearly three months of work to get Marble-T Design in shape for some serious expansion, I have been thinking about the role of social media, since that has been a big focus. I’ve also been thinking about the market pieces in place now and how they are working.

Biggest help of all so far has been getting up and operating on Linked In. I completed my profile with two basic pieces: the art and my interest in doing private tutoring, with the emphasis on the art business. Even more so has been the group aspect of Linked In. I’ve joined a couple of discussion groups and met some great folks. Art Business, Art Marketing, Manhattan Arts International, and TAFA have been incredibly productive. Advice, people viewing and commenting on the art, increase in “Likes” on the fan page as a result of round robin visiting – lots more people know about our marbling.

Twitter – can’t seem to develop this one to the extent I probably should. I do tweet interesting articles, retweet others’ information, but I am lucky to get a half hour each day to read recent tweets. I do know that taking advantage of the Tweet aspect of listing items on Etsy has led to a lot more views, as well as some sales. That’s a plus, but I can’t seem to devote the time – at this point – to being a major presence in TwitterWorld. I use Tweetdeck to schedule my tweets, but I got really frustrated when it wasn’t posting tweets for the TAFA fund raiser. That’s on my long-term list of things to do, because frankly, it’s not a priority right now.

Facebook has been great – of recent interest has been the 7th grade picture of my class in elementary school – lots of interesting comments there! But in terms of business, the Fan page has been much more active, with an increase in “Likes,” and I am trying to post something every day. With the integrating features, my blog automatically gets posted, as well as Etsy items, and I try to get an Ebay item up at least once a week. I can tell from the stats on Ebay that the traffic increases each time I post. And…sales have been up.

Responding. This is the key. You just can’t read this stuff without letting people know you’re out there, enjoying/responding to what they’ve posted. And that takes time. But it has to be done, and done in a meaningful manner. When I first started blogging (some 528 posts ago), I was thrilled the few times a comment came in, but I never acknowledged it.You must do that, and you must have something sincere to say. I love doing this now – it is so gratifying that someone visits, and I want to respond to that.

Ebay – business is increasing, and we can see that because we are marbling more often.

Etsy – slowly starting to build. The key has been finding the niche market for Etsy, which is some of our more expensive marbled fabrics, not the big art pieces. I do think with the right marketing I can sell some of the small marbled art pieces, if I keep things under fifty dollars.

Blog – back to almost every day, and traffic is increasing significantly. I’m finally taking the advice of some other bloggers and having at least one day a week for what’s on sale from Marble-T Design. I do enjoy writing, and I enjoy visiting other blogs. I’ve expanded additional pages on the blog, from art blogs to visit to resources available. I still have more that I want to add.

These have been the Big Three that are in place and are working. Each week I am nurturing them along.

Website – we need to add more items (we used to have close to 14 items available for sale), and we need to increase the traffic/sales to the site. I need to update some of the art work, and I have done some rewriting of copy within the site.

Cafe Press – well, not so much, but I am advertising something each week. It’s been interesting to see the Cafe Press ads online – every time I see one, one of the items is usually our gecko tote bag.

Marketing materials – new business cards with all the social media information on them, thanks to Vista Print freebies. Plus, new postcards as thank-you’s for customers, encouraging them to sign up for our newsletter and win free fabric.

BUT – absolutely the BEST thing in all of this is that hubby and I are finally able to work together each day with our art, creating and having fun together all the while.

Pretty much for the year I’ve been doing a Monday Marketing post, looking at what I’m doing and what I should be doing to build a business. Well, I think I’m done…with the posts that is, not necessarily with the business. I still have 18 months of teaching until retirement, and to do what I would like to do with the business just isn’t possible. There are not enough hours – and energy – to do it well, at least accordsing to the internet business gurus.

So I’m done with major marketing. I want to design, to quilt and sew, to fondle my stash, to dream up new ideas. I have to take the pressure off myself to have more to do when I get home from a tiring school day. Selling out (bad pun, I know…) – I finally don’t think so. I need to be done with the guilt of not getting more tweets to get sales on Ebay. I need to be done with the pressure to write all the time – I just like to write. I need to be done with looking at bottom line, which isn’t going to change all that much. I need to be done trying to make it with the Big Girls in the world of quilting. I need to be done with blogging courses and affiliates and trying to make big bucks.

My foray into entering quilt shows ain’t workin’ well. I don’t need to be beating myself up when something isn’t accepted. I sure don’t need to be comparing myself to so many other amazing artists and complaining about the “fabric ceiling” and my quilts not being accepted. I quilt and sew and design because I want to, I need to. Who knows where my thoughts and energies will be in 18 months. I do know they will be focused on a trip to Paris and Venice, as I’ve already started planning. That’s important…extremely, as age is creeping up and darkness is creeping ever so more into the good eye.

I like writing, I like sharing what I’ve learned and the occasional interesting thought. I like teaching, even though I am ready for retirement. I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to find a way to stay in teaching with consulting. So as I’ve said before, teaching will continue to be my main creative outlet, my “art” for the time being…and maybe even longer.

I’ll still tweet occasionally, put fabric in Ebay, maybe add some things to Etsy, try some goodies in Cafe Press and Zazzle, and the like, but sewing machine and ideas, here I come.

So we have officially decided as a mixed media group to participate in our first art/craft show in March to get a feel for what it takes. Monday was a great time as we determined some basics about our operating together. We decided to all have our own individual business licenses, rather than trying to create a new entity entirely. I’m thankful our jewelry-maker is a great accountant!

Now the work begins for the next two months, as we determine what product goes, and what we still need to produce. Talked to Brenda tonight, and she is weaving up a storm. Alison already has a great inventory of jewelry, and Betty has started some really exciting digital work with architectural images she has taken over the years.

We’re looking at some small, medium, and large fiber art pieces already finished. We have some digital images already framed, and I want to start planning for some smaller digital ones that will be mounted on foam core and simply wrapped. We’re going to take a dozen or so hand-marbled silk scarves, smaller pieces of silk, remnant packages, marbled papers, and stationery. I’m sure a few other things will crop up as we start seriously planning.

This I think will provide us all with good momentum. One of the things we all emphasized on Monday is that we don’t want our group to be solely a business group; we like the fact that we motivate each other to create new work for each of our meetings. Karin is going in some interesting directions with her water colors, and Suzan is absolutely amazing as a digital artist, quilter, and potter. We should get some good photos to share as we get closer.

It has been a sparse week creatively for me personally. I think it’s because I’m getting back into the swing of school after two weeks to do whatever I want. I don’t want to waste time sitting in front of the TV – too much I want to do! Brenda dropped off our order of crepe silk scarves – some for marbling, but I want to try dye painting on them.  I need to find something for my hands to stay busy so I don’t eat!! And I want to continue quilting the salmon sunrise piece to get it finished up.

Tomorrow is Friday, planning to see Fantastic Mr. Fox after school, with dinner out. Haircut and a power walk on Saturday, and another walk with the trainer on Sunday. Got to make time for art!