Building a Brand
Fair Trade & Staying Out of Court
Working for yourself, you have the final word on how you want to present yourself to the world. A quality product alone is not going to build a successful brand. Prompt attention to online customers is paramount. Questions and concerns should be addressed as soon as they arise. Potential delays on your end should be conveyed as soon as they rear their ugly head. Quality needs to be stressed, from product inception to unboxing by the buyer.
If you have come this far in reading my blogs, you probably already have an idea of what you want to call your business. Choosing your online handle is an important decision that can be fun to brainstorm. You are creating an image that you want people to grasp, even if it is subliminal. Play around with versions of keywords, incorporating your personal name, service, location, atmosphere, materials, etc. Keep it positive, short, simple and catchy.
From childhood, I have always referred to our lizardy friends as newts. Whether anoles, iguanas, chameleons, skinks or alligators, they were all newts to me. On our property in central Florida, we have a dozen or so varieties of these that are quite sociable and inhabit my woodworking shop, keeping buggy types at bay and providing an audience to keep company with me during monotonous hours of sanding or otherwise making dust. They are a curious lot and it is common to look up from my work to find a couple pairs of newt-eyes watching me. DustyNewt came to me from there.
Our cats have also discovered the sustainability of lizard tail snacks. Half our newts have tails in different stages of regrowth.
Dot.com It
Although almost anyone with an email and bank account can do business through venues like Etsy, eBay or Amazon. Once you decide on a name, you should probably decide to purchase a unique .com domain to own, should you ever decide to build a stand-alone website for your business. Do some domain searches for your intended name (and versions thereof) to see if it is available. It adds an air of legitimacy to searches and even if you don’t use it right away for your own website you can redirect it through your domain provider so that it points customers to where you do sell. I am currently doing this with my DustyNewt.com domain. It takes people looking for me directly to my Etsy shop. The domain runs about $30.00 per year.
After purchasing DustyNewt.com, I set up my Etsy shop, a business page on Facebook and other social media. During the first ten years of this enterprise, I built three or four websites using it, only to determine about five years ago that too much time (and money) was required in maintaining and driving traffic to my own site.
So, until they lure me back into trying again (which is quite likely), Etsy has the quality traffic and tools to manage what I require within their platform, with reasonable fees. For now, this allows me more creative and personal time.
Fair Pricing
Being true to yourself while offering competitive pricing for your unique work is an acquired skill unto itself. You must factor in not only what similar items are going for, but your cost of materials, time involved producing it, shipping costs, advertising and the fees charged by the venue you sell from and/or financial institutions.
My last two blogs covered how I determine my prices. You can review them here: Part 1 & Part 2.
Be careful not to undercut yourself. It is tempting to have the lowest price in order to get sales, but in the process you will lower your profit margin and risk cheapening your image/brand.
At the other end of the spectrum, you don’t want to overprice your work. You will rarely get a second chance at a client that thinks you are gouging them. Find a happy compromise. Once your brand is comparable to Gucci, Prada and Dior, you can charge exorbitant prices. DustyNewt is not quite there… yet.
To be successful, I have found that a profit margin of 65 to 70% (after all of the above costs) is a happy medium to shoot for. It is fair to all parties.
Shipping
How you plan to get your work to the customer should be determined as you design your items. If you wait to figure out shipping methods and costs until after you sell an item, you will undoubtedly run into unexpected costs.
Keep it simple. Consider sizes of common mailing materials; bubble mailers, boxes, tubes, etc. Odd sizes are hard to find (and expensive) and having to go up to the next size is wasteful.
Before you list an item on your venue, ask yourself; How will you ship it? Where will you ship it? When will you ship it? and How will you pay for this shipping?
Keep in mind that all my products are on the small side. Larger items can get very expensive and services other than USPS may be more cost effective. You may discover better ways for yourself. If you do, please share in the comments below.
Here is what I do…
I ship all my stuff via USPS, Ground Advantage standard (used to be First Class), buying labels through Etsy. This includes $100.00 worth of insurance and tracking, which is mandatory to staying in Etsy’s good graces.
Internationally, I ship First Class. Each country has different costs, so you will have to do some research on the USPS website. This includes tracking, although it is only accurate about 50% of the time. Etsy automatically collects and remits each country’s taxes and import fees. Thank You Etsy!
I keep it simple with five package sizes, small bubble mailers to Priority Mail “Medium” size.
I carve and ship within 1 to 14 days, depending on time of year and size of order.
I generally markup the price of my work so that shipping costs will be absorbed (at least partially) and included for U.S. customers. International orders pay additional shipping, according to their location and are added during my Etsy checkout. Be sure to convey to the international buyer that you are not responsible for shipping delays and/or customs/duties that their country imposes. Some of them take up to 6 weeks!
Wrap It Up
Packaging can be as fancy as you want it to be (and have time and money for). Mine is clean and functional, but pretty much “No-Frills”. The more you put into that bubble mailer, box or tube, the more it cost you in both materials and time. I would rather put that time and effort into my quality product.
Know in advance how you will securely ship that item and have the materials on hand to get it done. Unless you are selling digital products (eBooks, .pdfs, artwork or patterns) your packaging should be clean, appropriate and secure. Nothing is more discouraging than creating and mailing a fabulous item only to receive a message 5 days later, saying that it was broken while getting there. Refunds and replacements are time consuming and can eat into your bottom line quickly. They are frustrating to both you and your client. When purchasing from you, the customer rightly expects to receive the quality that you advertised. Best to get it right the first time.
Tick…Tick…Tock…
A main factor of brand building is service. Though you may not be able to compete with Amazon’s same- or next-day delivery, you can reasonably assure your clients that their order is of great importance and will be shipped as soon as humanly possible.
Once I receive an order, my production “time clock” starts. Personalization is a phenomenal draw, as people love their names. My works are 99% custom, made-to-order items. I can only carve so many orders in a day, so I have to keep a close eye on accumulating orders to make sure that I can carve and ship them within the promised time.
In arranging my work schedule, I also have to keep in mind my other daily responsibilities (i.e., meals, family affairs, doctor’s appointments, and home projects and maintenance). This is especially true during Christmastime. Holiday orders can get overwhelming quickly. I always adjust my production schedule (on Etsy) so that the clients are aware of when they can reasonably expect to receive them. I never make health appointments during the months of November or December. My family and friends have come to know and accept that I am mostly unavailable during this time each year.
For the last four years, to ensure delivery by Christmas, I have had to put new orders on hold in early December by putting my Etsy shop on “Vacation Mode” until the 1st of the next year. Once everything is carved and shipped by December 14th, so that USPS and Santa can do their jobs of getting my items to their new homes, I can rest. From then to the 1st of January is time to spend the holidays with family and friends, heal my digits, clean and rehab my workshop and restock materials that were consumed during the rush. A breathing time, to plan for the new year.
Legalize It!
Whatever you do, keep your works and ideas as original as possible. For handmade items, stay away from copyrighted characters, slogans and designs. Infringement of other’s work or trademarks is illegal and a headache you DO NOT need.
Read your venue’s Terms of Service. Every day, the Etsy group I am with on Facebook is full of complaints that they got shut down because Etsy’s Terms of Service (TOS) forbids their handmade Mickey Mouse doohickeys. You should know the rules you are agreeing to.
Companies like Disney, Coca Cola and Harley Davidson spend millions of dollars every year searching out people that violate infringement rules and their lawyers love to justify their existence. Even using keywords and phrases, like “Jimmy Buffett Inspired” or trademarked words (Parrothead) will get you shut.
It is a shame to go through all the work of planning a new livelihood for yourself and creating a great shop with beautiful listings only to get permanently blocked by Etsy and wind up in litigation with a billion dollar corporation. If your venue decides to shut you down, they will use your IP address and financial information to permanently block you from ever opening another store on their website.
That said, there are a number of seller websites available to you, I have had very good results selling on eBay and moderate successes on other venues, however all reputable venues forbid copyright infringement. Just don’t. It is theft.
Peace in Wood ~ Scott
If you are enjoying what you see… I like it hot and black. 😉
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