HomeTeeter Totter ~ Finding a Balance Between Me-Hood and Motherhood
Gender: female Date of Birth: January 01, 1973 Member Since: September 11, 2007 Last Signed In: November 30, 2008 Blog Views: 8590 Send To A Friend Sign Guestbook Add as a Friend
Tradition Interrupted
Enjoy Your "Day Off!" Building Self Esteem Blogging Tips Ho Ho Ho (or something like it) I Love Cell Phones… I Hate Them Pruning Your Life A Crafty Gift My Husband Martha Food For Thought September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 Teeter Totter Finding a Balance Between "Me-Hood" and "Motherhood" In this blog I'll be covering as wide a variety of subjects as the duties of a real mom in today's culture. From raising special needs children, family vacations, marriage, relationships, sex, cooking, local to-do, school (both for you and the children), working, hiring a daycare provider, arts and crafts, decorating, holidays, to well... EVERYTHING! No holding back. 
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So you wanna be a “momtrepeneur� (PART 2)
A week or so ago I did a blog about working for yourself. Being a "momtrepeneur." I thought about this blog because I get a lot of questions from other moms wanting to know how to get started. As I said in the other blog, it isn't easy to get started on your own. It's good to get help and advice. I recently met another mom from this site for coffee who is trying hard to do just that. She has a great business concept and some inventory already created, but didn't know where to go from there. Here's what I told her... #1) Figure out what your starting product will be. Jewelry is hard to sell as there are SO many people who do it. Vintage and recycled are always in (especially now), so that's a good angle. #2) Choose a business name. Don't get so specific that you're locked into making that one item forever (like Janes Necklaces). #3) Get a website. I like Blogspot. They're free and very easy to use. You can also easily convert pictures and text to HTML to copy and paste onto other sites (like MySpace) if you aren't good at HTML. Did I mention they're free? http://www.blogger.com/home #4) Get a digital camera if you don't already have one. If you do have one, practice practice practice!!! A photo of your items is worth $1,000 (not a thousand words). #5) If you are making your items (which I'm assuming you are for the sake of this blog), get an Etsy store. Etsy is like Ebay for handmade items. You get your own "store" for free. It is 20cents per item you list, but it stays in your store for up to 4months and includes up to 5pictures of the 1 listing. You can't beat it! Link up with PayPal and you have the cheapest website in town. My sister-in-law dumped her expensive personalized website to switch to Etsy and is making a lot more profit because of that move. http://www.etsy.com/ #6) Get business cards and start handing them out to everyone you know. I LOVE Overnight Prints.com http://www.overnightprints..... For $9.99 you can get great quality thick paper stock cards (that you design using their very simple on-line tools) delivered right to your home. Do I sound like a commercial yet? See why you need to know how to take a good product picture? Use it on your card! #7) Tell everyone. Send e-mails with links to your store. Pass out cards. Be your own model and wear your product. When someone compliments you or comments, hand them a card! #8) Craft Show or Shop? There are 2 major ways to now sell your product. Craft shows, or shops. Shops will take a 30% standard cut from your price. So you'll need to price higher than you would in-person, or make less. Shows usually have a table fee of $20-$60 for a 6foot space. You'll need your own table, chair and display items. I suggest the Dollar Tree for the last necessity. When you're first starting out, don't pay more than $20. Make sure you have plenty of change and everything priced and ready to go. Second Saturday in Downtown Sacramento is a great place to start doing craft shows. http://www.sacramento-secon... Many art galleries and coffee shops will encourage vendors to come down and set up a table for the $20 fee. Try and hook up with stores or other vendors who are doing similar items you are. Like jewelry, vintage, clothing, etc. #9) Seek advice from others! I've only been doing this since June and have had a TON of help from the pros along the way. Search the web for help and advice. Check out other people's work, but don't get discouraged. If you're having fun and your initial cost is low... it's worth it!!! #10) Keep your expectations realistic, or you'll get discouraged. Expect to "break even" for a while, especially at shows. That way if you do great, it'll be a surprise. It took months before I even made one sale on my Etsy store. Hope this is helpful! :) 3 comments from 2 users
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posted by
girl4agreenerworld
on Dec 28, 2007 at 09:27 AM
posted by
creatress
on Dec 28, 2007 at 10:40 AM
I LOVE my Sony Cybershot. I've had mine for about 3 years now. Back when a 5.0 megapixel was a big deal! It was $600 at the time. You can now get them for $199 almost anywhere and they're 8.0 megapixel. What the megaxpixel means is how much detail your photos will have. So since it is for work, the more the better.There's also a macro feature on my camera that I couldn't live without. What that means is that with the push of a button I can get SUPER close-up detail of something. If you're un-sure about how to get started and what camera would be best for what you're doing. I may think about taking a digital camera class. Check your local community college. Or just commit yourself to a lot of practice and to read the whole manual. The Sony is very user friendly (in my opinion). I think my pictures come out pretty darn good! Thanks for the compliment! I'm always happy to share and help. Feel free to ask me anything. :) posted by
girl4agreenerworld
on Dec 29, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Creatress!
You are a wealth of information about so many different things! Thank you for the info on the camera. It's nice to have someone recommend one, especially since I will be using it for a lot of the same reasons as you. Yes...it does take really nice photos. By the way...I see your birthday is coming up soon. What a great day to have a birthday....lots of parties going on! Have a wonderful birthday. If you are going out, stay safe.
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You are a wealth of information! Thank you. I still haven't checked into Etsy, but definitely plan to. What is holding me back? I don't have a good digital camera. I bought an inexpensive Vivitar a few years back. It didn't seem to work right so I exchanged it for the same model, but I had the same problems. After that I had a bit of a fear of digital cameras. Okay...I admit it....I am technologically challenged!!! (Now you may understand why I don't have a picture of me on this site. ) Anyways.....do you have a digital camera you would recommend? I think that is where I need to start to get my artwork out there.