Mrs P Sews

Definitely more original, and very easy to remember.

Good luck!

It's definitely possible to be successful, and there are many ways of going about it, but all of them start with motivation and hard work.

Like any business or idea, it's not easy to start and then grow into a success, but motivation, hard work, and the right advice for what you're thinking of doing, can bring you the results you desire.

Best of luck to you!

I do one blog post a day on my site-blog. It gets updated when I add or edit a page, but when I don't have pages to add or edit, I create a "bloglet"...

http://www.craftbusinesshome.com/craftbusinesshomeblog.html

If anyone's interested in trading posts with me, please drop me a line through my contact form...

http://www.craftbusinesshome.com/contactus.html

Thanks!

I love Berrylicious, second would be Verry Berry.

Best of luck!

I used to sell jewelry on a party plan basis - not my own, a well known company who only sold this way.

Whenever I wore it I got at least one compliment on how nice it was, and I'd simply hand the person a business card and say something along the lines of: "give me a call if you and your friends would like to see the full catalog", which they often did.

Definitely put your meta tags on all your pages, and definitely make each page's tags different (ie: specific to that page's products or content).

Why? Well, think about it from your own surfing point of view. Aren't you going to be happier if you land on the page containing exactly what you were searching for? If it's good enough you will browse around the rest of the site (or simply buy something from the page you landed on, or click on a monetization link).

Very often people will find your whole site interesting, but perhaps they wouldn't have found it if not for that specific search result.

1.) What is the single most important thing to know about in retail?

1(A) Cash flow. Most new small businesses don't make it past year one because of inadequate planning and management of funds.

1(B) Customer Service. Get it right and you'll go a long way. Get it wrong, you won't survive.

2.) What high tech communication, informations systems are used by your company currently?

Sorry, can't help you there, I'm completely online now, but remember one thing: simple is usually better.

3.) Define leadership?

Some interesting definitions here.

4.) In your eyes what are key areas that effect profitability?

It goes without saying that you need your stock to move as fast as possible, but for pure profitability, build good relationships with your suppliers and always negotiate the best deals possible, without compromising quality or service.

5.) How do you assess/evaluate your employees. How often? What criteria?

There's only one criteria: Results! Employees should know clearly from day one what is expected of them, you should recruit people who are capable of doing what you expect of them (or be prepared to train them), and you or their line manager should be motivating and guiding them all the time (read: every day, every hour, every minute) to achieve those results. This is especially important in a retail environment. Your staff can either be your biggest asset, or your biggest liability.

Best of success with your venture!

Hi lemming

Have you tried a search? Are you looking for a book targeted at crafts in general, or something in particular? I've been searching too because I'm looking for something to offer visitors to my site, but everything that's been "general" crafts related just doesn't seem to me to be "meaty" enough. I find those that are aimed at a specific craft tend to be more in-depth.

Also, consider looking for something that is just home-business-start-up related, not necessarily limited to crafts, because it's really the same basic principle.

Sorry that doesn't help much, I'd be interested to see what everyone else comes up with.

[Christmas Craft Ideas - Where To Sell Your Crafts]

Christmas is a fun time of year, a busy time of year, and a bumper craft sales season! You can never start planning too early, and each year you'll find you improve your results from the previous year as you get more experience.

Christmas Craft Ideas - Where To Sell Your Crafts

There are so many opportunities out there for holiday season sales, here are a few Christmas craft sales ideas:

Christmas Fairs & Markets - Do an internet search using your local search engine, and stock up on your local print media to check what's being advertised in your area. Book early! If you're too late to book for this year, put your name on the list for next year.

Retailers - Find out about the promotions at your local mall, and ask your local convenience store if you can rent a small space to display your crafts.

Charities and Fundraising Events - These are usually well supported by the community, find out what's taking place near you.

Home Party Sales - Christmas is also a good sales period for this type of selling, so arrange your own parties or ask someone you know who does home party selling to take your crafts along.

Door to Door - Offer the kids in your neighborhood a commission for any of your crafts they can sell for extra pocket money.

Christmas Craft Ideas - Best Selling Crafts

Seasonal events like Christmas present great opportunities for fun craft items and new product ideas!

Decorations and ornaments are an obvious idea, and a good one, especially if you can come up with something really unique and creative.

Gift hampers with different themes are great, especially if you can create a clever package for men because they can be quite difficult to buy gifts for.

Offer discounts on some of your items that sell well throughout the year to boost your Christmas sales, or sell it for the same or a little more but with an extra item packaged with it.

I can't come up with any snappy name suggestions for you right now, but if you look at the names of other businesses similar to yours, a few ideas are bound to come to mind.

Local advertising gives you so many options, here are a few ideas:

Small classified ad in your local print media.
You usually get discounted rates if you run it for a couple of weeks or months. Try offering a discount to your customers on presentation of your ad.

Business Cards.
What I do is get them printed by the thousands (they're cheaper per card that way) making certain there's a clear description of what I do, and I always have them on me to leave wherever I go. If I go to a store, I'll leave two or three on the counter; if I go to a restaurant or coffee shop, I'll leave two or three on the table; if someone asks me what I do, I don't tell them, I give them my card. I also leave a few hundred with some of my close family for them to do the same on my behalf. This method works well for me.

Best of success!