Adventures in starting a craft business

[Chris in VT]

Good job!

[Crafty.Canadian]

Business Cards!

After a small delay caused by my printer crapping out, I finally have business cards.  I just kept it simple and put my logo and contact info on the front.  I used my hand-carved logo stamps to make a background (stamped them on a sheet of paper, scanned that, then used my computer to re-colour and re-size).

I used business card sheets by Avery that I bought at Staples.  I would recommend them.  They worked really easily and they have perfectly clean edges.

[Antidigger]

They look smart, very stylish.

[Terri@taskforce4u.com]

Good job!  I too tried to use the font you wanted at first for your logo, mine was going to be done in vinyl....not a cool font for vinyl either.  It's a sharp font, but like you decided it was not a "professional" type of font.  I love the stamp, I never thought about that and the paper bags.  Looking forward to reading more on how things are going.

Great job so far!

[Crafty.Canadian]

I have been working on stock for the craft show and doing some research (mostly for booth set-up).  I have a pile of unfinished pine furniture in my garage and some illustrations, and very little else to show for the work I've been doing.  I've been doing some test my crafting materials to make sure there will be no disasters before I set about mass producing.  It's been slow, but I think that taking my time now will enable me to bust out some good products quickly (er... 'efficiently' is probably a better word than 'quickly') over the next few weeks.

Despite growing fears that I've jumped in too quickly, I think its good that I have a deadline.  Pressure is motivation.

Some pics of whats on my desk these days:


Sketches.  The wood panel won't end up as a final product, just using it as a test of materials to make sure that all the products I'm using are compatible - won't degrade each other, cause bleeding, running, etc.


This is an in-progress panel that will be the back of a storage bench.  Most of the colouring is done, I need to start on the outlining/ hatching work. (Think similar to the bird in the pic above.)


More sketches for storage benches.

[TwistMySister]

im going through all the same adventures and am glad youre posting on yours, your illustrations look great!

[blackabbey]

Firstly, I would like to say great work so far.

A few suggestions that came to my mind
I am not sure about the trading name laws in Canada (where I assume you are posting from, given your user name ) but have you looked in to the possibility/requirement of lodging or registering your business name with the government? I only ask because I know here in Australia you are not legally allowed to trade under a name unless it is registered with the Australian Business Register. May not be relevant to you, but worth checking just in case.

Secondly, if your panel you have pictured does work well, why not sell it as a final piece? Add a wooden frame to it (or make one if you are handy with a saw) and sell it as a nursery decoration. You would still be keeping with a similar theme of hand painted, but would be expanding your potential customer base to new families (younger audience) and grandparents (older audience) with the same sort of pieces, and would also be able to make more of these to add, as the production value is relatively low.

Hope this helps, and definitely keep us updated