SOOO fed up

[moni219]

I am so fed up trying to get my name known.I have tryed all I know. I have 2Folksy shops, a fan page on FB,with a link to my shop,and I also have a blog.
I do sell through Ebay,and send all over the world.When people buy,I send a card to with all my links on.
Can anyone tell me if I can do more.I get more money doing a boot sale(ha ha).lol

[JoDawson]

Have you tried dropping in a few samples to local businesses? You could offer to make them some handmade business cards for free and see if you get any orders from this. Its a bit of a personalised mail drop but may help.
Jo

[Caroleecrafts]

Things are very slow atm and my sales have totally dried up, people are not spending as they used to, keep plugging away. Do you work as well as if not you could try local nursery schools when the Mum's collect the kids if you could sell and give them a profit. I did the local scouts years ago 30 minutes and £50.00 sold they asked for 10% of sales, so £45.00 for 30 mins work was not bad, okay took a bit longer with the setting up and taking down but not much as DH helped.

[annnoble]

I would recommend the "tortoise approach".
This enables you to have a hard shell so things just bounce off, also you keep moving forwards slow and steady.
Best way to cope with the economy at the mo, in my opinion.
If you can weather and survive this, business during a good economy will be a piece of cake!

[Caroleecrafts]

I like the tortoise approach and something I have been doing for a while but did not have a name for it. Well done Anne.

[moni219]

Thanks girls,I will just sit tight and wait,and wait.Things can only get better,lets hope it's in my lifetime!!!

[Beth82]

How about trying to see if local flourists will stock your cards?

[JustCornish]

Your products are lovely and reasonably priced but people just arn't looking at crafts at the moment. The summer is always a bit quiet for cards but it might pick up towards Christmas. The problem is that the economy has slowed down and every trade is taking a hit.
Have you considered getting a regular slot on your local Market? That way people would always know where to find you.
Love Maria xxx

[moni219]

Hi that is a good idea,only my town I'm afraid is a £ shop place.

[SuzyHomemaker]

I have you thought at all about getting involved in charity?
I make nappy cakes (totally different business, I know, but stay with me on this) and one of our local schools was doing a fundraiser for the children's sports programe. I made a "sample" cake to be included in their silent auction. And of course I put some of my business cards on the table in front of my cake for anyone who might be interesting in seeing my other work could look me up on my Facebook page. Only cost me about £20 to make this small sample cake. The cake its self sold for alittle over £100 (all of which went to the school's programe) however the buzz about my cake was so great, it generated several sales that day for me. I made one £20 charitable donation and I ended up getting hired to make nearly £250 worth of other customized cakes.

[Handbagsbyhelen]

I would recommend the "tortoise approach".
This enables you to have a hard shell so things just bounce off, also you keep moving forwards slow and steady.
Best way to cope with the economy at the mo, in my opinion.
If you can weather and survive this, business during a good economy will be a piece of cake!

Ha,ha. Good response - I could do with applying that approach a bit more to the rest of my life too!

[AnnieAnna]

Annie was a tortoise and (fingers crossed) is still doing OK.
Anna was a hare. ( I think I've come a cropper with this one.)

But - hang on in there. Things can't get any worse. If you don't go under now you'll be flying high when the market recovers.

I'm finding the charity thing is working for me. (Awful thing to say but we both benefit.)
People are happy to spend if the money is going to a good cause so they are turning up to charity fairs, and once there don't feel too guilty about parting with their money because there are helping people or animals in much worse situations than they are.

[Roslet]

Moni, pull yourself together woman - your cards are lovely, we are coming into the busy season now with Christmas. Get cracking and start getting them out on here... use other craft forums - I will PM you a list. And if you can bear it, tweet too!

I know that you can do it, your cards are really good, now get a cuppa and back to your cutting mat.

[hipchickluce]

Keep your chin up my dear! One thing that it may be worth thinking is that - if right now, boot sales work for you, then go boot sale crazy! The cost of having a stall is very low... and you could give out a business card with every sale. That might generate more traffic to your websites. The more you meet your public, the more chance they get to see the wonderful things you make. You can see it as a promotional activity, if not a money spinner.

I don't know how long you have been doing it, but when I went for some business trading, they said that it normally takes over a year for a normal business to be up and running... they said don't expect to make any money in the first year, just start sewing the seeds for a healthy business in the future. It is a lot of legwork and it can be so disheartening, but hang on in there.

Lucy xxx

ps. join that 'become a fan of the facebook pages in this thread' thread - you will get us liking your page have a search for it

[moni219]

Thanks Lucy,had a look on my fb page thanks,i hope more people get to see it,and my folksy shop.