A few words of advice & experience from me this year:
Can you believe hat we are already a week into December? That means we are only 2 and a half weeks away from Christmas day! Holy Smokes!
My guess is, you still have a lot of Christmas shopping, holiday parties, cooking, and decorating to get done in the near future. I know I sure do!
I just wanted to take a minute to write a quick update. SO MUCH has been going on over the past few months! I have made a tremendous amount of new items. I’ve tried out different styles, techniques, and sizes. I’ve done a few craft shows/vendor fairs (some successful, some not so much lol).
Here are a few tips I have learned so far in my first holiday season of creating and selling-
Get started early. All of the podcasts and articles I read said this. To begin planning and prepping for the holiday season as early as possible. Like, start in August. Well, I wish I would have taken that advice more seriously! Even though I heard it over and over again, I always thought I had plenty of time. Although I do think I managed to produce plenty of new pieces and creations, I did not plan the marketing, vendor events, shop sales and promotions like I should have.
Stay focused. I seem to go through phases. I will be super motivated and productive for a few weeks. Then all the sudden I will be a lazy bum and not get anything done for several weeks. Find something that will keep you going, have planned breaks, and set achievable goals.
Have a cut off date for custom orders. I got some advice on this from one of my favorite podcasts and I am so freaking glad that I took it seriously. Give yourself plenty of time to complete custom pieces so that you’re not stressing and pushing right up until Christmas. I also have a cut off date for pre-made item orders so that I can guarantee the client will have them in time for Christmas. The last thing you want is to be dealing with an upset client who is now scrambling for the perfect gift on Christmas Eve because yours did’t arrive on time.
I don’t like to make these posts super long. I would be happy to elaborate further on any of these or any other topic! Feel free to message or email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Merry Christmas Ya’ll!
