Tools we can use: Square

I am finally getting settled back into my (more or less) normal routine after teaching at Glass Craft Expo in Las Vegas. I taught four very full classes over four days, and had the best time - my students were terrific and the venue and management staff were incredibly organized, accommodating, and thoughtful. I really could not have asked for a better experience.

One of the things I had to plan for in getting ready for this show was taking payment for materials fees and the tools and other things I'd brought for sale. I haven't had an online shop in a while (more about that in a minute), haven't done shows in even longer, and haven't done much selling when I am on the road. So.... I had to revisit the Square, which had been sitting in my desk drawer gathering dust for weeks months years.

source

Amazingly, my account was still open and still linked to the right bank account. All I had to do was update some contact info and my logo and I was ready to go.

In the time since I've been gone, Square has made some improvements... significant improvements.

For starters, they've greatly expanded the "staff" mode, making it much easier to get help when you need it without sharing passcodes and log-ins. And you can fine-tune access as well, so that helpers only get to work with the stuff you want them to.

Since I brought a teaching assistant with me, this was enormously helpful. Even more helpful was that I was able to use the Excel spreadsheet I'd used for planning purposes as an upload for all my inventory and pricing, so there was no duplication of effort - and although that process did take two separate steps, it was super easy and fast.

Square has also greatly expanded its reporting capabilities:

I was extremely impressed with the range of reports available in their free account - lots of opportunities to dig down and get a picture of what's going on with your sales.

And inventory management is great too:

Square allows you to accept cash and checks, too, not just credit cards, even if you're not using a connected cash drawer. 

And if a customer wants to pay some cash and some other form of payment, you can do that too.

The Square worked fast and flawlessly, even when we had spotty cell reception. Ringing up the students was as simple as just touching an inventory or item entry, or adding one on the fly - which was also fast. And promptly at 5:00 every afternoon, Square bundled up all that day's sales, deducted their fees (which are a super-affordable 2.75%) and deposited them in my bank, where the funds were immediately available the next day. Automatically.

I didn't discover until I got home that Square also allows you to send invoices:

There are all sorts of other features I haven't played with yet, including a for-fee feature that allows you to use Square as the place to capture customer information for marketing purposes and an app that connects Square directly to our Quickbooks file so you don't have to do any kind of duplicate entry. And there's apparently an embed function that allows you to post things for sale on your own website and then direct people to Square to make the purchase. Square also hosts Square Market, where you can post items for sale if you don't want to create your own website, and with things going south over in Easy-Land, lots of folks are looking for alternatives (including me, because it is way past time for me to get my stuff together and create an actual online shop). Best part of that deal? No listing fees, just the usual processing fees when you make a sale. 

The bottom line is that in addition to kicking butt on the road for a fraction of other credit card processors, Square has the potential to combine a number of different business functions in one place and creating all sorts of efficiencies. And frankly, I can use all the extra time I can get! If you're looking for a way to accept payments on the road or online, I highly recommend checking out the Square. I'll report back if I add any of their premium features and let you know how they work for me.

Until next time -

Consignment: Some Do's and Don'ts

Like most of you, I'm a member of a number of online forums that talk about various aspects of creative life, everything from the business side of things to more technical how-to's. One question that crops up often is whether and how to put one's art into brick and mortar shops on consignment. Since I am both an artist and a gallery owner, I thought I'd put together a few tips for anyone who might be considering going this route.

What is consignment?

It's important to understand what the consignment arrangement entails. You retain all ownership of your work, which you temporarily loan to the gallery or shop for them to sell on your behalf. When they sell the piece, they pay you the sale amount, less an agreed-upon consignment fee to cover their operating costs. This arrangement is not the same as wholesale selling, where you are paid up front for your work for a price less than what you would sell it to the general public.

What are consignment fees?

I've heard a lot of people say in online discussions that they think consignment fees are a rip off. I get it: you've worked hard to make something lovely and giving 25%, 40% or even 50% to a shop to sell it for you feels painful. But with so much of the jewelry market having moved to the virtual world in the last few years, it's easy to forget what goes into the traditional sales model, starting with all the overhead. A gallery pays rent and utilities, maintains a website, sends out emails and promotions, pays advertisers, and pays staff, taxes, and insurance. They do that before they have sold a single item, which then incurs credit card fees and packaging costs (even if it's just a small shopping bag). If you were going to sell "in person" (as opposed to online), whether you were selling at a market venue or opening a store of your own, those are all expenses you would incur on your own. Those expenses would, in turn, either increase your per piece price or reduce your overall profit. Either way, they'll cost you something in the form of booth and credit card fees, packaging, displays, transportation to and from, and - potentially - loss from theft.

The Roadhouse Arts Gallery, all decked out for the holidays. Everything you see is consigned to us.

How should I pick a consignment partner?

More than any other thing, I think this is the most important decision. It does you no good to have your inventory (read: dollars) tied up where it will not sell. Here are some of the top questions you should be asking when you're evaluating potential consignment partners.

1. What is their target market? There is a difference between a fine art gallery, a gift gallery, and a fine craft gallery. I am not saying that one is better than another - but I am saying that they work within different price ranges and target different clientele. Does your work fit the overall "vibe" of the shop? Is the work by other artists of comparable quality to yours? Where do your prices fall in the overall offerings of the shop? For example, if you are a maker of boho chic jewelry, you probably don't want to be in a sleek, modern shop with lots of steel and glass. If your work generally sells for $200 and $300, you don't want to be in a shop where they mostly sell things under $100.
2. What are you getting for the consignment fee? One of the commenters on a recent forum discussion told a story about a gallery that wanted a 40% consignment fee... and she was responsible for coming in and cleaning her jewelry to make sure it was presentable. Let me be really clear here: any gallery or shop that doesn't attractively merchandise your work and keep it clean for their customers doesn't deserve to have your work. Period. The consignment arrangement is intended to be a win-win for both artist and shop - you are providing quality inventory at no up-front cost to them, in exchange for which they offer you an appealing, professionally managed storefront in which to sell it and access to their customer base. They should also be handling credit card fees, packaging, and displays.
3. Is there a contract? Never, ever, under any circumstances, do business with a gallery or shop that won't put your agreement in writing. Ever. Make sure you are very clear about what is covered by the consignment fee; how often you can change out your inventory; how loss by fire or theft will be handled; when you will be paid for sales; and who is responsible for paying transportation of the goods to the gallery or shop and back to you. Make sure someone at the gallery signs off on a written inventory of the items you deliver to them, so you have something for your records. Ask how often you can get an updated inventory from them of the things they still have on hand - and then make it a priority to compare that list with the sales you've been paid for so you can catch any losses early in the process.

An early glass display at Roadhouse Arts, featuring work by Lisa Meyer and Gail Stouffer

What if I can't afford to pay a consignment fee?

I recognize that pricing is a touchy subject, but I'm going to wade in and be as direct as I am able: most makers of high-quality jewelry aren't charging enough for their work. And here's why: because they are undervaluing their time. There are all kinds of formulas out there about how to calculate your pricing, but at a minimum your wholesale price needs to include something for your materials, your time to produce the piece, and profit. Yes, profit. If you sell wholesale - or consignment - you need to be able to make a profit on the wholesale price. How many times have you heard (or said yourself) something like, "I don't care about my time... as long as I make a little something more than the cost of the materials." Two things: your time has value, and profit isn't a dirty word. If a 40% or 50% consignment fee means you won't make any money on your piece, it may mean your pricing is too low.

That said, I recognize this easier said than done. You obviously have to keep the market in mind as you're selling. If you're just starting out and you don't yet have a workflow in place that lets you capitalize on efficiencies or repetitive processes, your pieces will have more time in them - and that will make them more expensive. Focus on creating designs based on techniques you have down cold, so that the cost of your time doesn't skew the end cost of the piece, either on the high side or the low side.

One other comment on pricing: never, ever undercut your consignment pricing. What your pieces sell for at a consignment shop or gallery should be exactly the same price that same piece would sell for online, at a show, or off your bench. Remember that when you sell through a consignment shop, you're saving costs you would pay if you sold it yourself: packaging, credit card fees, postage, listing fees, promotional discounts, etc.

What if things go bad....?

Take a deep breath, keep your cool, and stay professional. Every consignment agreement should have a duration - your things stay with them for 90 or 120 days and then everyone touches base to see if it's working. If the sales aren't what you expected, have a conversation with the owner or manager about what is selling and see where your things line up. Is it a price issue? Style? Quality? These kinds of conversations can be really valuable, because they can be (can be) objective feedback that will make you better in the long run. That said, if the shop isn't keeping up their end of the agreement - the displays aren't being refreshed, your jewelry is dirty or untagged, you aren't getting paid, whatever - pull your stuff.

And... make absolutely sure you're doing your part. Do your pieces reflect your best work? Is it being delivered when and how the shop or gallery has requested? Are you responding promptly to requests for information or more inventory?

* * * * * * *

This is the tip of the iceberg - there are obviously many details I haven't covered here, and honestly... consignment isn't for everyone. I took an unofficial poll of my AJE teammates before writing this post, and they were about evenly divided between happy experiences and horror stories. Remember to never put all your eggs in one basket - the trick to making a living as an artist is to develop and maintain multiple streams of income. Consignment is just one element of a long-term business strategy. Hope this brief summary was helpful!

Until next time -

Tools I love...

... but not the kind you may be expecting.

As we've talked about here before, the life of a jewelry artist isn't all sunshine and creativity. A lot of time has to go into things like marketing, accounting, shopping for supplies, shipping, and more - the stuff of any small business. And I'm a sucker for good, quality tools that will help me do those things better and more quickly so I can get back to making things, which is my real passion. So here are a few of my favorites!

When I worked for large companies or firms, we always had an IT group that dealt with things like firewalls and security. As a small business owner, there's just me - and while I have some of tech geek DNA in my make up and I enjoy digging into the nuts and bolts of techy things, I really resent the time I have to spend on "tech support" issues here at home, because they usually pop up at the worst possible time.

Case in point: my personal website got hacked twice shortly after the first of the year, and even after we got it back up and "cleaned" (not an easy process), I fell victim to repeated "ghosting" attacks. That's where someone creates a page marketing their project (usually pharmaceutical products or... you know, that other favorite online activity) and links it to your website so that their pages come up in searches relevant to your site. It got so bad that my site was marked as "unsafe" on Google. I was enormously frustrated.

I am very fortunate to have a good friend who is a web developer and who points me towards cool products and services at times like these. The first thing was to get rid of those "ghost" pages and secure my site from that kind of attack in the future. Enter Sucuri Online Security. For $90 a year, they will monitor your site automatically and guarantee it stays clean. And when (not if, because nothing's foolproof) something latches onto your site, they clean it up at no additional charge. For Wordpress sites, they have a plugin that provides a dashboard allowing you to see every bit of activity on your site, as well as a list of blocked IP addresses. The first time I checked the audit log, I was stunned to see how many blocked access attempts there were on the list - I'm small potatoes in the internet world, and yet there are multiple attempts every single day. The plug-in also evaluates the site and makes security recommendations, then implements them automatically once you approve them. For me, this is money well, well spent. In the ten months I've had the service, I've used their clean-up service twice. Both times my site stayed operational and was completely clean within an hour. I can't recommend this service highly enough.

Another thing we should all be doing is managing our passwords better. Ideally, they should be different for every site, randomly generated, and changed periodically. But if you're anything like me, you have dozens of sites with account logins - your bank, shopping sites, social media, and on and on. Who wants to try and remember all those random numbers and letters times a dozen or more?? Enter LastPass. Create one master password for yourself, and then let LastPass generate and store random passwords for every site where you need a log in. A browser plug-in makes getting into your accounts a one-click operation and offers several hugely useful browser tools, including a form-fill tool - I use it for the standard fields in my Etsy listings. Best of all, it's a completely free service (who doesn't love FREE????!) and for an additional $12 a year, you can download the smart-phone version that synchs automatically with your online account. Again, I can't recommend this service highly enough.

So now that we've fixed our passwords and secured our site, shouldn't we be backing it up somewhere? The answer is yes - even if you're on a user-friendly platform that's doing backups for you, you want one you have some control over. There are lots out there, but the one I use is BlogVault, which is good only for WordPress sites (which is the platform I use). It does automatic daily backups, and I can manually backup whenever I want. Lots of services do the same - but the thing I love about BlogVault is that in the event my site goes down, restoring it is a one-button operation and includes all the customizations I've made to the site design. Cost: $9 a month.

Taken all together, these three services keep my online presence safe, secure, and backed-up. For me, spending that money (a total of $210 per year) is completely worth it, because it means I don't have to hassle with my site any more than I want to. It's cheaper than paying a techie person by the hour when these problems come up - and as my grandmother would say, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

Finally, let me share my new favorite financial tool. I did my first show at the beginning of November (which you must surely know, since I talked about it endlessly - sorry!) and was looking for an inexpensive but reliable way to take credit cards for purchases. I didn't really want to have to go through all the red tape to set up a merchant account, and PayPal's fees seemed awfully high. Square was the solution I settled on, and I can tell you after my one experience with them that I will be happy to remain a customer for as long as they'll have me. Low, low fees (2.75% per swipe - no per transaction fee) and next day deposit to my bank account. The customer can have a receipt e-mailed to them - and if they've used the credit card on Square before, Square remembers their name and e-mail information and enters into the screen on my phone automatically. Square also has a great online dashboard that allows you to set up your store, logo, and profile information - easy to use and very clean to look at. Another big plus for me is that I will be able to set up "staff" for bigger shows next year, so the friend or friends who go with me to help man the booth can have their own Square readers set up on their phones to process payments to my account. All of that can be done on the online dashboard without my having to give them my personal account information. And the Square readers are free. Sweet!

So there you go - some of my favorite business tools that help make all that non-creative stuff a little less painful. Have a favorite that I didn't mention here? Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time!

Creating your own "mini" business cards - tutorial

I love Moo's minicards, especially for using as tags on jewellery boxes and bags. I love the fact that you can have as many different photos as you have cards without any extra cost, and I love the quality of them. However, I do not love the price, and, especially nowadays, I cannot afford to buy them in the quantity I need them! So, when I had a voucher recently to get some Vistaprint business cards at a cheaper price I thought I'd have a go at creating my own mini business cards. I expect that this is far from the first tutorial that has been written on how to do this, but this is how I did it!

First of all, these are the first set of cards that I ordered. I need three slightly different designs - one for my Notonthehighstreet.com shop with the name "Daisychain Designs" (I didn't want to use Daisychain Jewellery there as I didn't want the word jewellery on the postage labels), one for my Daisychain Jewellery website and etsy shop, and one for my Daisychain Extra components shop. I just ordered one lot first to try it out! This design is blank on the reverse as I use them as gift tags.

And this is how I made the image for my Daisychain Extra cards!

Note: I use Paint.net to edit my photos. It may not always look as pretty as Photoshop etc, but it does everything I need it to do, there's great online help for it  - and it's free to download!

1. Open up Vistaprint and navigate to where you can upload your own image for the premium business cards (I'm assuming here that the US version of the site looks much the same as the UK version!)

 2. Click on the "download a template" link to get up the window shown below so that you can see the pixel sizes you need. It's the document trim ones that are important.

 3. Open up Paint.net and click to get a new document. Change the pixel width to 1028 and the height to 579 (the document trim sizes). Vistaprint recommend that the resolution be set to 300 pixels/inch

4. Repeat step 3 to open a second document, this time at half the height (but the same width) as the first. You will be able to toggle between the two documents when you need to by clicking on the thumbnails in the top right of the screen.

5. Copy and paste onto the shorter blank document the images you want to use on your mini business card, resizing them to fit as necessary. Then click on the "rectangle select" button on the left and drag the cursor across your image to select it. Copy the image.

6. Paste the mini-business card image onto the larger blank document that you created in step 3, and paste it again so that you've got one image above the other. Save your hard work!

 7.Go back to the Vistaprint site and press the button to browse for and upload your image.

8. If, after you've uploaded it, important bits of information (such as your business name!) are partly outside of the dotted line, go back a couple of steps in Paint.net and resize the images you have used. I had to decrease the size of my logo slightly the first time I did this.

9. If you want text on the back, prepare a second image using the same pixel sizes as you did for the front of the card. Add text on Paint.net by clicking on the "T". You can change the font style and size in the same way as you would in any Microsoft office document.

10. And this is my reverse image uploaded!

If you have managed to stay with me throughout all those images, congratulations! I hope that you find this useful. You can use this method to create your own templates for most of the Vistaprint products. You can also, if you wish, create a template with two different images, one on each half, rather than using the same images for both halves as I did on my templates.

Jo Tinley
Daisychain Designs 

P.S. You also had a sneak preview of my new logos on this tutorial - I was hoping to have uploaded them onto my blog, etsy shops etc before I wrote this blog, but, well, it the Component of the Month reveal tomorrow, and playing with beads and wire is always a higher priority than website work - I'll do it next week!

The Price of Lampwork

A lampworking friend of mine was threatening to sell her torch yesterday. Why? Well...the answer is simple and it isn't. The simple part is that she hasn't had sales for a couple months and she needs the income.

The difficult part has to do with pricing. There are some lampworkers...and to be honest, other types of beadmakers, jewelry designers, and artisans in every medium, who are WAY undervaluing their work.

Places like Etsy are a great venue. However, each seller is competing with thousands of sellers in their category. Some sell to support themselves as their sole income. Some sell for fun. Most people fall somewhere in between. 

With so much competition, prices are dropping. With so many hobbyists trying to make a buck or two, prices are dropping. With people stressed out about not getting sales or views, prices are dropping. This hurts everyone. Especially those who aren't charging appropriately for their work. 

Let's do some simple math using this Nightmare Insomnia focal

-Minimum torch time to create: 1 hour (often more)

-Amount of time to remove bead from mandrel and clean: at least 5 minutes

-Amount of time to photograph, edit photos, and list: 30 minutes (when everything goes exactly as planned)

So as you can see, I'm in it for a MINIMUM of 1 hour 35 minutes. At $35 for this focal, that comes out to about $23.33/hour salary. 

However, the times I gave are minimums. It usually takes more than that. My "salary" does not include cost of materials:

-Glass

-Fine silver (99.9% silver) foil AND mesh was used in this bead

-electricity to run the oxygen concentrator, kiln, ventilation, lights, heat/AC, dremel, computer

-the gas to create the flame used to melt the glass

-cost to list the bead

-cost to sell the bead (Etsy and Paypal each take their piece of the pie)

-shipping materials

-free shipping if sent to the US or Canada

-business cards and inserts

-gas to drive to the Post Office if shipping out of United States

-wear and tear on expensive studio equipment

Listing all this here makes my $35 bead seem pretty darn inexpensive...

Even if someone is doing this for fun or to make a couple bucks here or there, the point is to make money. Not lose money. The fact is those who are selling their work at a negative value once time + cost of materials are taken into account, do not value their time, their money, or themselves enough to sell for an appropriate amount. 

This same lampworking friend mentioned a male family member telling her once that "any profession dominated by women will always be underpaid because women have no sense of the value of their time." 

That is just sad. If we don't value and protect our time and resources, no one else will either. 

Now go forth and show the world you value your time and work by pricing your creations appropriately!

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

What the Jewelry Artist Businessperson Can Learn from Chik Fil A (and the Jim Henson Company too...)

Have you heard the brouhaha over Jim Henson Company "dumping" Chik-Fil-A and posting an official statement of the break-up on their Facebook page? In case you haven't, I will give you the short version. Dan Cathy, the president of Chik-Fil-A, was interviewed and had this to say about gay marriage: We are very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."

This interview resulted in the break-up between the two companies. I know you're asking yourself what two large companies suffering a difference of opinions and an ugly social media battle over the issue of gay marriage has to do with you running your jewelry business. More than you might think. 

Chik-Fil-A is now suffering some completely unnecessary backlash. Consumers vote with their cash and I'm guessing there will be lots of people saying "no cash for you!" Why unnecessary? Because if Mr Cathy had kept his mouth firmly closed, there would be no issue. He can even be against gay marriage and say something like "we believe God loves everyone no matter what." The end. That would be smart business.

Nope. In fact, he pretty much slams divorced and remarried people in that same quote. I have no idea how many people in the United States are divorced and/or remarried...but I'm thinking that number is pretty high. 

Jim Henson Company could face a similar backlash...meaning, those who oppose gay marriage will no longer buy whatever toy or movie or whatever they are peddling these days because they came out as supporters of gay marriage. Was the public statement necessary? No. However, it does seem in my internet wanderings that they have more applause than boos over their statement. But it could have easily gone the other way. 

As a business trying to make a profit, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are not the appropriate venue to rant about your hot button views over religion, politics,  race, etc because there will always be people who are potential customers who disagree with you and will vote with their cash and pass on their bad opinion of you, and therefore your business, onto others. That is not the kind of word of mouth you want. 

Also, if I'm visiting a jewelry blog, I don't want to read about how someone's religion is the best, who they hate, their political views, their sex lives, or how brown haired blue eyed women are the smartest, funniest, prettiest, most fashionable people and should rule the planet (ok, being a brown haired blue eyed female, maybe I do want to read that...). While people do want to get to know a bit about the genius person (you) who designs incredible jewelry, they don't want to be assaulted with your opinions.

There may be appropriate times to discuss your views about this topic in a level-headed respectful and professional manner. For example, you sell Gay Pride jewelry. By all means, share away because it is appropriate to your business model and your customers are more than likely going to agree with whatever you have to say on the subject.

However, if you sell handmade rosaries and you support gay marriage or even birth control...you might want to keep your personal views just that...personal.

If you feel so strongly about something you don't care what the backlash is, share. But remember to use professional respectful language. There is never a good reason to be hateful or hurtful even if those with an opposing viewpoint act that way.

Before you decide to share your views on a hot button topic, ask yourself why you need to share. If you think you will change someone's views...well...that's about as likely as a Mormon showing up on the doorstep of and converting a Southern Baptist to Mormonism. Not bloody likely. If you think what you have to say needs to be said, then say it.

Try to leave the brouhaha business to others.