Creative Business: Learn More.

For the last two months or so - every Tuesday on indieBerries, I have started posting a new blog series for the indieBusiness. You know... business and blogging tips and advice for anyone in a creative/indie business. This Tuesday, I wanted to share something slightly more "off-centre" from an actual specific creative-business topic - but something that is perhaps the reason I came to start this blog series in the first place.

I have always LOVED school. Give me a pen, a piece of paper and something to write down and I will be in my element. Granted - it could just be the pen and paper that gives me that feeling - but I have always loved learning. I completed my PGCE in a year, whilst working a full time job in Korea, just because "I felt like studying". I did an online Harvard course on Teaching for Understanding because it just seemed like a good idea. I have done a spinning instructors course and two emergency first response courses not because I necessarily think I'm going to be the next Jane Fonda or subway-emergency-lockdown hero. (oh please don't ever let me get trapped in a subway-emergency-lockdown) I've done these things because I LOVE LEARNING.

DANG guys. I have even been to a balloon-animal-making workshop. And that is NOT a lie. I can balloon-animal-the-shizz-out-of-you - (I will be honest though, my speciality is the snake).

Anywhoo, what I have come to know, is that blogging, social media networking and especially creative business owning requires a LOT of learning. And here is the thing: you will NEVER know enough and you can ALWAYS know more.

On Saturday I attended the most awesome bloggers workshop hosted by Nuffnang UK. There were four bloggers there to share their insights, knowledge and blogging experiences:

Rosalilium || Tigerlilly Quinn || Red Ted Art || Love Chic Living

What I loved about this workshop was I felt it was a really authentic and genuine knowledge sharing afternoon. In fact, even some of the speakers were asking questions to the other speakers - which to me, was completely awesome - because even as "the speakers" or the ones "in the authority" they have positioned themselves as still wanting, able and needing to learn more from the experiences, successes and stories of their peers and others. I believe that from anyone who is to be successful in a small creative business, there should always be a strong desire to DO MORE, LEARN MORE, KNOW MORE, GROW MORE.

So anyway, that's a long winded way of saying - That is why I started this blog series: to share my experiences along the journey of my own creative business start up in the hopes that it will inspire or encourage you to learn more. There is still so much to learn and still so much more knowledge that we can use to help us in our creative businesses and blogging. Here is a little list of potentially useful links from other bloggers/websites around the web - delve in!

A LIST OF LEARNING-USEFUL LINKS FOR THE CREATIVE BUSINESS OWNER/BLOGGER:

• If you are starting an Etsy store check out their blog, and participate in their community forums.
• Lynda is an amazing website that you can literally learn just about anything from!
• Pugly Pixel has an awesome selection of CSS and HTML tutorials as well as a cool photoshop e-course
• For more "inspired-type" things check out The Creative Boom - also really handy tips!
• Nicole's classes offer a bunch of free tutorials that are photoshop, light room and illustrator based.
• Nadia van der Mescht runs creative business workshops in South Africa.
• Fanchimp is a cool blog aimed at Etsy Sellers.
• Elizabeth is launching the Big Blogging Bootcamp early next year.
• There was a recent collaboration with a bunch of South African bloggers - you can see the series wrap up on CityGirl searching.
• Red Lemon Club is awesome for creative entrepreneurs. Really.
• Kat's Green room shares great blogging tips
• The blog shop offers photoshop classes.
• Pikaland has a stock of really useful posts from creative business owners and illustrators
• I also post useful articles and blogposts to my Creative Business Pinterest Board.

Ok, I think that's enough information for now - to blow your brains out! Check back next Tuesday for some more business-creative links and things! Happy Learning y'all!


PS. These pictures in this post, have really nothing to do with anything - but I took them when I was still living in South Korea - they have been hanging out on my computer and I liked them so thought I would whack them up!

Above: This is probably something wildly inappropriate.... whatevs.

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PPS - We are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the new indieBerries.com site build! eeek! In the mean time, I have slowly started re-stocking my Etsy Store - go check it out! :)

Your First Market | When things don't go *exactly* as you would have hoped.

Since it's Tuesday, it's another edition of indieBusiness Bites! A new blog series I started a little while ago documenting my journey of The Creative Business. As many of you know - I attended my very first market last Saturday at Holy Cross School. I was super excited about having my first market stand and dived straight into market preparations and preparings! For today's business blog post I wanted to share some of the lessons that I took away from my very first market - which was a big learning curve!



1. Arrive as early as possible 
Make sure you get to the market with plenty of time to set up your stall. Trying to finish up last minute things whilst the customers are starting to arrive will make you feel flustered and overwhelmed. We arrived at the market with plenty of time to spare - but on arrival, I realised that the table that had been allocated to me in all the email communications between the organiser and the market stall holders, had been taken over by other market stall holders, which was slightly disorientating. My market table had been switched on the day by other vendors to a table right in the corner which I was not expecting. I am not one for confrontation so I just let it go. This may not have had any impact or affect on sales at all, but it did start the day off on a bad note. It may have been avoided if we had arrived even earlier than we did. So make sure you get there early-early.



2. Know your market, ask questions.
Before you sign up to a market - do some research. Ask the organisers for mini profile of their "expected buyer". Many markets (and particularly markets in the UK) are quite expensive to sign up to - so it is your right to a few questions about the market in general before you sign on. Get an idea of expected foot traffic and the type of buyer who they most likely expect. If you feel unable to ask these questions to the organisers - then take a trip to the market yourself and gauge the type of crowd who is entering, the type of products they are looking at and the items/things they are buying. Your assumed buyer may be very different to the actual buyer.

I got very excited about my first market and jumped in semi-deep end without really doing much research. Since it was an annual School Christmas Fair that I participated in, I wasn't able to have a look at the market before I signed up and I assumed the average buyer would be school parents. In reality, the majority of the "buying power" came from the young kids at the school with their little pounds to spend.



3. Cater to the expected buyer
If possible, (and in the creative businesses I would usually say it is) cater your products to the expected buyer. For example, had I known that the mass buying power would come from 8 year old girls (as discovered above), I would have created a MASSIVE SPINNING WHEEL-OF-DEATH GAME and Hello-Kitty-ed the SHIT out of my stall. Let me tell you, that when the buyer is an 8 year old girl - you absolutely cannot compete with decorative nail-painting and pink-iced-biscuits. 8 year old girls are not interested in (nor should they be looking at) "Love Vouchers" - which include "professional back massages - with fancy oils" (below).

(love vouchers: 12 per pack, 2 blank for your own messages)

Whilst my products all have very cartoon/fun/childlike imagery, the humour and target market is for an older crowd (see below). And had I known that the mass buyer were young girls, I would have altered my range slightly. This is not to say that you should abandon your product range and make completely new items based on each individual market - but getting an idea of the expected buyer (which comes from asking questions) will help you get more sales. For example, say you are a baby-bootie knitter, if you know you are going to be at a market which is a Christmas themed affair - why not "grow the size" of your baby booties and knit some epic Christmas stockings?




4. Mock up  your table beforehand but know the exact dimensions
Mocking up your table beforehand is essential. You can see how things all work together and how they look when they are placed next to each other. You will also way more easily be able to make sure that there is a spectrum of different priced items available. I am so happy that I mocked my table up beforehand and I was really happy with the way it all came out!

Although, as a "test-run" I set up a table in our spare room across two desks. The size of the two desks together were much bigger than the actual trestle table size - and as such things looked a bit more "bunched together" than they should have been. I also ended up putting my "portfolio board" on the floor - for lack of space - which made it not very visible! Get the exact dimensions!
Also - if you set it up at home and force your husband to remember where everything goes - he will be invaluable in helping you set up your table on the day - since he already has an idea of what should go where. Score. Take pictures of your set up, if you think you may forget!

(left: Portfolio pin board | right: Christmas Gift tags)

5. Engage with customers
This is an obvious one. There were a few people who came over who were very interested in the custom poster designs I had displayed. Of the people that came over - those who I offered information to - ie: "I can do a poster for your whole family, you can use it for personalised greeting cards/present stickers/bedroom decor etc" where those people who picked up business cards and took down my details. Offer people some insight into how your products are created, the processes you use and the services you offer - people love hearing about the creation behind the products.

(above & below: Peace, Love, Doodles art journal book)

6. Don't get disheartened
This is by far, the hardest lesson that I have learnt in my first market endeavour. Anyone who knows me, will tell you right away that I have very high expectations for myself. And when those (extremely inflated) expectations are not met, I feel let down. Markets are tough. Unlike a specific shop, where people go, to find exactly what they are looking for, markets cater for "the chance buyer" people who may or may not see something they like, who are there to browse and be part of the market atmosphere more than anything else. People who come to the market may not necessarily be looking for the things that you are selling. If you think of your own experience of "market shopping", it is very different to your experience of walking into Sainsbury's where you know you are going to be spending money. So, it's important not to feel disappointed and not to assimilate those feelings with the products, services and goods you produce. Alternatively, find yourself a good husband who buys you a bunch of red roses to say chin up! (If you haven't found yourself one of those and you have a meh-market day - give me a holler and I will send you some LOVE!)

All in all - it was an awesome first market experience and the things I have learnt from this market which will help me move forward have been invaluable! My main take-away is to find a platform/market that is more suited to my craft. Something like the Renegade Craft Fair or an Etsy collaboration show would be a MUCH better environment for me to have my range showcased at! Learning curve for the win!



I am SO thankful for everyone who came to say hi and support! Kasha from lines of escape (above) wrote such a lovely write up on her blog! Thank you lovely lady! Also thank you to Lulu from Berry Diaries and Anna, Shan, Paula and Ryan for all coming to say hi! Muchos muchos gracias! I hope you love your indieBerries goodies!

Also - massive thanks to the fam for their support and to husband... 

for all the reasons that you already know <3 br="" nbsp="">
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PS - I have received quite a few emails for price lists of my products  and I have already shipped some goodies to far away places - USA, Singapore and a shipment is off to SA this afternoon! My online store is still under construction (and I will be uploading onto Etsy over the next little while- but it all takes time!) So in the meantime, to save myself repeating the same information over email - I will be posting an album today on the indieBerries Facebook Page with a list of product prices. If you are interested in ordering anything - you can pop me an email at:
che.strawberries @ gmail.com

Shipping prices are dependent on where you live and the products you want to order (weight wise) so get in touch and we can work something out!

Inspiration: 7 Creative Packaging Concepts

I was recently asked on twitter to share some of my favourite people-to-follow in the realm of creative packaging design. I could look at brand packaging for HOURS, mainly because it's kind of like gift-wrapping for companies - and we all know how much I love a good gift wrap.

There are way too many people that I could recommend you follow - either the designers themselves or the sites that collate their work (often without linking back - grr) So anyway, here is a collection of a few of my faves and you can see which ones you like and hit them up on twitter if you so wish.

ABOVE: The anti-theft Lunch Bags - created by the. company from two designers Sherwood Forlee and Mihoko Ouchie. Sherwood actually grew up in Zimbabwe (woop Africa!) I love this design - so smart. AND... sneaky.


ABOVE & BELOW: This is one of my favourite brand identity collections - partly because it's cartoon all over it and partly because of the amazing hue of colours. Designed by Isabela Rodrigues. In fact, all their brand packaging is pretty awesome - definitely have a look at their website.




ABOVE & BELOW: This packaging design was created by May Tsui - it's a collection of CDs packaged to look like slices of bread. I'm a complete sucker for "alternative" packaging design.

Once, when I was living in South Korea - I stumbled across a set of notepads and cards that were shaped like a milk carton. I had absolutely no use for the milk carton note-set but I bought it anyway because I. couldn't. help. myself. Asia really does have the greatest packaging of all time.

I need to go back.

(ahem, husband.)

Anthology of Bread, anyone?

ABOVE:  These little "Jooze" cartoons were created by Yungyeen Yong as part of her student design portfolio. They are targeted at kids - but let me tell you, if I came across one of these in the shop, I'd buy it based on the packaging alone.



ABOVE: These tea packages were created by Jaeyoung Ha. What did I tell you about Asian Designers? Or maybe those are just the designs I'm most attracted to. Whatever, it's beautiful.



ABOVE: I am a huge fan of packaging that makes use of the product itself. Above is a perfect example of what I'm talking about - designed by Lo Siento. It makes the audience feel part of the design experience - which is of course, always a win. ("HAHA! Look at me! Look what I did! I pulled this bread out and gave this little gnome a hat! Look at me - I'm so clever!") Nope, that'd be the designer - but.... you have your two seconds of glory and go ahead and buy more bread to show your friends.

Design Win.

(Another excellent and completely harrowing example of this is from the Landmine Campaign - I haven't posted it here because it's quite hectic - but you can see it posted on my Creative Packaging Pinterest Board)

ABOVE: Packaging is always good when it evokes some kind of feeling. For me this embroidery style milk carton design by Peter Gregson does exactly that. When I look at this embroidery pattern sitting so perfectly on this milk carton - I immediately think of some lovely Swiss cows that are grazing in the lovely Swiss Alps in lovely little knitted jerseys. No?

So those are a few of the package designs that I love -

If you want to follow any websites that do a good job of collating these kinds of designs (and since a lot of these personal designers accounts tweet in foreign languages)

I can recommend:

The Dieline - curation of interesting package design
Lovely Package - packaging design from around the world
Behance - a collection of design portfolios
Eight Hour Day - mainly design and illustration with the odd packaging concept thrown in.

You can also follow my Creative Packaging Pinterest board for some visual inspiration.

Happy Monday everyone

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