What Collaboration Can Do For You, Part 2
When it comes to your business, collaboration can be a very good thing! Last week, I wrote Part 1 of this post, and it was full of tips on how to collaborate with others on blogging. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here.
This week, I will give you some ideas on how to collaborate with others on marketing and selling your product.
Swag Exchange - Partner with some friends (can be local or long-distance) and send them some business cards, flyers, stickers, buttons - whatever you use to promote your items.
When they send out their orders, have them include a piece of your swag, and in return, you will do the same for them. This will help you get your business in front of many new potential customers!
Sharing Space - You can share “space” physically and virtually. If you are taking part in a craft fair, consider sharing the table with a friend. This will cut your costs in half, and there will be someone to cover for you if you need to use the restroom, grab a bite to eat, etc.
When it comes to the internet, partner with a couple of friends and host a “virtual” craft fair. A domain will cost you under $10, hosting will be about $5 per month, and then you can set up a WordPress blog for free. You can put up pictures of your items with links to your Zibbet shop, so you don’t have to worry about setting up a shopping cart. This is just another way to promote your items and meet new customers!
Combination Sales - Partner with a friend who creates complementary items to create a “combination item.” For example, if you make earrings, partner with a friend who makes necklaces or bracelets and package up some of your items to be sold together. This will require a little extra effort in bookkeeping to make sure that each person is getting their shale of the sale, but the additional sales it creates could be worth it!
Create A New Product - Partner with a friend to create a whole new product! For example, you could work together to design a t-shirt or handbag. To create buzz and appeal, make this a limited edition item — where each of you have 10 of them to sell. By making the item and then splitting the quantity in two, with each person keeping the profits of the items they sell, there will be less bookkeeping headache.
What are your ideas on collaborating? I’d love to hear them!
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Crissy Herron is the founder of Indie Biz Chicks, a website that provides business, marketing, and publicity info to “women who’d rather work for themselves, than work for the man.” You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook, or learn more about her passion for entrepreneurship and the DIY movement.
Thanks Crissy, this is more up my alley
I love to share space! At craft shows, I only take my card rack, which doesn’t usually fill a whole table, so I try to go with someone else. It’s great because you automatically also have someone to watch your stuff so you can walk around and see who else is showing (and have the occasional bathroom break!!!)
I love the combination sale idea. I’m going to try to find someone to do this with soon.
Another collaboration idea is I have a group show at my home once a year (around November). I clear out my living room of all furniture and set up tables. I invite about five or six friends to sell with me and take 10% of sales (to cover food and printing of flyers to hand out to friends). Then I set up an evite and everyone invites their customers on their lists. People love coming into a home environment to buy and it’s all very personal. We’ve done this for two years now and the email list is getting bigger and the sales are rising too. Just be patient as word of mouth grows.
A little FYI about swag exchanges with other sellers. Many times in the etsy forums for example buyers will complain about getting business cards from other sellers. Be very cautious about doing that. HOWEVER when doing craft /art shows handing out a few sample bags with business cards is always great!
Love reading posting like this!
You don’t have to use business cards - it can be a button, magnet, sticker, beer coozy — whatever you want to use.
And don’t let a few people complaining in a forum stop you from doing this.
I’m going to be very straight forward when I say this (if you don’t like it, that’s okay, but I don’t believe in beating around the bush): You’re either going to market your business or you’re not.
The people who complain about marketing obviously don’t want to make money.
Great thoughts for us all Crissy. I think when it comes to marketing yourself it’s crucial if you want to succeed. I think people get upset with ’slick’ marketing when it’s insincere and/or pushy. Marketing what we do from a genuine attitude that’s excited about our creations will always convey more truth than when people are simply trying to push products. Either way, to be received by others you need to use whatever strategies you are comfortable in so that your genuineness shines through to others. Keep the great help coming.
This is awesome advise! I’m super excited. Now I have a whole bunch of ideas running through my head. Thank you Crissy
Look to groups like the Craft Mafias and other collaborative organizations in your area as a great way to connect with other local crafty businesses and combine resources. I’m a founding member of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, and I can testify to the fact that as a group, we’ve had many opportunities that would never have come our way as individual craft artists. The media LOVES group efforts like ours.
We also do things like put together swag bags for a large annual event in our area, the Alternative Media Expo. We’re actually currently looking for swag contributions, from indie businesses all over. You can find out more on how to participate at our website: http://www.neworleanscraftmafia.com/2010/02/alternative-media-expo-10-we-need-your-swag/
Okay,feeling dumb…what is ’swag’?