What an honor to have the incredible Sarah K Benning as a guest on season 5 of the Merriweather Council Podcast! I have admired her work as an embroidery artist and small business owner for years now and she is so inspiring. On this episode we are chatting about so many things. I loved hearing her journey from art student to business owner and now, co-author! And you will hear all about it as well. If you have spent any time on Instagram or in maker communities you are likely familiar with Sarah's hand embroidery work. It is details and intricate and whimsical. Of course, we spoke all about her work, her inspiration, process and struggles not only with her work but with social media and running a small business. We also spoke about her incredibly successful pattern program and why she's decided to end it (for now!) There is so much to learn from in this episode. For full show notes and links mentioned in this episode, visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/88   For more free handmade business advice, visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/podcast  

Creative business highs + lows feat. Sarah K Benning

The Merriweather Council podcast, hosted by Danielle Spurge, is all about celebrating the reality of gainful self employment through craft. This is a podcast for art and design entrepreneurs - makers, etsy sellers and shopify users! Featuring tips, insights, advice and tough love for handmade business owners in concise format. Focused on sharing realistic ideas and personal experiences with the nuances of handmade business in mind. If you are working to turn your crafty tendencies into profits, tune in every Tuesday and Thursday.

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Why is it that sometimes even the very best marketing advice doesn’t generate results? If you have tried the best marketing advice you can find, and it just didn’t work for you, I’m going to explain why that probably is in this episode! As you likely know, marketing is all the ‘stuff’ that you do that generates interest or traffic to your shop. This could be videos, Instagram posts or stories, blog posts, challenges, ads… you get the idea. There are lots of things you can do to market your business. Some ideas you’ll hear or read are meh at best, others are genuinely brilliant. For full show notes visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/177 For a full list of all merripodcast episodes visit merripodcast.com

Rebroadcast Series: The Only 2 Reasons Even Great Marketing Advice Doesn’t Generate Results for Your Handmade Shop

Today I am diving into the quandary of consistency in your handmade business. So elusive! What does “consistency” in business actually look like? What does it mean when we say we want more consistency? And why does it sometimes seem unattainable or frustrating to accomplish that at times? We are ALL always looking for consistency in business, usually, that means sales but it could mean other things like subscribers or followers, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Is this achievable? I believe that is! BUT we have to work on what we REALLY mean when we say it. Like, truly define what we mean when we say we want consistency.   For full show notes, please visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/176 For a full list of all Merripodcast episodes, visit merripodcast.com

Rebroadcast Series: 2 Keys to Acheiving 'Consistency' in Your Handmade Business

Does it ever feel like no one else struggles quite as much as you do to identify or define their ideal customer avatar? There’s a reason for that…  What if I told you that the key to finding your ideal customer avatar is your product seller profile? Let me explain. In the past 11 years, I’ve done plenty of my own ideal customer avatar build-outs and I’ve assisted many makes with theirs, too! There is a lot of experience from those 11 years or so that has influenced today’s episode. I’ve recently started to think about finally articulating my theory about how the way you become the seller of original products impacts the way you find your ideal customer. AND here we are, the time has come. Welcome to today’s episode where I will articulate that theory. This is my theory about how the way that you become a seller of original products impacts how you determine who your ideal customer is.  I think there are 3 ways you can become a seller of original products and I’m going to cover each one and provide insight into the ideal customer discovery for each.   For full show notes please visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/175 For a full list of all merripodcast episodes, please visit merripodcast.com

Rebroadcast Series: The 3 Product Seller Profiles and how they Influence your Ideal Customer Avatar

Pricing your handmade products sucks… That’s just the truth. It makes the impulse to do some of these things very real! It is true that pricing is hard, and it inevitably involves math which, for me, makes it even worse. There are lots of best practices for pricing your handmade products, I’ll point you in the direction of our top pricing resources in this post! For now though, let’s make sure you know what NOT to do. Before we get started, I want to remind you that underpricing is bad for everyone, not just you! Here are the 4 things you definitely do not want to do when pricing your handmade products for sale on Etsy, Shopify or anywhere else.   For full show notes please visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/174   For a full list of all episodes please visit merripodcast.com

Rebroadcast Series: 4 Things You Should Never Do When Pricing Your Handmade Products

The idea of launching handmade product lines usually brings up one of two emotions: YAY or UGH. (Both are entirely valid!) If you feel more UGH than yay, I get you. I, too, dislike using the launch model in my own business. The handmade product lines launch model I am referring to is one you are probably familiar with. It starts with teasing out a new product line for a few weeks before launching it live for sale at a certain time on a certain date. Usually, there is some fanfare in that build-up process and on the launch date! It might involve a mailing list, email blast, social media campaign or even the help of influencers. It tends to be a multi-faceted project and quite a bit of work concentrated on a single ‘event.’ Launching is a semi-popular approach particularly for product-based businesses and many handmade business owners enjoy it! (I’m not one of them but many sellers do love it.)   For full show notes visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/173. For a list of all Merripodcast episodes, visit merripodcast.com

Creative business highs + lows feat. Sarah K Benning

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