Explore Your Enthusiasm

I often get asked: how should I price my work? What should I charge for my time? Is there a formula I can use?

And the answer is: it depends.

In this episode, we'll discuss pricing strategies, why you should avoid formulas you find on the internet, and how to charge for your time.

For the entire month of March we've been talking about money and profit in your business. And I know you have questions, about profit margins, bookkeeping, all of it - so tomorrow, April 6th, I'm going to hold a live webinar where I answer all your questions and give you first access to my most popular class, Pay Yourself. To sign up for the webinar, enter your information into the box on this page: TaraSwiger.com/podcast151/

Do you have a business or a hobby? You may have turned your hobby into a business, you may make sales, but is it REALLY a business? When people talk to me about this issue, they mention taxes, business names, income… but that's not the answer. You can have a business and not have made a dime yet. And you can have a hobby that makes money. 

So do you have a business or do you have a hobby?

Listen to the episode (or watch in the video player!) to figure it out! You'll find it at TaraSwiger.com/podcast150/

So, not to freak you out or anything, but tax season is coming. And I'm a little overwhelmed by how many people are saying things like, just worked on my taxes for 10 hours. WHAT?! Doing your taxes and tracking your business numbers does NOT need to take a million hours.

In today's episode, I'll talk about exactly how I did my accounting for years while running my business. Download the transcript (using the form at the bottom of this page!) and I'll also send you a link to the video I made about the accounting software I use now and show you how it's saving me tons of time over my previous method of accounting!

 

Listen in or watch the video for this episode at TaraSwiger.com/podcast149/

Should you work for free?
Most of the conversation in the craft world says: NO. Don't work for free. Don't give it away. Just Say No.

And I agree. Most of the time.

In today's episode I'll tell you when you SHOULD work for free, and how to decide if you should take the "opportunity" or not.

 

 

Visit TaraSwiger.com/podcast148/ to listen to this episode and get a FREE worksheet to go with it!

Do you feel a little insecure talking to bankers or fancy businessmen about your handmade business because you don’t know all the accounting terms? Want to talk about money and make decisions more comfortably?

Today I’m going to introduce you to five accounting terms so we can talk more about money!

Before we dive into the terminology I want to tell you this - the Starship, my online community for makers and artists, which includes access to all of my classes, including the updated and expanded Pay Yourself and Pricing 101, opens next week. I’m not going to open it to the whole world, only to the people who have signed up to learn more about it at taraswiger.com/starshipbiz.

So if you wanna learn more about it and if it’s for you, go to taraswiger.com/starshipbiz. Because I’ve added new and updated classes to it this year, the price is going up when it opens next time, so if you want in at its current price, you gotta be signed up at taraswiger.com/starshipbiz.

 

Resources

• My newest class, Pay Yourself, opens soon! Sign up here to be notified when it's open.
• The Starship opens this March, but you've gotta be on the list to know when it does! Click here to sign up.

 

To listen to this episode visit TaraSwiger.com/podcast147/

 

What do people REALLY make in their handmade businesses?

Two years ago, after seeing tons of income reports from bloggers & coaches I started to wonder what an income report would look like from a maker.

I decided to hold a survey to collect income reports for 2 reasons:

1. The reports I saw from bloggers and coaches were just NOT comparable to a handmade business.
2. It’s way more useful to know what lots of people are doing than what ONE superstar is doing.

So I created a survey, where you could share your numbers and your feelings with me.
And I’m doing it again this year. You can go to taraswiger.com/income and share your response with me totally anonymously.

Listen to the episode to find out why it's important to know your numbers, and also to put them in context.

More resources

• Take the survey and share your numbers here: taraswiger.com/income
• What you can learn from other people's reports: episode 56
• The results from the first Income Report Survey for designers and for makers

 

Listen to this episode or watch the video recording at TaraSwiger.com/podcast146/

 

This weekend at Midwest Craft Con, I was on a panel about depression and anxiety. At the end we had a Q+A and I wanted to talk today about a question that has stuck with  me:
How do you get out of bed when everything is awful?

What gets YOU out of bed?

 

Listen to this episode or watch the video at TaraSwiger.com/podcast145/

I want you to have a business you love. And by that, I don't just mean that you love making what you make, but that you also love how you're spending your time and you feel fairly compensated. Today we'll talk about the most common reasons people don't love their businesses and solutions for each one. We'll also cover the thing most likely to make you love your business.

If you need to get clearer on what you would love, check out Map Your Business. I guide you through discovering what you want, where you want to be, and then breaking that down into a doable plan. It's available on Amazon in both paperback or Kindle, or you can get a signed version on my site at TaraSwiger.com/map. If you have one and you love it, please share it with the hashtag #mapyourbusiness. Grab your copy at TaraSwiger.com/map

 

Listen to this episode or watch the video recording at TaraSwiger.com/podcast144/

To share your work with the world, you have to write (or speak) hundreds of messages: Instagram, product descriptions, emails, etc. How do you make them each effective? How do you make sure that what you spend your time writing and sharing actually sells your work?

This week we’re talking about effective copywriting - writing words, pages, and posts that will connect with your buyer, build your relationships, and sell your work.

Resources:

• Right people
• It’s all about feelings
• Benefits vs Features
• This question started as a question in the monthly Starship Q+A
• Market Yourself (has worksheets on finding your Right Person)

Do you love the podcast? Never listen? Tell me where to spend my energy by filling out the survey, right here: http://taraswiger.com/survey

 

Listen to this episode or watch the video at TaraSwiger.com/podcast143/

This week we're doing something different - I'm taking you with me as I walk around the trade show at TNNA. We'll meet yarn shop owners, vendors (yarn companies) and see some pretty stuff!

Whether you're in the yarn industry or not, I thought you'd enjoy seeing what a trade show looks like, how the vendors set up and how they talk to everyone who walks into their booth. These conversations are edited, because it was recorded live and there are, like in life, a million interruptions.

Click here to watch the video version of the podcast!

If you usually listen to the audio podcast, I encourage you to watch the video, so you can see the faces and the beautiful yarn!