How to refine & elevate your craft business
You’ve invested a lot of time and energy into learning and refining your craft skills. Your dedication and commitment are starting to pay off, and you are now ready to take things to the next level by presenting your craftwork in a way that reflects its high quality and sophistication. To draw your desired customers towards your work, how you present and share your craft business needs to reflect the standards you are striving for and the high standards expected by the market. When you refine your craft business, you work on making the changes needed to improve it and, in doing so, you elevate it to a higher level in the craft market. If this is where you are, here are the key areas to focus on to refine & elevate your craft business:
1. Capture and share the vision you have for your craft business.
Your mission, values, and purpose set the foundations on which your craft business will develop. They provide clarity about what you need to do, where to focus your efforts, and how to share your work. When you share what informs your vision, you…
Cultivate genuine connections by crafting a community of people who willingly support what you do by purchasing your craftwork and telling others about your craft business. You also attract those who want to collaborate with you. Seek to connect to your audiences by…
Crafting compelling & meaningful stories, using storytelling through words, images, video, and audio to give your customers an insight into the inspirations, motivations, skills, history & heritage behind your creations.
2. Align your craftwork to market expectations.
Understanding the market in which you are positioning your artisan business is essential to successfully promoting and selling your handmade creations. The global standard for excellence in fine craftsmanship & design is high. To meet that standard, allocate time to observing the market, the trends, the different levels of businesses operating within it, and the people buying high-end craft. The higher you seek to elevate your craft business, the more you need to…
Be selective about where you show and sell your craftwork. Keep in mind that the company you align your artisan business with reflects on the value of your handcrafted objects. By ‘company‘, this could be maker businesses similar to yours, your stockists and others representing your work. Identify your fellow makers whose work is at the level you want it to be, then work towards raising your craft until you meet their level. Working towards positioning your craft business alongside other businesses at the level you want to reach can act as a motivator by encouraging you to keep raising the standards of craft skills.
3. Take care of your customers.
Your customers are essential to the survival of your craft business, and, as seen in point 1. happy customers can turn into your champions. Keep your customers happy by…
Delivering exceptional customer service. Exceptional customer service is a hallmark of luxury and high-end brands. And the higher you position your artisan business, the higher quality of service your customer will expect. Customer service is about taking care of your customers’ needs at every stage of their interaction with your business, from potential to customer, becoming a customer, then keeping the relationship going after a sale. To do this requires…
Being attuned to your customer’s needs. Taking care of your customer means knowing who they are and what they want from you. Spend time getting to know them by talking to them in person or engaging with them on your promotional channels. Ask for their feedback and use their responses to improve how you meet and surpass their expectations.
4. Nurture your creativity and craft skills.
Maintaining a high level of quality craftsmanship requires you to keep investing in improving your craft skills. Commit to artisanal excellence by…
Embracing good design. Combining craftsmanship with innovative design aesthetics can improve your products by taking your handcrafted work from kitchen table/informal studio/workshop to gallery-level collectible creations. As your making skills develop, you will find yourself…
Cultivating a signature look and feel. Bringing your unique viewpoint to your craftwork is what helps it stand out in a marketplace crowded with similar products. And the more your creations become increasingly recognisable as being your handiwork, the more valuable they can become, and therefore collectible.
5. Take your time.
Refining & elevating your craft business are activities that happen over time. There’s no need to rush; instead, pace yourself by taking it one collection or object at a time. The nature of making things by hand often means work is produced in small batches or limited edition collections, which increases the value of your objects. Taking your time means paying attention to the small details. A practice that can be incorporated into elevating other areas of your business by seeing what works, then improving on it. And, however you choose to up-level your craft business, be sure to keep true to you by doing what instinctively feels right.
These are just a few ways to raise the standards of your artisan brand. If you are interested in delving into a more guided process, I invite you to discover Refine & Elevate, my thoughtfully crafted course designed to get your craft business to where you want it to be.
– Tapiwa Matsinde
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[Image credits: Photo by WARION Taipei on Unsplash]
