Brand (new) Plan

About a week ago I was working on my business as a whole entity rather than just a way of selling and found a great website called Copyblogger and a series about branding your business there. As an experiment I thought I would go through all of the steps he suggests and I’m putting the step-by-step online. It’s a very useful site. Have a look if you’re interested/involved in small business marketing. This is the second part, the first is over here.

I am doing the second part because the first part had the most positive response to anything I’ve ever put up on here, which was lovely.

It’s also great timing because it coincides with something that is going on over at Etsy. There is a newsletter for sellers called Etsy Success which is run by a lovely lady called Danielle and she is currently running a Shop Makeover. I opened the email and the very first thing looking back at me was called Building Your Brand. Perfect!

So, here goes part two.

11. What do you plan to offer?

I am hoping to keep adding to my range depending on what people respond well to. I am going to sell my jewellery at craft fairs and in shops and keep online selling limited to collage work. At the moment I am working on a range of greeting cards to be sold either in bundles or individually. If that goes well I might work on prints, digital copies of my collages and then branching out into other paper goods. It would also be great if I could offer more custom designs and have that as a service providing branch of the business. I hope that my text and image collages remain as the flagship product at least for the moment.

12. What makes you unique?

Many things I hope.  I guess I have to thank my grandmother for a lot of my quirks but experience probably has a lot to do with it as well.

This actually seems the most personal of all of these questions. I don’t think I can summarise what makes me unique and I’m not sure that I know either.

13. What hobbies or interests do you have?

I love walking. I adore the ocean and beachcombing. I don’t think travelling is particularly unusual as a hobby but I find a lot of my inspiration from places I visit. I take a lot of photographs – which obviously ties into my collages as that’s where a lot of the material comes from. I try to do as much gardening as I can but that usually depends on the weather! Most of my interests come through in my artworks.

14. What are your core beliefs?

Creativity good = ordinary life bad.

Other people may be smarter or richer but that doesn’t mean that they know best or are doing things the right way for you.

People will always surprise you, sometimes in a good way and sometimes not.

Don’t plan too far ahead, it won’t work.

The most interesting people are rarely found at swanky dinner parties or clubs but in the local shop or next to you on a train, everyone has a story.

Two very normal things in combination can be completely extraordinary.

15. What makes you uncomfortable?

I don’t like talking on the telephone – I always put it off as long as possible when I have to do it. I would rather talk to people face-to-face or email them. I’m not a fan of self-promoting, which is tough because that’s all I’m doing at the moment. I hate telling people that the things I make are good (my toes involuntarily curled just typing that). But I like my work, I just hope others do as well. Lots of other things make me uncomfortable but they have nothing at all to do with business. (Being given small children to hold, people talking loudly in libraries, walking into a pub/restaurant to meet people and not knowing where they are sitting, being set up on dates by well-meaning friends etc…)

16. If money were no object, and you could do anything you wanted for “work,” would you still do what you’re doing now?

Yes. I’d probably buy more expensive materials but otherwise this is what I would spend my time doing and then give the products to a charity to sell.

One of the new card ideas

17. What are your favorite colors?

I would love to know other people’s favourite colours. I love blue, my favourite gemstone is blue Tanzanite, I like blue clothes and blue flowers. I’m not a bit fan of yellow, mostly because it looks terrible with my skin tone but I really do like and appreciate all colours. I have been trying to work out what colours are popular with my collages but all I can see is that there is no pattern! Something that I know from Etsy is that it is useful to link specific colours with emotive descriptors to help people find what they are looking for.

18. Is there a specific design style that you really like?

I’m a traditionalist in most areas but I like mixing that with absurdist themes. I think a lot of collages can get boring if you don’t tweak things to change perceptions. Most of my materials are traditional but I mix bright colours with gravestone lettering to mess around with the genre. I don’t think traditional equates to boring but rather to a great familiar platform that is a lot of fun to play around with.

19. What emotion(s) do people associate with you?

Oh dear. Stubborn I would imagine, stroppy or maybe determined. I hope creative. I do try to be kind. I think that a lot of flaws can be forgiven if you try to be good and do good. I just hope people don’t find me boring or average that would be about the worst thing that someone could say about me. I guess this is really a question for other people rather than me.

20. What brands / designs from other companies make you jealous?

There are so many great designs that you can see all of the time. I admire people who have different talents than I have because I wish I could be like them. I admire people who have similar talents to mine because I know the work that goes into them. I tend not to get inspiration from other artists whose work is similar to mine, partly because that feels like stealing and partly because it tends to be very new ideas which inspire me the most. Andrew Zuckerman’s photography takes my breath away, Colin McCahon’s art is my favourite in the world. I tend to get a lot of inspiration from other sellers on Etsy and when I do I either add them to my favourites or plonk them in my next treasury so if you’re really interested then that’s where to look.

Part two done and dusted. I really do hope people are still interested in this, if nothing else it is great to be able to try and sort through my ideas about my business. It's also fab having this online so that I can look at it if I need reminding of what I am doing, and by writing things down hopefully I will stick to the plan more closely.

Vick.
vclinde@gmail.com

www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

Interruptions.

Really, how could I miss London?

It's not like I thought working from home, being self-employed and trying to make a living from something creative was going to be easy.
But boy, oh boy it is really not.

It's been a very busy week full of distractions and interruptions, plus it's only Thursday so far.

I have started a silver-smithing class which was a lot more fun and less nerve wracking than I was expecting. I was really nervous, I don't know why but starting new things always have that effect on me.
In week one we we taught how to use the equipment, how not to hurt ourselves or the machines and made a lot of noise sawing, hammering and heating metal.
Now I'm trying to think of a design for the pendant we're making next week. I think birds. Yes?

I spent all of Tuesday in London and met up with several of my friends having great food with each of them. I meant to take photographs to include but I always forget to take pictures while I'm in London. In between meeting friends I had a half-hour to kill near Holborn and so I snuck quickly into my second favourite museum in London, Sir John Soanes museum, and spent most of my time looking at Seti's sarcophagus.
So in short my trip was strong coffee & flourless chocolate almond cake with Anna, then steak and stilton pie with Rach and Rob and finally ravioli & more coffee with Chris.
Then I had half a pack of love hearts on the way home. I have a weakness for love hearts.

From my 23rd Birthday tea

I'm house-sitting. Which it turns out is a good thing because little things keep going wrong like the radiator getting a hole in it. All fixed now, not a problem but I don't like working when someone's in the house so that cut into time further. Oh, and the curtain rail in the kitchen fell down. You know, little things.

Between nerves about class, another set-back in selling my flat, two funerals, visiting London and the house falling apart I missed putting up my Tuesday treasury and my stock is running a little low. I'm also taking some advice from the classrooms on Etsy and I'm making some little cards to sell in a bundle to reduce postage and get some lower priced items.

I had so many good ideas for this week but I keep wandering off and doing other things.
So I have a very busy weekend ahead of me.
I hope everyone else has had more productive weeks.

Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

This Reader

If we've never met I will excuse you for not knowing that I love books above everything else in this world. If we have met then there is not much chance of you not already knowing this about me.
There aren't many things that I don't read. I'm not a big fan of modern crime. Horror has to have great reviews for me to buy it, though I will often grab them from the library. I'm not a D.H. Lawrence fan. I don't like Philip Pullman's books generally. I point blank refuse to read the so called tragic-life-stories and it still pains me to see a full wall of them in their own little section in the bookshop. Other than that - give me a book and I'm happy.

Some of my books currently in exile in my parents attic while I am in-between houses

Quite often I will have re-reading weeks. This past week was one, I re-read Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Spellwright by Blake Charlton, The Painted Man/The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett and part of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (Oddly enough, he's not got a webpage I can link to). As much as I love finding new books it still gives me a lot of pleasure to go back to books that I know I will enjoy. It takes me less time to re-read books because I already know what is happening. The second time I read a good book is usually my favourite. You know the end result and can therefore spot the hints and clues that the author has left behind but you missed the first time around. Golly, I do like clever authors who can put in something that seem innocuous the first time around but jumps out and screams at you when you can see the relevance later on.



One of the nicest things about this week was receiving an amazing parcel from Chloe Healy over at Tor, UK A little while back I won a great raffle prize at the Other Worlds Alt.Fiction event for a year's supply of Tor books. There was quite literally squealing when the postie arrived with said parcel. (I'm not sure he'll deliver here again) Much fun to be had here and I cannot wait to get reading them.
A very big thanks to Chloe and the Tor team as well as everyone at Alt.Fiction for such a fab prize. You made one very happy reader over here.

In other book related things (and because I had to link to Etsy in here somewhere) I made an Etsy treasury for bibliophiles all about typewriters. I have a Corona, it's beautiful but needs new ribbon at the moment.

I also had a very lovely surprise yesterday when going to pick up some books I ordered from the library they had twice as many as I was expecting. Happy days. So I now have eight books sitting looking lovingly at me (yes they do, yes of course they can).

The un-avatar-ed version

Oh, and my profile picture has now changed to a head-shot so that I can use the same picture across all of my net wanderings. I obviously didn't take it because a) it's a much better photo than I take and b) I'm frigging in it and I'm certainly not that good with a timer. My super-talented cousin took the photo on Christmas Day and THIS is his website. Have a look, he does science things to save the world and there's lots of pretty pictures as well.

Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

Brand (new) Me.

Over the last week I have been working really hard on finding and implementing new marketing strategies and working on my business plan.

I’ve re-worded a lot of the titles of my products on Etsy so that they’re easier to search for, signed up to new websites to help with promotions and SEO stats as well as reading hundreds of articles on small business advice.

Whilst doing all of this admittedly rather dull work, I came across a great website called Copyblogger and he has a series about branding your business. As an experiment I thought I would go through all of the steps he suggests (that apply to my business…I’m not going to start singing no matter what) and I’m putting the step-by-step online. It’s a very useful site. Have a look if you’re interested/involved in small business marketing.

In doing this I am hoping to show by example you one might go about branding/rebranding a small business I would really like this to be helpful. If not to me then to someone...

1. What drives you?
The need to not be doing an office job.

I have always said that I am only afraid of two things in life: mediocrity and organised religion (sometimes in that order).

I want to work as creatively as possible for as long as possible. I really don’t want to climb a ladder, no matter what the financial gain of this may be.

2. What are you passionate about?

I am passionate about literature, poetry, art and politics. Few things make me happier than travelling. I love nature. And these are mostly the things which inspire me all of the time.  I love debating things that matter to myself or other people but I also really like it when someone changes my mind on an issue.

3. What are your strengths?
I am very stubborn. I mean, I am very persistent. Either way, once I have decided to do something I will throw everything I have at it. I work hard and will happily put in long hours to get a better result. I have a good eye for art, which I have to credit to my Dad taking me to as many gallery exhibitions as possible when I was a little girl. I knew my way around the National Gallery before my village.

4. What are your weaknesses?

I’m not very good at asking for help. I know my marketing could be better if I was willing to reach out to people and ask them to help promote me but it makes me very uncomfortable to do so. I am not good at drawing/painting. My artistic-eye does not stretch to free-hand creation. I’ve no training in any formal business things. I am learning everything as I go, accounting is still mostly a mystery to me. And coffee, I have a real weakness for coffee.

5. What is your personality type?

I’m definitely introverted. I am really shy and so tend to act quite outgoing when I meet people while really wanting to curl up under a blanket and pretend I’m not there.

I love my friends (and usually my family) very much but I enjoy living on my own so I can work at my own pace and I am happiest pottering around the house on my own. I do however like the company of good books, art and music while I work and write. 

6. What is your story?

I have been trying to figure this out because I am writing an Artist CV at the moment. Here’s the short version. I started making jewellery for Young Enterprise. Kept making it for friends. Started making art collages to decorate my walls while at Uni. Found Etsy. Had several miserable office jobs. Decided to try to make a creative career work. You’re up to date.

7. What is your background?

Someone once asked me to write the first line of my biography and this is what I came up with: “She was born in Ascot without a hat and spent the rest of her life looking for the perfect one.”

I grew up in the East Midlands, lived in London but loved the country. I never meant to be an artist, or a jewellery designer. It just sort of happened but I am very glad it did. Even if I can’t do this forever or even for very long it’s good here and now. I think the accidental way I fell into arts and crafts gives me a different outlook and set of ideas. And I don’t think that is a bad thing at all.

8. What are you most talented at?

What a horrid question. I can multi-task better than most. I read very quickly. I’m good with my hands and can pick up manual skills when I’ve been shown. I make the best cottage pie you can imagine and my rock cakes and jam tarts have been known to get me offers of marriage.

I guess that sort of applies to my business. Maybe not the cooking part so much.

9. What do you have the most experience doing?

I guess I have the most workplace experience in politics. I worked with various politicians and political groups since the age of fifteen until about a year ago. Life experience I think books and art are pretty much equal for the top spot. Crafting wise I have made more jewellery than anything else but my artwork is slowly catching up.

10. Why did you choose your career / niche / topic / market?

I chose my career, such as it is, because I don’t know how to cope with normal life. I chose my niche because it’s what I love, it’s personal and means I can live in my imagination for most of the time. I choose my topics depending on my mood, this can be very dangerous but also exciting. I chose my market based on my friends, family and people I know so I could make the best products possible for the people I hoped to sell to. 

Okay, that's part one done. Depending on the level of complaints (or even complements) I get I might keep doing the rest of the branding questions. Once again - the original idea came from Copyblogger, so a big thank you to them!

Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

hic abundant leones

The reason that I make jewellery and art is because that's the only way that I can make sense of things. Creativity is how I view the world. This might explain a little of why everything I do has a slightly odd slant to it.

I was thinking about the collages that I make the other day - all of them are personal to me, and each shows some side of me. I love images, art, words, text and the way that all of these things intersect.
As I have mentioned I began making collages to display my poetry and then later to illustrate the little books of poetry that I made for people.
Now I am making collages based on my BA dissertation. Yep, weird.



Although my degree was in politics (Stop! Why are you running away from me?) my dissertation was very visual. I wanted to take an unusual direction in a very hotly contested issue. In fact I think many people would say that it is the most contested issue in politics, if not then in the top few. I looked at Israel, Palestine and the territories in relation to maps.

(SCETI map - not owned by v.c.linde)

My hypothesis was: “The sense of belonging in Israel and Palestine is influenced more by ideas of social borders than by printed representations of political borders”. If you want to know more, drop me a line I can talk about this for hours - or just send you a copy of my dissertation!

So, back to collages. I have a lot of maps. I've been collecting them for ages and I decided to incorporate this into the collages that I am now selling on Etsy.


This is my first attempt and it is a sort-of middle ground while I decide what I really want to do with them. To be honest, I'm not all that happy with it. I think the colours are wishy-washy and I need more map features on them. But that is what I will be playing around with for the next few days.

In the future I am looking to get hold of more maps with different styles, colours and topographies. I am also thinking of doing treasure map themed ones...stay tuned.

Vick.
vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde