Posts Tagged ‘flea markets’

How Do You Know When It’s Time To Take Your Hobby Online?

You’ve been crafting most of your life. You absolutely love what you do, but you’ve gotten so good at it that you now have a house full of parts, a garage full of finished product and weekends that are filled with travel to local flea markets and craft fairs. The weekends that you’re not away doing a show or a fair you’re at home working out the latest modification or changes to your product.

There comes a time when your hobby becomes more than just a hobby. If you spend more than a couple of hours a day doing an activity it qualifies as more than a hobby. Isn’t it about time that you started earning something back for all of the time you’ve invested? Besides, when it’s something that you love to do, you don’t consider it work.

Therein lies one of the keys to success in business; make a living doing something that you have a passion for and you’ll feel like you never worked a day in your life. It may mean learning a new skill set in order to sell your goods more efficiently or to a wider audience. Your potential audience is what will determine the future of your business. If you restrict yourself to only those fairs and flea markets that you’ve always gone to, you’ll limit yourself as to how much money you can actually earn while you’re there.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with getting out into your community and meeting the public that makes up your clients or customers. It’s a great way to network with other entrepreneurial minded folks and seek out resources and relationships that are mutually beneficial.

Ideally, wouldn’t you love to have a constant flow of your product going OUT of your door? If you had a system set up to sell your doll clothes or whatever your particular craft or skill may be, it would free up your time. You’d then be able to use more of your free time to network with other WAHM‘s (work at home moms) and learn the business side of your “hobby”.

Sometimes all it takes is for just the right person to come across your website that is looking to fill the inventory of his stores with the exact item that you’ve been producing and “hoarding” all this time to make your life a true success story. But stories like this can never come true unless and until you make it possible in your life. Seek out opportunity. Network with like minded people. Work WITH your competition to mutual benefit, not AGAINST them (everyone suffers).

If you don’t already belong to on-line communities that focus on your hobby, niche or product, seek them out. Find out who’s making money doing what you’re doing and how they’re doing it.

Once you’ve made the decision to move (all or part of) your business on-line there are some things to consider. You can either “do-it-yourself” or seek out help. You have many options to consider. We’ll touch on those things in our next article.

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Can A Change Of Focus Make The Difference?

Sometimes all it takes to make a significant turn in your small business is to change your focus a little bit. We all have favorite activities, those parts of our business that we actually enjoy doing. For most, that part is the interaction with their customers. Most people who decide to start a small business are passionate about either the product/service that they provide or the people that their business will connect them with.

Whether you have a retail store or you’re a crafter who sells their goods at craft fairs and flea markets you share the need for customers to sell your goods or services to. You might think that having a website that ranks well in the search engines is more important to the retail store owner, but the fact is that both the shopkeeper’s and the craftsperson’s income are dependent upon increasing the number of customers that each has.

As small business consultants we have a responsibility to our communities to assist and educate as many folks and businesses as we can to the benefits and financial gains available by having a properly designed, optimized and focused website. From doll makers to sporting goods stores and every niche in between, the need is the same.

Once a small business owner realizes the ROI (return on investment) that a well engineered site can provide for them, they invariably want the benefits that it provides. By taking their focus off of their A/P (accounts payable or BILLS) and helping them see ways to increase both foot traffic (where applicable) and even more importantly, SALES they can then begin to use their site as the very powerful tool that it is.

As a bit of a segue, here at OBOW we’ll be changing our focus somewhat over the weeks and months to come. Our original focus was to assist small business consultants in their endeavor to help local businesses in their own areas. We have now broadened the scope of that original vision to include those small business owners and home business owners who would like to learn how to “do-it-themselves”.

Keep an eye out for new and interesting topics, and as always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to comment on any or all of our articles. Your responses are the best way for us to know how to serve you best. We appreciate your visits and would like to accommodate your needs in this niche. Please let us know how we can do that.

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