{Handmade Business in 31 Days — Day 15, Developing your product/style.}

Day 15// Deciding on a type of product to sell in your handmade shop — not to mention developing your style to infuse into your products, is kinda complicated, but only if you let it be complicated... and who wants that? Before deciding on your product, spend a couple of days reviewing,

• your talents {what are you really, truly good at?}
• your interests {what do you find yourself daydreaming about?}
• your natural tendencies {how do you react to schedules, stress, new ideas, making mistakes, etc.}

This handmade business you start ~ it’s likely to consume many hours of your everyday life, especially in the beginning stages. That’s just what happens. But you need to avoid burnout, and reviewing the above three points will help you to highlight a bit more about who you are in order to do so. For four years now I’ve been working on Gussy Sews. It hasn’t always been named that {I started out using my first/last name} but we have always made fashion accessories, zipped items + bags. Why, you ask? Because for twenty-some years I’ve had an interest in these items — and knowing things like how they work and what size/shape makes them the easiest to use, to give you a few examples — has made it a wee bit easier to turn my ideas into a sellable product. The products we design + sell have always felt like a natural fit. Turns out, that’s pretty important :)

Now maybe you’re like me and starting out you know NOTHING about the things that interest you! No need to worry though, but you do need to get serious with yourself. You absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must study the trade, history + current happenings of this interest. For me, the public library and YouTube taught me most of what I needed to know about sewing + running a handmade business. And Google.

How about you, what tools will you/do you use to help you study?

On becoming an expert in your field + a list of my favorite books

This is a great question that should be asked often.

Now, take the product you’re trying to develop and think about,

• how to make it {materials, techniques}
• how to photograph it
• how to list it for sale
• how to market/promote it
• how to ship it

Then take your personal style into consideration, how can you infuse this into every above step? Not sure how to answer that? Start with this question, what about you makes you unique? With handmade, people really want to know more about who the maker is. I personally think it’s fascinating to read about + meet other handmade artisans. It’s like we automatically have something in common, which makes it a little less scary to turn Maintenance Mode off + invite others to visit your online space. Infusing more of who you are into your brand will help you to develop future products as well as refind your style.

Developing product can be a continuous project, one that grows you + allows you to experiment. I don’t think we’ll ever be done developing which — can I be honest? Is so comforting. Nothing needs to be forever. That one crazy idea I had, if it was a total bomb we can simply phase it out and work on something different. And the same goes for developing your personal style. I know who I am now is a more refined version of who I was in college compared to who I was in high school compared to who I was entering middle school. I do think there are common threads to be found though and it’s those common threads that I know are safe to infuse into my handmade business.

Homework// Do you feel a strong connection between the products you sell + who you are as a person? Depending on your answer, what could you work on to make that connection stronger? What products could you add to your shop to strengthen this even more? Don’t be afraid to spend time evaluating this area of your business. 

Where do you find new product inspiration? How well is your style infused into your product? What experiences have you had with developing these two things?

everything you wanted to learn about starting a handmade business starts right here