Your Handmade Business

Isaac heads down the rabbit hole with Francesca Berrini of Unusual Cards and examines her 16 years in business along with the peculiar relationship she has with her customers as she vends primarily at weekend markets and craft fairs.

Sharon and Isaac revisit the five predictions they made for 2018 to see how accurate they were, and make three predictions for the evolution of the maker economy and maker business in 2019.

Is a maker business forever? Isaac speaks to Sierra Bailey, former owner of Manic Trout, about the decision to shut down her successful, 15-year-old jewelry business in response to physical and emotional symptoms of burnout.

Isaac interviews Southern Elegance Candle Company owner D’Shawn Russell about the rapid growth she’s experienced in her business in rural North Carolina, what keeps her moving and motivated, and how she approaches her day to day.

Why is selling all about service, and how can we apply that to maker business? Sharon and Isaac dive into an old cheesy YouTube video about selling to tease out how you can maximize your sales tactics without being smarmy.

Sharon and Isaac dive into five ways that you might be letting great opportunities sneak by under your nose while you’re vending in person at craft shows. This is a great refresher as you prep for your December shows!

What kind of hustler are you? Isaac interviews Sarah Meranda, metalsmith mastermind behind Magpie Mouse Studios, about her work ethic, experimentation, and approach to growing her business, and a whole lot more.

Sharon and Isaac offer a swift kick in the holiday pants to help make sure you’re thinking about the right important things in your business: goal-setting, marketing, scheduling, inventory, storytelling, and so much more!

Isaac interviews artist/maker/designer Robert Mahar with a peek into what it was like to be on NBC’s “Making It”, what he’s been doing since, and how he’s continued to hustle and leverage his 15 minutes of relative fame into what’s next for his business.

Sharon offers 5 tips on getting holiday press that you just might be able to apply today to get in on something last-minute this season.

Review some of the most valuable lessons that we’ve shared over the last 40 episodes of the YHBTV series along with some great questions from our audience and Facebook group members.

You often hear the phrase, “Time IS money”, but have you ever thought about the relationship that time OR money has with your ability to scale and grow your handmade business? And how those relationships might be different from each other?

Now that summer is long over and things are starting to get real as the holidays loom, you might find yourself falling into the trap of thinking only of what’s right in front of your nose. That’s why it’s important to develop systems in your business, rather than letting chaos hold you back.

Fear can hold us back from making progress in both life and business, sometimes egged on by ghosts lurking around the corner. In this episode, Sharon and Isaac identify 5 different types of ghosts that might be haunting your maker business and offer tips for scaring them off.

Even though we spend more and more time online these days, we at Academy of Handmade have always advocated for meeting face to face and getting in-person interactions. In this episode, Sharon and I offer 6 tips for building up your network of support.

We may interact with people on a daily basis, the labyrinth of emotions and opinions in customer service is real. Sharon and I serve as your sign-posts for making your way through the maze and cover some important pointers.

Isaac takes quitting your day job a little deeper down the rabbit hole with Rachel Winter, who quit her job a year ago to take her maker business full-time. We talk decision-making, work habits, and what it takes to make and raise two young children under the same roof.

In this episode Isaac interviews Kimberly Taylor-Pestell, owner of Lacelit, about her recent decision to quit her day job to pursue her handmade business full-time and some of the lessons she’s already learned along the way.

Maker businesses are inherently risky because they’re inherently small and vulnerable to change. In this YHBTV recap, Sharon and Isaac help you understand what types of risks you might be taking in your business and how to evaluate them.

Sharon and Isaac dispel a few myths and offer a few guidelines on how to hone in—”honing” being the operative word—on your own productivity and accepting what works best for you.

Your target customer goes hand in hand with your business’ niche. In this YHBTV recap, Sharon and Isaac cover a few of the signs why your actual customers may not be your target customer, and what to do about it.

Isaac talks with Adwoa Cooper, stitcher behind Adwoa designs, about how she found a niche that resonated with her and her long-term goals, while honoring and respecting the culture her products draw upon.

Knowing who your target customer is will inform what niche your business serves, and vice versa. Sharon and I cover 5 specific points about finding your niche in this recap episode from our weekly YHBTV video series.

In this recent broadcast of YHBTV, Isaac shares some of his own experiences hiring help in his business, describes some of the benefits of bringing in a contractor, employee, or service provider, and then actually dives into what he call the ABCs of Hiring Help.

Etsy Wholesale bit the bullet at the end of July, leaving a lot of makers hanging. Listen to this YHBTV episode for tips on how to best manage your wholesale business without the Etsy-managed platform.

Isaac chats with Kiley Fattor, co-owner of Period Six Studio in Golden, Colorado, about the lessons she’s learned in the past few years of being in business, and some of the ways she’s adjusted her business to respond to market needs.

Everyone loves getting a deal, bargain or something on sale, but that doesn’t mean that what works for national retail chains will (or should) work for your maker business. Hear our tips on when, why, and how you might want to discount your products.

Isaac takes a multi-faceted trip with serial entrepreneur Adrienne Wiley down the path of her various business ventures, philosophical pursuits, and lessons learned as a jeweler, shop owner, and small business consultant.

What you do is directly tied to who you are, and it’s hard to articulate that in a way that someone else can understand. In this YHBTV recap, Sharon offers 5 great tips to help you better prepare for talking about yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, your customers are NOT always right. In YHBTV recap, Sharon and Isaac give 5 reasons your customer might be wrong and 8 tips on how to deal with it.

Amanda Siska tells the tale about how her business, Bread and Badger, was upended in 2016 and she undertook a massive re-evaluation that dramatically shifted her products, goals, and expectations.

Have you ever considered outsourcing your production to a local factory? Sara and Dana from Spooltown have oodles of advice and insight to share about manufacturing handmade goods in this YHBTV episode recap.

What happens when publicity comes a-calling and catches you off guard? In this YHBTV replay, Sharon and Isaac share tips and advice on how to handle surprise press with style.

In this replay of a recent YHBTV episode, Sharon identifies several ways your ideal customer may not perfectly align with your ideal *wholesale* customer.

This is a replay of a recent YHBTV episode where Sharon and Isaac dive into five tips for creating awesome linesheets. They cover function over form, the path of least resistance, avoiding perfectionism, consistency, and sticking to the facts.

This is a replay of a recent YHBTV episode on working with a printer. Between Isaac's own background as a design project manager and Sharon’s experience in marketing and PR, they have tons to share for those less familiar with the industry.

As the first official episode of 2018, Isaac welcomes everyone back with a re-introduction to Academy of Handmade and addresses our tendency to follow trends—sometimes to our detriment.

It’s time for a bonusode! In this special edition of Your Handmade Business, Isaac replays the Just My Type webinar we hosted last Fall in preparation for the relaunch of our signature program, Jumpstart Your Handmade Business.

Isaac shines some light on the risks of letting self-criticism degrade your ability to make progress, and dives into the season 1 archive for tidbits of advice and lessons learned from previous podcast guests.

Isaac examines a few different ways you can stay nimble with your review process and not let it suck you dry, and artist and jewelry designer Jen Crowe shares a number of her own experiences over the years looking deeply at her own business and adapting along the way.

In this episode, Isaac looks at the ways that “treating yourself” can actually undermine your well-being and a few things you can do to amp up taking care of yourself without a lot of investment of time or resources. Later on, he talks with Arrowyn Craban-Lauer of Little Gold Fox Designs about running a creative business with an auto-immune disease and how important her self-care practice is to staying productive AND healthy.

Isaac dives deeper into how the holidays are uniquely stressful for the maker community, how our desire to compare ourselves to others can backfire, and talks with Dr. Samantha Brody about how we can balance our stress with what we actually need most.

It’s time for a bonusode! In this special edition of Your Handmade Business, Isaac recaps our brand new video series, YHBTV, with 3 lessons related to our monthly theme with your hosts, Sharon and Isaac.

Isaac draws encouragement from one leader’s persistent actions and looks at how failure and rejection are not the end of your efforts. Michelle Baines (Four Letter Word Cards) joins with her thoughts on predicaments, persistence, and perfectionism.

Isaac addresses the idea that there’s one path to success as a handmade business, encourages taking action on your dreams, and interviews Nicole Stevenson from Dear Handmade Life about her own unique journey as a maker, artist, and community organizer.

Isaac emphasizes the benefits that come from knowing your numbers, from pricing to inventory to finances. He then talks with Tina Rodas of Hi Tree about how she tracks her numbers in her own unique way.

And we're back! Summer hiatus is over and Isaac's coming at you with an update on changes at Academy of Handmade's programs, some thoughts about pricing, and wise words from Kristen Pumphrey at P.F. Candle Co.

In this episode, Isaac illustrates how it can get worse before it gets better when you’re in the throes of failing, but that’s okay! It’s normal, even. He also talks introduces the power of a pre-mortem exercise when you're working on a big project.

Isaac talks about those experiences in every business where no matter what you do to prepare, things can just go south. He also interviews two very experienced women who have encountered major failures in their businesses—Jenny Hart and Lela Barker—and dives into how they cope with failure, what kinds of lessons they learn, and how they keep failure from breaking them down.

Isaac defines the best type of maker friends, jumps back to the first days of having his own handmade business, and pays homage to a woman who was a huge influence on his business and work in the community.

There’s no such thing as going it alone when you’re a maker. Isaac stresses the importance of finding others to help with your journey, and talks with Brianne Mees, co-owner of Tender Loving Empire about the family she’s formed over the last 10 years.