by guest contributor Fina Tejada

Spanish artist, Loli Gil Bea has a beautiful Etsy shop filled with hand painted silk scarves, hand fans, clothing, and art work.  Her lovely designs have a modern Spanish vibe to them with just a little bit of Picasso thrown in.  Her item descriptions also have instruction on how to wear her scarves or send secret messages with a hand fan.  Hand fans are an eco way of staying cool during during the hottest months. Plus, you can use them to flirt or even to gossip in a more ladylike way.  To see more of Loli’s work, visit her website and her flickr photostream.

1. Can you give us a brief description of your business?

I have always loved to paint and draw, although I’m much better at painting ;), and when I was young I started painting watercolors. My work was in some local galleries and all that, but it wasn’t really a “business”.
Then one year I got a book about Silk Painting for Christmas. I loved it!  The bright colors, the textures, the many many uses it could have. So I had to try it, and here I am! Basically I paint silk scarves (shawls, skinny scarves, etc) and also make different things with them: brooches, T-shirts, bags, hand fans, …
I started giving them as gifts to relatives, then friends came requesting scarves as presents for other people and I started to make money by selling them to some shops! =) That was 10 years ago. Last year I discovered Etsy and now my scarves are everywhere in the world.

2. What did you do before you started your business or did you keep you day job?

I am still a high school teacher. I teach chemistry, physics and math to the junior and senior students, I love it. Of course living off silk painting would be great, but I am nowhere near that.

3. Where do you sell your products?

I sell my silks at some local shops, and now I am starting to go to craft fairs. Online, I chose to sell them in Etsy. When I discovered it, I was totally amazed by the fabulous artists there, and saw that it was a nice community. I realized that people that buy in Etsy love art and handmade items and that was the perfect place for me.

4. What can you tell us about your international customers?

Most of my customers are international because a majority of Etsy users are from the US. They have all been great by supporting my shop and so great with communication, feedback, everything! They have totally understood that shipping to them takes more time, which is great. Customers at Etsy are so nice, I have received really lovely messages from them telling me how much they liked the item, packaging, etc.

5. What do you consider is the best way you’ve attracted customers?

I know I got a couple customers from Etsy forums, but I think they key is to have great photographs of your items. Good photography attracts more people and hopefully someone buys it. But I still have a lot to improve in photographing!

6. Where do you see your business in the next few years?

I hope to keep selling in Etsy, to have a lot of lovely customers from all around the world. That’s my goal. I don’t see myself quitting my day job for my craft, although I wouldn’t mind =)

7. How do you stay motivated?

Sometimes it is hard to paint when I am really busy, but this is really what I like to do, it’s my hobby. I love painting, it is relaxing. I love making different color combinations, or going to a museum and come up with a total new design inspired by what I saw.

About the contributor: Fina Tejada owns Miss Fruitfly, an indie lifestyle company featuring artwork and home accessories. She is also a blogger who loves to cook, is a closeted reality show junkie and supports independent designers. She will be posting on the Indie Fixx Guest Blog featuring international indie crafters & bloggers to find out what motivates them creatively, how they started their businesses and how they approach the U.S. market. Fina will be posting periodically on Thursdays.

Each month I donate a portion of the proceeds from Indie Fixx and the Indie Fixx Shop to a different charitable organization. The organizations I choose vary from those that provide humanitarian support, focus on the arts, provide for environmental stewardship, are concerned with animal welfare and other issues and causes that I think are important. I share them here to help publicize organizations you may not have yet had a chance to hear about.

This month, I donated to the organization Vets 4 Vets after hearing (and now here) about how many Iraq and Afghanistan vets aren’t getting the mental health care that they need from the Veteran Administration.  Vets 4 Vets is a peer support outreach group that is staffed exclusively by veterans. Their goal is to help soldiers feel good about themselves and heal from any negative aspects of service and war through the use of peer support.  No matter what one’s views of the current wars are, I believe that we must take care of our soldiers’ mental health as well as physical health needs.

On Thursdays, I choose & share one reader’s inspirations with you. I love to read what inspires you all in art & life and I’m pretty sure you like to read about other reader’s inspirations too.

So, what inspires you? If you’d like to participate, all you need to do is share three things that inspire you…they can be indie designers whose work you admire, artists who inspire you to create, flickr groups you belong to that inspire you to take photos,  blogs that are every day must reads, or whatever gets your creative juices flowing and makes your life more enjoyable and meaningful.

Click here to share your 3 inspirations for “I’m inspired by…”

Today’s inspirations are from Rachel of One Pretty Thing.

The incredible diversity of craft, art and DIY talent on the internet amazes me everyday. I started my website as a showcase for DIY ideas when I realized that I was spending entire days in front of my screen entranced by blogs, photostreams and craft forums.

1.  Janick Fonetik’s Flickr stream - Lately I’ve been drooling over every photo in Janick’s Flickr stream. She has the most delicious variety of eye candy! The color combos she uses in her jewelry are amazing and her embroidered wall art makes me smile!

2.  Anna Maria Horner - Anna Maria Horner is one my must-read daily blogs. She’s the reason I learned to sew and the inspiration behind many of my DIY projects. Her site just explodes with color and happiness. It’s best viewed in the morning with a cup of favorite tea and an idea notebook at hand!

3. Ambitions Design - Ambitious Designs Studio keeps me in contact with my favorite holiday year round! Her detailed Halloween sculptures are delightfully amazing. Every time I visit her blog or her Flickr stream I feel like Halloween, gorgeous foggy weather and my favorite Fall foods are just around the corner!

I’m debuting a new feature today on the Indie Fixx Guest Blog called Special Topics in Calamity Business, since I know a lot of my regular readers run their own crafty businesses. Periodically, I will be asking successful indie entrepreneurs to share some tips & tricks with you on how to run your own indie business.  When starting any new endeavor it’s important to remember to not reinvent the wheel, but find mentors and other informational sources to help you with those things that others have already figured out.  To that end, Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club will be sharing with you some free marketing advice today. Plus, check back next week for another how-to indie business post from Jennifer.

Also, check out Jennifer’s new book, The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry, which is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. 

by guest contributor Jennifer Perkins

Most crafty business owners start out with a business plan no matter how rough.  Within that business plan they also include a budget, in particular a marketing budget.  But what if your marketing budget is zero?  What is a guy or gal to do?  Never fear, marketing can still be done assuming 1) you already own a computer 2) have your online shop set up 3) and are ready to handle the onslaught of orders all your marketing efforts are going to bring you.  Here are a few super easy, and free, tips every small business owner should follow

Email Signatures
I have 3 email accounts all with an HTML coded signature.  At the bottom of every single email I send out has the following text with key words being links.

The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry
My new book is available for pre-order at Amazon.com!

Naughty Secretary Club
Jennifer Perkins
PO Box 151510 AustinTX78715
info@naughtysecretaryclub.com

A Few Other Things I do:
Etsy
Blog
Austin Craft Mafia
Stitch Fashion Show and Guerilla Craft Bazaar

Every time I send out an email, whether it be to a customer, friend, yahoo group or anyone else receiving email from me,  the recipient is given a chance to click 6 different links to 6 different business ventures I am involved in.  Maybe I was emailing with someone about a piece of jewelry and they didn’t know I had a book coming out, now they do now.  This easy marketing tactic is 100% free.  Another easy and useful way to utilize this tactic is to send an email to your customers alerting them that the order is being shipped.  Not only will they appreciate the heads up it will put the link to your blog, book, website, etc in front of them again.

Editorial Coverage in Blogs
In order to keep their content new and exciting, shopping blogs constantly need new content.  People like blogs that update daily and that is a lot of demand on a blog writer to find crafty goodies to write about, sales to mention and fashion shows to add to their calenders.  Blog writers appreciate being let in on hot gossip.  Most of them specifically ask for tips and that means from you.  They don’t just say that to be nice, they want to know about the new purses you just crocheted out of recycled grocery bags, I promise.  The worst thing that can happen is that they will not write about your goodies, but if you write to 50 (there are TONS out there) you have a fighting chance that several are going to squeeze in a mention for your website or Etsy store.  You could pay to advertise on that blog or you could get editorial coverage completely free.

Writing a Blog
Speaking of blogs why not start your own?  Think of a blog as a newsletter you can write as often as you like.  Given the  frequency and regularity you have with your blog, the more likely more people will tend to read.  It’s important to remember that little bit about having something interesting to say though.  A business-based blog is a balancing act between chatting about what you are selling and not talking about what you are selling all of the time.  Sure people that read your blog want to know when you add new goodies to your website, but they also want to know what inspired you to make those new goodies.  Just like craft business blogs come in many different shapes and forms, it’s best to have a particular slant or topic and stick to it, while not forgetting that your blog is a business tool as well as something you do for fun.  When done right, blogs can drive tons of traffic to your website, when done wrong, they tend to just not get read.  Think interesting, informative and fun content—plus lots of pictures.

Social Networking
I could write an entire book on the beauty that is social networking.  Sure My Space and Facebook are fundamental to any online business (hello bulletins and notices in people’s comment sections), but have you started to Twitter yet?  Are you joing Flickr pools like Handmade Jewelry and uploading the pictures of your bestest bling?  Let us not forget joining My Craftivity, Craft Stylish and Indie Public.  Every social networking site you belong to helps get the name of your company out there and in front of people that much more.  They all allow pictures of you and your product as well as links to your store.  Oh, and by the way, I have yet to join a social networking site that was not free.

Links
I once read for you to think of your website as a city.  If your city does not have any roads leading in, it makes it pretty hard for people to get there.  If there are tons of roads, highways, paths and more leading people to your city, the more people are going to visit and hence buy.  Think of links as those roads leading to your website.  Write other similar websites and ask them if they would like to trade links with you.  List your website in all the Indie Bibles, Indie Shopping Directories and Girl Wide Webs you can find.

Newsletters
Every self respecting craft business has themselves a newsletter in place.  Most web hosting companies offer them for free, I use Dreamhost and they do.  Have a place on the front page of your website where people are encouraged to sign up for your newsletter and start the gathering process.  Once you have these precious emails, don’t take advantage of them by sending out emails too often.  The key is to send out informative and fun newsletters regularly, try once a month.  Let people know if you are having a sale or have new product.  Also, please don’t send out text only emails with big long messy links.  Always send out HTML newsletters with lots of pretty pictures.  Studies show that people tend to read emails with graphics over those without.

Google
Google has a plethora of free goodies that any savvy business owner should be taking advantage of.  My favorite are Google Alerts.  Anytime someone types the words ‘Naughty Secretary Club’, ‘Austin Craft Mafia’ or ‘Stitch Fashion Show’ anywhere on the Internet, I get a notice with a link.  That means, people talking about me on blogs, Craftster, etc…I just got one from the Austin American Statesmen today.  I didn’t know the Statesmen was going to write about my new book, but they did, and I would have never known if not for my trusty Google Alert.  It’s important to keep up with what is being said about you in the world and Google Alerts are easy and free.

Another whistle and bell that Google offers for free is Google Analytics.  This free report tracks how many hits you get, where those hits are coming from, how long people are staying on your website and more.  I also use Google Calenders this way, I can let people know when I am teaching classes, vending in a craft fair, signing copies of my book and more.  Google calenders are public so you can share all the events related to your business.

So there you have it, who said the best things in life were not free.  There are tons of free resources out there to help your business,  you just have to keep an eye peeled for them and more importantly use them!

Stay tuned next week for Special Topics in Calamity Business from Jennifer Perkins!

About the Contributor: Jennifer Perkins can see decorative possibilities in almost anything. If it can be drilled, painted, glued, or bent, she will make it into a piece of jewelry. You can shop her line of one of-a-kind revamped vintage pieces at  her online shopping site Naughty Secretary Club. Plus, she’s been featured on HGTV’s Crafters Coast to Coast (now That’s Clever) and is a co-host of Stylelicious with her buddies from the Austin Craft Mafia of which she is a founding member. And now, you can read her new book, The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry. It’s available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

Union Street Chronicle Books store in San Francisco.

Founded in 1967 in San Francisco, Chronicle Books is one of my favorite publishers back from my days of working in a library.  Chronicle Books is probably best known for its visual art & design titles, but in recent years they have published some unexpected mainstream successes including the Griffin & Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock and The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. Chronicle Books has been very good to indie artists recognizing the talent of  & publishing books by Jill Bliss, Lotta Jansdotter, Jenny Hart and Julie Jackson among others.  To me, their Mission Statement sums it up best, “Inspired by the enduring magic and importance of books, our objective is to create and distribute exceptional publishing that’s instantly recognizable for its spirit, creativity, and value.”

Chronicle Books is having a Friends & Family Sale right now. Use the code FRIENDS over at chroniclebooks.com and save 30% off all books and receive free shipping until August 3rd. I got a jump on my Christmas shopping and bought a bunch of books myself.

Plus, make sure to enter the Indie Fixx 2nd Anniversary Giveaway for your chance to win The Pillow Book By Shannon Okey, published by Chronicle Books.

 7th SECRET WORD for Indie Fixx 2nd Anniversary Giveaway:

The secret word for this week has been removed. Visit Indie Fixx to find out how to enter this contest. The ends August 15th.

Make sure to jot this secret word down, you need at least 4 of the 7 secret words to be able to win the Indie Fixx 2nd Anniversary Giveaway.

Each Wednesday, (from June 18th - August 6th) I will share a new secret word with you and take down the previous week’s secret word. So, that means that you must visit Indie Fixx each week to accumulate the secret words that you will need to win!

Check back next week for instructions on what to do with your secret words! Remember, you cannot share secret words with anyone!

Read more about the Giveaway here!

For today’s Indie Artist Fixx I’m sharing my interview with Rebecca Pearcy. Rebecca founded Queen Bee Creations, a line of bags, wallets and accessories that’s both stylish & functional, from a corner in her bedroom in 1996. Later, Rebecca added  a line of diaper bags, clothing and accessories for babies and parents called Chickpea Baby. At first, Rebecca started with just her designing and creating all her bags and accessories, but Queen Bee Creations & Chickpea Baby has grown, and now she employs 12 people. It’s the ‘little indie business that could’! You can watch a video that shows some of the designing and production process  of the products (I always like watching these, I wish more shops did videos, in fact). And, click here to learn more about all the peeps that work in ‘The Hive’ at Queen Bee.

1. What’s the name of your business and what do create and sell?

Queen Bee Creations & Chickpea Baby.  For both lines we design and manufacture bags, wallets, and accessories that are fun, colorful, beautiful and functional.  Chickpea is a line of diaper bags and accessories for babies and parents.  We make everything by hand in Portland, Oregon, in our lively studio in a warehouse building.  Currently there are 12 people employed by Queen Bee Inc.

2. Tell us how you got started with your indie business.

I started Queen Bee from a corner in my bedroom in 1996.  I grew up making crafts and sewing creative clothing.  Both of my parents are creative and self-employed, so it was natural for me to go the same route.  Throughout high school & college I was making original clothing, jewelry, and accessories, and Queen Bee grew out of my need for a wallet — I made one for myself and that started the bags & accessories concept.  I was getting Queen Bee going, as well as doing clothing alterations & repairs, and working 2 part time jobs.  I decided to quit my jobs to see if I could make a go at being self-supported.  Queen Bee took off from there and I’ve never looked back.

3. What are your inspirations in your art and in life?

Oh, so many things!  Colors are a big one, I just love color.  Patterns, vintage fabrics, music, Japanese magazines & books, plants & flowers, a need for something useful, other creative people around me, other small creative businesses.

4. Are there any pearls of wisdom you’d like to share with newbie indie business owners?

Ahhh.  The first few years, be prepared to work your tail off.  I liken it to being in graduate school — anytime you are trying to reach a major goal, there will be some serious compromise and hefty work involved.  But when the time comes to lighten that load, try and delegate tasks that someone else can do so that you can focus on your most important jobs, like design, creative vision, and overseeing the finances.  I did absolutely everything for a while (accounting?  sure!  taxes?  sure!  customer service?  why yes!) and slowly let go of more and more.

5. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 things would you like to have with you?

I don’t know why, but these questions are always so hard for me to answer!  Here’s a stab at it:
my guitar
needle & thread
my deliciously comfy bed

6. What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst?

Best = Getting to pursue my own creative vision and see my ideas go from my imagination to items that can be used in life that are beautiful & fun.  Even when owning and running a creative business is hard, I would rather it be on my terms than someone else’s.

Worst = Sometimes the level of responsibility can be overwhelming.  It is a very big responsibility to be an employer & take care of the needs of the business and everyone involved in making it go & grow.  As a business grows, the stakes get higher and the amount of money in & out is a lot to manage.  But it’s a challenge that has helped me grow and learn through the years!

7. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?

I’m not a big blog reader, but I enjoy them when I stumble upon ones that interest me.  Usually they are about indie design (!) and products, or sustainability.  I like to look at Domino magazine for eye candy & ideas, Japanese fashion & craft magazines, and Bust & Venus.

8. Were you an artsy craftsy kid? If so, what kinds of things did you do?

Oh yes, big time.  My mom is an artist and so I grew up doing tons of crafts with her.  I am just really drawn to creating things with my hands and playing with different materials and textures.  We did just about everything — homemade playdough, shrunken apple head dolls, ornaments, shrinky dinks, etc etc.  As I got older I learned how to use a sewing machine and sew from a pattern, so I started to make my own clothing at age 13, which launched me toward the life I have now.  I still love to make and alter my own clothes.

9. Do you like to cook, if so, share your favorite thing to cook. If not, share something you enjoy that someone else prepares for you.

I do love to cook.  My favorite things to make are enchiladas and pizza.

10. What does indie mean to you? You can give a literal definition, choose to be a little esoteric or a combination of both.

Well, in the most literal sense, it means independence, doing it my own way.  Creating the world in my vision, as opposed to trying to find a pre-existing place in the world to fit myself into.  Learning how to live in the world with skills that endure and are self-sustaining.  Being a trailblazer while also building connections & community.   Making my own rules & following my heart and intuition.

11. What are you reading, watching and listening to?

I’m reading the newest book by one of my favorite authors, Louise Erdrich, called The Plague of Doves.  My boyfriend and I just got hooked on the Showtime show Weeds, and I’m constantly listening to music — I’m always finding new music to listen to from the library, and local record stores.  Some recent listens are Levon Helm, El Perro del Mar, Jorge Drexler, Van Hunt, and Kanye West.

12. What’s one thing you’ve learned as an adult that you wish you knew when you were a kid?

This too shall pass…

13. What’s new? Any new plans or products that you want to share?

I’m always working on the next thing.  My overarching project is to continue to develop new designs utilizing sustainable materials, and also designing print for fabrics and then designing products out of that fabric.  Housewares, accessories, possibly apparel.  The core of my passion is bold, printed fabric.  That’s the base and from there, there are so many possibilities.