Tea and a Chat with Mike Carthew

I've invited Mike Carthew round for a tea and a chat today.  Mike's just co-written a book that might be of great interest to you so get comfy, pour yourself a drink and let's find out more...

Hi Mike! The kettle’s just boiled – what would you like to drink?

Hi Wendy, a builder’s tea would go down a treat. If you feel like spoiling me though I’ll go for a Lapsang with hobnobs please.
 

Tell me a bit about yourself – what’s your background?

I’m a real mixed bag. My loves in life, apart from my gorgeous girlfriend, all come from the outdoors. Living down in Cornwall means I can over-indulge in surfing and walking but I love nothing more than going out in our little fishing boat to catch mackerel and crabs for dinner.

Professionally I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I currently work as a Digital Marketing Specialist for a company that supports promising start-up businesses so it’s a great place to be when you’re full of ideas! I have always believed that some people just aren’t built to spend their lives working 9-5 in offices. Today we’re more mobile than ever before - anyone can start a business or become self-employed with a few basic business skills and an understanding of how to start-up on little to no budget.

So, I’ve heard you’re writing a book.  What’s it about?

Well it’s about exactly this in relation to creative people. It’s called ‘Get Paid for Your Passion’. There are so many talented creatives out there who’d love to generate an income from their skills and passion but don’t know how to do it effectively. A couple of years ago my partner founded www.TwoRedTrees.co.uk to provide a platform for talented designer/makers to sell their work. However, it rapidly became clear that they don’t just need a platform, they need a strategy too.

We’re the generation that was raised to believe we could make a living doing what we love. Until recently though, for creatives at least, that was a hard thing to achieve. But we really are entering a new era; creative people have the tools at their fingertips to access huge audiences and really connect with people who love their work.

It sounds simple but essentially we’re talking about starting and running a creative micro-business. Like any business, you have to absolutely hit the nail on the head if you want to thrive. That means you have to know your customer like you know your friends, take fantastic product photos, use the right social media channels in the right way and really analyse your approach to commercialising your creativity. The crux of the book is that you can hugely increase your success rates when it comes to selling creations by developing and evolving a genuine strategy, which fits you and your work.

The further we got into the book the more we realised we simply didn’t have the expertise to do some of the topics justice, so we went on a hunt. We’ve got interviews and input from some of the top selling Etsy creatives in the world, incredible product photographers, illustrators who have shipped 5000 prints in 48 hours, world leading social media specialists and many more. It completely snowballed and ended up going from a mini-project to a whole book jam-packed with really clear advice from people who speak from hard-earned experience. The thing that amazed me was just how much helpful advice these successful people can offer the wider creative community.

Essentially, if you are serious about making money from your creative passion then this book is tailor made for you!

What made you want to write a book?

Well I must say the desire came from genuine empathy. Running Two Red Trees with my partner puts us in contact with so many incredibly talented people who’d love to be making a full time living from their passion. I know how hard it is to have the things you love take a back seat to 9-5 working life and I just don’t think it needs to be like that for everyone. Many creatives produce work which people out there would be happy to pay for. We wanted to help them find this audience and set the selling wheels in motion.

Is your book aimed mainly at the UK or American market?

‘Get Paid for Your Passion’ is for anyone creative looking to sell work more effectively. This said we’re from the UK so all the financial advice such as how to price work and cost overheads are in pounds sterling. There’s also some UK specific advice on how to set up your taxes the Managing Director of an accountancy firm who is also a creative herself. International readers can just skip these UK-specific pages – the real value is in the approach and the principles apply to any currency.

Why do you think so many creative people struggle with the business side of selling their creations?

To flip the question on its head, why would they be business-minded in the first place? Like any new skill-set, developing a business-savvy approach takes practice. It’s a whole new outlook which creative people often have little to no exposure to. The unexpected thing is it can be really rewarding and fun. For example we talk readers through customer profiling – who are their target audience? What magazines do they read? What words and lingo do they use to describe things? You can build a complete picture of your customers to help steer your creativity and how/where you sell your creations. I think overall it’s easy to see the business side of things as a dark art. Put simply, we just want to flick the lights on!

When and where can we get our hands on a copy of your book?

Very soon! The book will be released on Amazon in November and the downloadable e-book will be available on our website Commercial Creatives. If you want a reminder then drop me an email through the website and I’ll add you to the mailing list.

Is there anywhere we can go to find out more?

The website has some great preview material including 4 free chapters. These include one on the journey the book will lead you through and another on how to steer your creativity towards more profitable markets whilst staying true to your own style. We’re so new we’ve only just set up our Facebook page - like it to stay up to date with the book!

We’re seriously excited about releasing it and based on some of the feedback I’ve had recently I think it could prove to be a real game-changer for creatives who want to make money from their passion!

Thanks so much for popping in – it was lovely to chat with you.

You too Wendy, it would be great to stay in touch and of course we’re here if any of your readers have questions for us.

Keep reading this blog for details of how to win a copy of Get Paid for your Passion!

Choosing a Business Name

This article, all about choosing a business name, was written for us by Magdalena of Cocoa and Heart

Choosing a Business Name

It is natural for us crafters to concentrate on what we know and like doing best – crafting and creating our products.  But if one day your hobby becomes your business, you will need to deal with other aspects of running your business.  That might sound boring and mundane, but it doesn’t have to be. 

If you think about your business as a three legged stool, then skills are one leg and finances and marketing are the other two. If one leg is shorter than the others, your business – like the stool – might be in danger of collapsing and falling over. So, branding is a part of marketing and choosing your logo and business name is a very important part of establishing your business.

If you are choosing a name from scratch think about the following practical checklist:

1.       Do your research – No matter how original you think your name is, the chances are that somebody else has already thought of it. When I was choosing a name for my business, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought of ‘Cinnamon Rose’. I loved it and wanted it, until I ‘Googled’ it and found that others had thought about it first.

2.       Know your market – You need to know who are your potential customers. If your customers are trendy fashion conscious people, then an old-fashioned name will not bring them in (unless it’s ultra cool and vintage…).

3.       Keep it simple – Don’t try to be too clever – if you need to explain to your customers what your name means and how to spell it, then the chances are that they will not remember you. From a practical point of view, if your name becomes a web domain and people won’t be able to type it in correctly, you will lose your customers.

4.       Keep it short – Your name needs to be memorable and should have a strong visual image behind it. If your name is awkward and long people will not remember it. If they can’t immediately picture something behind your name, your name will not stay in their memories.

5.       Make it a positive name – I don’t believe that in our crafting world many people would do this, but it is a good idea to bear in mind that positive images (and names) work better than negative or offensive names, that will deter people immediately.

6.       Finalise your choice – write all your choices down and ask for an opinion. You can try your friends and family, but I would really recommend asking people who don’t know you. They are likely to be more honest…

 There is nothing wrong in using your own name as your brand – in fact most designers do this and if you are successful, people will start recognising your name as the ‘brand’ (think Laura Ashley or Cath Kidson). But, until you get there, the brand of ‘Maureen Table’ will not mean anything to others. That is why some people choose a name that symbolises and describes what they do.

Also think about the name from a business point of view – if your name is ‘Maureen’s Handmade Cards’ and you decide to add other product lines and expand your business, by sewing cushion covers, people might be quite confused about the name and you will need to keep explaining that you ‘also do cushion covers’. So, think about a name that could be used for not just now, but also in the future – e.g. ‘Maureen’s Handmade’.

Another good reason for choosing your business name carefully, is to check whether that name is available as a website, e-mail, Twitter or Facebook domain. This will be important if you decide to have a website or blog in the future. There are any number of domain providers (such as Reg 123) where you simply key in your chosen name to check if it’s available. The yearly fee is anything from £2.99 to £14.99 (or more). It is worth securing your domain early on, so that nobody else can take it later. There are number of endings to each website e.g. co.uk, com, biz etc., so if you want to make sure that nobody uses the same name (but just with a different ending) buy all the domains.

Your business name can either be descriptive, so it is obvious what you do or you could think of a name that will evoke the ‘feeling’ about your products and the feeling that you want to evoke in your customer (e.g. Bespoke Vintage, Rose Vintage). You might also like to leave a bit unravelled, so that the customer is interested about the name and will want to know more (‘Through the looking glass…’).

Finally, you have to be comfortable with the name you choose. You will be the one, who will promote it and say it a million times to your potential customers, so it has to be something you have a strong connection with. In my own experience, it took me a few months to come up with a name and it was not for lack of choice ! My well meaning friends and husband suggested names, which I politely, but firmly refused. There was ‘The Midas Touch’. When you pronounce ‘Midas’ it sounds like my family name in Czech, but nobody would get this, would they ? Also, I do not work with gold, so why chose this name ?! My own first suggestion was: ‘Magdalena’. Well that is simple enough, it is my name after all and everything I do (which is quite a lot of different things) is linked back to me. Yes, a good choice, I hear you say, but then I saw that the cheapest web domain was 10 k (!!!) to buy and it was not even .co.uk…

My otherwise lovely husband suggested ‘Sweet Touch’ on the basis that everything I bake is sweet and lovely, but I felt it sound it more like a massage parlour. I have already mentioned Cinnamon & Rose (or Cinnamon Rose), which I loved, but loads of people already had that, when I googled it.

Choosing your business name is exciting, it means that your business properly exists and you start creating your own piece of crafting world.

Oh, by the way, the name I chose in the end, came to me in the middle of the night and it was just perfect. I make chocolate, but also sew and most of my designs are in a shape of a heart. My favourite perfume is Coco Mademoiselle and all my things are made from my heart. So, that is how ‘Cocoa & Heart’ was born.

All images are from Cocoa and Heart, and you can find out more about Magdalena and her Cocoa & Heart business here:

Website: www.cocoaandheart.co.uk

Blog: www.cocoaandheart.blogspot.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Cocoaandheart

Facebook www.facebook.com/cocoaandheart