According to everything I’ve read from the experts, I’m going about pretty much everything all wrong. Niche! Niche! Niche! They all say. And while I do indeed have niche designs, I don’t really have a niche shop, or even a niche web site (yet. that could be changing soon.) Not only that, but my "brand" is broad and I apparently share it with a "gentleman’s club" in Houston.

The question now becomes: Why don’t I change my brand? And why not branch out to smaller niche shops and link them together?

In answer to the second question , I may do that down the road, but I’ve discovered it’s easier to work on my catch-all site first. (Plus keeping all designs at CP and Z in one "shop" is just easier for payment. I don’t earn enough yet to branch out to dozens of smaller shops.)

As for the brand, I’ve gone through countless business names (the one I paid to incorporate was the worst one of all) and none seemed to "fit." This one does – and has the most interesting story behind it of any name I could have.

My brand is me. When someone sees my logo (the drawing of the rose inside a Texas outline), it’s recognizable. When they see my icon (my manga drawing that my sweetheart did of me), or my site background (the rose trellis), they know right away that it’s me. Someone I met recently even said she recognized the icon right away and could tell it was a drawing of me, and old friends can tell it’s me too as soon as they see it. I’m extremely flattered every time I hear that because I happen to think the drawing is quite lovely. Even though there are other icons that are similar to each other, none are quite like mine. It helps distinguish my brand, which I love.

For the first time, I feel that my business name and brand "fit." And nothing feels better than something that fits well.

The Yellow Rose of Texas.

There’s a Yellow Rose in Texas,
That I am going to see.
No other feller knows her,
No other one but me.

She cried so when I left her,
It nearly broke my heart.
And if I ever find her,
We nevermore will part.

She’s the sweetest little rosebud,
That Texas ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,
They sparkle like the dew,

You may talk about your Clementine
and sing of Rosalee,
But The Yellow Rose of Texas
is the only girl for me!

There really was a "Yellow Rose" of Texas and she helped shape Texas history as much as Sam Houston himself. Emily West Morgan was a lovely mulatto slave girl captured by Santa Anna on his march to San Jacinto. Emily sent word to Sam Houston and kept Santa Anna "occupied" while the Texans surrounded his army and defeated him, literally "catching him with his pants down." Texas owes her freedom to the beautiful slave girl who risked her own life in the Texas battle for independence.

Read more in the historical fiction: Miss Emily, The Yellow Rose of Texas ♠

Tags: Business, marketing, niche, POD companies, Wishcraft

Priorities and Perspective from My Original Ideal Day

Starting back at the beginning: What from my original Ideal Day 15 or so years ago worked out? What was most important and what could change?

I don’t live in a 2-story house on the Texas gulf coast (a future goal for a vacation home perhaps?), but I do own my own home in a historic artist community.

My current business is online, though I have co-owned a (successful) gift shop in College Station. I say successful because we were earning a profit when we made the decision to close the shop so myself and my co-owner could both move away from College Station.

Supporting other artists is still an integral part of my goals, and now thanks to affiliate marketing, I’m able to do that.

Living in an artistic community is also still a priority, which is why I chose the house and neighborhood where we live now – walking distance to an arts community, glass-blowing studio, deli, restaurants and bars, and festivals twice a year – not to mention live (usually jazz) music almost every weekend. None of this was expected and now I couldn’t imagine living without it.

What priorities do I still hold dear?

• Community
• Artistic Creativity
• Artist Co-operative
• Helping Others
• Learning
• Business
• Cooking
• Animals
• Math & Programming

In my Ideal Day, these were all key factors and my day incorporated each with a perfect balance. What I find interesting are the things I included without realizing their importance at the time, much less my own abilities. I had only started making jewelry, but had never painted or drawn anything (not counting grade school, up to grade 6) much less thrown a pot or worked on ceramics. That’s right. Never. These were only things I wanted to do. And since I wrote my original Ideal Day, I’ve done all of them and managed to keep them in my life in one form or another. I didn’t own half the cookbooks I have now, had never written one (or considered writing one) and had never written my own recipe for a cooking contest. Yet, somehow, cooking dinner for friends was a priority then, without realizing how much of one it would become now. I included a database of my own making at the time because I thought I would use an existing program I was familiar with, such as FileMaker Pro (an excellent application for both PC and Mac), never dreaming I would one day write my own programs in Visual Basic.

Since my goal now is much the same as it was then, it’s easy to see the importance of Business and Community in my life. I strongly feel you can’t have one without the other. I believe I’m closer than ever before to achieving my dream of financial independence through multiple income streams while maintaining community support and connections. That’s what our sites are all about.

• Rock Salt Journals
• Yellow Rose Gallery Designs

Tags: art, artists, barbara sher, Business, community, cooking, priorities, scanners, Wishcraft

I promised "My Ideal Day" as it was "then" (on my first reading of Wishcraft). I don’t have the written version anymore – meaning I don’t know where it is in my multitude of journals. But I envisioned it so clearly in my mind, it’s become more of a fond memory for me … even though the places and events of that day never fully came to be.

My Ideal Day Then (as it was prior to achieving many of the goals I set for myself. Note that this is past tense, although for Your Ideal Day, you should write it out in present tense.)

I woke up just as the sun started peeking into the lace curtains of my bedroom window (No blinds in this house, that’s for sure.) My bedroom and office were both on the 2 nd floor of a two-story house, situated so the sun would wake me in the morning and I could still look out onto the ocean of my Texas gulf coast home.

The first order of business for the day was to check the computer and print out any orders that came in through the web site overnight – because there were always orders – and respond to emails. Next, downstairs for a cup of hot tea, followed by my cat, who went almost everywhere with me (this was written even before I got Sassy, and that’s just what she would always do.) Finally, dressed and ready to go – with printed shipping labels and receipts from the online orders – I would walk to my nearby gift shop, an easy 5 minute walk from my house, and located just off the beach in an artistic community within easy access for tourists as well as locals.

The shop would be already open by a trusted employee (a local art student), and already filling with customers, as it was the start of summer and a beautiful day out. My shop would specialize in offering the work of local artists as well as classes in the studio located in back. Our studio would be equipped for almost anything an aspiring art student might need, from painting and drawing to pottery to jewelry-making and lapidary.

On this day, our studio had a visiting local artist teaching a jewelry metal-smithing class, which I was looking forward to attending. Before the class started, I took a quick inventory of our pottery because I knew we needed to re-stock a few items soon – some of which I would be making myself in the days to come. In addition, I gathered and boxed the orders for shipping, getting them ready for pick-up by the postman. I also helped a few customers in their choices for gifts to take home – and every customer walked out with a purchase and a smile on their face.

After attending the class (most of which was like a refresher class for me as I already knew how to do it), and enjoying a light lunch with my fellow students – all of whom made a purchase of the instructor’s jewelry from our shop – I helped my employees clean and close up and took the day’s receipts with me to enter into my database at home.

Arriving home, I went straight to my over-sized, farmhouse style kitchen to start preparing dinner for a dinner party that night with the jewelry instructor, my employees and other local artists. (And of course, to feed the cat, who greeted me at the door coming home.) After a wonderful dinner with lots of wine, laughter, conversation and compliments on my food, I went with the cat back to my office where I prepared the day’s receipts and inventory (on a program I’d written myself) and checked email and orders one last time, getting everything ready for another great day tomorrow.

From Wishcraft:

With pen in hand and as much paper as you need (or a tape recorder if you prefer to dream out loud), take a leisurely walk through a day that would be perfect if it represented your usual days – not a vacation day, not a compromise day, but the very substance of your life as you’d love it to be. Live through that day in the present tense and in detail, from getting up in the morning to going to sleep at night. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? What do you have for breakfast? Do you make it yourself – or is it brought to you in bed, with a single rose and the morning paper? Do you take a long, hot bath? a bracing cold shower? What kinds of clothes do you put on? How do you spend the morning? the afternoon? At each time of day, are you indoors or outdoors, quiet or active, alone or with people?

As you go through the hours of your fantasy day, there are three helpful categories to keep in mind: what, where, and who.

Tags: art, artists, barbara sher, Business, ideal day, Wishcraft

More news from CafePress. The link I mentioned to get to Shopkeepers from the MarketPlace has been removed. There is NO way to get from the MarketPlace to individual Shops! There is, however, a workaround to find them, but it isn’t easy and something the average customer will never know to look for. They’re even hiding the Shopkeeper’s name in some instances. Depending on how you get to the design, you’ll see either, "See all designs from XYZ Shop", OR you may only see this: "See all designs from this designer." With no reference to the Shopkeeper’s name at all!

By clicking the link to see all designs, you’re taken to a page with every design from that shop, but you are NOT taken to the Shop itself. You are STILL in the CafePress MarketPlace! In addition, the designs are just thrown onto the page in no particular order, and completely unrelated to the search itself. Shops with thousands of designs, ranging from animals to brides, to the zodiac, have all their designs mixed together in no particular order. So a bride looking for more designs for her bridesmaids might have to wade through several pages just to find a matching design.

Here’s how to get to the individual shops, where the majority of prices are now LOWER than the MarketPlace price:

Look in the address bar at the top of the page and you’ll see the Shopkeeper’s ID. It should look something like this:

http: / / shop.cafepress. com/?from=YellowRoseGal (I’m removing this as a link on purpose. I’d rather not link my OWN designs to the MarketPlace, nor do I want to direct you to anyone else there, so I’m using myself as an example)
Change "shop." (including the . ) to www. and REMOVE "?from=" in the address bar.

Example: http://www.cafepress.com/YellowRoseGal

This should get you to an individual Shopkeeper now.

But that’s not all they’ve done. It seems the CafePress executive team missed class the day business class taught them it’s not good to put all your faith
into a few large accounts while ignoring all the smaller accounts. If you’d like to know what I’m talking about, visit http://www.cafepress.com/ and type "the office" into the Search field. You’ll be redirected
directly to the Shop, bypassing the MarketPlace completely. The same is true for the lucky folks who are "featured shops." (Just how does one become a featured shop anyway? No, I’d really like to know. I want a link to MY shop from the home page!) No other shopkeepers are given this courtesy, even the ones who’ve been with CafePress for a long time, and helped them build their small empire.

Is that all? Far from it. People who have opted out of the MarketPlace, removed tags to stay out of MarketPlace searches, or even closed their shops completely are still getting MarketPlace sales! A few reasons have been given for this, including the time it takes for designs to be removed, shoppers placed the item in their cart prior to the change, etc. However, read this article for just one example of one astute shopkeeper and how his research shows a very different story:

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2009/06/10/cafepress-shop-sales-posted-as-marketplace-sales/

CafePress: Why I’m staying

Wait, what? After everything they’ve done and you’re not leaving??? I’m not only not leaving, I’m doing what I can to support other Shopkeepers who are staying as well. Which is why you’ll continue to see CafePress shops recommended through my blog and my site. Anyone who thinks that EVERYONE will pick up and leave still has a lot to learn about the business world. Will CafePress stay in business much longer? I believe it’s inevitable that they’re going out of business. It isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. You don’t stay in business making poor, unethical business decisions that put hundreds of people out of work, and they’re making one bad business decision after another. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be hundreds of new shopkeepers and new designs signing up with them. The main thing they’re losing here isn’t shopkeepers, it’s their reputation. With every blog post I write, that won’t change. Nor will their decision. MY decision to stay is a purely business one. I’ve since found out there are other PODs that offer things like tile coasters and framed tiles, and still another that offers an almost identical keepsake box. But is it ethical for me to force my own customers to go to each one separately if they want a matching set? No, while I’m expanding to multiple POD companies, I don’t want to confuse my own customers by having the same items offered all over the Internet if I can possibly help it.

I don’t agree with what CafePress has done, but just because they chose to cut their legs off, doesn’t mean I have to shoot myself in the foot.

If you’re looking to open a new shop, or move your shop, have a look here for an extensive list and reviews of other PODs:
http://sefast.com/podreviews.info/index.html

And, as promised, here’s some really cute designs I’ve come across recently. Design reviews for even more coming soon!

Tags: Business, CafePress, designs, POD companies