Some great top tips for successfully ru

Some great  top tips for successfully running a business from home here: #homebusiness http://ow.ly/AjCU9

16 Deadly Tips Guaranteed to Turn You into a Pinterest Warrior

Hmmm, think I need to pay more attention to my Pinterest! Very informative blog here:

Finding the right PACE as a Craftipreneur

An enjoyable read that I can connect with.

How would you describe your business if it were a person?

I was sent this blog post  link by the inspirational Carrie Green from the Female Entrepreneur Association.

It’s quite a fun exercise – you think of your business as if it were a person, then say how you would introduce that person to someone in one sentence  (in a nutshell; Carrie goes into more detail in her blog post – linked below)

So, I had a little think, about the items I make, the posts I produce on social media, the things I am drawn to when coming up with new ideas for the business.

This is the sentence I settled on:  “Allow me to introduce Immortal Crafts, she is a bit of a dreamer who loves to get lost in the whimsical, gothic, magical and mystical aspects of life and art……with an eye for beauty and a sense of humour rolled in.”

It was strange to think of my little business as an entity with a personality, likes/dislikes, attributes and traits- but I think it has given me a slightly new ‘perspective’ (for lack of a better word), and I’m sure if I keep this in mind when composing tweets or Facebook posts etc.  it will help shape the phrase or language I may be about to use.

Hopefully, this will help my business come across in a better light to any followers or fans, enabling them to establish a connection with me/Immortal Crafts, if they feel the personality come through.

Do leave me a little comment below if you try this for yourself and come up with a sentence!

Here’s the link:  http://femaleentrepreneurassociation.com/2014/07/how-to-create-a-fun-business-manifesto/

First Ever Blog Post – Naming my business

Ok, hello blog reading people! Here goes.

Hmmm, what do I write?

It’s not that I have nothing to write about, I just don’t know where to start….

Ok, I shall start at the beginning. There, that makes sense. By beginning, I mean the beginning of my business (Immortal Crafts). I could start at the beginning of my life, buuuut, that would be ever so long and a tad boring. Apart from the interesting bits. But, no , we’ll leave the life bit out of it.

To explain a little, my business is a home-based craft business. Mainly plaques, candles, decorated boxes etc. I was also doing pencil portraits initially but have since stopped.

When I decided to take the big, brave step of registering a business with the HMRC, do you know what the toughest thing was? It wasn’t the form-filling, it wasn’t the thought of doing my own tax returns. No, the toughest thing was thinking up a name for the business!

At first it was fun, a little project (I quite like projects). I came up with a few that I thought were cool, clever and original. After discarding quite a few, I decided to Google ‘how to come up with a business name’ , just to see what Google threw at me.

Google threw a minefield at me. I now became aware of such things as making sure a name wasn’t copyrighted. Finding this out was simple enough. So I duly checked. Bang went several I had thought of. Not so cool, clever and original after all.

I also learned such things as keeping your business name memorable, easily spelled, short and snappy. Bang went a couple of other avant-garde ideas I had produced.

Your business name should also be relevant to what your selling, so Google said. Great, thought I. Nothing, nada, zippo, zilch left.

I turned to my family, asking for suggestions and explaining the rules of naming a business. Noooot really much help there either. Apart from my sons derision of one remaining business name I had left – Abigail’s Arty – “No-one will get it mum”. Would you have got it?

After something like two weeks of mulling it over, thinking up new names, checking them and finding out they were copyrighted- I FINALLY came up with Immortal Crafts. Hoooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m not saying it’s the perfect name, not at all. But I like it.

I think it covers the bases: not copyrighted, fairly easy to spell, memorable-ish, short and snappy. The crafts bit definitely gives the game away as to what the business is about. The ‘Immortal’ bit has a two-fold kind of meaning (in my head anyway):  a) it relates to the fact that I make gift wares, and my business tagline is ‘keepsakes to treasure forever’. Forever-Immortal. See what I did there? b) I love all things fantasy genre, gothic, olde worlde, vampires, unicorns, trolls, goblins, wizards, elves, dragons, were-wolves…..aaah the list goes on, you get the idea. To me the word immortal has a lot of relevance in this genre. My main aim is to be producing items decorated in this theme. I’m not quite there at the moment (apart from my fairy doors), but I am fairly new and figuring out styles and what sells. I shall get there.

That is related to business branding by the way, another business-y thing I have been beefing up my knowledge on, and I’m hoping to implement said knowledge in the coming months. I made a wee start with my heart/angel wings logo.

Et voila, the end of my first blog post!