Hiya sunshine's! Welcome to the fourth instalment of my 8 part blog post series about starting your own business! As I am a jeweller this will mostly related to jewellery/craft based businesses but I have tried to add in things to help as many new businesses owners as possible! You may be at the point you have been working away on your product and the only people who you have shown this to are you mammy/dad/partner/friends/dog and are wanting to start showing your work off to others, see what others really think of your work. Yes it sounds scary trust me I felt the same, but as scary as it was it was thrilling to see the response of what people thought! My confidence grew in my work and it was a great boost to my business! This will be the shortest blog post as I will be saving a lot more for the next where I talk about actually selling your work, this blog post will be talking about actually ripping the bandage off and showing your work off to the public! There are the three main ways I started getting myself out there: 1. Social Media - We live in a world where social media is at the forefront of everything, this is one of the best ways to start getting your work seen. You don't need to be a business or fully ready to sell to put your work on social media platforms, that is what these platforms are designed for, to show parts of yourself and your world you want people to see! Even if you are not 100% with letting people see your work yet you can always set your profile to private and upload whenever you like and only go public when you are confident and happy with it! Personally I prefer Instagram the most! I like how it is mostly images based whereas facebook is more what you type about! (Well that is what I have found) 2. Wear Your Work - One of the greatest ways to get yourself out there? Wearing your work. I can't believe I am admitting to this but honesty has been my policy throughout all these posts! When I started I rarely used to wear my work out as I was terrified of what people would say, I could deal with a bad comment online but too my face? No way! In the end I never received any of the comments I was worried about, instead I made sales! When people actually saw my work being worn they could picture it on themselves. Some people even commented how they would like a piece made differently and having that feedback was brilliant! I could start working towards what my target market actually wanted! 3. Networking Groups - When I say networking groups I don't just mean meeting people publicly in a big networking area I also mean online. If you are comfortable in a big crowd and want to give public networking a go then great! I have been to a few and ending up spending more money than I made at them! A few of the people I met even became clients down the line. But if public networking gives you the fear then you can do it online from the comfort of your home, you can start speaking to other likeminded businessowners like yourself, you can connect with them over tools, techniques, where to buy the best materials. You can do everything you would at a public event from your social media. With networking you want to create a community, don't look at people and think straight away ''money'' you want to network with people you have something in common with, networking does not have to be ''sale sale sale'' it can be a way to find a new technique, advice on social media or even having someone to bounce ideas off of. Sometimes these connections can be more valuable than a one off sale.
As I said this blog post was a bit shorter as it relates a lot to my next one which will be about branding and finding your style!