I went to a short course in writing a business plan Saturday morning, and what a gem of a morning it turned out to be!

For years I've known I should write a business plan, and I even halfheartedly began to once or twice, but this short, inexpensive ($35.00) seminar finally gave me the motivation, knowledge, and tools I needed to begin. I loved the instructor, he was a retired CEO full of wisdom, humor, enthusiasm, and valuable insights.

I've been working on my plan this morning - it's been completely painless, and am already a good part of the way done. My home business is indeed very small as small businesses go, but writing a business plan is forcing me to think things through, measure my results, and get a better handle on what I've accomplished, and what my options are for moving forward.

The seminar was sponsored by a great organization called SCORE, a branch of the SBA that provides professional small business guidance via volunteer business executives, many of whom are retired.  In addition to very affordable seminars, they also offer free business counseling, which is my next step.  I signed up on the Miwaukee SCORE website, and was able to specify what kind of business I am, and what kind of guidance I am requesting.  I'll let you know how that unfolds.

I know a number of you who read my blog are on a path similar to mine, and wanted to let you know about this great resource.  If any of you have already utilized SCORE, or have written a business plan, I'd love to hear about your experience. 

Striving Bee Balm

Striving Bee Balm
Bee balm, handmade paper
8" x 10" Acid-free mat
Unframed pressed flower art

I’m striving a bit.

In order to bring some new energy and relevancy to my blog, I’ve signed up for an intense four week long “Blog Triage Class.” I'm really looking forward to the weeks ahead, and learning how to have a more vibrant blog!

Apparently most of my homework is to be completed on my blog, so hopefully you may end up learning right along with me. Today’s assignment is to blog about my “ideal visitor.” With detail. Quite honestly, I am thankful for absolutely anyone and everyone who takes a moment to visit my blog, but here’s what I’ve come up with:

* My ideal visitors would first and foremost love and appreciate the beauty and wonder of flowers, leaves, and all things botanical. They would also have an appreciation for the One who created them.

* They would tend to be past, present, or future gardeners.

* Other pressed flower artists – who learn from my techniques and share theirs with me.

* Previous customers – who have purchased my art, and are interested in getting to know me as an artist as well as a person.

* Previous customers who have bought flower presses or handmade paper kits from me, and are seeking inspiration and new ideas for their own botanical art.

* Other artists who are on the same journey I am – to get the art they create “out there,” into the world beyond their studio.

Coming up with this list has caused me to slow down and think really think about the readers of my blog. I am thankful – what a neat way to connect blogging can be.

By the way, the Blog Triage "doctors" teaching our class are Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield.

looking ahead

Through no fault but my own, I've been trudging through this past week, making up for the fact that I didn't keep up with my book work last year. I need that data to file my sales tax return which is due Saturday, so I've been slogging away entering all the data that should have been entered weekly and monthly. It hasn't been one of my more exciting weeks!

It's a good thing I've made discipline one of my touch stones this year, as evidenced by my lack of it last year. I didn't keep up with my book work last year (even though that was a goal I had made for myself!) because I find bookwork tedious and boring. And, if I pushed it off for another day, there were no immediate consequences.

This year, I've recruited the help of artist friend Bonnielyn Brankey to hold me accountable in keeping my books up to date each month, and I in turn have promised to keep her accountable in blogging at least weekly. I'm excited about this because I've had friends keep me accountable in other areas of my life, and it has really helped.

Why the picture of the brayer and printing ink? Just before Christmas I ordered some printing supplies so that I could do some exploration with nature printing - i.e. making leaf, flower prints, etc. on my handmade paper. I have been really eager to try this, and I set up my new supplies with in eyesite of my computer, as motivation to get my tax work done. Next week should be much more interesting!

So far, so good...

Discipline. So far today, I've been able to stick to my plan of action with out wavering, and I'm proud! Now, if I can continue to do this for the next 360 days...

One of the first items on my to do list this morning was to create a "Squidoo" page. It's an assignment from my art marketing group, and it's due by tomorrow's meeting. In a nutshell, Squidoo is an informational portal where users can set up their own "lenses" on any subject they choose. My lens still needs quite a bit of work, but basically it's about how to press flowers, and will include links to my pressed flower tutorials. Apparently you can also link up to appropriate affilliate sites and earn adsense money for yourself, or a charity of your choosing, but at this point I'm just interested in driving more traffic to my blog and website via my own links.

Placing links on Squidoo was tricky, and involved some html coding that I wasn't familiar with. To save you some time and frustration, here is a helpful link I found explaining how to add a link in a Squidoo lens.

Back to my to do list. Next on my list is to get tonight's BBQ beef brisket going in the slow cooker...

Everything in its place

Two things are on my list for today - to begin listing my new botanical journals in my etsy shop, and to do some massive "decluttering" in my work area.
My work area - I can't call it a studio (but hopefully someday...) has silently become a disaster area. A stray object or two here, a few things I'll put way later there, some un-filed papers here...and suddenly I have a mess. Elisabeth Elliot always used talk about the importance of "a place for everything, and everything in its place." How true!

I love to read tips on organizing, I could read them all day - but diligently putting them into practice is another matter. Thankfully I am becoming increasingly aware of how my lack of diligence in putting things away -as soon as I am done with them- is costly in both time, energy, and even personal joy. The frustration I feel when I struggle with the chaos covering my work area robs me of my enthusiasm in creating.

Off I go, with a quick prayer for perseverance, wisdom, and a sense of humor wouldn't hurt either.

The Sunshine Family

Earlier this morning I checked my email for the first time since Friday, and I have 137 messages. My husband would laugh at me and say "that's nothing!" For me, a creator and purveyor of pressed flower things, that's a lot of emails! I think I'd rather write a blog post instead of dealing with those just now.

I spent the weekend at the Prairie Waldorf School's Yuletide Faire in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. I'm thankful that despite the shaky economy I did fairly well, but what an experience.

Do you remember the "granola" like Sunshine Family? My sister had those dolls from the 70's, and while at that Faire it seemed as if I had found myself immersed in their world. From what I understand, Waldorf schools apparently are based on experiential learning, with a focus on nature, crafts, and the natural rhythms and energies of the universe. For a conservative Christian like me, this atmosphere was a bit foreign, but I found it very interesting. Most amazing to me, though, was the children themselves. It seemed as if the entire school body was present through out the Faire; performing, helping, serving, selling, etc. The kids were amazing - calm, polite, inquisitive, respectful, and unusually well behaved. I was definitely impressed with them.

Now, time to get back to those emails...

Getting connected

Last Thursday I was having a "low energy day" and couldn't seem to make myself do any of the things on my "next action" list.

I determined that it would be a good day to become more socially connected. I had been meaning to do it anyway, and I could do it sitting down.

First of all, I joined Linked In. I'm off to a modest start - only 2 connections, but we'll see what happens.

Then I clicked over to Facebook. Actually I joined back in February, but never did much with it, so I spiffed up my profile a tiny bit. Once again, only 2 friends, and one of them is my mother in law (bless her).

Finally, I joined Twitter - an interesting phenomenon consisting of "micro" blogging. Really micro - one has only 140 characters to tell the world what you happen to be doing or thinking at the moment. Its very interesting, and I can see how addicting it could be.

I'm not sure about the intrinsic value of Twitter, or any of these "tools" of becoming more socially connected. I use the internet to promote my art and the products I sell, so that I can hopefully make a profit and continue to do what I love. However, I also struggle with spending too much time on the internet. It is one of my weaknesses, and it is so easy to get sidetracked, slip off onto a tangent, and before I know it an hour has slipped by, often wasted.

God, family, art, marketing my art on the internet. I need to work hard at keeping these priorities in their proper order.

Interview with Jennie Beecroft - Part 2

Here's the completion of my online interview with Jennie Beecroft, the designer and manufacturer of the Microfleur microwave flower press.

Today's responses are especially interesting from a "home business" point of view, as we get to see how Jennie ran with her passion and took her idea (along with and her husbands design) and marketed it into a product with international appeal and demand.

Elizabeth: How did the creation of the Microfleur come about? How did the conception of your idea turn into an internationally sold product? Were there hurdles you had to overcome?

Jennie: On our return to Australia we were looking at whether we would buy a business or join the work force. As I mentioned earlier Bob (my husband) designed Microfleur for me so we eventually decided to market it. After at least 6 months of research and testing we came up with the product you see today. We also needed a name - micro (for microwave) and fleur (French for flower) was the final choice. Then came the logo, User guide, packaging, etc. Originally we only had the small press and we launched it at a large Craft Fair in early 1995. Luckily Microfleur was one of the few items to be shown on local television the first night of the show, and the rest, as they say, is history. During the year we had so many requests for a larger Microfleur that we launched the MAX early in 1996.

Friends of ours had visitors staying from USA who were very taken with Microfleur and asked to be our USA distributors - as we were novices in the international scene and felt comfortable with these people we agreed and early in 1996 went to our first HIA show in Las Vegas.

Getting into the European market was a lot harder - we attended several trade shows in Europe and England as well as retail shows in England. The demand was there but getting the European supplier to take on a product from Australia was quite difficult. We found we needed to attend the shows for at least 3 years before we were taken seriously. I guess we had to prove we were there for the long term and able to sustain exhibiting at the shows.
We also had to have the guide translated into the many European languages and get interpreters to help out on the stand.

When we first started we were working out of one side of our garage and Bob and I doing most of the assembly by hand. As we grew we moved into a rented factory and Bob designed box folders and felt slicers (so we could get the correct thickness of felt) and we needed to hire a casual to help with the packaging.

Also, we had found that most of our retails buyers were first time flower pressers and wanted to know how or what to use their flowers on - so I wrote the Project book which has helped to sell the press.

Elizabeth: Are there any innovations to the Microfleur or other pressed flower products in the works?

Jennie: No not at this stage, we have looked at specific glues and sealers but there are so many on the market, now, that do the job that it seemed unnecessary.

Elizabeth: Any parting comments?

Jennie: I guess I would suggest that people try anything and everything. And I am often amazed at the uses customers come up with, and some of the designs and pictures are beautiful.

Thanks again for sharing with us Jennie! Your story is an interesting one.
If you are interested in learning more about using the Microfleur, here is a tutorial on How to press Crocus flowers in the microfleur.

Selling our art

I regularly read artist Luann Udell’s blog – it’s witty, sometimes a bit sarcastic, but more often than not, very, very practical for those of us trying to be artists.

Lately she’s been blogging about creating good booth displays (and how to avoid bad booth displays) for the upper end art shows she tends to do. It’s been interesting, but a bit out of my league. However, yesterday she blogged about a recent visit to a small local craft fair (the kind I tend to do) and her observations in regards to how the booths were set up, how items were displayed, and how people acted in their booths.

She holds the stick pretty high since she is primarily familiar with "cream of the crop" expensive shows, but she points out many correctable omissions that I know I’m guilty of in my usual booth set up. Take signs for example. I usually print out a few price signs in a rush as I’m packing for a show, but rarely go beyond that. But why not go beyond that, and actually highlight your creation’s uniqueness, its usefulness… give your customer a reason to take a closer look at it. According to Luann, our signage needs to quickly tell “our story” for our customers. I know mine doesn’t.

She also briefly covers lighting, and display set up, but I especially loved her advice on how to talk to customers. Most customers go to a show prepared to buy something, but they need a bit of encouragement to buy… permission to buy, in a sense. We need to be able to talk about our creations intelligently – not in a pushy way, but in a way that conveys our love for our art, and allows them to love it too. I know this is easier said than done, but its definitely food for thought.

I know several of you are beginning to sell your work as well. Go check out Luann’s article, and hopefully we can all improve our booths and selling techniques this year.

Monday Mornings at Bodi’s

One of the things I’m finally realizing that I need to do in order for my pressed flower “mini business” to be successful, is to PLAN. I have always prided myself on being spontaneous, but I’m finding that trying to get by on a wing and a prayer is not effective.

The woman talked about in Proverbs 31 is a woman to admire. She had several “mini businesses” on the side and “she saw that her trading was profitable”. In fact, her ventures were so profitable that she was able to buy a vineyard out of her earnings. I would love that! A nice vineyard in the Sonoma Valley…

Back to reality. Being highly productive and effective takes planning. Long and short term goals that have are the result of much thought, thorough review of relevant facts, and prayer.

So now that the kids are back in school, I spend an hour of my Monday morning drinking Chai Tea at Bodi’s Bakery in Twin Lakes, with my Franklin Planner spread out on the table before me, and a prayer in my heart as I plan my months, weeks, and days.

This post reminds me that last year I came across a helpful series on a blog that talks about highly effective habits for women, and planning was one of them. You might want to check it out when you have the time.

Free!

Today is another resource day – I want to share with you some more of my favorite free internet resources that I’ve found helpful for my pressed flower business.

Number one on my list today is Google – what would I do with out it? As a search engine, it is phenomenal. With it, you can find anything on the web! I find the best deals on cardstock, envelopes, framing materials, printer ink, and shipping materials. I can check out my competition, and find information on any topic I want to know about. I have never taken a class in papermaking or pressing flowers. I have learned 95% of what I know from reading whatever I can about them on the internet. For free! I love it.

I also make use of the free webmaster tools that Google offers, which have helped my web sites perform better in the search engines, which is key for good internet sales. And, recently I’ve been making use of Google Alerts, to learn more about certain topics I’m interested in. Simply go to the Google News page, and sign up for an alert on any topic. Then, you’ll receive an email alert whenever anything is published on the web or in a blog about that topic. I have Google Alerts on my domain names to alert me to new incoming links, and on pressed flowers, cooking with herbs and using handmade paper.

A word of caution: as amazing and helpful as Google is, it may occasionally lead you down a seamy path. Be ready to hit the back button in case you end up some place you shouldn’t be.

Another wonderful web resource is http://www.about.com/
What a fascinating site – one could get lost on there for days. I have found a lot of helpful information on website design, setting up and maintaining a small business, how to do any craft imaginable, blogging, computer maintenance, desktop publishing, cooking techniques, and on and on. Amazing. And it’s free!

One last resource that I’d like to recommend to you is http://www.flylady.net/
It’s kind of a wacky site, but I have found it very helpful for getting my house in order. The “Fly Lady” is touted as being “your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house.” Through barrages of email, she takes you on a journey of tackling your house “zone by zone” and helps you set up a daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning and organization plan that really works. Like I said, the site and her approach are a bit wacky, but I like the results I’ve achieved. I needed direction in this area, and her ideas have given me the structure I needed. My dear husband is very much a “neatie”, and when we decided that I would embark on my home business, I agreed to keep our home neat and orderly. Well, I’m not normally neat and organized, and I’ve failed more often than not in the past. But since I’ve realized that I need to pray about this area of my life, and since I made a commitment to keep on track with the Fly Lady, I am doing so much better.

We certainly blessed to have so many resources at our fingertips.

In the beginning...

Years ago, with 3 little ones under the age of 4, I saw two T.V. programs that nudged me onto a new path.

While drowning in a sea of tippy cups and toddler toys, I saw Lynette Jennings on the Discovery Channel make paper. Amazing! It looked so easy. And cheap! All I needed was a kitchen blender, and some type of frame with a screen. I was on it.

Then, I saw Rebecca, from a show called “Rebecca’s Garden” press flowers with some type of microwave flower press. The flowers were stunning. Maybe I could put them on handmade paper…

So, I began with an improvised paper making kit, and a Microfleur Flower Press and those are still the primary tools I use. And here I am today, blessed with a small but hopefully growing pressed flower/botanical art business that started with a little inspiration lots of Divine Intervention, and a few other blessings along the way.

One of the first blessings was Anne Post of Preserved Gardens. Soon after I began making pressed flower cards, I came across her amazing pressed flower site and discovered that she had a free Pressed Flower Store, where she graciously allowed pressed flower artists show and offer their work directly to the customer right on her website. After I sold a number of cards via her site, I gingerly ventured into web retailing on my own. I created my own site with Yahoo’s Sitebuilder, and eventually purchased my own domain, http://www.elizabeths-flowers.com/

By the way, if you ever need to know ANYTHING about pressed flowers, check out Preserved Gardens. That has been my primary pressed flower information resource through the years, and I still refer to it every now and then. Anne also has comprehensive reviews on pressed flower books on her site you may want to check out. Another good resource is the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild. I am not currently a member, but I was at one time, and learned a lot. There is also a pressed flower group on Yahoo that has some fairly good information on pressing flowers in their archives.

This post is getting a bit long, and I have to get a few orders ready to ship. I’ll be back…

leaf petals

A few weeks ago I quietly launched my second website, called leaf petals. At this point it’s still a small site, but I’m excited about it because it will enable me to eventually branch out in other “botanical” areas I’m interested in, such as nature printing, botanical cyanotype prints, and it’s a good venue to showcase my new line of cards called “leaf mosaics.”

By having another site, I won’t be “diluting” Elizabeth’s Flowers with non-pressed flower items; therefore it will hopefully (God willing) continue to rank well in Google for pressed flower cards, art, etc. Do you have a website you’re working on? One day next week I’ll be blogging about how I got started in my web business, and will share some valuable online resources that proved to be wonderful blessings to me along the way. In the meantime, have a quick peek at leaf petals!

Brand New Header!

I have a sparkling new blog header thanks to Jules over at Everyday Design. Although it took her awhile to get it done (she’s a busy mom), I found her a joy to work with, and she did a wonderful job capturing the look I was hoping for. I really love the purple flower.

Thanks, Jules!

Etsy!

Presenting Elizabeth’s Flowers Etsy Shop

A number of my “E-friends” have been raging about how fun it is to shop on “Etsy”, and they’ve been encouraging me to open a shop an Etsy as well.

Basically it’s a place to “buy and sell all things handmade”, but what really stands it apart from others in the e-commerce Mecca, is that Etsy was designed by four creative guys (Rob from Brooklyn, Jared from Albuquerque, Haim from Jersey City and Chris from Philadelphia, who are trying to push the boundaries of how we shop online. Instead of “text only” searches that we do on places like eBay, or Amazon, the Etsy guys are exploring new technologies to lets us shop by color, place, time, and material. It’s really interesting!

Of course I’d like you to check out my budding store front first, but then try the cool the cool “Shop by Color” grid, the Geolocator, or the Time Machine. How fun!
Technorati Tag: Etsy

The Brookfield Farmer's Market

One of my favorite places to be on a sunny summer morning is at the Brookfield Farmer’s Market, just outside of Milwaukee.

One or two Saturdays a month during the summer I drag myself out of bed at 4:45, pack up my latest pressed flower creations and my EZ UP tent, and set off for my 90 minute trip to Brookfield. I savor the early morning drive through the countryside, watching the sun gently waking up the world, however, once I pull into the parking lot it’s a race against time to set up my little “stall”. Not that I have a huge amount of pressed flower cards, framed art, botanical luminaries to arrange (I wish! On the contrary, I never seem to have enough) … but there are so many sights and smells that intrigue me. The scents of basil and onions, freshly brewed coffee and mouthwatering bakery fill the air. There are friendly fellow vendors to greet before the onslaught of customers arrive, and most of all, there are the flowers. Tons of flowers! Almost every kind and color imaginable, and I’m always so tempted to explore each and every flower stall instead of getting down to business and readying my little piece of parking lot real estate.

At 7:30 the crowd begins to arrive. The Brookfield Farmer’s Market has been a good venue for me. My cards and art sell well there, and they seem to be a good fit with the natural items sold there. However, between sales I still have plenty of time for one of my favorite past times – people watching. Dog watching can also be interesting (I have concluded that some dogs really do seem to resemble their owners and vice versa).

I’m very thankful to be a periodic part of the market. If you are ever in the area on a Saturday morning, please stop by.


Technorati Tags: Brookfield Farmer's Market

Swift Rejection

Last week I finally called the Chicago Botanic Garden. It took me awhile to get up the nerve, well, actually a long while, but after the encouragement of a number of artist friends and mentors, I called the curator of the Chicago Botanic Garden Gift Shop, and asked for an appointment to show my pressed flower cards.

Before I made the call, I went over a number of scenarios in my mind, planned out what I would say, and anticipated various questions that might come up. Finally I mustered up all my confidence, took a deep breath and made the call.

I was not prepared for the response I got. Laughter. Laughter? I was definitely caught off guard.

“Pressed flower cards? (while cackling) We have lost so much money on pressed flower cards. Nobody ever buys them. They are a waste of money – I’m definitely not interested in seeing your cards.”

The conversation pretty much died from there. I hadn’t anticipated that kind of response, and was basically speechless. Of course later I thought of lots of responses, brilliant responses, such as the fact that my cards are already in over 15 stores and galleries nationwide…

Thankfully that day was one of those breathtakingly beautiful warm early spring days, and I spent the remainder of the day with my son exploring the gardens and looking for new signs of life, and clearing away last year’s spent plants. Sure, rejection happens, but I’m thankful that it’s just a minuscule part of our life experience. God’s grace and new life are always all around us, and I am thankful.

By the way, I was accepted as a U.S. distributor for the Microfleur Flower Press, the exact press I use. This is pretty exciting for me, because I love this flower press, and it’s really a vital tool of my business.