Entrepreneurship | Blacksburg Belle

I did something a little nutty this week. I let my husband direct this video.

Actually, I asked him to help me out. I’m pretty lucky, because my husband seriously cares about my business and he enjoys helping me with stuff {unless I get cranky and yell}. He also brings out the best in me and can make me laugh like no one else.

At the end of Rich, Happy, and Hot Live on Sunday evening, Mayi Carles and I met up with our super patient {they waited outside for about 45 minutes for us} significant others and had a delicious dinner. Then, we chatted for hours.

During that time, Kris {my man} decided it would be funny to show Mayi and her man some videos he had taken of me on Christmas morning opening presents. These weren’t your run-of-the-mill videos—let’s just put it that way. And, no, you won’t be seeing them. They are way too embarrassing. But, they caused Mayi to double over laughing. Then, she wanted to know why Kris hadn’t put them up on YouTube yet. His response: I like my life. I want to stay alive.

Anyways, Mayi insisted that I need to add bloopers at the end of some of my videos, so I did. Kris decided the “bloopers” would be called entertainment time which he didn’t mention to me until we were taping. You’ll see my reaction to this around the 2:17 mark.

In case you want a recap of the video, Amy asked if I’d cover the topic of getting and keeping new blog readers. It’s a juicy one, right? Here are my four tips:

1. Produce valuable content! You have to publish something that people want to read or watch.

2. Capture your readers with an email newsletter.

3. Call your readers to action to get them involved.

4. Market your blog like you market your creative business.

And, if you want more information on any of those tips, you should check out my book: Marketing for Creatives: How to Spread Your Message and Boost Your Sales.

That’s it for today my friends. If you have any feedback {questions, topics you want me to cover, more advice on getting and keeping new blog readers}, I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

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Do you want more time to put towards the important stuff in your business? You know—the stuff that makes you feel good and makes you money?

If so, one thing you need to add to your stop doing list this second is chasing trends.

A few weeks ago, I asked my followers on Facebook if they have any topics they want me to cover. Liberty Montano asked if I’d cover trend chasing, so here we are.

Before I tell you why trend chasing can be a big ol’ waste of time, I want to talk about the creative entrepreneurs who SHOULD pay attention to trends.

You should pay attention to trends if your ideal customer cares deeply about trends. You should know all about your ideal customer by now, so you should know if your ideal customer is constantly chasing trends and buys mostly trendy items. If this is your ideal customer, your products will need to reflect it. This is the only time that I believe it will truly benefit your business to incorporate new trends into it regularly.

You should pay attention to trends that you’ll be able to sell over and over. For instance, if a huge color for fall is plum and you make jewelry, make some jewelry that incorporates the color plum. Even after that fall is over, you’ll still have customers who want to buy plum-colored jewelry.

Now, let’s cover the reasons to stop chasing trends.

1. You don’t want to confuse your customers with inconsistent branding.

Your brand is a big freaking deal. Eventually, you want your customers to recognize your brand instantly when they see new products featured on another blog, when they receive a package in the mail, and when they see your logo somewhere other than your website.

The most important part of your branding is your message—your why. Every product that you make needs to be a product of your why. If it isn’t, building a loyal customer base is going to be extremely difficult—if not, impossible. If you chase trends, it’s easy to get away from your why. If the trend is a part of your why, then it’ll be easy for you to incorporate it into your business. If not, leave it alone.

2. Most of your customers aren’t looking for trends when they buy handmade products.

If I know something is just a trend and won’t be around next season, I shop for it at Target. I’m going to find the least expensive version of that trend, because I know I’ll only be wearing it or using it a few times. I definitely won’t be searching Etsy to find a handmade version of it. And, I bet many of your customers feel the same way. When you buy a trendy item, do you buy an expensive version or an inexpensive version?

3. If you can’t produce it and make it available for purchase fast, you’re going to lose money.

You don’t want to spend lots of time and money in materials making trendy products unless you think you’re going to sell them while they’re still trendy. If you can’t turn around these products fast, you’ll be stuck with stock that you can’t move and you’ll have to give all your family members last season’s trends for Christmas gifts.

4. You lose uniqueness.

If you chase trends, you’re like everybody else who chases trends. You’ll soon find that you’re making products like lots of other people, and if you don’t have any way to differentiate yourself, you’ll have to compete on price. You never want to compete on price.

I hope this helps you get clearer on whether you should be incorporating trends into your business.

How to Get and Keep New Blog Readers