In light of my email today I wanted to share some of the things that I have been doing in my business in the hopes that it inspires you to start thinking outside the box in terms of your business. What else can you do with the skills and resources you have on hand? If you have not read the email, you can read it here. The idea is to extend your business beyond just the digital elements.

Going Local

Last week I mentioned that I was going to try local craft shops to see if they would buy my physical printed paper. I went to visit them and showed them the pack.

They really liked it but gave me some outstanding advice about what their customers were looking for. Their primary customers are people who make cards, so big prints won’t work. They like small patterns. The other thing is that they don’t like double sided print. They want single and they want more than one page of the same pattern. In the end, I worked out that 30 papers printed on one side with 10 patterns would be the ideal number to sell as a pack.

I had added envelopes and tags to the paper pack which the owner said was not necessary because people like to make them themselves. 

Over the weekend I made a few cards to see how they would look with the papers I had printed and I was pleased with the result. Also having photos of scrapbook pages or cards (or any other physical product) already made up are great for enhancing sales. This gives your potential customers some ideas on how to use your papers.

One thing I did notice though is that the ink was smudging. This means that either my paper choice was wrong or I will have to get them printed professionally.

So here is the good news. She has asked me to supply her with several packs of 30 papers in different patterns and color swatches and she will see if her customers will buy them. Not only did I learn some valuable information about what her customers want, but now I could end up selling lots of paper packs.

You have no idea how hard it was for me to go and speak to someone face to face about my products. Doing things digitally is so much easier.

Going International

Do you have a friend or family member in another country?

A few weeks ago, I chatted to my daughter in the UK and we decided to open up a business together but in the UK, as doing business over there is so much easier than in South Africa. The postal service is top notch and generally speaking printing companies are way ahead than those in South Africa from a costing and distribution perspective.

We have done everything by the book. We registered a company, got a tax number, opened up a bank account and set up a registered business address with a service.

My friend Lou who lives in the UK gave me the name of a printer that does a lot of scrapbook paper printing and I sent through several samples that I wanted done. The pricing was so reasonable compared to South Africa. I was blown away.

The picture above is my friend Lou actually going to the printers to check out the quality of printing for me. 

The other advantage for me is that buying packaging and other supplies direct from Amazon is amazing because it is delivered the next day. In South Africa it takes months to arrive from Amazon.

Royal Mail in the UK has an integration directly with Etsy, so you can get your orders shipped and tracked within Etsy. You can see all the integrations here.

In summary

For the local market I went through all my paper packs and extracted the papers that have small patterns and combined them into a pdf ready for the printer. I am just waiting for a quote from a printer and then I will get them printed.

The UK business has now been set up and the Etsy store created. I have several paper packs ready to send to the printer there so that my daughter will have some physical stock before we open the store. This is a sample of one the packs that will be printed in the UK.

So the next few weeks are going to be very interesting. I will keep you updated.

Now what about you?  Could you spend some time brainstorming some ideas on how to expand your business beyond the digital aspect if possible? I would love to hear your ideas.