Click here to visit ...

Saturday, September 03, 2011

The Business Chat - Your Right People

Imagine standing at a craft show and someone walks up, raves about how wonderful your work is and buys 4 items. 10 minutes later this happens again. You check your email and there’s another fan telling you how great your work is and buying a piece. Fabulous! If you could only find more of these people! These fans – your people – are your right people, they are your target market.

By determining your target audience you will be better prepared to make decisions about which craft shows to book into, which online stores to set up, where to advertise, and even which type of stores to approach to carry your work.

So who are your right people? Who buys your work? Picture them, imagine having a conversation with them and use these questions to further define them. If you don’t have a lot of customers yet put together a survey and ask your family and friends to fill it out. Ask about their shopping habits. Take a look at other artists that sell similar work to yours. Can you easily identify their right people and are they similar to yours?





  • How old are they and what gender?


  • What do they do for a living? Do they sit at a desk? Do they use a keyboard a lot? (charm bracelets are very annoying on a keyboard). Do they dress up for work? Do they wear a uniform?


  • What is their education level?


  • What is their income level?


  • Where do they shop? Online, farmers markets, crafts shows, art galleries. Name 5 stores they frequent.


  • Where do they live? Rural, small towns, suburbs, urban centres. A specific geographic location?


  • Do they have kids?


  • How much are they willing to spend? You need to know their buying habits. Would $10 for a bar of handmade soap make them flinch?
Put your answers together and come up with a profile of your RP – your right people. Give your RP a name so that you can think of them when you are working. Now when you make business decisions such as participating in a craft show or advertising on a blog ask yourself, will my right people be there?

No comments: