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3 Questions Before Starting Your Creative Subscription Service

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There are several great reasons to start your own monthly subscription service. I’ve mentioned 5 mistakes to think of when starting your own creative subscription service and 4 advantages of having a subscription service as a part of your creative business. You might want to start one to grow your audience, make more money, and expand your business. But before you jump right into this new business venture, there are three important questions you need to ask yourself.

3 Questions
Question #1: Is this is a profitable area?

It doesn’t matter if your subscription service is the best idea ever if no one is willing to pay for it. You don’t have to spend six months researching an audience in order to figure this one out. Just look around. Are there other products that are selling well in the area you plan to build your subscription service on?

People are often looking to receive a regularly monthly shipment when it comes to fabric and other craft supplies, we can see many examples of this when looking at a variety of online quilt shops.

Question #2: Is this subscription site going to interest my existing audience?

Many creative business owners that launch a successful subscription have already built an existing audience. This is essential because you want your existing readers and subscribers to join your new membership site. Don’t launch a subscription service for knitters if your primary audience is quilters. You’ll only confuse your followers and overwhelm yourself by serving two different audiences.

Question #3: Is this a recurring need?

You want to build an audience that consistently needs what you have to offer. It’s okay if your product seems pretty basic – so is toilet paper but people still buy it each month. Remember if your audience doesn’t need or want to use your product each month, then it might be hard to generate sign-ups for your subscription service. The newest fabric is a great place to start with a subscription club, but so is something basic like solids or charm packs.

If you have an idea for a subscription site, then you should carefully evaluate it by asking the questions above. A great guide that will teach you how to start your own subscription site is Little Monthly Payments. This step-by-step resource shows you how to generate an idea for your subscription service and implement it.

For the month of February, you can save $30 on the course by using the code SAVE30BUCKS! Let me know what your idea is, I’d love to support you!

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Found This Week

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I am always up for a new (to me) quilt block. I love this one and I’ve already picked some fabric out for a pillow, nine of these will make a 24″ cushion.

Okay, even with all of the paper piecing that I have done – english paper piecing with hexagons and the many foundation paper piecing stars – I’ve never done the freezer paper piecing method! I love being able to save templates, thanks for sharing this Allison! Buy printable freezer paper so you can easily print templates!

In an attempt to both take and use better photos, and be better about sharing the photos that I am taking, I love this write up on using the timer cam app (TimerCam available in the itunes store).

What’s another quilt project! I really want to make a clamshell quilt and Latifah has two sizes she created patterns for in her crafty shop.

4 Advantages of Creating Your Creative Subscription Service

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Earlier this week, I talked about five common mistakes for starting a subscription service. Today, let’s talk about the advantages of your creative subscription service!

4 Advantages

Advantage #1: More time.

As a small business owner, time is one of your most valuable assets. With a subscription service, you don’t have to go out looking for new buyers in order to get paid again. You release a new product each month and enjoy the profits. You’ll save time that you can use to grow other branches of your business or to spend with loved ones.

Advantage #2: Keep costs down.

Depending on what you are selling, you may be able to purchase large quantities of product in bulk to help keep your costs down. Of course, if you are that embroidery designer I mentioned in Starting A Creative Subscription Service and you’re sending out PDF files, your costs will be minimal over the long term. You simply create the product one time, and sell the subscription! This is great because you do the work one time and continue to sell subscriptions.

You may have to pay for a few technical tools in the beginning, but the long-term cost of running a subscription service is low if you are offering embroidery patterns or other files delivered online. This is not a business model that you’ll have to sink hundreds or thousands of dollars into every year. You pay the initial costs then just up-keep or maintenance costs for things like hosting and domain names.

Getting the like is easy, it's a light action. Anything else requires trust.

Advantage #3: Subscriber loyalty.

This is a big one. I am very loyal to my favorite fabric shops and when one announces a fabric club or block of the month, it is easy for me to say yes. I know I am going to consistently receive excellent customer service and I love the product.

When you consistently provide good content to your subscribers, they will become loyal. This is important to growing your business because happy, loyal customers are often willing to tell their friends or co-workers about your product. This can put even more money into your pocket each month.

Advantage #4: Subscribers spend more.

Once you’ve converted a subscriber into a loyal customer, then he is likely to look at your other products and services. A customer that feels like he’s receiving a lot of value for his $10 subscription will be more willing to pay for your $100 coaching session than a cold prospect would. This means that you shouldn’t be shy about sharing your other products and services with your current subscribers.

Starting a subscription service is a big task. But that’s where a course like Little Monthly Payments can help you. You’ll find that the process of launching a subscription service is broken down into easy to follow steps that you can start taking today.

Creating a subscription service is fun and exciting, but it also takes a lot of work and preparation. These four points show you that there are many advantages to having a subscription service offered as a part of your creative business, keep them in mind as you work to launch your own subscription site successfully. For the month of February, you can save $30 on the course by using the code SAVE30BUCKS! Let me know what your idea is, I’d love to support you!

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031: Tsoniki Crazy Bull: Let’s take another look back

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Head over to iTunes and subscribe to Me Being Crafty so you don’t miss an episode! You can also subscribe on stitcher.

Welcome to episode 031 of the Me Being Crafty podcast, where we explore creativity in your life.

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In this episode I am recapping a a few more of the early episodes I did, this time episodes 008-014.You may have noticed that I changed the intro to the podcast and I am super excited at what is to come! I’ve been online for years and years (read my story here) and am thrilled to move in this new direction.

You may notice that this blog post is a day late – sorry about that! But if you subscribe to the show, you got the podcast on time on Thursday.

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My vision for the show was to talk about what someone does to express their creativity and I realized right away that sharing how people got started – how they grew up – what the first thing they made was – who taught them to make whatever craft they were doing – these things are important. I firmly believe that we need to know our past – we need to know where we came from not only who taught us when we were young, but who taught them. The story of who a person is, is often a wonderful one.

And while I will still be talking to creative people, I am also going to also focus a bit more on the business side of things because one of my favorite things is to see and talk about the behind the scenes of it all. When the Oprah show was ending, they did a Oprah Behind the Scenes which was all about her staff and the guests and the work that went into producing the show – and I really loved that. So look for more of that to come!

Recapping episodes 008-014:

I had a good visit with my friend Andrea House of Tickled Peach about being creative after you have children and how that changes things. Andrea struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety after her sons were born and for her that meant she felt alone in everything. Postpartum depression is common and if you need help, please ask for it. It can be hard when you have little kids and any creativity you have can often be put aside while you care for them. Andrea and I talked about the role that social media can play because people often show the nice parts of their day – the clean houses and perfect looking living rooms. And I’d like to say a big congratulations to my friend Andrea, she recently announced she and her husband are expecting another baby!

I have been contacting some Native American artists so I can share their story with you on the podcast and the first native artist I spoke with was Alorha Baga. Alorha is a beadwork designer and teacher as well as a youth group coordinator currently living in California. Teachers of all aspects are important so if you have the skills to each something, I hope you are doing so!

Allison Dutton recently shared a freezer paper tutorial and I’ve never done that kind of sewing so I am excited to try. Allison is blogging over at Allison Sews and I love her sewing and I encourage you to check it out. She has pattern tested for a few different projects so look for those if you are looking for a new pattern to try.

I am so excited at what Tracey Wirth is working on! She has been sharing fabric designs and she has been very proactive in her journey toward being a fabric or surface designer. When I interviewed her she said to be sure not to let technology hold you back from trying something – to fabric design or quilt design you often need to know some different computer programs but don’t be scared to trying them out. Tracey has shared that she’s taken a class on the Creative Live website as well as made cold calls to fabric companies to set up meetings. I love that she is putting herself out there like that!

In episode 12 I talked to Sandi Sawa Hazlewood about her journey with quilting. Sandi started out in the scrapbooking industry and when she turned to quilting, she jumped right in. She talks about her first purchase being during a vacation and that she bought five yards of the same fabric. Her experience in the scrapbook industry was a big help with her quilting because of what she learned about color and also taught classes.

I met Nicholas Ball when I attended the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London last summer and I was struck by the Vegetable Patch Quilt he made. Nick’s advice is to just do it – don’t be scared to mess up or not put something together the right way. you can’t have success unless you have failure. Nick posts his work including quilt blocks he makes for swaps and he also has shared a tutorial that featured a tree quilt block, which I used to make a mini quilt.

Christa Watson has been teaching for over 17 years and sewing for over 20 years. You definitely need to stop by her website because she shares tutorials and her patterns and quilt alongs. I love quilt alongs because you can see what others are making at the same time as you are, but also because the breakdown of the steps is left on the website long after the quilt along is finished. I have found that people will also share any tips for sewing something along the way, maybe there is a more efficient way to make a block or section of a quilt, and it seems like there are always modifications that people make to a bag or purse. Christa also shared her advice to just go for it because the voices that are doubting you are often only in your head.

Once again I am thankful to my friends for being on the show. Everyone has great advice to share about crafting, and most of it has been quilting, but the principles can be applied anywhere. Don’t be afraid to do something.

I am still making something every day and I am making a lot of progress on my projects. I always have a long list of things to make and it’s fun to see something come together when I look back at a week’s worth of photos.

I hope you have been able to be creative every day – or at least as often as you can. I realize that I watch a lot less tv when I am really focused on making stuff.

A reminder of where you can find me – Me Being Crafty facebook page – Tsoniki on Instagram – Tsoniki on Twitter 

Listen to episode 031 and let me know what you are working on!

Leave me a comment and let me know how you were creative today. Me, I’m quilting a baby quilt.

Make an Infinity Scarf

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craftyquickiemake

infinity scarf

I used quilting cotton to make an infinity scarf and it came together very quickly. You don’t even need two separate fabrics if you don’t want to use separate ones. I also have some knit fabric to use so I can make a few scarves, but I have a hard time with knit. I need to find a tutorial or two so I can figure out what I am doing wrong. Click over to see how to make your own scarf, you can make one in just a couple of hours.

 

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