The Scrapbooking Entrepreneur

As you consider a scrapbooking business for yourself, consider whether you have the skills of a scrapbooking entrepreneur.

• Most successful business entrepreneurs are those who do what they enjoy.

• Enthusiasm for your business is more important than the details of accounting, organization, and legal. Why? You can always hire professionals to do this and similar kinds of work and the cost won’t be that great. What cannot be bought are enthusiasm, drive and know-how. Only you have these qualities for your business as a scrapbooking entrepreneur.

On the other side of the coin, according to the Small Business Association (SBA), more than 50% of all new businesses in the U.S. fail. The biggest reason given is that many entrepreneurs get an idea for a business, often based on a favorite hobby and jump right in.

Remember, the SBA only tracks whether a business remained open and growing. In many cases, it may be that when people attempted making their hobby into a profession (especially something like a scrapbooking entrepreneurial business), they found they did not enjoy the business aspect of it and closed by choice – not necessarily because they weren’t getting any interested customers or were having financial difficulties.

Be honest about your goals and reasons for going into business for yourself as a scrapbooking entrepreneur. Do you have what it takes?

Consider these personal attributes in your scrapbooking business:

• Do you scrapbook yourself?

• Do you have a full blown love (and hopefully passion) for creating your own one-of-kind albums and are you knowledgeable about all the gadgets, papers, and terminology out there?

• Remember, you can learn the different aspects of what it takes to be a scrapbooking entrepreneur, but, you cannot learn how to be creative in your scrapbooking endeavors strictly from a book.

Many home-based and retail scrapbooking entrepreneurial business owners confided that it was only after years of actually creating scrapbooks and experimenting with all the merchandise, that they are able to advise customers on what product takes care of what kind of job most effectively and offer creative techniques the manufacturer had not thought of.

• What corner of the scrapbooking entrepreneur enterprise do you want to occupy? Do you enjoy getting up in front of others leading a group or does the thought of that scare you? Are you a team player or a spectator who prefers to work alone?

• Can you multitask and coordinate? Are you comfortable delegating, as you would have to do with employees? How are you with bookkeeping, ordering, or being firm with vendors or unreasonable customers? How do you handle deadline situations that can become stressful?

• How are your customer service skills? Do most people irritate you easily? Can you work long hours at a retail site or do you prefer sporadic spurts of energy at home, where you can do other things?

• Can you plan ahead and can you manage your time? Are you an organized person, or does your bedroom closet resemble more of a badly kept storage idea.

If you work at home, can you discipline your family and friends to respect your work hours and office space? Do you currently keep to a household budget and track expenses? Do you save for large purchases, or do you demand instant gratification? How would you handle loneliness if working long hours without others around you? The life of a scrapbooking (and other) entrepreneur can be demanding.

• Professionalism – Think about how you would present yourself, a scrapbooking entrepreneur, to bank personnel, vendors, advertising and marketing agents, commercial real-estate agents (if going retail) maintenance personnel, landlords, and most of all, your customers.

You will need to acquire many traits and skills for running your own scrapbooking entrepreneur business. You will have to decide what structure you would have your scrapbooking business run under. Will you want a partner? Are you planning to run a corporation or will you be running a home-based business? You will need to register your business, deciding if it is service-oriented or if you will need a retail sales license.

You will be creating a logo, a scrapbooking business plan, a tax foundation, your letterhead, invoices, inventory control sheets, as well as a list of vendors. Whether your business is home-based or not, you will need to acquire office equipment and, if you go into retail, a large amount of displays, merchandise, and tracking equipment.

Advertising

Being able to advertise and attract customers is very important. You must be able to judge your competition in such a way as to offer something he or she does not. What are your computer skills like? Is creating a Web site part of your plans? Are you familiar with how to use today’s technology? Do you understand how to price inventory and check its progress?

Feedback questions for the Scrapbooking Entrepreneur

If you are wondering where you fit in, consider a couple fill-in-the-blank questions:

“The scrapbooking business area that would be the most attractive to me is (fill in the blank), because I have the following skills and interests to bring to the business to make it a success: (Fill in the blank…).

Consider what area you are drawn to at the moment. Some examples are consulting, home-based businesses, retail ownership, owning your own online store, and teaching.

In the next blank, list your assets that help you to succeed at that particular scrapbook career. This should help you figure out the direction you want to go as well as discover what your strengths and weaknesses are in that area.

A scrapbooking career for people-oriented individuals could fall in the category of a retail outlet or a consultant. Even teaching workshops or seminars would work here.

Now, if you prefer to work by yourself more often, then, you might feel more at home designing your own products in your own studio and shopping them around to manufacturers on the Web or through the mail. Another behind-the-scenes job would be your own Internet business. The possibilities exist.

Ten Fears That Block Success for the Scrapbooking Entrepreneur

Why don’t more people go into a business for themselves, whether as a scrapbooking entrepreneur or something else? It isn’t for everyone. Some people are just better at working for someone else than they feel working for themselves. It could be the knowledge of having to take on the things your employer has assumed for you for many years. Anyway, here is a list of some common fears spoken by a number of people on the subject.

1. The fear of failing. The would-be scrapbooking entrepreneur feels a general sense of dread and anxiety.

2. Fear of success. Will I be overwhelmed and my life no longer my own? Truly, if success means your life will change from where it is now, does that bother you?

3. Fear of embarrassment if the venture fails. Like who wants to hear “I told you so.?”

4. Fear of demands on time. A person dreams of owning her own business, figuring that this will free up those 8 hours a day or more they put in for their boss or that they will have the time for family. The truth is that many new businesses can take a lot of time and perseverance.

5. Fear of being undereducated for the job requirements. Maybe you didn’t get the training or the education you thought you should have to really take on this venture. You might have to realize that education only goes so far and that only putting yourself in the way of experience will get you those job requirements you might otherwise expect from someone you were hiring for your business. Besides, you should know something about what you are hiring others to do.

I was told after my first class when going after my bachelor’s that I would in fact have to learn some of the things for what I wanted to do in other ways and that my classes I was taking was only the tip of the iceberg.

6. Fear of being your own boss. “The buck stops here!” You can’t just tell them to talk to the manager. You are the manager. You have to have answers.

7. Fear of competition. Whether you run a brick and mortar or an online deal, you will have to deal with the fact that others are playing the game too. After all, if it’s not a growing field of business, would it be lucrative for you as well as your competition?

8. Fear of all the details: accounting, legalities, setting up a Web site, health insurance, retirement, and so on. It’s enough to make your head spin.

9. Fear of less family time. How would your family feel? What considerations are in place for them? Will they be supportive?

10. Fear of customer dissatisfaction. Who wants to deal with an unhappy customer, really? As the saying goes, people are people. A lot of psychology goes into running a business.

Okay, so there are a number of fears that get in the way of succeeding. First, all these fears are normal fears. You are most normal. Second, realize the fear comes from working with what is unknown for all intent. So, realize you are not alone and that other scrapbooking entrepreneur’s have gone before you and can offer wonderful advice as to how to handle the different aspects of the path you are considering.

Whether your favorite craft is scrapbooking or something different, you might be interested in checking out my journey in the art of scrapbooking and more at Coolest Handmade Crafts, a directory made for those of us craft-oriented people.

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