Working Tuesday: Selling your creations

You've found your passion. Maybe it's gluing bottle caps into a wreath for Christmas? Maybe it's crocheting flowers into lapel pins? Possibly hand sewing together tiny little pocket books for use as a journal? Whatever it is, it's your passion. And your passion is rapidly piling up in your living room, your spare room, in boxes under your bed? Or maybe your friends have started to ask you if you'll make them a bottle cap wreath for their doors? Then, comes the dreaded phrase, "You should SELL these!" And the idea starts to grow in your head. And you start dreaming about ways to help finance your passion rather than using up your entire $10 a week in spending money every. single. week.

Yeah, I've been there. I get it. You have that need to create. You see designs where other people see piles of tchotchkes (yes, I had to look up the spelling of that too). But you have a passion and you have to create. So what's next?

We're lucky. In this day and age, there are many options open to us online that weren't available even 10 years ago. And the easiest and best known way I've found is etsy.com. Etsy - I pronounce it et-see (like set without the s and then like what you do when you use your eyes) - makes it ridiculously easy to set up an account. They have easy to follow directions available at the site.

Before you set up an account, however, think about a couple things. Most importantly? Your name. What's in a name? Your identity. This is what gives people an idea of what you sell. It's a way to convey a feeling about who you are and what you do. It's called branding. And though this may change in the near future, you can't change your name once you've picked it. So think long and hard about your name. It'll stick with you for a while.

For me, I wanted a name that conveyed timelessness while provoking emotion. I created a list of names, passed them around to friends who knew me and my work and asked them to vote on the name they thought fit me best. I even got several suggestions that were great. It's like doing market research without paying for a fancy focus group. I decided on the word Swoon because I like what it conveys - a flair for the dramatic, a bit of romance and - I admit it - it's also the name of an Imogen Heap song so the word was top of mind. And if Immi is using it, it's got to be cool, right?? Studios was both easy and difficult. We tried "designs" or "creations" - one was taken and another didn't fit. I ended up with the alliteration of Swoon Studio, that when I looked for the URL, it was taken. And thus Swoon Studios was born.

In the next couple weeks, I'll focus on the process of how and where you can start to sell your creations. In the meantime, start thinking about your name!

*Non-Swoon photos property of NewPrehistory, TheBroochBoutique and Zipper8Design, all etsy.com sellers. Click on the pictures to see their shops!