Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Bead Biz- A Good Read

Last week, I gave a little tutorial on writing a business plan. I thought it might be helpful to mention a few of my favorite business books also. All three of these are easy to read and really helpful for the business of selling your creations. I had to pull one off my desk, one out of my night stand, and the other out of the living room. As you can see, I keep them around and use them whenever I am feeling like some inspiration, (on the business side of things that is), I get them out.

My favorite is Barbabra Brabec's book Make it Profitable! I have had this book for ever, it's great for helping with designing promotional materials, marketing, and just getting organized. It's an all around good craft business book.

Second is Wendy Rosen's Crafting As A Business. Wendy Rosen is the person behind the Buyers Market of American Craft that is held twice a year in Philadelphia. The Rosen Group has made it their business to help artists to succeed. I like this book because their are interviews with actual artists.

This is my most recent business book buy, Self Promotion for the Creative Person by Lee Silber. This is a fun book to read, he's got some good stories thrown in with some really great ideas.

It's cold outside... so get cozy with one of these craft business reads.

Written by Jennifer Heynen of Jangles.

6 comments:

Heather Powers said...

Thanks for 3 great books Jennifer. I own Crafting as a Business and have found it very helpful over the years. I just ordered Make it Profitable! Sounds like a good one.

Erin Siegel said...

Thanks for letting us know about these books, Jennifer! It's nice to know which ones you like and look to. There is another book that I have in my collection. It's called Marketing and Selling your Handmade Jewelry by Viki Lareau. Check it out sometime! It is also an excellent book! It's specific to the jewelry-maker! It's a must-read for sure!

Melissa J. Lee said...

Wow, thanks for the recommendations. I'm quite interested in these!

Beverly Herman said...

Jennifer I think your posts are great contributions to the Art Bead Scene. I always enjoy reading your post.

JenniferJangles said...

Erin,
THanks for teh suggestion, I will look into that book. Viki is great when she talks and is full of personality. I bet her book is a good one.

Andrew Thornton said...

Must have books in the library for sure!

One of the best little bits of advice I got about writing applies to this:

"There's a million books out there about writing. You could spend your life reading them. But there comes a time when you've got to put down the books and just DO! You'll learn more than you ever will in a book from the simple act of trying. Sure it may be frustrating and you may throw up your hands (maybe more than once, or twice, or even thrice), but ultimately these lessons will stick with you far past any fleeting paragraph. So, get up, get writing and DO!"