Money Matters

I've been away from my blog for so long! I took a few days off from the computer around Christmas, but this long absence is due to the fact that I threw out my back a little over a week ago. It's getting slowly getting better, but it's been very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for any length of time. Or to do anything else, for that matter! I've never thrown out my back before; I had no idea it was so debilitating.

Since I'm not up to anything in the studio, I spent the morning doing the bookkeeping for my pottery business. I'm proud to say that I made a profit in 2008! I've never actually made a profit in my business before, I've only sort of broke even. I took my profit and divided it by a rough estimate of the number of hours I worked at my business this year. I discovered that I earned $4.00 an hour making and selling pottery and jewelry this year! Hoots toots!

Of course, I would like to make more than $4.00 an hour making pottery. And I'm beginning to understand how to do that, finally. I'm discovering that it takes careful tracking of information of all sorts. I track what I spend on my business, in various spreadsheets for material, marketing, and overhead costs. I also track my sales monthly and annually to see which sales venues are producing the most income. I got my spreadsheets from an excellent art/craft business book called Making a Living in Crafts. I highly recommend checking it out if you're new to running a small craft business or you just never feel like you know what you're doing when it comes to the money side of your business.

I used to worry endlessly about how I would ever make enough money to continue to be able to make pottery. I wondered how in the world anyone ever supported themselves with their art! Now, I just try to do better than last year. I used to think there was some sort of magical plan or system that I just had not discovered that was the Answer. Now, I realize that pretty much everyone does the same thing. They do research, they try things, and then they keep what works and they pitch what doesn't. It's really that simple.

Going into 2009, I'm looking carefully at my spreadsheets, trying to determine where I can cut costs in order to be more profitable in the coming year. I see that my shipping costs and shipping supplies categories are where I spend a lot of money. Maybe I can search around for lower costs on bubble mailers and shipping labels and the like. I also see that my advertising section is pretty hefty, probably due to all those Etsy showcase spots and co-op ads I bought into early in 2008. I was just signing up for things willy-nilly, because I had no idea what worked for me. Now I know a little more. Etsy co-op ads, such as those in Bust or Craft magazines, have done nothing for me. Main Showcase spots are usually worth the money, but Category Showcase spots are not. I dropped Constant Contact's e-mail marketing services in favor of Vertical Response, because Constant Contact costs $15 a month whereas Vertical Response is pay-as-you-go and normally costs me about $4 to send an e-newsletter to my entire mailing list. It's amazing how little things like this add up to big money at the end of a year.

I know a lot of people don't like to talk about money, and some think it's crass to do so, but I don't agree. How will anyone learn about money if no one talks about it? I would love to see more money talk in artists' blogs, because I'd love to learn what they've learned without having to go through it myself. Why do we insist on reinventing the wheel? Let's just all share what we've learned so we can all do better.

On that note, I hope 2009 will be a happy and prosperous year for all of you. I know that our economy is feeling pretty shaky right now, so it's more important than ever to learn what we can about money. If your personal finances need help, check out a little gem of a book called All Your Worth. I read this book two years ago and it changed my financial life forever. If you've resolved to get your money act together in 2009, start with this book. You won't regret it! Happy New Year!