Category Archives: Services & Tools I use

Tools & Resources to Grow Your Creative Business

business, Services & Tools I use

it's-business-time

I know many of you’re an artist/maker yourself and trying to grow your creative business.

I appreciate it when I learn new resources and tools to grow my business, so I wanted to share some of the resources I’ve found helpful.

This is kind of a random list, but I hope you find some of these helpful 😀

If you’re considering wholesaling your arts/crafts to retail shops:

  • Megan Auman’s “How to Sell Your Products to Retailers” online class on CreativeLive – an artist friend of mine recommended this class to me, and WOW was she right. This is solid gold and worth every single penny. It’s quite extensive and detailed and packed with actionable steps to make your wholesale business successful. At the time I’m writing this blog post, I’ve probably only watched 50% of the contents (it’s very long), but I’ve already made a return on my investment by implementing one thing I learned in the class. You need to watch this if you’re curious about wholesale!
  • Etsy Wholesale – As a small creative business owner, I rely so much on Etsy to sell my products online. I know it’s not perfect (my biggest pet-peeves being you have to compete with so many people who sell similar products at a really low price.) and I’d like to have my own online shop someday, but for now it’s working. Etsy also offers a platform to wholesale to retailers, which I’m considering applying for. I also learned a lot about wholesale policies and pricing from just reading their Wholesale Guide.

If you’re struggling with copy-writing:

  •  Laura Belgray’s website, Talking Shrimp – I first discovered Laura on a webinar she did on copy-writing. She’s so hilarious and her materials offer lots of real-life stories and examples that will make you cry with laughter. When you sign up for her newsletter on her homepage, you’ll get a free cheatsheet for writing your tagline. I look forward to her newsletter, too, because it always makes me laugh 😀 and I need laughter in my life more often!

If you get distracted by too many blog articles and online resources when you should be getting other work done:

  • Pocket app – Pocket is awesome for saving articles and online classes to watch later. I often get sucked into the interweb’s rabbit hole when I’m supposed to be getting my other work done.It usually starts out when I’m checking my email in the morning.I’d open one newsletter from a creative business blogger I like and starts reading the post. And I find a link to another article that sounds intriguing like “5 signs you need to redesign your website immediately!” I click on that and start reading another article…and another… Before you know it, you’re overwhelmed with more marketing strategies to implement and worksheets to fill out… Wait, what was I supposed to do today? 😀
    With one click of a button, you can save the articles and webpages on your Pocket app! I usually try to set aside a couple of hours a week to read and learn new things, and having everything in one place is really helpful. I can pick and choose what I want to learn depending on what mood I’m in and how much time I can spend.

If you use Instagram for reaching your audience and want to up your game: 

  • Meighan O’Toole’s blog – Meighan is an online creative business strategist and offers lots of free and paid resources for creative business owners. She doesn’t just talk about Instagram, but I read this blog article “9 Tips to Create a Cohesive, Branded Instagram Feed” and learned a bunch!
  • Link In Profile – It lets you add links to your Instagram images and send your followers to where you want them to go. I’ve just ended my 30-day free trial, but it’s seriously saving me time and I enjoy not stressing about updating the clickable links on my Instagram profile every day! I just signed up for a personal plan (it’s $9.99 per month after the trial period.) It’s a little difficult to explain in writing how it works – you can view my Instagram profile to try it out yourself 🙂
  • Alex Tooby‘s free Instagram tips & e-course – Alex offers free and paid services to increase your engagement and profits on Instagram. Her free offerings include Must-Know Insta Tips eBook, 7 Day e-Course, and IG Supremacy Checklist. I took her 7 Day e-Course and learned a few new tricks on using hashtags!
  • Later‘s blog – Later is an app/service that lets you schedule and manage your Instagram posts. OK, full disclosure, I’ve had Later account for a long time but haven’t used it as a scheduling tool (yet). BUT I learn so much from their blog posts! Just this morning, I got this post 9 New Instagram Features You Probably Missed in my email inbox. Totally useful information for someone who uses Instagram for their business (like me!) The Ultimate Guide to Using Instagram Hashtags was also pretty awesome and I recommend it to my friends all the time!

Ok, that’s it for today! Do you use any of these? What other tools, articles, classes do you find helpful? Please share in the comment below!

Thank you ❤

p.s. I’m gonna be on my sabbatical week off this coming week! My good friend is visiting me from Japan, and I’m super excited to hang out with her 🙂 You’ll probably see a couple of blog posts from me, though, about my winter holiday collection release (yay!) but won’t see my regular post until the following Sunday, November 13th. Just FYI!

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

 

Looking for a good fine art printing provider?

Services & Tools I use,

Many artists make their art prints in-house using a high-quality printer. But not me.

I only have an old school cheapo printer at home, and that is definitely not gonna cut the mustard for fine art reproduction.

I’m not ready to invest in a high-end printer yet, so I’ve been relying on professional printing services.

I’ve considered using print on demand services (and I actually have tried selling on one of the platforms), and although there are many pros for using those services, like not having an upfront cost to have an inventory, it’s a little harder to control your customer experience.

With printing yourself or having them printed professionally, you’re able to see the quality of the prints, decide how your print is being packaged and shipped, and add a little personal touch to each order. For instance, I add a personal note to every order I ship out and often include a little freebie, too 🙂

Although you have to make an investment up front, I like being able to build a relationship with my customers directly.

I’ve worked with a few different companies in the past but was never quite happy with any of them for one reason or another.

I needed to find a professional and reliable fine art print shop who can offer good quality giclee prints with reasonable price points and a good customer service.

After spending many hours researching, both locally and nationally, I found FinerWorks.

FinerWorks is a fine art and photography printing company based in San Antonio, TX. When I read the information on their website, their services seemed to match what I was looking for.

So, I ordered a few giclee prints to try out and was impressed with the quality of their products. And I haven’t looked back ever since!

I wanted to tell you about them in case you’re looking for a good fine art printing company, too. 

Read on and learn why I recommend them!

1. Great paper selection

I’ve used their Fine Art Paper Velvet and Premium Giclee Paper. They’re both great for the kind of artwork I create. I like the velvety texture of the Fine Art Paper Velvet, and it works really well with my line art work. I particularly enjoy how the black turns out so rich on this paper.

Cat Violinist sumi ink drawing giclee print
The black comes out super warm and rich on Fine Art Paper Velvet. It was perfect choice for my Cat Violinist sumi ink drawing.

I just tried their Premium Giclee Paper for the first time for my Eat a Rainbow Collection and absolutely loved it. It’s got more distinct texture compared to the first and creates a very nice look for my watercolor art.

Eat a Rainbow Art Print
Eat a Rainbow Giclee Print on Premuim Giclee Paper. Love the texture!

They offer a sample starter kit so you can see the actual papers they use. It also comes with a $20 gift card, which is nice 🙂 You can order it here if you’d like!

2. Archival giclee printing

I’m no tech wiz. I don’t really understand the details of how giclee printing works and why certain printers/inks are better.

But they do.

Eat a Rainbow giclee art print
I look at this and think, um, it looks better than my original! 😀

It definitely shows in their work, and I appreciate not having to worry about that stuff!

When I sell my art prints to my customers, I can rest assured that I’m offering a top-notch products that are going to look great for a long time!

3. Quick turnaround time & great customer service

They have a pretty quick turnaround time for production (typically within 3 business days, I think), so I don’t have to wait forever to receive my prints.

As much as I try to support my local business, I also don’t hate getting my prints shipped to my house. It saves me my precious time for sure!

I’ve always gotten a quick and courteous response from their customer service team as well when I needed help.

4.  Great price points even if you place a small order.

Since I don’t have a ton of money to invest in a huge inventory at this point, it was important for me to find a printer who doesn’t require a certain minimum order or charge a lot for smaller orders.

Of course, the unit price gets better if you order more, but I find their price points to be still pretty economical even if you order 10 or fewer prints.

Their shipping is flat rate (depending on the size and kinds of products), so it’s easy for me to budget for my order as well.

If you’re in the market for a good fine art print shop, give them a try! 

You can find them at FinerWorks.com

Hope it was helpful!

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot