Is it worth paying for advertising?

I've not written a businessy-type blog post for ages. I guess that's because the rate at which I'm learning things (and therefore have new things to share) is slowing down now my business is more established. I've been thinking about advertising again recently though, so thought I'd share my thoughts.

If you run a small business or sell your handmade products this is probably a question you've asked yourself at some point - is it worth paying for advertising? Or, more precisely, is it worth paying for this particular bit of advertising that I'm considering?

Until you have tried a particular channel of advertising it is very hard to know if it will bring you any additional sales. This is something that I have learnt to accept. Sometimes you just have to spend a little bit of money to try things out, and then change track if it's not working. But I like to at least be able to evaluate an advertising opportunity and see if I think it might be worth it financially.

So I thought I'd share how I consider a paid advertising channel. This is just really from a financial perspective - of course you will also need to think about whether the advertising will reach your target customer and is in line with your brand.

I hope that's helpful. Sometimes this helps me see that I should definitely pay for a piece of advertising, and other times it helps me realise that I would never make my money back. A very tempting advertising offer can suddenly seem not so appealing when you work out how many items you would have to sell to make it worth while!

You can use this method for free advertising too, by converting your time into a financial cost. If it will take you an hour a week to maintain a certain advertising channel, change this into a monetary cost by using the hourly wage you want to be paid. Then you can use the above calculation to see if it's worth the time investment.

Handmade favourites - gifts for icecream lovers

No holiday is complete without sufficient intake of ice cream. In fact, I might go so far as to say it's not really a proper holiday unless ice cream is consumed at least every other day. So today's handmade favourites collection is celebrating the wonderful weather here in the UK and my love of ice cream. Everything is handmade in the UK and links to the shops are below. Enjoy a feast of ice cream designs.

Ice cream sunglasses case from Rosiebull Designs

There's always room for ice cream print from Two for Joy Paper Studio

Kawaii acrylic ice lolly necklace from Hoobynoo World

Wooden ice cream cone ring from Ginger Pickle

Ice cream holiday pennies purse from The Peartree Boutique

Kawaii ice cream iphone case from The Nosuch Disco

Ice cream cushion from Victoria Eggs

Ice cream cone pin brooch from One Sunny Afternoon

New designs with my silhouette portrait

I have wanted one of these electronic cutting machines for AGES. I kept bidding on a few on ebay to try and get one a bit cheaper as they are pretty expensive, but always got outbid. I wasn't sure I could justify spending the full cost. But now my wonderful husband has surprised me by buying me my very own brand new silhouette portrait. I am so excited!

What I particularly love about the silhouette portrait is that as well as being able to download fab designs to cut out straight away, you can also cut out any design of your own. So it's perfect for me as I can create and cut my own designs for the shop.

Hence a couple of new cards have just been added to the shop! I'm still playing and have so many ideas to try out, so expect to see more soon.

Personalised cut out wedding card
£2.75

Personalised papercut birthday card
£2.50

And another new card not made with the silhouette portrait but equally nice!

Personalised children's age birthday card
£2.50

If you'd like one of these new cards (or anything else!) get your orders in by Wednesday as the shop is going to be closed 10-21 July whilst I'm off on holiday. Why not pop over to the shop now?!

I'm linking this post up with Handmade Monday so if you fancy checking out what other creative peeps have been making this week why not pop over for a browse.

Top stationery trends: Chevron

Another new mini series for the blog! Half way through 2014 and I thought it would be good to share some of my favourite stationery trends so far this year. I'm going to start with chevrons, and then hopefully post the others often enough that I get through them before Christmas!

I love stripes. Anything stripey is a winner in my book. Especially socks. One thing better than stripes? Zigzag stripes! Totally loving the chevron trend this year. Here are some of my favourite chevron stationery finds.

1. Mini chevrons wood wiro notepad from Paperchase

2. Chevron washi tape from Chamby and Cor on Etsy

3. Mint chevron notebook from Finest Imaginary

4. Watermelon chevron notebooks from Felt Mountain Studios

5. White and brown chevron wrapping paper from Sophia Victoria Joy

6. Chevron thank you cards from Peter Pauper Press on Amazon