It’s time for another HoopMama Talk.

We just finished a week where people spent a lot of money for Black
Friday shopping and will continue to spend as Christmas gets closer.
Here’s what is about to happen and you may be seeing some of it happen
already. People are budgeting, they’re watching their money and trying
to stretch their pennies.

Here’s some do’s and don’ts for some common situations you’ll see a lot, especially in the next few weeks.

Let me introduce you to Betty Budgeter. Betty wants something for her
kids for Christmas and asks you for a quote. You tell her $35. She in
return says “can you do $20?” You want the sale, but realize you’re not
in the lowball business. But you’re stuck with how to reply.

DON’T: DO NOT APOLOGIZE for your pricing! I see so many posts “I’m so
sorry, I can’t go to $20 but I can do $25?” NOOOOOOOOO!!!! STOP!!!! I
ask Target all the time to lower my total before check out and I don’t
get anything! (Kidding, I don’t ask…I just wish it wasn’t as high) In
fact, it’s on me to use coupons, shop smart, and to use my Target Red
Card for my 5% off.

DO: Without taking it personally reply calmly
with, “At this time, I do not have any current promotions. However, if
you allow me to sign you up for my e-mail list, I do send out a 5% (or
whatever you choose) coupon code for first time customers! Would you
like me to sign you up?” (End your sentence with a question that moves
you FORWARD to an end result. Otherwise, you’ll be going in circles with
her) If she asks you again if you could do $25, do not budge. Reply
with, “as I mentioned, I do not have any promotions at this time. Would
you like me to sign you up for the newsletter?” Usually 2 times will
give them enough of a feel for if you will budge or not.

If Betty says “but it’s just a a wal-mart t-shirt, I can make this myself”

DO NOT: Break down your pricing about what you pay for what! I see so
many posts where the ladies go “I know but I have to buy the shirt,
that’s $5, then I have to buy the vinyl/thread, that’s another $6, plus
the design, that’s $4, plus I have to drive out to Armadillo, TX to get
it which is $27 in gas, so I’m actually losing money doing this *sad
face sad face.*” STAHHHHP!!!! When I read these I cringe! If you’re
doing this as a business, OWN your pricing. You decided on it for a
reason. If you don’t stand firm in it, you will always get “runned-over”

DO: Reply again calmly with “I understand that the pricing is not
something that works for your budget right now. I do stand behind the
quality and craftsmanship of my items and I’m positive you will be happy
with the final product. If it does not work for you right now, please
remember me in the future”

If Betty uses the “so-and-so is selling this same thing for $12” ridiculousness…

DON’T: Talk bad about the so-and-so. Don’t go on and on about how they
use poor products and people complain all the time about them. Just
don’t. Speaking bad about someone else reflects poorly on your
character. It’s best to avoid this at all costs.

DO: Reply with
your benefits rather than their downfalls. “I understand my pricing may
not fit in everyone’s budget. I do use the highest quality materials on
the market to ensure a product that will last for more than one use. My
return customers say that they love my products because of the quality
of craftsmanship and detail. I understand that there are other
businesses who sell similar items to me, but I will stand behind my
products 100% and I would love create this for you. If you would like to
move forward with me, I am positive you will love the final product.”

Betty is pretty gutsy and she may even say “fine, my daughter has a
“cricket” I’ll just have her make it. Where did you get the shirt?”

DO NOT: Cuss her out. 🙂

DO: While blocking or just ignoring is what you want to do, remember…
her “daughter with a cricket” doesn’t have a Cricut, she’s just pinned a
lot of things on Pinterest. Once again reply professionally with a
simple response that clearly shows you are not a teacher/tutor or
advisor. A simple “Thank you for your interest in my shop, if you need
to purchase from me in the future, please let me know
:)”

If you are doing this as a business, remember who the boss is and who
makes the rules. You set the tone for the customers you attract. If you
make your prices “work for everyone” then you aren’t really targeting
your business. Betty may not be your ideal client. Betty may be someone
who needs to save for your product. This whole situation is a reflection
of BETTY, not you! Tiffany’s doesn’t apologize that I can’t afford
their 27 karat necklace. If it’s something I wanted enough, I would work
hard and save to make it happen.

Keep that in mind and make sure you are marketing to your ideal client.

NOW, I know a lot of you DO like to help out people and make things
work for their budget. This is where you can use the “if you sign up for
my newsletter, I can offer you x% off”

This gets their
information in your customers list to market to for future products,
sales, and promotions. You NEEEEEEEED an e-mail list! Betty may be out
of money in December, but in April she will remember that you are firm
in your pricing, and she will use her tax return money to splurge in
your shop.

In summary: Don’t apologize, or explain yourself. Be
you. Grow YOUR business and don’t worry about the “other guy.” YOU DO
YOU!!!!

This concludes today’s HoopMama Talk.

Where do
you start with a newsletter?: Mail Chimp is who I use for mine and
they’re FREE for up to 2000 subscribers!- (AFIL link)
http://eepurl.com/cmc14X

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR COMPETITION! FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA BLAH!!!

Let’s talk about competition really quickly. A lot of you may be having
“me too” girls pop up in your town. You know the ones that live by the
“I can make anything! Shirts, hats, rocket ships and even submarines!!
AND I sell it 75% less then my competition!!!” motto. But guys. Trust
me. She is NOT your competition! She is Barbara McBurnout and she will not last!

Even if she does stick around for longer than you
would like, do not let her effect your business and do not let her set
your mindset each day. Yes, she’s annoying. Yes, it’s okay to silently
want to punch her in the ankle. But guess what?? The man upstairs knows
what you need! Has he let you down this far? No? Okay. So don’t worry
about what she does. Her standards of quality items and lack of
expertise will come through to her market and you will be the one left
standing!

I said in the
2017 HoopMama Crafter’s Calendar and it has been one of MY personal
mottos that has helped me grow so much – DO NOT WORRY ABOUT WHAT ANYONE
ELSE IS DOING. You’re ONLY job is to make sure YOU’RE doing what YOU’RE
supposed to be doing and called to do. God and karma will take care of
the rest.

In the words of my sweet friend Jessica, “He’s never failed me before and he ain’t gonna stop this week.”

So tell Barbs “bye bye bye” and keep doing what you do. If anything,
let her drive you to grow and be better everyday… but do not let her
tempt you to lower yourself to her level. She’s attracting the “can I
get this for free?” people while you’re attracting the ones who say “are
you sure you’re charging enough?” And that’s exactly where you want to
be.

You’ve got this guys. Sending prayers up for anyone who needs a little extra motivation today!

I have a question. A serious question. It seems like I’m seeing more of
my designs being copied and shared in file share groups and I come
across them daily. Theft and morals aside. I’m trying to understand WHY
someone would want to share a file they paid for? Or even why they would
share one they copied for their own personal use? This is already a
very saturated market, why would you SHARE with your competitors? If you
bought a file, you now did something that someone else wasn’t willing
to do. Therefore, YOU will stand out. By sharing that file… and in
most cases in groups of 20k+ members… YOU just CREATED competition!
Even if you created your own “version” and didn’t pay for the design…
by sharing it with others… you now just ELIMINATED your own
uniqueness!

I do understand giving and sharing as I really try to
do a lot of it myself. But what I don’t understand is in business, why
you would share your work with other businesses? Especially in large
groups where you do not know their intention.

If you’re doing it
out of the goodness of your heart, I commend you and I love your
spirit. However, remember that copying a design and sharing it with 20k
people literally just stole money from the original designer. You may be
doing it out of good will, but the punch in the gut is to the original
creator that worked on it for many hours, when all you did was find
similar fonts, made your own version, and shared it. It may have taken
you 15 minutes to recreate… but that’s because hours of work had
already been done for you. And that is the person you stole from in
order to do “something nice.”

Last I checked, Tiffany’s does not
share items they curate with other stores. When I first started I would
use the common fonts from places like dafont but now I spend time,
energy and (lots of) money finding commercial use fonts that cannot be
found for free at all. My whole purpose in that is trying to be hard to
replicate. As soon as I see a font become well known… I move on to
another one I enjoy. I do this on purpose to stand out. Which is why
these file share groups just confuse me. You should want to stand out
too!

I promise I’m not writing this out of anger. Annoyance to a
degree, but not anger. Most of you know that my vision for MY business
is to help you grow in YOUR business, so believe me when I say I’m just
trying to understand. My view with all these file sharing groups… is
that not only are you sitting in a stagnant pool with people all using
the same designs that “everyone has” and that “anyone can do,” but
you’re also limiting your own potential to stand out!!!

Obviously
my business is designing and I would love for you to buy my files. I
would also love for YOU to MAKE MONEY from my files on your completed
products! I know this is the heart of many designers as well. And it
just doesn’t make sense to me to steal from the person whose PURPOSE is
to help YOU succeed.

In summary:

This is Mary. Mary found
a file she likes. Mary doesn’t want to buy it so she makes her own.
Mary is happy that people like the file and want it for themselves. Mary
then shares it in a group of 75,000 people, and takes credit for it and
never acknowledges the original creator.

Don’t be like Mary.

This is Susie. Susie found a file she likes and decides that her time
to recreate and money to buy commercial use for fonts is worth more than
the $3 that the file costs. Susie buys the file and decides to share
her finished product with a group of 75,000 people. People ask for the
file. Susie directs them to where she purchased the file so they can
purchase it for themselves.

Be like Susie.

But now let’s meet Jill.

This
is Jill. Jill spends hours searching for a design and finally sees a
design she likes. Jill buys it. Jill does not like to show her work
because she does not want her competitors to get on her trail. Jill does
not speak of HoopMama because she wants to keep her tucked away with
the Halloween candy she’s hiding from the kids. But Jill also knows
right from wrong and speaks up when she sees designs being shared or
copied illegally.

It’s totally okay to be like Jill too. We like Jill.

But today… I had to share my “be like Susie” shirt because you Susie’s make my day every day!!!

(And I promise the duck lips are just to mimic the mock-up of the
little girl going around. I promise I don’t take selfies like this

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. BUT THESE ARE ALL PRODUCTS I RECOMMEND AND USE MYSELF.

Debt seems to be something that stands in the way for most people in many areas of their lives. Many crafters are just moms wanting to contribute somehow to the family income. There are also many crafters making over the 6 figure mark and solely support their family financially. But regardless of income from crafting, if most of it goes to pay bills, then that takes away from the joy in our craft.
This post is to help you find ways to pay down consumer debt such as credit cards, so that the money we earn from crafting can be enjoyable and have a purpose.
When I first married my husband, we read Dave Ramsey’s book, ”
Total Money Makeover” and listened to his podcasts every day. In case you haven’t heard of him, he is a huge advocate for getting out of debt and building wealth.
Now, some things we chose not to follow such as selling our cars, even though our payments combined were $1100/month. Yuck! Dave Ramsey suggests that if you can’t pay your cars off in 2 years, then to sell them and buy a “junker” with cash. We loved our cars and decided we could pay them off fast enough to where that monthly payment wouldn’t be a big ding to our checkbook for much longer. We were focused and driven. We knew we had credit card debt and student loan debt out the wazoo… but we wanted a house… we wanted a future… and honestly… we wanted some wealth.
I had a full time job, taught yoga and crafted on the side. Hubs worked overtime, and got a 2nd job. Now remember, we were 25 and no kids. Obviously it’s a little easier to get two jobs when there aren’t little ones running around. But there are ALWAYS ways to find extra money to throw at debt, regardless of population of your home. You just may have to be a little creative… or run on a few less hours of sleep for a while.

Here are 4 Things We Did That Led To Our Debt Payoff Success.

1. We Said “No.” – We actually said “no,” a lot. We ate meals at home to save money. We didn’t go out with friends often, but when we did, we set a budget before we left. We planned out our grocery trips and did meal planning. We didn’t spend any money unless it was agreed on before hand. No, we weren’t zombies. But we found cheaper alternatives to spending time together. Which actually made us closer. And I found out that I can only beat my husband in Rummy about 1 out of 76 times.
2. We Did Extra. – There wasn’t much couch time in our home while we were focused on getting out of debt. I picked up extra yoga classes, I advertised my boutique, I worked overtime… basically if I wasn’t making money, I was thinking of ways TO make money. I read Dan Miller’s Books, 48 Days To The Work You Love and No More Mondays, and even though I am not a reader, I was so encouraged by these books to find something I actually cared about and to find success in doing them. My husband worked overtime as it was allowed by his job and he sold a lot of items around the house that just weren’t needed anymore. Then, everything over the amount we needed for bills, food, and gas, went directly to pay down debt. And boy it was amazing to watch those credit card balances go down!
3. We Set Goals – We had a goal date to pay things off. We broke that down monthly with what needed to be paid in order to meet that date. If we got off track, we made adjustments. Even if that meant adjusting the goal date, we would do that. We checked in monthly with our progress and made sure we were still on target. If the goal wasn’t hit, we didn’t discard the goal. We adjusted it. Meaning, we didn’t forget about it and say “oh well that didn’t happen… let’s order pizza.” Instead we adapted, and reset, and got back on track.
4. We Stayed Focused. – Notice I say “we” a lot. This was not an individual effort by any means. My husband was 100% on the same page with me throughout the entire process. This is probably the main thing that made us successful. Dave Ramsey often says that finances are the #1 cause for divorce. I believe it. I’m so grateful to have a man that saw eye to eye with me and that we were able to power through. We did have times where we caved a bit and went to dinner or spent some money on some fun things, but we agreed on the extra expense and we went right back to work attacking debt. We did it together. And we were able to not only pay off $40,000 in debt, but also save $15,000 for a down payment on our first home. All in 18 months!

I think the biggest takeaway from Dave Ramsey’s teachings, for me anyway, is to tell your money where to go. You can’t throw money in your bank account and “hope” bills are paid with it. You have to consciously say “this money is for this,” and not allow the 2 year old inside you to ask for the new toy with that money instead.
For me, telling that 2 year old inside to hush wasn’t that hard. I’ve always been very money goal oriented. There’s a line from the movie Office Space where he says “if I could do anything I wanted and money didn’t matter, I would do nothing.” And that always resonated with me. I never had anything that I was passionate about enough to do if there wasn’t money in it. Thank goodness with HoopMama Designs, LLC, I have finally found something I would do even if there wasn’t any profit in it, (thank goodness there is.) But if you’re goal oriented like I am, you’ll be ready and willing to make sacrifices in order to see the rewards.

As Crafters, Here Are 6 Ideas You Can Try In Order To Start Your Debt Pay Down Journey.

1. Monogram Sale – Find items from the Dollar Store that you can personalize with names or monograms for quick sales. Tote bags, cups, kitchen towels, plates… etc. Be creative and give incentives to get more items purchased at once. For example, offering a “5 item for $25 sale” may grab some interest and put some money in your bank account quickly.
2. Sample Sales – Have extra bodysuits or other supplies laying around? Take some time and whip out some new items and offer them at a “Special Intro Price.” This also helps you build your inventory as well as grab a few customers. Don’t forget to take excellent pictures to add to your shop.
3. Teach a Class – If you are skilled in your trade, maybe teach a class to school students. Obviously you may not want to teach people in your community how to be your competitor, but high school and college students may be a great market to target. Who knows, when you’re ready to hire an employee, you may be able to grab one from your graduating class!
4. Host a Party – We’ve all seen the sign paint parties. These are easy enough to host yourself! If you have a cutting machine, you would just need to make some stencils, grab some paint, brushes and wood, and you’re set! If you’re an embroidery girl, you could supply scarves, legwarmers, totes, or other (cheap) items and set up a monogramming station and let them monogram their own items. All involving wine of course. This would make for a great girls night! Cutting for Business has a GREAT book of ideas here’s where you can get yours: (15 Ideas For Parties with Your Cutting Machine)
5. Sell That Stuff – The stuff that’s been sitting there FOREVER that you SWORE you needed. I mean, you had that coupon, I know you had to get it. But it’s STILL sitting there. Sell it. De-cluttering helps with the creative process as well!
6. Be Creative – Think outside the box. Don’t follow what your competitors are doing. Do something different. Something that makes you stand out and will bring in profit. Try not to buy MORE items to make things happen unless you can do it without going into debt because obviously the goal here is to try to eliminate debt.

Since paying off the first $40k, we have paid off the rest of our student loan debt ($75k), purchased several big box items with cash (furniture, tv’s, washer/dryer, embroidery machines, etc.,) have purchased land and are starting to build a new home. Trust me, I can’t count the times my husband and I will stop and just take note of how blessed we are. And it’s all because we worked hard to be here and told our money where to go..and obviously by the favor of God.
I won’t lie at all… when I say we worked…we really worked. We were tired. It was hard. But it was worth it to have freedom that enabled me to quit my day job and be home with my son. Even with my business now… I work harder than I ever have in my life. But when I look back and even when I look around now… I know it was all worth it. HoopDaddy has also been promoted 3 times in 6 years and is now a Vice President in his company. I know his hard work at the beginning of our marriage helped set that pace. Getting out of consumer debt helped shape our lives. I can honestly say that I am so excited about what the future holds. I will always encourage and pray for each of you in your journey of debt freedom as well!

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