Fiona Pullen: Making and Marketing a Successful Art and Craft Business

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This new book by Fiona Pullen is a must-have if you are thinking of selling your beadwork and jewellery. Or, if you already have your own craft business. That may sound like a rather broad market for one book to cover. So, let me explain why I believe it is so essential for both these sectors.

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Fiona Pullen: Making and Marketing a Successful Art and Craft Business, My world of Beads, Katie Dean

What does the book cover?

‘Making and Marketing a Successful Craft business’ provides top advice for all stages of running a business. If you know anything about the author, Fiona Pullen, then this won’t surprise you.

A Brief Word About Fiona Pullen

Fiona originally trained and worked as a lawyer. Like many of us in the beading and craft world, she started her craft business as a way to find a better life-work balance after the birth of her first child.

She took her website, ‘The Sewing Directory’ from start-up to industry leader. How did she do this? Well, that is exactly what her book shares with you.

Are you the right fit to run your own business?

If you’re not already running a business, then that should be the first question that springs to mind. And in this book, Fiona Pullen gives you the tools to answer that question honestly.

We all dream of earning a living from the hobby that we love. Yet, the reality can be very different. Yes, there is no denying that it is a privilege to be able to make money from your passion. But don’t forget it will be hard work.

Moreover, running a business is a whole different ball game from that hobby. So, you will find yourself needing to develop new skills and spending a lot of time doing ‘chores’ that you may not be passionate about.

So, the first thing I love about this book is Fiona’s no-nonsense approach. She doesn’t sugar coat her advice. If you are wondering whether to take the plunge into starting your own craft business, this is a brilliant way to find out what your potential new life will really look like.

What if you already have a craft business?

So, this is me. I’ve been running my beading business for a few years. You might think I wouldn’t learn anything from a book like this. After all, I am already ‘making it work’.

But think again: there is always more to learn and more to be done.

‘Making and Marketing a Successful Art and Craft Business’ takes you through all stages from business planning and start up to the things you will be doing day in, day out.

Do you already know how to take professional photos? Do you have a strong brand identity? How much do you know about SEO? Are you up to speed on legal and financial requirements? Do you use social media to best effect when it comes to marketing?

Fiona Pullen gives you answers to all these questions and more.

This, by the way, is a new edition of ‘Craft a Creative Business’. Why? Well, the online landscape is changing so fast that Fiona felt it needed updating. So, issues like GDPR and EU VAT are covered. Then, keeping up to speed with technology led Fiona to completely re-write the chapters on SEO and online marketing.

Three Reasons You Need This Book

If you’re still sitting on the fence, wondering whether this really would be a good investment, let me tell you my top three reasons for recommending ‘Making and Marketing a Successful Art and Craft Business’.

Reason Number 1

A business manual (which is essentially what this book is) could be a very dry and boring read. But this book is not at all boring or dry. Fiona Pullen has a writing style that is fun and entertaining to read.

Plus, Search Press has done a great job with layout. So, you don’t get pages and pages of text. It is broken up with case studies, bullet points, action plans, notes etc, which make the advice easy to follow.

This is a book that you can plough through, or dip into, depending on what you need.

Reason Number 2

Practicality. It is all very well being given a theoretical guide to running a business, but it’s all too easy to read such a guide, then take no practical steps. So, you might as well not have bothered at all.

The second thing I love about this book is the downloads. So, once you have read a ‘theory’ like how to write a business plan, you get a download to fill in. This will guide you through the steps to produce your own business plan.

The downloads are all available on the Search Press website>>

Plus, the book is full of little ‘tasks’ for you to carry out. If you really go through those with diligence, you can’t fail in your business.

Reason Number 3

How often do you get to learn from an expert? Well, perhaps this is the most valuable aspect of this book. Fiona has done it already. So, this isn’t some lovely classroom theory. This is an expert passing on their knowledge and expertise. Really, that’s priceless…

Where to Buy ‘Making and Marketing a Successful Art and Craft Business’

Here are the details that you might want to know. I have been linking to the book throughout this blog, but in case you missed any of the links…

BUY THIS BOOK HERE>>

  • Publisher: Search Press
  • Edition: BC Paperback
  • Publication: 03 August 2018
  • ISBN 13/EAN: 9781782215295
  • Stock: 50+
  • Size: 170×210 mm
  • Illustrations: 60
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP Price: £12.99

Now, I’m off to delve further into my copy and start taking action on some of Fiona’s great advice!

Disclosure

If you choose to buy this book, or its first edition from Amazon, using the links below, I may receive a small fee. I do not receive a fee from sales made through the publisher. Yet, I still urge you to support our publishers and if you wish to do that, please use the links in the blog above!

Follow this link to purchase on Amazon

20% off Etsy beading patterns

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2 Responses

  1. Fiona Pullen says:

    Thank you so much for such a comprehensive review Katie. I really appreciate it.

    • beadflowers says:

      My pleasure, Fiona! I really think this is an excellent book and it will help a lot of people. So, thank you for writing it 🙂

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