Miso Handmade - Pet Supplies And Pet Gifts
Lesson 8 from: CreativeLive Indie Craft ShowTara McMullin
Miso Handmade - Pet Supplies And Pet Gifts
Lesson 8 from: CreativeLive Indie Craft ShowTara McMullin
Lessons
Day 1 Pre-Show
04:24 2Wood Thumb - Wooden Ties & Accessories
06:02 3Katy Kristin Designs - Children's Toys & Apparel
06:28 4Unpossible Cuts - Laser Cut Goods
06:09 5Dandy - Jewelry
07:51 6Beija Flor Naturals - Bath and Body
11:04 7Apparel and Fine Art
10:02 8Miso Handmade - Pet Supplies And Pet Gifts
10:41Tina Jett - Art/Illustration
12:00 10Pretty Fun Designs - Jewelry
08:51 11Mahoohoo - Apparel/Accessories
10:38 12Emma SanCartier/Odd Fauna - Illustrations/Toy Design
08:16 13Lazy Lotus - Accessories/Scarves/Earrings
07:07 14Debra Styer - Art & Illustration
08:10 15Nidhi Chinani - Illustrator/Giftware
07:36 16Noteify - Greeting Cards, Accessories, Houseware
09:31 17Day 1 Wrap-Up
01:19Lesson Info
Miso Handmade - Pet Supplies And Pet Gifts
Hi. How are you? Thank you. I'm great. So tell us your name and the name of your business. I'm Trish Area, and I have my businesses. Me so handmade. Okay, I make, um, pets, gifts, cat toys, pillows and tote bags. Oh, and these air really, really need I. What is the material? Here is a camp type of a canvas or a for the pillows. Yet Cotton Denna. Okay. And this is what we call a vegan wool. So it's like boiled will, but it's acrylic and its washable. Okay. And then are some of these beautiful designs filled with anything on the stairs organic catnip in some of them. And then some of them have a compressed catnip pellet, which is catnip that is compressed into, like, little rabbit food pellets. OK, so you're a pet lover. Yes. That wouldn't get there. Where did the inspiration for this begin? I work. My my real day job is working as a dog trainer. Oh, so I have interactions with thousands of dogs and dog owners during the day. My first, my first item, was a squeaky dog toys squeaky doughn...
ut and I built an Etsy shop from the squeaky donut and a few other dog toys. And then I started to make the cat toys. And then the cat toys really took off. And I realized that that my niche market was not the dogs. My niche market was really the cat owners and the people who love cats. I see. So this is just sort of to appease the dog lovers. And then really, your main focus is cab, You know, how many years have you been in business? I have been doing the cat toys now for three years. The dog toys for four. Okay, so take you a year. Did it figure out this is actually really all about the cats? So you're a dog trainer, though. And then you're primary. Focus is cats. Can cats be trained? I'm just curious. Can you cat trainer Teoh. I have not trained a cat, but they you can use the same methods. Situation Cats? Absolutely. Oh, wow. So I do clicker training. Okay. Cats can absolutely be cooker chained. There's tons of cat videos showing the cats being clicker trained to do agility and other dog stuff. So do you have videos that do a little cross promotion on your website that relate Teoh the training and I I do not have videos myself. There are lots of videos out there, but certainly cat toys. Um, and having to Israeli available for your animals helps to keep them contented and happy and fit and out of trouble. Because they do you like Teoh who is your most ideal customer? I guess my ideal customer would be, um, a young couple with pets, of course. And, um, they usually are designed for design focused and interested in design. And they're the kind of people who they want everything in their home to be, um, lovely into their aesthetic. And they're not going to buy the 99 cent little made in China. Um, mouse with rabbit fur on it. Yeah, it's so they have ah, conscious decision making Crocker out there in a couple. But who's the purchasers? That is it. Mostly the woman or the man or the my artist. There's mostly the woman. Okay, but I have a couple of out there have lots of cat deVeau tastes who are men. Okay. Okay. Got you. Yeah, that's actually really, really neat. So where in your business did you then discover who your ideal customer was? You said it took you a year to figure out it was cats, not dogs. Was that early on that you discovered that or at what point? No. I had had the dog business for, um I guess for for a little bit over a year. And it was at a craft fair that somebody had said, How come you don't have anything for cats? Where is the cat stuff? And I kept hearing this on a number affairs And so I thought, Oh, I had better offer something to the cat people and from there it just really spiraled into lots of cat people. And then it became Oh, there's apples approaching me now. Okay, that thinking for redefining. All right, So, uh, let's see, here you are an artist, and it's it's always challenging to come up with fresh idea. How do you come up with the new designs? New things to make? I'm always looking on sites like Pinterest. I'm looking for what people instagram. I'm looking at the magazines, the home magazines and what the trend forecasts are and what's popular and etc. Of course. Um I'm always trying to think about what? What is not available? Where can my toy fit into the market? That what's not out there right now? Um and where can I fit into that? So do you do a lot of business sleuthing? Do you go around and kind of do the detective thing where you check and see what other people are doing? I dio okay, How often do you do that? I would do I do that? Maybe once a month or so. Ok, yeah. Yeah. And that was actually a great way toe. Listen. Right. And then do you or do send out questionnaires to your clients? You send out surveys, and I think not, But that's a great idea. Okay? It's a great idea. Yeah, because it's, you know, it is a lot about listening to your customers right and giving them what they want, right? That's a challenge on day, I guess. How do you realize that it's not something that they want? The numbers will tell you, right? They don't. I have a great idea. I love it. It photographs. Well, it's on etc. I'm getting hits on getting favorites. But if people don't buy it. The numbers will certainly speak for themselves. So do you Break it down by? I'm going to do a prototype. I'm gonna build a test of something. See how it does? Yes, OK. And it's very easy with a cat toy to prototype and tests because it doesn't take any time at all to make. And then to put it out there on etc. Etc. Is great for that. Okay, that's good to know, because there's a lot of people wondering these specifics of how do you figure this out? Okay, so you sell a lot on etc. Do you sell through your own website as well? I don't. I only have my Etsy shop, and then I do local craft fairs. Okay. All right. So do you have ah, top list of, uh, you know, how did what are you? What are the standards that you go by when selecting the craft fair that you want to attend? Um, I go to the crafters first, so I kind of scout the market. If I can. I ask friends what fares? They go to our people shop being Do they see people with bags? Do I see people with bags. Are people happy? Are they engaging with the sellers? Are they just walking past? And I I'm really trying toe. I only have a set budget for my craft fairs during the year, so I really have market and, um, target, which bears I want to go to, which bears I I can't go to. So how does that happen? Are you setting times in the year where you're gonna set your budget review it? How do you lay out your daily do it at the beginning of the year? And then I updated accordingly, As as we go through the year. Okay? Because I know you have a full time job as well. And then you do this and that probably takes all of your time, and then you're here right now. But this is my fun time. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You have a lot of passion for it. So how many cats do you have? I don't have any Syria. I don't have any cats right now. And right now, right now, three dogs right now. Okay. And our cat passed away, I think two years ago. Sorry to hear that. Will worry. Yeah, Okay. So in terms of your line here. Can you describe a few of the items here? Like more specifically. So I have, um this is, uh, new really popular item. It's our our organic catnip goldfish crackers. And it's a set of three organic catnip filled, um crackers, cheese crackers. I can't say the brand name. Yeah, I hear you. There's the doughnut. I have organic catnip filled strawberries so that when the cat is playing with, um, it actually looks like they're holding a strawberry. So they're not just for the cat, that's for the owner. For fun, for people. Ah, lot of the toys are for the owners to take pictures of their cats playing with it and have fun with their cats. Walter playing with it. I love that. And then, well, I kind of want to miss the greedy zombie. Halloween is coming up. This is creepy zombie. They're all they're all handmade. So I really do try to make them all the a little bit different. And that's purposeful because my client really wants something that is handmade and isn't mass produced. Um, And then, of course, you showed us the squeaky doughnut, But these air pillows What do people normally do with those? Still, those are Those are, um threads. Sketch pillows I actually draw with the sewing machine. I do a little bit at, like a And then I'm drawing with the sewing machine. And I could do a custom pillow. If people send me photographs of their pets, I'd be happy to do custom pillow for them. Um, and people who are into their pets are usually into their breed. So I have specific breeds aren't super popular. The Bulldogs air really popular. That, while was, of course, are popular. Boston Terriers air crazy right now. Yeah. Awesome. And then I see you also have these market bags. I guess that's for the shopper that forgot their bag at home. Right here in Francisco. Everybody carries their bags. I learned that early on your bag. Right. So we've got our market bags and they have applicator silhouettes of either cats or breed specific dogs on them. Okay, great. Great. So thank you. Trish has been so fantastic. And if you're thinking about any kind of holiday stocking stuffers for the other family members in your life, this is definitely a place to go. So thank you again. It's the website Is Misha handmade at dot com. Okay, Great.