10 Secrets of Successful Artisan Business Owners in Ghana.

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It takes quite a lot to turn any artisanal or handicraft skills into a business that makes money and runs itself.

Whether it’s in jewelry-making, ceramics, cooking, hairstyling, furniture-making, clothing or other artisanal work.

You’re probably asking yourself what you need to do and what to expect on your way to success.

Here is a list of 10 handicraft business owner secrets to help you through this life-changing experience.

1. you’ll need a much bigger motivation

The pain of owning a business (the headaches and frustrations) is too great to tolerate just for anything.

Not for money or your passion or recognition, respect, fame or even as a way to make a living.

I know that sounds odd to say. But they are just not enough.

You’ll stop at some point or give up or constantly make excuses, if those are your only motivation.

The only thing that’s much bigger than money or anything, is the life you want to live.

That drive to badly live the life you want, is what’ll keep you fighting until you find your success.

2. be honest with yourself

You may be really talented and technically good at what you do. But as a business owner, you will face a broad set of things.

Things that you don’t know how to do, that require skills you don’t have – and it’s Ok.

Always be honest with yourself and don’t pretend that you know all and can do everything – because you can’t.

Work with people who have skills you don’t have and can do what you can’t.

Especially when it comes to the business side of what you do.

It’s smart, genius and strategy for success.

Always better to be a successful fool than a proud and broke know-it-all.

3. hard work doesn’t pay

Businesses are built with strategies and systems – and not blood and sweat.

As artisans and also technicians, we are trained to prove ourselves and skills by working hard.

But being a business owner is a different kind of animal.

It’s not about proving you can do something really well.

Rather, it’s about your ability to be effective, productive and profitable. Your ability to build something that:

• makes you the money you want
• run itself
• and give you the freedom to do what you want.

This means you’d need to work smart – not hard.

It’s a job that simply requires you to be smart and creative – and not a workaholic who’s always busy, tired and stressed out.

Besides, no one makes sharp decisions when tired.

You’ll only create more problems for yourself, drain your creativity, morale and attitude, if all you do is work hard.

4. make a dent

You’re probably really good at what you do – well, that’s great.

But just being talented is not enough.

Your ability to solve customers’ problems is rather much more important in business.

You see, customers will come to you.

However, they’ll only keep coming back when you offer them something in a way that no one can.

So, make a dent.

Offer something that matters, solves a problem; exciting and different but better.

Something that’ll make your customers say, “This makes my life better.”

To put it simply, offer something that’ll make people notice you; and also miss you, if you closed down your business today.

5. stand for something

You must always try to be different and better. But most of all, make sure your business stands for something.

You might be talented.

Well, so are the many artisans and skilled crafts workers out there.

Just because you’re good at what you do, doesn’t mean people will always fall in love with your work and business.

Nope.

There are so many artisans out there with skills like yours – perhaps, even more talented than you.

For people to fall in love with you and your work, they’d first need to:

• understand exactly what to always expect from your business,
• and trust you to proudly deliver on it every time.

Let’s say, for your sofa making business, you could stand for something like simple, colorful and affordable sofa or whatever.

Besides, making decisions is simple and obvious when you know exactly what you stand for.

You only get to worry about what you want to be known for – and nothing else.

6. be a specialist

This is probably the most well-known secret that many artisans still fail to take advantage of.

Everyone is simply limited. You have limited time, resources, ability, and focus.

As a result, you can’t please everyone; or do everything you want to do – and do it well.

But it’s much easier to find a niche and focus on being a specialist in an area that you’re really good at.

Because as a specialist, you get:

• to deal with customers that you enjoy.
• to serve customers who value your skill set and your work.
• more admiration and respect than those who are generic.
• paid handsomely for your work.

7. make things you want to use

It does require a lot of careful work to build a great product or service from scratch.

But there’s a secret to all that work – and that is, make something you want to use.

For instance, make shoes/clothes you’d like to wear, food you’d like to eat or offer an experience you’d like to enjoy.

First off, you’d be solving a real problem.

A problem that you’ve experienced yourself – and not someone else’s imaginary problem.

You get to design what you know; and can figure out immediately whether what you’re making is any good or not.

You’ll know exactly what the end product should be; and you can test and assess the quality of what you make by yourself – it’s direct and quick,

Plus, it won’t be that complicated to find a market of people who also need your solution.

8. put your own spin on it

Be inspired, but don’t copy.

It’s not stealing if you elevate or sometimes put your own spin on other people’s work and make it your own.

It’ll still make your work an original.

And, you can also put your own spin on how other people do business.

You could use anyone’s business as an inspiration; and put your own spin on how they do things.

But, what you should never do is copy.

First off, copying isn’t as easy as most people think – it’s rather more work.

It makes you do things that you don’t understand, can’t improve or base any future decisions on.

What’s more, copying will make you:

• a fraud with no essence.
• inactive and slow to keep up.
• always follow instead of leading.

9. experiment, experiment, experiment

First off, experimenting is fun.

And, it’s also the best way to test your many ideas.

With that said, you must always remember that being in business is not a fun fair or a social gathering – it’s still a competition.

You won’t last long if you don’t come up with your own ‘new’ and ‘unique’ from time to time. 

By experimenting, you’d give yourself the chance to:

• work with new ideas and new methods.
• have a handful of possibly great products and services always cooking,
• wait and present the right product or service at the right time – and not force things,
• display products that you’re confident in.

10. relax! it takes time

People will fall in love with your products or services if they are indeed great products.

But then, people loving your products and buying them are two different things.

Many people won’t buy if you don’t put in any marketing efforts.

So, always have a good marketing plan to make sure the right people:

• know your product or service exists,
• show interest and desire your products,
• and can conveniently buy

With that said, don’t expect to be an overnight success, even if you do all the above.

Building a successful business takes time.

Many businesses you admire took years to be where they are.

So, don’t panic if things are slow in the beginning.

Wrapping Up

There’s a whole lot more that goes into running any successful artisan business, than just making, building or repairing things for people to use.

And the secret to all that, is simply by opening yourself to learn and build up your business skills.