June 2022 - Craft

Do you Need Public Liability Insurance for a Craft Stall?

Posted on June 30, 2022 by Craft Insurance News

You may be reading this as a veteran craft fair exhibitor with a wonderful collection of memories, experience and advice to give to those just stepping into the craft fair arena. Or you may be reading it because you are preparing for your very first craft fair and wanting to amass as much information as possible. Or, maybe you have yet to make that initial call in answer to a local event organiser. If you are new to the world of craft fairs there will be many questions and much to organise. How much stock do you take? What range of stock is required? And, if you have come to this website, do you need public liability insurance for a craft stall?

Many crafters would agree that taking that initial step to book a table/exhibition booth at a craft stall requires some courage. It involves overcoming feelings of self doubt and and having confidence in your product. Once the space is booked, there will be much to prepare. It might be useful to consider the following questions.

– How has the fair been advertised? If it is local to you, can you spot posters about? Can you see it shared widely on social media? If so, you can be as confident as is possible that there will be good footfall. If not, it might be well worth contacting the organiser and asking a few questions about advertising. A craft fair not only requires preparation time, but a whole day of your time to attend so it’s worth ensuring you can make the most of it.

– What groups of people will be there? This will influence the type of stock you will take. For example, an evening fair which charges an entrance fee and offers a complimentary glass of wine might attract a lot of women, whereas a Farmers Market stall which runs alongside the local junior football training might attract families with young children.

-Are there any special days coming up which you can adapt your stock towards, eg Mothers’ Day, Christmas or Easter?

– What payment methods will you need in place? The days are past when a cash box with lots of spare change was sufficient.

– Are there display boards and if so what messages do you want to convey on them?

– Do you have a stack of business cards to hand out?

– Do you need public liability insurance for a craft stall?

The answer to the last question, is most probably yes. As our website explains, public liability insurance for crafters “covers you if a customer or a member of the public makes a claim against you. It will cover legal costs and compensation. Even if it’s not your fault, we’ll cover your defence costs“. While it is not a legal requirement, most craft fair organisers ask that you have it, and for proof of indemnity up to a certain level. While you can put all good measures in place to prevent accidents or mishaps you can foresee, public liability insurance covers you, and the organisers, against the myriad of unforeseeable events or accidents for which which you cannot possibly construct plans to prevent.

Let’s take a simple example. One of your beautiful cards might fall onto the floor and a member of the public might slip and injure their ankle. Or, the card might be dropped on the floor by a customer and you might not even be aware or it. The person with the injured ankle could then claim compensation for pain, loss of earnings, trauma etc. This sounds unlikely, and it is, but that is the whole point of public liability insurance; it covers you for unforeseen events. If you could foresee them, you would be able to prevent them.

Knowing that you have public liability insurance set in place, frees you up to make the most of all the opportunities that craft fairs have to offer.

As anyone who has attended a few will tell you, they can, and most often are, fantastic places not only to sell your products, but to meet like minded crafters, to gain inspiration and to network.

It is helpful to plan ahead as much as you are able; set a few dates in the diary for fairs and then you can work your stock production around them. However organised you are, though, the day before is often a hive of activity as you pack stock, display boards and other kit into boxes, and if you have young family, ensure plans are in place to keep the household cogs turning in your absence.

The day of the fair arrives and your alarm clock is set super early. Make the most of any quiet in the house to have a steaming mug of tea and a good breakfast to set you up for the day. Then you’re off! There is always an air of excitement as the stall holders set up their wares. It’s fun to see the blank canvas of an empty hall transformed into a riot of colour and creativity. People are generally very helpful and there is often much banter to and fro. Any glitches (and there are usually some) should be sorted out by the event organiser. Once the doors open you will begin to meet the public and if you are fairly new to this, each conversation is an opportunity to showcase your craft, to build confidence in customer relations and to take pride in what you have achieved. In addition to selling your products and taking orders and commissions, craft fairs also provide good opportunities to meet others in the same line of business and learn about future events in the area.

In conclusion, craft fairs are an integral part of our crafting scene, provide excellent opportunities to showcase your products and are most often fun to attend. With public liability insurance for your craft stall in your back pocket you can head out to succeed

Tips for Dealing with Difficult Customers

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Craft Insurance News

We all know that sinking feeling when we meet with someone who is disappointed in us, disagrees with us, or is just plain disagreeable. Within a business, however good our customer relations and products are, we will come across difficult customers. It’s just part of life. Having a strategy in place to deal with these situations will both help you to remain calm as they arise and prevent them escalating.

Prevention is always better than cure, and there are some things you can put in place as part of your general business approach which could avoid conflict with customers in the first place.

Communication is foundational, and so scheduling in time to communicate with clients via email, phone call or social media as part of your admin planning is a good start. This means that you can reply to customers within your stated time frame and you will gain a reputation for reliability. Placing your office hours on all communications also gives your customers a clear knowledge of when to expect a reply; this will prevent a customer becoming upset because you have not replied as immediately as they might like. Holding emails can also keep potentially difficult situations at bay; an acknowledgment that they have been heard and that you are dealing with the query.

Customer relations are so important, especially in a small business where each customer is valued; word of mouth advertising and a good reputation are vital. This is where product liability insurance for crafters comes to your aid. It can not only give you confidence that if anything were to go wrong you could sort it out without paying a huge lump sum, but can allow you to keep customers happy by enabling you to deal with a difficult situation once it has arisen. So, what is product liability insurance? Product liability insurance for crafters offers protection if a customer makes a claim for injury or damage caused by a defective product, or what they claim is a defective product. Your business could face a claim whatever part of the product’s life cycle the issues lies within. For example, if you sell online and a product is damaged or lost in the post, the complaint and compensation might rest on your shoulders even though you are not responsible for this. While we hope this would never happen, having product liability insurance for crafters in place would take the immediate financial stress out of the situation for yourself and ensure the client can be appropriately compensated, thus keeping your customer satisfaction and good reputation intact.

Another way to prevent complaints in the first place is to build general good relations with your customers. Make them feel valued. Maybe you could send out a survey and ask for what they might like to see you produce as you expand your range. Maybe you could set up a loyalty system. Maybe you could send out “thank you for your custom” cards with each order. Complaints are more likely to come where there is less of a relationship between the parties.

So are there any strategies you can put in place to prevent conflict escalation? The wisdom and experience of many business owners show that there are. It is useful to have a well defined process in place so that you or your staff members are not caught off guard when a difficult customer appears. The exact nature of this strategy will be defined by your unique business, but here are some general principles which can be applied.

Tip 1

Listen to the customer. Whether their complaint is justifiable or not, whether it’s cause is anything to do with your business or not, the best place to start is to listen. If this is a face to face incident, be aware of your body language; try to relax your muscles and have an understanding expression, even if what the customer says initially is completely unreasonable.

Tip 2

Reflect back. Once your indignant customer has paused for breath, it can be very helpful to reflect back on what they have said. This shows you have been listening and they have been heard. You can then clarify any points on which you may be uncertain. Anger and frustration may well muddy their thinking and you may need to apply some logic to pull out the salient points.

Tip 3

Apologise. It is amazing how an apology can defuse a situation. However, take care not to apologise for something which isn’t your fault. Once you have listened and clarified the issue, you could reflect back at the customer with a sentence such as “so you are disappointed/upset/angry because…..”. This may well get to the nub of the problem. If it is something for which you are directly or indirectly responsible eg damaged products, you can apologise for this, for the disappointment and the inconvenience. If it is something which you really cannot be expected to bear responsibility, eg the customer misreading the product description, you can apologise for how they feel, but not take direct responsibility for it. eg “I’m sorry you are disappointed…”. Their disappointment is not down to anything you’ve done, but an apology and acknowledgment will never go amiss and will help help them feel valued and cared for.

Tip 4

Give yourself time. If the situation can be dealt with easily, then you can move straight onto a resolution. However, if it is something more complex, buy yourself some time to think it through. Be careful not to make any hasty promises in the heat of the moment which would put you at a disadvantage. Once the customer has been heard and received an apology, you can reassure them that you will now consider the best way forward and will get back to them within a certain timeframe. Thank them for bringing the issue to light and end the conversation.

Tip 5

Resolution. If the complaint has an easy resolution, implement it and thank the customer for bringing the complaint to light.

With the right strategy, difficult customers can be seen as opportunities rather than threats. Product liability insurance will take away the worry of the financial impact of a complaint and leave you free to deal with the customer in the best way for both them and you. A relationship which has been restored is often stronger than one which has had no pressure put on it, and these may become your most loyal customers.

What is the law for selling handmade items in the UK?

Posted on June 16, 2022 by Craft Insurance News

A question I have been asked on many occasions is, “What is the law for selling handmade items in the UK?”

Simply Business reported that starting a craft stall was the fastest growing small business idea in 2021, so it’s an exciting time to be a part of this burgeoning sector!

Whether you want to start a business selling your crafts online, take your products on the road with a craft stall, or approach retailers about selling your crafts, you’ll need to make sure that you’re abiding by the law regarding selling handmade goods in the UK.

So, let’s keep it LEGAL! The acronym I’ve put together below is an easy to follow guide telling you what the law is for selling handmade items in the UK…

L is for Licence.

Do you need a licence to sell your handmade products online? If you are planning on selling alcohol or food products or you have a business premises that is not your home, then you might need one. Also, if you’re selling handmade items at a market, it’s worth checking whether you need a business licence using the government’s licence finder.

E is for Ensuring Compliance

Compliance with important regulations such as Product Safety Regulations cannot be over-emphasised. Your products need to be safe for your customers.

1. FOOD SAFETY

If your handmade products are edible you must display a list of allergens, follow strict food hygiene measures and make a list of your product ingredients available to read.

2. COSMETIC PRODUCTS.

For bath and shower products you’ll need a Cosmetic Product Safety Report which is made up of a series of tests to check:

Toxicity
Stability and Shelf-life
Preservative Efficacy

You can have this report created by a number of independent companies, and then keep it to hand as you could be asked to produce it by Trading Standards

3. NON-COSMETIC PRODUCT SAFETY

Product safety regulations require correct Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) of substances and mixtures to be CLP compliant.

Your product labels need to disclose all the necessary information if you make candle and wax melts, reed diffusers and room sprays. If your product contains a hazardous substance, such as an essential oil or fragrance, it will need to have a CLP compliant label listing:

Ingredients
Hazard pictograms and statements
Allergen information
Supplier information

The information provided to you by your ingredient supplier, in the form of a Safety Data Sheet will tell you if there is anything else that needs to be included on the label.

It is important that you follow the CLP regulations as it is possible to make your insurance invalid if you don’t.

Make sure that your business is operating within the directives and regulation referring to the use of controlled or protected materials, or materials in limited supply which you might be using in your processes. Other laws and regulations you may also need to consider include:

hallmarking
fire safety regulations
gas safety regulations
UKCA marking(which has replaced CE marking)
toy safety regulations

G is for gov.uk.

Go to the gov.uk website for all the detailed information you require regarding Food Safety Regulations, Product Safety Regulations and step by step advice on how to register as a sole trader or as a limited company.

A is for Act, (Consumer Rights Act 2015, Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013)

Give the right information and offer legal consumer rights to your customers.

Write your own terms and conditions for your website if you have one (it’s important that you don’t copy and paste from someone else as they may not comply, and they won’t reflect your unique business)
Have clear cancellation and returns policies.
Provide accurate delivery details.
List your business address.
Provide acceptable proof of purchase where asked for.
List all standard costs and additional costs.

L – is for Levy, otherwise known as TAX!

Do you need to register your business with HMRC for tax purposes?

It’s a very good idea to do so at the outset, as once your business is earning more than £1,000 annually it is a legal requirement. So, first, you need to decide whether you are going to register as a Sole Trader or a Limited Company.

What is the Law for Selling Handmade Items in the UK?

To register as a sole trader, you must be self-employed and have your own business. You don’t have to register the name you are going to trade under, but if you want to stop people from trading under your business name you’ll have to register it as a trademark.

As a sole trader you will be personally liable and you’ll have to keep a record of your business’s sales and expenses. You’ll need to file a tax return every year and you’ll have to pay income tax on your profits.

As a sole trader you’ll also need to register for VAT if your turnover is over £85,000. You can register voluntarily if it suits your business, for example if you sell to other VAT-registered businesses and want to reclaim the VAT.

If you set up as a Limited Company you’ll have more paperwork than you would as a sole trader and the registration process is slightly more involved… You’ll have to:

Choose a company name
Choose directors and a company secretary
Decide who the shareholders or guarantors are
Identify people with significant control (PSC) over your company
Prepare documents agreeing how to run your company
Check what records you’ll need to keep

Being a limited company does offer greater benefits to your company such as increased protection from HMRC and being classed as separate from your business means that your personal assets will be less at risk if you encounter difficulties.

The law regarding selling handmade items in the UK is, in essence, fairly straightforward and it’s all about protecting you and your customers. Fulfilling your legal obligations will give you peace of mind, in a similar way to having the right insurance, and it gives you the space to be even more creative!

How to get your products spotted online using social media.

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Craft Insurance News

We always thought at Craft Insurance that business should remain just that and our private lives should remain private. However, over the last year we realised what a large part of the business we, ourselves, are! Allowing people to get to know who we are as members of a little family business puts people more at ease. When people call they are already a bit defensive, waiting to be transferred to a call centre and kept on hold for half an hour and then, when we pick up they are actually relieved to talk to normal people! We realised that when we talk to our clients we sell ourselves as well as selling our products and social media is another way to help us to do this.

TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA:

1 Remember to be social!

The first rule of thumb for social media is to remember to be social! It sounds simple but often we

broadcast rather than engaging in conversations. Ever been to a dinner party where someone in the group is a little bit too full of themselves and has no interest in engaging with you? They talk at you, telling you hilarious anecdotes about themselves, yabbering on without giving you a chance to squeak, let alone speak! Eventually, you manage to say something but when you do they aren’t really that interested…Well, It’s a good idea to bear this thought in mind when doing posts for social media! Broadcasting without interaction is a no-no! It’s worth considering different ways of delivering your information to invite interaction. We can start conversations with curiosity, engaging with our followers and showing them we understand their needs with insights. Then we can ask them for feedback. Did we get it right or was there something else that we could have talked about that would have been more helpful? It’s about giving people an opportunity to connect with you. Having conversations and letting people get to know you a little bit better. After all, people buy from people.

2 Pick a platform and do it well.

Often we try and do too many different platforms because we think we ought to, but what we need to do is do ONE well, before we branch out and try others. At Craft Insurance we tried to start with too many and then found that we couldn’t keep up with them all! We had a Twitter account but then we couldn’t keep up with it as we didn’t really use it in our personal lives! Instagram was still a bit of a mystery at the time, and, a little befuddled with it all, we decided to concentrate on one! Of all the platforms, Pinterest seemed to be the most attractive and then we discovered the opportunities that Facebook was offering in the form of Facebook Challenges. We realised that there was no right or wrong. It was simply a case of being most active on the platform where our audience were.

3 Understand you audience:

So, which social media channels are used by the people you want to target? If you are going for a 20 year old, chances are they’ll be on TikTok or Snap Chat way before Facebook (their parents are on Facebook). I’ve recently discovered Stories which is a bit like Snapchat but a bit more sophisticated. Your post grid of images is for your product only, a bit like your personal shop window. In Stories, on the other hand, you can show other people’s products, info about your sales, other people’s sales and you can also create polls and ask questions. It can almost become like a visual blog. It’s good for market research, for giveaways and for sharing posts from fellow makers to introduce your followers to them. If you tag a business, a supplier or a cause that you are a part of in your story then they’ll re-share your story to their contacts too. The Facebook algorithm can mean that your followers may never actually get to see your posts, whereas with stories, it’s there and it won’t get lost in the ether!

4 Create personas:

One of the most helpful tips for you to engage your audience is by ‘creating’ one of them. Who are your customers? When you know the ‘types’ of people that use your services it will help you to speak to them via social media. When I say ‘type’ I mean that they might be of a similar age, education, job or family status or they might live in the same area. They might have similar goals in life eg. Do they want to travel more? Do they want to start a company? Do they want to own their own home? Or they might have similar interests e.g. Do they like reading? Do they like listening to classical music? Do they like watching crime dramas? Do they enjoy playing tennis? What motivates them? Do they want a great work life balance? Do they aim to pay off any debt and become financially free? Or do they just want to live in the moment and be a free spirit? Van life is a great thing at the moment, especially on Pinterest.

Once you have a persona it will give you the confidence to step into the world of advertising online. Give each persona a name and over time you and your team will all know who you are talking about when you target set demographics.

5 Use social advertising:

To get traction on platforms such as Facebook, ad spend is becoming a necessity. If you want your followers to grow in number it is unlikely to happen organically on Facebook (organic traffic is obtained more easily on LinkedIn). When you decide how much you want to spend on your Facebook ads, go to your setting and cap your spend at the outset so that Facebook knows when to stop! Have a look at the other settings too to make sure that your ads are showing at the right time etc. To advertise your products for free, upload videos to YouTube as it’s a great way to get more traffic to your wonderful website!

6 Use email and landing pages:

When you post an ad on Facebook (and Instagram) it needs to feature either a landing page with a specific offer or take them directly to a specific place on the website rather than to the homepage. A landing page is a ‘one offer only’ page to engage a purchase or sign up. You post your advert on social media, direct people to this particular offer on the landing page and, if you can, get them to sign up to your newsletter and leave an email address. These landing pages can be set up through your website or your choice of email programme.

To get started contacting your customers, MailChimp is a great tool whose price depends on the number of contacts you have. As you scale, you can use more sophisticated Content Resource Management tools (InfusionSoft, Keap, Hubspot (more expensive) as these have email marketing and landing pages built in. They really do help you scale significantly. When you write a blog, for example, they will contact your entire mailing list with your blog at the time you’ve set. It looks after itself. Just make sure that everyone on your mailing list has given permission for you to use their contact details – it’s the law. I hope that these little tips will add value to you and help you to get social online with your audience! Please contact us if you need our help and advice with your Craft Insurance.

Writing winning descriptions and content for your online crafting business

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Craft Insurance News

As artists and crafters, we want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy online from us. Writing the right content for your crafting website is all part of this! Cre8ion helped us with some useful tips on writing great content for our craft business insurance website and we’d love to share them with you…

Writing great content is like taking great photographs of your products and if you don’t take a great photo you aren’t doing your products justice. You’ve spent all your time making something special and it’s worth suffers because of a poorly taken shot. It’s the same with your content on your website. Nobody else will appreciate how fab your products are, or even be able to find them for that matter, if they aren’t described in the right way. Your content can be like a well taken shot, and lead people to your wares like bees to a honeypot.

Content done well helps with:

SEO (which stands for search engine optimisation) is all about the words and phrases that help people to search for your product. These words and phrases (known as search terms) need to be found on your website so that Google can pick them out when people go searching for you. That’s why it’s really important that the words on your website are the right ones. For our business it might be single words or short phrases (known as short tail keywords) like ‘craft business insurance’ or ‘public liability insurance’ or it could be whole questions (known as long tail keywords) like “Do I need public liability insurance for my candle making business?” When I’m writing blogs, these are the words and phrases I need to be including in the body of content as well in the title and also throughout my website copy. Supposing your line of business is handmade soaps you need to include the words that people would be typing into Google to find your products. They might be typing in pampering, handmade bath products, present ideas for Mum etc.

Ranking:

Ranking is how high up the page your company appears when people search for you. The better you are at using the right search terms the higher up the ranking you will be, and the more relevant

content you write toward those search terms the more you are rewarded. This is why blogs work so well as they can be regularly updated and include the relevant, appropriate search terms. You can write a blog about your latest product and include search terms to ensure that people find it. You then talk about what your product might be good for, so if it’s a soap for dry skin for instance, people might be googling “best products for dry skin”, “solutions for dry skin” or “moisturising handmade soaps” so include these phrases in your blog. You are trying to focus on the reason why they are looking for your product. Time to get into your customers’ brains!!

Use Keyword sites:

The secret sauce is knowing where to find these words. We recommend www.NeilPatel.com which is easier than becoming a data scientist using google tools. You can find the most used words and terms here and add them to your content writing. The site offers a limited free service as well as a monthly subscription.

Write Good English:

Ever come across a website that has spelling mistakes and glaring grammatical gaffes? Like using ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ in the wrong places!! The good news for struggling grammarians is that anyone can improve their language score by using a tool called Grammarly. It works for you like a school teacher, sitting underneath all your text based applications, from email to word and PowerPoint to websites. It picks up what you are writing and recommends changes. The other app that is fantastic for website copy is The Hemingway App which is absolutely free and teaches you how to write concise, sharp, punchy copy with the right tone giving advertisers maximum impact in short phrases. Type your copy straight into the app and then copy and transfer to your website, once perfected. No more blethering!

Ask for help:

Get someone you know and trust to read it. It’s a great idea to ask someone to proofread who has no knowledge of your product. Explain the point that you are trying to get across and ask if that’s what they get from it…

Think benefits as well as features:

Too often we tell everyone about the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ but not the ‘why’. Features tell but benefits sell! Ensure you answer the question of why you have certain product features to create depth to your offering. We need to tell people why they need our products! Like why they need craft business insurance. What do you need to tell your audience? Is it about how your product feels, who it makes a good present for or the fact that it is unique.

Address the pain:

Think about the ‘pain’ the potential end user is experiencing. How is your product solving their problem? People go searching for a specific design or pattern for example, so that is something you need to emphasise. You make products with a dog design and people can’t find what they are looking for. Make sure that you are telling your customers that you have it!

Call to action:

Always remember that your content needs to get the buyer to take action. Incentives are things you can do to get people to buy with you. Discount codes, for example, or limited runs. Limited runs create exclusivity by making a lower number of a particular product. Everyone likes to have things that are unique or ‘one offs’, we like to wear different clothes and have unusual items in our homes. You can also upsell extra items that match, so if it’s cushions your selling, offer them with curtains at a slight discount!

Hopefully, this blog has given you some inspiration for writing great content for your crafting website. If you need help or advice with your craft business insurance please do contact us.