FIRST LIGHT ACADEMY

I am so excited to tell you that in January 2026, I’ll be opening the First Light Academy. I’ve placed the logo above so that you will recognise academy posts. It’s for anyone who wants to start their own business. Not just for crafting, but any business. I’ve almost finished writing my signature programme and I’ll be keeping the pricing reasonable. You’ll get value and all of the tips for advertising and promoting your business, I’ll be teaching the technology and keywords to get your business noticed, plus so much more. This will be taught in five modules all lasting four weeks each. The final module is called fly high, and here I’ll show you how to stand out from the crowd and put your business head and shoulders above the rest.

This was just going to be craft related originally, but I’ve had so many others asking if they can be included, that I’ve adapted the programme so that it suits all businesses whether they are product or service based. I’ll also be adding an extra bonus offer to anyone who signs up and pays for the course by the end of December 2025. So if this is something you are interested in, please email me at dawnscanlon1@icloud.com and I’ll tell you what you need to do to sign up. The programme will be held inside a private but visible Facebook group, which will be a safe space to learn and share together.

If you are a product based business and are looking or will be looking to expand your business, you could add a service. For example, if you make and sell greeting cards in your business, you could add a wedding invitation service to your customers. This is easy to do and you don’t need any special equipment. Circle dies can be used cut from gold mirror car and made into linked wedding rings for your image, as in the photo above.

If you are a service based business and wish to expand, you could add other subjects or services to your range or maybe add a mentoring service. Inside of the academy, we go deeper into these subjects so that your business stands out and gets in front of the people who are looking for what you are offering.

I’m excited to tell you that in the new year, I am going to be expanding the range of toys that I make and sell in my business. We already have the transformer toys, and they are still very popular. But these glove puppets will be added, along with the knitting pattern so that customers have the option of buying the puppet or the knitting pattern, or even both, if they wish. The first puppet is a cat, and that was a request from one of my regular customers. Designing the pattern was fun, and there will be others coming in the new year. Other requests have been for a dog and a rabbit. For the pattern, I’ll add in the extra features for the different animals as I design them. 🌅

Hi everyone. I’m so excited to share with you my very first programme that is designed exclusively for any crafter who wants to turn their passion into a business. In this post, I’m going to share the introduction to the programme to give you a little taster of what’s to come. I’ll also add some graphics that I’ve designed to illustrate the aims of this journey.

Introduction – In this programme, you will learn everything you need to know about starting and running your own amazing craft business. Whether you do paper crafting, sewing, any other needlework, jewellery making or any type of craft that you enjoy, this programme will help you to turn your hobby into a thriving business. You’ll learn how to create a space to work, pricing your items realistically to advertising and promoting your business so that your potential customers know you are there. You’ll learn how NOT to be the world’s best kept secret.

I’ll show you that you don’t have to have everything all figured out before you start. Every business starts with a few ideas of what the owner wants to achieve. In your case, it’s selling your amazing products and/or teaching craft classes.

Starting a business from scratch is a bit like building a snowman. That pile of snow beneath your feet is a collection of your as yet undeveloped ideas of what you want to make and sell. You take a handful of that snow and form it into a snowball.

It’s not perfect, but it’s done. This first snowball represents the first few products that you want to make.

TIP – make the things that you love to make and they will be of good quality. Then you move on to pricing and marketing your items. You’ll learn put other bits and pieces into place such as your preferred social media platforms, business Facebook page, maybe a website, etc.

Now you’ve added a few more snowballs and your snowman is starting to look like something. This is how your business will look once you’ve got other elements in place. We’ll go through all of this and more in the programme.

Once you’ve got the basics in place, you’re ready to start your crafting business. It might not be perfect, but it’s enough to get you started. Remember! DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

If this sounds like a good plan to you, come and join me inside the academy and let’s start building that crafting business you’ve been dreaming of about.

Hi. Today we are going to chat about branding our business. We all know that branding includes your logo, brand colours and patterns and your colour of tissue paper for your bags and boxes etc, but branding goes deeper than that. Yes colours and your logo are importing, as they identify your business. But as well as that, YOU are your brand. Your energy and enthusiasm as you promote your products and services all help to identify your business. Maybe you wear clothing in your brand colours when you are working. As you know, my brand colour is orange, and I always wear something that’s orange. You could cover the cupboard doors and drawers in your workroom or studio with your brand colours. You are the energy of your business, so keep it upbeat and enthusiastic. If customers see a bright and confident person at the helm of a product launch, they will feel that positive energy and be more likely to buy from you. So be your brand, and be bold.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll be showing you how you can extend your brand and your physical and professional presence with the use of your business cards, and other business stationery. So I’ll catch up with you then. 🌅

Following on from yesterday’s post, I’d like to share with you a way to extend how you can amplify your brand. Having business stationery is essential both on and offline. It gives you a recognisable presence and identity. A good tip is to print the name of your business in your principle brand colour and always have your logo on every type of business stationery that you use. Business cards are a great asset to any business as you can hand anyone a card who asks you what you do for a living. Just make sure your business name and logo are on your business cards, as well as your contact details. If you have a website, you could add a QR code to your business cards which takes them straight to your site. All of this is taught inside of the academy, so if you are interested in learning how to amplify your brand this way, please leave me a comment, and I’ll give you details of how you can sign up. Have fun with amplifying your brand. 🌅

Today’s video is part of a series that actually started yesterday, but don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything as yesterday’s video was merely an introduction of what is coming in this series. There will be a new video everyday, up to and including Sunday, where I will be sharing various aspects of starting and running your own crafting business.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can work together on either starting or developing your crafting business, please do email me at: dawnscanlon1@icloud.com and I’d be happy to give you further details. So until tomorrow, have fun and

HAPPY CRAFTING 🌅

In today’s session, we’re going to be discussing how to handle the situation when you have potential customers and clients and don’t want to scare them away by making them feel compelled to work with you.

The worst thing you can do is seem to be forcing them to make a decision. A really is the kiss of death for many new businesses. Make them feel in control of their decision making process by asking things such as, would it be ok if I shared a few ideas with you? Or Would you like me to walk you through the process and benefits? Keep your questions open ended and position your offer as a decision, never a demand. – Let your audience feel in control of their own decision.

Tell them your story and start at the bottom. Share what your lowest point was. Share your fears about failure and how you resisted the urge to give up. Give a relatable story that others can follow as an example, because that builds trust. Also, don’t forget to share your turning point. For example, my turning point was when my husband died. I was on my own, I had no other responsibility so felt I had nothing to lose by trying to start my own business.

Position yourself as the adventurer, not the expert. Of course it’s always good to reassure your clients that you know what you’re doing, but say what you’re currently working on and not what you’ve already achieved. Say what’s worked in the process and what hasn’t. This builds a connection with those who are still building their business.

Finally in this session, identify your audiences enemy and call that enemy out. I’m not talking about your competition, ie, other craft businesses. Many new business owners main enemies are fear and doubt, and we need to kick those enemies out and lock the door so they can’t creep back in.

If doubt is your enemy to building your business,we’ll be tackling that tomorrow. We’ll be exploring ways to overcome that doubt, and I’ll be sharing a fun exercise to test out your business idea in a way that is totally risk free. So if that’s something you’d be interested in, please do pop back tomorrow and I’ll show you some images and ideas to get that plan moving foreword. See you then. 🌅

Hello. In today’s session, we’re going to chat about how you can handle doubt from potential clients and customers when it arises. When you feel you are at the point of gaining a new client, they might raise one of two objections. One, I can’t really afford this just now or two, I need to talk to my partner about this.

Both of these are usually masks for fear. Fear of failure. It was mine too when I started thinking about running my own business; but once I got started, (about 2 years later!) I wish I’d started sooner.

When responding to others people’s doubts, don’t try to force them into a decision. Let them be in control. Say something like, I get that, I really do. I’ve been there myself. But if you’re confident in what you want to do, how would you feel if you lost out on big sales because you didn’t take that leap. If you’re going to go down the what if path, instead of saying what if this fails, say to yourself, what if this actually works. Flip the script from fear to freedom.

Now let’s put a plan into place to kick doubt and fear out for good.

Let’s suppose you are looking to buy a new house. You come across this one on your travels and see a for sale sign outside. You really like the look of it from the outside, but you’re not sure. What do you do? You contact the agent and ask to be shown around the house. This way you can look around this gorgeous house with no commitment and see if it’s right for you.

Well, you can do that with your business idea too. There are so many social media platforms around today and almost everyone is on at least one of them. If that’s you, post your business idea on your chosen platform and try it out. Show people what you do and let them see the benefits. If you’re on Facebook or Instagram, you can set up a business page at absolutely no cost to you. Share your ideas, your products and/or services and let people see what you propose to do. It’s a great way of getting your message across without risking a financial burden that you might be worried about. Post regularly and gauge other people’s responses. If your posts gain attention and become popular, that’s an indication that there is interest in your business idea.

So take your business idea on a no risk test drive and see what happens. Now we’ve got that sorted, shut the door and doubt, and build that dream business.

Tomorrow, we’ll be discussing how you can make your offer personal to your potential customers and clients, but in the meantime, if you have any questions about any aspect of turning your crafting into a business, please feel free to email me at:

dawnscanlon1@icloud.com

See you tomorrow 🌅

Hi everyone. Today we are going to be talking about keeping your message personal when inviting clients to work with you. If you handed them an envelope with the words just for you, it would make them feel very special, and maybe even a bit excited because they don’t know what’s in it yet. But if they do decide to open it, they will find an invitation to come and work with you to build their own dream crafting business. That’s your invitation and if your audience accept it, you can take them on an amazing journey to realising their dreams.

But once they have decided to open that invitation and start their journey, encourage them to be a leader, not a follower. Let me explain.

Once you do decide to start your own business, don’t just do what everyone else in your field is doing. In other words don’t copy them. Don’t be a follower, be a leader. As a business owner, you are not the person at the bottom following the crowd and doing the same as them, you are the magnet at the top, drawing people to your amazing and unique way of doing business. So. Be a leader, not a follower.

And the other important thing to remember is to keep it simple. Set up one system that allows people to buy from you and remember to highlight the benefits, not the process. They’ll figure that out for themselves as they start to work with you.

Aim for clarity and summarise the outcome for your clients in one sentence. For example, if you were walking down the street and someone asked , what do you do for a living? Answer that question with one simple sentence. “I am a crafter and I ……….” Don’t give them a monologue, keep it simple and clear.

When you come back tomorrow for the final session in this series, I’m going to be sharing the big red button strategy and what it does for your business. So do join me for that if you can.

Bye for now. 🌅

Imagine walking into a store. There’s no one around but you go up to the counter with your shopping. You can’t see any staff at the checkout, but on the counter is a big red button that says do not press. Now that button is something that you didn’t even know about five minutes ago, but the moment you see those words Do Not Press, you want to know what it does. It’s the same as going into a building and seeing a door behind reception with a sign that says Private. Do Not Enter. Because it says you can’t go in, you want to know what goes on in there.

It’s the same with your business. If people think that their access to you and your business is limited, they want to join you to find out what they’d be missing.

When explaining your business to other people, start by saying something like, this programme or these products are only available to those who really want impact in their lives and want to move forward. The moment you use the word, ‘Only’ their brain immediately sends signals that they might be allowed to join in, thus limiting their options. That ‘only’ is your big red button and it’s up to your potential customers and clients whether or not they press it.

So are you, are you customers going to press the big red button, or will it remain unpressed. The choice is yours, and theirs. 🌅

If you are considering turning your crafting hobby into a business, the first thing you need is a space to work in. Whether you are going to be product based, service based, or a bit of both. You still need a space to operate your business.

If you’re lucky enough to have a separate room to work in, you can arrange your desk, storage and equipment however you like and leave it set up that way all of the time. – But if that’s not possible and you use a room that other family members use, this takes a bit more organisation, as you will need somewhere to store your work things when you’re not working. I would strongly suggest that if you are using a room that is used by others, treat yourself to a collapsible table. A trestle table or a camping table would be ideal. You can open it out when you want to work, and put it away when others need to use the room. You will also need portable storage items such as plastic containers or even large cardboard boxes.

If you will be using a computer while you are working, I would strongly advise you to get a laptop, if you haven’t got one already. They can easily be put away with your other equipment.

You will also need a place to store your work items when you are not working. A space in a cupboard or slide it under a table. Find a way that works for you and keep your hours of business realistic. For example, if you have children who are of school age, you might want to work from 10am until 2pm.

Whatever your situation. Whether you have a room of your own to work in, or you are setting up a portable system in a room that is used by other family members. Make it work for you and your situation and keep your business hours to a timeframe that fits in with your family commitments. 🌅

THUMBS UP TO THAT 👍👍

Today we are going to discuss how many products and services you should sell when you first start your crafting business. It’s tempting to want to sell every product you’ve ever made; but you could get overwhelmed very quickly if you do that at the start. Begin with between 6 – 10 products, and make the items that you really love to make. Likewise if you are teaching classes or running business programmes, it’s great to have a lot of ideas, but sell your favourite 2 to 4 to begin with. That way you won’t feel overwhelmed if you get busy and you’ll have other products and programmes ready and waiting when you want to grow your business or launch a new range of products, programmes or classes.

At the same time, make sure you charge a fair price for each product and service that you sell in your business. Don’t just guess the prices or allow others to offer you a price. “Oh that looks nice, I’ll give you £5 for it.” That only deals with the aesthetic value of your product and doesn’t even mention the materials, your overheads or your time. For products, calculate the cost of making each item. For example, if you are making a clipboard and using an A4 mount board and the pack costs £10 and there are 10 boards in a pack, then just the board will cost a £1. Do the same with the other materials that you use and don’t forget to include adhesives, if you use them. Also, you need to factor in your time, because that has value and your overheads such as heating and lighting. So to make it simple, calculate the cost of the item you are selling and then add 75% to that amount. That will give you a fair price for each product.

Now, if you are teaching craft classes, again, you need to cover the cost of your materials and your time. I would suggest charging £10 per hour and run each class for two hours. That way, the class costs £20 for each person, and you have covered your costs. For a longer programme such as a business programme for example, charge a monthly fee of around £500. That would make a total cost of £2,500 for a five month programme.

Remember. If people really want to buy from you, they will pay your prices. So don’t let anyone talk you out of the prices that you have charged for your products and/or services.

Know your worth and stick to it.

I hope you’ve found this helpful if you are just starting your crafting business. Until next time, have fun and ………….

HAPPY CRAFTING 🌅