Hi there, it's Sue and thanks for joining me for Tips and Talk Day. These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business. If you'd like to submit a topic, DM e over on Instagram at Gift Biz Unwrapped. Before we get started, I'm gonna share a secret with you. One of my superpowers is the ability to get an enormous number of tasks and projects done each and every week.
I easily meet deadlines, rarely forget to do something, and know at the start of each day what needs priority, attention and action type A personality. Yes, and a follow through on the Kobe assessment, which should have given me the clue, but it wasn't until people started commenting to me that I realized not everyone naturally knows how to do this. It's the biggest single contributor to the growth I always see in my businesses without spending hours and hours working either.
It's about focus and doing the right things efficiently. Prompted by all the questions on how I do this, I went about finding a way to help you perform at a higher level too. I analyzed my methods and formalized my process, which is one many of my coaching clients. Now also follow. You can use it too. It's all part of a tool called the Inspired Daily Planner, made specifically for gifters, bakers, crafters and makers. Make no mistake, this is not your ordinary planner.
First off, it comes with a video explaining my productivity strategy and the physical planner isn't dated, so you can start using it the second it arrives at your doorstep, and that's not all included for each day is a motivational or business building tip and plenty of space to capture and book in time for to-dos scheduled appointments and all those ideas that are now getting lost. You can watch the video for free and then get your inspired daily planner@giftbizunwrapped.com slash inspired.
I recently returned from the Philly Candy Show. This is an event focused on candy makers most specifically Chocolateers. I've been doing this show for, oh gosh, probably about 10 years or so now, if you were to walk into the exhibit hall, you'd see big machines complete with combinations of industrial mixers, coders, and cooling trolleys. I'm quite sure I'm not getting the terms right, but you get the picture.
You'd also run into booths selling ingredients and enhancements and all sorts of molds and other chocolate making equipment. Of course, there'd be packaging resources too, like label machines, clear boxes with cavity trays to separate the pieces and of course, this is where we fit in with our ribbon printing machines. It's always so interesting to me to see all the different types of things that each product industry uses.
I love these specialty trade shows for just that reason in this case, to get a peak behind the scenes of the world of chocolate. I'm interested, even though I have no need to be a chocolate expert, I'm just an expert chocolate taster. Anyway, a few years back, the board at the Philly Candy Show decided to add business development programs into their course roster. I've had the honor of conducting classes on various topics ever since this year.
They also asked me to sit on a panel each morning, very informal, where attendees could ask any questions they'd like. I've never attended these in the past because the questions have always revolved solely around chocolate production. That of course, changed when I was included to talk about the business side of things, but still many questions were about chocolate that provided me with even a deeper level of exposure to the world of a chocolatier. It was fascinating.
For example, I didn't know that the environment is all important for chocolate. Now, obviously as a consumer, I knew that heat would melt your chocolate bar if you leave it in a hot car or a cake will be a wilted mess if the sun shines down on an outdoor wedding cake for too long. But I didn't know that air from a ceiling vent could completely ruin one side of a tray of chocolate by turning them white, and then the other side could remain totally unaffected.
Or the constant opening and closing of a chocolate shop door with customers coming in and out can raise havoc on the product being made that day, even if it's in a designated area in the back, sealed off by a second closed door, chocolate production. Is that sensitive? I didn't know that. The filling of a truffle needs to be a very specific consistency that varies from flavor and ingredients, and if it's not right, it will break apart. Their term is explode when dipped in the coating chocolate.
I didn't know that trays and bowls need to be completely cleaned between batches or it affects or potentially ruins the outcome of what comes next. Even if that next batch is of the exact same chocolate, and I didn't know that in an experienced chocolatier making a product that they'd done consistently for years one day may follow the exact steps they always have and they find themselves with a completely worthless production run without an understandable rhyme or reason.
Chocolate is that finicky Who knew all these discoveries led me to a whole new appreciation for chocolate. I had no idea of the complexity involved in creating these delicious confections that we love so much. You can be assured that the next time I savor a dark chocolate grand marnet truffle melting in my mouth, I'll stop savor and consciously notice how much I enjoy it because I now do know all it took to provide me with this experience. Okay, now, why am I telling you all this?
It's because I could never have gotten to this deeper level of appreciation for chocolate if I hadn't been exposed to the knowledge of how skilled a chocolate maker needs to be to produce their candy. From there, my mind goes to you and your products. Regardless of what you make, there's a skill that you've had to perfect, and there are certain critical production points or special additions that you include that make your creations unique and yours exclusively.
There are cooling times, temperature levels, material quality specs, interesting tools of the trade, and I know so much more that you take for granted with your craft because you use them all the time. Yet we know nothing about showing these things to your customers. Things they never have the ability to know or see otherwise adds to their perspective of the value of your products. And the great thing about this is this added value doesn't cost you more in materials or production time.
You are already doing it. It's just that your audience doesn't know about it and it's well worth your while to tell them. Share interesting parts of your production in social media posts or reels. Write a blog article about a funny or not so funny at the time story that brought you to a current level of expertise. Talk about these things to booth visitors at craft shows. Even better. Do demos at live person events that always draws a crowd and sparks conversation.
Maybe I can best summarize it by saying, don't make in private and sell in public. Show them all stages of how you get your product from start to finish. They'll be intrigued and like what's happening with me with chocolate? They'll have a new found appreciation for your creations, which of course leads to more business and new customers. That's a wrap. I'm a get to the point kind of girl, and this is what you can expect from these quick midweek sessions. Now it's your turn.
Go out and fulfill that dream of yours. Share your handmade products with us. We want them and they bring us both. So much happiness.