What is the way forward for my business?
If you have ever asked yourself that question, this book is for you.
Post more. Post less. Niche down. Broaden out. Raise your prices. Stay affordable. Be on TikTok. Get off social media. Hustle harder. Slow down.
There is no shortage of business advice for makers and crafters. The problem is that none of it tells you which advice belongs to your business, or what your business actually needs next.
That is the Advice Dilemma.
Barbara Lello knows what it is like to keep searching for the way forward. She searched so hard that she changed crafts completely, hoping a different business might finally provide the answer.
Then the same questions reappeared.
The Advice Dilemma gives you a method for stepping back from your maker business and looking at it differently. It helps you see the patterns and blindspots that are difficult to spot when you are right in the middle of running it, so you can make clearer decisions about where to put your time, energy and attention next.
Forty case studies bring the method to life, showing familiar maker-business situations, the stories we often tell ourselves about them, and what becomes possible when we look again.
If you have ever wondered why nobody is buying and thought you simply need more views, this book is for you.
If you have ever changed direction, started again or tried a different craft in the hope that this one would finally work, this book is for you.
If you have ever posted on social media, heard nothing back and taken the silence personally, this book is for you.
If you are working harder than ever but still cannot work out what your business needs from you next, this book is for you.
There is a way forward for your maker business.
This book will help you step back, see more clearly and start working out what yours looks like.
Barbara Lello trained in organisational development and spent years working at a strategic level inside a large, complex organisation, looking at what was working, what was not and what the organisation needed next. She later built her own maker business, achieving more than six thousand sales on Etsy.
She realised that the diagnostic thinking she had applied to large organisations could help small businesses too.
She now helps makers and small business owners see their businesses more clearly, so they can make better decisions about what comes next.
barbaralello.com