Reborn Baby Doll Store

We have been helping reborn artists become reborn doll marketers so they can be recognized and paid for their work and maybe even give up their day job to become full time reborn artists. Imagine being paid to do what you love doing!

One of the fundamentals to making a hobby into a career is organization. Having the luxury of a hobby means that you can pull it out whenever you want and put it away for as long as you want.

Turning your passion into a money-making venture is a really exciting prospect, as you will become one of the minority of people doing a job they love and being paid for it.

It is this jump between hobby and career that can be difficult . Here are our 5 top tips to getting organized.

1. Time Management is very important, as time is the only thing we cannot get back. A “to do list” is a fantastic guide to utilize for the work day. It can even be split up into time slots if you find yourself becoming absorbed in a job and cannot move onto something else that needs to be done. A helpful hint for your “to do list” is to do the unpleasant jobs at the beginning of every day. They are then out of the way and make you feel productive and in control. Another idea is to make more than one doll at a time – a mini ‘production line’. This is a good way to save time on setting up paints or photographic equipment, etc as it takes just as long to set up for one task as it does for several.

2. Keep your files safe. Always keep a ‘reborn resource file’ on your computer. We hear from artists that sourcing products is time consuming and frustrating. Once you find a product you like on a certain website, copy the URL (http://www….) at the top of the page and keep it in a ‘resource file’ so you can easily find it again. You do this by simply going to the page on the website you are visiting to reach the item you want. Look up at the control bar at the top of that page and make sure it is a variation of the ‘Home Page’ URL. Every page has it’s on URL that links back to the ‘Home Page’ so simply copy and paste this URL into your private file and you will always be able to find your way back to that item quickly and easily.

3. Keep records of money spent on each doll - this includes your time. If you are serious about selling your dolls, you need to know what they have cost you in time and cash. Your profit margin is on top of these costs. Keeping records can be as simple as an exercise book ledger or as complicated as a complex computer database. It doesn’t matter which you choose but what does matter is that you always keep this up to date. Including your hours is essential - how much you want to be paid for your time is entirely up to you. The important thing is in your business is that you are paid.

4. Keep family and work separate. If you have put aside a certain amount of time to work on your business, do not let yourself be side-tracked by household chores. It is easy to decide to take a break and complete a household chore to make things easier for later but you must always remember you are at work and work is what you must concentrate on. Make sure your family realize that you are working during the hours you want and that they may need to step up to help you reach your dream.

5. Keep educating yourself on both reborning techniques and business strategies.  Turning a passion into a business reality means staying on top of the latest tools and techniques associated with running your venture. For example, if you are ready to sell on ebay then get to know ebay. Open an account; buy from other sellers to learn the buying process and go to ‘ebay University’ at pages.ebay.com/UNIVERSITY to understand the selling process.

We hope you have found these tips helpful and wish you all the best in turning your hobby into a successful and rewarding career.

Fran and Nicola

Fran and Nicola share many other great Internet Marketing Strategies in their Reborn Doll Web Business Book –www.reborndollsforfunandprofit.com

Did you know that 85 to 90% of people in America are dissatisfied with their job? The percentage of people actually doing a job they love is much lower. So to have the ability to move out of a dissatisfying career into one that inspires you daily, gets your artistic juices flowing and pays well is a really exciting step.

If you are serious about turning your reborn doll passion into a career then managing your time is essential. Working from home is difficult unless you are very disciplined and this can be accomplished with good time management skills, which are easily learnt.

1. Prioritize your time. Spend ten minutes every morning or evening making a priority list of the day’s activities from most important to least important and stick to it. Create and keep your "To Do List" handy. Don’t skip over the difficult items when checking to see what needs completing next. Always give yourself a little time for emergencies or things that do not go to plan. It has been well documented that most people spend 80% of their time trying to complete 20% of their tasks.

2. Time management plan. Have a time management plan that if necessary sets out the whole day in ½ hour increments. This is a good way to start using time effectively and all you need is a clock or watch to stay on track. Set goals for yourself using this formula; give yourself deadlines and stick to them as you would for any other work.

3. Avoid distractions. If working at home, do not get side tracked by housework or any job to do with your home. Always imagine yourself at the work place and in working hours. The wonderful thing about working from home is you can choose your hours so you can take time off to care for family when necessary but you must make it up again. For example, if you are finishing work at 3pm to spend a few hours with your children, put aside time at night to complete the day’s workload.

4. Look after your body. Get the right amount of sleep. Seven to eight hours is recommended for adults but oversleeping makes you feel tired. Eat a healthy breakfast; take time out for a light healthy lunch. A light lunch will stop you getting tired in the afternoon. Take regular short breaks away from your computer – at least every two hours. Resist the urge to talk yourself into a long rest when you have your own couch waiting in the next room. Exercise early in the morning or in the evening, not in the workday period.

5. Create a mini production line. Paint more than one doll or part of a doll at a time. Preparing paints takes time so if you can paint more than one doll/part at a time this actually cuts down on time. Any job where multiple dolls can be prepared is time saving. If photographing dolls for sale, use the same set up for more than one. Your mini production line can be an effective way to achieve results much faster.

6. Talk to your spouse and children explaining to them that you are now working at home; the emphasis being on working, and just because you are at home does not mean you are at the beck and call of everyone or that you will not need help in the running of the house. Explain that you are at work from #hour - #hour and need to be treated as if you are in any work place and unavailable – in the same way as everyone else who leaves the house to go to work.

7. Work now, play later. It’s human nature to want to do the fun things first. Train yourself to complete the work on your list first, starting with the day with the things that may not be pleasant for you. This way they are out of the way and you can concentrate on the more enjoyable tasks without guilt or worry. Reward yourself. Whenever you complete important tasks within a stipulated period, give yourself a little treat. This will give you an incentive to complete work on time.

We hope this is beneficial to seeing you become a full time reborn doll artist. By following these tips you will start taking yourself and your work more seriously and before you know it will have a wonderful collection of reborn dolls that need  a good home.

We wish you all the luck in the world

Fran and Nicola

Fran and Nicola share many other great Internet Marketing Strategies in their Reborn Doll Web Business Book –www.reborndollsforfunandprofit.com

Reborn dolls are sold on ebay every day, yet many reborn artists still find it almost impossible to get even one bid on their product. The reason is really quite simple. The people who give ebay what it wants in an advertisement are the ones that are shown on the first pages of the reborn doll category. Most people who are searching the reborn dolls or any category do not bother going through to the end pages - they simply see whatever they want on the first page and start to bid for that. It does not matter whether there is a better item further into ebay.

We have put together our 7 top tips to help you sell effectively and be seen on ebay by the search engines.

1. Buy first and get to know ebay as a buyer. People get into bidding wars over products on ebay and this is what you want to happen in your auctions. The more buyers, the more money! Start by becoming a buyer. By becoming a buyer yourself, you will feel the tension of trying to buy whatever it is you are interested in. This is the same feeling you want to create for your potential buyers in your own auctions.

2. Photographs are a great selling tool on ebay. Make sure you take photographs at angles that your customers will want to see to showcase your dolls. Photograph your dolls in different outfits and accessories to provide the new owner with options and choices. A full range of well-taken photographs is a must for ebay selling and can be a deciding factor in securing a sale.

3. Description. When writing a description of the doll you want to auction on ebay, make sure you include all the details your customer could possibly ask about. Your potential customers are all unique so your descriptions must answer all the possible questions your buyers may have. Imagine you were actually standing in front of your customer in your ‘real’ shop. Include any faults in your description as this will reduce the occurrence of returns and may even endear the doll to buyers. Being honest is extremely important. Remember to include text about yourself as the artist as well. Try to make the small initial box that you see on the ebay category stand out. Ebay offers colors, bolding, enlargement of photographs and more to get buyers to the sales page and make your add stand out from the crowd.

4. The Layout. The font and design of your page is extremely important. Have a look at other ebay auctions.  Notice how well designed auction layouts are much more enticing than the obviously amateurish ones that have been used with the default layout that ebay provides. Experiment with your page design until you are happy with the’ look and feel’ of your sales page.

5. Timing and the Auction. Starting and ending your auction at a time when people are online is very important to getting a bidding war going. Imagine if a buyer saw your doll, loved it, but saw that your auction will end at a time when they cannot get to their computer. They may put in a bid and leave it at that and hope for the best. If they know they can be there to the bitter end, you have a much higher chance of getting a sale.

6. Start Low. Start your bidding as low as possible.  Set your reserve price at a realistic price and then set the first bid extremely low. This attracts buyers. Your auction will be up for 7 days but nothing really happens until the last 12 hours and often it is the last thirty minutes that the real bidding war happens. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd so if you have 10 bids or more you are in a good position to end your auction with a good sale. NB: The auction starting price is different form your reserve price. Set the reserve at a price, which reflects the level of expertise, time, effort, and money that has been invested in your doll.

7. Description. In your description of your reborn doll, thoroughly cover the topics of shipping and packaging, how you wish to be paid, your returns policy and insurance (if applicable). Covering all these issues will give confidence to the buyer and make you stand out as a seller who knows and understands the business of selling reborn dolls. Buyers want to know that they can trust you to deliver what they has handed over their money for.

Follow these seven tips and you are well on your way to becoming an ebay seller and getting paid for your hard work. We wish you all the luck in the world and think the dolls you produce are amazing.

Fran and Nicola share many other great Internet Marketing Strategies in their Reborn Doll Web Business Book –http://www.reborndollsforfunandprofit.com

Being a great reborn doll artist does not automatically mean you will sell your dolls to the market you are interested in or at the price your dolls deserve. Marketing skills are learnt and those that understand them are the ones that dominate. Choosing your niche is an important part of a successful marketing campaign.

A niche is a smaller part of a larger market. Dominating a niche is where your traffic and therefore your profit come from.

Before you try to dominate the whole reborn doll market, choose a niche, become the expert in that niche and move on.

Below are the 5 top niches we believe are great for reborn artists.

1. Ebay is the biggest selling site for reborn dolls but it is also the most difficult to dominate as there are over 700 reborn dolls being sold at any one time. If you can learn the rules and techniques needed to get yourself onto the first pages of ebay, you stand a good chance of becoming the reborn artists who is followed by a bidding war of interested customers every time you put up an auction.

2. A Website. Using your own dedicated website or someone else in your area of expertise is also a great way to get to an extremely large market in your niche. If you are going to use someone else’s website sell your dolls, make sure their website is on the first few pages of Google or other prominent search engines. Your buyers have limited time so will be attracted to the most professional websites.

3. The Ageing. Another local untapped market is the senior citizen market and in particular the dementia patients. Dolls have been used for Alzheimer’s patients for some time with differing degrees of success. Reborn dolls that resemble real babies have been used with great success to calm and give a purpose to Alzheimer’s patients. To tap into this growing market, start with your local nursing homes and talk to the administrators and staff. Most nursing homes and Alzheimer’s associations will not have the budget to buy reborn dolls for the patients but caring families may.

4. Grieving mothers, no matter what age, have found great comfort from holding a reborn doll. To reach this market, use the resources around you from the local churches, hospitals and counselors for grief. Have a look in your community to see what is available for grieving mothers and make an appointment with the centre. Take a sample of your reborn dolls along with as much evidence that you can gather on the beneficial effects these wonderful dolls have for the grieving.

5. Consignment. Selling on consignment is yet another option for the reborn artist. There are specialist doll stores that may not be able to pay upfront for your dolls but would be happy to take them on consignment. You will receive payment when the doll is sold. Do not stop with only doll stores. Look around your area or city to find other stores that could take your reborn dolls on consignment.

Marketing is a task that needs to be done to sell anything. Even Coca Cola has to continually update their advertising to stay in the forefront of the minds of thirsty consumers!

We wish you all the best with your reborn doll business and hope that these tips will see you develop your passion into a reality.

Fran and Nicola

Fran and Nicola share many other great Internet Marketing Strategies in their Reborn Doll Web Business Book http://www.reborndollsforfunandprofit.com