Peruse the website of ByHand Consulting and take a trip around the world. The firm helps to form sourcing partnerships that bring handmade products from global artisans to new markets.

ByHand’s directory of global artisan brands and producers includes Coppre, artisanal copper tableware from India; Moio, beaded jewelry from Zimbabwe via Brooklyn; Chilote Shoes, hand-knit accessories from Chile; and Maison D’Haiti, embroidered nightgowns and gifts from Haiti.

Founded by Karen Gibbs and Colvin English in 2007, ByHand, which offers marketing, coaching, and sourcing programs, has helped thousands of artisan entrepreneurs like these enter the wholesale, handmade market and grow their businesses.

“It really comes down to that core mission of ours,” says Gibbs. “How do we expand this market for handmade products.”

Sharing Best Practices

ByHand brings together Gibbs’ and English’s backgrounds in global economic development and business. Gibbs was the vice president of marketing at the non-profit Aid to Artisans (today Handmade to Market) and worked with international development organizations around the world as a Paris-based consultant. English, who is currently co-owner of Jennings & Allen, a Southern California-based retail store selling global handmade goods, was born and bred in the handmade sector through his family’s wood carving business. Before ByHand, the two had a wholesale import company together. 

“ByHand is one of those businesses that was developed out of an idea of how we could repackage our experience in the sector to be useful to businesses around the world, and in the United States that are seeking to buy and sell more handmade products,” says Gibbs. “It comes from this desire, how do we share the most practical business know-how with entrepreneurs so that [they] can use their time and money in the most effective way to grow their business, increase their sales, and increase the impact that they seek to achieve.”

Beautifully coiled pine needle baskets by Mayan Hands showcase the artistry of Maya women artisans and their rich Guatemalan heritage.

Global Partnerships

With experience in over 70 countries, the majority of ByHand’s experience has been in the global handmade business. “So, internationally handmade products,” says Gibbs.

“It brings a lot of income to underserved parts of economies, it preserves craft tradition, we believe that cultural preservation and craft is a big community builder, as well as provides [sustainable] income for women.”

Experts in wholesale, or B2B, marketing, ByHand’s clients include artisan enterprises, international organizations, government entities, trade shows and export agencies in countries, like Peru. “We put together workshops, coaching programs, in-country workshops,” says Gibbs. “All the things really geared toward, how do you share business information with entrepreneurs to help them develop more successful marketing strategies.” In partnership with these government export agencies abroad, they have also brought U.S. retailers and designers looking to expand their production network for in-country buying and sourcing trips. “We’ve done that for the entire legacy of ByHand,” says Gibbs. “It’s one of our, what we call, market access programs. I think we’ve taken probably over 500 buyers on sourcing trips around the world.”

While they do offer one-on-one coaching packages, the majority of their coaching is done in partnership with their clients. “They hire us to bring in the content for the workshop, and then they invite in the participants,” says Gibbs, “In recent years, we’ve done that with those export agencies, we’ve done some work with the United Nations and the US Department of Commerce, with a couple of international development agencies, with Powered by People, a nonprofit that works in this field, [and] with the governments of Chile, Morocco, and Tunisia, for example.”

Trading Industry Secrets

For over a decade, ByHand has worked with wholesale trade shows in the U.S., “to create programs to bring handmade brands into certain sections of their shows,” says Gibbs.

“Either we help them grow those handmade sections, or we help them essentially start their own handmade sections.”

This has included NY Now, the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, and Shoppe Object, a bi-annual wholesale trade show in New York. Along with helping the trade shows to attract new artisan exhibitors, ByHand also provides coaching to those new artisan companies that are exhibiting. “We put together educational programming to help those handmade businesses that are coming into those markets be as successful as possible.”

Recently, ByHand helped Kenya-based Hadithi Crafts, which provides sustainable income to over 1,900 women artisans making handicrafts from beadwork to sisal baskets. “We worked with them over six months to help them just really think through their whole US marketing strategy,” says Gibbs. “And then helped them prepare to come to Shoppe Object.” This included helping Hadithi choose which products to exhibit, reviewing their pricing, and their sales materials. “They came to the show and wrote a great number of orders,” says Gibbs. “And we were also able to connect them with a company called Fount Leather, which is a handbag company that does a lot of manufacturing in Ohio, but wanted to do sisal baskets [with leather handles].” Hadithi plans to return to Shoppe Object. “We’ve helped 45 companies come and participate in the Shoppe Object trade show within the last two years,” says Gibbs.

Crafted in Haiti, Deux Mains’ ethically made handbags pair timeless elegance with Fair Trade values.

ByHand’s partnership with Shoppe Object is the basis of their Global Artisan Project: their signature marketing program that will be one of their major initiatives going forward.

“I’m working with a consultant to help me kind of refine some of our story. And we’ll probably be redoing our website too,” says Gibbs. “[Going forward] We’ll be doing less sourcing, [and really] offering a couple of signature market access programs.” This includes the Global Artisan Project. ”So we work with between 10 to 15 companies for each show, and it’s really like an incubator,” explains Gibbs. Along with being new to Shoppe Object, many of the artisan companies have never exhibited in a wholesale trade show before, or in a trade show in the United States. “We worked with them for three months before, and then helped them participate in the show, and after,” explains Gibbs. “So that’s that key signature marketing program that we’re doing.”

ByHand also has what they call their Export Marketing Toolkit: a toolkit of 10 components that “we think are essential for somebody to be market-ready for doing wholesale in the United States or exporting to the United States,” says Gibbs. “What we hope to do going forward is provide some tools and some metrics to help those entrepreneurs make decisions more easily, [and] feel more confident in those decisions, so that they spend their time and their money in the most effective way to bring themselves sustainable sales.”

The Power of Handmade

While mainly a team of two, ByHand does work with consultants on a project-by-project basis. This most often includes “people working in the digital marketing space” and designers. “U.S.-based designers who can work with artisan businesses to look at what are the essential techniques, materials, motifs, and colorways that are really authentic to that group, and how can those be adapted to be more marketable here in the US.”

In today’s climate, Gibbs believes its these artisan entrepreneurs and small businesses that can effect positive change.

“I think artisan entrepreneurs have the secret sauce to make our world a better place. I so wholeheartedly believe that the craft sector has so many of the answers that the world needs right now,” she says.

“I think small businesses are just a key to our economy, and I also think they’re a key to community; It’s very relationship based. I pinch myself every morning that this is the work that I get to do.”

For ByHand it always comes back to the handmade. “I just want to be an encourager in this market,” says Gibbs. “I want to encourage more buyers and consumers to buy handmade products, and I want to encourage the entrepreneurs who are bringing these beautiful, handmade products to market to keep going.”