Salaam friends!
Welcome to the 7th issue of The Creative Muslimah.
This week I would like to invite you to give me your honest feedback about the newsletter so far. My main goal with this is to help and encourage my fellow creative sisters out there, so I really hope this newsletter is achieving that. But how can it improve? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? Let me know.
In the next newsletter I will be breaking down how I made over 2000 sales on Etsy - keep an eye out for it!
And just in case you missed it, here’s the previous newsletter so you can catch up.
Before we meet our guest, here’s a 10% discount code for my Etsy shop which is especially for my lovely newsletter readers! Use the code: NEWSLETTER
Here are the links to my Etsy shop, my books and my Instagram: click here
Now it’s time to introduce our guest!
Our special guest today is…
Rufena AKA “Quote Lovin!” She is a talented illustrator who creates beautiful faith inspired products for Muslims, from tote bags and pins to adorable stationary and prints. I have been followed her journey online for years and she is definitely one of my inspirations online!
If you would like to support her business and check out her products, click here to visit her Instagram page or click here for her website.
Here’s her story:
Can you introduce your business for those who may be new to it?
Quote Lovin' is a faith inspired brand that offers islamic themed gifts designed by us!
What were you doing before Quote Lovin and how did you come up with the name?
Quote Lovin' started 8 years ago as an idea to merge two things that we love: Islam and Art! We loved reading Quranic verses and also designing art around those verses hence the name 'Quote Lovin' came to be formed along with our slogan 'Inspiration designs'. At the time, there were very few muslim brands or businesses creating illustrative art with Islam in mind, so we took the plunge and opened up an Etsy shop selling digital printables first Alhamdulillah. Before this, we were working in school settings and teaching Primary school children as a qualified teacher.
How do you decide which products to make next? How do you figure out what will do well and what won’t?
We start by looking at the Qur'an and finding verses that resonate with us, these verses may be about hardship, reliance on Allah, Allah's mercy, Jannah and so forth. We then come up with designs or illustrations that reflect this in our art style and then decide on what this will look like, i.e Poster, keychain, magnet etc.
This is the tough part, will it be successful? Sometimes, some products will do well, and some will not and we understand this is all part and parcel of having a business. However, we find that if you are true to your style, and you have a unique way of showcasing that through your products, then your customers will buy from you because they believe in your brand, what it stands for, your customer service and the message that you are delivering. In our case, we are promoting our faith through our brand and spreading the love for Islam in tangible items.
Can you give us a summary of your process? What are the steps you take to go from an idea to a physical product?
There's a lot of brainstorming and sketching involved. As mentioned earlier, we start with selected Qu'ran verses that we want to use in our work, from that we decide how it should look in terms of illustration or artwork, we then finalise on the final sketch and then get a sample made.
Can you give us a timeline of how long it takes for this entire process?
This can vary depending on each project, but usually from sketching, to finalising design and to manufacturing it takes around 3-4 months. This is why it's important for us to start early with our brainstorming and we tend to start designing for the next Ramadan straight after the current year's Ramadan.
How do your campaigns work?
We used to run crowdfunding campaigns which consisted of customers pledging at an exclusive price to help us bring some projects to life. This is a great way for small businesses to start bringing items to market with the support of their customers. It really helped us when we started this a few years ago Alhamdulillah.
How do you decide how to price your products?
Firstly, you have to decide what your product is worth. At Quote Lovin' we are the designers, so these designs and products are unique to us and we are offering them at a price that is reflective of the time and effort that has gone into producing our lovely products along with the extra details that we put into the packaging too e.g Our stunning shipping boxes and our own designed tissue paper etc. We also offer quality items and take pride in this so we price our items at what we think our product is worth.
How do you market your products?
We use social media like Instagram and TikTok and we also have a newsletter sent out to our subscribers once in a while too. This helps us to bring organic traffic to our sites and grow our brand.
How do you make your business stand out among the others?
To summarise our brand, we are very much a design business that is cute, girly and pink - whilst offering unique islamic gifts! And this in turn attracts the type of followers and customers that like this too!
We also create content that showcases our products and share behind the scene snippets which raises interest in our brand and what to look forward to.
Ultimately, our mission is to spread Islam through our products and this for us is our dawah. May Allah accept this from us. Ameen!
It's Maryam again! A huge thank you to the lovely Rufena for taking the time to contribute to the newsletter. I hope you found it beneficial and I look forward to sending you the next one insha’Allah.
Love and duas,
Maryam