I've never been entirely comfortable in front of the camera - my left eye is always too squinty and I invariably look like I have a double chin - so the prospect of needing to update all my social media and website photos was a job I'd been putting off for, well, years.

It struck me recently that the photos on my website don't really look like me any more (it's - fortunately - been years since I had long jet black hair)... and also I have no decent photos of my "new" studio space - despite having been in here for six months now.

When I mentioned this to my good friend (and part-time studio assistant), Katy, she offered to take some photos of me and the studio.  I jumped at the offer - Katy's a really talented wedding and portrait photographer when she's not helping me - and I really love her natural and relaxed style of photography.

The whole experience was actually quite good fun - I didn't quite shake the inevitable awkwardness of having a camera pointed in my face, but we had a laugh... and the results are fabulous, really capturing the feel of my workspace - even the ones of me don't make me cringe too much!  Also, how good am I at gazing into middle distance...?

Katy has also taken some lovely flat lay photos for me to use, featuring various products - I'm so excited to finally have a more cohesive brand image!  Now all I need to do is to actually put them to use, and get all my different selling platforms and social media accounts updated.  The biggest trouble I'm going to have is actually choosing which ones to use!

I’ve been offering advice to small businesses – by means of workshops and also Shop Reviews – for years; and I'm always amazed that sellers neglect to shout about themselves more.

Having an incomplete "about" section on Etsy is not only a missed marketing opportunity, but it's also a mistake because Etsy will recognise your shopfront as being incomplete - and therefore your listings may appear further down in search results as a consequence.

Often people will think that their own personal story is disinteresting, or they'll feel that they don't want to share personal information with strangers.

However, sharing a little information will make your shopfront more authentic, and it engages your customer, making them much more likely to buy - and return too.

So, what to tell your prospective customer?  Here are three starting points:

1. Start at the beginning

How and why did you start your business?  It's so easy to forget when it's your day-to-day, but we are actually living the life that other people dream of.  Tell your story here.

It may be that you scrawled an idea on a napkin, you might have been chatting to a friend over a bottle of wine, or perhaps you trained to do this exact job - and you are fulfilling a childhood dream.  If you have a triumph over adversity tale that you want to share then it's entirely appropriate to include it here.  Etsy marketing may even pick up on it!

Whatever your story - it's your story - be proud and share it with the world!

2. Sitting room, studio or shed?

Tell us a bit about where you work from.  Everyone loves having a nosy at other people's workspace - and as a creative the intrigue is even greater!

Whether you work from home, in a shed at the bottom of the garden, or in a shared studio space, tell us more about that.  It's not everyone that has the opportunity to work like this, and it's genuinely interesting to other people.

You can - and should - use the photos section to show us your workspace in more detail.  This adds credibility to your business story.  And don't feel you have to tidy up specially either!

3. What's in a name?

If you have an interesting business name then don't be shy about sharing how you came up with it.

Maybe you've used your child's name, your favourite colour or another word that has extra significance to you.  Perhaps it was just a word you liked the sound of, or something that just "felt right".  Did you speak to people about it, or did you come up with it alone?

There's normally an interesting tale to tell with a business name - unless of course you went for the easy option and used your own name (and what idiot would do that...?)!

If you'd like some more help setting up or improving your Etsy shop then I offer both beginners and more advanced Etsy workshops in Liverpool; including a one-day session (Etsy Educators: Become an Etsy Seller in a Day) for new shop-owners as part of the official Etsy Educators programme.

Last week I travelled down to Etsy's London HQ to take part in a training session to become one of the first Etsy Educators in the world!

Alongside eight other experienced sellers from around the UK, the concept of Etsy Educators was explained to us, and we were tasked to set up a workshop for brand new Etsy sellers in October.

Our brief was pretty flexible - we all get to choose the location, duration and format of our session - which was really helpful.  It's a trial, to see if this is something that can be rolled out further in the UK - and also in other countries.

So, throughout next month will be a series of workshops throughout the UK, if you are interested in opening a brand new Etsy shopfront then hopefully there will be one to suit you.

My own event will be in Liverpool on 21st October.  It's a full day session - and will be at one of my favourite venues, HUS, who will be making us lunch too!  For more details click here.

If Liverpool's no good for you then here are some more sessions throughout the UK:

• Rose of Luna Harkin Co has organised a series of afternoon workshop sessions running through October, in Leeds.
• If you're in South Wales, Sarah-Jane of Fragment Designs is holding a day-long workshop on Saturday 7th October.
• Also on 7th October, in Oxfordshire, is a daytime session by Christina from Christina Made It.
• Claire of Claireabellemakes is also putting on a full day workshop on Saturday 14th October in Cambridge.
• Jilly from Jilly Jilly Design is hosting a full day workshop in Dundee on Sunday 22nd October.

And if none of these locations suit you then worry not - there's another couple of options for you:

• Rachel from The Dorothy Days is hosting a webinar to take you through the process of setting up your Etsy shop in a month.
• Similarly, queen of biscuits Nikki McWilliams has gone for the online approach - you can enrol here.
  

We are all really excited about getting started as Etsy Educators - and getting lots more fab Etsy sellers on board!

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge festival goer.  I dabbled when I was a teenager with T in the Park, and V96/97, but it became very apparent that I'm not cut out for the basic level of camping that these things entail.  And I do like a shower.

So, five years ago, when I was invited on a friend's hen do - at Wilderness Festival - it was with some trepidation that I agreed to go.  And you know what, I discovered that posh festivals are completely tolerable.  I can rough it with the rest of the middle classes, while munching on my avocado on toast, waiting in a queue for a hot shower.  I returned the following year, and the year after too - enjoying long sunny days of yoga, swimming, amazing food and a bit of music too.

I was aware of Festival No6, another big player on the posh festival scene, and had always been keen to give it a go.  So when my old studio-mate and good friend VIP Puppets offered me a ticket, in exchange for helping out with some artwork, I jumped at the chance.  What a lovely end to the summer, I thought; envisaging morning yoga, swimming in the estuary, sipping craft beer in the sunshine, eating amazing veggie food, and getting to listen to some good music too.

We arrived on Friday evening, after battling our way through torrential rain across the top of Wales - not a pleasant drive at all.  A gap in the downpour enabled us to get our tents up, and then it pretty much continued raining on and off all weekend!

There were some really fun parts - swimming in a heated outdoor pool during a heavy rainstorm and seeing my beloved Jarvis Cocker DJ; some really interesting parts - listening to Irvine Welsh reading from Porno, looking round the amazing village of Portmeirion, and (literally) bumping into Maxine Peake; and of course some delicious food - I was delighted to discover my favourite ever, Anna Mae, was there with her legendary Mac'n'Cheese.  But mostly we had a muddy, wet old time!  For me, no amount of glitter, gin and good company can make up for having to wear Gore-Tex and wellies all day long!

We kept our spirits up, and managed to take lots of carefully-composed blue sky photos (it's all about IG), but by Sunday lunchtime we were all flagging a bit.  Tents were blowing away, campervans were getting stuck in the mud, and we were all cold, wet and aching!  It became more of a survival mission than fun - everything became such a big effort that I missed a lot of the things I'd wanted to do and see.

The act that we were there with was a set of 12-foot tall Beatles puppets - the Be-Talls - and it was becoming increasingly unlikely they'd be able to take them out due to the weather.  However, a break in the rain at 2pm meant the puppets could take part in the Sgt Peppers Parade, and this was definitely the big highlight of the weekend!  The puppets looked great and the performers were truly amazing.

But by this point we'd made the decision to go home - our dry warm beds were luring us back, and we packed up and left a day early.  I was really sad to miss Public Service Broadcasting and Flaming Lips - who I'd really wanted to see - but the prospect of warm feet and dry knickers was simply too great.  And, well, I can listen to them both on Spotify anyway.

I had a great time in Portmeirion, it's am amazing little village, and somewhere I'd love to return to explore again in the future - and I would definitely go back to Festival No6... I'd just check the weather first.  Turns out that - for me - posh festivals are only tolerable if it's sunny.