Whether you’ve been creating bespoke picture frames for your friends and family for years, painting beautiful portraits, or can crochet gorgeous blankets, the idea of going pro has probably crossed your mind. You have considered the thought that there is more than likely a market for your makes, and the idea of being your own boss and spending your days doing what you love seems too good to be true, but how can you make the dream a reality? Is it even feasible? Surely everyone wants to make a living creating? With all the competition out there, what are the odds that it will take off?
The good news is, even if the competition is high, you could still make a great living off of creating crafts. There are so many options these days in terms of seller sites, and so many means of promoting yourself and getting in front of the right audiences – it’s all about starting off with a plan and getting the details just right. Success won’t happen overnight, but as long as you have an in-demand product and a business head on your shoulders, it’s entirely possible to make your business a success. But where to start?
Dull things like taxes aside, let’s take a look at seven crucial elements to consider when it comes to turning your hobby into a successful business.
1. Make Sure You Really Love Your Craft
First things first – you have to love what you do. You have to have a real passion for it. This might sound obvious at first, but take the time to think about it truly – would you happily craft for eight hours a day? Would you pull long nights to get an order completed in time? Some people will be able to reply with a resounding ‘yes’ to these questions, but others might pause. The last thing you want is for a pleasurable pastime to become a frustrating, stressful obligation. If you simply want to enjoy your hobby for what it is, that’s entirely fine, and it’s best you figure that out first before you invest further time and money.
2. Develop Your Brand
Once you know what you are selling, the next step is to develop your brand. This will encompass everything from your brand’s personality to its colours, your core values and your unique selling point (USP). This step really can’t be rushed. Take the time to think about how you want other people to perceive and remember you. This will help to guide all your business decisions going forward, so getting it right to begin with really does pay off. Not that you can’t change as time goes on, of course; rebranding certainly happens, but it can cost lots of money and is best avoided for small businesses if possible. To help you along, here are some brand identity questions you should ask yourself.
3. Get Serious About Your Tools
If you are going professional, you will want to invest in the right tools. Take everything to the next level – you want to be known for quality items. You also want to have tools that will save you time. More than ever, crafters, professional and otherwise, are using a Cricut machine when it comes to vinyl. Using Cricut, you can create incredible designs and emboss them on everything from stickers to magnets and gift tags, and more. While the machine is certainly an up-front investment, designs need not be. You can get a great number of premium, reasonably-priced SVG designs, such as those offered by Design Bundles. There are also guides out there outlining how to use a Cricut machine to cut vinyl, if you need some help to get started.
4. Select Your Sales Channels
One really important early decision to make relates to your sales channels. You need to find the right channels to reach the right customers. You don’t need a huge marketing budget to start with, but you should do your research to find out where your target audience spends their time. To begin with, you might decide to forgo a website in favour of a marketplace such as Vinted or Etsy. You might find that you sell really well through a Facebook page, or even through Instagram. There’s no harm in trying and then refining and redirecting your efforts based on the data and your income. There’s no sense paying a lot of money for a fancy website if nobody is buying through that medium – that approach might come later when you can invest more money into SEO and digital marketing.
5. Learn What Your Customers Really Want
Creating what you love is a great starting point, but don’t be too proud to adapt and tailor your offering to suit the needs of your customers. You might see what you do as an art, and you want to stay true to that, but at the same time, what you are running is a business. As such, you need to give them what they want. If they love your products but they want to see more of a given colour, or they want it in a bigger or smaller size, that is really useful information that could make your business more successful. Use customer feedback to tailor your future products. Ask your customers on social media what they would like to see next. Get them excited and involved – not only will this help you sell more, but it’ll also create more engaged customers.
6. Get Active on Social Media
This brings us to our next point – social media. It’s not going anywhere, and if you’re a business, you need a social media presence. You might not need to be active on every single platform, but you should at least claim an account on all of them – you never know when you might want to use it. Social media can be invaluable for a business owner – as mentioned, you can solicit opinions on existing and future products, promote certain deals, collaborate with other brands, and work with influencers to get some amazing reviews of your products and really promote your business. Without social media, your craft business isn’t really all it could be.
7. Build Profit Into Your Pricing
This can be a difficult topic for creatives. Often, crafters are so focused on what they really love – making quality items – that they price their items too low. This could end up putting you out of business. Don’t be uneasy about pricing your products on the higher side. People expect to pay more for one-of-a-kind items created by individuals or smaller businesses. Make sure you have all your costs worked out. Remember to pay yourself a decent hourly rate and then make sure you include the cost of all materials and postage. The Etsy Seller’s Handbook suggests one way of calculating cost:
Materials + Labor + Expenses + Profit = Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price
With more and more people crafting and creating, the future looks bright and exciting. For a truly meaningful gift, people often veer away from bigger eCommerce sites, such as Amazon, and look for niche sellers that provide more unique offerings. Just be sure you have worked through this list and given some real thought to the future of your amazing new business.