7 Tips for Starting a Handmade Business

Were you that kid who made the best craft work in school? The kid whose beautiful craftwork made the center of attraction among your peers? Do you still have an interest in crafting handmade items even today as an adult? You could maximize this talent and skill to start and run your own handmade business successfully.

Now, you may be wondering how you could possibly run a business solely based on handmade items. Well, that is very possible. Have you ever heard of Etsy? A lot of people are making a living based on the handmade items they produce and sell on the site.

Etsy is an online marketplace where you could buy or sell handmade and vintage products. The platform charges sellers $0.20 for each listed product and a 3.5% transaction fee for each sold item.

Selling on Etsy helps you save money on opening your own e-commerce site and the stress of promoting it, and because it’s a big marketplace, you would have customers already waiting to buy your craft. But then, it is very competitive, and you must be ready to employ the right keywords to ensure you’re found by your customers. Besides Etsy, you could also set up your handmade business on Shopify.

Read on to learn more tips for starting a handmade business.

1.   Create a daily to-do list to cover your goals

It is a known rule that to start a business, you must be organized and create a direction for yourself. What goals are you aiming at? Do you have any deadlines for each step of your journey? Write them down and create a daily task list to achieve them.

2.   Create a story for your brand

What is your motive or inspiration for starting this business? What needs do you hope that your brand will solve? What gaps are there in the market that you want to fill in? This is simply your brand story. Get these facts together and create a compelling, inspiring story that will represent your brand.

3.   Know your target customers

Knowing your target customers helps you in your marketing and planning. For instance, if you’re targeting students, you would consider making something pocket-friendly, or if you were targeting kids, you’d fare better making something colorful and attractive. This knowledge helps you with budgeting and careful planning because you know the demography you’d be selling to.

4.   Good pictures take your craft very far

No matter how perfectly you may have done your background planning and budgeting, if you don’t take good photos of your craft, you’d be making a mistake.

This is because if you’re going to be selling these wares online, your customers can only get convinced of how good your work is by seeing photos of them. Now, if you do not take great pictures of them, you’d be doing yourself a disservice.

Get a photographer to do the job for you. However, if you’re good at photography, you can do it yourself. Do ensure you use a good camera and make sure there’s a lot of natural lighting too.

5.   Your marketing plan must be good

Being good at making handmade products is not enough to get your handmade business running. Taking good photos of your craft and knowing the customers you’re creating your products for isn’t enough either.

To make all your previous effort worth it, you need to have a marketing plan. This plan identifies your target customers and goes further to know where and how to find them. It will also address how you will get their attention and engage them. Finally, it will lay down strategies on how to convert them and get them to buy your craft.

6.   Test markets

By following this tip, you’d know the best market where you make the most sales. So try out different platforms such as Etsy, Shopify or even offline shops. Make your observation and do what you consider best for your business.

7.   Never stop marketing your business

Some business people make the mistake of being silent about their businesses on social media. Let everyone you know be aware of what you do. Make posts about your business on your social media accounts. Your customers can be anywhere.