So you want to make crafts to sell? You’re ready to get rich while doing what you love! Isn’t that the dream? Now you can. Follow along with our guide, and become master of your own craft and business like a true entrepreneur.

You are Reading Chapter 1 of our DIY Crafts Guide: How to Sell What You Make. 

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Chapter 1

How to Make Crafts to Sell – An Overview

So you want to make handmade items. The popularity of handmade goods became apparent in the recent 2008 recession, and has grown ever since. It has become increasingly accepted by the Y generation. Part of this is from the shortage of jobs, and the desire for creativity and individuality. People have turned to making handmade goods to sell for a living or to supplement their current income. With this surge, it looks like the world of handmade items is here to stay!

So what does this mean for you? It means that there is a market out there for just about anything you could make; from earrings to purses, and dog collars to handmade guitars. You can make just about anything from hand nowadays. In this book, you will learn how to organize your ideas and goals for your personal handmade crafts. And, you will learn what selling avenue is best for your product, be it either online or offline or both.

Here is an overview of all the things you need to think about when starting your craft business. We will go into more detail in the upcoming chapters.

Finding the Right Niche

Finding the right match for you is very important. It will determine your success or failure in the handmade craft business. There are so many things for you to choose to make, and many ways of executing them. You don’t want to overtax yourself with different products that don’t belong together. You want to find that special little nook just for you that you’re good at doing, and hone your talent in that area. For example, do you like to make dresses or do you like to make cabinetry? It’s all up to you, and in this book we will be looking to further examples and what you need to learn to do this.

Decide what you want to achieve with your craft business

There’s also the idea of deciding what you want to accomplish in your craft business. What are your goals? Some people only do it on the side, and some people do it full time. Either way it’s up to you. There is no right or wrong answer to this, as long as it is right for you.

How to price your work

After deciding what you want to achieve with your business you need to learn how to price your work. Pricing is where many home crafters mess up in their business because they either overprice or underprice their products. I will show you exactly what to do to make sure you don’t fail in this area in a later chapter.

Branding

Another important step is learning to brand your business. You need to be able to represent yourself to your customer through color, words, style. Your brand is who you are, and this should stand out and define who you and your product is. Collect ideas of what you like in other brands for inspiration. We’ll go over this in detail later.

 Learn how to market your product & get noticed through social media

After you have branded your business, you’re going to need to get the word out. That’s where marketing and social media come into play! Does your business need it’s own facebook page? We’ll find out in the upcoming chapters.

 The importance of great photos

We will talk about why it’s so important to take great photographs of your products so people can see what they’re buying. You always want your product to be in the best light possible.

Selling your crafts Online and Offline

Selling your crafts online is a great way to reach a large audience and make money from home. The most popular site for this is Etsy.com, but we will also go over a few others. While online has many advantages offline selling has some as well. For instance, selling offline will allow you to encounter real people who are buying your product not only because they like IT, but because they like YOU. They get to relate to the maker, and that is sometimes incentive enough. There are outlets like craft fairs, or local boutiques. Your audience is anyone who likes to look at things hands on, to hold them, and see them in person.

Selling at a craft show

We will go over how to sell at a craft show. Craft shows are the lifeblood of many handmade crafters businesses. We talk about which craft shows are best for your product because not all craft shows are made equal. When you get to the craft, show that you have chosen you will need to know how to set properly up your booth so that your products will be seen and displayed properly for all the customers to see.

Ideas

Lastly I will share some great ideas that will catapult your handmade craft business to the next level. Things that you probably haven’t thought about that will help you kick start your business and get the customers an audience that you want.

That was Chapter 1: How to Make Crafts to Sell – An Overview of our DIY Crafts Guide:

How To Sell What You Make

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