As any creative knows, the more you practice your hobby, the better at it you get. They say that practice makes perfect, and once you’ve perfected your painting, or crafted your crochet creations, there’s no reason that you can’t turn your skills into a business.
Nothing beats a side hustle that you truly enjoy, and a craft business is a great way for parents to bring in a little extra cash.
If you looking to turn your hobby into a thriving business, check these four tips to help you get started.
- Decide Where You’ll Sell
There are couple of options open to you when starting a craft business. You can rent stall space at your local market and sell your items there. While this will help to increase your brand awareness in the local community, it isn’t always the most profitable option as your audience reach is limited.
A better solution is to have an online shop where you can draw in the right kind of audience for your product. With sites such as Shopify, you set up your own website to sell your crafting goods. The platform will save you the typical problems you might face with digital marketplaces such as Etsy, where you generally have to pay a fee to list your products.
- Source Supplies
Finding a reasonably priced source for your crafting supplies is key if you’re going to be making lots of items – you want to keep your costs as low as possible.
However, it’s important that you don’t skimp on quality. If your products suddenly lose the quality they’re known for, you’ll find that you lose your customers too.
- Market Your Business
Marketing is essential for getting your brand out into the world, and while word of mouth can do wonders, it should work in tandem with digital marketing methods such as SEO
In order to boost your rankings in the search engines, you need to ensure that your website is optimised for keywords and search terms. Now, figuring out the tips and tricks to getting more customers to your sight can be tricky, but there are agencies like Maratopia Digital Marketing who can set you on the path to success.
By targeting the right customers – those who want to buy what you sell – you’ll see a massive boost to your conversions.
- Price For Profit
Learning how to price for profit is one of the steepest learning curves when trying to turn your hobby into a business, and many new business owners dramatically under-price themselves.
Even if you’re only using your new craft company as a side hustle, get into the mindset that you want to make a wage. Your costs should never just cover supplies, and this is especially important for handmade products. You’ve put a lot of time and effort into each piece, so that should be reflected in the price.
Have you turned your crafting hobby into a business? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below!
Some excellent tips here. Pricing is definitely the hardest thing to get right.
What great advice. Having a side hustle is a great way to bring in a bit of extra money. x
Fantastic tips, I think planning is key to success especially with thing like pricing X #mmbc