Looking at starting a business selling crafts

I'll be honest and say that I would rather buy crafts from someone that is very passionate about what they are creating instead of just being in it for the money. Crafts are work of art and when someone pours their heart and soul into their work it really shows.


:yes:

Many, many years ago, I made very intricate hand beaded Christmas ornaments and dolls just because I enjoyed doing it and would give them out as gifts. One of those people really liked them and offered to display them where she worked. I took her up on her offer and almost had more orders than I could fill. I literally worked from early in the morning until late at night to fill them. I made a decent amount of money, but no where near enough to live on. Each one took quite a while to make, and in reality, there was no way to make a living without going into some type of automation, which would have taken away the handmade quality.
 
:yes:

Many, many years ago, I made very intricate hand beaded Christmas ornaments and dolls just because I enjoyed doing it and would give them out as gifts. One of those people really liked them and offered to display them where she worked. I took her up on her offer and almost had more orders than I could fill. I literally worked from early in the morning until late at night to fill them. I made a decent amount of money, but no where near enough to live on. Each one took quite a while to make, and in reality, there was no way to make a living without going into some type of automation, which would have taken away the handmade quality.

Yeah, to me crafts/hobbies are more of a labor of love, bring money into it and it kind of ruins it.
 
I know that being quite into crafts myself, they cost a lot more money than you'd think. Some things like knitted blankets/quilts, handmade PJs, handmade clothes, homemade dish cloths and tea towels... they aren't cheaper than what you can buy in a highstreet store, not including the time spent making them. In the case of the blankets, I could have actually bought a good quality one for the same price because that amount of fabric/yarn is expensive. I do save money on making bags, purses, pencil cases, some (not beaded) jewellery/accessories, tablecloths, place mats, hamdmade cards and gift wrap/tags.

Yeah I agree. People often tell me I should sell the things I crochet. But if it costs £5 for a ball of yarn, and 6 hours to make a toy... if I charged £10 for it I'd profit at 80p an hour! And you couldn't charge more - why would people pay when they can just go and buy one for £2? I'd rather just make stuff on request and give it away free (or for cost of materials). It's also worth keeping in mind that manufacturers buy products in bulk so they get massive discounts on material. Things like fabric are NOT cheap (and generally, really cheap materials make for an awful finished project and make your work twice as hard as it breaks, doesnt cut properly, bla bla).

One thing you may be able to get away with without being passionate is soapmaking/beauty products. more and more people seem to be concerned about what goes on their skin, vegan or not. I think there was another thread on it.
 
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^^^ As a makeup affectionado, I know I wouldn't buy cosmetics from someone who didn't show a passion for it or know anything about color theory, vegan or not. But that's just me.
 
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I think if you're going to make and sell a product just for the money it's kind of a slap in the face to all those talented artists out there who truly care about the stuff they are producing.
 
Find what you are passionate about and go from there. I can't imagine anyone running their own business who didn't care about what they were doing. Anything you do will take time, perseverance, dedication, risk-taking. I've been searching for the "easy" way to make money for years and there is no easy way. Or if there is one, I wish someone would tell me what it is.
 
If you're just looking to make money, it doesn't have to be crafts. It can be anything with a low raw material cost/ wholesale cost, but with a high value to the consumer (e.g. coffee).
I sell coffee BC.

It's a commodity market. I.e. a market in which the only thing you can do to gain competiveness is to lower your margin by competing on price.

The only way around that is to have a unique product, a brand of your own, and market the brand as one that commands a bit extra on price exceptionaly well.

Problem there is that developing a unique brand and exceptional marketing are both expensive (and so errode extra margin) and need quite specialised skills as well.
 
Find what you are passionate about and go from there. I can't imagine anyone running their own business who didn't care about what they were doing.

Not a 100% rule this, but about 99.999% nonetheless ...

The important passion is a passion for making money. That passion, once in place, is easily transferable onto any money making 'vehicle' you can find.

It's either that or a passion for a self sufficient lifestyle provides the essential motivational drive.

The lifestyle motivation is a peculiar one though. It needs to be combined with a passion for as close to 'zero overhead' living as is possible to acheive.

Reason for that simply being that lifestyle businesses need to have overheads that can survive sustained periods of zero income coming in.

I've been searching for the "easy" way to make money for years and there is no easy way. Or if there is one, I wish someone would tell me what it is.

In my experience you are correct there, Katrina ..

It's either total dedication to making money or total dedication to living an acceptable lifestyle on very little money at all.

Both are very very hard.
 
Little insight for anyone interested ...

My own business model is scaleable so that both my business and personal overheads can be reduced to around £1k a month within 1 month of any serious doo-doo hitting the fan.

I kept the combined overhead below that untill I had £12k set aside to make sure that I can survive a full year without any fresh income at all.

To do that I had to learn, when needs must, to be able to run a business and a home on less than minimum wage.