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The first thing that used to come to mind when I used to think of crafts was 'low profit junk'! I am terribly ignorant with these niche business categories and as such it had always been left off of my radar. The profit potential with crating and selling your crafts through an online store is actually pretty big. There is good money to be made in this growing market and you can be a part of it. How about turning a crafting hobby you're already doing into a business? Take what has been a popular offline market online and get ahead of the competition early. Years ago I had a good friend online who I met through a forum and we used to chat about her creative ideas a lot. Over the course of 3 months she developed a store 'tiny cravings' and she made personalised cupcake earrings. They were moulded from some sort of clay and made to look like mini cupcakes and pieces of fruit, with an addition of smells added to the mix so they smelt nice too. This took off quiet fast and was more than she could handle, I believe at the time it was a couple of hundred dollars in sales per day. If I had a tip for making your own craft business it would be 'making great quality craft'. I'd apply this to any business so it's no different here. Good products will make happy customers and happy customers tell their friends! So why is crafting something to consider when wanting to make money? Besides the benefits an online store brings: " It's relatively easy to get into. " Requires little technical skill compared to other businesses. " Is cheap to start. " Can be quiet fun. " Is an honest way to start your online empire. " Great to explore your creative skills. ( which I have not much of! ) " You control your own product and that also allows a custom product for you to sell. I've already mentioned my ignorance when it comes to crafting but that's mainly because I'm a typical male, and my manliness has prevented me knowing anything about it! Crafting is made up of quiet a few categories such as these: " Jewellery. Hemp, Beaded, Wire, Precious Metals, natural stones, leather, crystals, chain. " Personalised gift cards. " Gift boxes and baskets. " Natural soaps. " Candles. " Paintings. " Wall decorations. " Sculptures or figurines. Clay vases, cups. " Crochets. " Customer posters. " T-shirts and prints. " Wooden carvings and frames etc. " Quilting. There are hundreds of items to make in all the different categories. Try a Google search on one of these or something that you are interested in like this, 'jewelry craft ideas' and some good options will come up where you can learn to make custom jewelry. Apply your own twist to an existing type of jewelry and make your own custom line. Here is an example from a website I found by searching for jewelry making. It steps you through the process used to make string bead jewelry and has nice pictures to help you out. Sell online at these places: 1. eBay- Online marketplace that most people are familiar with. 2. Etsy.com - Marketplace that focuses on handmade and craft items. 3. Amazon- Another popular choice amongst shoppers. 4. Artfire.com - Handmade marketplace to sell crafts, supplies and vintage items. 5. Craigslist.com- You can specify local areas here which is good for people who like to buy from local online businesses. How about one of the best options? Sell from your own website where you control the fees you pay and you control the structure. I've wrote a fair bit about building websites here because after making a few of my own I realised how simple the process can be with a little bit of help. My post 'How to build a website'shows the 3 steps needed to get online and I also offer a 'Free 7 Day eCourse - Build an online store' which steps you through each part practically, like I do with my own stores. How will people find you? Marketing your products online is pretty easy with places like Amazon and eBay because these are set up for you and all it takes is for shoppers to search for products like yours and they will end up finding you in the list of products that come up. There is more work involved when it comes to marketing from your own website but in this case you are not competing with anyone else once a shopper visits your store. You design it how you want and customize it to the feel that you want to portray. I market online using a few things: 1. SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )which I talk about here 'How to get 100 visitors per day to your website' 2. Social Media - Using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to bring in lots of shoppers to your site. Use your friends and family on Facebook to share your site with their friends. That's like asking your hundreds of friends to share with their hundreds of friends. Quickly you can have 10000 people see your website link! 3. Network with craft forums and become a regular contributor with interesting and relevant content. Add your website url to your forum profile signature so people can see you. 4. Write blog articles like this one about your own products. Write about the benefits or take pictures of what your crafts look like in someone's house or on someone. 5. Using paid advertising is another great way to reach 100 and even 1000 visitors a day. Organic growth is the best way to build traffic over time, but well timed and targeted paid advertising can add a huge boost to your visitor numbers. Google Adwords is an easy way to target a specific audience in your market using PPC advertising. From only $5 a day you can appear in the sponsored search result sections when people search terms related to your website. To get more traffic, increase your daily budget or try and target different keywords. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find out what searched keywords will work best. Facebook Ads also works really well. You can run ads for people to like your business page, or just send them straight to your website. Turn these people into subscribers, offer free content, and then sell them your products. Offline Advertising Don't forget that offline advertising is still an amazing way to attract more customers, and with craft shops this is really the most popular and traditional method to use. Some popular ways I've seen and that I use for my stores are: " Use printing companies such as VistaPrint to make business cards, flyers, catalogues, magnets etc to hand out to people. Letterbox drops. " Set up a stall at a local market or fair. You will see lots of other craft stalls here so competition is high. Use this to your advantage though and ask other stall owners about their experience with market stalls. Learn as much as you can from them. " Make your own craft night or party and invite a few family or friends. " Ask around at local craft supply shops if you can put up some business cards or posters advertising your store. Also ask if they want to have a small area in their store for selling your products on commission. Registering A Business Before starting anything it pays to make sure you have the correct licenses and registrations in place. For anyone down under in Australia like me you can start a small business fairly easily by registering for an ABN and a business name if you don't want to trade under your own name. In America it's an EIN and 'trading' as application as far as I'm aware. In any case talk to your local office or state about what license you need to trade as a small online craft business. This isn't very hard or expensive to do and people are always willing to help you. The other area to have a look at is insurance. Crafting is probably one of the lowest risk businesses to have so don't stress! To be fully covered you would needs something like product and public liability insurance which is pretty cheap. Google search is again good for finding more information on insurance companies and what you need. And finally, sit down and write a business plan. It doesn't have to be one of those huge boring ones that banks usually give out for people needing $100,000 loans for large businesses, it can be a simple plan that you use to map out the key areas of your business. I do this for mine and I cover important aspects of my business like these: " What risks do I have? " What business structure do I want? Do I want to be a small business trading under a business name? " What is the competition like, what are their websites like? Can I get ideas from them? " What are my profit levels like if I buy my supplies for 'x' and sell my finished craft products for 'y' " Do I need a business bank account? " Is a bookkeeper needed or can I track it myself? " How viable is my craft business idea? " Where can I get local business help, is there a forum that can support me? Final Thoughts I've been thinking for a while about testing my own craft shop and showing the whole process I go through on my blog. Time is the resource I need more of to get this done so it could be something I get a friend or family member to have a go at, with me supporting them. If you need extra help getting your own store off the ground then sign up to my eCourse and ask questions if you are still stuck somewhere. Making $20 to $200 a day is very possible with your own craft business, especially with so many online platforms to sell on, let alone offline avenues like market stalls and parties. Ben Meyers is an Entrepreneur living in Perth, Western Australia. He runs a popular business blog, www.themoneytap.com where people can learn to create their own online business.
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