The minimum wage in the U.S.A. is 7.25 $ an hour. If you calculate that for 8 hours in a day for 300 workdays. Then, it comes to about 17,400 $ per year.
I am not sure how much you earn with your craft business. But, if your art business does not make more than that amount in a financial year. Then, you might need setting up a craft business that does better than that.
Improving the bottom line of your side-hustle is not easy. But if you aim to get better with it. Then, you must read further to know-how.
How to Make a Craft Business Plan for the First Time
Since you are reading this post, I am sure you want to get better with sales. For that to happen, you must start treating your art and craft skills as a business.
That means you need to consider your skills beyond a hobby. You should start viewing them as numbers.
Sweat equity is a major component of these numbers. Along comes the cost of raw materials, cost of sales/marketing channels, and the cost of logistics.
If you are a beginner in setting up a craft business. Then, you can take the following steps to bring the above factors in one place.
Brainstorm Craft Business Names
The name of your business represents what you sell. Hence, choosing one should involve a lot of caution and consideration.
The name of the business must comply with the basic rules of branding. Therefore, it should be short, easy to pronounce, and must not confuse with other popular names.
An easy way to choose a good name for your business is to create a portmanteau of your name and skills.
So, if you are Alex and you create jewelry. Then, you can have JewelsbyAlex. Or, if you are Alex selling handmade soaps. You can have SoapyAlex. I hope you get the idea.
Once you have the name, you can then check for the availability of the domain name for it.
Apart from the name in your URL. You also want the same name for all your social media handles.
It might get tricky to get the exact same name everywhere. But since you will be using your business name a lot and for a long time. Thus, it is prudent to invest in your creativity to get the right one to begin with. Else, it will be a hassle to change all your branding in the future in case a conflict arises.
Create a Craft Business Plan
The term business plan is a part of the finance domain. Thus, it may repel an artist.
But the brutal truth is that your art is a part of finance the moment it is on sale. Hence, your craft business requires a business plan.
An elaborate business plan might repel you. Therefore, you can use the simple one that is available under the Resource page of this website.
That business plan has 7 crucial elements. They are:
Identifying the Niche of Your Business
Having a Crystal Clear Focus on What You Sell
Identifying Your Target Customer
Keeping a Tab on the Competitors in Your Niche
Being Realistic About Your Financial Goals and Expenses
Figuring Out the Number of Activities You Would Do on a Daily Basis
Figuring Out Your Best Performing Marketing and Sales Channels
How to Start a Craft Business
Once you have your business name and plan taken care of. Then comes the next step of starting the craft business.
There are 3 further sub-steps to go about setting up a craft business.
They are:
Decide on the Channel
You can have your business the brick-and-mortar way or you could sell online, or even do both. Both come with their benefits and challenges.
If you have a space of your own. Then, starting off with a physical store is easy. Else, you will have to invest in a place to showcase your art and craft.
Monetary concerns are the reason why you must know how to start an online craft business.
Setting up an online shop costs a fraction of money when compared to a physical one. You can start with Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Artfire, or even your own e-commerce Shopify store.
Write Descriptions That Help Buyers
Though irrespective of your mode of selling your art and craft. Your method to market would remain more or less the same for both.
Both the physical and online stores need promotion for sales. For that, using social media is one the best performing medium.
You can promote your art and craft page on Facebook and on other social media channels.
Communicating with your sellers is an important function of marketing. Describing your products, and your process of art creation excites the audience. It also helps in getting the SEO juices by making use of the long tails keywords.
If you are consistent with your descriptive content on all your marketing channels. Then, you will see a surge in your search engine rankings as well as in your third-party store rankings.
This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you purchase any of the products mentioned in this article through routing via the links in this post. Then, I may end up receiving a certain monetary percentage from the sale. Though the one who purchases through the link does not end up paying anything extra apart from the mentioned MRP on the product. Full disclosures on the Affiliate Page.
Take Stellar Product Pictures
Pictures are essential for your marketing material. They do speak louder than your text content.
They make the first time visitors stick to your content and become a loyal audience. Thus, it is mandatory to master the art of photography to get them right.
The best thing is to invest in a basic photography course from the beginning of setting up a craft business. That way you will set the foundation of your craft business the right way.
Follow Successful Craft Business Stories
Learning from people whom you aim to be is a smart way to be like them in the future. Therefore, you should keep a tab on other successful craft makers and artists.
That way you will stay abreast of the innovative means of creating and promoting crafts.
Test the Market by Running Your Own Workshops
A new craft business takes time to gain momentum in sales. Till you get a steady flow of sales, you can use your craft-making expertise to earn money.
Teaching crafts to adults and children is a good way to keep the money flowing in. It also lets you know how well is the demand for the crafts that you sell.
Sharing craft-making skills is an excellent move to earn from your passion.
In Conclusion
Setting up a craft business seems an easy task. But when you factor in the challenges that come up at every stage of running a business. That is when you find talking to yourself – there are so many things I wish I knew before starting a craft business.
But on the contrary, if you have a concrete plan before you start your art and craft business. Then, you look forward to investing your time and energies into your enterprise.
From naming your business to figuring out what to do during the lean months. A well-planned craft business plan takes care of most of the unseen issues.
This article provides the basic elements of building your craft business. Following it will lead you to a life full of creative and monetary satisfaction.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
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