Arts and Crafts Business
Do you want to turn your artistic talents and hobbies into an Arts and Crafts business?
You may have the skills to create wonderful handiwork, but starting a successful arts and crafts business calls for much more than that.
There are several reasons to thoroughly research your market: to determine your competition, to find the best outlets for your products and to see whether your products will sell and for how much.
In order to be successful, you need to have an unusual product that isn’t likely to have a competing product made by a machine, and isn’t easily duplicated by copycats.
In addition to making your craft, at least in the beginning, you will also have to be responsible for getting all the business licenses and tax forms you’ll need set up, accounting, marketing, procurement of supplies, packing and shipping, customer service, and many other jobs that you will have to devote time to each day.
While being at home with young children is usually considered a benefit of working from home, interruptions from family members and their schedules are likely to take a bigger chunk out of your work day than you might realize.
Most new home business owners put in up to 80 hours a week, dividing their time between their traditional job and their business until something gives and they have to make a decision about giving one or the other up.
If your job income is essential to your personal lifestyle, do not, under any circumstances, quit your regular job until you are sure you can bring in enough money (profit) from your home based business to meet your needs, because you cannot assume that more time will translate into more income.
That having been said, starting your own Arts and Crafts business can be rewarding and profitable if you have good work ethics and have done your homework properly.
Article Index:
Though it’s impossible to know how many artists and craftspeople sell their wares full or part time at shows and festivals, their numbers appear to be growing as crowds turn out to these events by the thousands to buy and to meet the artists and craftsmen. Here are 10 road tested tips to achieving success and making real money selling arts and crafts.
You can (and should!) do a lot of research on the track record of any show before committing, but even with all the advance research in the world, there is no guarantee that the show will get a lot of traffic, and even then, no guarantee that people will buy what you have to offer.
If, despite your best efforts, you find yourself manning a booth at a show that is bombing, here are ten things you can do to be positive and proactive about making some tasty lemonade out of your lemons.