business

Handmade business beginner essentials

Starting a handmade business can be a big step in your life but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

My own business is a shining example of how a handmade hobby can organically grow into a business. The funny part is that I had been trying to make a living from my handmade goods for around 10 years when I shared my first weaving tutorial on Youtube that ultimately saw my business develop and eventually take off.

Many people in the business niche will tell you that the formulation of a business plan is an absolute must before starting a new business. While it can help you to plan and gain clarity around what you want to do or what your vision for your business is, it is not essential.

I never developed a business plan for my online business and I have no regrets about that.

However, there are aspects to a handmade business that I do think are really important. Some of these can develop over time and others are better to be put in place as soon as possible.

DETERMINING PRODUCT DEMAND

Basically, without demand, you don’t have a business. You could make something that is really cool and that you love to create, but if no one wants to buy it that can be a harsh reality to face.

My initial Youtube tutorials showed me very clearly that there was a demand for the product I was able to provide. Again, this happened organically for me and wasn’t planned but if you are wanting to sell your handmade products, actually having an idea beforehand whether or not there is a demand for them is super helpful.

You can get a basic idea of demand by googling your intended product or search terms associated with it. Let’s take an example here. I will use a handwoven scarf as our guinea pig.

Determining demand for handmade products is a little different from more commercial products because handmade is often unique and doesn’t “fit in a box” or typical niche. There are more factors involved than just looking at trends and what is selling well right now. Handmade is more nuanced than that.

When I google “handmade scarf” it comes up with a myriad of results. Some are local, authentic hand woven by usually a single person owned business (sole trader). Others are made overseas, woven on hand looms but by groups of people and marketed by an organisation. Some are commercially woven (you can always recognise these are they are much cheaper and usually more generic in appearance).

Googling is useful though, to see what is out there, where they are being sold and what they are charging. These factors can help you not only to find where potential customers might be looking to find hand woven products, but also what kind of pricing is realistic for the type of scarf you’re selling.

A terrific way to help determine demand for a handwoven scarf is social media – Instagram in particular is a very visual platform. I use Instagram not only to sell my products (you can read more about how I do that here) but to gauge interest in new products/ colours/ styles. It’s a simple and free way to get public opinion but in a more targeted way because all the people who follow you on a social media platform and potential customers – their opinion matters!

THE PRODUCT

You do need to have a good quality product and ensure that it meets quality standards, but if you tend towards perfectionism, please do not overcomplicate it! Next time you buy an item of clothing, a towel, whatever from a commercial source, I guarantee that if you inspect it carefully you will find small faults.

Handwoven is beautiful and unique, but it’s made by a real person often in a home or studio setting. It needs to present well and do the job that it’s made for – it does not need to be perfect.

PRICING

This is a non negotiable. You do not have a smooth running and profitable business without correctly priced items. Handmade creators are notorious for under pricing (I know, in my early days I was definitely guilty of this!)

While it is fine to price a bit lower when you’re just starting out, you need to know when to raise your prices and how low is too low. Price your handmade products too low and you don’t have a handmade business, you just have a hobby (and often an expensive one at that!)

Pricing is very tricky and often a fine balance of cost of materials, how much you want to be paid and how much the customer is willing to pay. In this article I talk about this more in depth, based on my personal experiences and I include a helpful formula for pricing handmade items.

WHERE/HOW TO SELL

Again, you really don’t have a business until you have a way or location to sell. To begin with, this can be as simple as selling to friends and family and gradually growing your brand by word of mouth. This is an excellent way to sell initially. It allows you to get a feel for it, you don’t have to pay for advertising, hosting and processing fees and as already mentioned it can help you to determine demand.

I’ll put in a little caveat here that some sellers find it a negative experience selling to family and friends. I have heard quite a few people say that those who are closer to them expect heavily discounted prices, free products or just to pay for the cost of materials but not your time.

On the other hand, those who are familiar with what you do may have a better understanding of the time, skill and quality of materials you put in to your work.

This is something you can explore for yourself and hopefully it is a positive experience for you!

It is quite simple to get started selling online these days. The main avenues I recommend are Etsy and Shopify. Which one suits you will depend on a number of factors and for that reason I have provided a comparison between the two here.

Personally I am moving away from Etsy to focus more on my Shopify store as Etsy is changing and not for the better, in my opinion. Shopify does offer a trial where your first month is only $1, plus you actually earn credits on your own sales to help your shop pay for itself – this is a great deal if you’re curious as to whether it would be a good fit for you.

MAILING LIST

Start a mailing list from day one. No, really!

This will become one of the most important aspects of your business as it allows you to not only contact your audience in a reliable way (you can’t necessarily rely on social media platforms for this) but they are also qualified leads. People sign up to your mailing list because they are interested in what you do.

I use Convertkit for my mailing list and have for many years because they have the best functionality and are constantly improving. Yes, it does get more expensive as you gain subscribers and as you start using automations but for those starting out it is free way to start growing a list.

You can get subscribers to your mailing list in many ways. The first way is to just ask them to sign up if they are interested in your work and provide a way for them to do that (with Convertkit you can make landing pages).

You can also provide an incentive for sign up. Examples could include a discount to purchasing your products, a free guide, downloadable PDF or some other small incentive that provides value to your audience.

TAXATION

Ew, the unglamorous side of business no one wants to think about! So you stow it away and not think about it. Until it comes back to bite you!

How do I know? Because I didn’t keep records to begin with in my business and that was a big mistake. To be kind to myself, because my business grew so organically I didn’t keep records initially because I didn’t think of it as a business.

Then it started making money!

No, record keeping is not glamorous, but trust me folks, you need to do it or you are making a big headache and a lot of extra work for yourself down the track. Make it a habit from day one and it becomes a part of your routine and it’s easy.

I started out by just using a spreadsheet to record sales and expenses, it was very simple. As your business grows you definitely want to look into account keeping software.

The beauty of doing this is you can set up automations (or have someone set it up for you if you have no clue – this is what I did) to make the process really simple for you. I use the online accounting software Xero to automate my record keeping. All of my transactions filter through Xero so when it comes time to submit my Business Activity Statements and end of financial year tax return, all the information is there and ready. Doing this has reduced my stress levels significantly!

BE PATIENT

Building a business takes time, and so does learning business skills. I’m 8 years in and still learning, but that’s ok, you tend to learn what you need to know as the business grows.

Be willing to try new things as the same methods won’t necessarily work for everyone.

A slow growing business, in my opinion is advantageous as it allows you to learn and adapt as you need to. It will teach you a lot about yourself and what kind of business owner you want to be – embrace the slowness!

I hope this article has been helpful to you and given you some ideas for getting started. I have some additional resources here in case you want to do some more research:

3 ways to start selling online for free…

Do you want to start selling your weaving?

What would I do differently if I started selling now?

Selling for weavers online class (members only)

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

*This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Do you want to start selling your weaving?

by Kelly 14 Comments

There are numerous reasons why a weaver may decide it is the right time to begin selling their work. These are some of the most common reasons:

An ambition to make a living doing what you love

You have more woven items than you know what to do with (I think we can all relate to this one!)

You would like some spare money to buy more yarn or weaving supplies

Although there is a lot to learn when it comes to beginning to sell your work and it can feel intimidating, you can start out very small and learn as you go along. Don’t feel as though you need to know “all the things” before you start selling.

I’m going to talk about a few key points to think about when you start selling. It’s not an exhaustive list, but more of a guide to get you thinking in the right direction.

Key Points to begin selling:

The Why?

Have a serious think about your personal reasons for wanting to sell your hand wovens. This will help to determine the kind of approach you might want to take when starting up.

For example, if you are a hobby weaver and wish to make a little money on the side to fund your hobby, your approach will be quite different to a weaver who wants to work towards making a full time income from selling.

Deciding on what level of selling you want to get into will help to determine all of the next steps.

Space

Many weavers will begin by weaving items in their own homes and then selling them. Consider whether you have the right space and enough space to house your woven pieces ready to sell. Do you have a good work flow, or is your space a total mess? Do you need to rejig your space to make it more viable, or find a different space within your home that is more conducive to weaving for a business?

The weaver who is more serious about selling may have to consider other avenues for making a space just for weaving. When I was selling physical handmade items, I did have a space within our home, but it was a shared family space. This became increasingly difficult over time, as my tools and items made their way into other parts of the home, and other items of the home made their way into my space. It was a great way to start out, but not all that viable over time.

If you don’t have a dedicated space for your weaving, you may also find the constant set up and storing away of tools and materials difficult.

Time

Are you in a position to devote the time to selling? Being realistic about the time you need to put into selling is important. It’s not just the weaving of items to sell, but possible liasing with customers, wrapping and packing, set up and pack up for markets, business recording requirements.

Sustainability

Is a weaving business going to be a positive thing for you? Are you prepared for the bookkeeping, packing and shipping, photography, travel and all the possible necessities revolving around being a business owner? I don’t detail any of these points in order to put you off, but I think it’s fair to say that many people have no idea what goes into a business behind the scenes – this has certainly been an eye opener for me over the years!

As I pointed out earlier, all of these things can be learned, but some weavers, after consideration, may well decide that they would be more content keeping their weaving as a hobby.

Will it pay?

This is very relevant to sustainability, but also deserves it’s own section because it’s a major consideration when selling your work.

I have experienced first hand how difficult it can to have to let go of a business idea because it is not financially viable. Many years ago, when my children were small, I handcrafted Waldorf style dolls for sale. I started out making dolls for my children, but really loved the creative process and so began selling them also.

These dolls were a really big time investment, you can’t hurry the process of first making the doll, embroidering the face, sewing on (and sometimes knitting the wig first to sew on!) the hair, then completing further details like sewing a full outfit. I chose to use beautiful, natural materials like the best quality cotton tricot for the skin, mohair for the wigs, gorgeously carded wool for the stuffing and European fabrics for the clothes.

It was after a my first negative experience with a customer who felt the customer doll I made for her did not look enough like her daughter (!!!) that I started to ponder how much time I was spending making a doll and what I was actually getting paid for all that work.

I used a calculation formula and was absolutely dumbfounded with results. I was making negative $1AUD per hour! That is correct, it was actually costing me $1 per hour to run that business.

I was a little bit heartbroken, but I stopped offering my dolls for sale.

The point is, I never did my research in the first place to determine if it was a viable business venture, and so I learned the hard way.

Here is a basic formula to get you started:

Supplies cost + labour (your time) + 10% (other costs eg. fees, packaging, insurance)

Here is a practical example for how you might use this formula for a weaving business (these calculations make the assumption that you already have a loom and all the tools you need to actually weave the project, and also that the customer is paying for shipping, if applicable –

The item – A bamboo scarf

Materials cost –

Warp – 2 cones Bambu 7 @ $18AUD each = $36
Weft – 1.5 cones Bambu 7 @ $18AUD each = $27

Total materials cost = $63 AUD

Labour cost-

This is how much you wished to be paid per hour. This is a very personal decision, but for the sake of this exercise, I will put my desired hourly rate at $20AUD.

Now is the tricky part – how much time does it take to weave a scarf? In this example, I’m using a floor loom, which takes a good while to set up! I also have to allow for weaving time, things like hemstitching, wet finishing, packing time and even liasing with the customer if that applies. I’m going to estimate 5 hours for this, though that is probably too low. I never time a project, so it’s just an estimation.

5 hours of labour at $20 per hour = $100AUD.

So far we have total materials cost of $63 + labour of $100 = $163

Now we take that figure and add an extra 10% to allow for other, often hidden or forgotten costs.

So, $163 + $16.30 = $179.30

If you would like a quick and easy way to know your costs, check out my free interactive Weaving Cost Estimator.

Here I’m going to insert my personal opinion again 😊 You can take it or leave it, I’m just sharing thoughts. Pricing is a delicate and sensitive issue, it’s essential that you do what works for YOU. I’ll make a couple of points to ponder over:

It’s very important to not “cheapen the weaving industry” by charging too little. People complain that non weavers don’t understand the time and skill that goes into a woven item. Well, the best way to change that perception is by charging appropriately for your work.

When you are starting out selling, it is likely your work will not be as good as someone who has been weaving professionally for some time. That is OK, there is absolutely nothing wrong with selling pieces that are “not perfect” but be realistic in your pricing. I’m not talking about being cheap. But you may expect to price your work lower than someone who is known as a professional weaver, has an excellent reputation and consistently delivers high quality. You can adjust your pricing over time, as your work improves and there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has to start somewhere!

Your time is valuable. If you are weaving as a business, make sure your hourly rate (labour) is an amount that is sustainable for you and that you feel good about. Again, this can always be adjusted over time, but trust me, you are not going to feel motivated to weave beautiful things for customers if your hourly rate is below minimum wage or worse.

There are many more points to discuss when it comes to selling, some of which include:

Avenues for selling and finding the right avenue for you.

Legal and tax requirements.

Getting the word out.

If you would like to dive deeper into this subject, have a member’s only class – Selling Your Weaving class, which is a 40 minute discussion workshop to get you thinking about whether selling is right for you.

I also have a video that discusses many of the points listed here, plus more:

And if you are interested specifically in selling on Etsy, I have this Youtube video from the perspective of 10 years of selling there:

In addition to my Etsy shop I now have my own store Kelly Casanova Designs. I use Shopify to host this store and I think it’s a great option for weavers who want to sell and have an interested audience already.

You can get your first month for just $1 when you sign up to Shopify for a free trial.

If you are ready to start your own email list, I recommend using Convertkit. This is the company that I use for my mailing list and I think it’s awesome. Perhaps you want to see what my emails to my list actually look like? You can do that by signing up to my mailing list.

I hope this post was helpful to you! I would love to continue the discussion, so if you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the comments section down below.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!