Are you just about ready to venture into selling your crafts for the very first time? Creating stocks of items to sell is one thing—but pricing them is a completely different story.

Pricing products can be a very tricky matter. Set the price too low and you might not even be able to cover your expenses. Set the price too high and you could turn off your potential customers.  Here are some tips on how to determine the right prices for your crafts:

1) Get to know your market.

One thing you should do in order to avoid underpricing and overpricing your products is to get to know your market. Visit crafts fairs and keep an eye out for prices of similar products, or visit online marketplaces where similar crafts might be available. Get to know the market, and get to know your competition.

2) Don’t downplay the cost of your labor.

Many artists and craftspeople make the critical mistake of undervaluing their labor.   Pricing your products so low could compromise the quality of your work due to the number of orders you have to fill. Another option would be to find ways that you could streamline production in order to make the entire process less painstaking and more efficient.

3) Include the cost of hidden expenses.

Most artists who are early in their careers tend to undervalue and underprice their work, not wanting to appear greedy. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. Calculate how much you average on materials per project, plus how much time it takes to create it. If you’re joining a crafts fair, you should also factor in the costs of your travel expenses, registration fees, meals and such.

4) Determine how original your items are.

Are you selling a product that many other vendors are selling? If, for example, you are selling at a crafts fair and you know that there are going to be similar products at neighboring tables, then you might want to keep your prices lower in order to be competitive. If, however, you are selling something that is new and unique, you might be able to afford raising your prices just a little higher.

Pricing your products may be difficult—but keep in mind that if you really want to survive and succeed in the business, you will also need to think like a business person.

Photo Credit: iClipart

If you’re a lover of all things craft-related, attending a craft fair is something you should definitely make time for. If you make crafts, however, then you may want to seriously consider selling your handmade works of art at craft fairs instead of just attending them.

These are just some of the many benefits of selling at craft fairs:

1) You can interact with your target market.

People who attend such fairs are genuinely interested in crafts. These fairs are a wonderful opportunity to chat with the people browsing through your products and get to know them a little better. Get feedback from them as to what they’d like to see you sell, and answer any questions that your customers may have. You’ll also be able to network with the other crafters at the fair and see what sells well for them.

2) You can create a customer database.

A craft fair is a wonderful way to get more information about your customers. Ask interested customers if they’d like to be on your mailing list.  Collect their home addresses, phone numbers or email addresses so you can send them product updates, catalogs or brochures in the future.

3) They are profitable.

At a craft fair, you are selling your items directly to the customer. This means there’s no need to pay any distributors or middlemen. Apart from overhead, fair fees and supplies, everything else is considered profit.

4) They require only a short-term commitment.

Craft fairs generally run for only one or a few days, and are usually held on weekends. Joining a craft fair will in no way take over your schedule! You can still hold a regular job on weekdays, or spend your time working on your hobbies.

5) You can learn from your previous craft fairs or shows.

Another benefit of selling at craft fairs is that you’ll be able to quickly assess your performance at the end of each fair. You can decide to increase your prices, fix up your displays and increase your inventory before deciding to commit to a larger and more expensive fair.

6) You can work on your crafts and sell them at the same time.

Take advantage of a fair’s slow hours to build up your inventory. Actually doing your craft work at the fair is a great way to get people to slow down, watch and ask questions. 

Craft fairs are not the only place that artists can sell their work however, these fairs are a wonderful way to build up one’s business. The next time you hear of a craft fair in your area—grab the opportunity and sign up!

Photo Credit: iClipart

Every business needs a website—whether the business is already very much established or is one that is just starting out. Many small business owners believe that there aren’t many benefits to having a website. If you’re someone with a similar mindset, you may want to reconsider.

Here are just a few of the reasons your business needs a website:

1) Your business is accessible 24/7.

Nowadays, more and more consumers use the Internet to search for products and services. They can search your FAQ section for answers or submit a form if they’ve got any questions or inquiries. Think of your website as an online storefront. Whether your store is closed or your phone is off for the day, people can still check out your business at any time they want to!

2) You can reach a wider audience.

Once your business is established on the Internet, you will no longer be a small, local business. Instead, you can potentially be discovered by millions of people around the world! A website can allow you to conduct business on both a national and international level.

3) You can keep your customers updated.

A website is a wonderful way to keep both current customers and potential customers updated on your latest products, services, promotions, events and even price changes. You’ll never have to deal with outdated catalogs or brochures again!

4) It is both inexpensive and effective.

Many business owners think that it costs a lot of money to put up a professional-looking website. Although this may be true in some cases, the cost of designing a website does vary greatly. You must note, however, that the cost of keeping a website running is nothing compared to the cost of newspaper, television and radio advertisements.

5) Your competitors have websites.

Chances are high that your competitors have their own websites. If customers cannot find you online, then they’ll likely take their business somewhere else. Think of the potential customers you are losing!

These are just five of the many, many reasons you need a website for your business. A website will definitely help your business grow, no matter how big or small it may be.

Photo Credit: iClipart

I see pregnant women that are plus sizes, as well as some who would be considered “average” or even smaller and more petite sizing.  The majority of what I see, however, are larger sizes, and I can assure you that they are having a very difficult time finding clothing, patterns or somebody to do some sewing for them.

By far the easiest way to get into making maternity clothes is to see if your customer has some type of basic pattern that she’s had made before and that she knows will fit properly.  You can take that pattern and convert it to maternity styles.  Converting store bought patterns into maternity styles is very easy and you can make a wide variety of maternity garments for your customer, using just that one basic pattern.

If the customer is new and you’ve never sewn for her, and she doesn’t have any basic patterns for you to convert into maternity styles, you can always make maternity patterns for her by using her own personal measurements.  Pattern making for maternity will require a little more effort and time than simply converting a commercial pattern that is already available, but your customer will greatly appreciate your going the extra mile for her.

Look around the next time you’re in the mall or a restaurant or any other public place to see how many pregnant women there are.   Put some flyers or informational brochure at places of business that allow you to post such things, and you might be surprized at the amount of new business you get.

A good way to get that traffic coming back is by having a “customer sale” periodically.  A good sale date coming up is next Monday, Memorial Day.  After that you’ll see on your calendar Father’s Day, Fourth of July, etc.  Customers love discounts and not only will your current customers come back (and most likely buy something!) – they’ll also recommend your website / blog to others as well.

Another surefire way to pick up traffic to your site / blog is by having a “Giveaway” of some kind.  If you do crafts for craft fairs or bazaars, you could do a giveaway of a couple of your best sellers.  OR, there are people from other businesses, or websites or blogs that would love to have you do a giveaway with one or more of their items.  This helps generate more traffic to your site / blog as well as to the website / blog that is offering the items for your giveaway.  A great example of a super giveaway is one that is currently running on ShopperStrategy.com — the current giveway is entitled “shrek-tacular-savings-and-movie-ticket-giveaway” and runs through this Friday, May 28.  This particular giveaway includes a ton of food / snack items as well as a $25 gift certificate that can be used for the latest Shrek movie.  Check out the giveaway and see how you can incorporate the “giveaway” into your blog to help increase your traffic and sales. (If you have children or grandchildren, you might even want to enter to win the goodies / ticket money for yourself).

Additionally, to help keep your website alive and growing, I’d suggeset that you add new “content” to the site / blog that pertains to your business and that would be of interest to your customers.  A “helpful hints” type content could certainly be what some of your customers are looking for — and they’ll be sure to come back to see what else you have to say.

If you’re doing something special to keep your blog / website alive and growing, let us know – we’d love to pass it along to our readers.

I don’t know if you ended up getting a refund of some sort or had to pay, however the business receipts you keep can make a huge difference in the final totals on your taxes!

Keep and file ALL business related expense receipts.  You’ll be amazed at how those 44 cent stamp receipts add up over a years’ time.  Any fabrics/notions that you purchase for business use can be a tax deduction.  Also, if you haven’t already done so, get a small pocket calendar that you can keep in the car for business miles.  When you run to the fabric store for more fabric, write down the miles for that day.  If you’re making a run to the post office to get some orders mailed, write down the beginning and ending odometer reading so you’ll have the miles for that trip. At the end of the year that calendar becomes part of my tax information box to keep in case it’s ever needed.

Ask your tax preparer about home office deductions – you could even write off part of your power bill, cable bill and telephone bill.

Take advantage of all the ways you can help yourself at tax time.

I keep an expanding file that is labeled for postage, inventory, office supplies, etc where I keep all my receipts filed during the year, then at the end of the year all I have to do is add the receipts in each category for totals to put on the tax forms.

If you’ve already set up a system for keeping receipts, bravo to you — if you haven’t already set up a filing system, it is not too late to start right now.

Smile!  That’s a key part of customer service!  Whether it’s in person or on the telephone – smile.  Your tone of voice IS reflective of whether you’re smiling while talking on the phone, or if you feel like you’ve been interrupted for the 10th time from an important project.

If you tell somebody you’re going to do something (try to find a special fabric, locate a pattern or check out a new trim) – DO IT!  It may be a small deal to you and very unimportant, but to the customer it is EVERYTHING at this moment, so be sure to follow through on what you tell the customers.

Deal with questions promptly – don’t make the customer wait an hour or two or day or two for an answer.  Just last Friday evening I checked in on my computer before shutting down for the night (about 9 pm), and I’d gotten an email from a lady asking a question about an order she’d placed two days before.  I immediately checked it out and wrote her back before shutting down.  The next day I had a glowing email from the customer, saying “what FABULOUS customer service!  I figured maybe I’d get an answer by Monday or Tuesday, because of the weekend, and you took the time to answer me within MINUTES of my email!  I WILL be letting my friends know about your super customer service!”

So, there it is in a nutshell — how do you grow your business with customer service?  Your customers ARE the most important advertising your business will ever have – you just can’t pay enough for word of mouth advertising from the customers.  Customers with glowing reports about your excellent customer service will generate more new customers than you can imagine!

We were a vendor at a craft festival two weeks ago and the very first indication of “reduced” profit was when we paid our entry fee.   The vendor fee had gone up $20.00 – the information/sign up sheet said that the company putting on the festival has had rising expenses, therefore had to increase the fees for each booth space.  Well, $20.00 isn’t really that much money, but if you think about how many extra items that had to be sold in order to cover that amount, it all adds up to less and less profit.

In addition to entry fees getting higher, have you noticed some of the fabrics you use for your craft fair items have also been getting higher?  Thread prices inch up, and if you use things like Velcro, you’re seeing small increases in prices there as well.

We did notice at the festival we attended that while there were supposedly a record number of attendees, we did have a few asking “could you take ____ for a certain item” instead of the regular price.  When we explained that the price on the item IS the price – some bought and some walked.

We have found that one way to help keep prices down and the little bit of profit margin a little higher is to be on the lookout for sales.  For example, we use a lot of solid brown duck fabric, so when JoAnn’s is having one of their 40% off one item or (rarely) 50% off one item, we’ll head in and buy the whole bolt of brown duck fabric.  For those who are quilters, you could do the same with their quilt batting.  Even though you can only buy ONE, it does help cut the cost — and if you make baby / toddler quilts, get the biggest size (queen or king) of the batting and cut it for the sizes you make.

Keep your eyes open for fabric and notion sales — our town had a Walmart that was closing their fabric/craft department and we found out about it too late to get fabrics, but they did have a large variety of thread marked down, so I went through and got all the thread colors we normally use at the discounted price.  I would say here that just grabbing a handful of spools of thread would have been pretty silly, since most of the colors were off the wall colors that were strictly “left overs” that apparently nobody uses — I didn’t want them either, so made sure I ONLY got colors that we use a lot of, and managed to save some money there.

How do YOU cope with the “inching up of prices” and still maintaining a profit margin that you can live with?

Denise, over at ShopperStrategy has a  post entitled “How To Make $100/Hour Clipping Coupons” that I found very interesting.  Apparently the Wall Street Journal has an article written by Brett Arends who writes the daily Return On Investment column, who has “done the math” on how to make that $100/hour clipping coupons.

Mr. Arends has made a believer out of me.  Now I’m saying “Hello” to Fabric.com, to JoAnns, and all the drug stores and grocery stores I can think of!

To tell the truth, I’ve been using those JoAnns coupons for a long time because I figure any little bit of saving that I can do on my “craft” fabrics, the more the bottom line profit will be – I just never put 2 and 2 together to figure out the money being made by using those coupons.

Head on over to ShopperStrategy and read the post and check it out for yourself.  Let us know how you do on this “new’ way of making money in your sewing business.

A few years ago we sent out “gift certificates” in the amount of $5.00 or $10.00 good on the customers’ next purchase from our catalog, or listing of books in the back cover of a book they’d just purchased.  It was surprising how many of those “gift certificates” would come back to us in the weeks or months after the sale to be used on the next order.

With the economy as it is, a “gift certificate” or “15% off your next order” just doesn’t quite sound as good to customers as giving a “$5.00 off coupon” or $10.00 off coupon” to the customer.  Of course, as with all coupons that you can get online or in Sunday Newspapers, you have to name the limits of the coupons.  You can give the $5.00 coupon with the comment readily visible “good on your next $25.00 order”, or have the statement on the $10.00 coupon “good on orders over $50.00″.

Think about it – that $10 “coupon” which is good on the customers’ next order over $50.00, actually makes that order $40, a savings of $10.00 in their pocket – AND a great sale for you.  You may not realize how many people will “find” an extra item or two to order to reach that $50.00 amount so they can use the coupon.

If you’re in the alteration business a simple coupon giving the customer “50 cents off your next hemming job” or if you can do “75 cents off your next hemming job”, you may get business that would have gone to the dry cleaners down the street.  Make up some of the coupons and give them out to people at work, friends to pass out or tack some of them up at the post office or fabric shop.

Think of any way that you can be giving out a coupon for dollars off or cents off a particular item or money off a certain dollar amount they spend, then watch the extra dollars come in.  There are many coupon “clubs” in our area that are teaching people to shop with those that give coupons, so this is the time to get in on the coupon activity to increase your profits.