Sewing Business Blog » craft business

4 Reasons to Sell Your Crafts on Etsy

S. Denise Hoyle — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:32:27 +0000

Craft fairs are a wonderful way to both market and sell your crafts—but some people simply do not have the time or the money to put up a booth at such fairs. More and more entrepreneurs are beginning to sell their items online. One website very popular among small businesses and hobbyists is Etsy.com.

Here are some reasons why, like other crafters, you too might want to sell your items on Etsy:

1) Etsy is a marketplace for all things handmade.

Unlike other online marketplaces, you won’t find mobile phones, DVDs or various retail items for sale on this website. Etsy.com is a website specifically for both buyers and sellers of handmade items, vintage items, and all sorts of craft supplies.

2) You are catering to your target market.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll make a sale on Etsy—but you can at least be assured that people who browse Etsy love crafts and all things handmade and vintage just as much as you do.

3) Buying and selling on Etsy is easy.

It only takes a few minutes to set up your Etsy shop. You can even choose to customize your online store with your profile and a banner image. Uploading your product descriptions and images are easy and will not take up a lot of time.

4) You are joining a community.

By choosing to sell your items on Etsy, you are not creating just another account, but are joining a community, as well. You can ask for feedback or suggestions from other knowledgeable sellers on the Etsy forums, or even collaborate with other people on Etsy whose style or products complement your style or items.

Similarly, purchasing items on Etsy is also easy. Prices of items appear in the buyer’s local currency, making shopping convenient, fun and quick. Thousands of people shop on Etsy on a daily basis because it is the go-to online marketplace for all things handmade. If you want to start selling your crafts on the Internet, Etsy is truly the best place to start.

Remodeling the Fabric Business

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:15:00 +0000

For some time now WalMart has been phasing out the fabric departments at many of its supercenters. Estimates are that approximately 60 departments per month are closing, and almost 700 WalMart stores will no longer have a fabric department by the end of this year. Still others have been switched over to pre-cut, pre-packaged lengths of fabric in an effort to eliminate the necessary personnel to cut fabric.

The changes are part of a national store remodeling project and many WalMart customers across the country are up in arms over it, there is even an online petition to save WalMart’s full service fabric departments that currently has over 43,000 signatures.

Local alterations shop owners and seamstresses across the country are wondering how they’re going to find an emergency zipper or thread at eleven at night. Still others in rural areas without a nearby JoAnn’s, Hobby Lobby or Hancock’s are trying to figure out how it will affect their prices (and profits) when they have to start ordering notions through catalogs and must also pay shipping that in some cases costs more than the actual item.

At the same time, JoAnn Fabrics reports a 2.6% increase in its sewing business and is hoping to further increase its share as more WalMart fabric departments close. JoAnn’s is planning changes of its own, what it calls “optimization projects”, intended to focus more on fabric offerings and craft merchandise and reduce area currently used for seasonal merchandise.

On a happy note, Hobby Lobby has opened several stores this year and JoAnn’s has opened twelve stores so far with plans to open 20 during its current fiscal year. Hancock Fabrics reports having opened one store during the first quarter of this year, and I’m personally excited to announce that another one will soon be opening in a shopping center near my home.

Why Haven’t You Started Your Home Business Yet?

Sarah J. Doyle — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:25:00 +0000

We are still getting emails from individuals who are literally “on the fence” about starting a home business. We totally understand “nervous” and “scared” and “uncertain” about whether to stick your neck out and “just do it” — we’ve been in the same boat before.

With that said, we want to say, without a doubt, that NOW is the time to go ahead and get your home business started. We are not saying that by starting a home business you’ll be wealthy within six months or a year, but it will most likely improve your financial situation so that you can pat yourself on the back and be glad you did it.

Consider the following benefits of starting up a home business:

** You can save money by not having to buy expensive clothes to wear to work (gotta have something newer than the other girls at the office, you know!)

** Think about the money you can save in gas alone – not having to drive to and from work each day.

** Lunches can be left overs from last night, rather than going out for hamburgers or pizza with the others from the office.

** You may be able to cut out day care expenses after you “get in the groove” about setting working hours in your home business.

** The tax benefits from working at home are a definite plus — not dollars you can see daily, but at the end of the year you’ll realize the benefit.

But you’re still asking —- what can I do as a home business? Well, think about what your interests are — do you enjoy doing crafts? Are you a quilter? Are you a whiz at sewing? Most anybody that owns a sewing machine can jump right into the alteration business – get a few business cards out and post a flyer at the local fabric shop, and see how quickly you have customers calling. If you’ve been sewing for any length of time you could start your own little niche by sewing for plus size children. Statistics indicate that the numbers of overweight and obese children are growing, so you would have an immediate market for your sewing.

With all the layoffs and cutbacks at the workplace, there is no better time than right now to just jump in and get a home business started. You will be saving money (see the benefits listed above) and MAKING money, therefore your financial situation really will improve. Give it a try and let us know what you’re doing and how you’re benefiting from working at home.

Adding Profit To Your Sewing And Crafts

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Many times it is difficult to determine the actual costs involved in making craft or sewing items. For example, if you’re using your scraps to make aprons, beach bags, purses or toys, how would you figure the cost of the item, and therefore how much to charge for the completed item.

An easy way to “estimate” the cost of fabric used would be to determine how much total fabric is used for the project. If you’re using left over print fabric, scraps of solid colors of fabric, and add larger pieces of muslin or interfacing material, a general rule would be to perhaps figure you’ve used a total of 1/2 a yard or 1 yard combined of all the pieces – whatever you figure you have used. Then for a cost of the fabrics I’d use an average of what most of the fabrics would have cost me at the fabric store — perhaps $4.75 per yard, give or take, depending on what types of fabric you’re using. You can get a good estimate of costs per project, but don’t forget your time that’s been spent because that is also part of the total cost.

Some good hints that I’ve seen on insuring that your sewing items or craft projects will be the type that people will want to buy are as follows:

** Use good materials. Never use those “end pieces” that perhaps have little snags or holes in them and try to hide the imperfections in the seams.

** Wash your hands frequently to keep your products fresh and clean.

** Learn to make your products easily, quickly AND skillfully. If you can get skillful enough to make an item in half an hour instead of taking an hour that it previously took, you can readily see that you can double your production and therefore double up on the profits.

** Your products must be practical as well as attractive.

** Your product must bear the stamp of your personality to be distinctive. Don’t depend on someone else’s ideas – use your own initiative.

** Be professional — on the phone, at the craft shows and in your own home if customers come into your home for service and purchases.

If you have additional ways that you use to figure your cost of sewing or craft items, please pass them along to us and we’ll get them posted for our readers. How to price sewing and craft items is always one of the biggest questions we hear, so anything you can pass along to help our readers would be appreciated.

Are Your Sales Reaching The Goals You’ve Set?

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:38:00 +0000

We’re in the second quarter of the year, and the question is — how is your business doing? Are your sales reaching the goals that you’d set for the year? How were the sales for the first quarter?

If any of the answers are “not doing as well as I was hoping”, or “sales were down from last year at this time”, then it is time to come up with some new ideas, and perhaps some new revenue streams for your business.

We would never tell anybody to “give up and try something else” — after all, if you’re like us, we’ve spent years working at this business, so wouldn’t consider quitting and starting up a housecleaning service, or daycare center or a completely new venture.

Look carefully at your business and see if there are service or product areas that you could fill without spending very much money. By doing this you could extend yourself into new areas, make a few changes and be able to add extra income to the business. If you’re making quilts, perhaps you could also add doll quilts or lap pads or quilted pictures or even begin experimenting with quilted purses and bags.

By trying a few different opportunities within your field, you have the possibility of a jump start for your business and the extra income to reach your goals.

And, if you haven’t already done so, check into etsy.com — the place where handmade items are welcomed and BOUGHT! That’s the keyword there – people BUY the handmade items, and millions of people search the etsy stores daily probably for items you might have.

Try starting a blog for your business — tell your story and let people know what you have to offer, as well as give them links to your etsy store and products that you have available.

You can find new business opportunities by looking at your business in a new way; looking for new products or services you can offer, or a variety of new places where you can get the word out about your product.

This CAN be a great year for you, financially. Just stick with your plan and goals!

Graduations Are Coming Up Soon!

Sarah J. Doyle — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Graduation days are fast approaching. For some areas, schools let out around the middle of May, whereas other areas it might be the first week of June.

Soooo, whether you have a Kindergarten “graduate”, 8th grade graduate or high school graduate – these cool fabric postcard graduation announcements / invitations can be modified to be used for the grade level that you need.

The quilted postcard invitations can even be used for bridal showers, retirement parties, etc – just purchase fabric that would be appropriate for the occasion.

Complete tutorial instructions are brought to us by Diane Gilleland at CraftStylish.com. These are just the cutest postcards, and we certainly appreciate the time Diane took to put together the tutorial for all to see!

Holiday Marketing Materials

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:16:00 +0000

If your business is one that is out of your home or if it is a brick and mortar store you’ll need to be thinking about doing some Holiday advertising.

You could do some newspaper advertising, which will require that you investigate the prices on the various sizes of ads, or you could do some direct mail campaigns to your good customers. Either way you go, there are a few main items to think about while doing the ads.

** Don’t use too many fonts within the advertising. This is very distracting to the viewer and can even play “games” with their vision while trying to read your ad.

** Don’t make your logo the focal point of the advertising space or letter, and don’t place it in the center of the page. Always keep your advertising pieces consistent — logo in the same place each time, same type style each time, etc so the viewers will recognize your advertisement and will be able to read it for content.

** Don’t try to cover the entire page or newspaper space with words. Make sure there is enough “white space” within the ad – between paragraphs, along the sides, around the logo, etc so that the whole thing doesn’t become a blurr to the reader. Check out some of the other ads in the paper – might be good to check some of your competitor’s ads and see what they’re up to. I wouldn’t try to copy the competitor – you still want to be unique in your own advertising methods.

** If you’re going to try to do some Holiday specials — focus on what the benefits would be to your readers. Details and information are fine, however people always want to know what the benefits are for them.

Keep in mind that just about every type of business does extra advertising of some sort to help pick up sales during the Holiday Season, so those of us in any type of sewing / alteration / craft busines certainly need to be thinking along those lines also.

Countdown To Christmas

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:02:00 +0000

The Christmas Season has officially started at all the brick and mortar stores. I’ve been seeing Christmas stuff in Walmart and some places already, but normally the first of November the Halloween decorations come down and Christmas decorations, sales incentives and banners come out in full force.

Well, the question of the day is — why aren’t we, the work at home people, doing the same thing?????

Actually, I’ve been doing this for several years. I put up one of those small (they’re about 36″ tall) fiber optic Christmas trees in the corner of my customer waiting area and have a fairly long flowing “tree skirt” coming down from the tree to the floor. I then wrap a few empty boxes in Christmas gift wrapping to put under the tree.

Next comes the “sales promotion ideas”. We’ve already talked about having a corner set aside for baby gift items, like Portable Diaper Changing Stations, Animal Pals Back Packs, etc. Well, you can use some of those same items for children, and add in a few additional items like a Holiday Kissing Ring, Golf Club Mittens for a man’s gift or little microwave mittens as an idea for a “hostess” gift for the parties your customers will be attending.

I have a price tag attached to every gift idea in the customer area – large enough that it draws the customers’ attention so they know that these items are for sale. You will be helping your customers in a big way by having a wide variety of gift ideas they can be thinking about while they are waiting to see you.

As an extra note – I’ve found that whatever gift ideas I have in the customer waiting area, I need to be sure to have the one they can see, PLUS at least two extras. If the only one you have is in the waiting area and a customer wants to buy it – you have only two choices — sell that one and you won’t have one for the next customer to see, OR just take the order for the item and say that you’ll let them know when it’s ready for them. My idea is that if you do the second (take the order and say you’ll let them know when it’s ready), you’re taking a big chance that they may change their mind and you’ve lost the sale. What you want is the sale TODAY and the money in your cash register!

If you’ve never done this before, I’d suggest that you get a small tree and get started on the Holiday Gift area immediately – this could mean an additional several hundred dollars in your pocket that you would not have had if you simply decorate with a little ribbon and a few bows.

Let us know how your Christmas gift area works for you, and what all gifts you’ve made available to the customers. We’d love to hear about the extra dollars that you’ve made!