Starting a Craft Business Out of Your Home

Every dollar helps, and that’s why more families are looking to alternative methods of raising money for the home. Starting your own crafting business a method to bring in the extra money you need without a host of upfront costs. All you need is a site to sell your goods, and money to cover the raw materials. Here are some ideas to toy with before you get started.

Choosing a Craft

The first thing you need to settle on is the kind of craft you want to produce. It should be something you can do quickly, but also something you do well. Crochet is popular, especially if you can do custom pieces, but it’s not the only craft out there. Lots of people pursue wood working or metal working as well. Materials are a bit pricier, but the cost of the custom pieces easily makes the money back. Make sure you have the tools you need to produce it quickly. Order foam from Canada and use it to produce foam shapes to sell in a pack, or you can use the shapes to make elaborate painted objects.

Production and Sales

Production is the next major issue you need to solve. Craft pieces sell well because they are handmade, and there are basically two ways to approach your sales. You can take orders for custom pieces, which is somewhat harder to anticipate, or you can create a line of your own work. You stand to make more money from custom pieces, but you also need to secure the rights to produce licensed items. Your own line can be produced at your leisure, and sold in bulk while you design other items in the line.

You also need a vehicle for sales, which is usually a website or a site like eBay or Etsy. Using a site like that frees you up from hosting costs, and you can optimize your products with keywords too. You can also market those websites through social channels like Facebook.

Shipping

The final concern is shipping. You can save money on packaging when you use polystyrene insulation foam to pack your objects. You can even cut into the foam to lay products securely into the box, and the sheets are easy to cut to the right length and width with a simple craft knife. Try to ship more than one good in the same box if you can, so upsell customers on new products.
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Carlo Badalamenti writes on behalf of foam distributor Canada Foam By Mail. Order craft foam and find new projects online at Canada Foam By Mail.