If you are looking to start a small home business this year selling your crafty makes, there are several things to do before you can turn this into a money making venture. Making your art and craft into a career path is one of the most challenging things you can do, however if you are able to make money from doing what you love this can be one of the most rewarding things in the world. Here’s a run through some of the different ways that you can make your favourite crafts at home and create a small business where you make a profit.

Buy supplies in bulk 

The main thing you want to consider when starting a small business from home is the cost of the supplies. Items such as paints, paper, brushes, pens and fabric etc will cost you money. If your aim is to make some money you should buy these items wholesale to ensure you get a decent profit margin from a sale. Consider looking for craft suppliers and wholesale stores like Costco or The Works and this will allow you to stock up on the things you need without paying a huge premium for it.

Use a Cricut 

A Cricut machine is like a goldmine for any crafty person. You can create anything from stickers to decals and even stamps and labels to make your work stand out from the rest. A Cricut machine will allow you to add your branding onto everything you do and it is always a great investment if you want to start a small business from your home. It might be a costly initial outlay, but it will help you make thousands of products.

Build a website and socials

When you decide to build a small business selling crafts there are two different routes you can take – selling on a distributor site or selling on your own website. Either way, building a website and social media channels to share your work is a great idea and it will allow you to build an audience and show your authority in the industry. A website only needs to be a gallery, and this can link to where you sell your items. Social media can be a useful way to share your work as well as show off the process of creating it. You can share Instagram images and Tik Toks to show your crafty process and this can be a great way to build an audience who wants to support you in your creations. Etsy is a great place to start off selling, as it is pretty much fool-proof.Build an Etsy store 

Etsy is a wonderful option for you to sell your items if you are a small business owner. For anyone making handmade items, Etsy is a platform that allows you to build a shop and advertise your products for a very small fee, and it will allow you to reach more potential customers. Choosing to sell on Etsy is always a smart move as most of the work will be done for you and this will make life much easier for you in the long run.

Have fun with it 

It is so important when you are creating for a living that you have fun with your craft. Making artwork or creating small ceramic products for sale is a wonderful thing to do, and it is something that will give you a great sense of pride. It is important that you enjoy your work as much as you can and this will drive you forward when building this new life for yourself.

Add finishing touches 

When creating lovely land made products to sell, one of the things you want to do is add those special finishing touches. This can be anything from custom recycled paper hang tags to ribbons and labels – and these small touches will make a product look more professional as well as bring your own branding into the works. Making sure that your work looks unique to you is a good selling point and people will always know what they have to look forward to when one of your orders comes through their letterbox.

Finish with a note 

As a small business owner, you will likely be grateful for every single order that comes your way. One way to show this gratitude and to connect with your customers is to write a small handwritten note thanking them for their order and telling them to enjoy it. This is such a small gesture however it will make your customers remember you and trust you more as a small creator.

Use these ideas to help make your crafty dreams become a reality this year!

You can see more of what i’m loving, and what i’m doing, over on my Instagram.