In this post we are going to nail down every single point of debate in order to decide what is the best craft for you to make and sell. We’ll tackle it in seven steps. Here goes.
1) Take measure of your skill and talent
This is the starting point ready. What are your strengths and skills. If you are proficient at knitting you obviously will not make a woodworking craft. The thing to consider is whether you’re current skills are up to the mark. You can easily do this by being unbiased or getting an unbiased opinion from friends and family whose opinion you can trust. Also look at what’s available in the market and compare it to your work.
The thing is that when you are in business, you need to constantly evolve and develop. You will get better with practice that’s for sure. But in case you need to get better before you start selling, there are a few ways you can do this.
- Practice new techniques.
- Join a short-term course/night program.
- Download an e-course.
- Join an online remote teaching course.
- Become an apprentice to an experienced crafts person.
What we are trying to say is that you need to ensure that your skills are in line with the craft business you decide to start.
“Many people tend to get influenced by what they think will make the most money. The truth is that we firmly believe that you can make money with almost any craft.”
What is really important is that you stay inspired and interested in the work that you do. That is crucial to your long-term growth and profit making ability.
2) Match the demand
It is a great joy realizing that you just can’t make enough. People love it and can’t stop buying it. You should study your craft and how it meets the consumer demand. We also advise getting as exclusive as you can with your customer. That’s where the real money and the profit is. Keep reading, we will explain how you can go premium with your craft.
3) Can you do the ‘branding’
We believe in a mantra. You can sell and make money with almost any craft. And by taking the right steps you can make even more money. The key is branding.
Two businesses can be doing the same thing, except that one can be a roaring success while the other one fails to lift off the ground. The product is the same but the sales are drastically different. Branding involves doing a few key things. These things make your business and your craft :
- More appealing.
- More trustworthy.
- More popular.
- Of more value.
- Deserving of a higher selling price.
You can do all of the above things to virtually any craft by following correct branding methods. So do not get too hung up and decide intelligently what craft you want to make and sell.
4) Find the ‘all elusive’ niche!
Let’s not scare you though. We say that because it sounds cool end not because a niche is elusive. Many people confuse a niche with doing something completely different. They are wrong. Working in a niche is doing something different alright but only just enough in order to stand out and get attention or be better in someway.
Sometimes it’s not doing anything different at all except narrowing down on a speciality. For example, your craft business can be about only knitting hand gloves. All kinds, colors, shapes , sizes and fabrics. That becomes your niche.
People soon learn that if they want to buy gloves, there’s no better place to go than your craft store. They know that you’ve probably got them covered with what they need, you’ve got a great variety and since you are a glove making expert, quality is likely to be stellar.
With this kind of specialization comes a distinct novelty and the ability to charge a higher price for your craft. Before you know it, your product begins to enjoy all the privileges of the premium craft. We will get into making premium crafts next.
5) Go premium
Going premium is essentially about two fundamental things. making less and charging more. What that roughly translates into is less work and more money. But in order to get to the less work stage, you first have to work towards it.
Now, creating a premium craft is similar to creating a niche. You need to create a craft that is so exclusive and different that people can only get it from you.
If not actually create an exclusive craft, you have to create the exclusivity around it. You have to make your craft something coveted and to be desired for. There are many things that people do to make their product exclusive.
- You can do it by making a limited edition item. People pay more to get something that they believe is going to be not available in the near future. You can actually create something that no one else is, or very few are.
- Once again you can use exclusive branding to make your craft something special. Usually with the assurance of superb quality and guarantees.
- Define a niche for yourself that is exclusive. Dig deeper to find a niche within a niche. These micro niches will help you to go premium and charge more for the craft you make. Consider the example of hand gloves we mentioned. Going premium is really the only way to make big money and crafting.
As long as you try and compete at a lower level, they will always be someone who will try and beat you at your prices. You have to create an exclusivity and the brand image around your work so that the people are willing to pay more to buy from you just the same. That’s the only way to earn the right income for your efforts.
6) Get online
In today’s day and age you cannot afford to ignore the online market. People are shopping heavily for crafts online. Thousands of crafts get sold on Needmyservice every day. And then there is eBay. So whatever you’re craft is, consider making items that you can sell online. They have to be items that are not too bulky, heavy or perishable in a short time.
For example, you can still ship preserves as they will probably not get spoilt during the transit journey. Therefore, when starting out, try to choose a craft that is ideal for selling online and shipping to remote locations as well.
7) Selling without the craft of his own
Open a craft store in a physical location or online. But instead of selling the crafts you make, start outsourcing them from various crafters. Just as we suggested selling on consignment in our post seven places to find a craft job, turn the tables around. Have other crafters provide you their creations to sell on a consignment basis. Many of them will be happy to do so.
A person I know it does exactly this and very successfully. She has a couple of beautiful craft stores where she puts up beautiful crafts from all over the country. Big items and small. Including , bags, paintings, jewelry, party items, crockery, furniture, vintage items, you name it, she has it.
The thing that she does right is that she manages her inventory and supply very well. She always has fresh and new crafts for display and sale every couple of weeks. This is a great idea if you want to work with a lot of crafts, have your own craft store and really don’t have a craft of your own to sell.
Let us now talk about a few very popular categories of crafts that you can consider making your own for your craft business.
Sewing and knitting
If you are into the craft of sewing and knitting the following products do rather well in the market: clothes and accessories for children. And babies. Custom dresses. Bags of all kinds. Mobile and tablet cases and covers. Custom wedding dresses.
Quilting
Well made quilts really demand a good price these days. Specially the homemade custom ones. So if you are a quitter you can make some high profit crafts. Other similar crafts include embroidery and crochet work. Handmade embroidery is rare and is becoming rarer. People who like embroidered things are ready to pay top dollar for it.
Woodworking
If you are into woodworking your choices are endless. Some of the popular what jobs include toys, small furniture, picture frames etc.
It is downright impossible to list all the popular products. But there are other ways of getting a fairly good idea about what’s selling. We love to suggest that you explore it jumia, konga and yudala. You will be able to tell by things like ratings, reviews, feedbacks, comments and repins, which crafts are the popular ones.
In fact if you do intend to sell on jumia,olx and konga, we highly recommend that you do, getting on there and exploring the marketplace should be an important part of your research. It will give you a great idea about the popular setting trends in the field of art and craft.
Well, that’s it for this post. If you apply the above points you will be in a pretty great position to choose the best craft to sell. All the best and do write your comments below if you have questions or anything to add. Thank you for reading. We wish you all the best.
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