Craft for Food

You just sold a fine crafted item. The last step is to package it so you can send it to your buyer. How can you get the most out of the package to improve your business and impress your customer?

First, the packaging itself is important. The size may vary, and you can use recycled packages, but it should always look clean and neat. Also, write the address by hand to add a nice personal touch, and add to the image of the small, one-person operation. It will be the first impression your buyer will have when they receive the package and part of their buying experience, so it’s worth paying attention to.

PDFs are useful for all kinds of documents you may use in your craft business, from order forms to patterns and tutorials, as well as eBooks. But how can you make them at home without shelling out 300$ for the Adobe Acrobat Suite?

First, you can use Open Office, available at http://www.openoffice.org. It’s a complete, quality office suite available for free. All programs in the suite have the option « Export to PDF », and can read Microsoft Office files, among others. You can have all the power and advantages of an office suite with PDF-printing option.

Your computer vendor would like you to believe you need to buy every single piece of software for your business to work well. Now, with all the great free and open source options out there, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, this article was typed out with Open Office, and published on a modified Wordpress blog, both open source. Here are a few pieces of software that may come in handy, and that won’t cost a penny.

Open Office(http://www.openoffice.org)

There are many good places to sell your crafts online. Here is a list of the most popular ones :

1. eBay is a good place to sell most things. The fees are a bit high and some items don’t sell well, but if the buyers like your items it may be worth it. But remember, many people go for eBay to hunt for bargains, not for quality craft shopping, so make sure you insist on the value of your items in your auctions.