Craft for Food

I’m an avid reader, so I’ll be reviewing here all the craft books I read, along with anything else I think can be useful. I’ll be starting off this section with the first Homemade Money book by Barbara Brabec, Homemade Money: Starting Smart. It’s not 100% craft related, but contains a lot of great business advice and many examples from the craft world.

This book covers the preparation you need to do before starting your business. The second book in the collection, Bringing in the bucks, talks about all that comes after and will be reviewed in another article.

Reading products descriptions on eBay or Etsy is always a bit sad. Some people can write great descriptions, but some always underestimate the worth of their business. The great strength of handcrafted item is that they are unique, and you should insist on that.

« Oh, I’m only selling this blue scarf since I’m running out of space at home. Please buy from me ». Ok, that’s a bit extreme, but you see those a lot. How can you add a bit of life into to your business?

Knowing your target marketing is important if you want to be successful selling your crafts. What is the target market? It’s the group of buyers you want to sell your products to. That group can be defined any way you wish : by age, lifestyle, habits and any other distinctive trait you may think of.

Since you can’t be everything to everyone, you have to choose so you can create a better product. That doesn’t mean that you can’t sell your crafts to other people. If you know who you are selling to, you will have a better focus on how to sell it to them.

You need pictures or images for your banner, website or business cards? Royalty-free image sites may be the solution for you if you don’t have the skills to take good photographs or can’t draw. The following sites will allow you to download pictures and images, for free or for a few dollars each :

• http://www.sxc.hu (Free!)
• http://www.morguefile.com (Free!)
• http://www.istockphoto.com
• http://www.stockxpert.com
• http://www.dreamstime.com

Many crafters underprice their work and charge less than they should for wonderful products. Raising your price may be the right thing to do, here are a few arguments in favor of it.

Increase perception of quality : An item with a higher price point always equates better quality in a buyer’s mind. If the price is really, really low, buyers may wonder if something is work with the product. Indeed, if it’s that great, why is it priced so low? You don’t want your carefully crafted product to be compared with cheap Wal-Mart merchandise, so why use the same price as them?

You have crafts all lined up to sell, but you don’t know how much money you should charge for them? Here are some of the most used formula to price crafts:

• Cost of supplies method : This is one of the easiest method, but it doesn’t account for time. It’s still a good method if you wish to sell for fun. Basically, you take the price of your supplies and double or triple it. It can work for some crafts, but it’s pretty limited. And please, please charge the real price for your supplies! If you got things on sale, you should benefit from it, not the buyer, since you do have to replace those supplies.

Many people are scared to use PayPal for their craft website. It’s a shame, since PayPal is the easier way to sell online, not to mention one of the safest and less expensive. PayPal will allow you to take credit cards payments, so you can take advantage of those impulse purchases you would loose selling only with an order form and checks or money orders.

PayPal handles the bank account and credit card information, so you don’t need to. A seller will never see the credit card number of their customers, so that information stay safe at all time. The buyer can pay immediately, and you will receive the payment in your account in seconds, plus time to clear payment if they paid with a bank account.