For many years crafting was just a fun hobby of mine until one day someone asked me how much I wanted for one of my creations.
I then realized I could potentially make some money from my hobby but I had no idea where to start. And I know I wasn’t alone in wondering if I should make the leap from hobby to business.
If you’re considering selling your crafts The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your Crafts by Chris Franchetti is a great resource that covers pretty much everything you need to know about selling your wares.
Description for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your Crafts:
This straightforward book walks you through the process of preparing your goods for sale, pricing and bookkeeping, finding venues, marketing and promoting your products, and working with customers both online and off — all without quitting your day job. Clear, concise instructions explain everything you need to know to sell crafts effectively in your spare time, and help you decide whether to take selling to the next level.
Learn how to:
- Find out whether you –and your crafts — are ready to start selling.
- Set prices to cover your costs and make a profit.
- Establish a bookkeeping system.
- Manage dual inventories of parts and finished goods.
- Discover the best places to sell your crafts in person or on the Internet.
- Identify the right people to market to.
- Accept credit cards and process other forms of payment.
- Start selling wholesale.
- Stay out of tax and legal trouble.
- And more helpful tips
Stop being intimidated by complex business jargon, and stop procrastinating. Let The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your Crafts help you share your handmade goods with the world.
This book is full of useful advice any potential small business owner could use but it is geared specifically for those selling handmade items.
It even talks about often overlooked topics like legal matters, how to properly tag or label your items and what you need to include on those tags and labels, shipping prices, how to calculate shipping rates, and the pros and cons of shipping to other countries. It even mentions some common mistakes and snags people run into when starting out.
If you’ve ever considered selling your handmade items The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your Crafts is a book you should read from cover to cover before taking the plunge. It is well worth your time.
