How to Turn Your Craft Hobby into a Business: A Review of Craft Inc.

Turning your craft hobby into a business is a pain in the butt, and nothing is going to make that fact any different. Whether you sell at craft fairs or on consignment in a local shop or on Etsy, making your business legit in the eyes of the law involves lots of hoops to jump through and lots of fees to pay.

At least Craft Inc. makes the process a little more understandable, if not any less annoying.

Craft Inc., written by Meg Mateo Ilasco, is a handbook for the crafter who wants to start a crafty business. It starts out at the beginning, speaking first to the person who may have nothing more than an idea, then takes you through the nuts and bolts of setting up a business, to financial and legal planning, to market research and publicity, and on through production, pricing, wholesaling, hiring employees, and on and on. Interspersed among the business sense are interviews with other successful crafter entrepreneurs, focusing on their own business methods and featuring their own sage pieces of advice.

I’ve been using Craft Inc. as my own personal bible while I struggle to make my own craft fair, Etsy, and consignment hobby a legitimate business, so I can tell you from experience that, although the book does lay out a step-by-step process, that process is still just about as clear as mud to this particular creative girl who doesn’t know a ton of math. Here’s why:

[*Photo courtesy of She’s Batty and the Crafting a Green World flickr pool. Want your crafty photo featured on Crafting a Green World? Add it to the flickr pool!]

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