Assessing Your Craft - Getting Ready to Sell

I was reviewing my business plan the other day to see if there was anything I needed to add or forgot to do. It was my business-side-of-the-business day and thought that would be a good place to start.

Looking through my "product heading" I realized in my plan, I had achieved much of my goals but there was still much I wanted to do. I love crafting in any form, sewing, knitting, jewellery, and designing in general. When I first decided to sell I had a huge list of items that I wanted to make and sell. I wanted to sell both the sewn items and the jewellery. The list was endless, the possiblities limited to my time. I made lots of both for the Christmas craft shows, and sold little. It was my daughter who pointed out the flaws in my craft table, but that was only the beginning. I took some pictures of the table and began to assess everything and realized two things. One, I had too much variety. The selection was dizzying array of items that overlapped each other, fighting to be seen. Two, I didn't believe in what I was selling. That one made no sense as I hade been making most of these items and giving them as gifts for years. Then I realized that I didn't really use the items myself. I made them, admired them, wrapped them up, and gave them as gifts.

I started poking, prodding, pulling and testing everything. I add zipper pulls to my backpack and wallet, wore the earrings, necklaces and bracelets, and had a couple of glasses of wine with the wine glass rings. Enlightening. Problem two solved.

Problem one. Too much on the table. I started cruisng craft shows to see what appealed to me, and thought about all the craft shows I went to when my kids were small. I made notes about the booths and tables that appealed to me and thought about what I would buy and why I would buy it, who for.

When deciding to sell your crafts, take a look around to see what is out there. I read alot about starting a business and all the advise started with deciding what to sell, including suggestions of products. I had already decided what to sell, I already had a product, lots of them, in fact. Trying to make enough of everything was exausting and counter-productive. Quality suffered. I had to chose what I was going to make to sell. Product is closely tied to price, place, and target market.


Write down all the attributes about what you want to sell

• style - simple; elaborte; elegant; punk;
• materials - high end, silk, Swarovksi; low end, polyester, glass
• price range - $5 - $20; $20 - $50; $50 - $100
• uses - indoor; outdoor; time of day; seasonal; personal; gifts

Write down who would buy or want the items:

• adults for themselves, partners, children,
• seniors for themselves, partners, children, grandchildren
• single men or women
• teenagers, young adult
  

What are their characteristics - this can be more difficult but Statistic Canada can help with some of the information talking to family and friends can help with others:

• income level
• geographic location
• spending habits/disposable income
• how much they spend a year on your type product
• where do they shop
• number of people in the age group

Look for matches - you would have problems trying to sell high-end sterling silver skull earrings for $75 to teenagers or seniors, expecially if you are doing a show in a church basement.

Statistics Canada can be found at the following link http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html

So really, in the end, I did have to decided what I was going to sell first. It didn't hurt to do a couple of craft shows to open my eyes and give me a feel for what I am doing. I don't know about you, but I had absolutely no experience with craft shows so it helpd rather than discouraged me.

Good Luck with your research and

Happy Crafting
CraftyLadyLiz