In 2015, I wanted to start a crafts business so that I could work from home.
My first idea was a handmade jewellery business, which didn’t take off. Next I tried crochet, and that’s when I started Hooked On Patterns.
With a lot of interest in starting an online crafts business, I decided to share some key information to help you on your way.
I’m going to be honest about my experience, and hopefully you’ll find something useful in this post.
Related post: 13 Crochet Patterns To Make and Sell
Crafts Business Tips From A Crochet Blogger
1. Do Something You Enjoy
I love Hooked On Patterns, but sometimes I just want to crochet. I want to pick up my hooks and create the thing in my mind, without it turning into a ‘crochet pattern’.
See, designing a crochet pattern means staging photos, selecting photos (an extremely long process), writing out the instructions, testing the pattern, creating a post, uploading it to other websites, and then promoting it.
Sometimes, I just want to crochet.
I know everyone says, “do something you enjoy”, and they’re right. That’s how you can keep it going 8 months down the line. But remember, 5 years down the line, your hobby will be work.
Adding that ‘professional production’, to the back-end of every crochet idea, adds a weight to it, taking away some of the joy from the process.
Also, when your hobby becomes a business, you have to be creative while being locked into a schedule. And, I hate schedules.
Trying to complete a pattern for a certain special occasion is a nightmare for me! Often, I miss the deadline and have to hold it back for the next year.
My tip would be, do something you enjoy, but be aware, you might not enjoy it as much after doing it professionally for 5 years.
2. Make The Best Product You’re Capable Of Making
I recently went back to some of my earlier crochet patterns and updated them. As time passed, my production quality improved and I wanted to reflect that in my older patterns.
I’m sure, in the future I’ll look back at my current designs and production, and think, “they should be better”.
My point is, you won’t always be satisfied with the quality of your work, especially with hindsight, but you should always try to do your best at the time.
Of course, it’s easy to focus on getting a product out-there, but if your product isn’t worth the price tag you put on it, nobody will buy it.
Give your audience the best that you can, and that will give you, your best chance of success.
Home Crafts Business Tips For 2020
This was my first ever professional crochet pattern: Apple Coaster Crochet Set
3. Promoting Your Crafts Business
Yep, promotion is vital to any business. It’s how you get visitors to a website, and customers to check out your product.
That said, we don’t promote Hooked On Patterns in the traditional way, mainly because I’m an introvert!
I’m saying ‘we’, because my husband does a lot of work on the promotion side of things. He also manages the website, and creates non-crochet related content.
Our main tip for promoting your business is, use your friends and family to begin with. That means, encourage them to like and share your posts.
In addition, look for Facebook groups in your crafts (or niche) area, and help and interact with people there.
Over-time, you may also be able to effectively promote there too.
Promoting doesn’t mean having to throw money at it. It just takes time and effort.
Social media works for us; that’s Facebook and Pinterest.
We have accounts across social media, but focus on those platforms which help us reach our target audience, and importantly, encourage them to engage with our product.
‘Encourage’ means, they don’t stop people from leaving their platforms, like instagram used to, for example.
In more recent times, we’ve also been focusing on SEO for traffic. SEO traffic, especially in the crochet niche, can be hard to get. But hopefully we can keep building from where we are.
4. Keep Trying, and Be Positive!
I can’t tell you, “it will all work out if you just have a positive mindset”. But, without a positive mindset, if definitely won’t.
Things will go wrong, ideas will fail, you might even lose money, but that’s part of the process.
You have to pick yourself up and keep going.
Also, don’t let naysayers tell you what you can, or can’t achieve. That’s down to you.
There are a lot of experts who want to charge you money for their ‘business e-course’, but you don’t need any of that to succeed. All of the information you actually need, is already available for free online.
Basically, there shouldn’t be any gatekeepers, deciding who can be a success and who can’t. If you’re passionate, let that drive you -win, lose or draw. At least you’ll know for yourself, because you would have tried.
But most importantly, be positive about the task.
Got a question? Let me know in the comments below.
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