How to Sell Crafts

Congratulations on making the decision to turn your love of crafting into a business! Now that your mind’s set, you’ll need to learn how to sell crafts so your business will be a profitable one. But have no worries, selling crafts for a profit isn’t as hard as you may think.This article will teach you how to sell crafts three ways: with a website; from a booth at your local mall, craft fairs and/or local festivals; and through consignment shops in your community. Follow the advice below and you should be making money in no time!

Things You'll Need

• Craft supplies
• Business certificate
• Access to a computer
• Internet access
• Web design software
• Folding tables
• Comfortable chairs
• Digital camera
• Service that allows you to accept credit cards
• Hosting provider for a website
• Domain name
• Price tags
• Business cards
• Cash box
• Calculator
• Schedule planner or notebook and pen

Instructions

Sell Crafts

1. Choose a name for your craft business. Try to brainstorm at least three creative business names.

2. Obtain a business certificate through the county clerk in your town.

3. Fill out the paperwork for your business certificate.

4. Deliver the completed paperwork to the county clerk's office.

Sell Crafts With a Website

1. Save yourself some money by creating a website to sell crafts on. There are a wide variety of software programs to help you design your own website with little or no HTML knowledge.

2. Purchase a digital camera so you can take pictures of the crafts you want to display on your website.

3. Add ordering information, pricing, a guarantee policy, delivery information, contact information, detailed descriptions about each craft product and information about you to your newly designed website.

4. Set up a way for consumers to order crafts from your website. Paypal can assist you in this area.

5. Register a domain name for your website, and then choose a hosting provider. Many hosts will offer you a free domain name if you choose to pay for their services.

6. Publish and promote your website.

Sell Crafts from a Booth

1. Call malls in your area to price booth space. In addition to malls, you can rent booth spaces at upcoming festivals and craft fairs in your community. If you decide to sell crafts from booths, your state may require certain licenses and permits, so be sure to contact your local civic office to find out if you need to obtain these.

2. Determine the total costs to sell crafts from the areas you’ve selected. Costs may include rental fees, folding tables to display your crafts on, comfortable chairs, crafts supplies, price tags, business cards to give to consumers visiting your booth and a cash box and calculator.

3. If you’ll be renting booth space in more than one location, create a schedule for yourself. Your schedule should include dates, locations and times you plan to set up in those locations.

4. Gather everything you’ll need to set up in your space, and then head to your first location to start selling and turning a profit.

Sell Crafts on Consignment

1. Contact shop owners in your community and convince them to stock your crafts in their store for a small cut of the profit. What this means is if the shop owner agrees to sell your crafts in their shop, they’ll earn a small commission (one you both agree on) for each craft product they sell for you. This is a small price to pay for doing something you already enjoy, and it'll allow you the time you need to make your crafts at home while someone else does the selling for you.

2. Deliver some of your best crafts to the shop owners who agreed to help you sell crafts on consignment.

3. Check in with the shop owner on a weekly or monthly basis to see if they’ve sold any of your crafts. If they have, return to each shop and collect your portion of the money.

Tips & Warnings

• Creating a website, selling crafts from a booth and convincing shop owners to stock your crafts are just a few of the ways to sell crafts. Feel free to explore more of the opportunities available as time allows. Until you have the time to explore all the opportunities available to you, the three mentioned above should be enough to your feet wet.

• Need some ideas for a creative business name? How about Jane's (replace with your first name) Creations, Little House of Crafts or Crafty Hands?