Friend beat me to a business idea

[Pashola]

This is a lightheaded AIBU...
I'm not usually a crafty person but lockdown has got me bored and thinking, I've found an idea that I want to start making and possibly start to sell, if it doesn't take off then no big deal.
I haven't told anyone about this idea (it's all over the internet anyway, it's not a new idea) but besides my DH, I was keeping it to myself until I'd made a few and was going to start a page.
One of my good friends has just messaged that she has made the same item and is hoping to start selling them 🤦🏻‍♀️

We live in a small town so if I do it too I'll be stepping on her toes and I don't want that. AIBU to be upset by my only idea that has failed before it even began?

Important business lesson learned. Don't proctrastinate and get on with it before someone else beats you to it.

@HollowTalk

Please don't suggest going into partnership with her. That should never be done casually and usually ends in tears.

Agree. A tiny number of "friend" business partnerships succeed. Avoid like the plague.

Could you tell us what it is? Someone may have an idea how to change it up a bit so it's different to hers.

To be blunt, if you're not usually crafty, then what makes you think the finish on your crafted items is high enough to get strangers to pay for them?

If it's easy to modify without any crafting talent, people who want one will typically sort that themselves.

Is your friend a crafty type?

Weird that you both came up with the same idea independently at the same time.

Depends what you perceive as your available market to sell. By that, I mean if your market is limited to your shared home village.....then yes, she beat to you it! But if your potential market is the UK and beyond via the internet, then the worlds your oyster and the pies big enough for you both to have a slice.
In your shoes, I’d be hacked off at the friend too probably ....but what you have to bear in mind is that loads and loads of people have amazing ideas and very few bite the bullet and act on them....she did, so good for her.

So the item is something that you both made independently to each other at the same time? If it’s that easy to do why would anyone buy one rather than make one themselves?

If you’re already going to quit Because someone you know does similar, then business isn’t for you. IMO.

Don't be silly. Tell her and sell together under one platform. See which designs sell best and adapt your production. You can still be a sole trader providing stock to another.

You’ve already had one good idea, so why not think about other ways you could use it? Make the item for your own DC? Think about variations on it that wouldn’t look like copying your friend’s item?

How did the idea come to you? Were you daydreaming, letting your mind wander, or trying to solve a problem? Were you sitting outdoors, walking in the park? somewhere you didn’t have your mind on everyday responsibilities?

Why not give yourself a bit of time (make the time — you need it) to let your creative juices start flowing again? You might come up with something even better.

Me and a friend make the same thing and we are just very careful to set roughly the same price point and then we just get on with it

Isn't that illegal?

I'd be honest with her about go ahead and do it.

Aargh, just wrote a post and it deleted!
I'll try and post a picture.

It's honestly something that can be easily found on the internet, it's not an original idea, Just an idea to make some for my children and see if there was any interest from people to buy them locally.
It was not a solid business plan haha

I'm happy to let the idea go, I'll have to try and think of something else 😊

I knew it would be the rainbow!

@RustyBear

Me and a friend make the same thing and we are just very careful to set roughly the same price point and then we just get on with it

Isn't that illegal?

Yes

Offer to partner with your friend. You can make and sell things twice as fast with both of you doing it. Which is important as people expect things on demand. Even handmade takes a hundred hours to make things.

Can’t you reply saying how spooky that is as you are doing the same? Maybe you could even join forces.

You would have to be very fast at making them and get hold of your materials very cheaply in order to have any kind of margin, and this is generally the case for all hand-made items. People will not pay a price which values your time in any meaningful way.

If you are looking for something else in a similar vein then pom-pom wreaths and rainbows seem to be increasing in popularity.

I am a really crafty person and love making things - knitting, embroidery, sewing, screen printing, decoupage. It has NEVER occurred to me that I would sell anything to anyone. At a stretch I would make something as a gift for a very close friend or family. But in general, you'd have to love me to want it.

Not because I'm crap - I'm pretty talented - but for selling, if you want to make ANY money (as in even cover your costs for materials, never mind labour) small batch hand crafted items have to be very expensive.

Just enjoy doing your thing.

The rainbow will lose interest soon as it is very faddy due to the whole nhs rainbow in the window stuff from lockdown. Our kids will
Probably bloody hate rainbows after all this.

Had you mentioned it to her?
If you had, then you can point out that it was your idea.
If you hadn't, then I would suspect that going ahead anyway will lose you her friendship at least. You would be seen as pinching her idea by her, and probably mutual friends, however much you protested you already had been thinking if it.

The point about would your quality be good enough to sell us a good one. I sew, have done for years and every now and then someone looks at the finished product and suggests I sell. I know my quality is not good enough to charge for, by quite a large factor.

And lastly, I'm not convinced you would make enough to be worth the aggro. What coukd you sell it for? £15? How long does it take to make? How much are the bits you need?

You would have to be very fast at making them and get hold of your materials very cheaply in order to have any kind of margin, and this is generally the case for all hand-made items. People will not pay a price which values your time in any meaningful way.

This. Watch the Big Bang Theory episode 'Penny Blossoms' especially the cost breakdowns.

i wouldn't bother trying to sell them locally, you wont get many sale these will sell on etsy! if you know an etsy seller they can give you a link to get free listings to set up as well. it is hard work to start off with but once you get the hang of it, its a good platform to sell on with some of the lowest fees.

Neither of you is going to make a fortune out of those imo. Just let it go.

An alternative model is if you could source the materials wholesale and make and sell DIY kits with tutorials. You could clear a reasonable margin without having to account for the cost of your time to quite such an extent.