Setting up a tiny, tiny business

[redllamayellowllama]

Am hoping that someone can offer me some words of wisdom.

I've found what I think is a bit of a niche baby item that I can make in 2.5 hours ish and that I think could be quite marketable. Niche might be the wrong word - I think they're quite nice and there's nothing else around which does quite the same thing. They would have to be made to order, due to the personalised nature.

Having made them for friends with really positive feedback, I think I could sell a few. I'm not looking to make a fortune (and realistically at 7 months pregnant with a 21 month old, don't really have the time to make loads), more to have a bit of money for me each month.

So, I guess the next thing to do would be to create a website with some images and get to selling. I have no idea how I go about doing this and don't want to shell out loads of money. Would an ebay shop be a possible solution?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

TIA

Ebay shop is the best solution IMO as it is relatively cheap and reaches a lot of potential customers.

You can have your own website a little later and link it to your ebay store to increase traffic.

ebay can 'cheapen' your product imo. Why don't you try one on the 'handmade' websites like misi.co.uk, folksy.co.uk or etsy.com (first 2 are UK-based, etsy is US/worldwide). You can set up a shop and you get a name that you can use on business cards, leaflet etc.

You could also approach some local shops and offer a 10% handling fee for anything they sell. Smaller baby clothes shops, gift shops, hairdressers (surprisingly)... Craft fairs especially in the run up to christmas can be quite lucrative.

Whatever you do you will have to 'sell' your product. Just having something new or useful isn't going to make you money unless people know about it.

Good luck, I'm in a similar position and its hard work but very rewarding

must agree with pheebe on this one.

Thanks for the advice. 'Cheapening' of the product was my concern with e-bay - the websites you've suggested sound good Pheebe, I'll check them out.

I wouldn't disregards e-bay. If you do it well. Although it can have a bad reputation with some people, it does have a lot of traffic, worldwide.

I sell handbags and jewellery and have sold handbags for £2500 and earrings for £399, not cheap.

If you get on let me have your details (I'm Bekaboo Designs on all three)

Hi
I too am a mum working from home and need to promote my product as cheaply as possible. I already sell through ebay and have made a website but its not getting much traffic.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
I know the product will sell I just need to get the word out!

I agree that etsy/folksy etc are a good idea. Ebay is good but if your product is very specific or unique it might not get picked up in a search unless it is a variation of something that people search for often. It is so big now that things get 'lost'.

Proper shopping websites aren't cheap unless you can buy an off the peg package and do most of it yourself. I couldn't do it - not to a professional standard so mine cost me a lot!!

If you do have a website though, getting traffic through it takes a long time - it doesn't happen overnight.

I was advised that a good way of increasing traffic is to set up links with other websites. If it is a craft product maybe something like The Craft Directory or Craft Search. There are loads of similar sites if you do a google search. I am sure there are similar sites for baby things. Get registered on the sites and then you can make the link to your website.

The more hits you have the higher you go up the Google ranking and the more traffic you generate.

Other than that make sure you have as many relevant meta keywords on your site as possible so that you get picked up by as many searchs as possible.

There is no easy way to get the traffic flowing though unless you can throw lots of money at advertising.

Another way of doing it would be to set up a blog but you have to have something to say fairly regularly for that to work and have to have more to talk about than just your one product too.

Agree re. blog - check out Posie Gets Cozy, Soulemama etc - American women who write blogs but also sell craft related items and have built up big following.

We set up a website to promote our business with a company called Simplicity Websites. It was incredibly easy, because it just requires you to drop your info/photos into a template, and the site looks quite professional - cost us £179 to set up and £79 a year webhosting. You can create your own keywords/metadata.

Could you have a stall at mother and toddler group or nursery just to spread the word a bit?

Etsy et al are OK but there are so many people selling stuff on there you need a gimmick.

If the product is suitable, what about checking out local independent baby shops locally to see if they will sell on commission basis for you.

A friend of mine sells baby boottees through a local craft outlet. They sell well, and I think they sell because she has them labelled with a phrase which is slightly whimsical and traditional and means a lot locally. So, marketing a presentation play a big part.

I was going to say get yourself a blog too.

Quite often people have "giveaways" when they get an x number of followers, so people that are already following their blog are encouraged to reccommend it to others (often via their blog)

Don't forget to add your "shop" wherever you decide to host it on your blog too like [http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/comfortstitching/ here]