Do I take the plunge and try to sell my stuff? Tips and Advice welcome.

[Flubba]

To cut a long story short, I no longer work and I have started to make things to fill the void of work and to save money compared to shop-bought things.
I'm not particularly good, but am coming on and also sold a few things at a Christmas fair which boosted my confidence.

I am now in a position where I would love to be able to sell things, but not sure a) whether my stuff is good enough to sell, b) if it is, do I do it casually on a hope-and-see kind of a basis or do I go the full hog and make business cards/labels for my things, sell on Folksy or Etsy, sign myself up for craft fairs etc ~ or would that all end in disappointment?

I made about £140 profit from the Christmas fair (not counting man-hours!), so have some money to put into 'marketing' if I were to go down that route.
I started a blog about my stuff (predominantly as a reminder to me of how I made the things I've made) so you can see some of the things I've made...
Made By Yours Truly

Please be candid. I am thick skinned :o
Any advice or tips very welcome.

Flubba

Your biggest stumbling block is going to be your lack of confidence!! You are good!! Those things are great - seriously.

Could you put together enough stuff to do a stall of Easter things?

Your stuff would be brilliant at 'nice' markets, etsy, that kind of thing - local 'nice' shops if they sell stuff on commission etc.

VistaPrint is really cheap and OK quality to get you going. Order one things (business cards) and they will then keep throwing special offers at you, especially if you ignore them... it's a little bit of a pain in the bum, but you end up getting loads done free (only pay the postage).

Go For It!!

Thank you Chipping, that's really sweet of you to say. My worry is that a number of MNers have looked at the blog from this thread and not commented, which I take to mean "ooh, that's all a bit shit but I don't know how to tell her" :o

I did have a look at vistaprint yesterday and got a mock-up business card made but had a serious confidence wobble and didn't do anything with it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this all and look at my blog.

Enjoy the knitting. Don't let pidj nick yer yarn

I agree with Chipping, you have some lovely stuff there. Making £140 profit is really good so that must prove something to you.

I suppose whether you do business cards and spend on marketing as such depends on where you intend to sell your stuff. You could for example set up a Folksy shop for nothing. It doesn't cost a great deal to list your items and you wouldn't need a business card for that. There are quite a few threads on setting up Folksy and Etsy shops if you want to know the details. I have only set up a shop but not actually listed anything.

As for your blog, it is really interesting but I haven't left a comment because I can't think of anything worthwhile to write not because I think it is rubbish. I don't generally leave comments although I should I know if I want people to start taking my sadly neglected blog seriously too. (It would help if I wrote more on it too ). I suspect most people are like me unless they are actually thinking of making something you have shown or it is directly relevant to them they will enjoy reading without posting anything.

Give it a go. Get your business cards printed up if it makes you feel more professional and give you a confidence boost. Get yourself a business bank account if you really want to get serious. It helps with the books if you have separate account and if you are taking enough make a profit of £140 then you should really be keeping tabs on what you make.

Good luck.

Go for it - your things are lovely. Do some local craft fairs and see how you go. I think your photos are good too - maybe print out some cards (buy in an art shop) from your computer and you can buy cellophane bags to wrap them with on eBay. Keep a track of your outgoings and income in a notebook and if it takes off you will probably have to register as self employed. Don't forget petrol, electricity, parking, stationery, subsistence, stall rental, website fees, etc.

info for self employed at HMRC

Hi,
If you have already made £140 at a fair you obviously have a marketable product.

If you want to look for fairs try www.stallfinder.co.uk and the www.craftsforum.co.uk

You could try putting a selling page on your blog or getting a free website for a year to see how it goes.

The stuff is great! I think as long as you go for the right market, you'll make good money. I adore the pouches for toy cars and crayons. I also think there's a lot of moolah to be made from personalized stuff...
Good luck (and your children are cuuuute!)

Thank you all so much for your comments and advice. I'll definitely look into Folksy / Etsy - so any pointers in that direction would be great.
I'd heard of stallfinder but not used it yet, so will take a look at that too.

Ooh, you're all making me a bit scared now! :o :o

Don't be scared - be excited

Don't forget you posted in the Arts & Crafts section - it doesn't exactly have a huge following!! Maybe try again in chat?

Have a look at www.craftybums.co.uk too, it only opened a month ago but I have a shop on there now and have had 2 sales so far

It's the Arts & Crafts people's opinions I wanted. This has been very helpful, thank you Chipping for your advice.
Hey RueDe that's fab. Still busy crafting then? :)

You should go for it Flubba!!! Your stuff is great, love the fabricpots and crayon rolls! Another on here who has seen your blog before and never commented but definitely not because the stuff is rubbish, it's just me who never comments on blogs..
If you thinking of doing stalls now is good time, you've got Easter coming and then school summer fairs, you'll be able to get lots of practice.
Business cards are good to have then, especially if you're thinking of offering personalised stuff.
I'm thinking doing the same and really need to get my act together and actually make the stock...
Go for it and good luck!!!!

I love the Owl Tea Cozies, they are gorgeous. Do go for it, don't set your prices too low.

I have bought handmade stuff before and TBH being priced too cheap would put me off, I thought more of it for being a bit more expensive, IYKWIM. Or maybe I am just a sucker. But a cheap price can make people think low quality, so be realistic.

Your things are lovely....take the plunge!

Knitting saved me. I found myself a single mum with 3DD's (one newborn) with NO income at all. I'd always knitted, and took a whirl on ebay.

I now make toys (from my own patterns, do be careful of selling copywrited things), and sell on etsy, to some craft shops, and occasionally on ebay (at Christmas mostly). I've spent nothing on advertising, don't blog or have a website, and still manage to turn over a few thousand pounds a year- not much I grant you, but when you've got nothing...

So it is do-able. If I had more time I could make a whole lot more, but this is now much more of a hobby for me...but it got me through some very tough financial times.

Good luck with it; if your products are original and super quility (which they look to be), then you should do really well.

Thank you all of you. You're right about school fairs etc coming up, I just have to kick myself up the arse and give it a go. If the worst comes to the worst and nobody buys anything, I can always have a house full of bunting, dresses and owl cosies. :o

I'dratherbeknitting a few thousand a year is amazing!! Well done!

Other than my hobby horses, most of my things are my own pattern, so that's not an issue.

The comments comment I made earlier up the thread was less about comments on my blog, and more that a few MNers had seen my blog directly as a link from this thread but hadn't come back to post on here about what they thought about my stuff, so that's why I was worried they were all thinking 'what a load of crap'. :o

Some of us may have clicked on the link more than once as well...

Also, if people use MN the same way I do (through Active Conversations) they may have just clicked on your thread and then your link but not felt 'qualified' to comment unlike some of us who feel no such relucatance so I wouldn't worry about it at all.

I really think you could do well with this if you price your stuff correctly - not over the top, but not too cheap.

Flubba, your stuff is lovely, really really lovely. I aspire to produce something half as good as your items.

I can only urge you to take the plunge. Your items are very marketable. Keep on with the fairs/fetes and try to make things that are linked to an event/occasion: Easter, Valentines Day, Mothers/Father Day, etc etc etc. But mostly, be true to what you enjoy making, carry on loving what you do and it will come through your work.

Wow, your stuff is gorgeous and looks really well made. Go for it! What do you have to lose? Having already made £140 it's clear people like your stuff and would buy more. (I know where you're coming from: I make stuff and friends tell me to sell it but I'm a useless salesperson with very little confidence so I'm sticking with my day job!)

I've bought from both Etsy and Folksy but prefer Etsy- and it has a huge following. You can sign up (as I have done) free of charge and they'll send you email tutorials (sounds intense but it's not at all) about starting to sell your stuff. All free advice.

Try Moo for business cards- not as cheap as Vistapribt but gorgeous designs!

Good luck. Let us know how you get on won't you?

Ps: check out this book on Amazon: The Craft Business Handbook- the essential guide to making money from your crafts and handmade products by Alison McNicol.

Excellent advice, very readable!

What they said ^

I loved the stuff you did on the Christmas thread and think you definitely have a market out there somewhere. Just keep plugging away. Of the school/Playgroup fairs I did before Christmas, I took over £250 without too much effort on marketing.

Last week I got talking to a lady who runs a local kids shop, she tells me she's going to order 20 bibs from me and poss some other bits too. She thought I was selling stuff too cheaply, fwiw, but I can make a decent profit from the prices I've set so I'm happy.

My business cards are from vistaprint, I also got a branded tshirt for free to wear when I do stalls, and have just printed some stickers with a QR code on and stuck them to the back of my business cards.

I'm about to start industrial production of sunhats, ready for the summer!

What Chippingin said is exactly me! But do think your stuff is lovely and you shoul definitely set yourself up to sell it - nothing ventured nothing gained as they say! I wish I had your talent, dd1 does and I will be encouraging her to do this in a few years.

Wow, thank you all of you. My husband's sitting here saying "see, I told you" :)

I have now, thanks to you all, set up a shop on folksy. I haven't put anything up for sale yet, but I will. I'll give myself two weeks to get some more things made and will put things up for sale.

Will take a look at craftybums and that book too monster.

Thank you again. Truly.

Flubba I think your things are good enough to sell. I spend a lot of time browsing Etsy and there is a huge range of stuff on there, some of which I think "Why would anyone buy that?" but then it sells.

I think the first thing you should do is open an Etsy shop, put some listings on there, put up examples of things you can make once people order then (so rather than making and then trying to sell, wait for a commission to then make the iten). Think about offering personalised things too, like the tooth fairy cushion, I think people are more likely to buy it if their child's name can be appliqued onto it by you (easy enough).

Forget business cards and marketting at this stage, your best bet is to really use your blog, have an Etsy shop linked to your blog, get a facebook page up for your stuff too and see how it goes. If and when it grows you can think about business cards, but really, for craft products, I have never used a business card I've been given, I base what I buy on what I see on Etsy (photos are important) and people's blogs.

Craft fairs are good, but don't do too many, you will burn out, and I think really the Christmas ones are hte ones you want to focus on as people are actively buying then.

Remember Flubba you don't have to make everything before you start selling, make one example for the photos, then state that the item is made once an order comes through. Then you can give people a bit of choice too with fabrics or personalising etc.

I really must set up my Etsy shop.

Excellent Flubba!

The roll up car carry cases will definately sell, mine sold like hot cakes at the fair and people are still ordering them from me now.