The Western world is increasingly proving to us that you can not only make good money from handicrafts and elevate it to the rank of international business(as a globe manufacturer did - read How to earn 5 million rubles a year by making globes), but that today this is such a promising area that you can become a businessman in this field completely by accident.
This is proven by the story of a young American woman who unexpectedly turned her hobby into a business.
A young resident of the American city of Austin, Melissa, once knitted herself knee socks. I wore them for a while and received a lot of compliments from friends. Then she decided to put them on Etsy.com to see if they would sell (and she already had one store on Etsy in which she sold children's knitted items).
(As Melissa herself said on her page, no one had sold such socks on Etsy before, so she wasn’t sure if anyone needed them.)
Within a few days, she received so many orders that she could not cope with them alone. I hired all my relatives to knit these knee socks (they also knitted leg warmers).
And within a few months she registered her company “Grace and Lace” and began selling her knitted socks and leg warmers not only individually, but also wholesale.
And this is not surprising. On Etsy alone, she has already sold more than 40 thousand pairs of her knitted knee socks and leg warmers in 2 years (on average, she sells 54 pairs per day!):
I estimated her approximate profit - it turned out to be 20-30 thousand dollars a month.
This is how the needlewoman (and part-time young mother) suddenly, unexpectedly for herself, turned into the head of a handicraft enterprise (you can read more about Melissa’s handicrafts in the article Knitted socks and leg warmers).
Melissa's baton was picked up by another American. She offered the market knitted headbands and turbans (in addition to the same knitted knee socks):
This needlewoman has surpassed the previous handicraft businesswoman in terms of the number of sales - she has a larger number of sales in a shorter period of time - 54,646 (an average of 70 sales per day)!
If you object that American needlewomen are lucky just because they are American, look at other equally successful handicraftsmen from Ukraine (I wrote about them last year in the article Homemade Art Nouveau Jewelry).
Polina and Sergey from Kyiv have been selling homemade jewelry on Etsy for several years:
Over 3.5 years of sales (they started selling their jewelry in May 2010), young handicraftsmen have more than 19 thousand sales:
Today, handicrafts from Ukraine sell at a rate of 20 sales per day!
Last year I wrote about another handicraftsman from Ukraine who sells Czechs (Children's Czechs):
The owner of this Etsy store sells several pairs of his exclusive handicrafts every day!
Ural craftswoman Maria sells her unique handicrafts even faster (read Ecological jewelry made from epoxy resin):
In less than a month of October, she has already sold 108 pieces of her jewelry.
What is the success of today's handicrafts as a business?
1. Currently, there is a massive abandonment of mass production. Mass-produced goods are cold, monotonous stamping. Stamping turns any work of art into a cheap product that is easy to buy, but which you no longer want to buy. After people have had enough of mass monotony, they want something unique.
2. Handicraft is always exclusivity and individual execution. Handicrafts can provide exclusive, custom-made products. No Chinese (with their mass handicrafts) are competitors here.
3. Handicrafts can create fashion and generate increased demand for a certain type of thing.
4. The Internet helped connect the handicraftsman and the customer directly. Moreover, from any country. The potential market of every handicraft artist today is the whole world.
So try knitting something unusual (that isn't already for sale on Etsy). And maybe you will create new fashion and your own handicraft business.
As an example. Today I found one needlewoman from the UK who offered the market elegant knitted ties for men:
Over the past six months, the needlewoman - a young designer - has sold more than 100 knitted ties.
But it’s better, of course, to create handicrafts for women - they buy better and more actively on the Internet.
To create fashion and demand for handicrafts, it is important not only to make it and photograph it, but also to imagine how it will be worn and how impressive it will look:
So for those who know how to do something with their own hands, today there is a chance to create their own successful business using handicrafts.
We often write about popular handicrafts, but there are still hundreds of amazing women’s crafts in the world, some of them are quite exotic and, despite this, bring money to their craftswomen.
Therefore, today I have made a selection of what you can do with your own hands and perhaps these unusual business ideas for needlewomen will inspire someone to own ideas or help you decide to turn some rare hobby into a profitable business.
I came across the works of the Lithuanian artist and craftswoman Severija Insirauskaitė-Kriaunevisiene on the Internet a few years ago, and cross stitch on cars forever won my feminine heart. Although I think that when men see something like this, they immediately receive serious psychological trauma: “To spoil the car like that! What about corrosion?!”
Embroidered cars
True, Severia embroiders not only on large mechanisms, but also on more modest metal household items. I really like her collections of embroidered dishes and garden tools. True, I can hardly imagine anyone wanting to buy a rusty shovel with embroidery, but apparently I’m too rational a person. In fact, this art brought the artist both fame and money.
Cross-stitched garden tools and dishes
Despite the practically free and easily destructible material, products made from it are durable and beautiful. The principle of operation is not complicated: we make tubes from pieces of newspapers or magazines and weave from them whatever comes to mind using the same technique that is used for weaving vines or. The thickness of the products depends on how thick you make the tubes.
Thanks to this, you can create both delicate flowers and souvenirs, as well as strong boxes, baskets and even furniture. The tubes are painted with food coloring, glued with PVA glue, tinted with stain and, if desired, varnished. All this is inexpensive, but allows you to create amazing things.
When I first saw something like this in a souvenir shop, I decided that it was just an elegant panel on the wall, but the seller explained to me that it was an Indian amulet. Actually, a mandala is a map of the cosmos and the realm of the gods. Her image is of geometric shapes inscribed into each other, of varying complexity. Actually, a mandala is made from everything from sand to oil, but in our case it’s usually thread products or metal jewelry with similar designs. They come in a variety of sizes - from earrings and pendants to half-wall circles.
In general, the popularity of ancient Indian and Eastern teachings in general in the world and in our country in particular, suggests that business ideas associated with them are quite promising directions small business. It’s not for nothing that we increasingly come across shops with specialized goods.
This folk craft appeared in Ancient China, but truly developed in Japan, where it was customary for samurai wives to engage in embroidery and gradually they turned these balls into real art. They were made from different materials; bells were often inserted inside, the outside of the ball was wrapped with plain threads, and embroidery was done on them. The rich embroidered with silk, the rest of the population with cotton threads. Now the technique is approximately the same; craftswomen embroider temari with silk, cotton thread or floss. Patterns range from the simplest to the surprisingly complex.
To create temari, you need the simplest materials: darning needles, pins with a loop at the end, a pencil, scissors, paper, a ruler, a compass, spool threads for the warp and various threads for embroidering patterns.
In general, it must be said that Japan has created many original folk crafts and I think that they are worth devoting a separate article to them in the near future.
I already wrote about this amazing experience in the article “”. The author of the idea, Toshiko Horiuchi, knits wonderful designs for children where they can play, climb, swing and perform any actions that remind us that man, perhaps not without God's help, but clearly descended from a monkey :).
In general, crocheting is a universal handicraft that allows you to realize the most unusual business ideas. With the help of such a simple tool as a hook, you can knit and tie various objects, create the finest lace, rough carpets and hammocks, clothes, souvenirs, paintings, furniture, jewelry, etc.
And in the end, I would like to remind you that in order for unusual business ideas for needlewomen to generate income, it is not necessary to only create things for sale. Money comes from master classes, training courses, which are now well distributed via the Internet, as well as specialized sites and groups on social networks.
How to make money at home with your own hands? There are probably practically no women, especially mothers, who would not ask this question. A modern Russian woman can not only walk into a burning hut and stop a galloping horse, but she can also sew herself a dress, knit a winter sweater with reindeer, make warm overalls for a child, and make gorgeous earrings as a gift for a friend. Should all of this remain just a hobby or is it time to make money from your skills? We will talk about this further.
Why right now can part-time work doing handicrafts at home bring good income and even become a full-time main employment? It’s simple: handmade is in fashion now. Surely among your friends there are already such enterprising individuals who are actively working in the field of making beautiful and useful products with their own hands. And in the world there are even large organizations that purchase goods from private manufacturers and resell them at exorbitant prices. Don't believe there are clients? Check it out! However, this is for now Western experience, and in our country relatively small stores are engaged in such resale. And, of course, you can look for a client yourself.
Why is handicraft so attractive to craftswomen, craftsmen and buyers? Why does this particular business easily develop into a family business? There is nothing to be surprised: the process is fascinating, the result allows you to be proud of yourself, and the demand provides a good income - enough for the whole family not only to have bread, but, as they say, also butter and caviar to put on bread. True, you need to be able to order handicrafts at home - and this requires considerable self-discipline.
So, what is attractive about handicrafts at home? Here are the main positive features:
The last factor is rightfully considered by many to be the most important, because it is precisely because of the desire to own a unique item that the buyer turns not to an ordinary store, but to a master. Can we say that handicrafts are crafts? Unique products that attract the attention of connoisseurs are difficult to describe with this simple and even critical word. These are excellent examples that satisfy the taste and requirements of the most demanding client.
Implementation benefits:
It sounds, you see, fabulous. Is everything as rosy as it seems at first? In practice, handicrafts as a business are fraught with certain difficulties. Among them:
In the latter case, certain problems are associated with understanding the idea itself and the logic of the work. You will have to put in a lot of time and effort to figure out what's what. Do you need it? However, there is always a way out: you can organize a collaboration with a creative friend. For example, she makes it, you sell it, both are happy and benefit. Moreover, practice shows: often creative people are not very practical and need help loved one- someone you can trust.
How to make money from handicrafts? First of all, choosing the right niche for self-realization. It is the direction of activity that determines which strategy will lead to success. You need to understand that this is a promising topic - handicrafts as a business. Ideas related to this area of work are numerous, but the really worthwhile ones, as they say, are not lying around - you have to think and look.
What are we talking about? For example, knitting to order: it’s no secret, you can make money on this. But since many people know about this, there are hundreds of thousands of people who want to try their hand. This gives rise to enormous competition, and novice craftsmen, trying to create a name for themselves, make complex things for next to nothing. Of course, in such a “business” you quickly become disappointed.
So, the main niches in which demand is high and you can break through if you know how to build a strategy correctly:
When the most attractive direction for you has been found, it’s time to work on a business plan. You should understand: even if your business grows out of a favorite hobby, it needs a serious approach, otherwise there will be no success. In addition, a business plan drawn up carefully and according to the rules will be of considerable help: you can contact the city administration with it and get money to start.
So, a business plan is a step-by-step strategy that describes your vision of how to make money from handicrafts. This means that the document needs to mention those steps without which it is impossible to achieve success, as well as describe the implementation features.
First of all, we consider the target audience. Success is possible when the craftswoman understands who exactly her client is. To do this, you need to imagine who purchases similar products from competitors or in stores. For example, if you are attracted to the field of activity “everything for handicrafts and creativity,” then your audience is needlewomen. But if you like to make baby wraps, then the client is a young mother.
The next stage is acquiring everything you need to run your business successfully. These are materials, equipment, and, if necessary, courses that teach you how to do something. What exactly you will have to invest money in depends on the chosen direction. For example, if you choose custom knitting, you will have to make an effort to look for a store with favorable prices for threads, knitting needles and others consumables and equipment.
The business plan needs to pay attention to marketing issues. Simply put, you need to describe in detail how you plan to find a client and interest him. There are a variety of channels - from word of mouth to offering your products at foreign offline fairs. Which path is right for you? Depends both on the scale of activity and on the existing reputation and direction of work.
Such extra income will be most optimal for mothers who spend time in maternity leave or women who are looking for a new highly paid job, needing additional financial resources. A modern woman periodically faces financial difficulties. Due to various reasons, one or another type of activity becomes impossible, then the question arises - how to feed yourself and your family? A great option if the husband in the family earns enough to cover all expenses. But the reality is that more often than not one salary is not enough to cover all your needs and you have to find various ways to earn extra money.
Who else is suitable for working from home? To all those who strive for independence, love a flexible work schedule, need additional financial support, and most importantly, love to create unique things self made with your own hands.
If you are serious about making money from handicrafts, be sure to draw up a business plan in which you need to decide on the choice of niche, audience, training, materials, place of work, finding clients, etc. Below we will briefly look at each section.
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