With a multitude of craft types available in the marketplace and an economy that is sluggish at best, it can be tricky to sell your “wares” to a public that is certainly ready to buy, just very hesitant. They are ready to buy because they have been frugal with their money and saved, but that also means they are hesitant because they are frugal and reluctant to spend when it isn’t necessary.
If you are ready to sell, start with what you have and work your way up to a steady growth. Do not try to do everything all at once. Make every attempt to start small with what you have and grow very slowly. There is nothing wrong with slow growth and “taking things at a snails pace”. This is especially true in selling crafts as well as starting a small business. People are fickle and most recently very quick to discern what they need to spend and what something’s value is based on what they have to spend. In a nutshell, people don’t want to spend what they don’t have but more importantly they don’t want to spend what they have on anything, if they think it has no value.
A lot of small business owners will tell you that you need to focus on marketing, or customer satisfaction or quality or even “up-selling” accessories. While all of that is true to some degree, for a craft business to be successful, especially small start-ups, it always comes down to value. In crafting, value is what sells and nothing else. Not shiny, or expensive or some new “fangled” accessory. Simply put value is what the people want and need more than anything else.
Let’s put it this way, say, through quality you make the best necklace in the world. You market everything through Facebook/twitter/Google and have thousands of followers waiting for your product to be sold. You have a website ready to take orders. You have a “state-of-the-art” call back service and comment section where you can help customers with any issues that arise on the spot. You even went so far as to have additional accessories to add, that increase your profit margin. Now you come up with a price model and start to sell this necklace for a hundred dollars. You decided on this price point, to help offset the cost of start-up with not only materials, but the tons of time you have invested as well as the countless “marketing internet facilities” which you have invested into to get a leg up. It is understandable, but you will quickly find that you have successfully created a much smaller niche for selling your product than you were expecting. The reason is…value. People won’t pay for your expensive product if they don’t feel they have a need. And passing up an expensive craft is easier than breathing to a customer.
Make no mistake, all these things are helpful in due time. They do have their place and purpose which will serve to help promote and sell your products. Should you decide to go this route, nobody is faulting you for trying. It would be better to enter an arena of selling when you are ready to grow the value with the product. To even possibly expand your line of crafts to include both value and high-end items. However in the beginning, it is more wise to be reserved than it is to rush into things. Everything has its place and everything has its time. You do not need to be “The Craft King” overnight. You need to focus on your product and deliver the best value. That doesn’t mean the cheapest and it doesn’t mean no profit margin in giving away the product. It simply means creating a product that people will want AND is affordable.
If you do take your time, take things slow and present the best value for your customer, they will beat a path to your craft door every time.
NAIL'd Crafts 