Start & Run a Craft Business

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William G. Hynes. Start & Run a Craft Business

START & RUN A CRAFT BUSINESS

Preface

1. The Advantages of A Craft Business

2. How To Get Started

a. What to Make

b. How to Learn Craft Skills

1. Courses

2. Apprenticeship

3. Teaching yourself

c. Conclusion

3. How To Make Things That Will Sell

a. Market Research

b. Market Test Your Products

4. Before You Sell..

a. Wholesale or Retail?

1. Wholesaling

2. Consignment

3. Retailing

4. Which is best for you?

b. Pricing Your Work

c. Sales Literature

1. Business cards

2. Brochures and catalogs

5. Retailing Your Work

a. Retailing from Your Studio

b. Retailing Your Work at Craft Markets

1. How to find craft markets

2. How to pick the best craft shows

(a) Mall shows

(b) Other mall outlets

(c) Farmers’ markets

3. How to get your work into shows

4. Preparing for craft shows (a) Stock

(b) Storage and transport of stock

(c) Sales literature

(d) Cash handling

(e) Packaging

(f) Lighting

(g) Booth

5. How to sell your work at shows

c. Retailing Your Work through the Mail

1. Direct mail

2. Advertising to solicit mail orders

6. Wholesaling Your Work

a. What Kinds of Shops Can You Sell To?

1. Galleries

2. Craft shops

3. Gift/craft shops

4. Gift shops

5. Department stores

6. Other stores

b. Mass-Market Outlets

c. How to Get Your Products into Shops. 1. Calling on stores

2. The trade show

3. The sales representative

4. The wholesale distributor

5. Wholesaling your work on the Internet

7. Selling Your Work Online

a. The Basics

b. Can You Sell Your Crafts Online?

c. Online Craft Stores — Finding the Best Ones

1. What does the store offer?

2. How much does it cost?

3. How easy is it to find?

4. Does the site download quickly and easily?

5. How are products presented?

6. What kinds of products are offered for sale?

7. How many vendors are represented on the site?

8. How much traffic is there?

9. How is the store promoted?

10. How long has the store been in business?

11. Who owns and administers the store?

12. Does the store inspire trust?

d. Should You Have Your Own Online Store?

e. Online Stores and Internet Malls

f. Your Own Web Site

(a) Photographs of your products

(b) Product information

(c) Customer information

(d) Contact information

(e) Purchasing

(f) Transactions

(g) Security

g. Building Your Web Site

1. Design

2. Graphics

3. Moving your site to the Web

h. Hiring a Web Developer to Build Your Site

i. Promoting Your Site

1. Use your domain name as much as possible

2. Submit your site to search engines

3. Optimize the position of your site

4. Get links from related sites

5. Advertise on the Net

6. Make your site sticky

j. Making Your Work Easy to Buy

1. Offer choices

2. Make everything crystal clear

3. Make yourself real

k. The Future of Online Shopping for Crafts

l. Wholesaling Your Work Online

m. How Craft Businesses Have Fared on the Web

n. Three Keys to Online Success

8. Marketing Tips

a. Start Out Close to Home

b. Find Your Own Niche in the Market

c. Aim for the Highest Quality

d. Avoid Saturating a Particular Market

e. Build Customer Loyalty

f. Set Realistic Marketing Goals

g. Use Publicity

9. Your Workshop

a. Where to Locate Your Workshop

b. Planning a Workshop

1. The building

2. The interior

10. Production

a. Bulk Buying

b. Storage

c. Orders

d. Packing

e. Shipping

f. Inventory. 1. How to keep track of it

2. How big should your inventory be?

3. How much of each item should you carry?

11. Rules And Regulations

a. Retail Sales Tax

b. Goods and Services Tax (Canada)

c. Payroll Taxes

1. If you are in the United States

(a) Federal requirements

(b) State requirements

2. If you are in Canada

d. Deadlines for Government Remittances

e. Licenses

f. Labeling

1. In the United States

2. In Canada

g. Contracts

1. Contracts with retail clients

2. Consignment contracts

h. Income Taxes

12. Getting Help

a. Getting a Loan from a Financial Institution

1. Select the right financial institution

2. Be well prepared

3. Sell yourself

4. Security

5. What if they turn you down?

b. Getting a Loan from the Government

1. In the United States

2. In Canada

c. Other Government Assistance

1. In the United States

2. In Canada

d. Crafts Organizations

1. Marketing

2. Other services

3. Should you join a crafts organization?

13. Keeping Financial Records

a. What Kind of System?

b. The Essentials of a Good Bookkeeping System

c. Income

1. Invoices and order forms

2. Managing accounts receivable

d. Expenses

e. Journals and the General Ledger

f. Depreciation

g. Payroll

h. Taxes

1. Income

2. Expenses

(a) Automobile expenses

(b) Business expenses in the home

(c) Maintenance and repairs

3. Profits

i. You and Your Accountant

14. Managing Your Craft Business

a. Business Organization

1. The sole proprietorship

2. The partnership

3. The corporation

b. Financial Planning

c. Giving Credit to Your Customers

d. Insurance

e. Your Craft Business and Your Family

15. Expanding Your Craft Business

a. How Big Do You Want to Be?

1. Rate of growth

2. Profitability

3. Lifestyle

4. The market

5. Quality

b. Forecasting. 1. Why forecast?

2. Preparing a forecast

16. Employees: How To Hire And Train Them

a. Do You Need to Hire Anyone?

b. Hiring Employees

c. Paying Your Employees

1. Salaries

2. Wages

3. Piece rate

d. Profit Sharing

e. Cottage Industry

17. Some Tips For Continued Success

a. Make Your Own Decisions

b. When You Need Help, Ask for It

c. Be Thoroughly Professional

d. Look After Details

e. Know When to Delegate

f. Never Stop Learning

g. Your Leisure Time

h. Licensing

i. Protecting Your Craft Designs

j. Using the Designs of Others

Appendix 1 — Directories And Guides

a. Retail Craft Show Guides

b. Wholesale Show Guides

c. Directory of Sales Representatives

d. Directory of Local, Provincial and State Development Agencies

Appendix 2 — Craft Organizations/ Agencies

a. United States. National

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

b. Canada. National

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Newfoundland

Nova Scotia

Ontario

Prince Edward Island

Quebec

Saskatchewan

Appendix 3 — Online Stores And Malls

About the Author

Other Titles in the Start & Run Series

Notice to Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook

Contents

Отрывок из книги

Since its first appearance, Start & Run a Craft Business has gone through numerous editions and reprintings, and I have received much positive feedback from fellow craftspeople. I now feel justified in my initial assumption that the book’s generalist approach would be useful to the beginner as well as the more established craftsperson.When the book was first published, there were very few books available about the business side of craft making. Since then, numerous other books on crafts have appeared, some focusing on particular aspects of business as they relate to crafts, others concentrating on the techniques of the various individual crafts.

This book continues to be unique in that it provides a kind of overall blueprint for starting and running a craft business. No matter in what particular medium a craftsperson works, or on what scale he or she wishes to operate, this book provides detailed advice on how to proceed. It covers all the important areas of craft business for the part-time, single-person operation as well as the larger factory type or cottage industry craft business. It also looks in detail at the issues and problems involved in expanding a small craft business into a larger operation.

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But you don’t have to be a creative genius to start a craft business. In fact, you don’t even need to be particularly creative. Many successful craftworkers produce all their work according to traditional designs. Others modify traditional designs to serve their own purposes.

You can produce hundreds or thousands of “production line” crafts (i.e., multiple copies) of the same design. Or you can concentrate on making one-of-a-kind craft pieces, where each piece is a unique design. There are good markets for both kinds of products in just about any craft medium. Whether you want to work in wood, clay, fiber, glass, or any one of hundreds of natural or synthetic materials, the markets for good-quality handcrafted products are large and growing.

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