Everyone loves hand-made crafts. Crochet sweaters, caps, mittens, and other items are especially popular. So if you have a talent for crochet, you may have considered selling your crocheted work for a small profit. But where do you begin? How do you take something that began as an enjoyable hobby and turn it into a small business? Well, you’ve come to the right place. This article will hopefully teach you a bit about how to make the best use of your crocheting and sell it in all the right places.
One of the best places to sell your crochet is online. You can join a "craft room," where many people display and sell their crochet or knitting all together, or you can simply make your own website where you can sell your wares. This is a great option because then you don’t have to haul all your crocheted products around with you. If you decide to create a website to sell your crocheted work, it’s important that you remember to put up pictures of each product. Also, be sure to put an accurate description of the product, its care requirements and anything else unique about it. Then you’ll be in business!
Another great place to sell your crochet is at craft shows. Craft shows occur throughout the year, all over the country. If you’re really serious about selling your crocheted work, this may be a good option for you. Here are some suggestions if you’re thinking of selling your crocheted work at craft shows.
Be organized. Several weeks or months before the craft show, you should make sure that your booth and other fees are paid in full. Also, make sure that you’ve received all the promo literature. Makes lists of what you need to finished before the craft show, your current inventory, sale prices for all of your goods, and what you’ll need to take with you for the show (business cards, brochures, markers, pens, notebook, etc.)
Make your display artistically appealing. Make it colorful, but easy on the eyes, and easy for people to take it all in. Do a ‘dry run’ of your table display or booth at home before the show and have your friends and neighbors tell you what they think of it so you can work out any glitches ahead of time. Before the doors open to your craft shows, stand back and look carefully and critically at your booth as if you were a customer, and make the time to change anything that isn’t ‘right.’ Also, remember that the purpose of your booth is to sell your crocheted work, so it should be displayed full force.
Build up your customer base. Try to get names, email addresses, and/or phone numbers of your customers, so that you can build up some kind of base for sales. A good way to do this is to plan some kind of contest or drawing so that people who visit your booth have to fill out some personal information.
Stand up and be ready. It’s a good idea to be standing up and looking around once the doors open. This shows that you are interested in perspective customers as they come along. But it’s also a good idea to be crocheting, too, so that you are effectively demonstrating your craft.
Remember to smile. Be friendly and helpful, including when people make comments like, "Oh, I could make it myself cheaper than that!" If they could, they would and then they wouldn’t be traipsing around craft shows looking to buy products like yours!
Have fun and good luck!