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I make various wood items, and you made some great points (as usual) in this video. I am finding a balance in my business by having a base of items that are reproducible and take a relatively small amount of time to create in batches. I usually make enough in each batch to last several weeks. In between, I can then use some of my time to make new items, or projects that take more time to make but that satisfy my creative side. For example, I make two different dinosaur sets that have proven to be good sellers over time so I make sure to have a number of each set on hand. I am currently making a play set with a castle, dragons, knights, horses, and other figures. It is going to be large and expensive because of the time and materials used, as well as the shipping expense. I don't expect to sell many of them, but that's okay because I have the staple items selling every day or so to keep the business running. I think this illustrates your points very well. Mei, I have watched many of your videos and always find them helpful. Sometimes I learn new things, other times your tips reinforce what I have already learned or thought might be the case. I am just about at the sale a day level, and broke the $10,000 level of Etsy sales for the last 12 months just recently. I retied about a year ago and am enjoying running my craft business full time.
I make jewelry and have been trying to figure out how to duplicate it to sell on Etsy or elsewhere. Thank you so much for your good ideas and directives. This will help me narrow things down and concentrate on stream lining my jewelry somehow. I also looking into selling my designs with mugs and t-shirts, but haven't gotten too far yet I also make note cards from my photos and abstract designs. Thanks so much for including me 💗.
Robert, that is amazing! Congratulations to you and for taking the time to learn, adjust, and grow. I'm really honored to have gotten to be a part of the process!
Liz, it sounds like you need to streamline! Jewelry, mugs, tshirts, and note cards don't fall under the same niche, and the target markets are likely to be different. You want to specialize in something and don't become a "garage sale" of handmade items.
I make jewelry. I was watching a video on pricing by Halstead jewelry today. They also suggested having multiple price points for different buyers, or people wanting your jewelry, but who aren't able to afford your top items. I had already been working on some inexpensive pieces (ribbon instead of chain kind of thing), so I was validated hearing this from you and Halstead on the SAME day!!! Love your videos!! Thanks so much for continuing to provide quality information on RU-vid, email and your blog!
That's very true. My initial handmade jewellery model was based purely on one of a kind bespoke pieces. I didnt enjoy the process at all. I found every order stressful and I never made a decent enough profit margin to be sustainable
Thanks for solidifying the lesson of making products easy and repeatable. I kind of jumped in to the market place only to realize I needed to pare down my offerings. Good advice!!!
I am an advocate for self care, self love, etc. so I love to make note pads, memo pads, and little note cards. I already created and sketched a few designs. But, I don’t know where to start. I feel all over the place😭 I love your videos and all the great tips/advices.
This is super exciting! The best place to start is with my free workshop The Three Secrets to Selling Online. www.creativehiveco.com/workshop/ After that I recommend watching this playlist! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RIAlRz-0cv0.html
I really like to crochet so I am trying to create smaller items at reasonable prices while thinking of items people really might want so this was very helpful.
It seems I've being doing nearly every single one of these. No wonder things have been so slow going and frustrating. I'm so glad I found out about you!
I'm so happy to help!! Thank you so much for watching!! ❤️❤️ Feel free to also check out my blog if you need written version of my videos. Here's the link for your reference: www.creativehiveco.com/blog/ Good luck!! ❤❤🎉🎉
I’m watching this video whilst making jewellery for my website launch next month. Your videos have been amazingly helpful and I appreciate them so much!
I feel there are many exception to the “don’t sell something that takes you days to make” rule. Paintings, people love buying paintings and sometimes that can take days to make. Or art that you turn into prints. That takes days but then you have the art printed out.
Hi! That's correct. Selling high-end products like original paintings, furniture, etc. at a big cost can be an exception. For expensive, one-of-a-kind products though, they can be harder to sell so if you're looking to have more consistent sales with your business, you can look into diversifying your product line to include items at accessible prices like, say, art print versions of the originals, your art on products, etc.
I make beaded jewelry, but not selling yet as I don't make enough to even display (I am slow, it's more like a hobby that I sometime want to make a business)). Anyway, a tip about having things too expensive, etc. is awesome - I recently watched several videos and in, I think, a couple of them (by Beadaholique and Kellie's Bead Boutique - no ad here, just stating what I watched)), they mentioned to have items that, yes, are "reproduceable" by you again, and also having cheaper items along with the more expensive ones (especially for fairs) so that all clients can find something that is in their range not only of taste but wallet. I also pride myself in every piece, but understand that I cannot realistically yet include the charge for the amount of time and "soul" I put into them, hopefully not yet :D
I totally agree with stacking your prices into low, medium and high tiers. It doesn't only give your ideal customers options but actually drives interest to your medium-tier items as well which are, most of the time, your main products. I'm excited for you to turn your hobby into a business! You got this! ❤️
No one can make exactly what you make Jane. ;) Two people following the same pattern will always get slightly different results. There is always something that will make you stand out. It could be amazing branding, a little extra flourish or simply really identifying WHO your audience is so you know how to target them specifically!
I’m going to attempt to sell a doll on Etsy that looks like the character in a well- known paper doll series that ran in a magazine from 1913 to 1933. The doll takes around 50 hours to make and the supplies are costly, as much as $80 (cotton, acrylic paint, mohair wefts for wigging, leather shoes, polyfil stuffing) etc. listed separately, I will try to sell a giclee print of the original paper doll page that I have used for reference in making the doll. The customer could have the giclee print framed to their preference. My hope is that the same customer for the well-known doll would also purchase the print. Or maybe a customer would just want the doll, or only the print? I’ll find out in the coming months if anyone would be willing to pay the high price for my art doll. If not, maybe it will lead to another idea that would be more successful, I hope. Thank you, Mei, for all your videos. I need to review them again for the help they give me.
Thank you so much for watching, Catherine! ❤️ Is it going to be the exact same paper doll character (i.e. like a replica or something)? If so, I would just be cautious and conduct some research on copyright or trademark rights to avoid any future issues or problems. I'm so excited for you though!! You got this!! Also, just in case you're interested in learning how you can grow and promote/market your brand online without relying much on social media, feel free to watch my free workshop here: bit.ly/3EGGC47 I really think you're going to learn a lot from it. Enjoy!! And good luck!! ❤️
I always thought you could sell anything to women. It’s the women that tends to buy anything. Some products I always thought, why do they make that crap, yet apparently they sell. Good video 👍👍👍I’ll show my step daughter this video as she’s into making things and trying to sell them.
Thank you for sharing with your daughter! I appreciate that, and hope it helps her out! I'm going to be doing a live workshop here on Wednesday! If you're subscribed, hit the bell to be notified when it starts!
I make a product for a very small niche: custom lock picks. But it is only part time, and I kind of came to it by chance. I never intended to start a custom lock pick business.
I'm making home decor wood working. My popular product is an American wood flag in the shape of a star but my other stuff doesn't really sell. I'm trying my one last push to sale everything before going to only selling the flags. I hope I can get it to work because I really don't want to make just American flag stars. That's kind of boring and those stars take a lot of work!
It can definitely be tough when a best seller is not a favorite to make. You can definitely try to do other similar products - either different patterns on the star or the American flag pattern on other shapes - so that it's a little bit different but still in the same niche.
Because quilts are extremely labor intensive and take a decent amount of time, this is going to bring your costs up significantly, so the success of your business will depend on your ability to find the right customer for those products, and the understanding that you aren't going to be able to produce the volume necessary for wholesale, etc.
You could have several higher priced quilts and an assortment of easy to reproduce pillows, placemats, table runners, wall hangings, handbags. My mother was a quilter and I inherited all her patterns and scraps. I've only done a bit of quilting and realize how labor intensive it can be.
hi I have a hard time trying to price my product the market is out there for what I am making but I have tried to lower prices but I don't want to make them too cheap as the supplies I use to make them ends up being more what can I do to help this?
You shouldn't be lowering your prices to make sales - that is the opposite of what you should be doing! Instead, take a look at these videos and make sure that you are pricing your products CORRECTLY, which means you will make a profit on an item that sells. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H3r9M3QhnNQ.html
I make tumblers covered in rhinestones but I am concerned it may take to much time. It does not cost much to make but it can take 3 to 7 hours depending on the design.
Hi I’m wanting to start my own little Etsy shop selling hand embroidery maybe personalised photos with embroidery. Would you say this is a good thing to sell ?
Hi Robert! There's no hard and fast answer to this as it differs from person to person and business to business. But I'd say the common challenges are pricing, keeping your art style cohesive and targeted to your ideal customers, believing in your work, etc. Also, since original paintings are more expensive, they don't typically sell at the same rate as say, a $20-item so selling it could be more challenging but definitely still doable. If you're open to expanding your product line to include art prints or putting your art on products though for a more accessible price-point option, that would open it to more opportunities for more consistent sales. Here's a helpful article too: reddotblog.com/the-biggest-challenges-facing-successful-artists/
@@CreativeHiveCo Mei, Thank you so much for your valuable comments….I have just recently found you and have enjoyed a number of your videos… I look forward to listening to more. Bob Botts
You have some great points! It has to be something you enjoy or at least don't hate, right? So don't make it too hard to finish, or you lose the point of not working in a wage slave job! Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
My dream is to sell plush toys/dolls. I want to create my own designs that aren’t any specific animal that already exists, but I’m a little sceptical on how well that would sell. Do you think I should start with already existing popular species (ex. Dogs, cats, unicorns) to get my business to become successful and do my own special animals later?
I think you should create whatever you want your brand style to be. If animals of your own creation spark your soul, then stick with that. If you can do both special creations and exisiting ones by doing them in a unique way, you can also do that.
I make Handmade Knitted Items. Most of my sales are Hand Knitted shawls, Hand Knitted socks and the Outlander Knits, but I just am not getting any sales. The last sale I had was about 6 months ago. Because I have not gotten any sales, i have really just given up. And I hate that. I love my shop, but I just don't know what to do to generate business. I love your Video and Hope that maybe they can help. I did have my shop on Etsy, but because of all the fees they took out (which was over 30%) I left and went to Shopify. Is there a way I can let my Etsy Clients know where I am at now?
Because those are Etsy's customers, you aren't supposed to contact them without a reason, i.e. related to a sale. You could put in your shop announcement that you've moved, if you still have your shop there but empty. You may be interested in my A Sale A Day course - it's designed specifically to increase online sales and we focus on Shopify.
thank you so much for the video. I make jewelry with natural stone cabs. All of my pieces are one of a kind, as it's impossible to have 2 stones that are exactly the same. I don't know how to make a line of jewelry that would be easily reproducible without making it look mediocre. I know it's hard to sell one of a kind pieces. I work with other jewelry components as well, but my largest batch would be 3-4 similar pieces. what can I do ?
Hi Chris, in certain cases variations are accepted. If I buy a marble serving tray online I understand that I might not get the exact swirls that are in the photograph. But what I do know if what the handles will look like, the general coloring and the size. So if the general shape, size, coloring and design will be similar than you can reproduce similar pieces. You just need to be really clear in the listing that stones have natural character. :)
Yes, I understand. You can continue to work in that method if you prefer it. Your pieces should be priced accordingly to reflect the OOAK nature. If you want to do something reproducible, consider doing wire wrapped drop pendants - that keeps in with your stone work but is a quicker and more easily reproducible item.
Hi Deb! I would start by really identifying your audience so you know how to grab their attention and get them into your shop. Check out this video to help with that :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kNO2z-XqQ_M.html
this might be a bad and not proper question ask of you, but i need to. I sell epoxy topped dog food bowl stands on Etsy and I do OK at best "madebymaikega", it takes a good amount of time to put my product together, but I believe the product is the best pet food bowl stand on the market. what can I do to stand above everyone else and to be able to do this full time? thank you
You need to find your target audience and market directly to them. Who are your people? What do they like, where do they shop, what type of people are they?
