Presentation Notes July 2, 2013 – Selling Crochet Online
Read the Original article or download the PDF version. Crochet Business: 5 F.A.Q.’s of Selling Crochet Online
Where to Sell?
Online – Etsy, Shopify, Zibbett, Artfire, Craftsy, Ravelry,
What to Sell?
In demand, unique, profitable,
How to Price your crochet?
Cost of Production + Markup = Profit
I recommend getting Pricing Crochet Fairly for Maximum Profit by Sedruola Maruska
Do You Need a License?
Yes, if you are a business and intend to sell with the intention of making a profit. As a hobbyist you don’t need a license but you may need a resell license. A tax ID may also be necessary which lets you buy wholesale and charge taxes. You will also need to pay business taxes 4 times a year.
Check State, Local, and Federal laws as they change and are unique per state and district. (US residents only)
Where do You start?
- buy domain name, webhosting, setup blog, and an email list. (I recommend MomWebs or Blogelina)
- Identify your crochet niche
- Identify your target market
- Learn what your customer wants and constantly improve on your product to meet their needs
- Recommend: Craft Business Power by Jason and Cinnamon Miles of Libertyclothing.com
Example:
Katwise (Katwise.com and katwise.etsy.com)
She makes unique, colorful, recycled sweater jackets and hoodies. She knows her market well, she produces inventory that is in high demand, and connects with her market through various means keeping them interested in her product and waiting for her listings. She sells out within 30 minutes because she has a customer base that demands her product and is willing to buy.
Hi Sara, Thank you for providing the names of places we can sell online.
On a side-note, have you ever come across any good links for Canadian or International seller rules/regulations?
Just curious!
Thank you, Rhondda
Rhondda Mol recently wrote…5 Things Every ( Crochet ) Blogger Needs to Know About
No I haven’t. I will gather some information for you and make a post especially for my international readers.
Hi Sara,
Thanks for the wonderful comment that you left on my blog. I really appreciate it and I am returning the favor. I’ve alwys shred to learn how to crochet but I can never quite get my under to cooperate with me. People make it look so effortless..
Shanique recently wrote…Selfishness V Sanity
In addition to being a Personal Development Coach, I am also a Mixed Media Artist. Even though the media are different, your advice is the same as I would give. The resale permit is really important. Not just because you can buy certain supplies without paying taxes on them, but because if you are selling, you need to be charging sales tax. I have heard of California going to art/craft fairs and shutting people down who didn’t have retail permits! It pays to follow the law!
Great post, I don’t know how to crochet but you have great advice for those who do.
Katie, thanks for stopping by via the UBC challenge. I appreciate it.
Yes, that does happen to vendors. It is super important and will save you lots of headaches and fines. If you want to sell, invest in the proper paperwork.
It is a nice craft to learn. It has helped me deal with lots of stress and even illness. There are crochet teachers on Youtube – you might like Teresa aka Crochet Geek or Marcelle aka One Virtuous Woman. Both of these ladies are quite willing to teach you. Maybe one day you’ll pick up a hook and yarn and make it look effortless too.
Hi Saran
why do you recommend moving the blog from blogger to wordpress or other?
Inez
I say this because of the experience I had earlier this year with blogger deleting my blog. I was on blogger since 2007 and saw no need to transfer until the ‘deletion’ happened to me.
Once it happened, I started thinking about how I had everything with regards to what I do online on free hosting. I now suggest owning your own hosting. (and email list just incase)
I’ll be going into this later this week – I have a post written up all about why I changed.
P.S. I don’t know exactly what I did to have the blog deleted so can’t really amend what I was doing.
It scared me for awhile and I was hyper-sensitive about linking to other sites, selling or offering ads on my site.
I’m over it but think what would happen if everything you wrote including comments and community and traffic and ranking were just pulled out from under you?
Granted this can happen with a self-hosted blog but you have to be doing something against Terms of Service to have your host take your blog down. (Which I still wish they would tell me as I blogged for nearly 6 years without any redflags so I’m seriously clueless.)
What do u think of storeenvy? I have my shop their at the moment.
Keen Handmade Creations recently wrote…Keen Handmade Creations Store Opening
Never heard of them but did visit your shop and it looks nice. I read their ‘open store’ options and it sounds great. I like that they have a free option to try out before you buy. Thanks for introducing me.