Create a Successful Craft Business: Craft Shows and Online

*** Lots of worksheets and printable resources ***

This course will teach you how to take your crafting and artwork from a hobby to a business. We will help you identify your ideal customers, how to find new products to make, how to sell online and in person, and the requirements for starting a business. By the end of this course, you will have developed the business skills and knowledge that will propel your artistic career to the next level.

Our names are Amy and Tanner Skrocki. We are award-winning professional artists with more than thirteen years of experience making and selling our own original artwork. During our career we’ve created thousands of pieces, which we presented, and sold to in person audiences at nearly six-hundred shows and online throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

We’ve created countless items for wholesale customers, government galleries and dignitaries. We’ve sold our work at craft shows, farmers markets, Comic Book Expos, Music Festivals, Trade Shows, Private Events, and even Hollywood. In this course, we’ll give you the full benefit of our years of experience and expertise to set you on the path to success in your crafting business. While we enjoy making complicated pieces of art to fulfill our artistic expression our success as a business was accomplished through the sale of very simple, basic items so we are confident our advice is applicable to any type of art or craft.

This is not a technical course full of complex accounting principals or business jargon. It focuses on the actionable ideas and exercises you can to help your craft business, and career, achieve the success you’ve been dreaming of.

The course starts by looking at why you should start your craft business and at why finding “your why” is so important. The course then covers: identifying your ideal customer, deciding what to sell, how to research and find items to make and sell, selling online and in person, business requirements, how to choose shows and what you need, and pricing your work and taking payments.

Section One: Introduction and getting started: In this section, we’ll show you what you need to do before you start selling. We’ll ask the big questions you need to answer:

• What is your why? If you don’t know why you want to start your business, it will be hard to get going and to be focused on the outcome you want.

• How do you know when you are ready to start selling? We’ll help you determine when to start selling your work.

• Only by having a clear why can you achieve your objectives.

We’ll then show you how to plan and structure your work to take your business from where it is to where you want it to be.

Section Two: Setting up your business for success: In this second section, we’ll guide you through naming your business, deciding what to sell, and identifying who your ideal customer is.

• Who is your customer? Only by understanding your customer and consciously creating for them can you achieve your objectives.

In this section you’ll learn how to identify who your ideal customer is and work through the worksheet to help define everything about them.

Section Three: Finances: In this section you’ll learn the vital art of pricing your work and getting paid. We’ll show you how to hone your pricing using our pricing formula so you can be sure you are making money on each sale. We also provide you with useful information about inventory tracking.

• Are you sure you are making money when you sell something? Our pricing formula will help take the mystery out of pricing.

• Have you figured out what you would charge for wholesale? We show you how to calculate both retail and wholesale pricing so you are never caught off guard when opportunity knocks!

Section Four: Business Requirements: In this fourth section you’ll learn how to look into information about your taxes and the legalities of starting a business. We also cover business insurance, business licences, and more.

• Are you unsure what the business requirements are for starting your own craft business? We cover what you need to start and how to find out more if you need to.

Section Five: Selling at Craft Shows: In this section we walk you through what you need to get started with Craft shows and how to pick them. We also cover what you need for both indoor and outdoor shows so you can be ready no matter the opportunity!

• Are you struggling to pick the right shows for you and your products? We guide you through selecting the right show for you.

• Do you have everything you need for your first show? We provided details on what you need to get started and provide you with a custom checklist that you can use no matter how many shows you’ve done to make sure you haven’t left anything behind.

• Are you ready to sell at indoor and outdoor shows? We go over the differences of what you need to have and bring for each type of setting.

Section Six: Selling Online: Finally, in this section we provide you with a deep dive into getting your items and listings found on Etsy. We also cover creating your own website, social media and photography.

If you want to start your craft business, define your ideal customer and get your work in front of potential buyers, both in person and online, this is the course for you.

Who this course is for:

· This course is for everyone who wants to start selling their handmade work in person and online. Whether you have already started or are just getting ready to pick out your first show this course is for you.