If it’s one thing I love, it’s a good trend. I know that if I can take a current trend and make it work within my own shop Chapter & Craft, then I probably have a good chance of the product being a hit.

The key here is to not RELY on the trends. Your business should have its foundational products that have historically sold well. Don’t overhaul your entire shop based on trends. But if you sprinkle in some of the current trends, making them work with your product lineup, there’s a good chance you’ll see some success with trendy products.

So in today’s post, I’m going to share with you some themes and product ideas that I have seen trending in crafts over the last few months that I think will stay strong into the 2024 holidays. Many of these are from spending A LOT of time on Etsy, others are from my trip to Las Vegas in September to Printing United, and others are from things I’m currently seeing in retail stores.

Are you seeing other trends? Let everyone know down in the comments!

2024 Trending Themes

Ghosts: Ghosts have been trending all year, despite Halloween only being once a year. And I have already seen Christmas ghosts all over Etsy, on shirts, tumblers, bookmarks, and more.

Mushrooms: Mushrooms have been everywhere this year and they are still going to be big this Christmas! Think ornaments, pillows, bookmarks, and more. Heck, there are even mushroom ghosts!

Cats: Cats have been bigger than dogs this year and they are everywhere. Ghost cats? Of course. But also candles, shirts, home decor, and more.

Witchy / celestial / magic / fantasy / astrology: This is sort of a broad category of things that all feel a bit magical and often dark. This has been trending for a while, but with the rise of the romantasy (romance + fantasy) genre in books and other media, it’s still holding strong and can be found just about everywhere right now.

Hyper local: Anything that’s hyper local to your area has the potential to do well. Combine it with your niche and people will be so excited to have something that really feels like home. For example, I have a Chapter & Craft sticker that says “I [heart] books and Bellingham.” This is perfect for my neighbors who love our city and also love to read. Think your neighborhood name, your town name, popular street names, your zip code, and sites or touristy things that only exist locally.

Retro aesthetic: Right now, everything from the 80s and 90s is trending, especially for young people. It’s like my childhood is back again. Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Saved by the Bell, Power Rangers, boom boxes and Nintendo Game Boys. Also think scrunchies and hair claw clips and other easy fashion items. This 90s nostalgia bookmark is the perfect encapsulation of what I mean by this retro aesthetic.

Friendship gifts: There’s been a big increase in women shopping for their besties in the last few years and a lot of the products people are buying invoke that nostalgia of friendship from the 80s and 90s. Things like friendship bracelets, friendship stickers or necklaces with two pieces of a heart, artwork if you are long-distance friends, funny candles, and more.

Neutrals: At Printing United, there were so many apparel companies and pretty much all of them were showing neutral clothing. This can be combined with some of the crafts below, particularly embroidered sweatshirts.

Boxy silhouettes: Another one for apparel is the boxy silhouette. Shirts are being made with heavier fabrics that don’t cling quite as much as the styles from years before. BELLA+CANVAS has a heavyweight line that is really popular right now. Going with these boxier silhouettes will appeal to a younger crowd.

Kitschmas: Kitschmas is a portmanteau of Kitsch and Christmas and it basically the intersection of the holidays with all sorts of cute but most likely tacky decor. There’s a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in this one, so think ceramic light up ceramic Christmas trees, retro Christmas illustrations, ideas Rankin/Bass (like the Rudolph movie), vintage ornaments, and more.

Pinkmas: This is basically Christmas, but make it pink! There’s definitely some crossover between Kitschmas and Pinkmas, as well as the hyper girlie aesthetic that’s trending. A fake pink tree, pink garlands and ornaments, pink stockings, etc. are all part of Pinkmas!

Hyper girlie: Like I mentioned above, there’s a lot of very “girlie” trends right now. Velvet bows for your hair or on a Christmas tree, anything made with glitter or sparkles, hair charms, cherries and strawberries, flowers, disco balls and rhinestones, and of course PINK! It’s probably not very demure or very mindful, but we like it anyway.

Kidulting: Finally, we have another funny name for a trend! Kidulting is basically things that take adults back to when they were kids. In this space, we’re looking at fun craft kits, whether it’s tie dye, flower pressing, puff paint, embroidery (see below), or collecting stickers in a sticker book. There are so many ways that you can put together a kit for your customers so they can experience the joy of being a kid again.

2024 Trending Crafts

Inexpensive gift ideas: To start, let’s just say right off the bat that the economy is rough right now and people are probably going to be spending less money on Christmas gifts than they have in the past. Adding inexpensive gift ideas to your shop is one way to get those shoppers buying from you for things like stocking stuffers and gifts for coworkers, friends, and extended family members. Having a wider range of prices for your products invites more people to be able to shop with you, so make sure you have some items at a lower price point in your booth or Etsy shop.

Stickers: Stickers are still so hot and are great inexpensive gift ideas! They are such an easy buy for someone at a craft fair and can sell really well with free shipping on Etsy (did you know you can send envelopes for the price of a stamp WITH tracking on Etsy?). I highly recommend having something like stickers that are an easy buy for people who don’t have a big budget or who are looking for stocking stuffers.

Charms: Charms, in all their forms, are becoming more and more popular (and make good inexpensive gifts!). Custom charm bracelets and necklaces are a lot of fun. And then people are now making charms for all of your accessories as well, including charms to add to a Stanley water bottle, and charms that fit the standard plug at the bottom of a phone or kindle. These feel like miniature keychains to me. Many of us don’t carry keys around anymore because we have remote start vehicles, so charms are another way to show your personality instead.

Money Holder Ornaments: If you want an easy gift to give, cash is almost always appreciated by just about anyone! But you can make it special with a money holder ornament. Almost all of the designs for money holder ornaments are done using a laser, so if you have a laser, this might be an easy trend to jump on. And it’s another inexpensive gift idea as well!

Patches: Patches fall into two categories for me. There are patches that you can cra ft yourself using sublimation, and there are patches that you might design and order from a manufacturer, particularly chenille patches. Both are trendy, but if you can get a good rate for buying chenille patches with your designs (they can be pricey, so shop around!), they have the possibility to do really well. They are basically stickers for your clothes and bags!

Embroidery #1—Embroidered sweatshirts: I have three trends in embroidery for you. First up is embroidered sweatshirts. If you have a machine capable of embroidery, this is definitely one you’ll probably want to jump on! Even if the embroidery is simple, you can make simple word designs like this “happy days ahead” sweatshirt. But if you have a bigger embroidery machine, USE IT! This trend is so hot right now.

Embroidery #2—Hoops: Right behind embroidered sweatshirts are finished embroidery hoops. The key here is to make them fit your niche. So if I was doing them for Chapter & Craft, I would make book-themed embroidery hoops. I can’t embroider, so this one isn’t for me, but think about it for your own business if it’s in your wheelhouse! Combine this with other trends like ghosts, kitch, astrology, and more if it fits your niche.

Embroidery #3—Kits: Finally, you could think about selling embroidery hoop kits for people to make at home as gifts or for themselves. Put together a hoop, cloth, the right thread, and a pattern you designed and it’s a great idea to sell!

Clay Jewelry: Clay jewelry has been one of the biggest trending crafts over the last few years and it seems to just keep getting bigger. It’s hard to jump on this one if you don’t have any background in making clay projects, but if you do, you may want to think about it, and you can always start with something simple.

Servingware: Servingware is still hanging on as a trend, especially for family gifts. Does your mom need a cutting board with your grandmother’s cookie recipe on it? Yes! Do your kids need a custom Cookies for Santa tray? Absolutely. I think the biggest key here is allowing for customization. This may be a little harder to do at a craft fair, but it’s easy on Etsy. Market this as making memories that will last a lifetime.

Molded candles: Candles have been big for a long time, but I’ve seen a lot of molded candles out there lately. This can be an entirely molded candle, or it can be a “dessert” candle which is a poured candle in a jar with other wax elements on top, like this gingerbread candle.

UV DTF: UV DTF transfers have been trending in a big way this year, allowing you to put full color designs on hard blanks like glass tumblers, keychains, phone cases, acrylic bookmarks, and more. The printer itself is expensive and requires a lot of maintenance, but you can easily order transfers from a variety of shops online, like Ninja Transfers.

Whew! That was a lot of trending products for Etsy and craft fairs! Let me know your favorite trends this holiday season down in the comments!

The post 2024 Trending Products for Etsy Sellers and Craft Fair Vendors appeared first on Hey, Let's Make Stuff.

Mockups are becoming ubiquitous in the online crafting space. Whether you don’t want to make a bunch of samples to show to a client or you want to fill your shop with images that show what you can do—without having to make a ton of projects—mockups can help!

A mockup is basically a blank product, like a t-shirt or mug, on which you overlay an image. This is so much easier and cheaper than making every single product you make with every design you use. Mockups to the rescue!

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to use Canva to create mockups using the BELLA+CANVAS image media gallery. They have photos of all of their products that you can download and use for your mockups. You can, however, use this process for other types of mockups, including ones you find on places like Etsy or Design Bundles, or even images you photograph yourself!

Let’s dive in!

Watch the Video

Want get a step-by-step video of how to make mockups in Canva? Just hit play below! Or keep reading for a written tutorial.

Before We Begin

Before we start looking at the BELLA+CANVAS media image library, let’s talk about using mockups in general.

To start, you don’t want to create a mockup of something that you don’t know how to make well. For example, I feel confident making mockups for items made with HTV, DTF prints, and sublimation, because I know I can make quality products using those processes. Don’t make mockups for things you’ve never crafted before—you don’t want to be “caught” by your customer if you’re unable to produce something well that you said you could make!

Also make sure you are using the exact product that appears in your mockup. If you’re using a bargain-brand shirt for your shop, don’t use a BELLA+CANVAS mockup. Your customer will be expecting their soft Airlume cotton or Tri-blend fabric and will be disappointed to get a scratchy $2 t-shirt from a cheaper brand.

For a more advanced look at mockups on things that have shadows or wrinkles, check out my mini-course, How to Make a Mockup. I go through several programs to make a mockup, including how to use PSD mockups in photoshop. These PSD mockups often have layers for shadows or fabric draping that make them look extra-realistic.

For this post, I’m going to show you how to create a mockup on flat surfaces with even lighting, because they are much easier for beginners!

Using the BELLA+CANVAS Image Media Gallery

To start, you’ll need a BELLA+CANVAS wholesale account. Luckily, you can sign up for FREE for their Maker’s Account! This allows you to buy their garments at wholesale pricing without a reseller’s license. It’s really wonderful and can help save you significant money over buying at retail. Get a Maker’s Account here.

Once you have your account, you have access to A TON of resources from BELLA+CANVAS beyond the wholesale pricing. You can find size charts, color cards, help, and so many other resources.

They also have the BELLA+CANVAS Image Media Gallery! Here they have multiple photos of basically every garment they make, along with color swatches, logos, and other images. You can use these for your mockups!

Note that some mockups are JPG (easy to use) and some are PSD files (not easy to use unless you have Photoshop or another photo software). You can easily convert the files, however, using a PSD to JPG converter.

You can use the search bar at the top to find specific styles, like the well-loved BELLA+CANVAS 3001, for example. Just type 3001 and you’ll see all the matching images.

You can also search by color if you’d like.

And then you can also search using the toolbar on the left. I like looking under Flat and Invisible Mannequin for options. The Flat options are the easiest for mockups but there are fewer options. The mannequin images also work and they have far more options as far as the colors and style that are in the gallery.

Let’s grab a mockup to use. I’m going to use this BELLA+CANVAS 3010 pink adult t-shirt but clicking the download button and choosing “Download Original.” I downloaded it as PSD and then used the converter I mentioned above to make it a JPG.

Create a Mockup in Canva

Now we move over to Canva. You can do this in the free version of Canva—no need to go Pro unless you like all the other features (I do! I’ve been Pro for years).

Choose Create a Design in the upper right. I usually choose an Instagram Photo, which is 1080px x 1080px. A good size for most online applications. You can also choose a custom size at the bottom of that dropdown if you’d like.

This will open the canvas.

On the left side of the screen, choose Uploads, and upload the image you downloaded from BELLA+CANVAS.

Using the same Uploads window, upload the image you want to add to your garment. You can resize to fit in your shirt.

And that’s it! Go up to Share in the upper right and choose to export! I prefer to download as a PNG, but there are other options as well.

Now you can use your image in your online shop or to give to a client!

I hope you found this tutorial to create a mockup helpful! If you have any questions or need help troubleshooting, feel free to leave me a comment below!

The post How to Create a Mockup in Canva appeared first on Hey, Let's Make Stuff.

This post is a summary of a recent YouTube Live and podcast I did with Angie Holden! Nicole was our guest speaker and shared so much knowledge about mindset when it comes to business. You can watch the video by clicking play below, or you can find the podcast on many of your favorite podcast players. There’s so much more than what I cover here in the video and podcast, so if you have the time, give them a shot!

My personal mindset story

I had a really hard year two years ago. Mentally, I was just not in the greatest place. Even though I was successful, I didn’t feel successful enough. I didn’t feel like I was working hard enough. I didn’t feel like I was producing enough.

This feeling led me to Nicole who was (and continues to be) an integral part of my business journey. Working with Nicole helped me to understand that yes, I am a Type A perfectionist, but that’s okay. I can use it and thrive because of it! After working with her and adopting some of her mindset techniques, I began to see a shift.

These days I find that I am way more productive, but I work less. I also maintain a much more positive mindset and avoid getting down in the dumps (most days). This was a big goal of mine!

Nicole has been such a game changer in my business that I couldn’t wait to sit down and chat with her on the podcast. I hope you enjoy her tips and insights!

Let’s get to know Life Coach Baker!

Nicole is an expert in helping people craft a business mindset. She is with Life Coach Baker and Fantasy Fangirls Podcast and I want to let her introduce herself to you.

Nicole: Hello, hello. My name is Nicole Baker Holloman. I am the CEO of Life Coach Baker and the co-owner of Fantasy Fangirls. I recently made the pivot from Life Coach Baker into Fantasy Fangirls full-time, so that’s very exciting and we’ll talk about that momentarily.

When it comes to mindset, I want to give you a short background on me.

I grew up in a family that was very heavily immersed in the personal development world. My dad and my mom both worked for big, big, big people, and from the get-go, I was immersed in personal development and I loved it.

It was so fascinating but I also had some questions because there was a lot of like, positive influence, just think happy thoughts and my question was “Is that true?”. In my early to mid-twenties, I started getting more into the neuroscience behind mindset and why do we do what we do. Why does our mindset tend to shift one way or another?

I devoted about five years of my life to it and I’m really excited to talk to you today because I like to think I know some stuff.

So, let’s get into it…

What is mindset?

Nicole: Mindset is basically understanding what your mind is focusing on at any given moment. Then taking that and determining how you plan to lean into that energy, how it may change your productivity, and how you’ll show up as a human being.

A large part of this is your beliefs. I used to think I wasn’t at all intelligent. I thought I couldn’t read or write well, and wasn’t good at school. This was many years ago. However, I shifted my mindset and began to believe that I AM an intelligent person. Now, I know it.

A big part of this is something I refer to as the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

This is essentially a big filter on the front of our brain. For example, you start to shop for a car. You want an orange SUV. You think an orange SUV will be unique and no one else has one. Until, you start to drive around and see orange SUV’s everywhere! They were there the whole time, but it wasn’t until you gave it importance and mental space in your brain that you start to see them. I love sharing this example!

It’s not about cars, though. For business owners, when we’re first starting, we tell ourselves were not not worthy enough to start a business. I don’t have enough time. And so on and on.

However, if you start out with the mindset that you ARE capable, you CAN make enough time… you will start to believe it and bring opportunities your way!

Can you talk a bit about limiting beliefs?

Nicole: I refer back to this quote: “your past does not equal your present unless you live there”. I love that so much.

For example, if you haven’t been good with money in the past, does that mean you can’t be good with it in the future? No. If you shift that mindset to acknowledge that maybe you didn’t put the time or energy into learning to manage money or doing the research, then you can begin to be capable of it in the future.

We also have beliefs that we’ve had since we were very, very young. I’ll use the example of a family member. When we are young, most of us idolize family members. So if you have a parent who isn’t good with money, then you may start to believe YOU can’t possibly be good with money either. As soon as the thought enters your brain, it sticks there. Especially between the ages of 5 to 14.

But perhaps, you just need to do more research. Are you really bad with money? Or, do you need to do a little bit of research to see just what you spent your money on and how you can budget a bit differently? Chances are, that’s the case.

How do you shift your mindset from hobby crafter to a money-making business?

Nicole: The biggest things that I see get in people’s way here is when they go from doing things for free, to doing things for money and suddenly they’re like, “I’m not worthy of $23 for this sweatshirt. Who do I think I am to charge for the things that I was doing for free for so long? Who’s going to pay me? There’s so many other sweatshirt designers out there! Who am I?”

There’s so much belittling ourselves and thinking that we are not worthy of making money doing what we love. So one of the things I love to do here is actually spook the heck out of our brains, and that is by listening and absorbing as many stories as possible of people doing the dang thing, of people going out, having really successful businesses launch, and stuff like that.

I do want to mention that this can be a double edged sword. Suddenly you’re thinking that we should go out and listen to 10 stories of successful business owners, even the overnight success stories. But I want to hear the stories of the people who fell flat on their face over and over and over again, and then finally figured it out. Those are the stories I want to hear because that’s training my RAS to see that you can be successful. That others are doing it.

Yes. You can sit down and journal on your own and say, I am capable. I am good. I am an awesome business owner. People will pay me lots and lots of money. We can totally do that. But sometimes that’s too big of a jump for our mindset. Instead, I like to imagine a bridge sort of opening up that new neural pathway in our brain saying “Hey, hey, see, they can do it. You can do it too.” It’s just a matter of opening that bridge up.

How do we adapt our mindset and grow as our business grows?

Nicole: Well, I think it boils down to doing the antithesis of that. It’s saying, I like this example here. If I’m at a bar and I’m playing darts, what is the goal of me playing darts? I’m not a big darts person, but I do know this about darts…

Get a bullseye.

And if I’m playing darts and I’m trying for a bullseye, trying for a bullseye, trying for a bullseye, and then suddenly the dart board goes away, what’s my goal of darts? Shoot at the wall. It could be anywhere, it could be anything. So what this is, is looking at, okay, what is my bullseye?

I need a direction I want to be heading towards. We do need goals, especially as business owners. We always want to be growing. And, even as people that’s just embedded in our human makeup. But if we don’t have a direction of where we’re going, our mindset is going to immediately fall back into old patterns because, that’s what’s comfortable.

So if I say, okay, my new goal is I want to have five sales in a week. Maybe that’s my goal. I’m really excited. I really want that. So that’s my dartboard bullseye. I want five sales in a week.

What I would do then is I would close my eyes and I would go through a day in the life or even a week in the life of that version of myself. What does that person wake up experiencing? What does that person wake up thinking? What are they grateful for? How do they spend their days? What do they see when they look in the mirror? How do they talk to themselves when they look in the mirror? And oh my goodness, their dream is coming true. At least their next goal is coming true.

That is the mindset we need to adopt. Now, let’s go back a few steps, right? We might not be making five sales a week on Etsy, but if we start adopting that kind of mindset, guess what? Our RAS is going to listen and it’s going to start looking for opportunities that will bring you closer to that outcome. So for example, a very real example—a few, not even a few months ago (more like eight months ago), I was at a podcasting conference and I knew, I was like, I really want to be a full time podcaster.

That is just something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m realizing it more and more. And when I put that bullseye in front of me, I started to think about, okay, what kind of mindset would that person have? I’m intelligent. That was a big one. I am clear. I am concise. I am charismatic. I started to talk to myself in that way.

Less than a week later, after leaving that conference, my sister and I decided to start a podcast and it’s now my full time job. So that’s like the super short version. Trust me, it’s not an overnight success story, but I do think that that is the biggest tool that we can use in our back pocket is saying, “what’s my goal? What’s the mindset of that person who’s achieving that goal? How can I adopt that mindset now?”

I also really like a quote that says “where focus goes, energy flows”. If I focus on my circumstances right now that I really don’t like, I’m going to show up not in the best place. I’m going to show up really low energy. But, think about how I can take the circumstances I have right now and think about where I’d like to be, I can start working toward that goal.

What’s one way you keep yourself moving forward?

Nicole: I celebrate the wins. Big, small and everything in between.

It doesn’t need to be a big huge celebration every time you meet a goal (say, those 5 sales), but just pause and acknowledge it. It’s as simple as saying I’m proud of myself and the progress I’m making.

I like to remind myself of this awesome graphic. It looks like a bunch of little teeny tiny stair steppers and someone’s at the very, very bottom of the stairs and then someone’s trying to get to the top of their stairs. The top of their stairs is their goal and they’re here at the bottom of the stairs and they make one step.

I love this graphic because it’s a side by side and it’s the super zoom out and it’s how we view ourselves which is like super far away from our goal versus the super zoomed in which is the second graphic and it’s someone making a step and we forget how important those steps are because that’s how we get from point A to point B and yet we think that it’s all the big steps.

There is a way to activate the big steps more, especially as a new business owner. It is really important to do the things that will take you bigger steps versus the little teeny tiny steps that tend to be safer. But we discredit any steps that aren’t a full leap to the goal.

One of the things that I actually encourage a lot of people to do is to at the end of the day, whether that’s at the end of the workday or even at the end of the evening. A lot new business owners are doing the side hustle thing. It’s not for the faint of heart at all!

But if you end your day and immediately you’re like, okay, what did I not do today? Then you beat yourself up for all the things that you didn’t do today. That’s not going to help you get that mindset specifically that incorporates “look how far I’m going”. Instead it’s looking at the end of the night, or the end of the workday and writing out a list of at least a minimum of three things you DID do that day.

When you see it written out, your brain has to activate so many different, more things in order to view that thing on paper. So writing out a list of three to five things that you did do that day is such a game changer. It only takes five minutes.

I also remind myself that we are human first. We need to treat ourselves as such. We can’t work nonstop and run ourselves into the ground.

We’re all human

Nicole: We have human emotions. We experience highs, lows, and everything in between. However, with the correct tools in your back pocket, you can experience these things and not let them completely derail you and your business.

The first thing to embrace is that we are human. Remind yourself of that and remind yourself often. Understand where you’re at, admit it, and face it head on. Don’t put the blinders on and try to ignore it. Remember that YOU are the one in control and tackle the situation at hand.

Ok, but how do we actually implement the “human first” ideal?

Nicole: Out of sight, out of mind, right? And if I say, okay, human first, but then I don’t ever use it because it’s either not in my face or it’s not framed on my fridge, or it’s not something I say back and forth with my husband. If it’s basically on the back burner, my brain’s just going to forget about it because it’s not important.

So, stick it where you can see it. Whatever your mantra is. Have it somewhere you can constantly refer back to it. For me personally, I have sticky notes, I have alarms for reminders on my phone. My husband and I repeat it to each other. Otherwise, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

Having it in front of your face is one of the fastest ways to reprogram your brain, because if you don’t you’ll forget about it. Life gets busy, even if we think that we’re so smart and won’t forget. We can’t outsmart our brains. Our brains are really powerful, and it tends to not always be in our favor in that way.

As a crafter, you could even make a project out of your mantra. Cut the words on a laser, use your Cricut machine to make a sign, anything to remember it.

How do you stay motivated and focused on business goals, even when the rest of life feels heavy?

Nicole: Great question! First, make your goals a lot smaller than you want to. If you are in tough times and have huge goals, it will feel really overwhelming. So, what’s the first step to get to my goal? Start there.

Block out everything else and focus on that first step to the goal. Because, when you’re in hard times, you can fall into a place where you have a shovel in your hand and suddenly you’re digging a hole. Before you know it, you’re 10 feet underground. If you find yourself underground, you can’t shoot into the stars. First, pick up that shovel and build yourself a set of stairs out of the hole. But, you don’t build the stairs all at once. Build it one step at a time.

That’s how I want everyone to look at getting out of hard times.

Do you have any advice on how to let go of things that don’t matter?

Nicole: Most people think they need to be doing all the things, all the time. That just isn’t the case.

If you think you need to be on all the platforms, doing the blogs, the YouTube videos, maybe write out a reason of why maybe this isn’t the best idea right now. Challenge those thoughts. Don’t just ignore it.

Instead, release it. Sometimes our brain has really got its talons sunk into it and it’s really hard to release. So let’s pluck the talons out one by one. So, make a list of why that certain thing is not right for right now.

Eventually, you’ll get to a place where you can see an much clearer objective board. What do I want to do? Then you get to make a decision from a much more clear head. You’re in the driver’s seat, rather than feeling the need to do everything all at once!

Honestly, if I gave one tool for people who are experiencing that, I would literally whip out a sheet of paper or whip out the notes app on your phone and just start writing down what are some reasons why this is maybe not the best idea and see where your mind goes.

What are some other ways we can effectively manage our time and resources to run a successful craft business?

Nicole: I am a major believer in the 80/20 rule. So for those of you who are not as familiar, 80/20 rule basically means in order for me to achieve a goal, let’s say, there are a hundred tasks that I need to do to achieve said goal.

However, 80 of those tasks tend to be not very helpful. They tend to be things that maybe move me like a little teeny tiny step forward, or maybe not at all, or maybe they’re just there to appear like I’m busy. It’s very, very common. We want to be busy, especially as business owners.

We’ve glorified the society of busyness, right? So a lot of these 80 tasks tend to be the illusion of busyness, but then there’s those other 20 that tend to be things that are really scary, they tend to be really out of our comfort zone, but they also tend to leap and bound us closer to our end result that we’re trying to get to.

So this is the 80/20 rule. It’s looking at your goal. And it’s saying what are the 20 percent tasks? What are the big, big scary tasks that are going to take me way closer to my goal? And what are the things that are maybe on my list because I should do them or because they sound easy, or because I feel like this one person on a live told me I needed to do it?

There tends to be a lot of shame and should in the 80 and there tends to be a lot of fear and specifically fear of failure and rejection in the 20.

But the 20 percent tasks, those are the ones that get you to your goal.

They are also the ones that keep you sane, and they’re the ones that tend to take the overwhelm and way, way, way lessen it, because you don’t have 80 tasks you’re doing, you have 20 instead.

In this instance is I would ask someone what their goal is. Then I would say, “Okay, write out a list of things that you feel like you need to do in order to achieve said goal.” Then I would go through each of those items. I would say, is that a 20 or is that an 80? And all of the 80s, ball up, throw in the trash, and do the 20s.

The 80s may feel good, but the real work is in the 20s.

Color-coded to-do lists and how they work for me

One thing Nicole asked me to share more about is her color coded to-do lists and how I use them. This was such a game changer for my business!

If you read my Tips for Starting a Craft Business, you may have read how I break up my tasks by my mental load. This was something Nicole helped me to implement. I’ll share more here.

I write out basically everything I have to do into this big brain dump document. Then I go through and break each bigger task into “one-sitting tasks” meaning that I can get the task done in an hour or less all in one go.

Then I prioritize by how much brain space each of my tasks is going to take. So, I have things that take a lot of brain space, things that take some brain space, and things I can do pretty easily.

Then I’ll color code them easy, medium, or hard, but it’s really more brain space, little, medium, or a lot of brain space. My hard stuff is teal, my medium stuff is pink, and my easy stuff is yellow. And then that way, if I’m struggling with brain fog, I can say to myself “today is a yellow task day.” What are some of those easier tasks that don’t take a lot of my brain space? I’ll tackle those on the days where I don’t feel as great and save the harder tasks for a day when I am ON.

Nicole was such a wealth of info. Hopefully you found this a helpful place to start on your own mindset journey.

You can actually listen to previous episodes of Nicole’s podcast, Imperfect Success for more tips. She’s no longer creating new episodes, but there are more than 200 previous ones I’m sure you will find helpful!

Speaking of podcasts, if you are into books, specifically fantasy books, I can’t recommend her new podcast, Fantasy Fangirls enough. Nicole and her sister deep dive into so many amazing books, namely A Court of Thorn and Roses. This is now her full-time job!

If you’re looking for more resources from Nicole, check out her mini course, Get Over the Overwhelm.

This mini-course contains Nicole’s golden 15-min exercise that will help you break the overwhelm cycle FOR GOOD! But this goes so far beyond just learning how to get out of the overwhelm!

You will also learn:

• The neuroscience of overwhelm
• Nicole’s favorite (and short) exercise to learn how to prioritize
• How to catch overwhelm before it starts
• How high achievers get SO many goals accomplished WITHOUT EVER going into overwhelm
• And SO much more!!

You can get access to the mini-course for 70% off! Use this link to get it for just $9!

The post Crafting a Business Mindset appeared first on Hey, Let's Make Stuff.

If you’ve ever considered turning your hobby into a profitable craft business, then this is for you. Today, I’m sharing craft business tips and questions you’ll want to consider before starting or growing your business.

This post is a summary of a recent YouTube Live and podcast I did with Angie Holden! You can watch the video by clicking play below, or you can find the podcast on many of your favorite podcast players. There’s so much more than what I cover here in the video and podcast, so if you have the time, give them a shot!

Before You Begin

First things first. You’ll want to ask yourself whether you really want to sell your crafts. Turning a hobby into a business can be both a blessing and a curse.

Personally, I don’t craft for fun as much as I used to. If I craft, then it is primarily for my business. I’m filming it. I’m doing an Instagram story with it. I am thinking about YouTube. I’m thinking about how I can work this into my business the entire time. So, it takes a little bit of the joy out of the hobby for me. 

Even if I am crafting for personal use, I still feel like I should film it so I can make a YouTube or an Instagram reel. For example, if I’m making a shirt for my boys for a school holiday, I’ll also make sure to grab pictures of it, as well as document the process.

Overall, it’s taken some of the joy out of crafting and you have to be willing to sacrifice a bit of that for your business.

Separating Your Work from Life

Next up, you’ll want to think about what will your workspace look like.

Starting a business from home can be tricky. Your business will likely invade your home space, which can blur the lines between business and pleasure. For me, home is where I have my downtime.

However, if work is staring you in the face the entire time you’re at home, it gets a little bit more difficult to get some downtime. To create that separation, you’ll need to put some measures in place. You may have to designate a workspace. Set work hours. In my previous house, I worked from a bedroom and I could close the door.

In my current house, I have a much bigger separation and it has become so much easier for me to be this is “work Cori”, and this is “at home Cori”. It makes it easier to turn off the work part of my brain when I’m in the house. I do have to be cognizant of it, though.

Stop Overthinking It

I get it. I’m a classic overthinker. Taking a big step is really hard, but thinking about it is easy. 

In that case, it’s easy to get completely overwhelmed. In The Next Right Thing the author talks about taking just the next step in the right direction. That way, you don’t have to think about every single thing. Just do the next right thing.

There will be days where you have more time set aside so you can actually take a really big bite out of a project or task. Other days, you’ll only have space for a small step. I really like thinking about it this way as opposed to sort of thinking about it as one huge overwhelming thing. 

Building off of that, consider making progress over obtaining perfection. If you wait so long that your business is going to be perfect or that Instagram you want to start is going to be perfect, you may never start. If you hesitate, you don’t make any progress. Just starting is better than not starting at all.

If you take a look back at my YouTube channel or blog, you’ll see just how much things have changed. Often you do the best you can with what you have in the moment. You can spend forever researching a platform or a tool, but sometimes you just need to make a decision knowing you can always change it.

Almost everything I used for my blog 10 years ago is completely obsolete now. Things change, things morph, industries grow. Accept that you aren’t necessarily locked into your choices forever, but it’s the right choice for right now.

Rather than starting huge and getting overwhelmed and ultimately discouraged, start where you are. Start with what feels comfortable right now.

Deciding What Products to Sell

Deciding what to sell can be a tough one! So I have a few areas you should consider as you go along.

What do you love?

My biggest piece of advice would be to sell something you are passionate about. You don’t want to make mug rugs if you would never use a mug rug a day in your life. You want to make something that excites you—especially if you’ll be making a lot of them in the future.

You’ll also want to consider whether this is something you can you make over and over again? Personally, making the same thing day in and day out would bore me to tears. But, for others they like the repetition!

What is your niche?

If you’ve ever attended Crafting for Profit Camp, you’ve probably heard me talk about niching down. You may enjoy making a bunch of different things. That’s okay! However, making too many different products can mean your customers don’t know what to expect from you and you won’t be able to perfect your products.

There are actually two ways to niche down. Let’s look at both.

You can niche down by product type. So you can niche down by drinkware, for example, and just make tumblers and mugs. This, however, brings you back to that same problem where you have to make the same thing over and over again.

You can also niche down by theme. If you want to make something by theme, you can probably be much more broad in what you’re actually making. So, if you decide to make products for pet parents, you can make bandanas and dog dishes and tags and little dog shirts, but they all relate to the same customer. 

So in this example, a customer might come to you for a dog shirt. And then they may see that you have dog tags and also purchase from you. It could be basically any theme, but you really want to focus on a specific customer. So, you’re not making dog shirts, true crime tumblers, hand sewn pillows, and clay earrings. While those things are great, it’s hard to find one person who wants all of those items!

Who is your target customer?

Let’s go into that customer profile a bit more when it comes to deciding what to sell.

Think about your ideal buyer. What makes them unique? What do they buy? What stores do they shop at? What websites are they on? What social media do they like? What is their annual income? What is their disposable income? Where do they live?

Then give this “avatar” a name. When I’m writing, selling, or creating anything, I have this avatar in my head and I’m always talking right to them. This includes product listings, social media posts, emails, and more.

Don’t be afraid to let your customer avatar shift a little bit as you kind of learn more about your business. I really want my customer avatar to be younger than she actually is. In my head, I still think I’m creating for somebody younger and I have to remind myself that I’m getting older. And so, my customer avatar is also getting older with me. 

Can you perfect your product?

Don’t start selling until you have a perfect product.

You’d be surprised how often I see people in our Facebook group mention that they got a sublimation printer yesterday and now have an order for 20 tumblers. That terrifies me! First things first. Take a step back and make sure you have a perfect product. This may mean you have to toss a blank or two (or ten) if you mess up.

You want to give your customers a perfect product because the number one way you’re going to start to get more business in the beginning is through referrals. If you’re not putting out a perfect product, you’re not going to get those referrals. Really working on your product to make it your own and to make it really special is a way to set yourself apart from the crowd.  

I even recommend doing a test shipment if you’re going to ship your product. So, put it in a box, package it, and send it to someone you know. Then have them film the unboxing. You may be shocked at what some of those packages go through. You want to make sure that it arrives to your customer in the same condition you put it into that box.  

Deciding Where to Sell

Your two main options are going to be online or in person. Personally, I think in-person selling is a better place to start your small craft business because you can gauge people’s reactions when they see your products. You can see what they’re picking up, what they’re not picking up, and how they react.

Using online storefront such as Etsy, you don’t have that insight. You may have some analytics, but you don’t really know what people are really drawn to and what they’re not drawn to. You can’t talk to people about your products. It’s just a little bit more impersonal. 

For a lot of people, starting out at a small craft show or selling in a Facebook group is the best way to begin. It’s way less overwhelming.

Start a Facebook group and invite your family and friends. Encourage them to invite others. Sell on Facebook Marketplace or go to a craft fair. Starting small gives you all those personal insights. Then, when you’re ready, add in an online platform such as Etsy.

Creating a Cohesive Brand

Okay, this is one of those things where you can get very overwhelmed. Start small and I promise it’ll all be okay!

Branding is actually one of the best ways to set your business apart from other small craft businesses. I think that’s because we are such a visual people. Nobody is going to look at something unless it’s pretty. That’s just how it is these days.

I have a lot of resources for creating a cohesive brand, including my course Crafting Your Signature Style. There’s a lot to think about but here are a few small places to start.

Choose a Unique Name

First and foremost, find a name and make sure that name’s not taken by someone else. If I’m thinking about a name for something new, I Google it, see if anyone else is using it, what comes up in the Google search results. You want to make sure that it’s not being used and that it doesn’t have any negative connotations.

Be sure to go ahead and claim that name on Instagram, Facebook, big social media sites, etc. Even if you don’t plan to use them right then, claim them so no one else can. I would also recommend claiming the URL regardless if you’re going to use it or not, because you’ll probably want to use it in the future.

Choose a Color Story

Then choose your color story. This should be a range of colors that you’ll use in your logo and other branding AND in your products. If you go to my Instagram, you’ll see that I use the same colors over and over again. I may put in a pop of other colors I don’t use as often (purple and orange, for example), but generally I stick to my brand colors. This gives you a very cohesive feel to everything you do.

Make sure your colors have some variety. You’ll want to be able to craft using your colors and you don’t want to be so limited that it’s difficult. For years I didn’t have any pinks in my color palette and it made Valentine’s Day pretty difficult, for example. Choose between 5 and 10 colors. You do not need to use all of the colors in your logo, but having a nice selection of colors that you stick to will help your overall branding look cohesive.

Practice Your Photography and Editing

You probably have a good camera already in your pocket. Consider taking a small phone photography course to get familiar with how your camera works. Again, we’re looking for consistency across your photos, with similar styling and lighting.

You’ll most likely want to get some easy backdrops as well. Truly almost everything I shoot is with a piece of foam core. Take your photo and then edit with a dark phone screen in mind. Brighten your photo and then brighten some more. When you think it’s too bright, maybe brighten it a little bit more because people are mostly looking at your photos on that darkened phone screen. 

If you’re looking for a good editing app, Adobe Lightroom is a free app on your phone, and it is incredibly robust. One of the things I really love about Adobe Lightroom is that you can edit one photo and then select all your photos, and sync those edits to all your other photos, meaning that you don’t have to edit each one individually.

Building an Email List

While most people want to jump right into all the social media platforms, I suggest you do something else instead. Start an email list! If you started a business, you NEED an email list. 

You need an email list because it is not subject to an algorithm. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok decide who gets to see your content. But when you send an email, it’s going to be delivered. Yes they have to open it, but it’s there. In this day and age, being able to get directly in front of somebody because they chose to be there is really big.

You can email people about new sales, new products, behind the scenes, etc. Just be consistent. Whether you’re emailing once a week or once a month, get people used to seeing your name in their inbox. 

There are services like MailChimp that are free for a certain amount of email addresses, so it’s a great place to start. Start with something like MailChimp and then move to a different provider that offers more features later on, if you need to.

Getting Your Finances in Order

First and foremost, I have to state that I am not a tax professional. I am not a CPA. I am not a lawyer. I don’t have the answer for every person, every state, every county. Everywhere is different.

That’s really annoying, because it would be nice to say, this is the type of business you should open and here is what you need to do. However, it’s just not possible. My first piece of advice is to contact your local small business administration, women’s business administration, a CPA, and/or a business lawyer. They can really help you get your finances in order and help you learn more about business classifications and how to collect sales tax.

Overall, you just want to make sure you’re keeping your business finances separate from your personal finances and that you’re obeying all licensing laws and regulations. There’s a lot that goes into this, but a professional can help!

Being Productive

Finally, let’s talk productivity once your craft business is up and running. If you’re starting a craft business, there’s a chance you may work another job in addition or have other priorities. You’ll need to do what works best for you since you’ll likely be carving time into an already packed schedule.

Limit Distractions

We live in such a distraction filled world and I have to say that like my four biggest distractions live in my house—my husband, my two boys, and my dog. I love all of them dearly, but when I’m working they can really be a distraction. So, I’ve had to work really hard with my husband to set boundaries. Our brains can only do so much!

I know that’s very hard and I’m very privileged to be able to have my parents living down the street and that I work on this business full time and my husband stays home. I’m very privileged in the fact that it’s very easy for me now to carve out that time. But when I had two infants, it was much, much more difficult. 

Remember not to compare yourself to others. I have friends who have grown kids and have more time in their days. I have friends with younger kids or other circumstances. We are all just working with what works for us.

Find Your Peak Hours

Next, when you are carving out your time, think about when you’re the freshest. 

I am never good working late at night. When I was also working at my marketing job full time, I often got up at 4:30 in the morning because that was easier for me than staying up late. I still do my best work in the mornings, though often I don’t have to get up so early. By the time the afternoon rolls around, I’m done. 

Break Up Tasks by Mental Load

Finally, break up your tasks by how much mental load they may take. Here’s how I do this.

I write out basically everything I have to do into this big brain dump document. Then I go through and break each bigger task into “one-sitting tasks” meaning that I can get the task done in an hour or less all in one go.

Then I prioritize by how much brain space each of my tasks is going to take. So, I have things that take a lot of brain space, things that take some brain space, and things I can do pretty easily.

Then I color code the tasks using random colors. This is important—don’t use green, yellow and red for easy, medium, and hard. The signals in our brain will automatically say STOP to the hard stuff if it’s red!

So I picked three random colors. My hard stuff is teal, my medium stuff is pink, and my easy stuff is yellow. This way, it’s easy for me to look at the list and think about my own brain capacity at any given moment. Do I have 15 minutes before I need to head off to an appointment? I’m looking for an easy yellow task. Or do I have several hours set aside? Then I might tackle some teal tasks. Do what works for you!

Whew! We covered a lot in our video and podcast—way more than I even have here!

While this list may not cover everything YOU need to consider for YOUR small business, I do think we’ve covered the basics. Remember, your small business journey will look different than others, and that’s okay! Start where you are and keep taking the next steps.

If you want even more small business resources, be sure to tune into our next episode of Crafting for Profit Live!

The post Tips for Starting a Craft Business appeared first on Hey, Let's Make Stuff.

If you’re looking for easy projects that can be completed in under an hour, try a scrappy rag wreath! I made this heart-shaped wreath while my twins were napping, including cutting all the fabric into squares. As a mom who doesn’t have a lot of extra time on her hands, it was such a joy to go from start to finish while my boys took a nap!

I wanted to have a beautiful wreath to hang on our door that would work for Valentine’s Day but wasn’t pink or red. That way, it would work throughout the rest of winter and into spring, until I was ready to decorate for Easter. I had these two fabrics picked out for another project I never did, so I thought they’d make a cute wreath with a bit of a country vibe.

Once I finished my project, I love LOVE how it turned out. Especially for only an hour of work! Fabric rag wreaths are one of those projects that is great for beginner crafters who don’t have a ton of supplies on hand and want a quick, satisfying project in the end. Now that’s what I call happy crafting!

The History of Rag Wreaths

Rag wreaths are one of those projects that have been around for a very long time. It was a great way for people to use fabric scraps to create something new, along with rag rugs. You can even see rag projects in heritage museums throughout the United States and abroad.

Even today, this is a great scrap busting project! No need to head to the fabric store. If you’re like me, you have a huge fabric stash in your craft room. Making rag wreaths is a great way to get through some of those fabric scraps. Just cut your scraps down to size as mentioned in the directions and use them to make your rag wreath! I had these two checked patterns sitting in my stash for years, so this was a great reason to break them out and use them.

I also think this would look really pretty in an ombre of solid colors or patterned fabric. You could also use different color schemes for the different holidays, like red and green for Christmas decor, an array of pastels for Easter, or orange and black for a Halloween rag wreath. These foam wreath forms come in many shapes, too, so get creative! I’ve even seen mini foam wreath forms so you could whip up a mini rag wreath fast!

Rag Wreath Supplies

Get everything you need to make this project in my Amazon Shop!

• Foam wreath
• 1/2 yard small check fabric (you could also use fat quarters or a jelly roll)
• 1/2 yard large plaid fabric (you could also use fat quarters or a jelly roll)
• Wooden dowel
• Craft glue
• Ribbon for hanging
• Pins or a hot glue gun

You can also use a wire wreath form! Use long strips with a double knot around the wire form. No glue, but it does take longer to make and my hands are always much more tired after finishing one like that up! After making both, I definitely prefer this foam wreath form version—it’s just so much faster.

Rag Wreath Instructions

I don’t have any photos of this part, but I used my cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter to cut my fabric into long 3″ fabric strips, and then stacked those strips and cut them into 3″ fabric squares. (Even if you don’t sew, I think every crafter needs a mat, ruler, and cutter! I use them all the time to cut fabric, paper, vinyl, felt, etc.) Using a rotary cutter is so much easier than using regular scissors, but scissors work if that’s all you’ve got!

You could also cut strips of fabric that are more like 1.5″ wide by 3″ long but it will take you longer to make your rag wreath.

I had two stacks of 3″ fabric squares. One of my fabrics was a thin cotton and the other was flannel, so the two piles aren’t the same thickness — but they have roughly the same number of squares.

Start by placing a piece of fabric around the end of your dowel.

Dip the dowel and fabric into the glue…

And stab into your foam. I found this oddly satisfying. It makes a nice little crunch.

Then, repeat, repeat, repeat! It fills up a lot more quickly than you’d expect. My pieces of fabric were about 1/2″ apart. I tried to distribute both kinds of fabric evenly and I think it worked out great! I did try and work the fabric pieces at the bottom of the heart so that the point would be clearly visible.

To hang it, I just pinned some white ribbon to the back of the wreath. You could also use tacks or hot glue.

Final Heart Rag Wreath

I hung it on my old window to photograph it, but I’ve already moved it to our front door (which badly needs a makeover…add it to the list!). It looks so beautiful out there. Fabric wreaths really do soften the lines of a front porch! I’ve also hung them in windows and on interior doors, especially during the Christmas holiday season when our whole house is decorated.

Update: This has held up so well. Three years later, and this beautiful fabric wreath is still my spring door decor. None of the fabric pieces have fallen out and because I used black and white, I don’t notice any fading from the sun.

I just love how it looks—so much texture and dimension! I store it flat in our Valentine’s Day decor box and I just fluff up the fabric each year when I pull it out to put it on the door.

This is the perfect project and I can’t wait for you to try making it!

Print

How to Make a Rag Wreath

This heart-shaped rag wreath took me less than an hour to make! You can use any foam wreath form and scraps of fabric to make this easy project in under an hour.

Keyword Fabric, Wreath

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 1 wreath

Author Cori George

Equipment

• Hot Glue Gun
• Wooden Dowel
• craft glue

Ingredients

• 1 Foam wreath form
• 1/2 yard Fabric #1
• 1/2 yard Fabric #2
• 1 piece Ribbon

Instructions

• Cut your fabric into long 3" fabric strips.
• Stack the strips and cut them into 3" fabric squares.
• Place a piece of fabric around the end of your dowel.
  
• Dip the dowel and fabric into the glue.
  
• Stab the dowel and fabric into the wreath form.
  
• Continue until you've filled your entire wreath with fabric pieces.
  

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial for making a rag wreath! If you’re looking for different wreaths to make, check out these posts from my blog and some of my blogging besties. Your front door will be so happy year-round!

• Easy Spring Embroidery Hoop Wreath
• DIY Felt Wreath for Christmas
• Tissue Paper Wreath
• Christmas Candy Wreath
• Halloween Berry Wreath
• Watermelon Dollar Store Wreath

The post How to Make an Easy Rag Wreath in Under an Hour appeared first on Hey, Let's Make Stuff.

Are you curious how to grow and make money with your small craft business? You’re in luck! Today, I’m sharing my top 10 tips for making money with your craft business. I’ve spent 10+ years in this small business world and have definitely learned my share of lessons during that time. I’m no expert by any means, but I’ve built a profitable business and enjoy passing my knowledge onto others when I can.

What I’m giving you today here is sort of an overview, but if you want to dive deeper into making money with your crafts, I invite you to join me and Angie Holden for Crafting for Profit Camp! We are hosting this event for the second time this year. It’s January 25th through 27th, 2024. We will have a whole bunch of teachers come in and teach you how to make money with your crafts!

And now, let’s dive into the 10 tips for making money with your craft business!

Watch the YouTube Video

I walked through everything in this post over on YouTube! Just click play to watch. Or keep scrolling if you prefer to read.

1. Get in the Right Mindset

Mindset is so important. First and foremost, you need to get your brain in a place of making money. I know this can sounds very woo-woo and like power of positive thinking and all of that. However, from my own personal experience, I tend to dwell on the difficult parts of things. In doing so, I focus on how well other people are doing or how difficult this particular task is. I think about ALL THE THINGS—taxes and so forth. It can really mess with my mindset!

Over the last year or so, I’ve really been trying to cultivate a more positive business mindset. I try to go into each day understanding that there are difficult parts of my business, but I am a strong and capable woman and I can do them. I also want to make sure that I’m not focusing on those negatives. Yes, there are days that are harder than others. Yes, there are things about my business that I don’t like nearly as much as other things—taxes being a huge part of that. However, there is so much that I do love!

So I’ve been trying to focus more on those positive things. Overall, it has really helped with my mindset about my whole business in general. Last year was a very difficult year and I allowed myself to get really down about it. I feel like I spent a lot of time sort of down in the dumps because I just could not seem to get my mind wrapped around the fact that I have this beautiful, thriving business.

I’ve come to realize that yes, there are hard parts. And yes, people are doing better than me. Many also have more followers than me. However, I still have a really great business! So, this year, I’ve really been shifting my mindset.

If you’re just starting out with your craft business or if you’ve been running it a while, and you feel that negativity creeping in, I would highly recommend reaching out to some mindset resources. There are lots of YouTube videos! I also have a great coach, Nicole Baker. She’s a speaker at Crafting for Profit Camp, as well! Nicole is a business coach and she’s really big into mindset. If you’re looking for mindset resources, you may want to check her out. She has some pretty inexpensive courses and resources for you at Life Coach Baker.

That being said, mindset is a really great place to start in order to make money in your craft business!

2. Get Your Business Finances in Order

The second thing I highly recommend is getting your business finances in order. I know this is one of those boring things that you might find stressful. It might also lead you to that negative mindset, but trust me—getting your business finances in order is a really important step to running a successful business.

For example, you’ll probably want to open up a separate business bank account in order to keep your business funds and your personal funds separate. You’re probably wondering why you need to do that—especially if you have a very small business. I promise you, you’ll thank yourself when it comes to tax season! If your business continues to grow, you are going to want that separation.

You may want to meet with a CPA just to make sure that you’re getting all of your finances in order. Once you know how to get started, you’ll definitely want to keep up with your accounting. Start this by setting up some sort of business accounting software. I use Wave, I really love it! QuickBooks is another option. There are many options out there! Whatever you decide to use, be sure you are tracking your business expenses as well as the money coming in and applying it all to your business.

Not surprisingly, accounting is my least favorite part of my job. I am not a numbers person, I am an English major all the way! At some point, I probably will outsource it, but for now I still do it all myself. It’s a difficult part of business for me, but I’ve learned the value of staying on top of the finances. It makes it easier to know what money’s coming in and what money is going out, which is most important. Without an accounting program, that is much harder to figure out!

3. Find Your Niche

When I first started my blog, I had an Etsy shop and I was making all sorts of sewn projects. I was blogging about sewing, various crafts, Cricut crafting, recipes, travel, how to be a mom of twins, etc. I was all over the place and I wasn’t really making progress in any one direction.

In 2015, I actually niched down. I decided to focus on crafting tech and the machines used in Cricut, laser, and sublimation craft projects. Sublimation wasn’t really a thing then for crafters, but over time it evolved to become even more of what I do. I really honed in on crafting tech, which became my expertise. I decided to become the person who knows these machines intimately and teaches people how to use them.

Once I sort of niched down, people knew that they were coming to me for crafting machines content. They knew that they weren’t going to get a recipe or info about my trip to Paris. I’ve actually never been to Paris, but you know what I mean! They knew that when they came to my blog or channel, they were getting crafting machines content.

It’s the same for a small crafting business. You want to be known for what YOU do in YOUR industry.

You can niche down kind of in one of two ways. You can niche down by product, meaning that you’re only going to make one type of item such as drinkware, clay earrings, or bags.

You can also niche down by style. Perhaps you’ve decided to make a wide variety of sublimation products, but they’re all geared toward teachers.

Either way will work, but you want to make sure that you have a particular audience member in mind! You have that particular teacher or that particular pet owner or that particular woman who wears those particular bags. This way you know exactly who your customer is and they’ll be able to find you much more easily than they would if you had a whole range of products they have to dig through to find what they’re looking for.

4. Add Value

Let’s say that you make mug gifts. You make them for all sorts of occasions, but you can really add value to those and make them different from other people selling similar things online.

For example, you make a really cute Loco for Cocoa mug. But you could also fill it with all sorts of chocolate goodies, and some candy canes to make it perfect for Christmas.

You can make your own little gift card holder that you could put in there, and then the person who buys the mug can then add their own gift card. Adding something extra makes it a much better gift than it would have been as just the mug itself.

Find ways to add value in your small business. Maybe you make big wooden signs on your laser, but maybe you’re adding paper flowers to it to give it to some dimension or something extra. Adding something that like sets you apart and takes you up a notch compared to everything else that’s out there!

Find something that sets you apart and really hone it in!

5. Use a Pricing Calculator

Now, let’s talk about pricing.

I’m not going to go into how to price your products here because there’s a lot that goes into it. But, you do need to price your products both competitively and so you’ll make money. It’s a difficult balance, especially when there’s so much competition combined with a lot of people underselling themselves.

For this tip, I’m going to recommend a product. My friend Courtney at The Crafty Brick has a pricing calculator called the Crafty Profit Projector and it’s really good! Her pricing calculator walks through everything you need to be able to price your products both competitively and so you’ll make money. I think it’s really a great place to start rather than just slapping a price on something and hoping that you’re getting it right!

Overall, you want to be sure that your time and materials are covered along with profit in the end.

6. Create a Strong Brand

This is actually my personal favorite. I honestly feel like if I wasn’t doing this crafting thing, I would be in branding!

In my former life (before I quit my job in 2013 to do this full time) I worked for a marketing company and we worked with a Fortune 500 company’s brand. While working here, I learned the basics of creating a really, really strong brand. It’s important for big businesses, but extra important for crafty small businesses!

There are so many crafty small businesses out there. You have to set yourself apart to really get noticed. So how do you do that?

You can set yourself apart in your branding! Set yourself apart in the colors that you use, the way that you photograph your products, the way that your website looks, the way you’ve designed your Etsy shop. The more cohesive and beautiful these things are, the more they’re going to grab somebody’s attention. Once you have their attention, they’re more likely to buy from you than from some random hodgepodge shop that doesn’t have any sort of cohesive look.

I am SO passionate about branding that I actually created a short course called Crafting Your Signature Style. Crafting Your Signature Style is all about visual branding for small businesses. In it, I discuss 10 different areas where you can make your branding better and stand out from the crowd. I’m actually really proud of this course!

7. Be Authentic

I know the word authentic has probably been driven into the ground at this point, but I really do feel like being authentic is the number one way to connect with your audience.

There are many different places you can connect with people. For example, if you’re on my Instagram, you’ll know that occasionally I will share content related to babies in the NICU. Does that have anything to do with crafting? Not really, but I had two babies in the NICU. And so I’m very, very passionate about NICU care. I’m very passionate about getting parents the care that they need in the NICU because I didn’t have the best care while I was there. This is something that’s really important to me. I don’t talk about them all the time, but sometimes I weave it into things like my Instagram stories to give people a more personal connection to me. Now, if you didn’t have a baby in the NICU, you’re probably like, oh, that’s sad. But if you did, you’re like, oh my gosh, she’s my girl! I feel like there’s a special bond with NICU parents and whatever you’ve gone through.

Of course, you don’t have to share your trauma online! I’m not saying you should trauma dump online, but I do feel like finding those points of connection that are authentic and can really connect with your audience is such a good way to form a bond. Essentially, you want someone to be like “oh, she makes cute cups”, but “oh my gosh, she makes cute cups AND she’s really passionate about pet rescue!”

Think of one or two things you can really connect with others on. Just being authentic and being yourself, getting yourself out there, it’s very hard. Trust me, I don’t love to be in Instagram stories or making YouTube videos, but I do enjoy the connections I’ve made/continue to make!

Finding those points of connection and being authentic with your audience is the number one way to connect with them and to get them to buy your products.

Set up Your Workspace for Productivity and Success

I’m going to totally change direction here and say, set up your space for success. I mean your actual, physical space. Whether it’s your studio, your dining table, wherever you’re working, set it up in a way that works for you so that you can make your products quickly and easily!

One of my biggest recommendations is having a table that is designated for nothing. This becomes your work table. I have a work table in my studio. That particular table is designated for filming. I do work at it occasionally, but I have this same exact table on the other side of my room, and that’s my work table. I have tables with heat presses, tables with machines, all sorts of other things, but that table is basically bare except for whatever I’m working on in the moment. I don’t use it for storage, I don’t use it to hold any machines or anything. It can be whatever I need it to be in the moment.

So if your space allows it, I would recommend getting yourself a good sized table and designating it as your work table. Don’t put anything else on it. It’s just your table for doing what you need to right then.

When setting up your workspace for success, don’t overlook your health. I’ve mentioned this several times. I have a chronic illness and it causes my body to ache a lot. So there are many things that I have done over the years to help alleviate some of that. I have this exact standing desk. I actually have a bike that goes under my desk so I can be moving my legs sometimes. I find that sitting in one position is very uncomfortable.

Often times, I just need to change positions. I set a timer for 30 minutes and I work for 30 minutes. And then for five minutes, I get up and I move around. It’s a little flip timer. I can flip it from the five minute timer to the 30 minute timer back and forth. I do that all day. I’ll work for 30 minutes, walk around and clean up for five minutes or make myself lunch. I’ll walk into my house and make our bed or water our plants. I just need my body moving every 30 minutes. I find that that has helped so much with the pain that comes with crafting or sitting at a computer all the time.

If you own a crafty business, you know these are the two things you’re going to be doing the most. My recommendation is stand up every 30 minutes, walk around, move your body. You’ll be so much better off physically and you’ll be able to craft for much longer!

9. Get in the Flow when Creating

Now, let’s talk about getting into a good flow. For me, this is primarily removing distractions.

Of course, social media is the big distraction, right? For most of us. When I am working or when I am crafting, I will actually turn off all my social media sites. I will sign out. So even if I wanted to sign back in, you know, it’s more of a hassle. I will hide my phone. I will turn off my notifications just so I can actually get things done. That allows my brain to get into that space of actually working.

Like I said, I do get up every 30 minutes and walk around for five minutes, but I’ve been doing that long enough that it’s finally starting not to break my flow. I’m working for 30 minutes. I stand up, I move around, and then I’m right back into it as I sit back down. I don’t allow myself to get on social media. I don’t allow myself to check my messages or email or anything like that during those five minutes. I have separate parts of my day for that. Because of that, I am able to get in a really nice flow when I am either crafting or at my computer. Getting rid of those distractions is so helpful.

Now, as a mother of small children, I understand that it is not possible to always get away from all of the distractions. Some of my distractions are things I love the most in the world. Those being my husband, my kids, and my dog. All of those are probably my biggest distractions. We have a pretty good system that when mommy’s at work, dad’s in charge, and my boys know that this is my job and that they need to give me some space. Are they in here sometimes? Yes, of course. Sometimes it’s crazy, and sometimes I have to kick them out. Sometimes I feel bad. But this is my job. I’m very present in the evenings and on weekends and other times we are together. However, this is what I do during my business day.

So, you may also need to set some boundaries, not just with social media, but with the people in your life.

10. Build your Email List

Let’s switch gears yet again and talk about growth.

My number one tip about growing your business is to create an email list. Heck, you can join mine here!

Now, I know this sounds like some sort of advice you might get like in the ’90s. Everybody needs an email list, right? However, it’s still my best piece of advice. Specifically because your email list is not bound by an algorithm. You can post on social media, create a blog, create a YouTube channel, and all of that is dependent on other companies deciding that your content is going to rank or not rank.

Your email list is different. Emails up in their inbox. Yes, they still have to decide to click on it and open your email, but it will be delivered. It’s a really amazing thing to see that your audience, all these people who liked you enough to opt into your list are then getting your content.

Your email list is a great way to promote your products! Obviously, it’s a great way to promote any sort of new content you’ve created. If you’re blogging or creating YouTube content or promoting sales, all of those things directly land in somebody’s email box.

Chef’s kiss, there’s no better way to do it.

My biggest tip for creating an email list is to have some sort of downloadable freebie. There’s so many ways to do it and so many tutorials about how to make it happen online. Whether it’s just a little printable or an SVG file, if it’s something that somebody can get for free, it’s a great way to get people on your list.

Just be sure you’re consistent about emailing them. Whether it’s once a week, twice a week, or even once a month. You want people to get used to seeing you in their inbox.

Finally, don’t get sad when you get unsubscribes.

Every time I send an email, I get between 200 and 400 people unsubscribing. If I think about those numbers, sometimes I can really go into that dark place. That’s exactly why the mindset thing was first! Don’t worry about it. Those are not your people. If they are your people, they’ll come back. At some point, be paying for your email list and you don’t want to be paying for people who don’t want to be there and don’t care about what you have. You want to be speaking to the people who want to be there.

I hope you found these 10 tips for making money with your craft business helpful! If you want to go deeper, you can always join us for Crafting for Profit Camp in January. If you have any questions or comments about making money with your small craft business, I would love to hear them in the comments!

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