Okay, so you want to start a handmade business,
but you aren't quite sure how much it will cost. Starting your own
business can feel totally overwhelming especially
when you just aren't sure what those initial expenses are going to be. For planning purposes,
you want to avoid any unwanted financial surprises,
right? That's why today in this video
I'm going to break down the cost of starting a handmade business for you
so you'll know exactly what to expect as you get started. And I will let you in on a little secret.
It's not expensive or it's not as expensive as you might think.
Hi, my name is Mei Pak and I help makers artists
and designers make a living by selling their handmade products online.
I've started a handful of online businesses myself from Tiny Hands to Creative Hive
and the new art shop that my husband and I started in 2019.
So I'm excited to share with you all of my insight today on the costs for starting a business.
Now before we get started just know that this list is
for the business side of things
so it doesn’t really include any money spent on materials
and supplies to actually make your product
because that's going to largely depend on what you make. The one note
I will mention here before we get started again is don't fall into the trap of
spending all of your money in just product materials
and supplies,
which is something I see a lot of creatives fall into this trap.
You ideally want to allocate 80 percent of your budget to business
and marketing and the remaining 20% can be spent on product
materials and supplies. Now I know that doesn't sound like a lot
but you really don't need a lot of inventory or products in the beginning to start making sales.
Also, it is important to note - I promise you we will get started soon -
but it's important to note that prices do change all the time.
So be sure to check for updated prices before you buy any of these things
I'm going to recommend to you. Still the pricing in
this video will give you a great rough idea of what to expect financially moving forward.
And like I said, you just might find that it's more affordable than you thought.
Or if it's something that I don't believe is worth paying money for in the beginning
you'll find out about this in this video too.
So let's get into it. If you choose to sell directly from your own Shopify site,
you will need to pay a monthly subscription for Shopify.
I highly highly recommend going this route even in the beginning
because you will get to keep a hundred percent of your earnings from your Shopify store
instead of sharing a cut with a third-party service like with Etsy
or Amazon and you also
have so much more freedom
and control as a seller. Also Shopify makes buying from your shop super easy for your customers.
And for you if buying from you is easy,
you will make more sales in turn. If you need more details about why I
recommend Shopify above all else check out this video here.
So a monthly subscription to Shopify is $29 a month.
They have other tiers, but this is the one I recommend you start
with. If that seems steep just keep in mind
it really is worth it and you will make your money back quickly coupled with the right marketing
strategies. This might feel like one of the pricier purchases you make
but also one of the best investments for your business.
You will be able to make up that cost with a couple sales
and like I said before you won't have to take a cut from a third party sites like with Etsy
or Amazon.
They can easily take up to 25% of your total sales,
which is a lot. You're also going to want a business email address. Believe it or not,
your customers might not like sending customer service questions to soccergirl23@gmail.com
or LADodgersrule@yahoo.com, right? A business email address is
where you have your domain name after the @ symbol.
So for example info@tinyhandsonline.com.
This just helps you look like a professional shop that people can trust.
It's also a good practice to separate your personal emails from your
business ones. Not to mention with a business email address,
you can do email marketing which allows you to send email newsletters
in bulk to your email list of people that signed up
for them.
You cannot do that with a personal at gmail.com or at yahoo.com account.
I mean you can but it's called spam.
So don't do it. Now, I know what you're thinking.
Can I just set up a second email address for free?
Like I've seen people who have free Gmail accounts
for their business like tinyhandsonline@gmail.com.
Honestly, I still wouldn't recommend doing that.
When you pay for a business email you are essentially paying to make it easy
for people to trust you and trust
is super important to have with your customers
when you're a new shop online. A business email address from Google
is six dollars a month not terribly expensive
and you will find it is well worth the price
because you use your email every freaking day. If you get one
from Google it is basically using the same
Gmail service that you're probably already used to using
which is a nice perk of going with Google. Not
to mention Gmail does have a ton of great extensions
you can install that help you be more productive in your business.
Now if you're starting a handmade business, you are also going to
need to take excellent pictures of your products
for your website. That means good lighting and crisp and clear photos.
I cannot emphasize the importance of professional looking photos
enough because if you are taking blurry
or dark pictures on a flip phone
or if you're just not that good at doing it because you didn't take the time to learn how to do it,
no one's going to buy your product. They just won't trust that the product is worth the price
and they don't even really know what they're getting in the mail,
right? No one's going to trust you. You work hard at creating your products.
So please do it the justice of a great professional photo shoot.
And it doesn't mean you have to outsource this. If you don't do that,
you're just going to undersell yourself and struggle to make sales.
If you have a newer smart phone, you can use that to take your pictures,
but you will still need to make sure the lighting is on point,
right? So photography lighting kits like studio lights
or light boxes they range from in price anywhere from like 15 to a hundred
dollars to thousands of dollars depending on the size
and how cool they are.
Honestly, I have two umbrella lights that I've paid for under $100 and they’ve served me
so well. You can decide which level is best
for your product by checking out the reviews
for the lighting kits and then just doing some careful research.
I've gotten all of my lighting equipment on Amazon
so that's a good first place to check out.
And if you need light boxes that already come with those lights just search
for the top reviewed lightbox product on Amazon.
You can't really go wrong from there. But that is an investment
you will have to account to make in the beginning. You can DIY your own lights,
but you will still need to buy the correct color light bulbs.
If you sell art as like wall decor
or other physical products like mugs or t-shirts say you worked with a print on demand company
you can always choose to use stock photos instead of taking your own
pictures. If you do choose to use mock stock images
for your website’s art you can find free ones on sites like Raw Pixel and Deposit Stock.
They have a large variety of photos to choose from
so you should have no problem running out of content.
Of course when you're looking for,
you know, more unique mock photos that not a lot of people are using
you probably have to pay a little bit of money
for that.
But all the photos that my husband and I used when we started our print on demand shop,
I just went with all the free ones. After you’ve photographed your
products you will need to edit them in photo editing
software. Photoshop is a popular choice which costs about twenty one dollars a month.
But if you are really strapped for cash,
you can use a free software called GIMP that you can use to
edit your photos in the exact same way
as with Photoshop.
I have a great tutorial here on a video on how to use GIMP to edit your photos
if you want to watch that. Email marketing is another useful tool to use starting your business. Email
marketing will help you develop relationships with potential customers
and the job of email marketing is to turn total strangers into first time buyers
and then eventually into loyal customers.
If you think you don't need email marketing, I want you to think again. A 2018 survey by getresponse
found that email is the most the most effective digital technique
for marketing.
Yep. That's right even in the age of social
media madness email is actually better than social media to reel in those customers
and I've personally seen this to be true in all of my businesses. Email is one
of the biggest assets you have in your business
and how much money you make is directly tied to how many people you
have on your email list. The same cannot be true
for social media. Just because you have a million followers on
Instagram doesn't mean you're making any money from that.
The great news is that you can get started with email marketing for free. Check out
MailerLite.com - it's way better than MailChimp
and all of their cool money-making features on MailerLite are free to
use up to I believe your first 1000 subscribers.
Finally your business also needs great copywriting. Your products need product descriptions.
It's what often leads a person to clicking that buy now button. People are less likely
to buy it from you if you don't have product descriptions,
or if they just aren't that great. If you choose to go do your own copywriting,
you won't have to pay a dime obviously plus you do know your products better than anyone right?
So I have some videos here that talk about how to write great product descriptions
if you need help with that. At the same time,
though, copywriting isn't for everyone. Like I suck at it.
I am not a good not good clearly not good at words,
right? Sometimes it is better to save yourself the time
and energy of writing copy and just delegate that particular role to someone else.
You can check out some great copywriters on Fiverr
as a starting point. There a lot of places you can look for copywriters,
but on Fiverr the pricing starts at about 5 dollars per product description.
So you can also check out a recent video I did where I hired
and reviewed three different copywriters from Fiverr over here.
So this is the best option
for anyone who wants to focus on other aspects of business or who just don't have that particular
knack for writing copy, like me. Now
when it comes to packing and shipping your products don't go too crazy here,
see how you can get a box
or mailer size that can be like a one-size-fits-all for all of your different products.
That way you don't have to stock up on too many different sized boxes
or mailers. And you can get just 25 boxes
or mailers to just start out with for like under $30 on eBay or Amazon.
And here's a tip. If you ship using USPS Priority Mail,
you can even use their priority boxes that are free of charge to you.
And you definitely want to buy a roll of bubble wrap.
But again now is not the time to buy these things in bulk
because we want to stay as lean
as possible with our spending. How you actually pack your product then depends
on what you sell but you'll definitely want to account
for packaging supplies for that too
whether that's with a velvet pouch, a hang tag, a plastic sleeve,
or maybe even a gift box like I do with Tiny Hands
Jewelry. My challenge for you is not to spend more than $75 to your on all of your packing
and shipping supplies because just like your product materials,
it can be easy for us to overspend here. In terms of shipping software,
there are a lot of options you can choose from
but in the beginning you can keep things simple
and use Pirate Ship which is totally free to use and if you don't have a shipping scale,
you don't really have to buy one just yet,
especially if you have a kitchen scale or bathroom scale.
Here's the thing. You can do a lot
for free or for a very little if you're willing to put in the muscle grease. You can market
for free on social media using hashtags.
You can build an audience from free Facebook networking and word-of-mouth.
You can do media outreach which is my favorite way to get your products on popular blogs
and print magazines and even on TV shows.
Yeah, it's free to get your products on a celebrity.
And then use stock images instead of your own photography. If you can spare the time
and really get creative you can make strides without spending much money at all.
It just might take a little bit longer to grow
so brace yourself for a few slow months when you're starting out. Now
if you try to do everything yourself,
you might save a little bit of money, but you might also get exhausted really fast.
So don't feel bad or guilty
if you need to pay for some extra help. Your business will benefit
from all the money that you can put into it.
It's called an investment into your business. The more money you can
invest in your business the faster it's going to grow.
And if you can only afford a little, check out my previous video on
what I would do if I were completely broke.
I'll give you some tips on how to finance your business,
but I don't want the lack of finances keeping you from starting the business of your dreams.