- "Find a job you enjoy doing
and you will never have to work a day in your life."
There is no shortage of quotes like this one out there
to inspire you,
to take your craft,
your handmade hobby,
your creative passion,
this thing that you really, really love spending time doing,
and turning it into a way to make a living,
to start a handmade business.
And I know it's possible too,
because that is what I help makers do every day.
That's my job.
But the question I'm asking is,
is loving what you make enough
to make it sell like hotcakes?
Can you really do what you love and the money will follow
or is reality a little more complex than that?
And if so, how?
Let's explore!
(upbeat music)
Bonjour I am Deb, founder of Tizzit.co.
A membership community for makers
and handmade shop owners just like your fabulous self.
And today I'd love to discuss
with you whether it truly is possible
to make a living doing what you love.
You probably learned your craft because you were interested
in the creative process behind it.
And it became something that you enjoy doing as a hobby.
So you became good at it because you love doing it.
And you know, you did it a lot.
So you became pretty experienced
and developed that specific handmade skill.
So, when the idea comes to start selling those products,
maybe because the craft room or guest bedroom or the garage.
Starts to be a little too packed with craft supplies.
And you're thinking, I wouldn't mind making some room
and some money from it all.
It's natural to just start a shop
to sell those products that you love to make.
And in 80% of cases, it will work.
What you love to make is what someone else will have to buy.
And when that happens, boom!
You're in business, making money, doing what you love.
But sometimes it turns out that those products
you love to make aren't exactly selling like hotcakes.
And then you start wondering why is no one showing interest
in buying my products?
Why am I not making money doing what I love?
It seems like everyone else is able to do so.
Truth is the internet has opened the door to a tonne
of opportunities that were never have existed before it
or in its early days.
You can sell anything to anyone
from anywhere and it gets better.
You also don't need to invest a tonne
of cash to get things going.
Sure, there's supplies cost to your products
and maybe a few other fees here and there, but the internet
and the development of things like easy website builders,
social media platforms, handmade marketplaces, like it's
you really allowed anyone who has a connection
to the internet to get a product to market rather quickly.
And for a 10th of what it would have cost
to do same thing before.
And as a creative,
as a maker considering opening a handmade shop,
this is both a curse and a blessing.
Let me show you why.
Launching an online store used to be more of an investment.
And so to limit the risk of not paying off,
businesses used to do a lot
of market research to make sure that this was a viable idea
that someone would buy what they were producing,
which in turn meant
that only big businesses could really afford
to take that risk
and small or micro
and family businesses just couldn't consider it.
Now you can start a shop in a few clicks,
you can open a shop on Etsy next weekend if you'd like,
or start your own website
or start selling on Facebook, whichever.
The point is you don't need
to spend big bucks hiring a developer
or spend time doing market research.
You can just get it up there and see what happens.
That's the blessing.
(soft music)
The curse is that
for the same reasons it's also super easy
to skip the part where you make sure that what
you love to make is something that people are looking for.
If no one is looking to buy what you make,
if they don't search for it,
it's going to be very difficult
to promote your shop and to find customers.
And because of that, it's going to be difficult
to make a reliable living, selling those products.
Even if you love making them.
Now, of course you might be thinking, well,
I make ceramic mugs or I make pillowcases.
And that feels like a pretty safe bet.
Like surely I can find people who are looking
for pillowcases, right?
And yes, of course you can.
There are definitely people somewhere
on the internet who wanted to buy the exact products
that you're making.
But is there enough of those people
to sustain consistent reliable sell?
What if you sell cushion covers
and your favourite thing to create with a designs
and patterns using really bright tie dye colours.
But the current trend
in home decor are more natural, earthy tones.
Sure, you might find customers who don't care so much
for that earthy tones trend,
and prefer bright colours instead.
But enough of them, that is the question.
Similarly, you might sell a product that's in high demand
for a few years, but then the demand just kind of drops
because trends have moved on.
Now, of course, this causes a fundamental problem
which is that the last thing we want,
is for you to ever feel like
you've created a job for yourself
where you start to resent your craft.
One thing you're passionate about,
because you don't like what you make.
The real question then
and it's an important one is.
How far are you willing to go to meet the market?
The answer is going to be personal.
It has to be,
you get to pick where you want to be
on the making money selling handmade product spectrum.
On one end some makers have a strong personal style
and aesthetic and one budge from it.
That's who they are.
And staying true to that is what's most important to them.
Others decide what to sell based 100%
on research and create purely based
on what keywords are being searched foremost,
on what the trends in their niche are on the colours
of the season, the theme of the year, all of that stuff.
There's nothing really right or wrong
with any of these two approaches.
You just need to get very clear
on where you sit before you start selling your products
and turning your hobby into a handmade business.
Because when you stop making as a hobby
and start making for a living
you have to create not just based on what you love
but based on what customers love and are looking for.
My advice is to, of course, stay true
to who you are as a creative,
as a maker, as an artist because,
A, money isn't always the main criteria
in one's personal definition of success.
And if you hate what you do
you're not going to do it for long.
And B, is that your aesthetics
and style is also what will help make your shop,
your products and your brand in general cohesive.
But, and that's kind of key
I would also strongly suggest
that if making a reliable income out
of this is your main goal,
you get in the habit of doing it a bit
of market research when you create new products
and make some room
for things you're not always 100% in love with
but that you know, will sell well.
Imagine you sell kids clothing.
It could mean that 40%
of the colours you're offering are not necessarily
your personal favourites,
but they are trending this year.
Maybe it means that if pandas or koalas
or whatever are trending, you also offer a few items
with those animals patterns on them.
Another example would be,
if for example you are an artist and your specialty
and what brings you the most joy is to paint on fabric.
And most specifically you love to paint flowers.
So, you're thinking of selling hand painted scarves
with flowers on them, because, you know,
that's what you've always loved to make.
What if it turns out with a bit
of research that not many people are looking
for floral scarves,
but that a lot more people are looking for floral T-shirts.
Can you compromise a little
and offer that instead, you get my point.
It's about incorporating trends and what you learn
from doing a bit of market research into what you offer
and love to make.
Colours, patterns, themes, type of products.
It's about finding that halfway point
between what you know how to create and enjoy creating
and what the market is asking for.
If you'd like to dive deeper into this,
I have another video
on handmade shop trends and how to research them,
which I'd recommend you watch next.
It should be showing on the screen right now
or you can find the link to it
and to some more resources to help you start
and grow a successful handmade shop below this video.
Thank you for watching.
And until next time.
Au revoir.