[Nfb-krafters-korner] Starting a Business in Crafts

[Laurie Porter]

Hi:


I have been selling my jewlery now for over 15 years.  You certainly ask
alot of questions.  I wonder if you can tell me what made you decide to do 
this and do yu have any experience with your soaps and cosmetics you've
made? For example, have you made them for people and gave them as gifts or
something like that. I ask this only because I have learned through my own 
business and have watched others of my fellow vendors many of whom are soap
makers and basket weavers  and the one thing we all have in common is that 
we work long hard hours in this business.

Let me give a bit of my  background.   My husband and business partner  and 
I run a company called wildlife
preserves. We make over 85 varieties of jams jellies butters and fruit 
spreads as well as a host of dried goods and spice blends. I also sell my 
beaded jewlery creations. We are in the middle of our 15th year in the 
business. We  sell our products at 4 local farmers markets and I do a few 
craft shows that
I have time for. I also have  some of my beaded jewlery in a few retail 
locations. My husband also manages 2 of the markets and he is in charge of 
many vendors. We get calls all year long from people wanting to come andsell 
at our markets. Many of whom he has to tturn away.
the first thing I can tell you and this might answer your question of how to 
sell your items in a crisis economy.  the first thing is that hand made 
soaps and basket weavers are everywhere. Everyone is now looking for extra 
ways to make a few bucks, and the crafting world has been saturated.

The only thing that has kept both me and my fellow vendor's heads above 
water is a combination of uniqueness of product and diversity in our ability 
to get there as a business. For 8 months of the year, I work 12 to 14 hour 
days with only a few hours off once in a while and I am as happy  as I can 
be about it. My work is my     pashon, but pashon alone does not put dinner 
on the table. One thing that makes most crafting businesses fail is the lack 
of understanding of how to run a  successful bisnesss. If you want to get 
the best out of your rehabilitation experience in order to achieve the goal 
of perhaps eventually getting off social securitiy, I would enroll in a 
small business program at a technical school or junior college in your area. 
If  that is not a practical thing to do than maybe you can find small 
business seminars. there also is a variety of webinars and other internet 
resources on how to write business plans.  There is gobs of craft report and 
craft business publications available on the internet free of charge. You 
can find them on the crafting sites  and forums you visit most, ring hubs, 
and make google your new best friend. You can ask your councilor to help 
with the cost of some of the small business seminars. Based on some of your 
questions, it sounds like the more research you do on your perspective 
products, the better it will be for you to find more financial support.

the first thing I did was research my perspective product thoroughly. I 
first read any website, publication, and book I had ac cess to online and I 
spent a bit on supplies and for at least  a full year, I played. I made lots 
of beaded creations, some of which are hidden in a dark corner of my closet 
and as first attempts may never see the light of day again  lol. Most of 
what I did took very little money. It took the one thing I had at the time 
and that was time. I had time on my hands and I put it to good use. I made 
learning about crafting my full time job.

I was fortunate enough to have David who has previous experience in running 
a business as he comes from several generations of small family farming. 
However, I availed myself of another resource I had near me and that was the 
other blind people I had contact with who run vending stands and cafeterias. 
they may not know much about crafting, but they are trained to know 
everything about business. I do not know if you are near  an  NFB chapter in 
your state, but if you are than most likely you will find one of these 
vendors who are enrolled in the vending program.
They told me lots of things like how to get my own tax number. How to work 
with holesale and retail distributors. But it sounds like you aren't quite 
there yet. Just take it one step at a time. I'd like nothing better than to 
see another blind person gainfully employed in his/her own small business.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eleni Vamvakari" <magkisa83 at gmail.com>
To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 2:57 PM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Starting a Business in Crafts


Hello to everyone,

  I'm sorry that this is so long but I really am serious about this.
So hopefully, someone can help me.  As I stated in my introductory
post, I'm very much interested in starting my own business.  For now,
I intend on making soaps and candles but wish to eventually expand
into baskets and other wicker items like mats, toats and more, maybe
even chair caning.  I may even create other cosmetic products like
shampoos and lotions.  I'm also interested in making brooms and/or
brushes but am not really sure what the market is for those right now,
since most people whom I know buy the synthetic versions.  The first
two seem the quickest, the cheapest and the easiest.  So I've been
asking questions of Joyce and she's been giving me excellent advice
about making candles and soaps, from places to get materials to tips
and tricks that I can use as a totally blind crafter.

  At any rate, I recently read that there is something called a plan
for achieving self-support (PASS) offered by Social Security.  The
site explaining all of this is here.

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/11017.html

I receive SSI so am eligible to apply.  If they accept my plan, I can
get extra money to put towards my business.  I could use it to
advance my knowledge of these trades, particularly wicker working, for
the materials to make the soaps, candles, baskets etc., and maybe even
the brooms, since the supplies for the latter are extremely expensive.
 I could even use some money to go to local stores to buy my supplies
so that I can reduce the need to pay shipping.  if I desire.  But the
process for setting up the plan, filling out the form and especially
for creating a business plan, seems extremely difficult.  I can easily
answer some of the questions but others are confusing.  I need to
know, for example, who my customers will be.  I'm thinking some will
be online consumers and others might be found at craft shows.  If I
get lucky, I might even sell to stores!  But I'm not sure right now.
I also need to know what my items and services will cost.  As I don't
know the amount of customers that I'll have nor the competitive
prices, I can't answer this accurately.  Then, they ask how I'll pay
for it.  Isn't that what this money is for, to get me started?  Of
course, once I start making an income, then I could use that to pay
for supplies etc.  They also ask how much I expect to make within the
next four years.  How can I properly answer this without having had
the experience of selling these items and in an economy that is in
crisis?

  They say on the site to seek professional help.  So I've contacted
my vocational counselor from the New Jersey Comission of the Blind as
well as the woman who runs the local job club.  The latter is on
holiday so hasn't returned my e-mail and the former I will need to
contact again on Monday, since I haven't heard from him either.  But I
was told that some of you have had experience in this regard.  Would
anyone here be able to help me with formulating a plan or at least
with some ideas as to how to get this started?

  How much product should I buy for the first batch so that I can test
the waters but not be overwhelmed or underwhelmed with too much or too
little?  Where are the best places to sell my things?  I've considered
craft shows but heard that these can be quite expensive to attend, and
right now, I don't have much money.  I know there's always EBay but
I'm not sure how popular these types of items are on there.
Craigslist seems like a good option, provided that I can ship the
items to my customers.  Etsy, I think, is overloaded with those kinds
of things so I really don't know how mine would sell when compared to
others.  I'm still seeking a mentor who works in basketry or at least
advice as to which books, tapes or videos are the most accessible to a
totally blind basket weaver.  So any help there would be appreciated.

  Finally, last night, I came across something called the BOS (Blind
Online Success System) which is a free program teaching the basics of
business marketing.  They were mentioned by the ACB and by the APH, so
I'm pretty sure that they're not a scam.  Their site is here.

http://blindonlinesuccesssystem.com/info

Has anyone worked with them, and if so, is it worth it for me to do so
given my plans?

Thanks,
Eleni

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