Make Money With Crafts

Can you make money from those newspaper ads promising you to make money from home doing crafts? From our research, the answer is NO. Here are some of the ways they manage to not pay YOU for YOUR work.

• Most Common: Say your work "isn't up to their standards".
• Have you pay for an information package - and never send you crafts to make.
• Have you pay for materials, do you work up front, pay postage - and then only pay you if your work sells.

If you have a business, see our business fraud prevention tips. Other scams prevention tips can be found at KeepMoney.com.

Known Scams Really Make Money Recommended Reading
Add Your Experiences Crafting Links How to Sell Crafts

Treat your new venture as a craft business. That is, do the cost analysis first. Here is an EXTREMELY simplified version of a jewelry business.

• Figure out how much it will cost to make what you want to sell
  • Cost of materials
  • Money for your time
  • Cost of rent/electricity/tools/rental/etc
  
  
• Figure out how much your craft would sell for
  • Go to fairs/internet sites/craft shows
  • See what similar items sell for in stores
  • Ask friends what they would pay for such an item
  
  
• Compare the 2 numbers after adding in marketing costs to see if there is a profit
  • Cost of Advertising/Marketing/Packaging
  • How many would you have to sell to make a profit
  • Double check to see if you missed any of the costs
  • Can you afford the startup costs?

Here is a sample craft business - semi-precious beaded earrings:

Creation cost: $200 for 50 pairs ($4/pair)
Cost of beads for 50 pairs of earrings: $60 (short earrings; inexpensive beads)
Cost of sterling silver earwires/headpins for 50 pairs: $50
Cost of 50 backing cards: $10
Cost of earwire rubber safeties: $5
Cost of labels: $3
Cost of baggies:$2
Cost of time (5 pair an hour @ $5/hour): $50 (50 pairs: 10 hours)
On time fees of table cloth/Simple displays/etc.: $20
Booth fees/Advertising Costs/Marketing NOT counted here.

Market cost for simple pair of earrings: $3-$8 for simple earrings

Now you get to the fun part. If you go to expensive shows, you have to calculate how many earrings you need to sell to break even. If you charge $5 and your booth fee is $40 -- you need to sell 40 pairs of earrings to break even (that is, you're making $1/pair of earrings -- so you need to sell 40 pairs to make you $40 booth fee -- remember the cost of your materials!). If at the same show, you could charge $8 you only need to sell 10 pairs to break even (you are now making $4/pair) -- if people are willing to pay that price. Of course, you want to sell more than simply break even.

This is a sample craft business, there is no promise that the numbers are accurate. You will probably find that some items are cheaper for you -- and others more expensive.

See our How to Sell Jewelry and Crafts page for ideas on how to sell your crafts inexpensively.

Known Scams Really Make Money Recommended Reading
Add Your Experiences Crafting Links How to Sell Crafts

• Home Businesses You Can Buy: The Definitive Guide to Exploring Franchises, Multi-Level Marketing, and Business Opportunities Plus: How to Avoid scam - by Paul Edwards, Sarah Edwards (Contributor), Walter Zooi
  Home Businesses You Can Buy thoroughly examines franchises, multilevel marketing, and other "prepackaged" business opportunities, and includes important advice on avoiding related scams.

• The Crafter's Guide to Pricing Your Work - by Dan Ramsey
  How you can set prices to maximize income, first giving you general marketing and economic tips, then detailing the specifics of how to price and sell more than 75 crafts, from ceramics to fabrics, jewelry to paintings.

• The Crafts Business Answer Book & Resource Guide: Answers to Hundreds of Troublesome Questions About Starting, Marketing, and Managing a Homebased business - by Barbara Brabec
  In handy A-to-Z order, it covers nearly 300 topics related to the startup, management and marketing of a homebased art- or craft-related business.

• Crafting As a Business - by Wendy W. Rosen
  Packed with sidebars that feature invaluable tips from a variety of successful crafters, this guide offers dozens of terrific worksheets and checklists and a plethora of sound advice.
  

Known Scams Really Make Money Recommended Reading
Add Your Experiences Crafting Links How to Sell Crafts

Information source (if not personal experience):


Experiences on making money with crafts:

Known Scams Really Make Money Recommended Reading
Add Your Experiences Crafting Links How to Sell Crafts