How Much Inventory Should You Bring to a Craft Fair?

There is a particular kind of panic that seems to hit in the days before a craft fair. You look at the boxes of products you’ve already made and think, This cannot possibly be enough. So you make more. Then you make a few more things because you’re suddenly convinced everyone at the market will want the one product you don’t have enough of. Before long, your dining room looks like a warehouse, you’re staying up far too late finishing inventory, and you’re wondering how you’re going to fit everything in the car. The frustrating part is that you can

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How to Keep Track of Craft Business Inventory Without Losing Your Mind

If you make things to sell, you probably have at least one place where you keep track of your inventory. Maybe it’s a spreadsheet. Maybe it’s a notebook. Maybe it’s a collection of sticky notes. Or maybe your inventory system is currently: “I think I have some of those somewhere.” We’ve all been there. The problem is that inventory becomes surprisingly complicated once your hobby starts turning into a business. You aren’t just keeping track of finished products anymore. You may also have fabric, beads, paper, blanks, packaging, labels, shipping supplies, partially finished projects and materials for products you haven’t

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How to Know Which Handmade Products Are Actually Worth Selling

One of the easiest mistakes to make when starting a handmade business is assuming that a product is worth selling simply because you can make it. You might love making it. You might be very good at making it. You might even have people tell you: “You should sell these!” But none of those things necessarily mean it’s a good business product. A product has to do more than look good. Ideally, it should have enough demand to sell, enough margin to make it worthwhile, and a production process that doesn’t leave you wondering why you’re working for $3 an

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How to Manage Craft Business Inventory Without Getting Buried in Stuff

If you make things to sell, you probably have inventory. And by inventory, I don’t just mean finished products sitting on a shelf. You may have: And somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is probably a question you’ve asked yourself at least once: “Do I already have some of these?” Inventory management doesn’t sound particularly exciting. But if you’re running a handmade business, it can have a surprisingly big effect on your profits. You don’t need a giant warehouse or complicated software. You need to know what you have, what it’s worth, what is selling, and what you

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How Much Does It Really Cost to Sell on Etsy?

Selling something for $30 on Etsy doesn’t mean you made $30. That sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to look at an Etsy order, see the selling price, and mentally count the whole amount as income. Then the fees come out. And suddenly that $30 sale isn’t looking quite as profitable as you thought. If you’re trying to build a real handmade business—not just make a few sales here and there—you need to know what each sale actually leaves in your pocket. The good news is that you don’t need complicated accounting to get a useful answer. You just need

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How to Calculate Your Craft Fair Profit Before You Book a Booth

A craft fair can look like a great opportunity. The organizer has thousands of followers. The event is advertised as “high traffic.” The vendor spots are filling quickly. Maybe last year’s photos show a packed venue with rows of beautiful booths. So you book your space. Then, after the market is over, you do the math. And suddenly that $75 booth fee wasn’t really $75. There was gas. Parking. Food. Maybe a hotel. Payment-processing fees. Packaging. The cost of the products you sold. And, of course, there was all the time you spent making the products, preparing for the event,

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How to Price Handmade Products: A Simple Formula That Actually Works

How to Price Handmade Products: A Simple Formula That Actually Works One of the hardest parts of selling something you make yourself is figuring out what to charge for it. You know what your materials cost. You probably have a pretty good idea how long it took you to make. You may even know what similar products are selling for. But then you look at the numbers and wonder: “Am I actually making money on this?” That’s the part that matters. A handmade product can sell regularly and still be a poor business decision if the price doesn’t leave enough

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