Start a 'cottage industry'... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

suzy_g

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

Princess poppypop, I make hampers too, but cannot find a cheap way of advertising, I've advertised in a few local directories at the cost of £30 a go, but had no response at all. So this year I'm taking them to the local school fayres, I don't expect to sell many, but am just hoping to get them known.

I know this doesn't count as a cottage industry, but I've just been offered £80 to look after a workmates do for a week. It's all extra money in the pot.

sorry i am just puzzled (or being thick), what is looking after a workmates do?
edited i think you left off the g silly me

princesspoppypop

Pink_Fairy wrote: »

Sounds like a great idea to me. Could you "design" some themed hampers (i.e Baby, special birthday, anniversary, Christmas) and advertise them to gauge response? My daughter bought me a hamper for Christmas for £15. Lovely idea, but probably not even £10 worth of goods, but all Scottish produce, so perhaps a "Burns Night" hamper.:D

Hi Pink Fairy

Thanks for your response.

I usually make themed hampers, I did a student survival kit for my Sister when she went to University and she loved it.
Ive done loads of pamper hampers and baby baskets too.
Ive had a look on Ebay and the hampers dont seem to be shifting too well, I think a lot of this is maybe to do with the carriage charge, but these things are heavy.

How do you get involved in School fayres etc and arent these usually fundraisers for charity?

One tip I do have for those who make cards is to ask if local businesses will display a box of samples on their reception, make a sign that states 10% from the sale of each card will be donated to... then choose a charity.... this is a really good way of selling your cards and helping out a charity at the same time.

Poppypops :j

princesspoppypop

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

Princess poppypop, I make hampers too, but cannot find a cheap way of advertising, I've advertised in a few local directories at the cost of £30 a go, but had no response at all. So this year I'm taking them to the local school fayres, I don't expect to sell many, but am just hoping to get them known.

I know this doesn't count as a cottage industry, but I've just been offered £80 to look after a workmates do for a week. It's all extra money in the pot.

Hi there, how did you manage to get involved in school fayres??? :j

princesspoppypop

Pink_Fairy wrote: »

Does anyone else Freecycle? I advertised for wool as I was knitting dog coats for a charity, but, having seen some of the other posts here, perhaps you could advertise for other "unwanted" materials that you could use for your ventures. No one on Freecycle is allowed to charge.

Hi Pink Fairy, I was a member of freecycle and was always being offered craft bits by other freecyclers but didnt ever get any of the stuff I was offered.
I know its nice to be able to offer something in return but I dont always have something to exchange and that isnt really the point of Freecycle.

Poppypops :j

Frugaldom

I'm going to have a go at crafting kits. Everyone was into crafting in some way, shape or form when we were growing up and kids still love it, especially big kids on a budget!

I'm working on a few designs and patterns for things and making up little boxes (using my 'willitfit' to make sure they'll fit in the post ok :rotfl: ) and then I'll work on the labels to list the entire contents of each box along with any necessary legislative blurb. I'm calling them NYK How2 boxes and including a print-out of how to make use of the contents I'd love receiving gifts like these so I can't see any reason why anyone else wouldn't It does feel more like playing than working, though

princesspoppypop

That sounds like a great idea. My OH thinks Im funny when I get my craft stuff out and start playing!
I was in Boyes on Monday and they were selling something called a big pink bag and what it was, was a pink shopper style bag made of felt with some backing papers, embellishments, beads, thread and card blanks in it. They looked really good and had sold loads. They were selling for £17.99 each too! I think the pink colour of the bag may have been a good sales idea.

Luna69

Hi everyone
Just had a quick flick through this thread, mainly to see if I'd already posted in it, but can't see that I have! :rotfl:

Anyway, lots of good ideas going on. My problem is being organised and prioritising, I'm useless at it therefore get little done. Tons of ideas sometimes, have it all written down and sometimes that's as far as it goes.

I am basically a papercrafter, greetings cards mainly and I know that this is a very suffocated craft these days, but when I started it wasn't. I've made cards for other people since I was about 5 or 6, although it was only about 10-11 years ago that I started even contemplating making any money on them. I decided to make all my own Christmas cards and I began getting orders from family and friends to make them some and was making a little money from it... this started the ball rolling. My partner (we have our own media design business) created me a website, although it never had an online shop then, I took orders via email. Didn't do that well, but did take a few over time, it was more used to showcase my cards.
I sold a few on ebay, but didn't list that many as it cost more in fees and I didn't make much back.
I mainly make them for the love it and designing my own creations/embellishments.

I attempted to take on a stall at a local monthly art fair, but the cost of a table and then the insurance needed I backed out thinking I wouldn't probably sell enough to make it back let alone anything else, plus I didn't like to make too much in bulk, I preferred to make on order.
I had spent time at the fair prior to this as my MIL had a stall selling machine knitted garments. She did fairly well from it, especially the children's clothing.
There was only one other card stall there at the time and they made rubber stamped cards which I didn't do.

Since all of that I've had 3 children and we started our own business, which I mainly do the work from home or go in if needed with my youngest child.
So time to actually spend on my own stuff is limited and it's rather frustrating.
I do still make cards, although I was giving up not so long back due to the whole card making suffocation. Because all the items you need to stick on a card are now very widely available, it makes it more difficult for those who actually want to create something unique and actually design a card rather than make a card
As well as that more members of my family started to make their own cards too and sales of mine stopped to other family as I guess it wasn't anything different anymore.
i've since tried to get into other papercrafting.. creating gift boxes, hampers, gift sets and more, so have yet to get those underway.

Having said all of that, I have an ebay store, but only have a handful of crafted items in it. I wasn't too prepared for this christmas, so only had one first christmas card listed, but still managed to sell about half a dozen in december from that one, so was rather pleased.

I just need to get motivated with my ideas and put them out there. I do other crafts too, but don't get time to do them all and would rather focus on one or two ideas. I can also incorporate some of the things we do as our business, but it's mainly based on computer design, which I'm not that hot on, that is my partners domain. I can muddle about with basics and am just getting to grips with my own die cut designs so can use those too.

I've thought about creating card making kits, but then there is also an over abundance of those around to cash in on the current boom, so unless I can think of something different, it may be a waste of time

We were stung very badly last year due to using a copyright image on some goods we sold. What makes me livid though is that on ebay alone you can find so many items being sold using copyright images, some good some not so, yet nothing seems to happen. It doesn't make it right that we did it and I didn't want to in the beginning, but we were desperate for money and we knew the particular character would sell and it did... but not to our advantage, we ended up a lot worse off in the end.
Hence I prefer to design my own items with my own copyright on them.. not easy though.

SOrry for the essay, but will keep an eye on this thread to see how everyone is doing with their little businesses.

Oh one more thing regarding tax. Our own business is registered obviously but my papercrafts portion isn't registered on it's own. My partner says that it can all go down as part of our main business and so won't need to, but i'm not sure. Should I still register it seperately or just put it all down in the main one?
We do have another part of our main business under another name, but is just tied into the main one... sorry if that's confusing.. loaded with cold/flu and my head is buzzing now. Off to lie down.

Yvonne

princesspoppypop

Hi Yvonne

Sorry to hear bout the copyright issues, what a pain.

I totally agree with what you say about the card making, although I visited a Craft Fayre in North Yorks last year purely to browse and when I looked at the cards I have to be honest and say mine are so much nicer and better designed.

I make cards for the love of it though, I get a real buzz out of a new design that works.:j

There was a little stall at the fayre that was selling box cards, Ive seen them being made on QVC and they are very impressive and are more of a keepsake.

Nowadays you can get a handmade card in Primark for £1, people arent really going to pay anymore for cards made at home by small traders. :mad:

I do think the box cards are a good idea though for all those card makers out there. Dont think Primark could start mass producing those for £1!!!:rolleyes:

Poppypops :j

Luna69

princesspoppypop wrote: »

Hi Yvonne

Sorry to hear bout the copyright issues, what a pain.

I totally agree with what you say about the card making, although I visited a Craft Fayre in North Yorks last year purely to browse and when I looked at the cards I have to be honest and say mine are so much nicer and better designed.

I make cards for the love of it though, I get a real buzz out of a new design that works.:j

There was a little stall at the fayre that was selling box cards, Ive seen them being made on QVC and they are very impressive and are more of a keepsake.

Nowadays you can get a handmade card in Primark for £1, people arent really going to pay anymore for cards made at home by small traders. :mad:

I do think the box cards are a good idea though for all those card makers out there. Dont think Primark could start mass producing those for £1!!!:rolleyes:

Poppypops :j

Hi thanks

It was a pain, but we've learnt from it, slapped wrists and burnt pockets but we'll not be doing it again.

Yeah QVC has a lot to do with the card making boom I guess.... not personally a dawn bibby fan to be honest.. she's probably a nice enough woman but she annoys me :rotfl:

Anyway, won't get into that!
I have been looking into more 3dimensional cards , interactive cards and I do more personalised items I find I can get more money for a more individual personalised item, I can charge more what it's worth, than if I made a few basic cards. I'm not sure how the people who sell cards on ebay for 50p or 99p actually make any money?
I'd rather only sell an odd one or two and make what I think they are worth, than a few pence for some thrown together items

I agree though that all the high street stores and even the cheap shops like primark and even poundland are selling mass produced handmade look cards, which is a pain.

I was looking into the gift basket thing, but I work mainly online, so would have to think of the postage costs and how best to package them so as not to arrive damaged. If the postage cost a lot, would you be able to make enough on the actual item without them being rather expensive and then no one is interested anyway?

I used to make fimo items, but never really got into it enough to create some of the items that I've seen being sold now. As with everything, there are good and bad ones, but I have seen some stunning items and have even bought some, for my partner to say, but you used to make those! well not exactly I didn't and the time it must take to create some of them would be way too much time for me.

I have a sewing machine that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time, I keep trying to think of ideas to use that, when I find somewhere to put it in our tip!
I've also knit in the past as well.

I think though you need a decent outlet to sell from really or some form of advertising to start you off, because basically the best form of advertising is word of mouth. We have found that with our business and rarely pay for expensive advertising now. Posters in local shops were good too, or leaflet drops.

I also do similar to you, I spend ages browsing ebay and other websites looking for inspiration and nothing helps, then I've wasted so much time doing it, instead of just creating! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Luna, have you tried setting up a website and then linkin g it directly to your eBay store so you can include the details on your stationery and leaflets etc? Mine's nowe linked to my free listings on eBid because the URL on them never changes if it's a straightforward relisting.

Copyright issues, yes, well... we have been duped several times by unscrupulous sellers on eBay using OUR images and would have pirsued it further had eBay been a little more helpful. I also found one of our copyrighted images on Wikipedia! It's a minefield getting into copyright law and best bet is to always use your own images - get a cheap digital camera and make sure what you are photographing is yours to profit from. No offence meant with reference to the OP's previous bad experience but I see it from the other angle

Good luck with your businesses - I wouldn't bother registering it seperately if you are already self-employed, just count it through your existing accounts, that's what I'm doing and it makes it a lot simpler