Small Business Hints & Tips - Starting out

Hello pickles,

Hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine!

Ok, a bit of a different blog post today. A lot of my blogs focus on my lampshades and other handmade products, but I fancied branching out a bit. Mainly because I am sure that there are only so many blogs on handmade lampshades that I think people can stomach ;)

I started A Crafty Den in 2018, and it has pretty much been a constant learning curve! If you’re starting out - whether that is as a side hustle or your complete focus - I thought it might be useful for me to share some of my learning. I’m by no means an expert(!) and hopefully that makes it more realistic…

In this blog, I’ll reminisce about when I was just starting out. Those early few months were both incredibly exciting and frustrating simultaneously. Here’s my top 3 when starting out a small biz:

1) PATIENCE

That initial excitement…you’ve made your first product (in my case, giraffe cushion cover) and you are SUPER excited. You list it on Etsy, awaiting the barrage of sales and….they don’t come. For MONTHS. Just because you’ve made some products doesn’t mean that the world has been waiting for them. You’re unknown, no reviews, no traffic to your Etsy page, and you have to be patient. Silence doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong, or your failing - it’s simply part of the process (in my humble opinion). Plus it makes your first sale even sweeter.

2) FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL

Having an idea for a business is the exciting bit. Even more exciting, making your product! However, there are LOTS of parts of running a business that might not be as fun. Like, competitor research. Finding cheap materials. Taking perfect photos where the lighting just simply will NOT work, no matter how many lamps you shine on it….! Pricing. It’s a lot, and it can be overwhelming so make sure that you have thought it through before you embark on your journey. For example, when I sold my first lampshade I was over the moon! BUT I had no idea how I was going to package it up and send it! Had an absolute meltdown, my other half had to research delivery services and engineer some sort of cardboard contraption to protect the lampshade. If in doubt, over-research and over-plan.

3) EXPERIMENT

My favourite - don’t forget to experiment! You literally have nothing to lose, so play around with new ideas, designs and products, and ask people you know (or your audience) what they think? The further you get into your business, the more you start to overthink. You begin to weigh up the costs and whether you should invest in more fabric, or whether you will have the space or time to diversify your range. Enjoy those early days where you give it a go, and if it flops - fail fast!

No idea if anyone will ever read this, but I hope it’s vaguely useful if you have ;)