Tag: Vendors

by Leland Richardson on 0

How to Find Arts and Crafts Supplies

About 20 years ago, I was playing around with the idea of buying a florist business. I eventually didn’t go through with it as I was breaking the cardinal rule of owning a business – that of having good practical experience. My total amount of floral experience was limited to occasional purchases from the area wholesale florist. During my interview with the owner, I asked her how I could find floral-related vendors. Her response:‘Don’t worry – they’ll find you!”.

If you’ve been in business any length of time, you know how true this is. However, you need to scare up some potential arts and craft supplies vendors and request price lists before you start your arts and crafts business. There is no way you can take even the first step towards starting a business unless you know how much it’s going to cost you to make your product.

Arts and Craft Supplies Instructor Referrals

Instructors at arts / crafts classes or seminars are great referral sources for tools, art supplies and craft materials. Since the instructor has so much experience in the field, they should have an encyclopedic knowledge of the best vendors in your arts/crafts area. Most likely, they’ll have a handout addressing this issue they’ll distribute the first night of class.

Arts and Crafts Books and Magazines

Flip through any arts/craft specialty magazine and you’ll see numerous advertisements by arts and crafts supplies vendors. The more tailored the magazine to your particular area of interest, the more useful the advertisements. Check them out – but keep in mind that as your business grows you’ll want to find vendors selling wholesale. Most advertisers in these magazines gear themselves towards the casual hobbyist.

Most arts/crafts books have a resource section in the appendix listing supply vendors. You don’t have to lay out the money to purchase many different books. Pay a visit to your local library and borrow the books or use the library copier to make copies of the applicable info. Make sure the book is current (my suggestion – published within the last year) so you don’t waste your time tracking down a bunch of defunct vendors.

Online Arts and Crafts Supplies Vendors

Your first online search should be the Guide who writes about your craft. Most Guides have resource links with plenty of vendor suggestions. For example, check out Painting Guide Marion Boddy-Evans’ What Art Supplies Do You Need to Start Painting? article.

Do a key phrase search by Googling ‘wholesale xxx supplies’ and see what comes up. I’ve not found that Googling is the best way to find full service arts/crafts vendors but it’s worth a shot. I also occasionally check out suppliers selling through eBay, Etsy and ArtFire.

Finding Arts and Crafts Supplies Vendors Through Trade Organizations

If you haven’t already, you should join some of your industry arts/crafts organizations. Besides keeping up with your industry, they are a great place to find wholesale vendors. You’ll also find links to other online resources serving your particular art/craft.

For example, The Ganoksin Project has a resources page with a comprehensive guide to industry websites . While tailored to the jewelry making industry, many of the vendors listed provide materials and supplies for other types of arts/crafts also. The Society of American Silversmiths also has fantastic resources for artists such as technical information and how to purchase hard-to-find goods and services.

I know from experience that it can be just plain hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. Worse yet is when you find the perfect vendor only to find out they won’t sell to your business because it’s too new or unknown or their minimum order is too big. My best advice is to just keep on looking until you find what you need, go to as many trade events as possible and make industry contacts by joining trade organizations.

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10 Steps to Follow Before You Start a Crafts Business
by Leland Richardson on 0

10 Steps to Follow Before You Start a Crafts Business

Being self-employed is the dream of many people running that daily 9-to-5 treadmill. If you’ve been mulling over the possibility of starting a crafts business, check out my ten recommended steps to follow before starting your business.

1. Think About Why You Want to Start a Crafts Business

Maybe you want to turn a hobby into a moneymaking business. Perhaps you’re just fed up with your day job and want to make the transition from working for someone else to working for yourself. Are you spending too much time at the office and feel a home-based craft business will give you more time with your family? Whatever the reason, and you might have more than one, sit down and give this question some serious thought.

2. Get Good Practical Experience

Opening a crafts business, especially if you plan to use it to replace your day job, isn’t something that you just wake up one day and decide to do. If you want your craft business to be a success you need to have experience ranging from basic design to complete construction.

3. Go to School if You Need to Hone Your Craft-Making Skills

It’s never a bad idea to take a class in your field of arts or crafts to advance your basic skills. Watching the instructor and your peers just may show you a better way to set up your workbench, perform your craft or you may get a referral to a fantastic vender. It’s also a great way to network, which can be helpful when growing your craft business.

4. Select Your Business Entity

Every choice and necessary business action you take in the start-up phrase of your craft business can vary based upon the type of business entity you select. If you don’t have any prior experience working for yourself, it’s a hard decision. Luckily, you only have three choices from which to choose: sole proprietorship, flow throughs or corporation.

5. Identify Your Customer

Before you hit the drawing board you have to consider who your potential customers are. A starting point is the age old male versus female demographic. However, male or female is too broad – you can’t stop there. Take this further by considering exactly what type of product you wish to handcraft.

6. Narrow Your Focus

When you first start your business, don’t take on too much and be all over the map with your product line. Concentrate on what you do well and with time and experience expand from there.

7. Check Out Your Competition

If you have too much competition, you don’t necessarily have to abandon your dream – develop a niche that is not yet saturated. On the other side, if you don’t have any competition, this may not be a good thing. It could be there is not enough of a market for your art or craft to make it a viable business.

8. Find Vendors

You need to find vendors that have wholesales terms so you can buy with a discount and establish terms. You also need this information because if you don’t know how much your vendors are going to charge you for the raw materials to make your product, how can you set a reasonable retail price? This also helps you figure out many items you have to sell to realize your personal or financial goals.

9. Set Up a Work Space

The great thing about most craft businesses is that they are ideally suited to operate as a home-based business. If that’s your plan, look around your home and map out where you will store inventory, take care of the business details like bill paying and make your craft product. If you’re planning to rent a shop, this expense needs to factored into your cost of doing business.

10. Write a Business Plan

Many business owners think they only need to prepare a business plan to get outside financing from a bank or other lender. Not true. A business plan is your roadmap to success. All craft businesses should have one so you can anticipate problems and come up with solutions.

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Starting a Craft Business for the Inexperienced Crafter
by Leland Richardson on 0

Starting a Craft Business for the Inexperienced Crafter

Whatever the reason you choose craft as a bussines, you need to manage it wisely. I recommend starting with the preparation of a business plan. However, since your craft business idea is so unformed, I think it’s a better use of your time to approach this from another direction – ending with the business plan instead of starting with it.

To follow are five steps I recommend you follow to move your craft business idea from infancy to fruition:

1. Deciding on a Type of Craft

Courtesy : https://smitas-art-and-painting-classes.business.site/

Before you go any further, you have to figure out what general area of craft you want to become involved. There are five basic groups: textile, paper, decorative, functional and fashion. Consider if you have any existing knowledge or skill in any of these areas. If so, do you want to pursue that type of craft for your business or do you want to try out a completely different type.

Don’t have any experience in crafts at all? Well, check out the description of each of the five types of crafts so see which one interests you the most. Also – don’t start wandering all over the craft map. Right now, only pick one type of craft to concentrate on.

2. Getting Craft Making Experience

Now that you’ve tentatively decided on a type craft, honestly evaluate your skills in bringing that craft to life. Little to no practical experience or skill in your chosen type of craft? Don’t be discouraged – no arts or crafts business owner just wakes up one day with a complete skill set and knowledge base.

However, it’s impossible to start any type of business successfully unless you have sufficient practical experience in that type of business. This fact isn’t any truer for a dentist or plumber than it is for a craft business. Honing craft techniques is your next step. So, go to the library and check an instructional book out on the topic. Then, buy some cheap raw materials and practice, practice, practice.

3. Evaluate Your Passion for the Craft

Next, step back and honestly decide if you are happy doing this type of craft. Can you see yourself working in this craft medium day after day? There is no point in starting a craft business working in a type of craft that at best you are indifferent to and at worst flat-out hate.

If you’re not content doing this type of craft or have objectively decided that your skills will never advance to the level needed when selling to customers, go back to step one. Is there another type of craft you may be interested in?

4. Finding Supplies, Tools and Materials for Your Craft Business

Finding great, reliable vendors is one of your first steps in starting an arts and crafts business. You can’t decide to make a type of craft until you know you can easily buy the raw materials and supplies needed to make it. Also, you have to know how much your vendors are going to charge you for the art or crafts supplies before you can set a reasonable retail price for your products.

5. Prepare a First Draft of a Business Plan

Writing a business plan is both nerve-racking and exhilarating. It can be stressful to work through each section, dealing with problems and exploring alternative solutions. However, you’ll find that it’s positively thrilling to work through those problems and find out that yes, this is a doable proposition!

Most business plans have the following eight main sections; some also include an appendix. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong way to develop a business plan and your particular type of art or craft will shape its format.

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