Every month Craft Selling Party News will bring you new tips and information related to all aspects of selling your crafts at home parties, as well as updating you on what's new at Craft-Selling-Parties.com.

If you like this newsletter, please forward it to any of your crafty friends who might be interested too. If a friend did forward this to you and you like what you read, please subscribe.

Contents of this issue of Craft Selling Party News

Liz has some good advice for maintaining your integrity and protecting your reputation:

"I've been making jewelry for about five years and selling casually for about three. I've recently taken the "plunge" into becoming serious about selling my work. I have two bits of advice that are important to remember as a professional. Both relate to maintaining your personal integrity.

1. If something doesn't look good on a person (and I know it's for them), I casually suggest one or two other things that are similar, but I know will look better. In the end, even if they don't buy that particular item, they know that I am a credible person who is not just out for their money, but wants to make sure that their purchase will make them feel good and get them lots of compliments. This can also teach clients how to choose their jewelry better.
2. If someone asks me to do a commission that is very prescribed and I think it's hideous, I either try to work on the design with them or I suggest another artist. I don't want my name to be associated with something that I wouldn't be proud of. Usually, if you compliment someone on their design and say, this is a great starting point, they are open to making a change."

• It's hard to believe it's already October! The busy season is about to begin, and holding a Halloween Theme Party is a great way to kickstart those sales and bookings.
• Aiming your crafts at anyone and everyone doesn't always make good business sense. Read this article on Choosing a Target Market for Your Crafts to find out why.
• I've been getting a lot of emails with questions about selling your crafts at home parties. While I do try to answer all of them personally, I thought it might be useful for everyone else to read too. So I've created a page called Your Questions Answered to share this info.

Selling at jewellery home parties has always been my main crafts outlet, but I've recently added a few others.

Last month school holidays and a three week visit from my in-laws meant that I had very little time to do any parties. Financially this could have been difficult, but luckily I had a few backup incomes to fall back on. All of these came directly as a result of me having jewellery parties in the first place. So take advantage of the great opportunity you have to use your parties to find new craft outlets.

Why parties are a good starting point even if you don't intend for them to be your main outlet eventually

• Doing parties means you expand your customer base considerably, as you'll come into contact with people who would never have met you except at a home party.
• Selling lots of items at parties means your crafts are out there in places where they could attract other interest.
• You can use your parties to advertise your other outlets by giving out business cards with your website details, or leaflets detailing upcoming fairs you're attending.
• You learn a lot about sales techniques, pricing your crafts and generally running a craft business at your own pace. All of these are very valuable lessons you can use when selling through other outlets which may be less forgiving of mistakes.
• Craft home parties are a quick way to make some money without having to invest too much to start with. Most other crafts outlets require a bigger and riskier initial investment, so you can use your parties to test the market and raise the funds for other outlets.

Examples of other crafts outlets to expand to:

Wholesaling

One of my newer crafts outlets is selling my jewellery wholesale to a gift shop in the next county. The owner spotted my jewellery on one of my previous customers, got my details from her and asked me whether I'd supply her. If you're interested in wholesaling it's important to have your crafts 'out there' and to make sure you hand out business cards to everyone you deal with.

You also need to make absolutely sure your pricing is right. Wholesale prices are usually half of retail, so if you're selling your crafts too cheaply you'll lose out when wholesaling. Take a look at James Dillehay's The Basic Guide to Pricing Your Craftwork for excellent advice in this area.

Website

Selling your crafts online is a useful backup to selling at parties, and can be a lucrative outlet on its own if you have the time to invest. Make sure every party guest and customer you have is given business cards with your website address on, and encourage them to pass them on to others. It's also worth mentioning to hostesses that if guests can't make it she can direct them to your website and earn commission from those sales too. Take a look at Selling Crafts Online at e-Parties for ideas to take this even further.

For more information on selling your crafts online, have a look at the page on Do You Need a Craft Website?

Local Shops/Businesses

In addition to wholesaling, I also have displays in two other local shops - a hairdressers and a saddlery shop. Both of these opportunities came about through doing jewellery parties. See the section on Local Business: A Great Home Party Opportunity to find out how to get involved with shops and businesses in your area.

So although I thoroughly recommend selling your crafts at home parties, there's no need to restrict yourself. There are plenty of other crafts outlets out there that will complement (or maybe even one day take over) your craft home party business.

If you have an article that you think will be of interest to my visitors at Craft-Selling-Parties.com, please submit it here. All authors will receive a free link to their own website if their article is used.

SalesDivas.com

A friend recommended this site to me several months ago and I love it! I've been subscribed to Kim Duke's newsletters for a while now and she's full of useful information about sales and marketing, presented in a fun girly style that makes a refreshing change from the usual male oriented jargon.

Take a look to get ideas on marketing your crafts and your parties. The website has free articles and the newsletters are well worth subscribing to too. And if any of you are lucky enough to make it to one of her bootcamps I'd love to hear about it!

If you know of a useful website or resource that would appeal to my readers, please let me know about it here.