Creating an Order Form

Unless you only plan to sell what you take to your craft home parties, creating an order form that works for you and your guests is important. As custom orders make up about a third of my takings at a party, I do think they're well worth considering.

If you've decided to just display samples of your crafts at your parties for people to order from, creating an order form that does the job properly is even more crucial.

The information I request in my jewellery order forms is:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Hostess name
• Description of jewellery
• Colour
• Other information, e.g. type of fastening, length, etc.
• Quantity required of each
• Price of each
• Order total

If you are displaying samples, then it would be a good idea to have an item number attached to each of your crafts, so people can write this on the order forms. Similarly, if you have a printed catalogue, guests can order from that.

I must admit, my system is much more casual, but I'm not necessarily recommending it! I usually tell guests that if they want anything customised (different colour, lengthened, shortened, etc) to chat to me, and we fill the form in together. They fill in their details and I fill in the descriptions. It's worked for me so far, but you must find a system that is right for you.

When creating an order form, the type of craft you sell will also affect the details requested.

It's important that guests also understand that handcrafted items will never be exactly the same (which is a good thing!) and it's probably worth mentioning this on your order forms.

I just print my forms off on my computer. But another option for your order forms is to use the little order form booklets that you buy at any stationers.

The advantage these have is that they create a duplicate with carbon paper, so you can give the top copy to the guest and keep the booklet for yourself. The disadvantage is that you can't customise them and may forget to include some important information. However, as long as you have the guest's telephone number, you can always get missing information later on if necessary.

Tip: try attaching a booking incentive to the top of the order forms (e.g. 10% off your order if you book a party today) to persuade guests to book a party of their own.

If you have any more tips for what to include when creating an order form, please send them to me here.