Selling Handmade Crafts Has Its Downsides Too

I've heard it so often: "Now that I'm selling handmade crafts, I just don't enjoy doing it anymore", and there have been times when I've felt the same.

Although spending your time doing what you love and getting paid for it seems like the ultimate dream job, becoming a professional crafter has its own troubles too.

Custom orders

Often custom orders form a large part of selling handmade crafts. Although they bring in a lot of extra income, there are times when they can drive you mad! Sourcing the right materials can be frustrating and time consuming, and creating a custom design usually takes longer too.

However the most trying thing about custom orders is that they don't give free reign to your creativity, and being creative is what gives us crafters the greatest satisfaction.

Try the following to help overcome these aggravations:

• Make sure you account for the extra time custom orders take in your pricing (including time spent sourcing materials) in order to make it worth the hassle. You're much less likely to become dissatisfied if you're being richly rewarded!
• Alternate custom orders with time spent letting your creativity go wild. As custom orders aren't particularly time efficient anyway, you don't necessarily need to do all of them together in one session. Perhaps reward yourself for every custom order finished with a block of time to do your own thing.

Popular items

When selling handmade crafts, it's great to have items that are good sellers, but often replacing the same piece again and again can get really tedious. There are several different ways to deal with this:

• If you're lucky you can limit yourself to doing one-offs or limited editions. That way the customer gets extra value for their purchase and you don't get fed up doing the same thing over and over. However, for many of us selling handmade crafts, this isn't always practical in terms of earning a good income.
• Get a production line going. Now that you know this item sells well, rather than having to replace it every other day, put in one really good session and make loads of them. OK, so it will be even more tedious while you're doing it, but you'll get them finished much quicker this way, and then won't have to make any more for ages!
• Outsource the production of those items. That way you can pay someone to replicate your popular designs while you concentrate on creating new ones.
• Reward yourself with creative sessions. For every day spent doing the more repetitive jobs, give yourself a few hours of fun crafting. This way you'll be motivated to finish the boring stuff quickly.

Loss of inspiration

All of us who are selling handmade crafts have times when it seems our muse has deserted us... usually at the busiest times when we need to be most productive! When you're doing the same thing day in and day out you can easily lose the excitement you used to feel when you first fell in love with your craft.

These are things that have helped me get the 'zing' back again when I've felt like this:

• Set aside a block of time (daily or weekly) that is purely creative time. Don't worry about whether what you're making will sell or not, and don't think about the other things you need to do, just throw yourself into doing whatever feels good. I find that once I start I get carried away with all sorts of new ideas!
• Read books and magazines about your crafts. Sometimes it's easy to think time spent reading is wasted, but it's so important to generate new ideas and to keep abreast of new techniques and trends. So when you're feeling a bit jaded, grab a cup of coffee and settle down with your favourite (craft related) glossy.
• Treat yourself to some different materials or supplies. I love it when a parcel arrives with lots of yummy new beads in it, and can't wait to try them out!
• Have a clearout. You'll find things you'd forgotten you had, and seeing your materials arranged differently can often inspire you to try new combinations or techniques that you haven't thought of before.
• Take a course. Learning a new technique, or brushing up on old ones can help you rediscover your inspiration. And you'll find it refreshing to mix with others who are excited about the same craft as you.

When you're selling handmade crafts, it does mean you need to resign yourself to some of the less exciting tasks, but do everything you can to keep your creative juices flowing. If you don't love what you're doing, it will show in your work.

So don't feel guilty about treating yourself to a magazine subscription, a day off, or whatever else you need to keep you at your best, because it's your creativity that makes your business unique and successful.

Click here to let me know how you deal with the downsides of selling handmade crafts.