These lists will keep you organised

When you are running a handmade craft business organisation will really help you to be more productive and

Being super organised does not come naturally to a lot of artisans who often work in a level of organised chaos.  However if a couple of lists which could be stored somewhere, then you are going to know exactly where you are.

Material Cost List

How many of us get carried away creating and pull long treasured items out of the craft room to finish a project.  Although this is great and makes more space for more craft supplies in the craft room.  You need to be conscious of how much your finished project actually cost you to make in the first place.  Whether you do this in a spreadsheet for all your makes or a post-it stuck to the top of the pattern it will help you to work out pricing at a later date to ensure that you aren’t out of pocket for making that item.

Personally I have all my items listed with their associated costs.  This way I can quickly scan down the list and can see what the base cost is and the add on things like postage or profit on.  This prevents me having to work it out again each time I have one to sell. This project book available on Amazon can help you to keep all the details for your items in one place.

Price List

When we have been running a craft business for a number of years the number of products and variations that you make can be numerous.  Therefore for you reference it is very helpful to have a price list that clearly states the price for each of the items that you make.

Aside from keeping yourself consistent in the pricing of your handmade items it can be very useful for customers.  If a customer is browsing your stall, shop or online outlet they can clearly see the price of your different items and their variations.  This gives a more professional appearance but also can help to whittle out customers who are put off by the price.

Orders List

Once you have been up and running a little while with any luck you will start to get orders in.  Inevitably you will end up with a list of items you need to make ready for customers. 

Orders can come in at any time and from many different channels either as a result of an event, a shop visit, an online view or a face to face conversation.  If you are not careful you can very quickly loose track of what you have to make and who specifically ordered what.  Therefore I would highly recommend having an order list.  Even a basic list of customer name and what they ordered can help keep you on top of your work load and plan what to tackle first.

More advanced lists may include information like customers contact details, whether it needs to be posted or where they purchased the item from eg online or at event.  You can put as much or as little information on this list as you feel is needed.  Just make sure that this list is accessible as if you are out talking to a friend over coffee you would be surprised how you may end up with an order.  These chance customers are the ones that you are likely to forget so make sure you can update your list as close to receiving the order as possible.

Inventory List

If like me you have your items for sale in a variety of outlets or listed on a variety of selling sites it can be a headache keeping track of your stock.  I would strongly suggest keeping an inventory list.  This list could simply have the number of items (maybe split into sub categories if you do different sizes or colours) that you have ready made and where they are either physically on display or virtually listed.  This will also help you to deal with orders as you will be able to identify exactly where the item is and how quickly you can send it out.

If you are not sure what level of stock to actually have ready made have a read of https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/stock-custom-made-vs-ready-to-post/

The amount of detail that you have on any of these lists can be down to personal preference.  In the same way some people even combine the lists to one spreadsheet.  A basic spreadsheet could show you at a glance your cost, price and inventory levels all in one place.  If that works better for you then I would go for it.  Find a way that works for you and stick to it.

The other pit fall that we all fall into is we set these lists up and then we get distracted and don’t keep them updated.  Try and I mean REALLY try to keep these lists up to date and then you will know at a glance all the vital information for keeping your business ticking over.

I personally use www.asana.com to try and keep all my lists in one place. I can access them on my phone or on the laptop and I can easily see at a glance when things are due or what my list is related to.

Let me know how much you try to track on your numerous lists or if there are any others that you swear by that keep you organised.