Here is my guide to turning your hobby to income. I am very lucky that I work by crafting, it is something I really enjoy doing and I make an income from doing it. If you are able to get an income from something that you really enjoy doing then you will be truly content.
I decided to sell my crafts after I ran out of people to gift items to, I had always crafted from a young age and found that I enjoyed spending my time creating things. So many people have asked how you get started so I thought I would write a little guide. However the biggest thing that you will need is a little bit of self confidence, the hardest step to take is the first one. Once you have pulled up your big boy pants and decided to start the following steps will help you get started and guide you in which direction to take to grow.
First step would be to determine if anyone would like the items you make. Post a few pictures of what you have made on your personal Facebook page and see if any of your friends take an interest. This is an easy and free way to gauge if there is a market for your items. Depending on how this step goes I would suggest that the first business step would be to set up a Facebook page that is purely for your handcrafted items. Invite your friends to like the page and then see how it grows from there.
Selling platforms
Fairs
Fairs can come in a variety of forms fun days, charity events, pamper events, markets or Craft events. You can find fairs in your local area through Facebook or online. Search on Facebook for craft and suggested local pages will come up. In Lincolnshire there are quite a few Facebook groups which can be useful including Lincolnshire Fayres and Charity Events; Lincolnshire Stand Holders and Craft Fayre Stallholders Lincolnshire. The key is finding which fairs work best for your items, I found that Pamper evenings worked well with my items however fun days tended not to. But each craft would be different so you will have to approach it in a trial and error manner.
Most people wrongly believe that the only way to get their items sold to a wider market is to attend fairs. Don’t get me wrong fairs can be good and you can have a fantastic fair that generates a substantial return, however they are not the only option.
Shop
There have been a number of craft shops that opened around the country who offer a retail outlet for your crafted items. They operate in different ways but usually there are two expenses that you will need to way up. The first is rent, there will be a monthly or weekly rental amount for a specified space within the shop. The second is a commission so a percentage that the shop will take from the items that you sell. Commission amounts usually range between 10-30%.
Online
The easiest method to start is to sell online. If you have set up a Facebook page you are already in a position to sell online as anyone that sees your Facebook page could contact you to buy something.
There are other online selling platforms that you can add your items to and different people find that different sites work better than others for them. So again you will need to find which one works best for you. Below are some of the ones that I have either used or looked into:
eBay – is the easiest one to test the water with, I usually wait until they are offering free listings so that you can put your items on and only have fees to pay if the items sell.
Etsy – is like the handmade version of eBay. You list items like you would on eBay and people can search and browse items to buy. Etsy is more complicated than eBay in the way that you will 
need to get your head around SEO which is the words that people use in order to search for products. If you can master this then Etsy can work really well, but it takes quite a bit of work to keep it ticking over. If you wanted to try Etsy the following link can give you 40 free listings so you can put your items on Etsy an not incur any fees until the items sell. http://etsy.me/2DNnSAn This is a good way to have a go and experiment without having too many costs as a result.
Other platforms that I have heard of but not yet looked into my self are Folksy, Shopify and Amazon Handmade.
Payment Methods
Cash
Most customers when you first start will more than likely be friends or friends of friends so payments will mostly be made in cash.
PayPal
The easiest method of taking payments for distant customers is through PayPal it is free to set up an account and you can easily send invoices to an email address and have money transferred into your preferred account once paid. You will just need to make sure that you take into account the PayPal fee that is deducted from payments.
Cards
There are a number of card reader providers that can enable you to take card
payments. This can make fairs a lot easier as many people may not have the cash on them to pay for some of your items when they see them. Personally I use iZettle who take a 2.75% fee off of any payments that you take and there is no monthly fee for having the card reader. This sort arrangement works well as if you have quiet months with less sales you haven’t had to pay a fee for the reader.
Once you start making an income you will need to register as self employed with HM Revenue have a look through their website to see their requirements etc. This can sound quite daunting however it can is quite straightforward and can be arranged over the phone. Being self employed will require you to submit a self-assessment tax form each year. This can be done online and is reasonably simple to do if you have kept track of all your in goings and expenses.
Crafting for income can be very satisfying but can only start once you have taken that first step and had a bit of self confidence in what you make. Thank you for reading and let me know if there is anything else you would like me to cover next time? Good luck and enjoy yourself!
This post is not connected to any of the brands that have been mentioned in the text. It purely offers an opinion based on experience of the services.
