From hobby to home business
The Enterprise Nation founder on starting a business from your passion.
We're seeing something happen in the world of home business;
every day we hear from people turning their hobby into a way of
making a living. This is particularly so for people with a passion
for arts and crafts. If you're in this market, whose lead do you
follow and what to do next?
Crafty entrepreneurs
We've profiled many a crafty entrepreneur on Enterprise Nation!
And, of late, many of them have taken their hobby for arts and
anything handmade and turned it into a profitable and home based
business.
Eloise Hall is a perfect example. Whilst working on a hat
design, she started to play with butterfly shapes, mounted and
framed them to brighten up her studio and saw the beginnings of a
business as visitors wanted to buy them. She's now successfully
running ButterflyButterfly from her sales room studio.
Rebecca Shreeve's hobby for creating textile creatures for kids
started whilst she was at University. The hobby has developed, as
has Rebecca's business that's called Quirkles and is run from her
parents' home.
These, and many other hobbyists, show it's perfectly possible to
earn by doing something you love. Take a couple of steps and you
could be too.
Tell the neighbours... and then the world
Show off your work to friends and family; to neighbours and
people in the local area. Put a price on your work and promote the
fact that it's for sale. It's a great way to test the market and
get the business up and running. Make sales, increase production,
ask for customer feedback and keep on improving the product and
your business process.
When you feel confident enough, move on to a
national/international stage and open yourself up to a bigger
audience. There's never been a better time to do this and never
been so many sites to act as your sales platform.
Check these out for starters:
- Etsy.com - still the mother
of all craft sites, this American platform is stylish and
powerfulMyehive.com - a UK
start-up launched in September '08 yet already swarming with home
business bees
- Folksy.com - passionate
about being champions of cool crafts and design talent
- Allthingsoriginal.com -
featuring independent British designers
- Dawanda.com - a sales and
store place that's spreading fast across Europe
- Experiment with these sites and test out the one that suits you
most.
Scale to finish
As sales flow in, have the resource in place to scale up and
meet demand. This may involve calling in other crafty folk to help
out with production/wrapping/customer care. Which is good news as
it means others can share in the fruits of your hobby too.