How To Start Your Handmade Business

Starting a handmade business half the time is a total accident. True story, I had no idea what "Etsy" was and I made a lot of handmade leather bracelets in the past. Someone told me "Hey! You should sells these on Etsy!" and I was all like "What the hell is an Etsy?" Then from Etsy turned into my main Rustic Brand shop in which now I run both and it's been a great journey so far.

We all have our beginnings to our journeys and the beginning can sometimes be the hardest part. You may ask yourself "what can I sell?" or "what am I good at making to be able to re-sell?" Instead of those questions, ask the more obvious ones to help you better understand what type of business you want to run.

Make what you want to earn a living off of. Building your brand based around yourself will help the start of your adventure much easier. What would you buy? What would make you passionate about your handmade shop? To me, that is the art of a handmade shop. You are not copying what others are doing just because you like their product. You are literally passionate about your shop because you would buy the hell out of your handmade merchandise! Don't make things that you "think" would sell. Don't make things just because they are easy to make so you want to make an easy buck. The best way to work is to start out by making things you need in your life. Things that can help you out on a daily basis from bags to journals to wood crafting to light fixtures to whatever. There are no limits. If you need these things in your life that means other do too. From this mindset will opens larger doors to different product ideas and before you know it you are hand making and selling 10 different types of products that you never knew you could possibly do. It all starts with just one idea in the beginning. It's okay to not sell what you started to sell. Find the products that make you excited. If it turns out that is not the direction you want to go anymore, change it up! Nothing is set in stone.

The biggest mistake someone could make is wanting to have a full blown 200 item shop right from the get-go. Start slow, but don't continue to be slow. Truly, the more items/ ideas you have the better chances your shop will get seen. But take baby steps and do not rush, otherwise your handmade products will end up being sloppy and undervalued because you did not put the time you should have in them. Everyone starts somewhere. Start from your passion!

If you feel like you do not have a skill or passion, that should not stop you. Find it! Just because you haven't picked up any "wood crafting" hobbies (for example) doesn't mean you can't learn "wood crafting" skills. How do you know it's not your passion if you haven't even tried it? I believe YouTube was made for a reason and that it is literally the best school you can go to (and the cheapest…FREE). View other peoples techniques from sewing backpacks or hand stamping metals, etc. That is exactly what I did because I thought that it was so cool that I can print anything I wanted to on metal and get requests from customers wanting the same thing. I viewed video after video and practiced over and over until I found my OWN technique that worked for me. Once you find your technique, then find your style. Your style is what will market your brand and will have your handmade shop unique from all the others. And that's what you truly want.

This was just a small insight for those of you who have been wanting to start your own Etsy or "Etsy type" handmade shop but just can't figure out the direction you really want to go. I could go on and on but these points are the most important to me for the mindset of a beginner. There are so many different ways you can start your own handmade business. If you have two hands then you are already half way there.

PS: My Etsy shop just hit the 1,000 sale mark and I am stoked! Whoop whoop!