Selling Crafts  

www.etsy.com

That's a website like EBAY that only has handcrafted items. It's great, there is some really interesting things on there. Good Luck!

none of those companies pay anything, you can't meet their production demands. Your best bet is to sell your crafts on ebay or another plce like that. there are a few

I don't know of any sites like that but you can sell anything you want on ebay . My friend sells stuff on ebay and she says it is really easy and this way you get it out to a lot of different customers . She told me that you used to need a credit card to do this but you don't need one to sell on there now .

Have you looked into selling on ebay. I sell custom made doll clothes and it is going very well. Especially around the holidays I sold lots of clothes. Don't know of any better place to sell than on ebay.

I agree with the previous poster, you can't meet the production demands of those craft companies, so they won't pay you. My sister once had a job embroidering baby bibs. Even though she did nice work, they refused all of them and wouldn't pay her for anything. Did I mention that she had to pay for all of her supplies to make the bibs? It's just a big ripoff.

If you make your own crafts, this website it THE place to sell them: http://www.etsy.com/

Ebay and other online aucion sites are good.

A few other ideas you could try if you are serious into making it into a home based business, are setting up a free blog or website and driving traffic to it to promote your lines.

Markets (indoor and outdoor) are also good places to sell jewellery, as well as "renting a space" whether it be a table or whatever out the front of a store, or in the food court, of a shopping centre and selling your jewellery there.

You can also try to turn it into a "party plan" based business, in which you host parties displaying your items, where a small group of interested people meet and order products- think Tupperware but for jewellery lol- This is a great way to sell and usually leads to multiple sales. It also means you make only a sample of each item you want to sell, then make them as tehy are ordered saving on wastage.

Final idea, is to approach a shop and ask them if they want to take on your items as a "line" for a small commission of teh profits, say 10%. Or have them buy them off yout to sell, as tehy usually mark prices up anyway and would make a decent profit.

Well these are just a few of my thoughts on how to start a jewellery home based business, hope it helps a little. Good Luck and just remember what I always say to anyone considering or starting a new business venture... No Limitations!

related resources: business leads, buy leads, home business leads

On etsy.com you can open your own shop and charge set prices (it's not an auction site). They have pretty cheap insertion fees (20 cents per item) I know eBay charges much more to list. They take a small percentage of the sale price, like eBay. The good thing abut Etsy is you have your own shop, which can be given a customized look, and your own url, so you can make business cards to hand to try to drive more traffic to your shop. Jewelry is a very competitive market these days, but if you market yourself well you can get lots of traffic to your shop.

I just signed up with Etsy also. There fees are low, but there are a lot of competition so make sure your jewelry are unique. Ebay is okay, but I did not have any success with them.

I purchased for $40, a directory of companies that pay you to assemble merchandise (Make jewelry, put together Dollhouse furniture, Sew doll clothes, etc.)for them and these companies have been screened thoroughly to make sure they have a business license, are working from a legitimate location, have been in business for over a year and have no unresolved complaints with the Postal Inspector. Some companies require a start-up fee, you pay for the materials up front and when you've completed the work you ship it back to them for payment, some even cover shipping costs. Here are some links, you can check them out if you like.

Good Luck!

www.angelpin.net
www.artisancorp.com
www.sheilasworkathome.com
www.wine-keepers.com
www.cotind.com

I read everyone's comments and agree wholeheartedly
First off if you want to sell an item, you have to figure out your overhead
if you are doing jewelry you are having to buy everything!
so you will not make as much profit that you could if your overhead was much smaller.
I ran a ceramic business for 25 years no not the place you come and make it
I ran a WHOLESALE business.
I did it so I could stay at home with my children.
It RAN ME!
I worked 20 hours a day 7 days a week.
I was my own salesperson, my own making of the pieces from the molds, I cleaned them I fired them and I painted them
Sometimes they got fired 3 times in the Kiln if you used gold, or mother of pearl
So you had to take in consideration how much you wanted for the piece before you could even sell it
When you run your own business unless you can do volume the profit is not there
I went door to door to florist shops, candy shops, and gift shops.
I had a good clientle
at one time I was selling to 13 different florists shops.
You have to have containers for all occasion, new babies, wedding, death, and then for every holiday!
Then you had people that were decorating their home and wanted certain colors.
And I EVEN had people that knew I was selling to a florist and they would walk in and undercut my set price
LIke I had a chicken planter that I was selling wholesale for 10.00 this lady I knew come and sold hers for 8.00
these were not small pieces
I could only fit 6 in a large kiln so there was not much profit in them yet at that time they were sellers and you needed to do them along with other things
make sure you can find a price YOU can live with
I did craft shows I did a unicorn that was popular one year
I sold him with a music box in him completely hand painted for 9.95
Three booths down they had the same unicorn painted differently and was selling them without a music box for 15.95
Was I making a profit?
YOU BET I WAS
My music box wholesale was 1.00 the cost to make the piece was approx 2.00
so I was making 7.00 profit on that piece but remember I had booth fees etc
But if you see where I am going with this
pricing is everything
The booth three spots down never sold hers
I sold all 12 I had brought with me!
One more place I went to an end of year craft show
I had VERY little left but it was my elementary school and the kids always looked for me to come
I made these ceramic cups and put a bow and candies on them
Great gifts for teachers, moms,dads
I showed up with a CARD TABLE! and a plant stand
that is all the merchandise I had left for the year
approx 100 pieces
They set me up next to another ceramic person
This lady was loaded with merchandise and had a BEAUTIFUL display!
3 hours later...I had 3 pieces left, and had to go find the principal to see if I could go home since I had nothing left to sell!
If you just left you would not be allowed to come back
once he saw my booth and saw I had sold everything
(I made 450.00 on a 20.00 booth fee)
he let me go home
as I was leaving...the lady with the beautiful setup?
She made the comment WELL I am not going to give my stuff away!
I turned and looked at her...and replied...I did not give my stuff away...I just chose not to have to PACK IT AWAY!
picked up my card table and left
Needless to say her pricing made her have to pack up QUITE a bit to go home with!
So sit back and look at your products
Never charge MORE than what you honestly could afford to pay for something yourself
If you were the one looking at your merchandise
#1 would you buy it?
#2 could you afford it?
If you can answer yes to both of those questions, you may have a chance
Good Luck...I averaged 300.00 to 1200.00 a week in wholesale ceramics
I ALWAYS put 50% back in the business
So that meant I made 150.00 to 600.00 a week
And you have to disipline yourself to work and make yourself work!
If not you have a hobby not a business
There is tons of jewelry out there good luck
It would not be MY choice craft to do
Not because I don't think you have a good product, its just EVERYONE is doing it!
Bless you in all your efforts

related resources: gold jewelry, display booth, jewelry display