How to write a business plan for selling handmade goods

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you've wanted to open your own handmade goods business for a long time, but don't know where to start, try writing a business plan. A few tips from Etsy will help you set your goals and implement your ideas without getting credit for promotion.

It seems logical that for the success of an online store with handmade goods, first of all, good design and advertising are needed. But here several problems come up: where to get money for promotion and creation of even the smallest online store with your products? And one more thing: what if the money is still found, and after the investments, the online store burns out?

Here are some helpful tips from Etsy, a large site where every artist and designer can open their own shop and sell handmade goods all over the world.

Many entrepreneurs working in the field of creativity, creation and sale of their own works are faced with the problems described. To cope with them, you can draw up a business plan and gradually implement it. But how to do that?

Ask yourself a few questions:

• How much money do I want to make per month?
• How am I going to do this?
• How many hours per week will I devote to my business?
• What sites will I use to sell my product?
• What are the opportunities for me to sell my products?
• How can I advertise my products?
• Is it possible to exchange for my goods?
• Do I need a dedicated blog for my store?
• How will my business cards be designed and what will be the logo?

You can use these questions as basic questions if you feel stuck or don't even know where to start. When you answer them, you will surely have other tasks related to the specifics of your activity.

Write at least 10 questions, but remember that you don't have to answer them right now. It's just that some of them will provide food for further thought about your case.

Goals and implementation

Once you've set yourself a big goal for the month, start setting small ones. For example, in the long term you want to receive from your business about $ 1,500 or more per month, but at the same time you understand that this is not possible now.

Set a realistic goal for yourself and calculate how many products you will need to make and sell per month to get the intended amount. Estimate how many hours you can devote to work, and see if you can do everything you need to achieve your desired income.

Keep in mind that other work, fatigue after it, small children and other factors can put an end to your grandiose plans, so try to realistically assess your capabilities. So plans take on clearer contours..

Promotion of your products

From social networks, you can use profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, VKontakte to sell and advertise your own products. In addition, there are tons of sites where you can sell your products:,,, and others.

On sites such as, and, you can see new items and explore the latest trends in the world of handmade. You get inspiration and interesting ideas from other artists and put your wares along the way.

You can use your loved ones for advertising: ask them to post a link to your products on social networks. Do not hesitate, maybe one of your friends and acquaintances will become the first customer.

If you have your own blog, you can regularly post news about your business there, and if not, invite bloggers to post information about your products. These can be lessons and workshops, sales, or just a presentation of products. Believe me bloggers love being offered ideas and often post them for free.

This is a great way to cross-advertise, the so-called virtual barter. The blogger helps you promote your product by writing a post or placing your logo, and you help him promote the blog by sharing the link to the post on social networks and on other sites where you present your products.

Design and logo

If you need a great design for an online store and at the same time you have familiar designers, you can offer them an honest exchange for your product or big discounts on it. This way you will kill two birds with one stone: sell the product and get a stylish design, and not a dude from a newbie from high school.

It can be easier to design your own logo yourself, even if you don't know much about design. Just choose a nice font and add a picture of your best product. The resulting image can be added to business cards and sites where you post products. You can change it at any time when you have enough funds for a professional logo design.

Don't forget about plans

When your business plan is ready, hang it in a prominent place, preferably where you create your masterpieces … This will support you and help you when there is no strength and desire to do something. Let the first item on your plan be "Why am I doing this?" By rereading your motives, be it money, self-realization, or something else, you will get great motivation to keep working.

You can even keep a journal of your fears, expectations, plans, and actual results. In moments of decadent mood, re-read your magazine, remember all the ups and downs and really assess your capabilities.

One final tip: there are quite a few books out there that can help aspiring entrepreneurs selling handmade goods. For example, "Muse, where are your wings?", In which the artist talks about the problems and their solutions during the launch of her art business.