If you have a knack for making a product or craft that you’ve love to sell, you may want to consider starting your own small business where you sell these items either in person or online. However, deciding that you want to start this type of business is the easy part. Once you get started, you’ll see that you need quite a bit of business acumen to really get your project off the ground.
To help you with this, here are three tips for selling your homemade products.
Take Advantage Of Social Media
Since you’re not going to have a lot of money to put behind your business, especially when you’re just starting out, you’re going to want to take advantage of marketing avenues that are free or cheap to you, namely social media.
According to Dan Shewan, a contributor to WordStream.com, taking the time to build up a strong social media following will make it easier for you to share your products with others as well as grow your customer base. For those selling products that are unique and beautiful, you may want to focus your efforts on social platforms that are more image-heavy, like Instagram and Pinterest. But for products that might need a little more explanation or selling behind them, Facebook may make more sense for you to concentrate your efforts.
Have Enough Inventory On-Hand
One of the hardest parts about selling homemade items is getting your inventory right. Since you’re making everything by hand, you’ll want to strike the right balance between putting so much time and money into creating your product while not going overboard and having more items that you can sell.
To help with this, Elisabeth Natter, a contributor to Chron Small Business, recommends that you wait to really start pushing your business until you have enough inventory to make it through your launch and the first few months of having your business open. Then, you can create some inventory practices that will allow you to better balance your time creating your products and selling your products.
Use Your Customers To Help Create Content
Creating a business where you sell homemade items automatically makes you and your company more accessible than bigger companies. And while this can have its disadvantages, it can be very helpful when it comes to interacting with your customers and creating genuine content.
One way you can do both of these things, according to Jennifer Post, a contributor to Business News Daily, is to reach out to customers who’ve bought something and ask for them to send you a picture or video of their item in action. Then, you can use this user-generated content to further promote your business online and add some credibility to your company.
If you’re wanting to start selling some of your homemade items but aren’t sure how to get started, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you with this endeavor.
