Hi, this is James from Craftmarketer.com. With the videos series the 10 most asked questions about selling your crafts and the 10 question you should be asking. This is video 18.
A frequently asked question is how do I start a craft supply business? Well, one of the way if you can lower your cost in materials in making craft items is to buy materials direct from the manufacturers. Use what you need for your projects and then re-sell the rest to other crafts artist.
Now you don’t have to open up a retail store or craft supplies; you can sell them by mail order or online at eBay. Early on in my own weaving business and before the internet and eBay came around I was selling wearable art at craft fairs and to galleries around the country. Since I was in it fulltime as a business, it occurred to me that I could dramatically lower my cost by buying yarns directly from yarn mails instead of going through retailers.
I went to the towns register and I searched for yarn mails. I saw and learned that yarn mails would sell discontinued stock in large logs. So I bought some of these, I picked out the yarns that I wanted for my work and then I placed classified adds in reading magazines offering yarn samples by mail for $2.00. Not only did buying yarns on bulk lowering my own expenses by about 50%. Other weaver started buying the excess yarns from me and then I had another money stream coming in.
Now, I could’ve easily drawn that into its own business but I used it mainly to get my yarn cost down and I really was into my own creative work and I chose to go on that area. Now, whether you started craft supply business just to lower your cost or to have more income coming in, there’s a question many craft makers actually asked and that is, do I need a license to sell my crafts items?
Watch the next video for the answer. This is James from Craftmarketer.com. See you in the next video.
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