So many people ask me how I got started crafting as my business as they would love to one day move to selling the items that. I would say that the first step to getting started would be to start a Facebook page specifically for the items that you make. Through this blog post I will look at what aspects of Facebook you can use to help you launch a new crafting business whether you want to just sell your hobby pieces or launch into full-scale selling.
Pick a Business Name
Before you launch a Facebook site you will need to have a think about what name you might like to trade under. Any names that you think of do a quick search on both Facebook and Google to see if there is anyone else using the name that you like first. The ideal would be for no one else to be using the name that you choose however you can use a name that someone else has already used but you will need to add something to it to differentiate between you and anyone else. Often people add UK or by their name to the end of their business name to make it unique.
So that was a pretty difficult aspect of starting as picking a name for your business can be a long process that could potentially take a few days, however from now on it should be a lot simpler. I promise!
Create a New Facebook Page
It is probably easiest to create a page using a desktop version of Facebook so I would use either a laptop or PC to start your page. You will need to select Create Page which is at the bottom of the screen on the left hand side. The next screen will give you some options on the type of page you would like to create. You should select “Local Business or Place”. You will then be asked a number of questions about your page. Fill in the details and follow the steps and you will have set up your page for your Craft Business.
Personalise your Page
You will want to give your page an identity so you should change your picture so that your comments or posts are personalised to you. This picture can be of anything so people use a logo and some use a picture of one of the items they have made. It is completely up to you which you would prefer to use and you can easily change this at a later date if you want to. You should also update the cover picture to something that represents your business and what you do. Some people use a picture of their raw materials either a stack of wool or a selection of fabrics; others use a selection of the items that they have made or you could have an extended logo image.
Post to your Page
Now you can post to the page whenever you create a new item, revisit a previously made item or send out an order. People will be able to get an idea of what it is that you make and what sort of things they may be interested in buying. Don’t feel that you need to constantly be posting things to your page as at first you will just need to give people an idea of what you make. Essentially that is the basics of starting your page, below are some further ideas for expanding your page in order to make it more of a shopping platform.
Link Page
You can direct people to other outlets for your products for example Etsy. Make sure that you update all your contact details giving people the option to contact you in their preferred way. Make sure that you update you Twitter, Instagram and email address that way people can interact with you on their preferred platform.
Create an Action Button
At the top of your page will be a large blue button that is called an Action Button this is something that people can click on in order to interact with you. Some people have it set to “Send Message” so that the customer can go straight into the messenger and start a conversation with you about something that they have seen. The other popular action button is “Shop Now” this will provide a link to either your Etsy shop or website when you get to that stage with your business.
Shop Tab
You can create a Facebook Shop which enables customers to have a browse of 
your items in an online shop format. You can add items to this shop each product will have a form that will pop up for you to fill in so you can list all the details including price, in stock and descriptions together with pictures of your products.
Just remember that a lot of these things can be added to your page when you reach that stage. The very first step is to set up the Facebook page and then everything else can grow from there when you are ready. This blog post lists some of the aspects of Facebook that I personally use for my Facebook page however I am more than certain that there are aspects of Facebook that I haven’t discovered yet.
Thank you for reading please feel free to comment or let me know if there is anything else that you would like me to cover next time.
