You have started your craft business, well done! Now you need to turn it into a business instead of hobby. This will require a bit of planning and forward planning. You will need to start thinking of customers and what they might buy, at what time.
Throughout the year there are a few key holidays or festivals that many customers may celebrate and look to make purchases for. As a crafter you will need to identify these and make products that may target these. For example if you make shoes you may want to have a Christmas or Halloween version to target seasonal sales.
Stock Making Calendar
To ensure that you are ahead and ready to advertise your seasonal items at the right time, you will need to be ready. The best place to start would be to slide the calendar, simply slide by about three months. This should set you up to be a season ahead of the market. To give you an example of how this might work in the summer you might be preparing your Christmas stock.
Seasonal Weather
Another factor that may seem irrelivant is the weather. To give you two examples. My Christmas Eve boxes if painted on a sunny day can take about an hour to dry. Therefore in the height of summer is the best time for me to paint as it is less time intensive. However in the same way if I make clay tags in the summer they dry too quickly which causes them to crack. Therefore clay tags are better made in the winter. So aside from being prepared with stock for the right season, it is also worth taking into account if there are any seasonal factors in making your items.
As your business and experience grows you may find that some calendar events are more sought after than others. In my experience more customers buy for Christmas than they do for Halloween or Valentines. In time you may find this to be true for you as well. Therefore you will be more productive concentrating your efforts on products that have a better return.
Have a read of my blog post on the benefits between having stock ready made and making stock to order https://claireyatfairycrafters.com/stock-custom-made-vs-ready-to-post/
Hopefully this has given you some food for thought and you will feel empowered. Hopefully this will give you pointers into being prepared for the coming year. Please feel free to share any tips or give your stock timescales. For more Craft business advice please feel free to follow my advice board on Pinterest by clicking on the following this link.
