This is one of the most dangerous thoughts you could ever have. Handmade is not cheap! That’s what “Made in China” is, and handmade is kind of the opposite of that, right?! Think about who are you trying to compete with. Most people price their products so low they won’t actually be successful in the long term. You definitely don’t want to compete with them, for a few reasons:
Please don’t compare yourself to other shops. It’s important to understand where the market price is at, but you need to work on your pricing with YOUR numbers, not just by looking at others shop owners who most likely are making mistakes. Here is my article on 5 common pricing pitfalls and a pricing calculator to help you out.
Don’t forget that price is tightly linked to value. You can charge more for the experience your products deliver. This includes things like better:
Please, please, please, don’t make the mistake of thinking that handmade is cheap! Your time is valuable and anyone who is serious about buying handmade should understand that you put some much time, effort and love into your product that it can’t be competing with the same product at Target. Don’t undervalue your work! It’s important that your price is based on your numbers and not on comparing yourself to others.
FREE WORKBOOKS, CHEAT SHEETS, AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOU START, GROW AND PROFIT FROM YOUR HANDMADE SHOP.
Also known as the myth of instant success, overnight 6-figure stories, and million-dollar Etsy stores. This used to be a popular one in the service industry, but I see it more and more in the handmade business as well.
The truth is, people who make 6 figure overnight took months if not years to get to that level. E.g: “I started running Facebook ads woke up to $5000 in sales – overnight!”. What makes those ads so successful? A TON of experimentation and work beforehand.
I’m not saying that these stories aren’t true, it’s just it takes time to get a bit of momentum. We tend to think that those successes are literally overnight, but they are so NOT! First, you have to build your reputation, experiment, understand your ideal customer deeply, find out which products are money spinner VS which are not so popular and refine your collections.
The point is, go for progress! Did you make more sales this year than you did last year? Yes? Then you’re doing something right. I’m not saying it’s impossible to have a business that booms suddenly, but I don’t want you to compare your beginnings with someone else’s endings or you’ll be left feeling unmotivated and eventually give up.
How many people sell jewelry online? How many sell soaps? Crochet patterns? And the list goes on… At times, it might feel like it’s impossible to stand out from the crowd but that’s simply not true. If you feel that your niche is saturated, I want you to look at the details. Find a shop in your niche and with a similar avatar that is more successful and look at the details. Ask yourself: what is this shop doing that mine (or other, less successful) isn’t? To stand out, you don’t need to do ALL OF THE THINGS, you just have to go the extra mile and go above what an average shop owner is doing. That’s just 1% more of what you’re doing right now. and that 1% is going to get you much further and it’s not really hard to achieve.
It is possible to stand out from the crowd because people are doing it – and I want those people to be you. Stop thinking that it’s impossible because you can do it. Business and marketing are (thankfully) more of a science than an art. Shops becoming successful and standing out from the crowd didn’t do it “magically”. They followed a system and did things in the right order to slowly but surely differentiate themselves from other shops in their niche.
Once again, having a successful handmade business is all about having a step-by-step approach and doing things in order, without skipping anything important. That’s why I’ve created the Maker’s Success Roadmap. It’s a daily planner and growth framework for makers and handmade shop owners. You can get it here:
Do you feel like there’s simply not enough hours in a day to get everything on your growing to-do list done?
Meet the Maker’s Roadmap Planner, a life and business planner created just for makers and handmade shop owners and designed to help you stay focused, be more productive.
The Maker’s Roadmap is made of physical planner and online videos and is a complete system designed to help grow your handmade shop by providing you with:
Back to you: what is the biggest myth you’ve heard regarding handmade business?
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