If you’ve been researching the best ways to make some extra money, you have probably noticed the steer towards building websites, creating videos for YouTube and writing blogs and ebooks for profit.
Most ways seem to involve sitting at a desk behind a computer screen all day. It isn’t of course for everyone. It may be your idea of a bad nightmare. If so don’t despair, there are still a great many opportunities of creating some extra money away from the laptop.
One way is to start a dog walking business, covered in a recent feature, but in this example, we are going to talk about the often very immersive world of arts and crafts.
If you’re the creative type, and good with your hands, you may find a way of making some extra money.
Boutique gifts and novel craft ideas are all the gifting rage. Many are shying away from the commercially manufactured same-old gifts and opting for fresh creative gift ideas that add a personalised touch.
It doesn’t mean to say that if you build a nice customer base and repeat customers that you don’t then look for a way to manufacture your designs, outsource your design and fulfillment and focus your attention on marketing, promotion, trade fairs, customer services etc… – but for now it’s a good idea to start small.
Need a little inspiration – here are some great art and craft ideas that you can earn an income and profit from, to get you started
Craft Ideas and Inspirations to make money from home
- Photo Frames
- Birthday and greeting cards
- Candle holders
- Art décor
- Wall Art
- Necklaces
- Personalised gifts
- Earrings
- Handbags
- T-Shirt designs
- Personalised globes
Hopefully this will get the creative mind-mapping thoughts in full flow and give you some food for thought on some craft ideas you could turn in to a flourishing small business.
For more inspiration, here’s a great video explaining some more creative ways:
Where can I sell my arts and crafts for a profit
Once you have your idea all-ready to go, you’ll need a place to sell your designs and crafts. You could choose to build a website and sell yourself, or you can set up a mini-shop on one of the many online marketplaces selling to customers in the UK.
Both have pros and cons of course, and you need to weigh these up for yourself.
Here are a list of all the places you can sell your arts and crafts in the UK:
Etsy
Website: Etsy.com
Etsy is considered one of the best places to sell craft designs in the UK.
The main reason is it’s amazing marketing which really did corner a market and fill a gap. Etsy has a customer base of over 40 million people worldwide and sell over 65 million products.
If you are selling arts and crafts in the UK, you need an Etsy presence.
Amazon Handmade
Website: Amazon Handmade
Amazon UK has many sub-categories within it’s ever growing arsenal of products. Amazon did what many stores didn’t and start allowing 3rd party sellers to sell through the Amazon website. It proved an ingenious idea by the Amazon senior team and a major contributor to Amazon becoming the biggest retailer online.
If Amazon didn’t stock and sell the item, someone else could. This meant Amazon turned in to a website to buy almost anything! A far cry from it’s founding idea to sell books online back in 1997.
Amazon Handmade is a sub-niche within the Amazon brand allowing people who create their own goods to have a presence on their site and reach their audience.
eBay
Website: eBay.co.uk
We are all familiar with eBay, the online boot sale. Although nowadays there are as many brand-new items being sold by retailers and manufacturers than there are second-hand items.
Selling on eBay can be reasonable inexpensive. It may not be perhaps the first place to start selling your items, but if you have created products people are searching for on eBay you may find a new client base.
Not on the High Street
Website: Not on the High Street
Another online only store which has become a UK hit, selling those goods and niche items – well – you won’t find on the high street!
It again filled the ever-growing online demand of novel and different gift ideas away from the mass-produced gifts you find in shops.
Fees can get a little steep, plus joining isn’t as easy as other marketplaces as Not on the High Street vet each partner candidate with strict guidelines to make sure they continue to sell the very best products. You can expect to pay £199 as a set up fee and you will need to pay NOTHS 25% commission on each sale you make
Folksy
Website: Folksy.com
Folksy may not be as big and widespread as the others on this list but it’s definitely worth considering. Any website with low fees and commission is worth considering. The more the better.
Etsy began in the US and spread across to the UK, where Folksy is a UK born and bred site, and markets itself as such.
Folksy has lots of helpers in its community helping you through your selling journey. With small selling fees (around 20p per listing) and then a small commission per item sold, it is definitely a niche marketplace to consider.
Build your own website
You may decide all of the marketplaces are too restricted, or you may not want to give away commission on each sale and keep all profits for yourself.
You could build your own website or have a website design build a site for you.
There are lots of opportunities online to do both.
If you build your own website you could save yourself around £600 but there is of course a learning curve. There are website builders such as WordPress using Shopify or WooCommerce or platforms such as Wix – but any solution you choose you will need to invest some time in learning how.
Fortunately there are online courses that teach you not only how to build your own website from scratch, but also teach other essential small business needs such as finding and buying a domain name, how not to get ripped off on hosting fees, marketing online, advertising online etc…
You could check out this great course on Udemy where currently you can receive 85% discount – Start Your Own Online Business in 2020 course
