Small Business Management for Craft Professionals

Smart, strategic small business management will help you avoid costly and time consuming mistakes and grow a business that's a great fit for your priorities and values.

Seemingly humdrum business management issues may not be the first thing on your mind when you decide to start selling crafts. However, once you resolve to get serious with your business, you quickly realize there are a whole string of choices you need to make to determine what type of company you want to grow and how you're going to do that.

Making smart, strategic decisions can help you build the kind of company that is right for you, plays to your strengths and brings joy into your life.

Yep! Good small business management decisions can do all of that.

Maybe you are analytically-minded and already excited about jumping into the planning aspects of building your company. If so, great! I won't need to convince you to dive into these tasks with your full attention and focus.

If you're not thrilled about the management aspects of building a company, and you'd much rather just get back to your studio where you can design and create, I'm going to challenge you to change your thinking!

How to Create the Type of Company You Want

Small business management isn't just a set of dull, bureaucratic tasks you must trudge through in order to get back to the creative work you love.

I'd challenge you to think of small business management as a set of tasks that are ultimately creative.

Yes, creative!

All of the practical and tactical decisions you make about your company come together to create a specific business that is uniquely your own. And if you are smart and strategic when you make those small business management decisions, you'll be in a better position to grow the kind of company that works for you.

Take a minute to consider...

• Do you want to spend most of your time on design work or production work?
• Would you rather sell a few, select items to a small number of people, or do you dream of selling a lot of items to a huge number of customers?
• What type of handmade items are you most skilled at making? What type of items do you most enjoy making? How will the tools, processes and materials you work with impact your company? If it will limit you in some way, can you learn a new skill or make a small change to direct your work in a way that is a better fit for you?
• Do you love the idea of selling at crafts shows, traveling, interacting with other craft artists and meeting your customers personally, or does selling at craft shows hold no appeal for you?
• What aspects of selling crafts really captivate you and play to your strengths? What factors do not appeal to you? How will you structure your company to ensure you highlight your strengths and preferences?

Yes, some of those questions require a lot of thought, and it might not be obvious how the answers will help you with the practicalities of small business management.

The answers to those questions will form the foundation of your business and will inform every management decision you make.

Three-Part Series - How to Develop Winning Business Ideas

Part One - Assess Product Ideas: Part one in the three-part series on assessing your craft business ideas teaches you how to clarify, and expand on your ideas, examines why you should come to the process with more than one idea, and shows you how to assess the risks versus rewards of your craft business idea so you can choose to develop the product that is best for your business.

Part Two - Create and Test a Prototype: Part two in the product development series looks at creating a prototype (pretty simple for most crafters), examines the importance of testing your prototype with your target customer, and looks at options when you want to keep your product discreet until you are ready to launch.

Part Three - Research Your Competition: Part three in the three-part series on developing a new product for your craft business examines ways to research and assess your competition. Discover why you should research your competitors, and learn how to find competing products, know what customers are thinking about those products, and use that information to make your product the absolute best it can be.

Business Planning

Whether you develop a traditional plan or something non-traditional that fits you better, writing a business plan forms the foundation of your company.

It requires you to become very business minded and think through all of the practicalities of selling crafts including:

• what you will sell
• how you will sell it
• how you will out-shine your competition
• how much money will you need
• how will you finance your business
• what outside support will you need

Do you really need to develop a formal business plan?

That depends on what your goals are for your company.

If you are trying to secure funding from any outside sources like banks or investors then, yes, you definitely need an excellent, traditional, formal business plan.

If you are going to fund everything on your own, then you might not need a traditional, formal business plan. But you might want one to help guide you with your decisions.

Even if you don't create a traditional business plan, I would strongly recommend creating some type of craft business plan that works for your needs.

In the first year of running my jewelry business, my mentor required me to write a formal business plan.

I would never in a million years have done that on my own if he hadn't made me do it. But I'm so glad I did! I learned a lot and prevented myself from missing important opportunities.

I won't pretend to be an expert on how to write a traditional business plan. There are plenty of people who know more about that topic than I do. I will, however, share with you my own experience with creating a craft business plan. 

You will also benefit from working through some of the more specific management decisions related to running your own business.

The Importance of Business Planning: Here's how your business can benefit from smart strategic planning, and how to get started with your own craft business plan.

Is Selling Crafts Your Hobby or Business?: You might be surprised to know that the fact that you're selling crafts doesn't automatically mean you have a business. Your craft sales might be a hobby, and that's perfectly fine if it falls within your own personal goals for your business. Thriving empire, side hustle, or hobby - what's right for you?

Measuring New Project Benefits and Risks: Every new project you commit to will cost you time, or money, or both. Your time and money are limited and precious, so you need to make sure you commit them to promising projects that have a good potential to bring the rewards you want. Ask these 5 questions to determine if a new project is worth pursuing.

Doing Effective Things Well: Here's how I plan to stay focused on the most important projects with the best return on investment with my non-traditional business plan.

Inventory Management

Retail Inventory Management for Your Craft Business: You almost certainly need to improve your inventory management. Here's how better inventory management can help you grow your business, and what you can do to implement a new inventory management solution, or improve the system you use.

How to Choose the Best Retail Inventory Software for Your Needs: Craft professionals have very specific needs when it comes to inventory management software. You typically deal with all kinds of raw materials, as well as finished products. You may be selling at a variety of venues, which present different record keeping challenges.

Here's how to assess your own inventory management needs, and find the best solution to fit your specific situation.

Improve Inventory Management and Streamline Your Business: I learned a lot about my business when I got serious about tracking inventory and raw materials. Here's what I've learned and how I changed my own business to improve and simplify my own business inventory management system.

Naming and Registering Your Business

Your business name is often the first thing your customers will see, and it can have a huge impact on their expectations.

You want to send all of the right messages with your company name, so you'll need to know exactly what type of message you want to send before you start to brainstorm company names.

The process of registering your business varies depending on where you live. When I went through the business name registration process, it was simple, fast and inexpensive.

Registering your company is a smart small business management decision, and in some locations, it is absolutely necessary if you want to sell crafts at juried art shows because you'll need to display your business registration / vendor's permit in your booth.

Registration is usually necessary for establishing wholesale accounts. If you have wholesale accounts with major supply stores, you will usually be able to purchase items at 50% off the regular retail price. That savings can be a crucial difference in the profitability of your business.

If you're looking for more in-depth information on choosing a business name, I've written a series of articles about naming your business. You'll find them right here in the business marketing section of this site. 

Business Management Resources

Here are several resources that I've found useful for building a small business.

Protect Your Business Accounts with an Effective Password Manager: Are your online business accounts kept safe with strong passwords? Can you easily retrieve your login information if you need to? If you haven't developed an effective strategy to manage your passwords, check out the resource I use to keep my accounts safe.

Craft Business Resources: Links to plenty of resources, products and services I have used to build my own business and you can use to build your own business.

Statistics and Government Resources: Links to places where you can find data that you may need while researching your business and government supports for building a business.

Discount Supplies: It's extremely important to keep your costs as low as possible without skimping on quality. Here's how to establish accounts with major wholesale suppliers to get your craft supplies at a discount to keep your costs low.