Tips & Talk 47 – How to Scale Your Handmade Product Business

Hi there.

It's Sue.

And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

If you'd like to submit a topic,

DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,

how do you scale your handmade business?

And by scaling,

I mean,

growing, selling more and seeing your numbers increase month after month,

that's always the goal,

right? If your answer is yes,

obviously hold tight.

This immediate answer needs some analysis.

I believe the better first question is,

do you want to scale?

And if so,

how much you see as your business grows,

it changes everything you currently do yourself.

As you're getting started,

takes more time as you grow,

simply because there's a larger volume of work in each category

to manage.

I'm talking about things like inventory control,

bookkeeping, order processing,

and of course producing your handmade products where in the beginning

you can keep up with all of these tasks.

As more orders come in,

the workload expands to,

to keep up your business.

Operations need to change.

If you feel like you have an overwhelming number of spinning

plates in the air,

and you're running to re-spin each one,

before it goes crashing to the floor,

your at this point right now,

don't get me wrong.

Scaling a business is a wonderful thing.

I'm only suggesting you enter into significant growth mode with your

eyes wide open.

Some makers are wonderfully content with a handmade business that balances

nicely with other priorities in their life.

They get happiness in the process of making and never want

to grow to the point where they can't do that anymore.

Some never want employees or ever care to turn a side

gig into a full-time endeavor.

Many are perfectly content with the money their small business provides.

And by scaling they'd grow themselves out of what they truly

love for these reasons.

The first thing to consider around the topic of scaling is

to envision what your life would look like.

If you did get bigger,

what would your job responsibilities be?

And do you see yourself happy in this new role?

Luckily, since you're the owner,

you get to call the shots and there are many creative

ways to structure your business that allow you to retain all

or a portion of the tasks that you the most,

but it's still worth some visionary work and thought.

So let's say you've decided,

yes, you want to grow your business to the next level

you're close to or already have reached your limit.

And maybe even some of those spinning plates I mentioned earlier

are crashing to the floor.

Here are three paths to consider that will set you up

to scale your business,

bring in more revenue and get your handmade creations in the

hands of more people.

First off it's time to bring in some help.

This is always a huge barrier,

particularly for handmade creators.

Because for some reason you think that not doing it all

yourself removes you from being a true handmade business.

Not so to get you comfortable with handing off responsibility to

someone else,

why not start with non production tasks?

These are often the ones you like the least anyway.

They're important for the business to run,

but not what you enjoy,

not like doing your knitting or your painting.

Find someone to do your books or write your newsletters or

research and fill out the paperwork for the craft shows.

You'll be participating in this year or find someone to take

product photos that you can use for the next six months

versus you having to stop in the middle of a project.

When you need a new image for social or a promotional

piece, I hear already what's going on in your mind.

You're saying,

but that takes money and I'm not comfortable spending right now.

I want you to do a mental flip here.

When you make an investment like this in your business,

it's not money going out and just vanishing it's money going

out. So more money can come in,

investing in back office,

help frees up more time for you to make more product.

If you have more items made,

you have more items to sell.

See how this works.

A step up from here is to get assistance in filling

orders, inventory management,

and even attendance at some shows.

What if there were two shows you'd like to be at,

but they're on the same weekend.

Yes, you can do both.

Or why miss out on a really important show because you

have a significant family event consider having a trained fill in

to attend those shows for you.

I'm guessing this is a stretch and thinking,

but why not many times the best solutions.

Aren't the obvious ones with regard to finding help.

I'm not talking full-time employment here.

Consider hiring on a task specific basis and use independent contractors

versus employees where you get into all the legal responsibilities and

the paperwork.

If you want to dive into this more in terms of

how to find local reasonably priced assistance,

it's a great topic to cover in my Thursday,

Q and A's these happen inside my Facebook group,

gift biz breeze.

And I'd love to have you join me there.

If you're not a Breezer already,

let's move on to skill and product expansion.

Another way to scale a handmade business is to utilize your

expertise in a manner that doesn't involve more making in the

traditional sense.

Anyway, I'm talking about conducting local workshops where you teach people

to quilt or learn basic watercolor techniques.

You can do this under an already established organization,

like a local art Institute or find and rent space and

run the class yourself independently.

Jody from J Pavey designs has been doing this for years,

conducting knitting classes,

attracting more people to an activity.

She loves.

Another twist on this idea is to create a virtual meaning

online training program that you can then sell as a product.

The fabulous thing about this is you create it once.

So a video with downloads,

for example,

and then it's done.

You can sell it over and over again,

without any more time invested on your end.

You could also do online programs where everyone joins into a

zoom call.

You're the instructor walking everyone through the process.

Sonya paws is a master at this with her Vino art

classes, and she's even attracted large brand named businesses as clients

to take her classes for team building and other types of

purposes. This category holds so much potential.

I'm also thinking of Sophie at miss papercraft,

who creates quilling kits that include everything you need to complete

a project.

The physical kits are purchased and then a YouTube video walks

you through the creation process.

It's more of an online class of sorts factory production.

This is a third way to scale and is much more

complicated and won't be applicable for many handmade creators,

but it's a solid option.

If it makes sense to have your product produced through a

factory, either stateside or overseas,

your still the creator of the original design and you produced

the first pieces.

And then the time comes to mass,

produce your product to fulfill the demand that's been ramped up.

It may even still be handmade,

just not by you.

Anna from limbo imports does this with her amazing hammocks and

hammock chairs that are made in El Salvador.

And it may not even be your product directly that's produced.

It may be a production piece.

You've Jerry rigged to make your easier.

That's what Karen at little pink lady bug did,

and it since turned into her entire business.

So there you go.

How does scale your handmade business first do some soul searching

to determine the best path forward for you.

Then if you decide to scale,

get help to free your time for those tasks,

you find less fulfilling,

expand your expertise into revenue,

producing products and workshops that don't require production time.

And if it fits consider handing over your full-time production to

a third party,

one of the reasons to become an entrepreneur is the freedom

gained by directing your own path.

That means your business should be whatever size and structure brings

you. The most joy.

That's a wrap.

I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

of yours.

Share your handmade products with us.