Business Plans Are Important

Whenever you start a business you are encouraged to create a Business Plan and this is important even for small businesses. Crafting businesses of any kind should too. One, it will help you present your business as a professional entity and not just a hobby. It may help you gain clients that would like to “Wholesale” with you and your crafts for their own store. And it will allow you to justify more business expenses to the IRS. They will allow you to have acceptable loses for the first couple of years but if you do not show a profit soon after they may want to re-classify your crafting as more of a hobby. So no business deduction.

I recently saw a helpful start to a business plan on a social media platform last night from another “older” lady who was breaking down her business success process. Since she has had several profitable businesses over the years I thought what she was saying made a lot of sense. I will call it:

Business Math 101

This graphic is a great representation of what you might want to incorporate in your crafting business. You can play around with the percentages just a little up or down. Do you know what it costs you in time and materials to make the items that your sell? Since different crafts takes different materials and different talents and experience can create items faster or slower than others you will have to figure that out on your own. But once you do you might want to consider taking that cost amount and multiplying by 2 first to see if you can meet your other business expenses – postage, advertising, show and event fees, etc – your payroll (Yes you should pay yourself first) and then have at least a 20% profit to add to savings. These savings can be put back into the business the following year with better equipment, a new storefront, going to more festivals during the year, and any emergencies that do arise.

Birthday Business Sale

That is my rant for today. Because it is my birthday week I have decided to offer every one of our handcrafted items on sale with a 20% off coupon. This will be good until the end of the month. Sadly, beginning July 1, 2022 ALL of our items will have to be increased by 20% due the current state of the world. The effective discount will really be 40 to 50% off! So, use the code: “20BirthdayDiscount” in your cart at our online store: https://SWCONLINESTORE.com and grab yourself some bling or fun cozy crocheted items for yourself and your friends and family.

For those who have any questions about the crafting business or suggestions for future topics of discussion please feel free to contact me us my CONTACT FORM.