Comments on: Review: Craft Inc.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:56:46 +0000

I’ll have to check that book out. I’ve always loved crafts, so one year ago I decided to start selling some on Etsy. I sell handcrafted pendants made from recycled Scrabble tiles. It has been going well and I LOVE it! I have done some craft shows in the past but am really getting in to it now and have signed up for 16 shows over the next six months.

This side business has been a real blessing to my family. It has definitely helped us on our journey to achieve financial peace. We have paid off $22,000 of debt and are now debt free except for our home mortgage.

I would definitely encourage anyone crafty to give it a try!

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:40:50 +0000

I’ve got no problem with people who find simple self-employed jobs to earn a living. HOWEVER, I do not get how you cover health care costs with such jobs. I seen too many flyers for local musicians raising money to pay a hospital bill to support people working at home without health care. I’m personally prefer we have free national health care, but until such time, I”d NEVER quit my job, ever. One slip on concrete, a shattered elbow and $65,000 hospital bill later convinced me to NEVER be without medical insurance. Otherwise, I’d want FEW material goods and could live on much less, but NEVER without medical insurance.

By: Sean in portland

Sean in portland — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:17:08 +0000

I operated a craft/photo business for 5 years. It is such a hard thing to run a craft business. I sold my work mostly at Portland Saturday Market every weekend and at some juried art fairs. I found out that B&W photography is a niche market. I also found out that Saturday Market is more of a tourist market. Oh, I would get the ‘I love B&W photographs’ by people that stroll past my booth. I am not one to take a lot of pictures of Doors, Windows or flowers. But, I started doing that because I thought it might sell better. It did not :-(

I decided to close that business because I was not enjoying photography anymore. It’s taken a year or so to get back to the joy of photogrphy (new web site: TreeRockFog.com please take a look)

I currently work in the computer field as a break/fix desktop support analyst. And my photography is coming back to me :-)

By: Craft Stew

Craft Stew — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:51:49 +0000

I have a related article on my website. I think your readers may enjoy it. It’s called 20 Ways To Make Crafts Pay and the url is http://craftstew.com/craft-business/20-ways-to-make-crafts-pay

By: ChrisD

ChrisD — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:49:02 +0000

“and spring for a good design and your own domain name”

I can’t speak about the cost of good design, but I bought two domains and an e-mail account and the whole thing is £20/year (don’t think it includes hosting a website though). That cost is so negligible it is well worth it, even just to have an e-mail that is your name, and to avoid all the advertisements and privacy issues with free e-mail accounts (g-mail, yahoo).

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:26:35 +0000

Thanks for this review, this is a book that has interested me ever since I read about it on a blog by an amazing designer named Brenda Walton (www.Brendawalton.com).

By the way, I just spotted an interesing article online from this week’s New York Times magazine section about the benefits of working with your hands. It seems to be more about working with cars and tools, etc. rather than crafts, but I think that the message probably speaks to crafters as well. Worth a look I think.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:58:47 +0000

I just requested that book from the library for my mom. She keeps making noises about wanting to start her own crafting and/or cookie making business.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:41:30 +0000

Hi! My husband loves your blog and sent me this article. I have this book and agree with your review, but I have found that for myself, and a lot of creative people I know, the real trick is to find the time/energy/strength/patience to actually *DO* the business side as well as we do the creative/crafty portion. I thought the book was inspiring and probably a good reference, but I really need a business book for people with no left-brain :)

So my biggest bit of advice for crafty people like me who want to run a successful business is to do what I did and marry computer geek with an accounting degree ;)

By: Nick Wright

Nick Wright — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:06:01 +0000

Wow, this book is now at the top of my wish list. I’ve just recently decided to start a business selling prints of the photographs I make. I must read this book.

By: tambo

tambo — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:18:24 +0000

For me – and I’m likely the oddball here – my work and my creativity are separate and they need to remain that way because when I’ve previously sold my creativity it becomes a JOB and I lose all love, excitement, and passion and instead focus on the money and work aspects. The worst thing in the world for me is to sell what I love, it just messes me up. So it’s really not a perfect alternative for everyone.

By: Someone

Someone — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:19:07 +0000

“Initially, you’ll try to price an item based on the work put in and raw materials invested in a single item, but often that price is too high to sell. So you have to lower it.”

THIS is one of the biggest problems with turning craft into a viable business, and in many cases just lowering materials costs won’t help. There are already too many artists/crafters out there who can’t live on 5 cents per hour or something similar, which is what many would have to do to compete with the cheap Ch///se stuff consumers are used to now.

Beware the labor-intensive craft and its often heartbreaking ROI when monetized…IMO this is one of the make or break analyses any crafter should handle up front before it’s too late.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:01:42 +0000

Good review! For artists/crafters looking at a lot of the technical details (contracts, licensing, studio rates) a book like “the business side of creativity” by Cameron Foote might be a logical next step.

Thanks for blogging on this topic!

By: Noadi

Noadi — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:13:44 +0000

Coincidently I just reviewed this exact same book. Definitely have to agree with everything you covered. It’s a lot of work to start your own business and isn’t easy which I have to give Meg Mateo Ilasco a lot of credit for being blunt about the amount of work and effort it takes without making it sound too overwhelming.