I first started out "making my own" when I was a very young housewife and produced everything including my own clothes, a wedding dress for a friend and flower girl dresses and when I became pregnant with my twin boys, during a difficult financial time, my own twin pushchair. I found a perfectly good chrome frame which had been discarded and created a fantastic blue and yellow work of art for the cost of the fabric and materials. My pushchair survived my twins and went on to a new home once they no longer needed it. Once my children were walking and required less direct attention I went on to earn a small income making large clown wall hold-all's for children's rooms as well as other crafty items and children's clothing. It was a hassle free enterprise!
Eventually I started to work full time and as my children grew up my creations ceased and the sewing maching was stashed in a forgotten corner for many, many years. And times changed.
Twenty years later and I have revived the sewing machine and it feels like a long lost friend. But what has happened in the meantime? I want to make something, and sell it, and make some money...so I now have a 'business'. Back then there was no internet and folksy and etsy sites and it was a fantastic feeling to take my products to the 'home industry' shop (a South African tradition) and collect my earnings on a weekly basis. Orders would flow in from hubby's work and mum's network of friends and of course word of mouth. Competition didn't feature as a major concern and I never once called it my 'business'.
Now, competition is the buzz word in business and your creations can exist in many forms, colours and sizes and are available on a variety of websites, in shops and magazines and at market stalls all over the wide world. 'Unique' is almost impossible to create and then there's the trademarks, copyrights and patents to tip toe around.
And what has happened to my confidence? I'm confronted by my doubts. "How am I going to sell my items when there are so many other items out there" and "who will want to buy my items when they can get one just as good somewhere else"? Cost is the next buzz word when you have to think about how much to charge for your delightful items. Working out the cost of materials and factoring in the postage costs (which can often exceed the value of your item) it already becomes difficult competing on price with a supermarket mass produced version of "a lovely bag" and you haven't yet taken into account the value of your time, resources and energy. Now the question is "how am I going to sell my items when there are so many cheaper items out there" and "who will want to buy my item when they can get a cheaper one somewhere else"?
So, I take my cup of tea, turn on the computer, log in to Twitter, start to read the 'tweets' from the businesses I am following, click on the links they offer and inspect the items displayed on folksy and etsy and such and I can see that these are proud ladies who have a 'business', it is not just a hobby or pastime, instead it is an industry with a website to fiddle with, that could possibly make them some money.
I smile each time I read a proud announcement that the 'sales fairy' has visited and I realise that no matter the size (dining room table), profitabiltiy (few extra pounds profit), offer (stuffed cat, pin cushion, tote bag and so on) of the 'business', it is each of these ladies' business, run by them in their time, making their goodies to sell to whoever chooses to visit their webpage or market stall.
So, ladies, have you had time yet to figure out your marketing strategy, sales targets and forecasts for next financial year?
(Special thanks to Forest Flower (Anthea Willis) for her folksy pics).
