| Title | : | The Complete Idiots Guide to Selling Your Crafts |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1592579914 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781592579914 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2010 |
Selling crafts online is a successful trend, but this book explores so many other avenues for casual and active indie crafters, and teaches them how to work more efficiently, manage inventory, and find and utilize all outlets for selling their work. Clear, concise instructions on every aspect of selling crafts - from flea markets to websites - including:
?Pricing your crafts and managing inventory
?Creating an identity
?Payment, shipping, and promotion
?Selling venues (online, trunk shows, parties, fairs)
?Tax and business management
The Complete Idiots Guide to Selling Your Crafts Reviews
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Talking to you like you're an idiot isn't the same thing as giving you information at a basic level. While this Complete Idiot's Guide definitely talks to readers as if they're idiots--didja know that if you're selling your items on the Internet you need to photograph them?!? And if you're selling them at a show you'll need to pack them and then unpack them?!?--the information here is often vague, unhelpful, or just plain unlikely. Cases in point:
*While I guess that surely some people sell their crafts at at-home Tupperware-like sales parties, that has got to be rare enough to make spending half a chapter on it overkill.
*I just finished struggling to figure out how to process point-of-purchase credit cards, myself, but this Complete Idiot's Guide's discussion of how to do it contained pretty much all the information that I already knew before I even started trying to figure out how to actually set it up--in other words, it had none of the stuff that I just finished struggling to figure out for myself, the stuff that, you know, actually ALLOWED me to get POP credit card processing set up.
*Maybe this is just personal opinion, but advising crafters to use their word processing program's font effects to turn their business name into a logo...really? REALLY???
Although I've yet to come across the perfect craft business how-to book, I'd heartily recommend Craft, Inc. instead of this one. Craft, Inc. has its flaws, but it does have much more workable, real information.
And it doesn't talk to you like you're an idiot. -
While I wouldn’t say the book is for idiots, it is pretty basic. While it is inclusive, covering most aspects of both on line and on site selling, from insurance to figuring out prices to tax issues and setting up web sites, some of what is includes is fairly obvious. You have to pay sales and income taxes; at shows you have to set up and tear down a booth; don’t sell your crafts if they aren’t quality goods. That can be boring to anyone who has done any type of selling at all, or even started looking into it. But if you’re a beginner, this is a good book. The author devotes space to *how* to figure out your exact costs, rather than just saying “Figure out your costs”, and how to figure out the pros and cons of different craft selling websites, things that people can have trouble with. And while the author is herself a jewelry artist, the information she presents is applicable to any type of crafter.
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Lots of great information & simply put!
