Category: Tips for Crafters

Crafting items is a labour of love. It is one of the reasons people love buying handcrafted items for themselves and as gifts for others. But when you have spent so much time creating your items, it can be difficult to know how best to price them.  

Pricing can be difficult. Especially when the business uses your own creativity. It is important to set a price that is fair for both your customers and yourself. You need to ensure that you cover all your associated costs. These include materials, craft business insurance fees, and any marketing costs that you might have.  

There are lots of different variables to take into consideration for pricing. For some crafters there may be very few overheads in the creation of their items, but it may take longer to make. For others there may be high-priced materials but a quicker production time. This is why it is important that you follow a process that allows you to cover both the hours that you spend making your products and the cost of materials. 

One pricing method that you can use to help determine a fair price for your handcrafted products is  

Material Costs + Hourly Rate + Overheads. 

Material Costs 

This is one of the most time-consuming parts of pricing products. But you will be glad that you followed the process. It allows you to ensure that you are covering all the materials that you need for each item that you sell. The process consists of: 

1. Note down the price of the materials that are used to create each item. Make sure to include everything that you use to make the item and anything that you use for packaging as well.  

2. Dividing each material price by the amount used. For example, if a 100g ball of yarn costs you £3.50 but you only use 25g for your item the price would be £3.50 divide by 4 = £0.88.  

3. Add all the materials together for your total item cost 

Hourly Rate 

This can be harder to determine. You can either base your hourly rate on the minimum wage for your age, or set it at a rate that you feel is fair. Make sure that you time how long it takes you to make each of your items. Then either multiply the amount of hours by the hourly rate or, if it takes you less than an entire hour multiply the fraction of the hour by the hourly rate.  

For example:  45 minutes work at an hourly rate of £10 = 45/60 x 10 = £7.50 

Overheads 

You should look at all the other costs that are associated with your handcrafted items. This will include your craft business insurance, and your marketing spend. Divide your total overheads by the number of products that you make and add this figure onto their cost price. 

You may also choose to keep your overheads separate from your cost price and leave them as an expense. 

Final figure 

Now you have calculated your material costs, hourly rate and, if appropriate your overheads, you can set about creating your final figure. Add all these elements together and this will give you your overall price.  

There are instances where you might want to add a mark up on this price. This will give you an extra profit margin. If you plan on selling items to other vendors at a wholesale cost it is worth taking this extra step. The profit margin will allow you to reduce your cost price for seasonal sales as well.  

You can add 20% to your final calculated figure (or other percentage value as you see appropriate). This will then give you the percentage discount that you can pass on to your wholesalers. It will also give you an idea of what you can discount during a sale period.  

Here is a worked through example for you.  

Earrings 

Material Costs: 

• 2 earring hooks (pack of 28 for £2.50) = £0.18 

• 2 jump rings (pack of 120 for £2.50) = 0.04 

• 2 Headpins (pack of 50 for £3.50) = £0.14 

• 1 large-coloured pearl bead (pack of 30 for £1.80) = 0.12 

Total = £0.48 

Hourly Rate: 

• £11 an hour (takes 10 minutes to make a pair of earrings) = £1.83 

Overheads (yearly figure if adding them on): 

• £350 craft business insurance (this is just as an example – not an actual cost)  

• £200 marketing 

• £50 website domain name 

Total = £600 divided by 1200 products (100 a month for a year) = £0.50 

Cost Price Total = £2.81 

Now you have your cost price you can look at the mark up that you would like to add. 

20% mark up = £3.37 

50% mark up = £4.22 

This gives you an idea of what a final sale price might look like. To gauge whether you have your pricing within an acceptable range, you can do some market research. It will show you what similar products are selling for. You can then either increase your mark up or increase your hourly rate if you want to raise your prices.  

Try not to reduce your prices to below those of your competitors as this doesn’t always mean that people will buy your products instead of theirs. Make sure your price is fair for your customers and that it reflects the materials and hard work that has been undertaken to create the product. 

When selling to other vendors at a wholesale price it can be a good idea to give them a recommended retail price for your product. This will help them to market your products to their customers.  

Once you have your prices in place, you can set about looking at ways in which you can market your products. These could of course be through online shops, via your own website or social media channels and through in person events. Make sure that you have all the necessary craft business insurance in place before you make any sales. This will help protect you if a claim is made for any reason against your products.  

Dealing with people who tell you that your products are too expensive can be difficult as it feels like a personal insult. No wonder, as built into the price of your products is your input, the care and time you bring to the raw materials to make each piece into something beautiful. When the price of handmade items is questioned, the customer might just as well be questioning how much you, your creativity, your years of experience, your uniqueness and your time are actually worth! The answer to this question is that you can’t put a price on it! Some might consider it to be priceless, while others won’t.

So, let’s give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and assume that some people just aren’t accustomed to paying for products that have a living wage built into the price.  There’s no point getting upset about the blood, sweat and tears that went into making the product or indeed giving people discounts to pacify them. You’ll be selling yourself short. There are other ways you can keep your prices at the level they should be and keep customers happy by using marketing to ensure that the perceived value of your art and craft is high. You know how valuable your work is, now it’s time to let the world know!

As we have mentioned in previous blogs, it’s really important to present yourself and your work in the best possible way using great photographs, a professional brand and a well presented website. Videos of your creative process on your website and on social media will showcase all the skill, time and talent you put into the finished articles. Let the world know that you are top class in blog posts with detailed case studies and high-quality images of you at work.

Now, the price of handmade items is an important factor but if price was the only factor the buyer would not be contacting you in the first place. The important thing is to tap into why the customer is looking for handmade articles and double down on that. Even customers who complain about the price of handmade items are looking for something special and bespoke, so how do you charge the right prices and avoid negative comments? Well, the secret sauce is to give people exactly what they are looking for….   

Ten Top Tips to Get You Around the Price Conundrum

Some of these you may well have already thought of, but just in case you haven’t..!

Tip 1

Create ‘limited edition’ series or items. One month you might make a range of squirrels with top hats, promote the range and then not make them again. The following month you’ll make squirrels on bicycles and promote that range. Or, you can number your paintings: ‘one of twelve’ or ‘eleven of twenty’ to push the price up. People might go looking for the number twenty of a series for a twentieth birthday present or to commemorate some other significant date. Banksy did a series of numbered paintings of Marilyn Monroe and collectors and other customers went after particular numbers for different reasons.

Tip 2

Create cheaper versions. If you are an artist, for instance, you could do a limited number of paintings at a price you’re really happy with and then produce prints of those paintings to sell at a cheaper price. Then (back to limited editions idea again) you could even have limited runs of those prints at a higher price. Making a cheaper option available is great for anyone who might have been unwilling to pay  the true price of an original painting.

Tip 3

Create pre-orders to your loyal database, ie. those customers who regularly buy from you. You can offer the items as collectibles prior to general release and even create an event so that people can buy your products before they are made available to the general public. This is a proven strategy for raising prices and demand before you make a particular range of products available on general release.

Tip 4

Work with key partners and come up with licensed collections. For example, you could work with the White Company and come up with all white collections of your products. People pay more for the added value and the well known name you are collaborating with.

Tip 5

Create the same items but with different materials. Maybe sketch your subject or  landscape in pencil and then make it as a tapestry, or paint it says a watercolour. The sets can then be sold at a higher price than the individual items.

Tip 6

Mirror the trends in contemporary art. Do a Marilyn Monroe, a David Bowie, or a Queen Elizabeth. These represent collectors’ interests as well as cultural relevance and can be charged at a higher price. Don’t underestimate the power of nostalgia!

Tip 7

Diversify. Take an item such as a signature print and use it across different applications. A signature painting style could be used as a print on clothing, wallpaper or even home furnishings. What people might have not been prepared to pay for on a canvas they may well pay for when combined with the added benefit of being a set of comfy cushions!

Tip 8

Add your signature to everything. A real signature as opposed to a printed one. If you hand sign all your prints for example, it will increase their perceived value.

Tip 9

Be extraordinarily brave. A well known international photographer once added an extra zero to the price of every one of his photography prints and saw his business transform overnight. He realised that up to that time he had been undervaluing his time, effort and knowledge. Sometimes charging less has more to do with our own value than the value of the work we produce.

Tip 10

Collaborate. Offer other people’s collections in your deals or feature another artist’s work in your work or vice versa. This kind of work gives double the value, double the impact and double the reach. There is every justification here for a higher price.

After trying all of this and people are still questioning the price of your handmade items, they are probably trying to to get a discount! Just tell them that the price reflects the fact that the products are unique and painstakingly handmade by an expert in their field, with the very best materials, and included in the price is a little piece of you.

We all know that sinking feeling when we meet with someone who is disappointed in us, disagrees with us, or is just plain disagreeable. Within a business, however good our customer relations and products are, we will come across difficult customers. It’s just part of life. Having a strategy in place to deal with these situations will both help you to remain calm as they arise and prevent them escalating.

Prevention is always better than cure, and there are some things you can put in place as part of your general business approach which could avoid conflict with customers in the first place.

Communication is foundational, and so scheduling in time to communicate with clients via email, phone call or social media as part of your admin planning is a good start. This means that you can reply to customers within your stated time frame and you will gain a reputation for reliability. Placing your office hours on all communications also gives your customers a clear knowledge of when to expect a reply; this will prevent a customer becoming upset because you have not replied as immediately as they might like. Holding emails can also keep potentially difficult situations at bay; an acknowledgment that they have been heard and that you are dealing with the query.

Customer relations are so important, especially in a small business where each customer is valued; word of mouth advertising and a good reputation are vital. This is where product liability insurance for crafters comes to your aid. It can not only give you confidence that if anything were to go wrong you could sort it out without paying a huge lump sum, but can allow you to keep customers happy by enabling you to deal with a difficult situation once it has arisen. So, what is product liability insurance? Product liability insurance for crafters offers protection if a customer makes a claim for injury or damage caused by a defective product, or what they claim is a defective product. Your business could face a claim whatever part of the product’s life cycle the issues lies within.  For example, if you sell online and a product is damaged or lost in the post, the complaint and compensation might rest on your shoulders even though you are not responsible for this. While we hope this would never happen, having product liability insurance for crafters in place would take the immediate financial stress out of the situation for yourself and ensure the client can be appropriately compensated, thus keeping your customer satisfaction and good reputation intact.

Another way to prevent complaints in the first place is to build general good relations with your customers. Make them feel valued. Maybe you could send out a survey and ask for what they might like to see you produce as you expand your range. Maybe you could set up a loyalty system. Maybe you could send out “thank you for your custom” cards with each order. Complaints are more likely to come where there is less of a relationship between the parties.

So are there any strategies you can put in place to prevent conflict escalation? The wisdom and experience of many business owners show that there are. It is useful to have a well defined process in place so that you or your staff members are not caught off guard when a difficult customer appears. The exact nature of this strategy will be defined by your unique business, but here are some general principles which can be applied.

Tip 1

Listen to the customer. Whether their complaint is justifiable or not, whether it’s cause is anything to do with your business or not, the best place to start is to listen. If this is a face to face incident, be aware of your body language; try to relax your muscles and have an understanding expression, even if what the customer says initially is completely unreasonable.

Tip 2

Reflect back. Once your indignant customer has paused for breath, it can be very helpful to reflect back on what they have said. This shows you have been listening and they have been heard. You can then clarify any points on which you may be uncertain. Anger and frustration may well muddy their thinking and you may need to apply some logic to pull out the salient points.

Tip 3

Apologise. It is amazing how an apology can defuse a situation. However, take care not to apologise for something which isn’t your fault. Once you have listened and clarified the issue, you could reflect back at the customer with a sentence such as “so you are disappointed/upset/angry because…..”. This may well get to the nub of the problem. If it is something for which you are directly or indirectly responsible eg damaged products, you can apologise for this, for the disappointment and the inconvenience. If it is something which you really cannot be expected to bear responsibility, eg the customer misreading the product description, you can apologise for how they feel, but not take direct responsibility for it. eg “I’m sorry you are disappointed…”. Their disappointment is not down to anything you’ve done, but an apology and acknowledgment will never go amiss and will help help them feel valued and cared for.

Tip 4

Give yourself time. If the situation can be dealt with easily, then you can move straight onto a resolution. However, if it is something more complex, buy yourself some time to think it through. Be careful not to make any hasty promises in the heat of the moment which would put you at a disadvantage. Once the customer has been heard and received an apology, you can reassure them that you will now consider the best way forward and will get back to them within a certain timeframe. Thank them for bringing the issue to light and end the conversation.

Tip 5

Resolution. If the complaint has an easy resolution, implement it and thank the customer for bringing the complaint to light.

With the right strategy, difficult customers can be seen as opportunities rather than threats. Product liability insurance will take away the worry of the financial impact of a complaint and leave you free to deal with the customer in the best way for both them and you. A relationship which has been restored is often stronger than one which has had no pressure put on it, and these may become your most loyal customers.

We always thought at Craft Insurance that business should remain just that and our private lives should remain private. However, over the last year we realised what a large part of the business we, ourselves, are! Allowing people to get to know who we are as members of a little family business puts people more at ease. When people call they are already a bit defensive, waiting to be transferred to a call centre and kept on hold for half an hour and then, when we pick up they are actually relieved to talk to normal people! We realised that when we talk to our clients we sell ourselves as well as selling our products and social media is another way to help us to do this.

TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA:

1 Remember to be social!

The first rule of thumb for social media is to remember to be social! It sounds simple but often we

broadcast rather than engaging in conversations. Ever been to a dinner party where someone in the group is a little bit too full of themselves and has no interest in engaging with you? They talk at you, telling you hilarious anecdotes about themselves, yabbering on without giving you a chance to squeak, let alone speak! Eventually, you manage to say something but when you do they aren’t really that interested…Well,   It’s a good idea to bear this thought in mind when doing posts for social media! Broadcasting without interaction is a no-no! It’s worth considering different ways of delivering your information to invite interaction. We can start conversations with curiosity, engaging with our followers and showing them we understand their needs with insights. Then we can ask them for feedback. Did we get it right or was there something else that we could have talked about that would have been more helpful? It’s about giving people an opportunity to connect with you. Having conversations and letting people get to know you a little bit better. After all, people buy from people.

2 Pick a platform and do it well.

Often we try and do too many different platforms because we think we ought to, but what we need to do is do ONE well, before we branch out and try others. At Craft Insurance we tried to start with too many and then found that we couldn’t keep up with them all! We had a Twitter account but then we couldn’t keep up with it as we didn’t really use it in our personal lives! Instagram was still a bit of a mystery at the time, and, a little befuddled with it all, we decided to concentrate on one! Of all the platforms, Pinterest seemed to be the most attractive and then we discovered the opportunities that Facebook was offering in the form of Facebook Challenges. We realised that there was no right or wrong. It was simply a case of being most active on the platform where our audience were.

3 Understand you audience:

So, which social media channels are used by the people you want to target? If you are going for a 20 year old, chances are they’ll be on TikTok or Snap Chat way before Facebook (their parents are on Facebook).  I’ve recently discovered Stories which is a bit like Snapchat but a bit more sophisticated. Your post grid of images is for your product only, a bit like your personal shop window. In Stories, on the other hand, you can show other people’s products, info about your sales, other people’s sales and you can also create polls and ask questions. It can almost become like a visual blog. It’s good for market research, for giveaways and for sharing posts from fellow makers to introduce your followers to them. If you tag a business, a supplier or a cause that you are a part of in your story then they’ll re-share your story to their contacts too. The Facebook algorithm can mean that your followers may never actually get to see your posts, whereas with stories, it’s there and it won’t get lost in the ether!

4 Create personas:

One of the most helpful tips for you to engage your audience is by ‘creating’ one of them. Who are your customers? When you know the ‘types’ of people that use your services it will help you to speak to them via social media. When I say ‘type’ I mean that they might be of a similar age, education, job or family status or they might live in the same area. They might have similar goals in life eg. Do they want to travel more? Do they want to start a company? Do they want to own their own home? Or they might have similar interests e.g. Do they like reading? Do they like listening to classical music? Do they like watching crime dramas? Do they enjoy playing tennis? What motivates them? Do they want a great work life balance? Do they aim to pay off any debt and become financially free? Or do they just want to live in the moment and be a free spirit? Van life is a great thing at the moment, especially on Pinterest.

Once you have a persona it will give you the confidence to step into the world of advertising online. Give each persona a name and over time you and your team will all know who you are talking about when you target set demographics.

5 Use social advertising:

To get traction on platforms such as Facebook, ad spend is becoming a necessity. If you want your followers to grow in number it is unlikely to happen organically on Facebook (organic traffic is obtained more easily on LinkedIn). When you decide how much you want to spend on your Facebook ads, go to your setting and cap your spend at the outset so that Facebook knows when to stop! Have a look at the other settings too to make sure that your ads are showing at the right time etc. To advertise your products for free, upload videos to YouTube as it’s a great way to get more traffic to your wonderful website!

6 Use email and landing pages:

When you post an ad on Facebook (and Instagram) it needs to feature either a landing page with a specific offer or take them directly to a specific place on the website rather than to the homepage. A landing page is a ‘one offer only’ page to engage a purchase or sign up. You post your advert on social media, direct people to this particular offer on the landing page and, if you can, get them to sign up to your newsletter and leave an email address. These landing pages can be set up through your website or your choice of email programme.

To get started contacting your customers, MailChimp is a great tool whose price depends on the number of contacts you have. As you scale, you can use more sophisticated Content Resource Management tools (InfusionSoft, Keap, Hubspot (more expensive) as these have email marketing and landing pages built in. They really do help you scale significantly. When you write a blog, for example, they will contact your entire mailing list with your blog at the time you’ve set. It looks after itself. Just make sure that everyone on your mailing list has given permission for you to use their contact details – it’s the law. I hope that these little tips will add value to you and help you to get social online with your audience! Please contact us if you need our help and advice with your Craft Insurance.

As artists and crafters, we want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy online from us. Writing the right content for your crafting website is all part of this! Cre8ion helped us with some useful tips on writing great content for our craft business insurance website and we’d love to share them with you… 

Writing great content is like taking great photographs of your products and if you don’t take a great photo you aren’t doing your products justice. You’ve spent all your time making something special and it’s worth suffers because of a poorly taken shot. It’s the same with your content on your website. Nobody else will appreciate how fab your products are, or even be able to find them for that matter, if they aren’t described in the right way. Your content can be like a well taken shot, and lead people to your wares like bees to a honeypot.

Content done well helps with:

SEO (which stands for search engine optimisation) is all about the words and phrases that help people to search for your product. These words and phrases (known as search terms) need to be found on your website so that Google can pick them out when people go searching for you. That’s why it’s really important that the words on your website are the right ones. For our business it might be single words or short phrases (known as short tail keywords) like ‘craft business insurance’ or ‘public liability insurance’ or it could be whole questions (known as long tail keywords) like “Do I need public liability insurance for my candle making business?” When I’m writing blogs, these are the words and phrases I need to be including in the body of content as well in the title and also throughout my website copy. Supposing your line of business is handmade soaps you need to include the words that people would be typing into Google to find your products. They might be typing in pampering, handmade bath products, present ideas for Mum etc.

Ranking:

Ranking is how high up the page your company appears when people search for you. The better you are at using the right search terms the higher up the ranking you will be, and the more relevant

content you write toward those search terms the more you are rewarded. This is why blogs work so well as they can be regularly updated and include the relevant, appropriate search terms. You can write a blog about your latest product and include search terms to ensure that people find it. You then talk about what your product might be good for, so if it’s a soap for dry skin for instance, people might be googling “best products for dry skin”, “solutions for dry skin” or “moisturising handmade soaps” so include these phrases in your blog. You are trying to focus on the reason why they are looking for your product. Time to get into your customers’ brains!!

Use Keyword sites:

The secret sauce is knowing where to find these words. We recommend www.NeilPatel.com which is easier than becoming a data scientist using google tools. You can find the most used words and terms here and add them to your content writing. The site offers a limited free service as well as a monthly subscription.

Write Good English:

Ever come across a website that has spelling mistakes and glaring grammatical gaffes? Like using ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ in the wrong places!! The good news for struggling grammarians is that anyone can improve their language score by using a tool called Grammarly. It works for you like a school teacher, sitting underneath all your text based applications, from email to word and PowerPoint to websites. It picks up what you are writing and recommends changes. The other app that is fantastic for website copy is The Hemingway App which is absolutely free and teaches you how to write concise, sharp, punchy copy with the right tone giving advertisers maximum impact in short phrases. Type your copy straight into the app and then copy and transfer to your website, once perfected. No more blethering!

Ask for help:

Get someone you know and trust to read it. It’s a great idea to ask someone to proofread who has no knowledge of your product. Explain the point that you are trying to get across and ask if that’s what they get from it…

Think benefits as well as features:

Too often we tell everyone about the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ but not the ‘why’. Features tell but benefits sell! Ensure you answer the question of why you have certain product features to create depth to your offering. We need to tell people why they need our products! Like why they need craft business insurance. What do you need to tell your audience? Is it about how your product feels, who it makes a good present for or the fact that it is unique.

Address the pain:

Think about the ‘pain’ the potential end user is experiencing. How is your product solving their problem? People go searching for a specific design or pattern for example, so that is something you need to emphasise. You make products with a dog design and people can’t find what they are looking for. Make sure that you are telling your customers that you have it!

Call to action:

Always remember that your content needs to get the buyer to take action. Incentives are things you can do to get people to buy with you. Discount codes, for example, or limited runs. Limited runs create exclusivity by making a lower number of a particular product. Everyone likes to have things that are unique or ‘one offs’, we like to wear different clothes and have unusual items in our homes. You can also upsell extra items that match, so if it’s cushions your selling, offer them with curtains at a slight discount!

Hopefully, this blog has given you some inspiration for writing great content for your crafting website. If you need help or advice with your craft business insurance please do contact us.

If you’re selling crafts online you’ll want the most flattering images of them you can find. Taking a great photo will do your products justice, which is what you want when you’ve spent all your time making them! Your product is the hero and its worth can suffer because of a poorly taken shot. Our friends at Cre8ion gave us some really good basic tips for great photography to share with our clients. So here goes!

Tip 1

You don’t need a professional, David Bailey style camera! If you have a smart phone you have everything you need – the technology has come on in leaps and bounds!

Tip 2

Lighting is very important! Make sure that the light is in front of the product to make it look clear and bright. You can buy mini light-boxes which are ideal for taking product shots of smaller crafts such as jewellery. You can then use different coloured backgrounds inside and the box will shine a really bright, natural light onto your items giving you a very clear, bright image with a neutral background. Your smart phone and light box work together to provide you with a perfect solution, even on a dark and murky day!

If you are starting out and you are trying to keep your costs down you could try using a white sheet as a backdrop and find as much natural light as you can. Explore your house to find where the lighting is at its most flattering for your products. Natural light works wonders and gives a true idea of the colour of your products.

Tip 3

Take different types of shots –  go for a mix of studio shots and ‘slice of life’ shots. The kind of shot you would take with your light box is a studio shot, it’s just focussing on the product with a neutral background. It’s all about the product.

‘Slice of life’ photos are all about seeing your products in situ, showing how they might look when they are in use and giving an idea of scale. These are lifestyle shots, making your customer want to live the lifestyle that includes your products. Using a selfie stick allows you to get in the picture too!

Another way to do lifestyle shots is with short videos of 3-5 seconds –  a neat, short clip of how your product looks when it moves (handmade dangly earrings for example that shimmer when they catch the light). A video might give more visual information and show your product in a better light than a still shot.

You can take short videos with phone and SLR, just to add to the experience. Video gives you a chance to  showcase the product in a live environment and show people interacting with it. Short bursts are enough, you don’t need to go full on Hollywood quite yet!

You now have a range of shots in your arsenal to use alongside each other when selling crafts online. Studio shots taken with your light box or white sheet, Slice of Life shots showing your products in situ (a necklace being worn or cushions on a sofa) and then a little short video, if appropriate. 

Tip 4

Always follow the rule of thirds to frame your shots well. Most phones have a 9 square grid for this reason – use the grid to focus your main point of interest where the lines intersect. Doing this will make your picture more interesting. If you are taking a picture that has something in the background or you’re in a more natural setting your item may not be slap bang in the middle but placed where the lines intersect, in the bottom left for example. You can also blur out the background if necessary when using the nine square grid on an IPhone. This approach works best when taking shots in situ.

Tip 5

Be authentic rather than perfect. Don’t delay selling your crafts online just because your shots aren’t 100% perfect. As long as it’s clear, with good lighting that shows the colours and the features of the product it just needs to be true to you. Remember that websites are a moving feast, unlike print. You can make changes regularly and quickly and update and refine them over time, maybe when you have more time and resources to take better shots and swap them out.

Tip 6

Include important details, such as ingredients, close up, or other things that make your product unique. The more detail you can communicate quickly in your photos, the more confidence the buyer will have in the quality of the product. Show the scale of what you have made as that is really important to the buyer as well ( a pound coin in the picture for example) as well as in the descriptions. Show your products from different angles (especially above and beneath) to show as much detail as you can to the buyer. Then they’ll receive exactly what they are expecting.

Tip 7

Avoid common mistakes:

Naff lighting – lighting with the window behind for example.

Pictures that are blurry or out of focus.

Pictures that don’t show your audience enough detail.

Pictures with something in the background that shouldn’t be there. Is there a mirror behind you showing that you are still wearing your pyjamas whilst taking photos?

Pictures that doesn’t exude quality will not capture the beauty of your product or its workmanship.

Hopefully this little ‘snapshot’ will help you to take the kind of product shots that will boost sales. Don’t spend more time trying to take a good photo of your products than it did to make them in the first place! And if you need any help with insurance for your craft business, we are here!

Admin…it’s a bit like marmite, your heart may leap at the thought of creating an ordered system from which your crafting business can thrive, or your creative spirit may sink at the thought of being reigned in on such a mundane task.  Either way, here at Craft Insurance we are able to help you get the background canvas of your business in place so you can be free to create your unique work of art upon it.

If you are searching this website, you may well be asking “what is craft insurance?” In this post, we will not only answer that, but will offer some tried and tested tips to enable you to get this and other foundations of your business admin in order. Once these are in place, you are free to to throw your all into the creativity for which you have unique talent and passion.

Creating space

Our first tip is to ring fence specific time for admin. Depending on the size and structure of your business, you may set aside a whole day for marketing, packaging and posting purchases, communicating with customers, managing finances, ordering materials and social media planning. Or, this could be half a day, or a set amount of time each day. Whatever works best for you, it is probably helpful to timetable it in to your schedule rather than trying to squeeze it in to your already full life. This will free you to do the crafting you enjoy the rest of the time.

In a similar vein, it may be worth setting aside a bit of time to make a visual schedule, which will include admin time as well as crafting time. This might not only help yourself to work efficiently,  but could be a reminder to anyone you live with that there are times when you are “at work” and shouldn’t be interrupted!

What is craft insurance?

Once you’ve established a time for admin and made yourself a hot drink, it’s then important to use the time effectively. Initially, you will need a variety of building blocks in place. Your business plan and financial management are obviously foundational. As part of these, we come back to our initial question of “what is craft insurance?”. And, “why do I need it?”. To answer this, we can refer to our own home pages. Craft insurance is for “UK residents who make, sell, and/or teach and demonstrate their handicraft, whether you are a sole trader, private individual, partnership, hobbyist, a craft club, or a Ltd company.” You need it to cover yourself when attending events where you are selling, demonstrating or teaching your craft, and also to cover your products’ liability for sales. As our mission statement says, “craft insurance keeps your hard work from unravelling”. So, if this is something you do not already have in place, call us to get a quote customised to your individual business requirements. This will be an admin session well spent.

Social media management

A large part of advertising your craft business will be effective use of social media. While this is an excellent way of reaching large numbers of people, it can also be very time consuming. Here are a few tips which might help to minimise your time spent on this, while maximising the outreach you achieve.

Consider which platforms would work best for your business and stick to them; don’t try to use every available platform. It’s best to effectively focus on a few, rather than try to spatter across many. Once you’ve decided on your direction, link accounts together. For example, your Instagram posts can go straight to Facebook, so covering two platforms in one go. While you may need to create time each day to respond to messages, you could use a single admin slot to write all your posts for the following week and then simply use the schedule facility to ensure they come out on the days you require.

Regular reviews

This leads well into some more sound advice from small business owners; simplify and streamline as much as you can. Time is a precious commodity for most of us, and while we can’t add hours to our days, good organisation can allow us to gather together some tasks, so allowing us to use the finite hours we have to best effect. Periodic reviews can be a worthwhile time investment for this. Our lives and businesses are fluid and change all the time, and what has worked well for one season may not necessarily serve us best in the next. As you review, ask yourself if there are things you can delegate. Are there things you could streamline, as with social media? If there are recurring tasks, set up reminders either on a digital or old fashioned calendar. A “to do” list can be extremely helpful in organising the jobs to be done. Try writing one every week, noting down the tasks additional to those that are routine. It is satisfying to tick them off, and if they are not completed they can simply be rolled over to the following week. If they are still there after several weeks, it might be safe to assume they were never that important and can fall off the list!

Your business plays out against the backdrop of your whole life. Setting up a small business involves long hours and hard work, but you still need to eat, to shop, to sleep, maybe to clean and most definitely to spend time with family and friends. Good admin practices are not the whole solution to squeezing more things into each day, but they can help reduce the time spent on mundane tasks. A weekly meal planner, a family calendar, and regular communication with those you live or work with will help you keep going for the long haul.

Rest

Finally, you need time off. We are not designed to work flat out and cannot sustain that way of living. It is often counter cultural to stop and re-fuel, but it’s something we all need to do. Ensure you place your business hours on emails and other communications; customers will then know when they can expect to hear from you. Get in the habit of placing some boundaries each week around time for rest, restoration and fun. You will return to work refreshed and inspired for the week ahead.

Admin doesn’t have to be a dirty word! What’s more, creative genius and good administrative skills aren’t mutually exclusive! Hopefully, what you’ve read today will help if you dislike admin and if you need any help or advice where insurance is concerned, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Great customer service is what sets you apart from the crowd, however, often, with online companies, it can also be the biggest reputation killer. Ultimately, buying online is all about confidence and you are always on trial against the high street! Always remember though, that it’s your customers who make your business happen, so treating them like royalty will always pay dividends in the long run.

When people judge your performance and how you interact with them as an online business, their yardstick is usually the high street, where the staff are highly trained in customer service. It’s not a fair comparison, but you can use it to your advantage to demonstrate the kind of customer service that can’t be beaten. 

When people tell you that you are too expensive

People will tell you that you are too expensive and that they can get the same thing for half the price on the high street. This isn’t true however, as behind your business, and what makes it different, is you and you aren’t available anywhere else for half the price! You can’t change the price as you have to pay yourself for your time and the raw materials, as well as any overheads, but what you can do is add so much value when customers come to you with queries and problems that you stand head and shoulders above the competition. There’s no need to even put the competition down when you show how positive you are and concentrate on what you do well.

When people ask you a question that you can’t answer.

Building people’s confidence when there is a problem is all about assuring them that you are going to deal with it and that any questions they have will be answered. It is a matter of pride to always go above and beyond and it marks you out as different. If you don’t know the answer to the question, it’s a great idea to go and find out and get back to the customer in a timely fashion.

When people complain

If you get a nasty email complaining about the way you have done business it is hard not to take it personally. We are all human after all. An effective way to change how you feel about it is to see the situation as an opportunity to establish your amazing reputation for excellent customer service. Take action and pick up the phone straight away if you can get hold of the customer’s number. Rather than concentrating on any negativity, show loyalty by doing something to restore their confidence in you. Phone calls are a great way of defusing trouble. Email is good for a trail of activities but the quicker you put a call in, the quicker you’ll avoid escalation. Communication requires clarity and email will not always create empathy and add value in times of trouble. Nobody likes being shouted at but facing the problem head on with a constructive attitude will make sure the customer is happy in the end. You can add value by offering a refund, a replacement and an apology for any inconvenience caused and thereby restore trust.

When everyone is asking you the same question

People get frustrated when they are not able to get their questions answered. An FAQ section on the website helps you to deal with commonly asked questions ahead of time and pointing people towards your FAQs will save you time. Keep your FAQs up to date as commonly asked questions change with time. You can also ask people via social media for generic questions about your field of business and then include them in your FAQs.

Getting your returns policy right

Be clear on your returns policy and deal with returns quickly.

You need to be really clear on your returns policy and how it works when someone wants to return something. The worst thing for your business is when a customer contacts you to return a product to find that your returns policy isn’t going to work for them. That’s going to be a real problem and that customer will probably give you negative press. They don’t want to hear that they aren’t getting the money back. Ideally, customers should already know how you will deal with things before you hit this scenario.

When you include lots of testimonials

Often people will read testimonials before they consider becoming your customer. Having plenty of honest reviews on your website is great for your business and even negative reviews can be made to work in your favour. Negative reviews offer you an opportunity to demonstrate how you deal with issues. If readers can see that you have an open and honest response to that person, that you make right with them and have addressed their problem then that builds their trust. Testimonials, good and bad, build authenticity. Having said that, make sure to have testimonials from your happy clients in full view! This creates trust among suspects and prospects. Also, you need to make sure that the testimonies you have showcased deal with common objections as to why people might not do business. If the objection is ‘Too expensive’ – communicate the value you and your products add, for example. Also encourage people to leave reviews on Google as this helps with your ranking as well!

So, in a nutshell, in times of trouble, add value to your customers. It never fails!

Add value by being insured were anything to go really wrong.

If you are attending craft fairs and markets it goes without saying that you are going to need insurance. Most event organisers will insist that you do have public liability insurance to make sure that any potential accidents are covered.

However, what if you are only selling online now? Is insurance really necessary? Is it adding value to your customers to have product liability insurance? Well, yes, it is, and we feel qualified to say this as we are one of the product liability insurance companies dealing with claims relating to a catalogue of mishaps. We have had claims relating to candles, wax melts, burners, baby toys, clothing and pet products. Accidents happen and it’s sensible to have a plan in place to protect yourself and your customers. Some people regard the cost of insurance as an overhead that they just don’t need but I’ve seen those claims come in!

Our underwriters, Hiscox, have always given us a 0% interest direct debit option so the cost of taking out an insurance policy to cover yourself and your customers can be spread over the whole year.

What’s more, if you decide to diversify and start a new range of products we can add it into your policy for free. Other product liability insurance companies charge admin fees and charges for making amendments but at Craft Insurance we aren’t like other product liability insurance companies in that we don’t charge any, no cancellation fees either. Our policies cover you for events, online, selling through other people’s shops, rent a shelf or through another online seller.  

When you need to get a quote for insurance

Click the ‘Get a Quote’ Button.

Still need to set up your own website? Maybe you’re no stranger to selling crafts online, and you’ve always received a fantastic service from the online platforms that you’ve used. You’re just tired of giving away a percentage of your profits to them! It’s now time to build an online home for all your beautiful work.

It might all seem a bit daunting at first but that’s why we’re here today to tell you that there’s no need to panic! If you are part of our Facebook group ‘The Craft Challenge’ you can watch the online challenge we ran last year to help people, just like you, to build their own site. There’s no need to splash out oodles of cash either, just join the group and watch the five clips, then follow the advice to get yourself a website. Soon you’ll be selling crafts online on your own terms and speaking regularly with your customers. Not sure if you can do it still? Let me reassure you, you are ABLE! Just follow the ABLE method below:

A is for Address

Just like your shop needs an address for customers to call at, your website also needs an address where people can find you. This online address is made up of a ‘domain name’ sandwiched between the letters ‘www.’ at the beginning and often ‘.co.uk.’ at the end (or .com, .global etc.).Our domain name is craft insurance, and our address is www.craftinsurance.co.uk – voila! You have to pay for your domain name, and then renew the payment every two years (so don’t forget to renew it as you don’t want to lose it!)

When you are picking your domain name you don’t need to be industry specific, it just needs to communicate who you are and what you’re selling – ‘craftsonlineuk’ for example. When you have chosen an appropriate name, write it down and check that when the words run together without spaces it doesn’t say anything rude!  It needs to be memorable and fairly short and easy to spell.

There are several places you can go to find domain names, and they should be fairly cheap, but shop around for deals, as you are committing to a two year spend. The most popular sites to buy domain names from are Namescheap, 123 reg and Go Daddy.

B is for Build

Now you have your domain name and website address, it’s time to build your site:

There are many different sites you can use to build your website – some of the commonly used ones are SquareSpace, Wix and Shopify where you pay a monthly amount and build your site around one of their predesigned templates. Have a look at the templates and choose a design that fits your style. You might choose a template for your knitwear business with a rustic or homespun feel or you might want to represent your jewellery as a high end product and need your site template design to reflect this.

At the end of the day, if this is your first attempt at selling crafts online via your own website, it may well be that this becomes a bit of a practice run. You can ‘up your game’ later down the line and have a higher functioning website built in WordPress. But now you have bought the domain name it is yours to keep (as long as you pay for it every two years), and you can use it for as large a website as you need.

There are different payment options you can integrate into your site as opposed to a redirect going to a third party. Think Pay Pal, World Pay or Stripe so that people can buy direct from the site – you’ll be able to press a button and they can by straight from you rather than having to redirect to a third party like Etsy or Folksy.

WordPress
If you want a unique design and more functionality you can build your site from the ground up in WordPress. WordPress sites allow you to add plugins in order to increase the website’s functionality and make the customer buying journey easier. These kind of sites are better for SEO, (helping Google to find you first) and give you more options long term. They are more expensive than a site built using a template but it’s because they represent more of a long term investment that will pay dividends. WordPress and Woo-Commerce builds are normally paid for in one hit or whatever arrangement you make with a creative / website building agency. Most agencies will use this platform as it is one of the most common platforms.

Woo-Commerce
Woo Commerce is the shopping side of the WordPress world and integrates well. This is for the more

serious e-commerce businesses as opposed to one you would use starting out. Definitely one to go for once your business is established.

L is for Layout

Your website needs a site map which aids navigation around your website.

It’s important you map out the navigation of your website to indicate which content will be held on which page.

Here is an easy site map to get you started:

About / Blog / Testimonials / Products / Contact (with FAQs).

An About tab is a great place to talk about your inspirations is important to you and people want to know some background. It’s also a great place to describe your processes using explanatory and expository video.

A blog is great way of telling people about what you are doing and where you are going.

Testimonials help to build people’s faith in you and your products, make sure that they mention your high quality and value for money. Let them know that what you are making is worth buying.

A Products section is where people can see your products clearly and that there is a clear link to purchase. You can communicate exactly who you are and what you do with photos of your work. If you are sending the visitor to another site the process has to be super easy or you’ll lose your buyer.

By far the most important thing on your website is having a clear route to purchase! All the important information needs to be clearly available but showing the visitor how to spend money on your products is by far the most important part of selling crafts online via your own site!

E is for Extras

Chat
An online chat box allows customers to write to you and it can be switched on and off as required. You can even set it up as an app on your phone and then respond to enquiries in the same way as you would on a messenger app. Online chat is a great option if you need a nice, short snappy conversation to give the customer an answer. Online chat is not an essential, but certainly useful and customer friendly.

Pop Up or Lead magnet
A pop up pops up (no surprises there) and allows people to leave their email address. This is vital for email marketing. On our own website we offer a free newsletter about upcoming events and it enables us to touch base about new products, which craft fairs or markets you are going to be at etc. This is often housed in a .pdf

Another way to secure information (email) is to give something away for free, like a

downloadable .pdf or a cheat sheet for exchange for email. You could give away a free kitting pattern as a download for example as a little extra value in exchange for the visitor’s contact details. It shows that you are not just on the take, you want to give great value as well as selling to them.

So, how about it? The ABLE method will ENABLE you to take the plunge and start selling crafts online. For further tips on taking great product photos, writing winning content for your site, social media dos and don’ts and customer service in the digital world please join our Facebook Group and take the Craft Challenge.

The good news for all those businesses in our Craft Insurance community selling handmade crafts online is that online shopping as a whole has exploded over the last decade and online retail looks set to grow as people continue to look for a convenient, time efficient experience.

Unfortunately, this upward trend is not good news for our oceans. The majority of online orders arrive in plastic packaging, and recent research suggests that a staggering 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems and enters our natural environment.

The following scary statistics are enough to get all of us reviewing our usage of plastic packaging!

• 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption now contain plastic. So we are eating it too!
• In seawater, plastic absorbs chemicals like PCBs and DDTs.
• These substances have been linked to endocrine disruption and even some cancers.
• They become more powerful as they work their way up the food chain, so the problem is becoming increasingly potent.
• 72% of tap water in European nations, including the UK, Germany and France, now contains contaminating plastic.

As far as plastic packaging is concerned, it’s in the news at the moment. This month a new UK tax comes into effect on plastic packaging manufactured in, or imported into the UK that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. The aim of the tax is to provide an incentive for businesses to use recycled plastic in the manufacture of plastic packaging and to more recycling of packaging in general!

The UK Government is, in fact, aiming for a 75% recycling rate for packaging by 2030 whilst for our friends in Europe all plastic packaging has to be recyclable by 2030.

In addition to all this, customers today also believe that doing something good for the world should be part of any company’s core business plan. Customers want the goods delivered but they also want suppliers to be thinking about the impact their activities are having on the environment. This means that businesses who adopt an environmentally friendly approach with their packaging will not fail to enhance their brand reputation and increase their sales amongst a growing tribe of eco-aware customers.

So, what is the way forward then for businesses selling handmade crafts online such as fragile ornaments or delicate handmade pieces? I did discover 100% recyclable bubble wrap online which was very exciting (if a little dearer than its non-recyclable relative). Then I thought, although it’s the lesser of two evils, being recyclable, it is still plastic. What plastic free alternatives are there for packaging handmade, fragile items to ensure their safe arrival?

Well, there are quite a few companies out there that have found a way to use less plastic in their packaging by adhering to strict delivery policies. The Package Free Shop for instance, ships everything from health and beauty items to pet supplies in “100% post-consumer” boxes with paper tape and wrapping. All of its shipping materials are recyclable and compostable. Olive is a delivery company that offers package-free shipping.

Other businesses, rather than using bubble wrap or polystyrene to protect goods, use recycled paper or shredded cardboard with the result that even fragile items are perfectly safe as long as they are wrapped carefully and the void is filled properly.

There are a number of plastic free online shops out there offering a plastic free packaging alternative such as the Zero Waste Club, Life Before Plastik, The No Plastic Shop, The Plastic Free Shop and Anything But Plastic, to name a few (click here for a list of 34 online plastic free stores). Bristol’s first plastic free shop, Zero Green, has been offering a plastic free alternative to shopping since 2018, both online and through their South Bristol shop. Zero Green offer more than a thousand waste-free products online, from rice to reusable razors and they offer customers the option of using their own containers which they can drop off and get their order done on the same day!

So, if you would like to start thinking about your packaging and to change the impact you are making selling handmade crafts online, here are some ideas to help you get started:

Custom boxes are the largest and priciest element of packaging. Being able to eliminate boxes will dramatically reduce your shipping costs and environmental impact. If your goods are small, soft, or lightweight, cheaper packaging materials could be enough to fulfil your needs.

Try plant fibres such as jute and cotton. These make excellent eco-friendly packaging materials in the form of reusable tote bags to wrap your product in, provide a great gift with purchase to show your appreciation, and encourage eco-friendly practices amongst your customer base. 

Try inflatable air pillows – inflatable plastic film bags that can be used to protect products. They are versatile and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, while not adding much extra weight to a package. Air pillows are often made from post-consumer recycled materials, but aren’t able to be composted since they are often made from a plastic-based material.

Try corrugated bubble wrap if you need to cushion a fragile item, an eco-friendly alternative to plastic bubble wrap or styrofoam packaging peanuts is corrugated bubble wrap. This is typically made out of 100% recycled cardboard that’s derived from post-consumer and post-industrial waste. Corrugated bubble wrap can be both recycled or composted.

We can renew our perspective where plastic packaging is concerned and rather than seeing it as a necessarily evil, it becomes an opportunity to bring positive change and impact the planet!

P is for Pause – pause and re-think. Is there a better way?

L is for Love – love your planet and your people!!!

A is for Alternatives – there are many out there.

S is for Sustainable ways of doing business. Enhance your brand as you adopt them.

T is for Time! The time to act is now…

I is for investment – you are investing in our collective future.

C is for Change, and a true change creates a legacy for the next generation.

Why not join in the discussion on sustainable packaging in our Craft Insurance Facebook Group? Let us know how you have become sustainable, selling handmade crafts online. What ingenious solution have you devised to avoid non-recyclable plastic packaging? We’d love to hear from you.