How to build a business on needlework. Unusual business ideas for needlewomen. Reasons for the high demand for handicrafts

The desire of women housewives to become independent motivates them to look for additional income.

He will be successful if he discovers in himself talents or abilities to engage in any kind self made. If you turn needlework into a small home business, you can really get the desired independence.

How much can you earn on handmade?

It is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question. The range of possibilities is quite wide. The amount of earnings depends on the chosen type of handmade. The amount of work and the amount of time spent are also important.

An equally significant factor influencing the result is advertising company, the ability to disseminate information about your small business to a wide audience.

At a minimum, you can earn from 7-10 thousand rubles. However, this is not the limit. In order not to work blindly, it is advisable to draw up an approximate business plan. For example, a woman on maternity leave is content with limited time opportunities. Most likely, she will be happy with even a minimal additional income.

If the plans are far-reaching, and there is enough time for this, you need to start the calculation, starting from the desired amount. For example, a housewife who knows the skill of knitting plans rubles. It is necessary to build a earnings scheme in this way:

• Decide on the types of knitted items for sale or on order.
• Specify the cost of yarn.
• Take into account the consumption of threads per unit finished product.
• Take into account the amount of time required to knit one thing.

for one thing, the average consumption of yarn is 500 g;

at a cost of 100 g for 200 rubles: 200 x 5 \u003d 1000 rubles (plus accessories 200 rubles);

price for finished products- from 4000 rubles.

At a cost of 1200 rubles, the profit is 2800 rubles.

To earn 15 thousand rubles. per month, you must knit at least 5 sweaters. With a high level of skill, it is quite possible to produce such a quantity. One thing can be knitted in 4-5 days, and in about 21 days of work you can get the planned amount.

If you improve the quality and take more expensive materials, you can increase the price of the product. Thus, the loads will be more acceptable, and the income will be the same. For example, by knitting only 3 sweaters per month, you can get the desired 15 thousand rubles, while spending not 21, but only 12-15 days.

In this case, you can make a choice for yourself: leave your small business at the level of the original goal or still increase the workload and raise income.

Which type of needlework to choose depends on the abilities of the one who wants to make money on it. There are a great many activities, among which the most profitable can be distinguished.

Knitting to order and sale

Knitted things never go out of fashion, this fact speaks in favor of this type of needlework. If a knitter is "experienced", she probably has a circle of acquaintances who know about her abilities. As soon as she starts knitting for money, it will be easy for her to get her first customers.

The initial moment is very important here: the better, more original the first order is, the more effective the work to attract customers will go. We can say that the manufactured thing will work like advertising.

You can knit one type of clothing or several:

• Children's clothing: suits, booties, Knitted hats, overalls, dresses, blouses, sundresses.
• Caps and scarves for adults.
• Dresses.
• Cardigans, jackets and sweaters.
• Gloves, shirt-fronts, socks, handbags and other accessories.

You can become universal knitter or specialize in one type of knitting, and taking into account the direction of women's or men's clothing.

To sell knitted items by hand, it is enough to have 3-5 clients per month, and you can get a good additional income. After all, manual work is valued more than machine work. Having received a high-quality order, the happy owner of a beautiful thing will definitely tell his relatives, friends and neighbors about it.

Thus, the number of likely customers may increase first in arithmetic and then exponentially. This means that you can get good money for your work.

You can also do knitting on a machine, but so that the thing does not look like stamping, it can be supplemented with hand embroidery (satin stitch, cross stitch), appliqué, decorate with ribbons or in other ways that will give it individuality.

Sewing home business

Sewing at home on individual orders has always been a popular business. Previously, people turned to home craftswomen, because it was almost impossible to buy a fashion item in a retail chain. Now, with the advent of a huge variety of clothes, I want to choose the perfect option, so that it is both fashionable and not very expensive.

Now is the time to sew, because you can buy fabric of any texture, color and cost. Dozens of new types of fabric appeared.

Fashionistas who cannot afford to buy a dress that has sunk into the soul, because it costs fabulous money, can use the services of local craftswomen. To succeed in this type of needlework, you need to know all the subtleties: how to get a slanting inlay, cut out intricate details to decorate the finished product, and many other tricks.

Professional seamstresses or even self-taught, but well-versed in sewing, able to recreate the style of the outfit depicted in a magazine or on a TV screen, will not lack clients.

Women who have non-standard forms, too full, tall or short, face serious difficulties in finding the right size and style. It is this category that will always come to an individual seamstress and help her get additional income. , sitting at home.

Sewing needlework involves not only tailoring. These can be of the following types:

• Tailoring of soft toys.
• Bed linen.
• Curtain and tulle.
• Quilting blankets.
• Leather sewing.

When choosing to earn money for sewing, you will have to provide for the cost of purchasing materials for finishing sewn products. After all, in addition to fabrics, sewing machine, a set of needles, scissors, overlock, accessories are needed.

Sewing dolls

This type of handmade provides not just tailoring of individual dolls, you can create entire collections. Depending on the craftsmanship and artistic intent, such products may be among the most sought after.

There are hundreds of examples when a needlewoman, having shown maximum imagination and creativity, turned what seemed to be an ordinary toy into a branded product. These include Tilda dolls, dolls in national costumes made of kapron, porcelain angel dolls.

Adults are more fond of collectible dolls, and for children you can design educational toys, dolls with a set of clothes and accessories, a doll family (dad, mother and daughter or son).

By the way, such goods can be sold by prior agreement in the toy store. The result of home needlework will not keep you waiting, so you can prepare for a good income.

Decoupage: universal decoration

This type of needlework is not widely known, but it appeared in the distant medieval era. In those days, wooden decoupage was used: various pictures were cut out, varnished and decorated with furniture.

This type of needlework is divided into several types:

• Straight.
• Back.
• Volume.
• Smoky.
• Decopatch.

The basic principle of the decoupage technique is to stick cut out elements, composing patterns, ornaments, pictures from them. After that, the surface is varnished.

This type of manual work can become a source of income. Created by the hand of a home master, unique in their beauty and originality, samples can be a wonderful memorable gift. By the way, the client can order a specific drawing or image related to the person to whom the present is intended. The master will be faced with the task of doing exactly what the customer wants.

Items decorated with decoupage can be put up for sale as exclusive souvenirs. Thus, you can win your circle of customers, and build a small business on this. The author of decoupage will get double pleasure: from performing interesting work and receiving remuneration for this - payment for the completed order.

Felting (felting)

This handicraft method is becoming more and more popular. It is interesting in that you can create a variety of items: certain types clothes (hats, scarves), toys, interior items, decorating items.

Customers are attracted to this kind of things because they are natural, because they can only be made from wool.

Learning how to felt with your own hands is not difficult, but first of all, you need necessary tools and materials:

• Special needles.
• Felting solution or liquid soap.
• Merino wool.
• Sintepon.
• Cotton wool or other material as a filler.

The created items must be made at a high professional level in order to amaze customers with their originality. Then success in earning money will be ensured.

Embroidery

One of the traditional types of needlework that has come since ancient times and has not lost its popularity and attractiveness is embroidery. There are many varieties, some of them are:

• Cross stitch.
• Satin stitch.
• Stalk.
• chain.
• Ribbons.
• Beaded.

For some girls, this activity develops into an exciting hobby with which they do not part all their lives. Thus, there is an improvement of skill to the level of professionalism.

Such craftswomen may well be engaged in earning an income on embroidery, which turns an ordinary thing into an amazing work of art. You can specialize not only in embroidering shirts, blouses, dresses, you can choose one or more directions:

• Tablecloth embroidery.
• Napkins.
• Pillows.
• Towels.
• Bed linen.
• Knitted things.
• Volumetric embroidery (decoration of souvenirs with embroidery).
• Embroidery pictures.

For embroidery, you can use a variety of threads and materials:

• Muline.
• Acrylic.
• Gold or silver threads.
• Beaded.
• Ribbons.

In order to make sure that it is possible to earn income on this type of needlework, just look at the prices for embroidered products on the Internet. Paintings made based on the works of famous artists cost fabulous money, calculated thousand rubles and even dollars.

quilling

An interesting and unusual type of handmade, you need to master a special way of twisting paper, as a result, you get details from which you can create beautiful little things. Craftswomen make jewelry of stunning beauty:

• Panel.
• Paintings.
• Snowflakes.
• Flowers and flower arrangements.
• Postcards.

To work, you will need the following set of devices:

1. Colored paper cut into strips.
2. PVA glue.
3. Sample.
4. Sharp scissors.
5. Tweezers.
6. A device for twisting paper strips.

Needlewomen with experience in this business create masterpieces of souvenirs that can be successfully put up for sale.

Cold porcelain

The creation of porcelain figurines and various handicrafts is an interesting activity, pleasant for the soul and profitable at the same time. Modeling from cold porcelain can really be used to earn quite decent money. The work is fascinating, but it requires a lot of time, physical and creative energy.

If you have the ability and skills in this direction, you can create unique interior and decor items that will be in high demand.

The starting material is inexpensive, but the cost of labor is high enough that incredibly high lifts are possible here: at a cost of 2000 thousand rubles. can be obtained from 10 thousand rubles.

Creation of designer beaded jewelry

Jewelry that does not lose its popularity continues to interest the female half of humanity. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look and doing, for example, weaving jewelry items from beads:

• Bracelets.
• Necklace.
• pendant.
• Earrings.
• Clips.
• Diadem.
• Hair clip.
• Obodkov.

For such small business investments of about 10 thousand rubles will be required. At a price per unit of work 300-1500 rubles. (depending on labor costs) and an average daily sale of 6-8 pieces of jewelry, income can average about 4000 thousand rubles.

Vine weaving

It is enough to take special courses or a master class from a good professional and get to work. Items made by weaving from a vine have always found their buyers.

You should start with simpler items:

• Baskets.
• Khlebnits.
• Planters.
• Decorative items (souvenirs in the form of woven bast shoes, panels, amulets).
• Hats.

After the circle of consumers is conquered and income stabilizes, you can continue to develop. To do this, learn and create wicker furniture. This is a more serious form of income. Such products attract with their naturalness and beauty.

iris folding

All kinds of souvenirs, accessories, decorative interior items can be created from ribbons. Such art has no limits in the choice of a wide variety of compositions. These can be paintings, decoration of wedding dresses, curtains and other interior elements or clothing decorations.

scrapbooking

Such needlework is mistakenly considered too expensive. Starting from scratch, you can use improvised materials that you can always find at home. You just have to purchase a simple photo album or notebook and create a masterpiece based on it.

Scrapbooking is decoration giving individual originality to various objects:

• Photo albums.
• Notepads.
• personal diaries.
• invitation cards.
• Gift packaging (from a regular box).
• Pictures.
• Envelopes for money.
• Books.

Such things can be made to order, but in order to increase your income, you can offer them for sale in the distribution network.

soap making

This is a highly profitable business. They should be addressed by those who are looking for ways for good. The lesson requires preparation, but it is not difficult to master the technique, the main thing is to have a desire.

This type of income will be successful if you cook not ordinary bars of soap, but make author's works of art out of it. The calculation for the profitability of soap making is based on the fact that this niche is not sufficiently filled, which means a high demand.

Starting from the first steps and small volumes, gradually this type of home production can develop into a small factory and provide more high income.

Homemade cosmetics

Cosmetics are always needed by everyone, without it it is impossible to imagine any woman. In the cosmetics market, hundreds of companies create the highest competition for each other, but the prices remain quite high. Yes, and the quality of industrial cosmetics can be argued.

Some craftswomen tried to make cosmetics with their own hands and they did very well. Now they are doing this with success not only for themselves, but also under the order. The main positive point is the use of only natural raw materials.

If you start a small cosmetic business, you can make these types of natural cosmetics:

• Oils.
• Creams.
• Face and hair masks.
• Lotions.
• Scrubs.
• Rinsers.

Decorative candles

Paraffin or wax is a convenient tool in the hands of the master. From an ordinary candle you can make unique souvenirs. To create a unique sample are used natural materials and any auxiliary small items:

• Groats.
• Pasta.
• Nuts.
• Coffee beans.
• Acorns.
• Beads.
• Beads.
• Foil.
• artificial stones.
• Shells.
• Decorative braid.

Dyes are also used to make a candle of any color. The result is an interesting result, for example, candles for a romantic evening, New Year's, for children's holiday, For birthday. By adding fragrances, you can create a real miracle that emits enchanting smells.

Leather Products

To make money on this type of sewing, you need to be a professional. Working with leather is one of the most difficult jobs, but the demand for leather clothing and accessories never subsides.

In addition to sewing clothes, you should learn how to make bags, belts, jewelry. Then you don’t have to worry about earnings, it will always be high enough. For example, a set of clothes with accessories will always find its buyer, who wants to look "not like everyone else."

Reasons for the high demand for handicrafts

Against the backdrop of abundance various goods it is easy to get confused, and it is difficult to find a thing that is suitable in size, taste and style. People are looking for the perfect option and go in search of a contractor for their individual order. As a result, they get a unique thing that you will not find even on the Internet.

So, we can highlight the main advantages of maidid and the reasons for its popularity:

• High quality.
• Artistic value.
• Originality.
• Exclusivity.
• Affordable price.

Armed with the confidence that needlework is profitable, it's worth a try. To choose a more popular direction, you can view information on the Internet, look for reviews on different ways to generate income from handmade.

In these short stories the needlewoman will always express her sincere wishes and give a real assessment of this or that type of earnings. With the desire and dedication, a good result is always obtained.

How to make money on needlework on the Internet

Needlewomen who have mastered one or more types of craftsmanship can create their own exclusive items to order. But to increase the implementation, you can use several methods:

• Through specialized platforms: Etsy.com, Fair of Masters, City of Talents.
• Social networks, in particular, the creation of a profile page. Requires advertising to be placed on thematic areas with high quality photos.
• Partnership with trading network. It is enough to agree with the management on the supply of your unique product in one or several stores. It should be a mutually beneficial transaction in which the supplier sets his price, and the seller sells it for certain percentage expensive.

You can use all sorts of thematic forums where you can have useful dialogues with colleagues not only about sales problems, but also about the development of a particular type of handmade. exchange of experience and useful tips with like-minded people will contribute to improving skills and obtaining better results of creative work.

5 / 5 ( 1 voice )

Nothing is impossible for a person who believes in his dream. We are sure that every needlewoman dreams of making her hobby a lifelong business that will help not only get rich, but also become famous. This is a very valid desire, and in this article we offer three inspiring stories about how such dreams became a beautiful reality.

Cozy masterpieces by Anna Marinenko

Surely you know about this wonderful master and have seen her work on the Internet. It all started quite simply and, even, by accident. Once she caught the eye of merino wool. This material, amazing in its properties, prompted the idea to associate something like a blanket with rather large knitting. But knitting needles for material of such a large thickness proved difficult to find and she decided to knit her first piece by hand without knitting needles.

It turned out really wonderful. And after creating a few more similar things, she created her page on the Etsy website, coming up with the original name for her brand - Ohhio.

Everyone liked these original things so much that in a fairly short period Anna became a very popular and recognizable needlewoman all over the world.

Today she has her own Internet platform and her own team of craftsmen, which is constantly growing. Starting with blankets, the master added scarves, blankets, hats and other cute little things to her assortment.

So that everyone could knit such things, Anna developed special thick knitting needles. Today she sells her work all over the world. Moreover, prices range from 60 to 900 dollars.

Her Kickstarter campaign has broken many records, raising over $200,000. Although initially the goal was 10 times smaller. This is an amazing example of how, with very simple things, without investing a lot of money, you can become successful and develop your art.

Lace postcards by Katharina Satanowska

This is a wonderful example that is very inspiring even to the most notorious skeptics. After all, Katarina Satanovskaya turned her hobby of making postcards into a business. It all started, like many of us. The girl created beautiful postcards for friends and family after work. And the main job was a serious position of head of human resources in a reputable international company.

The desire to engage in creativity prompted me to leave my main job and completely immerse myself in my favorite business. The first participation in the hand-made fair took place in 2010. Katharina sold out all her postcards, and there were more than 50 of them. This small success was very inspiring. Orders began to arrive and several online stores made an offer of cooperation.

But such success prompted him to open his own online sales platform. And then, taking a loan and her own savings, she decided to open a workshop in the basement of the Kharkov Opera House. This workshop-shop has become not only a place for selling works, but also a real creative workshop, where Katarina Satanovskaya conducts training master classes and sincerely shares the intricacies and secrets of creating her beautiful works.

This inspiring example shows that without even having a unique idea, but doing a completely standard hand-made direction, you can achieve very great success.

Life is sometimes unpredictable and even a seemingly sad and difficult event can cause a great start. For Irina Pidlipskaya, the reason for starting her own business was the loss of her job due to the bankruptcy of the company. To find something to your liking and something that will help you earn money, I had to study a lot of sites and master classes in various areas of hand-made. The beginning was the creation of small jewelry in the form of jewelry, which sold quite well. And then one day, Irina Padlevskaya was ordered a Ukrainian wreath as a gift to a teacher. I liked this version of creativity so much that it became the most important thing in my life. Although at first everything was not easy, and the profit did not grow much, but the desire to create something of this kind defeated all obstacles.

Word of mouth began to work, participation in hand-made exhibitions, a Facebook page, an account at the crafts fair. And today, shops that sell the work of Ukrainian designers offer cooperation. With the help of the Etsy portal, the designer has gone international and sells her wonderful wreaths all over the world.

How to make money at home with your own hands? Probably, there are practically no such women, especially mothers, who would not ask this question. A modern Russian woman can not only enter a burning hut and stop a galloping horse, but also sew a dress for herself, knit a winter sweater with deer, make warm overalls for a child, and make magnificent earrings as a gift for a friend. Should all this be just a hobby or is it time to make money from your skills? We will talk about this further.

It's about time!

Why right now, part-time needlework at home can bring good income and even become a full-time main employment? Yes, everything is simple: hand-made is now in vogue. Surely among your acquaintances there are already such enterprising individuals who are actively working in the field of making beautiful and useful products with their own hands. And in the world there are even large organizations that purchase goods from private manufacturers and resell them at crazy prices. Do not believe that there are clients? And you check! However, this is still Western experience, and in our country they are engaged in such resale relatively small shops. And, of course, you can look for a client yourself.

Why does needlework so attract craftswomen, craftsmen and buyers? Why is this business easily growing into a family business? There is nothing to be surprised: the process is fascinating, the result allows you to be proud of yourself, and the demand provides a good income - enough for the whole family not only to have bread, but, as they say, also butter and caviar to put on bread. True, you need to be able to order needlework at home - and this requires considerable self-discipline.

Advantages

So, what is attractive about needlework at home? Here are the main positive features:

• the abundance of materials, techniques, directions allows everyone to choose what they like;
• demand for goods is quite high even in a crisis;
• manufactured products are unique.

The last factor is rightly considered by many to be the most important, because it is precisely because of the desire to possess a unique item that the buyer turns not to an ordinary store, but to a master. Is it possible to say that needlework is crafts? It is difficult to describe unique products that attract the attention of connoisseurs with this simple and even critical word. These are excellent samples that satisfy the taste and requirements of the most demanding client.

Implementation Benefits:

• you can search for clients on the Internet;
• a business plan for needlework at home allows you to think about doing business when a large flow of customers will be combined with a high margin;
• You can start with a very small amount.

A spoon of tar

Sounds, you know, fabulous. Is everything as rosy as it seems at first? In practice, needlework as a business is associated with certain difficulties. Among them:

• the negative impact of the crisis;
• abundance of competitors;
• the difficulty of working in this area for uncreative people.

In the latter case, certain problems are associated with understanding the very idea, the logic of the work. It will take a lot of time and effort to figure out what's what. Do you need it? However, there is always a way out: you can organize a collaboration with a creative friend. For example, she manufactures, you sell, both are satisfied and remain profitable. Moreover, practice shows that often creative people are not very practical and need the help of a loved one - someone who can be trusted.

Starting with the mind

How to make money on needlework? First of all - choosing the right niche for self-realization. It depends on the direction of activity which strategy will lead to success. You need to understand that this is a promising topic - needlework as a business. The ideas associated with this line of work are numerous, but the really worthwhile, as they say, do not lie on the road - you have to think and look.

What is this about? For example, knitting to order: it's no secret to anyone, you can make money on it. But since many people know about it, there are hundreds of thousands who want to try their hand. This gives rise to huge competition, and novice craftsmen, trying to create a name for themselves, make complex things for almost nothing. Of course, in such a "business" you are quickly disappointed.

So, the main niches in which demand is high and you can break through, knowing how to build a strategy correctly:

• already mentioned knitting;
• beading;
• lace making;
• custom embroidery;
• jewelry production;
• work with ceramics;
• hat making;
• soap making;
• macrame;
• floristics;
• paintings, painting;
• sewing clothes;
• decoupage;
• production of decorative candles;
• sale of goods a la "Everything for needlework and creativity."

What's next?

When the most attractive direction for you has been found, it's time to work out a business plan. It should be understood: even if your enterprise grows out of your favorite hobby, it needs a serious approach, otherwise there will be no success. In addition, a business plan carefully and according to the rules will be of great help: you can contact the city administration with it and get money to start.

So, a business plan is a step-by-step strategy that outlines your vision of how to make money on needlework. This means that the document should mention those steps without which success cannot be achieved, as well as describe the implementation features.

What are we writing about?

First of all, we consider target audience. Success is possible when the craftswoman understands who exactly her client is. To do this, you need to imagine who buys similar products from competitors or in stores. For example, if you are attracted to the area of ​​\u200b\u200b"everything for needlework and creativity", then your audience is needlewomen. But if you like to make slingobuses, then the client is a young mother.

The next step is to acquire everything you need to run a successful business. These are materials, equipment, and, if necessary, courses that teach you how to do something. What exactly you have to invest in depends on the chosen direction. For example, choosing knitting to order, you will have to make an effort to look for a store with favorable prices for threads, knitting needles and other expendable materials and equipment.

Promotion is important too.

In a business plan, attention should be paid to marketing issues. Simply put, you need to describe in detail how you plan to find a client and interest him. There are a variety of channels - from word of mouth to the offer of their products at foreign offline fairs. Which path is right for you? It depends both on the scale of activity and on the existing reputation and direction of work.

Below are six realized ideas for those who crave craft creativity and the business success that comes with it. These examples should be considered not only as guidelines for complete imitation - but rather as a source of inspiration for the invention of new areas of needlework.

Transparent resin jewelry

Etsy.com, a platform for sellers of their goods, is the place where the serious multi-thousand business success of Silvia Tsalus, who invented and creates costume jewelry from transparent epoxy, began. Her idea - immersing in hardening resin balls of moss, dried wild flowers and their parts, especially dandelion fluff - after a number of sales on this platform, aroused great interest on Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, where Etsy visitors copied images and descriptions.

In the blogosphere, photos and descriptions of her products have been reposted on many popular portals. different countries dedicated to design and crafts. And this free advertising has not yet created competitors for her - on the contrary, it has contributed to the emergence of not just orders for Sylvia, but also permanent contracts, often with foreign business buyers. Currently, up to 80 percent of its revenue comes from abroad. And more and more often, Sylvia receives special bulk orders for art objects - for example, she was ordered a collection of jewelry by the famous Canadian "Art Gallery of Ontario" from Toronto.

Her brief business history is as follows: Silvia Tsalus has been making money as a needlewoman for more than a decade. She used to work researcher one of the institutes of the Academy of Sciences, but left this career to focus on creativity; and after that she completed serious jewelery courses. Then the initial investment in equipment and the initial volume of materials amounted to $ 3,200. And having received the first serious profit and having consolidated her success, Sylvia took a chance - and immediately hired several employees: as for routine technological processes and a secretary to communicate with customers.

“Delegation in such a small process is not an easy task, but without it it is impossible to move from a money-losing hobby to profitable business. With employees, I quickly and repeatedly increased the amount of jewelry produced, for which I alone would not have had enough time. I feel that it is precisely the volume of handicrafts offered that is the step that makes it possible not to earn extra money with this occupation, but to completely saturate oneself in a big way,” Sylvia Tsalus is sure.

Clothes and toys to order: an ancient idea, but long forgotten by the townspeople

One of the incentives to try your hand at crafts is the desire to create something that standard stores are not able to offer. This rule is especially promising in the field of products for children.

More and more parents are turning away from the repetitive designs of clothes and toys offered in stores - hence the demand for individual designs and ideas for these products.

"When I went to maternity leave, even before the birth of the child, she managed to take courses in tailoring and fashion design. I bought fabrics and accessories, and already with the baby I began to produce all the clothes and sewing toys for him. At first, I was sure that this would just be my maternity hobby - the implementation of a personal commitment to natural eco-materials in the spirit of conscious parenthood. However, maternity leave in Poland - greatest engine entrepreneurial spirit; thanks to my posting on the social network information about my products, which my friends actively reposted, I began to order tailoring of products and “to the side”, to strangers: often at once with extensive sets of a mass of fabrics. The implementation suddenly went off the rails, I slowly had to hire assistants. And a few years later, my husband was surprised to see that he was already earning less than my mini-workshop for individual tailoring, ”Monika Munoz-Washtyl, who previously worked as a surveyor, tells her story.

Fra bagsGdesigner's cops, puzzle jewelry

It would seem that Lego pieces can only be used for playing. Meanwhile, Agnieszka Bernacka from the town of Gliwice has been decorating jewelry, flash drives and household gadgets with them for several years, and most of all, bags that are actively sold at prices up to $500. Agnieszka simply buys all these products (blanks) in cheap formats - and sells them many times more than the cost price. And if in the first years you had to buy Lego sets, then over time, the manufacturers of the designer “recognized” the artisan as their colleague, created the agabag website for her products and began to provide her with fragments of their designers in bulk for free.

“I got the initial idea from the French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbayac, who presented a dress trimmed with Lego fragments at one of the shows. However, his product remained single, and I immediately realized that I could produce something like this in large quantities. After a thorough check, it turned out that no one "sits" on this idea yet, Agnieszka recalls.

Currently, its products are actively sold abroad; especially for some reason in Japan. The craftswoman is sure that in the next year more than half of her earnings will come from abroad.

Monika Roth, a student at the Department of Jewelry Design at the Academy of Arts in Łódź, also discovered a similar original niche in the market. As one of the course exam papers, she ordered a casting of typical "puzzle fragments" from shiny elite plastic - and simply added it to various blanks for jewelry. And then the demand for this ironic and mysteriously semantic decoration turned out to be unexpectedly significant.

Knitted youth

Knitted youth clothing by Marta Ivanina-Kochanskaya, a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Arts and the London studio of designer Tom Dixon, is increasingly appearing at serious fashion shows and fashion fairs in different countries (Fashion Week Poland, Bread &, Butter Berlin), sold in boutiques. The types of modern and non-trivial clothes designed by her are purchased from the knitter by large specialized corporations for thousands of dollars.

“The business idea was born naturally: knitting has always been present in my family. And what I wore aroused the interest of my friends: I came up with such types of knitted underwear, accessories, jackets that were not on the market.

But you can’t connect much alone: ​​you need a flow, mass character; a business designer in the field of knitting should only come up with a cut and knit original new elements, giving any repetitions to the performers. And someone else needs to negotiate with customers. I was looking for start up funds and was lucky enough to receive a $5,200 grant from the Polish Employment Office to hire staff and start a business.

And thanks to the fact that I was an intern in London, my London contacts found me both the first buyers and mentions in the English-language media. As a result, all the first orders were from abroad,” Marta Ivanina-Kochanskaya recalls the beginning of her business success.

Watches and glasses made of wood

A good way to "surprise, laugh, delight" the customer is to use conventional materials in the cottage-based production of items that are "unusual" for these materials. Such materials can be wood, concrete or linoleum.

For example, Michal Naperala at home produces milled oak wood wrist watch(Mechanisms, of course, inserts purchased ones: Citizen firms). And Lukasz Mazhetsky creates glasses with wooden frames and temples - including exotic woods. By the way, every time an eco-artisan spends a part of the income from each pair of glasses sold on planting a new tree.

Even more unusual is the proposal of Sylvia Kochanets: she produces costume jewelry from concrete, cast in miniature geometric shapes - hinting at modern architecture, metropolitan life.

Ordinary bags of extraordinary quality

And in conclusion, we recall that in addition to avant-garde ideas, needlework can give business success in the field of traditional solutions - which, in fact, included knitting.

A typical example: Magdalena Purol (designer) and her brother Marcin (entrepreneur) at home produce and sell high-quality bags, covers and accessories of minimalist design from ordinary felt (a kind of felt, dense fabric made from felted wool). They quickly became very popular and bring a decent income to the brother and sister.

So, needlewomen and artisans - to work!

Selling websites for handmade manufacturers (Polish experience)

To make money on needlework, it is not necessary to create, for example, unique costume jewelry. The founders of the Internet services Pakamera.pl and Decobazaar.com have found their niche by becoming intermediaries between manufacturers of handmade goods and buyers. And these portals have grown into a business with a decent profit - the Pierwszy Milion portal tells two business stories, translates the site

The story of a business start ten years ago: cheap and almost by accident

“It was a classic business for one dollar,” Mateusz Wojczakowski recalls the beginning of Pakamera.pl. - In 2005, just $25 was enough to launch a portal that unites handmade designers. The graphics of the site were our own, the idea of ​​the engine was also our author's, all expenses were limited to buying a domain and paying for hosting. Then every day I filled this or that niche in e-commerce. We sailed in this wave and found our place.

But what is curious is that initially the creator of the portal, Julita Voychakovskaya, perceived the project only as a common hobby with her husband - something that helps to sell her crafts, mainly to Julita herself. And then the newlyweds seriously planned to make money on the site “on a trip to the cinema”, this is the maximum. Today, Pakamera is the largest selling handmade portal in Poland, organizing a number of educational projects in the field of needlework at its own expense.

In general, 2005 was a special year for the development of handmade trade on the web throughout the world. It was then that Etsy.com was born in the United States, which has long since become the world's largest service of its kind. In the same year, independently of Warsaw's Pakamera, the portal Decobazaar.com began its operations in Wroclaw.

“Our incentive to launch the business,” says Basya Cerny, founder of Decobazaar, “was similar sites in Germany. Our Berlin colleagues in home crafts were "sold" on numerous sites already in the early 2000s. Decobazaar also did not require significant resources to launch, although we immediately created a business plan for deploying a large (by Wroclaw standards) project. And they invested only $ 2,600 at the start: they went mainly to create outsourced software and also for printing flyers, posters and advertising on the Internet.

The beginning of the rise of the business

The interest of users quickly began to exceed the expectations and capabilities of the founders of both portals and their husbands, co-founders of the portals. Less than two years later, the launch of Pakamera, an activity linked to the successful competitive development portal, there were so many that Mateusz Wojczakowski had to either fully devote himself to this project, or delegate authority. And although he worked in a promising position in the international consulting company Deloitte, he decided to connect his business life entirely with Pakamera.

And he did not lose: in the crisis of 2008, hired employees were fired in large numbers; but sales of relatively inexpensive handicrafts, on the contrary, then and subsequently grew steadily. This is happening against the backdrop of loss of income for millions of buyers who previously purchased expensive, more mass-produced products, and due to the rapid development of eco-approaches, and due to consumer fatigue from the globalization of the sameness of shopping products around the world.

As sales grew, so did portal revenues. “Profitability was reached almost immediately. The start-up costs unexpectedly paid off after a few months, ”recalls the founder of Decobazaar.

It was in the crisis years of 2008-09 that both portals outgrew " family business for two” (besides, just then both families had children) and moved on to hiring staff. Since then, all these years, both services have been using five employees each - plus outsourcing external execution of a large number of works on the site. The founders of both portals call their advertising locomotive viral marketing, as well as positive customer reviews.

“Funds for development were used from only one source - our current receipts. Although recently we have often received funding offers from the USA, Germany and Poland itself - and at the start, we probably would have taken advantage of this - but now, however, our business already has strong reserves and is not looking for investors, ”admits the founder of Pakamer .

There is nothing surprising in the interest of investors, which millions of entrepreneurs cannot even dream of. Both portals, Pakamera and Decobazaar, already work with thousands of needlewomen and artisans; each site is visited monthly by over five hundred thousand users, who generate an average of 5-7 million page views per month, and during the holiday season even 10-15 million page views. On Facebook, the Pakamera page has 220 thousand fans, and Decobazaar - 90 thousand (the difference in development success is due mainly to the metropolitanity of the Warsaw Pakamera versus the regionality of the Wroclaw Decobazaar). The potential income from such a flow of visitors is obvious to any investor. In addition, every year the scale of both businesses is increasing by 15-20 percent.

Where is the profit from?

Both sites charge a commission on every craft sold. In the case of Pakamera, it is up to 23 percent - but it becomes less under loyalty programs and during promotional discounts from the portal. Similar fees are inherent in Decobazaar. This does not deter handmade manufacturers: for example, Decobazaar annually has a sales turnover of several million dollars; and Pakamera has entered into an offer agreement for almost 500 thousand products, of which it sells 70-80 thousand products per year.

Simple, convenient, efficient, very fast and very polite interaction with manufacturers and buyers, both entrepreneurs call the key to the success of this kind of service. “We provide both effective sales tools and ways to present products. We are the only ones who deal with such things as complaints and returns, without touching the manufacturers for this,” adds Mateusz Wojczakowski.

An important part of the business services of the portals is the advertising of the products presented on it on the Internet, including outside the .pl zone (for example, the “random photo” service provides hundreds of context-oriented displays of photos of each product on clickable banners on different sites). Both companies freely rotate the product display at the top of the subpages for each of the product categories. The portals themselves are actively interviewing needlewomen and artisans. And sometimes they give recommendations on needlework.

“Working with needlewomen goes beyond purely business relations: we get to know most of our clients from Warsaw personally and assume a share of responsibility for their business development,” says Yulita Voychakovskaya. - In addition, it is important to understand and subtly highlight the difference between groups of artisans. Otherwise, it will be unpleasant for professionals to exhibit mixed with beginners. And amateurs, in turn, will be afraid to offer their modest “samples” against the backdrop of the masterpieces of experienced needlewomen.”

Needlework as an educational project

Finally, for the future founders of such portals, the founders of Pakamera and Decobazaar emphasize: their success would not have been possible if crafts were not their hobby, and if the popularization of handicrafts had not been an important goal of the development of portals.

Thus, articles on Pakamera about trends and ideas in the world of needlework and design have grown into a separate educational project - the online magazine Example.pl, whose business plan also includes turning into a glossy printed version over the years.

Pakamera has a permanent showroom in Warsaw. It is used not only as a store-fair, but, in particular, to promote the goods sold among stylists, who can quickly rent them here for photo shoots or video clips. In addition, the Pakamera team organizes every year an event that immediately became the flagship event in Warsaw in the home craft industry - New Year's Fair of Handicrafts (Przedświąteczne Targi Rękodzieła).

And finally, it remains to say that the next stage of development of the founders of both sites was the expansion beyond the Polish market of needlewomen and artisans. And they already have a lot of orders from abroad - including from the distant USA, Canada, Japan and Australia.

Business idea: homemade (hand-made) cosmetics

It is impossible to make a cream suitable for absolutely everyone. Therefore, players in the hand-made cosmetics market are convincing Ukrainians to switch to individual organic cosmetics.

Following homemade things, jewelry and interior items, the female half of the country rushed to master the cosmetic business. Retailers of ingredients for making home-made natural cosmetics are struggling to keep up with growing demand.

8.1 Eco-improvisations

Homemade cosmetics are 30-60% cheaper than branded ones. And this factor turned out to be a weighty argument not only for consumers of mass-market products, but also for more expensive cosmetics. “8-10% of our clients previously used elite cosmetics, but with the onset of the crisis, they switched to individual (DIY cosmetics - ed.), - says Vitalina Reznik, co-founder of Aroma-Vita.

In the end, only last year the number of orders from stores selling components for DIY cosmetics has tripled - by this moment each outlet serves an average of 300 customers per month - still trending upwards of 10-15% per month. Approximately the same amount increased average check— from 150-200 to 200-250 UAH. But this seems to be just the beginning.

“The niche of individual natural home-made cosmetics is very promising, and interest in it will only increase,” says Mikhail Chernyak, strategic analyst and trendwatching manager at RA THINK!. - Since this direction meets several trends at once - "do it yourself", "eco", "thrifty lifestyle" and "healthy lifestyle". 90-95% of consumers of such products are women, and they are more involved in trends related to the environment and in a healthy way life.

“30-40% of clients are cosmetologists, chemists and doctors, who, if something happens, can also advise you,” Ms. Reznik jokes. - Trying to reduce the cost of cosmetic procedures, some cosmetologists prepare, say, serums on their own in order to ensure the salon's competitiveness. And although these creams, serums or handmade soaps are not certified, they are successfully sold.

The manufacture of hand-made cosmetics involves the observance of a certain technology. However, like all DIY products, it leaves room for improvisation. Component dealers benefit from these experiments. Having tried once, clients, according to market participants, continue experiments in 90% of cases, trying more and more new components, often increasing the amount of the check. Contributes to stable demand and short term the validity of the received cosmetic "improvisations" - from one week to two months.

8.2 Network beauticians

The Ukrainian market for trade in components for DIY cosmetics is not even five years old, and only five players are its operators. Located in Kyiv, Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Ternopil, they sell their products exclusively online, which provides them with an all-Ukrainian scale - parcels are delivered by courier services or by mail.

Each of the players needed over UAH 100,000 to set up the business. Almost all of this amount is spent on the purchase of raw materials abroad (in Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, China, Belgium, Holland, Denmark). Purchases have to be made exclusively in bulk - these are the conditions of suppliers. So, for example, the minimum supply of cosmetic oils is 25 liters (from? 15/1 liter), and there should be at least 50-60 such positions in the line of a DIY cosmetics dealer at the start.

For their storage, you will need a warehouse (up to 100 sq. M). Together with office space, you will have to pay 4.5-8 thousand hryvnias for rent every month. Another 3-12 thousand UAH. will go to the salaries of employees, the number of which depends on the scale. Minimum - one person (administrator of the online store). A complete "set" - five people (programmer, accountant, cosmetologist, store administrator and courier).

A beginner who first turned to an online store is consulted by a full-time cosmetologist online, by phone, helping to determine the type of skin and its basic needs and shortcomings. Then the optimal recipe is selected - and the client orders the ingredients. On average, the cost of one cream is from 26 to 100 UAH. The competitiveness of companies operating on the Web largely depends on the established database, recipes and master classes that are posted on the site and forum.

8.3 Crisis aside

Sellers of components for DIY cosmetics position it exclusively as organic, citing the fact that the ingredients they sell consist only of natural ingredients, do not contain chemical preservatives, synthetic additives and surfactants that violate the protective layer of the skin. And they seriously believe that home-made cosmetics can compete with professional, pharmacy, and in some cases even the mass market.

“Organic cosmetics will attract up to 15-20% of pharmacy and professional consumers, since they are aimed at correcting specific skin problems and are more affordable,” suggests Tatyana Kruglik, director of Aroma Shop. Presumably, in two or three years, the share of organic cosmetics in monetary terms will be about $150-200 million.

It is curious that abroad the niche of DIY cosmetics is not limited to the sale of components for home creaming. Perhaps this practice will subsequently be adopted by Ukrainian companies.

So, for example, American Jill Quillin founded a business selling LipStix ReMix System kits (set price - $ 20), designed to repair and create lipstick at home. Thrifty young ladies can collect debris, pieces and other fondant leftovers, melt them in the microwave and pour liquid lipstick into a special mold. The cured lipstick is back to its normal cylindrical shape and fits easily into the case. In addition, you can mix and melt the lipstick of "unfortunate" colors and create new shades. Her business has been in existence for four years. During this time, Jill managed to acquire an offline point of sale and forked out on TV advertising.

And the founder of Eco-Me, Robin Levine, decided to use her great-grandmother's recipes and ingredients to return the cleaning industry to the natural sources. The company develops and markets kits for customers to compose their own natural cleaning products, hair and skin washes. There are pet grooming kits. In an interview with the American magazine Entrepreneur, Robin Levine said that by the end of 2008, sales should have been about $1 million.

But at this stage, Ukrainian players plan to receive additional benefits only from holding master classes (from 300 UAH per hour), developing new areas (for example, selling components for mineral decorative cosmetics - powder, eye shadow, blush).

“It is not advisable to open offline points of sale because of the narrow assortment compared to traditional cosmetic stores,” says Irina Lilovaya, director of Aroma City. But it is worth thinking about opening an office-warehouse in million-plus cities, providing up to 70% of total sales.

The Western world is increasingly proving to us that needlework can not only make good money and elevate it to the rank international business(how did the manufacturer of globes - read How to earn 5 million rubles a year on the manufacture of globes), but what is it today so promising direction that you can become a businessman in this area quite by accident.

This is proved by the story of a young American woman who unexpectedly turned her hobby into a business.

A young resident of the American city of Austin - Melissa - once knitted her stockings. I wore them for a while and received a lot of compliments from my friends. Then she decided to list them on Etsy.com to see if they would sell (and she already had one store on Etsy where she sold children's knitwear).

(As Melissa herself said on her page, no one had ever sold such knee-highs on Etsy before her, so she was not sure if anyone needed them.)

In just a few days, she received so many orders that she could not cope with them alone. I contracted all my relatives to knit these stockings (they also knitted leggings).

And within a few months, she registered her company Grace and Lace and began selling her knitted stockings and leggings not only by the piece, but also in bulk.

And this is not surprising. On Etsy alone, she has already sold over 40,000 pairs of her knitted knee-highs and leggings in 2 years (she sells an average of 54 pairs a day!):

I estimated her approximate profit - it turned out to be 20-30 thousand dollars a month.

This is how the needlewoman (and part-time young mother) suddenly unexpectedly turned into the head of a needlework enterprise (you can read more about Melissa's needlework in the article Knitted stockings and leggings).

Melissa's baton was picked up by another American. She offered the market knitted headbands and turbans (in addition to the same knitted golfs):

This needlewoman overtook the previous business woman from needlework in terms of the number of sales - she has more sales in a shorter period - 54646 (an average of 70 sales per day)!

If you object that American needlewomen are lucky just because they are American, look at other equally successful needlewomen from Ukraine (I wrote about them last year in the article Homemade Art Nouveau Jewelry).

Polina and Sergey from Kyiv have been selling homemade jewelry on Etsy for several years:

For 3.5 years of sales (they started selling their jewelry since May 2010), young needleworkers have more than 19 thousand sales:

Today needleworkers from Ukraine sell at a rate of 20 sales per day!

Last year, I wrote about another needleworker from Ukraine who sells Czechs (Children's Czechs):

The owner of this Etsy shop sells several pairs of his exclusive handicraft every day!

The Ural craftswoman Maria sells her unique needlework even faster (read Ecological decorations made of epoxy resin):

In less than October, she has already sold 108 pieces of her jewelry.

What is the success of today's needlework as a business?

1. There is now a mass production rejection. Mass-produced goods are cold, monotonous stamping. Stamping turns any work of art into cheap goods, which is easy to buy, but which you no longer want to buy. After the people "ate" mass monotony, they want something unique.

2. Needlework is always exclusivity and individual execution. Needlework can provide exclusive custom-made products. No Chinese (with their mass needlework) are competitors here.

3. Needlework can create fashion and generate an increased demand for a certain type of thing.

4. The Internet helped to connect the needleworker and the customer directly. Moreover, from any country. The potential market for every needleworker today is the whole world.

So try knitting something out of the ordinary (that isn't for sale on Etsy yet). And maybe you will create a new fashion and your own needlework business.

As an example. Today I found one needlewoman from the UK, who offered the market elegant knitted ties for men:

Over the past six months, the needlewoman - a young designer - has sold more than 100 knitted ties.

But it is better, of course, to create needlework for women - they buy better and more actively on the Internet.

To create fashion and demand for needlework, it is important not only to make and photograph it, but also to imagine how it will be worn and how spectacular it will look:

So for those who know how to do something with their own hands, today there is a chance to create their own successful business specifically for needlework.