Starting a Craft Night Business (Part 2)

Part 1 of my “Starting a Craft Night Business” series I explained the first 4 steps to help you start your own Craft Night business in your city. Go here if you would like to read it.

Today in Part II I will cover how to Plan, Price and Promote your Craft Nights.

Just to recap; you have given yourself or at minimum though of a business name, and/or designed a logo.  You determined your “THING” which is your craft speciality.  You found a place to host you and your attendants, if you can’t do it at your own place/studio.  Hopefully you also created a social media account; specifically IG and Facebook for your business name, because that is where you will promote your upcoming Craft Night schedule.   I’ll get more into that a bit later.

Planning:

For my public craft nights I typically plan month to month.  Once I did give a whole year schedule of what the craft would be every month.  What happened was that 6 months down the road I felt very tied down to that.  If a project or idea pops into my head I want to be able to try it out.   Since my “THING” is seasonal decor and home decor craft nights I may find a pinterest idea that is better than the idea I chose 6 months prior.   My crafts vary quite a bit, I could be making a wreath one month, wine glasses the next, or sign another month.  However if you are a jewelry maker or glass blower your projects may start off small and build, or you may teach smaller techniques and lead to bigger projects.  Your specialty will dictate your planning a bit.

Pricing:

Typically I’ll find a craft idea online (why re-invent the wheel)  that catches my eye, usually on pinteres, often times I’ll put my own spin on it.  I’ll look online or go into the local craft stores to see how much the cost of the materials are.  Once I have a sense of how much the cost will be, to purchase the materials for each person, I’ll go onto pricing.   I typically to try to earn $20-$25 a person.   My craft nights range in ticket price $30-$45, depending on the craft.  For example buying burlap for each person to make a wreath is much more expensive than a sign which only requires paint/wood.  So if I’m going to spend $10 a person on supplies then I will add on $25 for my time shopping, prepping, set up and clean up.   However if your craft speciality requires more expensive materials than people will understand paying a bit more.  If you are a jewelry maker and want to offer public classes, I assume that materials for that may run more expensive.  So the class itself might cost a bit more than say a sign making class where you are just buying wood vs. glass/metal.

So this went from planning to pricing pretty quickly.  As I plan I’m also thinking of cost.  What will it cost to buy everything?   What will be affordable for people?  How will I be able to profit a little bit?  Early on I had to spend more up front to acquire extra sets of scissors, rulers, glue guns, hammers, wire cutting shears etc… but now I’m prepared with tools of all kinds.  Along the way I’ve also invested in a circuit machine which allows me to make/print my own stencils, giving me more types of crafts to offer.  Signing up for coupons at all the big craft stores is also really important.  I always try to buy things when they are having a 20% off everything, or 50% off one item (get something big that you can use over and over) etc..

Promoting:

The best way to promote I have found is through Facebook events on my business page.  At the first of every month I set up an event with a picture of the craft, the date, cost and info.  I then share that to my personal page and ask people to tag their friends that might like to join this gets others outside your circle to see what you have going on, which once they see what you are doing may even follow your page as well.  I’ve also done giveaways for two free tickets and the requirement is to share the event on their own personal page, it’s worth giving away something free to get the most views of your event which will eventually grow your business and spread the word.

All my past events are saved on my Facebook business site.  You can see all my future events too (don’t have many planned out too far ahead right now).  Here is an example of my last one.  I had about 40 people interested in it, and 15 ended up signing up.  This leads me to Part III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do I collect payment?  When do I get paid before or after event? How do I track sign ups? Etc… I’ve done a few things and I’m still fine tuning my system.  I’ll share more about what I learned, what has worked and what has NOT on my next post.

So let me know…

Have you started with your business?  Are you on FB or IG yet?  What is your Craft?

Was this helpful?

Welcome to Jordecor! I’m thrilled to have you here today. Let’s create a home you’ll love!

About Jordan

OUR HOUSE

THE BEACH HOUSE

PROJECTS

CRAFTS / DIY'S

MY STYLE

SEASONAL DECOR

DESIGN BOARDS

join me for

my favorites

FOLLOW ALONG ON

events

shop

instagram

  1. Keri says:

    I’ve been trying to start craft nights myself…I have done a few wreath making ones. At this time I advertise to my FB friend’s though I do have a business page. I would live to grow my IG account so I can use it better for advertisin but am a little stumped in how to do it…my account on IG is Jeweledfox and on FB is Jeweled fox designs.

    • Jordan says:

      Thanks for your comment! Good for you, the hardest thing is just to start! Growin IG is a whole other topic/story but just keep at it, network with other crafters, keep using relevant tags and keep your content interesting and engaging. Good luc!

  2. Hello,
    Yes I have started a business of handcrafted décor and gifts. I am on all FB and IG (Trescas Treasures, LLC)
    I am most recently trying to launch a craft party business. I host one with friends and I loved it. I was stump on price but this article helped with that.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You don't want to miss these:

elsewhere 

Linens & Hutch