Planning for Efficient Production for a Crafting Business

Visualize this: the prototype for a sterling silver choker with beautiful sterling silver charms is almost complete, and you got all the supplies you need from your friendly neighborhood bead shop. You may think, “How can I mass-produce ten or even a hundred at a reasonable profit?” Where can I get a good deal on sterling silver spacer beads?

Once you have gathered your materials and identified your manufacturers, the next challenge is to set your prices and make everything work as planned. Approximately how much money should you ask for your sterling silver necklaces?

A formula can serve as a helpful guide. However, there is more to pricing than just establishing a monetary value for your products. If the jewelry is as exceptional as you claim, the price tag should reflect that.

Finding Reliable Suppliers and Manufacturers for Crafting and Jewelry-Making Businesses

Buying supplies at retail could be more convenient for new craft businesses, but it also means they’ll be paying the total price. However, this will either result in prices that are too high for consumers or a significant decrease in your profit margin. Therefore, when placing an order for supplies or labor, it is in a company’s best interest to do so from suppliers who offer bulk discounts. However, locating reliable wholesale vendors and service providers can be difficult.

Finding a supplier takes time, effort, and sometimes luck, like finding almost anything else. No secret method, book, or website will lead you to all the vendors you could ever need. So you shouldn’t, even if you’re friends with a fellow designer, try to pry information about his sources out of him.

Owners of creative businesses put in a lot of time and effort to establish reliable relationships with their suppliers, and it would be unfair to expect them to divulge their sources to competitors.

The Internet is often the starting point for many creative processes. Unfortunately, there are a lot of dead ends on the path between searching for a “vegetable-based ink printer” and finding one. The Thomas Register of American Manufacturers is a dependable resource; it is available online, in print (at your local library), and on CD.

Trade shows are a great place to find this information because you can interact with vendors face-to-face and examine physical examples of their products. Crafts (like soap making or jewelry design) and materials can be showcased at general craft fairs, and trade shows that focus on a particular craft or material (like textiles or beads and gems).

Finding the best supplier or manufacturer may require making multiple calls. After the first few emails or conversations, you’ll learn the appropriate language and questions to ask in your field. In the world of offset lithography printing, terms like “gripper,” “plate,” “registration,” and “bleed” can be intimidating to someone approaching a vendor for the first time. If you don’t know what these terms mean, you might be given more expensive quotes than a seasoned artisan. Never settle for the first provider who seems interested in or able to meet your needs. Instead, choose the business that can satisfy your needs with affordable, high-quality offerings and helpful, responsive customer service.

Don’t try to take advantage of bulk pricing discounts by naming a large quantity when you survey vendors and ask for price quotes. For example, buying five thousand screw-top glass containers for your champagne-scented travel candles before you know how many you will sell will be a waste of money.

Until you can say with certainty that your candle will sell, it is in your best interest to hold off on bringing it to market and spend as little as possible doing so. However, to compare costs easily, it’s a good idea to get price quotes for various quantities from the vendor.

Be aware that there may be minimum order requirements, quantity, and total price when dealing with wholesalers. To keep costs down, only buy as much as you need, if possible, but just enough to make some samples.

Before making a purchase, it’s crucial to determine the accepted payment methods; typically, first-time buyers are expected to pay in full before the item is shipped. If you want a vendor to extend credit, you’ll need to supply financial and trade references.

What About Crafting Tools?

Whether it’s a band saw or a laptop computer, you shouldn’t spend a lot of money on them right off the bat to keep costs down. These things can be bought as needed over time. In addition, artists can often find open studios at local art galleries, where they can use tools like blowtorches and pottery wheels at no cost.

As soon as you need your tools, you’ll get them. If you’re taking up too much space at the drying racks with your vases and annoying people waiting to fire their mugs, it’s time to find a new ceramics studio.

There’s no doubt that investing in your tools is a viable option if productivity is dropping and orders are piling up. However, it would help if you still tried to cut costs wherever possible, such as by purchasing a used kiln or going in on a new one with a fellow ceramist. Searching the Internet, local art and trade newspapers, online forums, and individual websites are all excellent places to find used equipment.

Shifting Gears

After formalizing your craft into a company, the output will be crucial to your success. Since you will probably be performing most of the manufacturing yourself at first, finding ways to automate and standardize your procedures to maximize output is essential. It’s best to divide the work into smaller chunks and then focus on finding ways to streamline each. Quickly, you’ll have your production down to a miniature assembly line. Although this runs counter to the ideological DIY ethos, in the end, you’ll be glad you were able to get your product to the customer faster.

Suppose you’re the independent, do-it-yourself type. In that case, Anthropologie’s decision to stock your checkbook cozies in all their stores across the country could be a significant setback for your business if you refuse assistance. In addition to the mundane tasks of administration, you will also have to attend to that order. The reality is that this kind of thing could happen, so you should be prepared. Making everything by yourself in a reasonable amount of time is highly unlikely.

When coming up with a production plan, it’s important to distinguish between tasks that require the expertise of a master craftsperson and those that can be completed with the aid of less trained individuals such as friends and family. In addition, you shouldn’t have to frantically search for a new employee on the day that some tasks, or even the entire workload, must be outsourced.

A list of sewers who are prepared to take orders at a moment’s notice is essential if you anticipate the possibility that you will need to hire sewers who can complete a quilt from start to finish.

Before placing an order, have them create samples to prove that they can faithfully replicate your products. The entire product should share the same quality standards. If half of the invitations look like a pro made them, and the other half look like someone’s little brother made them, you can’t possibly fill an order for wedding invitations.