This week, I’ve been starting a small business called Blue Moon Magnolia Crochet. This involves so much more preparation than I could’ve thought would go into it. I am a, hopefully, talented crocheter, and I spend so much time doing it that if I don’t sell my creations, I feel like I’m wasting my time. Now, I know that the danger in monetizing your hobbies is going through burnout, but I’m really hoping that won’t happen. Prepping for starting up my small business, I’ve run into a few roadblocks that I can’t pass without parental assistance, something that I’m not particularly fond of in my hyper-independence. First, I had to think of what my products would be, and I think I’ve got a few first ideas. I feel that doilies are the easiest to make, but there is a smaller market for those. I’ve been working out a few patterns for some of my first products, though, and I think they’ll turn out great. Technically, I could just use patterns from online to make my products, but I’m absolutely not doing that. I will be using a few patterns, along with giving credit to the original makers, but I felt that if I only used online patterns, then that would be a bit fraudulent, as none of my creativity would go into it and I’d just be recycling old ideas and passing them off as my own work. This requires a mix of using both patterns and my personal ideas, because coming up with absolutely everything on my own is a bit unfeasible as a busy high school student. The next part of setting up my business is finding out where I’m going to sell. Online selling seems like the first course of action, but it’s not so easy. I’d love to just set up a shop on Etsy, but because of their hefty fees taken out of the final price of my products, it becomes a bit of a tough spot. If I were to sell on Etsy, I’d have to raise my prices to cover the fees so that I could actually make a profit, and that feels unfair to the people buying my products. I’ve been looking through different online alternatives, and I’ve found some good ones, but the problem I’ve run into is that they either require a PayPal account, which I cannot sign up for being under 18, or they require another service that requires an adult to help me sign up. Since living at MSA prevents me from having ready access to my parents, I’ve had to turn away from online selling for now. The other option is to sell in person. I could have a building to sell my products in, but that costs upwards of thousands of dollars and I’d still run into the same problem I did with online selling. The only feasible option left is selling at farmers and makers markets and finding a way to take card payments. Since I have Venmo, that takes out some of the hassle with card payments, and of course, I’ll take cash. The other downside to markets like these, though, is setting up. I’d have to factor in all the invisible costs associated with selling at a market, like paying for a spot in the market, a physical table, decorations for said table, the gas to drive to the market, and possibly the cost of labor if I were to get someone else to help me. Granted, I could probably just pay my helper with pizza or a different treat. Then, I have to work all of my products and pricing out. My stepmother has shown me how to use spreadsheets to my advantage, which has been insanely helpful (thanks so much, Lisa). Once I have everything built, I have to focus on pricing. Since I’m not super fast, factoring in the time it took me to make a product becomes a slippery slope, so I’ve had to cut that part out of the equation. Then, I have to combine all of the things that it took me to make a finished product, such as the yarn or thread, labels, bags, and wrapping paper, depending on how I package my products. Spreadsheets have helped me so much with this, as I can simply create an equation to combine all of these components, and simply input how much I used of each, and then the spreadsheet will do all of the work for me. Then, I log all of the vendors that I got my components from, their prices when I bought them, and possible alternatives if those components are unavailable or discontinued. Once it all boils down, I have to work out how much I received from sales, and how much I spent on materials, then add these two numbers together to receive how much I’ve profited. If I am making less than I’m spending, I’ll probably either change my course, or I might just call it quits, as falling in the red is never a good sign for a business. I’m currently working on setting up social media profiles for my business, but I’ve only set up on Instagram, so far. So, if you’re excited to see my products, follow me on Instagram at @bluemoonmagnolia, Facebook coming soon!
Much love,
Jude.
