Being able to sculpt and polish wood and metal is a skill that not many modern millennials have. Therefore, it makes complete sense to market this if you have a passion for creating and crafting specific objects. This is a niche area to work from, and so it can feel like a bit of a leap of faith to trust that selling your home-made items will work out. However, with the right tools and preparation, you can find a customer market for yourself.
Get the right tools first
Those who have only been working for leisure may have a scant range of tools to work with. After all, if it’s only a hobby, there’s no need to start investing in twister speed lathes, large quantities of products or more precise tools. However, if you plan to take your products onto a bigger platform, you will need tools that can keep up with the demand. For example, if you needed to polish a lot of metal products in time for a show, you would benefit from visiting a retailer such as this: https://www.overbeckmachine.com/products.html.
Getting the right tools will also inevitably see your ability improve exponentially. Making-do is fine if you are just experimenting, but you can’t expect to get better without experimenting and playing with the tools that will help you to be more precise and add detail.
Find your niche
After the initial surge of excitement comes, the realization that you’re suddenly going to have to be competitive about something that was previously just a passion project. This can feel intimidating if you’re about to enter a very saturated market. Finding your niche, therefore, makes pitching to an audience much easier.
Get out there
This will be the biggest leap of faith: getting out into the market and showing everyone what you have to offer. You may be a bit self-conscious about what people make of your work, but there are only two possible outcomes: people like your work or you get some criticism. You can only learn from criticism and utilize it to hone in on your skills.
Once you finally start to tell friends and family that you plan on trading, try and get out onto social media. This is a good introductory step that will help you start making people aware of what you have to offer. Then, you can start to progress onto a website and be more proactive in finding customers. Visiting trade fairs is also so important when it comes to independent manufacturers. Not only will it give customers a chance to see your products close-up, but also an opportunity to see what the wider competition is like.
If you have always wanted to make your craft into a day-job, then there’s no time like the present to get started. Be mindful, though, that you will need to take on more responsibility. You will need to ensure that your tools are fit for purpose and that you can dispatch and deliver in due time.
