Selling My Crafts - My Work from Home Experience
At the age of 49, to work from the comfort of my home and to actually make a living at it, has been a dream of mine for at least four years now. Not that I want to laze around all day, sitting in front of my computer, wrapped in my favorite housecoat striking the keys between sips of coffee. On the contrary - I would love to wake up and make a living striking the keys all day at home or by making something creative and fun, but my day would start as if I were going to work outside of the home. I think that comes from being a very organized and routine kind of personality.
I have had quite a variety of jobs since I was sixteen, only taking a break for five years when my son was born. Like millions of Americans, I’ve had my share and endured unpleasant jobs and occasionally unpleasant employers, to pay the rent and buy the groceries. Countless internet searches for the “work at home” entrepreneur most always give results that are literally too good to be true. Often, many of the work from home websites require a payment to join, with no guarantee of obtaining a gainful employment position. They are basically the middleman that you pay to give you yet another list of work from home companies. Luckily, because I am fairly computer/internet savvy, I was never scammed by the “pay us first to work at home” scammers.
My desire to work from home has involved hours and hours of intense thought and extensive research of just how to go about it! For me personally, one important factor to consider, whether working from home or for an employer outside of the home, is being truly happy and content doing the job. In the past I’ve had a few jobs that I absolutely dreaded going to day after day. I would have actually preferred going to the dentist and getting a tooth pulled. Such jobs are an unpleasant way to pay the bills. They can be quite emotionally draining, and if prolonged, can actually take its toll on you physically.
In recent years I have discovered that I enjoy being a creative person. I actually get excited when I make something with my hands that is beautiful or especially cute. In the past I’ve dabbled in creating animated photographic slideshows, mosaics, jewelry-making and most recently, hand-made greeting cards. I actually work occasionally for a local funeral home creating slideshows for their clients on an on-call basis, however this does not provide for a steady income. For the past year crafting greeting cards has become my favorite past-time, my passion, and most recently a fairly steady source of income.
The idea came to me when I received a “Miss Hearing from You” card from my cousin. She is a card-making enthusiast and has been so for many years. She works outside of the home full time, therefore is limited in the time she can devote to her hobby. Stamping cards and adding embellishments is her preferred method. I have had absolutely no luck with stamping and I completely avoided it at all costs!
I began by purchasing supplies at the local dollar store, craft stores, as well as large department stores such as Wal-Mart. Blank cards, stickers, 3D embellishments, and natural materials are my style of crafting cards. In the beginning I used my printer for the text of the card. Shortly thereafter, I discovered with sheer delight, that my mother had purchased a Cricut Express and never used it. I began cutting hundreds of shapes, letters, and words. I organized and planned the cutouts for specific kinds of cards. I spent three months making greeting cards in order to build up a large inventory. My focus is primarily on “blank” cards, “birthday,” “get well” and “miss you.” In the future I plan to include specific holidays.
Since I had an established eBay account from several years earlier, I posted my greeting cards on the site. There were no bidders. Even worse, there were no observers. As I researched greeting cards on the site, I discovered millions of cards for sale. I then posted my cards on Craigslist with the same ending result as eBay. At that point, I knew that I had to focus sales locally, but how to go about it. Developing a working strategy to get my cards locally circulated and noticed became my daily challenge.
They say it takes money to make money. Though this statement is true, quite often the initial cost will come back to you multiplied many times over, especially if you are selling a high quality product. It is most definitely worth the investment. I began by giving boxed sets of an assortment of five cards to friends, family and neighbors as gifts. I used the cards myself to send a “birthday” or “new baby” greeting. Being a very social person, I often hosted Tupperware and Mary Kay parties. When guests arrived, I was sure to have my crafting table set up in a nearby room, strewn with adorable embellishments and samples of my cards. Luckily, there would always be one guest who wandered into the room, attracting the attention of the other guests as well. On the back of each card I printed, “Cards Crafted by Cindy,” with my email address and telephone number below that.
It took several months for my cards to get noticed but it has been well worth the time, hard work and small amount of money I invested. I now have over 65 regular customers and the numbers are increasing weekly. Hopefully, I will have a website up and running by the first of the year.
I can honestly say I am well on my way to making a “living” from the comfort of my home while doing something that I absolutely love.
- Cindy
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