6 Tips to Turn a Craft Rubber Stamping Hobby Into a Business

1. Determine the area of your biggest interest, it works better to have a niche or limited area to cover. You can always expand later. I have a passion for weddings. That is what my business developed into with wedding favors, accessories and decor. My secondary choice is baby showers. But it is a time factor to try to do more than one specialty.
2. Consider whether you will purchase stamps and paper from the craft stores, online or from a stamping company. I purchase most of my items from Stampin Up(c) as a demonstrator. It cost less for you to purchase from wholesale craft stores online. You can do that when you possess a business sales tax license.
3. Do they have the type and style of stamps you love and want to invest in? Does the store have your style of products?
4. How much can you invest each month to buy new stamps, paper, ink and extras?
5. Explore your online options. Places to sell: Etsy, MaditMyself, eBay, Blog, Personal website, craft booths or from a store or rented space. Maybe from your Facebook page.
6. Time. Do you have enough time and is the time you invest in making something worthwhile? Find ways to make things faster, easier, cheaper but still quality. I use a lot of punches or diecuts, less hand cutting with scissors is better.

What do you find yourself attracted to the most and sharing with others? Is there a specific holiday? Christmas, you could create crafts endlessly! Cards, tags, gift wrap, gift sets. What about gift baskets? You could create gift baskets with little gifts and add in note cards, pretty labels and create for pretty much every holiday. Or specialize in just baby gifts, mom gifts or create a new niche'.

Party business - Make your own party supplies. With so many beautiful ideas on Pinterest, I think anyone could come up with some pretty fun party theme ideas. Plus it is so much fun. If you have kids, they are going to give you tons of ideas and they will enjoy volunteering their thoughts on the party subject. Why not partner with a cake decorator and create together?

Tea Parties and selling to Tea rooms. Visit tea rooms and think about what they could use that would make a persons time there more special. We all like little things, maybe a little favor bag with a truffle or bon bon inside. Napkin ring holders. Labels that can stand out of the food, table decor. How about invitations and favors for groups that plant to meet there? You can include a theme for little girls too.

Babies. Endless need for baby shower supplies, gifts and things for mom too. If you just love those little baby feet and adorable pictures of babies, baby animals and nurseries; this is for you. You can make decor for the nursery. Make scrapbooks either regular paper form or offer digital services to create a special book.

Decor business. Are you redecorating the lamps, storage items, framing art, putting things in shadow boxes? There are so rooms to cover. I would start off with one room like a family room or kitchen. Branch out with other areas but focus on one to start. You may just want to work on kids rooms or nurseries. You could do decor for childcare centers and classrooms.

Weddings. My favorite and an area that is best to start out specializing in one area. Invitations or paper needs. Gifts or just bridal showers. It is a tremendous effort to keep up with current trends and creating a new twist on current themes. This one takes more money to advertise to reach brides. When you have a blog, you can gain a community of brides to sell items to via emails and sharing your article updates.

Churches and Childcare centers. You may want to create things for special events in the church. Menus, table decor, words for music and funeral programs. The craft time for kids applies to churches and childcare centers. Fundraisers are a great time to use your crafting abilities.

General crafts, you can do craft booths and online stores like Etsy, or any of the ones listed above in number 5.

The key is going to be your work area and getting everything organized.

Cubes you build to store paper, accessories, rubber stamps and supplies to craft with. Lots of shelves and lots of small containers to hold many small things like brads and buttons.

A desk or work area is important. Many people just use a desk or countertops. I found an adjustable desk and plan to get that one as soon as I can. I prefer to stand more than I sit and it is even important to your health to stand more than you sit.

Since you are a crafter, homemade storage containers are wonderful. Decorate with your designer papers or scrapbook paper or fabric. It allows you to display your art at the same time while being useful for holding scissors, paint brushes and tools. This business, you end up with a lot of heavy punches. These are great to hang on metal rods so it is easy to see the one you need and places it on a wall or inside of a cabinet.

Wall decor, decorate with your own art. It is so much more fun and gives you that pleasure when you look at it while you work on your projects.

Lighting is necessary. If you are in a darker room, add more lighting with lamps or install more. Mine was darker at first, I added a few more lamps and open the window blinds more often. Plenty of light now!

Social Media will get your work out there faster than anything else.

Depending on the area you are specializing in, you may need some funds for advertising too.

YouTube is free and it will be key to getting people to the site your products are on. Share how to guides on special techniques or how someone can DIY an item. I would make this one a priority in your advertising. Monetize your videos too, so you can again benefit from people viewing the videos. Find James Wedmore and learn from him how to best use Youtube.

Pinterest is an awesome way to share your images that link back to your blog or website where you sell your crafts. You can make a special pin board with your business name or blog name. You will gain more people as the repin your images and chase your link down to read more.

Facebook is your established community and you can share a few things here too. When you do business on Facebook, you must create a "Page" for it and not on your personal profile. They shut your personal profile down if you violate that policy. There are some great books on Facebook Marketing. Mari Smith is the queen in this area. Look books that occurred after the major changes Facebook made, otherwise you will not understand the "Timeline" and how to use it.

Blogs are perfect for crafters. You can share personal and crafting things. Sell guides or live webinar classes, create local crafting clubs. Your biggest goal is to gain subscribers to your blogs that will receive your updates as you post new things. Try not to sell on the blog itself, just in your emails to your personal subscribers.

Remember FREE, everyone loves free so give away valuable information when you can. That is the reason people are coming to your blog, to gain new information and inspiration. I have purchased guides from other demonstrators and I think those are great to offer.

Website. This is like your brick and mortar store. People learn about you. Keep in mind, statics show people stay on website for a very short period of time. Make sure they can easily find what they are looking for. As I have learned more about blogging, I think a blog is more useful than a website. The main reason is you are always adding information to it so it stays fresh and people can interact with you by leaving comments and you respond. I am moving away from my website slowly and moving towards the blog as my main site instead. It just makes more sense since people or so social online.

Twitter is a great place to connect with people that do similar work and hobbies as you do. You can follow their links and gain some ideas for your own business.

Mom Clubs or Associations and churches. Your personal community is your closest and they will be glad to have someone they know create things for them for special occassions.

Since writing this, I came across the article about RedBubble and I want to share that again because I think it is a wonderful option for craft things too. I have uploaded some of my pictures to the site this week and plan to add more.

I also want to add the hub on artists self promoting guide. You can benefit from Julies advice on this subject too.

There is a lot of planning. Protect yourself with business insurance. I have it for mine. It only costs $22 a month and the coverage is tremendous. Imagine trying to replace all of your craft supplies on your own. Public places, you are protecting yourself and customers. What if the table crashes down on a child? Can you pay for their medical expenses on your own? Homeowners insurance doesn't cover enough in certain cases.

Budgeting for supplies and advertising. Calculate how much you can spend monthly or quarterly and devide that among these two items. If you need more, do some workshops so you can use some of the sales to purchase more items for your business. Advertising is endless, so pick the ones that give you the most and do the most for your business. I use Perfect Wedding Guide, Wedding Wire and Wedding Alert. They are all very generous in what they give you for the money, including leads to couples that are interested in the type of products you offer.

Schedule time for creativity, social media, ideas and new inspirations, creating things and the business side. I can easily put more hours in working for myself. I have found when I slow down a day or two and do something else, new ideas come to me and I write them down.